I’m off to serve this weekend at St. Andrew’s-by-the-Sea – the summer chapel in Saltiare, Fire Island.
Even though is seems like a hassle right now (too much going on), I know that it is a wonderful place and very relaxing. There are no automobiles, no real TV reception, just the ocean, beaches, other summer houses, and two services at the chapel on Sunday.

I’m in one of those periods when I don’t know whether I’m coming or going. I’m about ready to fall over – job, parish work, and alergies.
I’ve repeatedly heard that the Church should encourage a “bi-vocational” priesthood as a means of reviving churches that can’t afford a priest. Work full-time and revive a parish. They are crazy – can I say it again? Yes! – they are crazy. Crazy, I tell you.
Anyway, for the remainder of this month, I don’t see a way out. Then, physically I’m going to pot and spiritually I’m not much better. It becomes hard to quite my mind in order to honestly pray, rather than just rattle off a list of wants or needs (which I’m not even doing very well, either). Hopefully, come September, I can take some time off work and actually recup a bit. I need to start running, again. I need to start working-out, again. I need to discipline myself in prayer and study, again. I need to start managing my time, again. I need to watch the kind of food I eat, again. I need to refocus on relationships, again. Does it ever end? Maybe living in a monastery?
The Tyranny of the Urgent! Why do I so easily fall prey?

So, my cousin sent this to me. I normally hate these things – so often said, I know.
It was right. Does it work for everyone? Living in New York, I had to limit my eating out experiences to 10.
YOUR AGE BY DINER & RESTAURANT MATH
It takes less than a minute. Work this out as you read …
Be sure you don’t read the bottom until you’ve worked it out!
This is not one of those waste of time things, it’s fun.
1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would
like to go out to eat. (more than once but less than 10)
2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)
3. Add 5
4. Multiply it by 50
5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1757… If you haven’t, add 1756.
6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born. You should have a three digit number.
The first digit of this was your original number. (I.e., How many times you want to go out to restaurants in a week.)
The next two numbers are
YOUR AGE ! —— (Oh YES, it is!!!)
THIS IS THE ONLY YEAR (2007) IT WILL EVER WORK, SO SPREAD IT AROUND WHILE IT LASTS

I’m reading through the lectionary readings for this Sunday (Proper 5). I find in them a theme of profound change – the two sons being raised from the dead – profound change physically. Paul describing his profound spiritual change. Whenever we come into contact with God wantingly and willingly, there will be profound change – that is the work of the Holy Spirit. Within that gentle and often slowing transformation caused by the Holy Spirit, people begin to perceive the transformation (if we allow ourselves to be changed). Some react positively and some react negatively (to some we become the smell of life, to some the smell of death – as Paul describes).
The problem we have in this Church (and the problem infecting American Christianity in general) is that we don’t understand God’s ways of things. We cop the world’s ways and attempt to make them our own. The politics being played out in our Church and Communion these days are straight from the World’s playbook, not from God’s. We may attempt to justify our politicking, our misrepresentation of the facts – spin, our hatred, our conniving and scheming in holy, godly, or standing-up-for-the-truth kind of language, but our methods and attitudes are the world’s. We try to justify to the world (and ourselves) our methods and means of dealing with our differences and pressing issues and concerning how we deal with one another, but the non-Christians and the world look at us and say, “How are you any different than politics in Washington or the hatred of other people we see in so many parts of the world?” They aren’t stupid. They see through our self-deception and lies and know that we are hypocrites in our relating to sinners of the world.
They are right. In this case, the world’s critique of us is right on target. We act no different than worldlings as they try to get their way, force their political or social perspective upon everyone else, or justify their brutality. This is an attitude and behavior irregardless of political or social persuasion, and we have aquiesed to it rather than being transformed into a different way of being and doing – one in which the world cannot deny that there is something profoundly different than what they commonly see in the world.
Take the reaction and attitudes of the Amish in Pennsylvania when their school was attacked and their children killed. The world took notice and was amazed – this is a profound example of the transformation that the Gospel of Christ should cause within us as we respond and react to situations of life and belief. To act and understand in ways that the world simply cannot understand, but to which they are drawn. Instead, within the Episcopal Church and within much of Christian American, we just play politics and fight and call one another often vile names.
The world is not impressed, because we are just like them. Too bad we are not more like the Amish, who are so much further along in understanding how to love God with everything, love their neighbor, and even love their enemy, at least as demonstrated in the recent tragedy.

I took a new “political-economic’ survey to find out what I am. Will this ever end? Anyway, it is an interesting website (Neo-Liberatian) and the quiz is the “3-Line Quiz.”
I turned out to be a “Liberal-leaning-Capitalist-leaning-Republican” There ya go.
Liberal-Leaning – Those moving in the direction of individual autonomy, critical of government, opposed to sin taxes and moral codes fall in this area. A majority of Americans fall here or in the moderate section.
Capitalist-Leaning – Many Republicans and some Democrats fall here, and support balanced budgets, tax reform, free trade agreements, estate tax repeal, and spend more time talking about the problems of small business than raising the minimum wage. They like to push middle class tax cuts and associate economic success with production, wealth, and especially with high rates of consumerism and ownership.
Republican – This includes a large bulk of modern-day American politicians, whether Republican or Democratic. This includes values of basic racial equality but not necessarily affirmative action. It’s a strong rejection of racism and a strong embrace of democracy, but not into the social levelling or hyper-secularism of the democrat level.
via: Dappled Things

I got an e-mail from a friend in Cleveland today. This guy is an organizational wunderkind. The subject line said, “Happy Anniversary,” and I thought, “I wonder to whom John is wishing a happy anniversary.” Well, it was me.
It is sad when a friend has to remind me that it was one year ago today that I knelt before Bishop Arthur Williams and was ordained priest. I didn’t remember.
Well, today is the first year anniversary of my priesting.

My goodness, the Cleveland Cavaliers have done it! They are going to the NBA Finals after besting the Detroit Pistons. (It funny when we have to say “done it” before the championship is decided. For Cleveland fans, simply going to a national final is “done it” enough.)
Now, anyone from around Cleveland will tell you that to root for Cleveland teams is to be a real fan. It seems that they break our hearts every time. This is tough for fans, but Clevelanders (and they are more than just people who live in the City of Cleveland proper!) has this undying sense of being for the underdog. Perhaps it is because of all the negativity that comes our way. (Despite the fact I live in New York, I will always be a Cleveland fan!).
So, now the Cavs are going to the finals for the very first time. I wish them well and pray that this time one of our teams will go all the way, not just to the edge.
I can’t watch the games. I know this is really lame, but watching the games at this point in the season is just too stressful. I will start watching, but have to just stop. Pathetic, I know, but that’s me. I almost had to be committed when the Indians almost won the World Series.
Cleveland Cavaliers website

I find myself battling between my upbringing within the tradition of the Holiness Movement and with my current situation within the tradition of Anglo-Catholicism. Both present a very different way of engaging the faith, God, and one another, particularly in how we should live out our lives as Christians.
“Be holy, even as I am holy,” as Jesus said. Yes, but we too often fall into a kind of “perfectionism” that works against our natures as beings that always fall short of the glory of God. That is just how things are, yet not excusing immorality or unholy actions.
As a result, too many of us descend into a “shame spiral” (remember that?) that contributes to unreasonable demands of ourselves and more tragically of others. We expect ever more stringent and demanding proof of our devotion to God exhibited through our actions. (This is the pattern of the politicized Religious Right and fundamentalism) We become Pharisees. Then, we tend to really become Pharisaical – condemning, hypocritical, unrealistic, mean, angry, bitter, seeing the speck in everyone else’s eyes but not the tree trunk in our own, and then trying to demean and squash those who disagree with us.
If course, the other extreme is an attitude that is morally and ethically laissez-faire and a demand that there is really no such thing as sin, no real need for repentance, no need for holiness, and that we are all really good and virtuous by nature.
I want to live into the understanding that we are called by God to be moral and ethical – to love mercy, to do justly, and to walk humbly with our Lord. We are called to be holy. Yet, we all fail again and again and this is our plight. We don’t wallow in it, but we also to not deny the reality of it.
So, give people a break! Be at peace and encourage and cajole and support all to seek God and God’s will, call all to holiness, but allow the judgmentalism to end and let the responsibility of judgment remain with the only one who is justified in judging.

“You have ravished my heart,
my sister, my bride,
you have ravished my heart
with a glance of your eyes,
with one jewel of your necklace.
“How sweet is your love,
my sister, my bride!
how much better is your love than wine,
and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!”
(Song of Songs 4:9-10)
Oh, to be the beloved. Oh, to receive all that our Lord longs to bestow upon us, His Bride. To have but only a taste of that deep, unfathomable love He makes ready for us, His Beloved. What joy, what rapture, what such unknowing. I can scarcely understand. I can hardly comprehend. I can barely, barely but for a moment – I am overwhelmed.
It isn’t possible, this love, this joy, this peace the Lover of my soul makes known to me. It is hardly possible that this love is freely given – You have ravished my heart, and I cannot endure it. My soul cannot withstand such love, but with only a glance am I devastated.
Oh, is it possible? How is such love possible? The fragrance of Life to the Full.

I just got back this evening from the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association National Championships in Massachusetts. It was a nice drive; well, as nice as it can be driving in and out of New York City. Spring is in the air (cue music). Ashton competed once again in the alumni division (alumnus of Virginia Intermont College), and one of his students from Princeton made it to the finals. They both did a great job, although neither won their divisions. The IHSA includes both Western and English (and by now I actually know what that means!).
I find it refreshing (familiar, satisfying) to re-enter collegiate environments. I miss it, a lot! It is where I want to be. Most of the student competitors are in their final weeks of classes and exam-weeks. I certainly respect their dedication and admire their determination and discipline.
This is a strange sport. Men and women compete against one another. It is very refined, but not at all precious. The horse world is a world in and of itself. They are people who love to compete, but they compete in a very mannered and sane way. And, well, they talk about horses all the time. All the time…
For the most part, it is a great, solid, grounded bunch of students, coaches, and people who just love the sport. The funny thing is that the stereotypic image of students that come from the backgrounds most of them come from does not match their dispositions. Most competitors come from money and privilege, with notable exceptions. They almost have to.
It is good for me to get out of my “world,” which, frankly, is just as obscure and quirky. More so, really. Frankly, I wish some of the people in my “world” were as solid and grounded and well disciplined as those in the IHSA world.
Update: This morning, another thought struck me concerning why these kinds of events feel so good. With the students, coaches, parents, and just interested people, all of us can’t help but be connected to that which is real – dirt/soil, animals, those things that at a foundational level connect us back to the earth, to creation. Despite how wealthy one may be, one can’t help but get dirty, can’t get beyond the smells. We can’t help but be connected to God’s glorious creation.
Living in the kind of city I do, it is very easy to be disconnected with the earth, the rhythms of the world, the seasons, living things.