A Long TIme between Posts

Isabelle Honaker

It has been a long time since I wrote here and the picture above should tell you why. She is the newest member of our family - Isabelle. She is a lively, 18 month old golden retriever. I mentioned to my vet that I might be ready to adopt another golden. Coming back home after sabbatical was hard knowing that Sugar would not be there. It took some time for Katie (my oldest golden) and Pumpkin (my neurotic Tortoise shell cat) and me to adjust to Suggy's absence. But, I decided that if the right dog came along we were ready. She found Isabelle in the newspaper and I went up to Princeton, Indiana to look at her. She was too much for her owners, who had finally resorted to tying her outside on a rope. Can you see the toddler mischief in her eyes? She is a bundle of activity and so we try to keep her moving. She gets a long run in the Harmonist Cemetery each morning which both she and Katie love. And she is very bright - after only two weeks she figured out that she has to get on the seat in the golf cart so Katie (who can no longer jump up) can sit on the floor for us to go to the cemetery. Pumpkin and Isabelle are still working on their relationship! Anyway, she has taken a lot of my energy and time lately - I think she is going to be a great dog with some training and discipline. Iasked the vet about the little black diamond shaped black spot on her tongue and she said "it is just a freckle!"

Plant growing out of the brick in he Harmonist Cemetery wall

I found this little weed bravely growing out of the brick in the cemetery wall. Last week's gospel lesson was the parable of "the mustard seed." The mustard seed produced those pesky little wild mustard plants that we try so hard to get rid of in our yards. The thought that anyone would "sow" these tiny seeds was probably laughable to Jesus' audience. They were like dandelion fluff - they blew anywhere and everywhere that the wind took them. The common little weed above was probably seeded into the brick by the wind. As Jesus talked about the undesirable mustard seeds he must have had in mind the undesirable people he met everyday in his journeys. The prostitute, the leper, the tax collector, the poor and all who were different from the establishment. When Jesus says, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God?" he answers his own question by saying that it (the kingdom of God) is compared to the mustard seed which grows up into a large shrub with branches that shelter the birds in their nests. For a common weed like the one above or the wild mustard plant to grow up into a great tree was another one of those "inside jokes" for Jesus. These undesirables were always gotten rid of before they could grow or achieve greatness. But the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed - it is like an undesirable thing which is allowed to grow into greatness - the kingdom of God is found in the least, the lost the most undesirable when we allow those people to grow into the greatness that God has in mind for them.

Winter wheat almost ready to harvest

I love the spring time views of the fields around us in southwestern Indiana. The wheat is a golden brown against the fields of bright green corn. It will soon be time to harvest the wheat. The farmers had a hard time getting into their fields to plant corn this spring because of the rain. A lot of the land around New Harmony is bottom land and when the spring rain is excessive the "bottoms" flood and all the fields get water saturated. The corn, which is supposed "to be knee high by the forth of July" is having a hard time getting there this year. I asked one of the farmers in my congregation what the wheat that is grown around here is used for. It is basically wheat for flour or as he said, "flour to make Twinkies!" It is such a transformation to watch it go from green to gold.

The picture above is of balls of fabric strips which I tore from old sheets and fabric. I wound them into balls until I could make the rug pictured below. I liked the rug and gave it to a friend who was moving to Denver. It is a simple crochet pattern and made with a large hook. It is so uncomplicated and fun to make that I am now preparing fabric to make another one. It is great to look for old sheets and fabric at the Goodwill Stores in Evansville. I have found some great pieces there and while I was looking for fabric, I found a beautiful cotton shower curtain that is perfect for my bathroom. It is a light beige and has a raised pattern in white thread. As far as anything wrong with it - I found a couple of lightly faded places on it where strong sunlight had made it a bit lighter. I love it. Shopping at the Goodwill Store is so much fun and I love recycling with them.
The strips I used for this rug were about one and one-half inches wide. When I got ready to tear the sheets into strips, I would tear down to about an inch from the bottom and then measure one and one - half inches over and start another strip so I had a continuous piece. I cut the elastic binding off of fitted sheets and used them as well. When I joined two pieces I did it by cutting a small slit in one end and tying a knot in the other and fitting the knot through the slit like a button and buttonhole. It works great. I learned all of this from a variety of websites but have forgotten which ones. I Googled rag rug to find the directions. Have fun....

Out of the Mouths of Babes!

Celtic Cross

This morning in our EfM (Education for Ministry) group one of our parishioners shared this poem written by her 11 year old grandson:

Hate

Hate is a poison,

Slipped into dinner, through snide remarks,

meager at first 

but escalating over time.

It ruins people,

consumes others,

it is hard to contain it,

harder still to cure it.

It takes away lives,

Egging away the fragile existence,

Devastating the mind,

Turning it to hate's ultimate goal.

Hate destroys nations,

cripples the toughest men,

and yet all can control it

with the simplest tool: forgiveness.

Nathaniel Endicott

The Trinity and Reconciliation

More "Good News"

The piece in the picture is a project of several days - still playing around with newspaper as a medium. I'm reasonably happy with this outcome, but wish it were clearer and less "messy." Collage is still a work in progress for me, but I am having fun and that's what counts.

This coming Sunday is Trinity Sunday. I love the image of this "family" of Holy Beings. I believe that each one of us has a different view of what these three look like. In William Young's book, "The Shack", he pictures the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in creative ways. Ignoring traditional "gender" qualifications (i.e. God is Father) he paints a picture of a lively and loving system of communication between the three persons of the Trinity. This picture of "holy relatedness" is the part of the book that I enjoyed the most. I was comforted by the ordinariness of their communication with each other.

The Trinity has been vastly described throughout the ages. Just reading the Creed of St. Anthanasius (The Book of Common Prayer, page 864) is enough to make you dizzy, "That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost." One substance, but three persons is confusing but I believe that we make it more complex than necessary. I also believe that if these three "different persons" can live as "one substance" it is an example of how we can also live together.

We are different persons - some of us are nurturing, some are artistic, and some are intellectuals. Some of us are really grounded in the work of everyday stuff and some of us (although our feet are on earth) see angels and hear music that the rest of us can't. That we are not all meant to be alike or think alike is "color" in an otherwise black and white world. So why is humanity's "colorfulness" the source of so much strife? It seems that there is so much we could gain in recognizing the common "substance" we all bear - the image of the God who created us; while appreciating the different "persons" we also exhibit in all our differences. Whether we are dark skinned or light, Latino or Anglo, male or female, Jew or Gentile, Buddhist or Muslim, gay or straight; we are created in One image - we bear One substance. That One substance makes us equal. It gives us hope becasue it is that One substance in us that seeks understanding in the common experience that we all bear.

Rublev's Icon of The Trinity

"Knowing the Trinity is being involved in this circling
movement: drawn by the Son towards the
Father, drawn into the Father’s breathing
out of the Spirit so that the Sons’ life
may be again made real in the world. It is where
contemplation and action become inseparable."

-Rowan Williams, The Dwelling of the Light: Praying with Icons of Christ

Mr. Big Stuff

I took this picture at Randall and Margaret Little's farm a couple of weeks ago. They have wonderful horses and lots of babies this spring. I love to visit there and smell the farm smells, watch Randall with the animals and look at Margaret's flowers. It's like a big petting zoo! The horses are particularly lovely to be around with their gentle velvet noses! This guy above is certainly picturesque! He turns to stone when you approach his fence. Even Margaret can't get him to budge. Well, I put his picture here this morning because this is how hungry I am!!! Even hay looks good!

I was reading the New Yorker magazine this morning and came across a poem by Philip Schultz called Bleecker Street. The poet is on his way down Bleecker Street to get a hazelnut espresso latte. It's June and the street is alive in a way that transcends time. He sees and describes the present day activities of stores, teenagers talking on cell phones, and a woman getting stopped by the police. All of this is in "real time." But he also sees the cellars of stores where runaway slaves were housed, the couple having their first kiss, victory parades with confetti; and so much more of the "inner life and hidden life" that cities have.

He is describing, I think, the way we are meant to experience the Eucharist on Sunday mornings. We see the priest standing behind the altar with silver Chalice and Paten gleaming in the morning light; and we also see the rough hewn wooden table covered with hand woven cloth. Around that table a group of disciples face the one person they love more than themselves. And he is offering them a cup of wine and a piece of bread. He calls it "his body and blood" and forever it will be that. It is meant to sustain them through the coming ordeals of life. Sustenance for life and death, real food for this present life and the life to come. I see the tears glinting in their eyes as they receive this bread and wine because they know that they will never be at this table together in the same way. Life is precariously drawn. And those drawn lines get blurred by jealousy, and frustration; by anger and self-pity. We turn away from each other as soon as we walk away from the table where we sat talking about the way we are "one." And so I loved these lines in Schultz's poem:

"Perhaps everyone secretly admires
something momentous about himself,
with the mass and “inner life” of a cathedral,
in the tradition of the Spanish saints and mystics
who cherished the bliss of infinite sacrifice

We tend to cherish too much our sacrifices. So cherished are they for us that we beat each other over the head with them. Look at what I have given up for you. Look at what I have given up for God. Ah, the life of our inner cathedrals! And how that life goes on and on while we in "real time" walk down the streets of our lives.

If you want to read Schultz's poem it is here http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/poetry/2009/05/18/090518po_poem_schultz

It is a great meditation.

Holidays

New Friends!

The Wabash River continues to rise and flood the field behind my house. It is a very pastoral scene. The geese above are our most recent visitors. There are fish jumping and snakes prowling. So far everyone is doing well at keeping good boundaries! Today, between thunderstorms and rain, I worked cleaning up the yard. I pulled overgrown ivy, pruned the roses and cleaned the patio and outdoor furniture. I enjoyed making the yard look a bit tidier.

I think holidays are hard without family around. I love my parishioners - they are wonderful, fun people. They have expectations about who I am as their priest...always, even on holidays! I'm spending this Memorial Day at home, however, not because I'm avoiding my parishioners; I am having a colonoscopy tomorrow and they don't make hamburgers and chips in a clear liquid form!! I wish!!

This past Sunday was the Sunday after Ascension. "God has gone up with a shout..." These are the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 47 and they are a good description of Jesus' Ascension. We are between Jesus' Ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit. It's an in between time of the year. Young people graduating from college are between school and jobs; those graduating from high school are "in between" waiting for the next thing to happen; and we are all waiting for summer to appear with its full blast of heat. Waiting is hard work. We have to slow down and figure things out as we wait. I wish slowing down came easier or more naturally. We do things so fast and expect instant results. The disciples must have wondered how it would all work without Jesus there with them. I wonder if they were close to giving up just as the Spirit filled them at Pentecost. I do still believe that waiting is important and that even when I get to the end of my rope I will be filled, but waiting is never easy. Being in between jobs or cars or houses or even in between projects is hard work. Even being in between sermons from one Sunday to the next has its tensions with plenty of "end of the rope" moments. Trusting God to "show up" is really at the heart of our faith....

The Fifth and Sixth Sundays of Easter

Another Project

Last week I was going through my clothes to get some ready to go to Goodwill and I found an old pair of pajamas made of the lovely material above. After throwing them in the box a couple of times and taking them out - I decided to keep them. I took them apart and cut the fabric into 4 by 4 squares. It was fun to hand stitch the design on the square and I like the way it looks. I'm not sure what I will do with the squares when I finish but it will be fun to do them.

This is the Fifth Sunday of the Easter season. Last week Jesus proclaimed himself as the Good Shepherd and this week Jesus is the "true vine." This would be a common visual for the people of Palestine. In fact all through the Old Testament the people of Israel are referred to as the vine. Israel continues to produce wild grapes and now in this passage Jesus tells us that he is the true vine and we are the branches which will bear the fruit of good works. Being a branch is hard work. Staying connected to the vine is hard work and having all those other branches around me is not easy either.

May 15, 2009 - I'm not sure what happened to the post I started above. It's likely that I got involved in another project and forgot to finish it. The days slip by so quickly and I continue to find that there are not enough hours in each day. I worked on the piece below this morning and I think it is finished. I have been working on it for a couple of weeks. The photo does not do justice to the layers of newspaper, and oriental paper under the angel. I have loved this angel since I cut it off of a card someone sent me (never throw anything away!). I decided to give the angel a home. This is another of my "good news" series.

New Harmony had an arts festival two weekends ago and although it was rainy and cool it was well attended. The artists had their booths set up on a wonderful grassy space on Main Street. Live music was provided by a number of New Harmony's talented folks. On Sunday after church I took my Katie over to have one of our local artists (and member of St. Stephen's) do her portrait. Jill Baker is such a fine artist. Jill has been in New Harmony for about 3 years. This is the portrait of Katie that Jill did:

Katie Scarlett O'Hara Honaker

For those of you who don't know Katie, she is my 11 year old golden retriever. I adopted her when she was 1 year old and she came with the name Katie Scarlett O'Hara. Her brother's name was Casey Rhett Butler! Katie is a dear companion along the way of life and I am thrilled to have his portrait of her.

I am preaching about loving one another on this coming Sunday. The title of my sermon is "Loving One Another 101." I wanted to title it "Loving One Another for Dummies" but was afraid I would offend folks. In truth we are all "dummies" when it comes to loving each other. I find my own heart betrays me all the time in this task. I judge the motives of others when I have no right to do so. Last week's epistle (1 John 4:7-21) has for me one of the most evocative verses in scripture: "We love because he (God) first loved us." (vs 19) I don't love my brother or sister because they are lovable... I don't love my parishioners because they love me... I don't even love my family because they are my family... I love others because I have been loved by One who knows me through and through (and still loves me). If God can love me then I can love others. It seems like such a no-brainer, but I struggle so against this call to love...

New Harmony Iris

The Irises have been spectacular this year in New Harmony. My backyard is literally "abloom" with irises and roses. It must be the enormous amounts of rain that we have had. I only wish we could figure out how to have flowers in abundance without the abundant mosquitoes...

Easter IV - Good Shepherd and Other Sheep

Honoring Bob Gregg

This week I drove down to Harrisburg, Illinois to be present when Southeastern Illinois College dedicated their newly renovated Technology building to one of St. Stephen's parishioners, Robert Gregg. Bob and his family (Rennie, his wife is in the wheelchair on the right side of the painting) were there to celebrate with him. It was a lovely and touching program. Bob's achievements at SIC go a long way in providing technical education for people of all ages. I sat next to the retired dean of the nursing program at SIC and she told me that there were only 2 technical programs at SIC when Bob came and when he retired they had 16+ technical programs.

Bob and Rennie came to St. Stephen's (they drive an hour to get there) in 2003. They had been members before when they lived just across the Wabash in Crossville, Ill. Their children were small then and they eventually moved to Harrisburg where they helped start an Episcopal Church - St. Stephen's! But as we all know in 2003 the Episcopal Church changed forever. We began to recognize the gifts for ministry that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters have. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, was consecrated Bishop of New Hampshire. Bob and Rennie found themselves in an awkward place, living in the Episcopal Diocese of Springfield under the rigidly conservative leadership of Bishop Beckwith. They came home to us at New Harmony and brought with them a wonderful woman named Patty Sayers. Patty was diagnosed just a year later with cancer and we were given the privilege of taking care of her over the last year of her life. Bob and Rennie continue to enrich our lives and I am so grateful for their presence among us.

The gospel this week is from John 10 - Jesus says, "I am the Good Shepherd..." He talks about laying down his life for the sheep - he is the Shepherd who never leaves us, never runs away no matter how fierce the wolves are; nor does he walk away when we are behaving like sheep - getting into trouble and being stubborn. Jesus does not give up on us. He is good. I love the picture from "The Chronicles of Narnia" when Lucy and the others have just arrived at the Beaver's house after running from the White Witch. The Beavers begin to talk about Aslan, who is a lion; and is the Christ figure created by C.S. Lewis. The more they talk about him the more frightened the children become. Finally, Lucy tells Mr. Beaver that she would be very afraid to meet a lion. And Mr. Beaver affirms her fear telling her that of course she would be afraid - if she were not she would be silly! Then, says a confused Lucy, "Is he safe?" "Safe," says Mr. Beaver, "No, he's not safe but he's good, I tell you. He's good." It is not safe to encounter the Good Shepherd. We don't know where he will lead us, or the ways he will change our lives; but as Mr. Beaver says, "He's good." He does not give up on us or run away in times of trouble.

This week the mother of one of our parishioners died. She was 95 and such a lovely woman. She had the countenance of a person who is at peace with her life. No matter if she was staying in the Nursing Home recovering from an illness or at her daughter's home with her dedicated caregivers, she was at home in herself. She will go home to Kansas to be buried but on Wednesday morning we gathered at the funeral home for a service honoring her life. It was an incredible service. There were about 40 people there who shared so many lovely things about the woman we were remembering, but also about our own mothers. Losing a parent is like losing an anchor. The feeling of loss is always there. We survive and move on but there is a place of longing in us... sometimes it is a longing for what we wished we had done; and sometimes it is a longing for what we did not receive from that person. Either way we still have to move forward with the pieces of what we have. Making a picture we can live with from those pieces is often challenging and may take us the rest of our lives to accomplish.

It's still spring here although the weather is very funky... we may all grow mildewed after the next several many days of rain that are predicted! Something about leftover April showers...