Heaven and Earth

Heaven and Human Sexuality

2012-01-27T09:10:00.002-05:00

It's Time to Grow Up

Let's face it, it is time for the church and the culture around it to grow up and face facts. Gay folks have been around for a very long time. They're not going away. They're in our families, our schools, our workplace, and yes, they are in our churches.

My uncle and two of my kids happen to be gay. My family is a microcosm of what's going on in the wider culture. To tell you the truth, my family did fine with this. Years ago, we didn't talk about it much because it simply wasn't a matter for polite conversation. My grandmother simply said that my uncle was a "confirmed" bachelor.

My family still doesn't talk about it much because it is a big non issue for us. But there are grown men and women in very responsible positions who are calling the LGBTQ thing a sin. They want to deny our families equal rights in the name of family values.

What do you think our families are? Do you want to deny us the right to love our loved ones? Do you want to deny my children the right to love someone if they find someone special in their lives? Seriously, do you want to deny God's blessing on those God created?

This book is dated now. But it is still out there and now it is in digital format so you can download it from Amazon or iBooks. It is a bit of a whimsical and satirical romp at the church's expense. I take off the gloves and hands out some good jabs and jibes at some politicians...and that was before the current crop. I never thought I'd say this but George W. Bush is beginning to look good compared to the the amazing collection of mugwumps and scalawags that the Republican Party is parading out there on the stumps right now.

My grandmother would be rolling in her grave if she knew how far the party of Lincoln has fallen. She was so proud of how nobly we fought for an end to slavery, how we pulled together during the depression and the war, and how we worked so well together for Civil Rights. She did vote for FDR...but lets face it, the country was at stake then. (As it is now too!)

She loved my uncle very much. He was her son. She loved his partner of more than 50 years. She would have loved my children too, had she lived to see the day.

I miss her.

But more than her, I miss her kindly generous spirituality. She was also a fierce defender of her family. So I wrote this book. I invoke her spirit. I fight fiercely for my family. I am proud of my church that it is grown up enough to face facts, albeit with mixed feelings and in a somewhat awkward way.

Heaven is not far away. Heaven is at hand. It is in the love we bear for one another. So lets face facts, and grow up and live in a kinder gentler kind of way. There I go quoting another Republican!

Fr. Paul

From the Rising of the Sun

2012-01-26T10:17:00.002-05:00

It is much later in the day than sunrise, but the glorious light just broke though the clouds. I can remember like it was yesterday, how my grandmother would run around the house, it seems, opening the curtains and exclaiming "Look at that Glorious Sunlight!". I capitalized those words because that's how she said it.

So here we are, yet another day, and a few words began to emerge from my spirit and my soul. My memory began to knit a few thoughts together and then they all came into place when I looked them up.

Psalm 84! Who can do better at expressing the soul's deepest prayers than this;

	84 Quam dilecta!

1	How dear to me is your dwelling, O LORD of hosts! * My soul has a desire and longing for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God.

2	The sparrow has found her a house and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young; * by the side of your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.

3	Happy are they who dwell in your house! * they will always be praising you.

4	Happy are the people whose strength is in you! * whose hearts are set on the pilgrims' way.

5	Those who go through the desolate valley will find it a place of springs, * for the early rains have covered it with pools of water.

6	They will climb from height to height, * and the God of gods will reveal himself in Zion.

7	LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; * hearken, O God of Jacob.

8	Behold our defender, O God; * and look upon the face of your Anointed.

9	For one day in your courts is better than a thousand in my own room, * and to stand at the threshold of the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.

10	For the LORD God is both sun and shield; * he will give grace and glory;

11	No good thing will the LORD withhold * from those who walk with integrity.

12	O LORD of hosts, * happy are they who put their trust in you!

Gone Fishing

2012-01-21T19:12:00.002-05:00

These folks have gone fishing. They are common folk. There were political revolutionaries, a tax collector or two, some prostitutes, and a kind of rag tag group. They were all sinners of one sort or another, and not at all admired by the upright ones of the Temple. It was the likes of these that changed the world.

Long before these folks there was Jonah; he was told to go to Nineveh that great city and tell them to knock off their sin and corruption. He went the other way in defiance of what he knew was better, and went through an unfortunate episode with a big fish. He decided to pray from the belly of the whale and lo and behold, there was an upset tummy and he was spit up onto the shore. Finally he did go to the great city. He gave them fair warning. They listened to him and repented of their evil ways and then, as the story goes, God repented of the evil he had intended to do to them. For some reason Jonah got angry with God because of this success but there you go.

The encounter with God is never easy.

The fisherfolk encountered the Love of God made flesh and blood, and came to know him as Jesus. It seems so simple as we read the account of the call. "Follow me" is all he said, and they followed. They were not vetted, examined or educated in any way. He invited them. The followed.

My experience of call came out of those long and sleepless nights when I was a child wondering about what happened to my dad when he died. The trauma left me often sleepless fearful of nightmares.

It came to me in the silence of my heart.

"Don't you know there's a special place in my heart for your dad?"

The question came from the conversation I often had with the silence in my soul.

The silence became a Presence somewhere along the way.

And when I heard the question the Presence gave me, I exulted like a child playing in the waves at the ocean's edge.

And I decided to become a Priest.

39 years later, I wrote this prayer of Self-Dedication.

It speaks of the Silence that became a Presence to me.

In that Silence, I found God.

And not long afterward, the Love of God made flesh and blood found me.

We call that name Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Or Jesus.

Here is that prayer:

Now in the quiet of the day, I beckon to my soul and listen.

There is only silence

It is a silence I love to return to.

Because I am not alone there.

In that silence I come to my heart of hearts.

The silence becomes a Presence.

And comes to life in a way that invites me to love.

The Presence wants to love me.

I resist that.

But the silent Presence insists.

I look again into the mirror of my soul and see the mystery

It wells up within me to gratitude.

I search for a name for the mystery.

And then do I remember God.

I discover that God is there within my heart.

And God’s heart beats within me and among us.

There is a love that speaks to me.

And extends its Heart toward me and fills me.

I find myself aware and awake.

To the joy of life and sorrow of suffering; the ugliness of hateful violence.

The noble beauty of creative art,

The sin that destroys the self and seeks to destroy others.

God heart moves in mine and dispels the fear.

Hear the Word of God and listen

God requires justice, love, mercy and compassion

And Jesus reaches out his arms to the farthest ends of every human heart.

Here and I dedicate myself to Jesus.

In the poor and the homeless, the hungry and those who suffer.

The heart of Jesus moves in me, and the love of God

Knows no bounds.

A New Idea

2012-01-21T11:03:00.008-05:00

Jesus had a new idea.

'I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’ ~John 13:34.

This he said shortly before he was crucified. He thought that this would be the Way and The Truth and the Life. Perhaps if we could just Love One Another. He said that no one can come to the knowledge and love of God unless we do love one another.

It amazes me that Christians have used this one glorious sentence to play a game of spiritual exclusivity and one upsmanship as if the use of the syllables that constitute the name "Jesus" would suffice to secure the path to salvation.

Jesus made it much simpler. Love one another. Nothing more, nothing less. That's what it is to be a follower of Jesus. Mind you there are lots of non followers who do the same. They too are the Way, The Truth and the Life.

I have a new idea; "Love one another".

Dr. Martin Luther King

2012-01-14T07:32:00.001-05:00

Allow me to share these words with you in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Prayers of the People

Second Sunday After the Epiphany

Martin Luther King Day 2012

We thank you O God for those who, in every generation, have brought this world hope for justice and freedom for all without regard to those barriers which so often separate us one from another; Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer

For Abraham and all the mothers and fathers of faith down through the ages who had the courage to look to heaven for hope; Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer

For your servant Moses, who led the Children of Israel from bondage in Egypt to the Promised Land and gave us the Law through which we learn to love you and love one another; Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer

For the prophets and wise men and women of every age who fearlessly proclaimed the message of freedom from oppression and obedience to God’s Law; Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer

For the founding Fathers of this nation who brought forth on this land a new nation dedicated to the proposition that all men and women are created equal, that freedom shall ever reign from shore to shore and that the People are sovereign; Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer

For Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, who proclaimed an end to slavery and gave his life for the freedom of all; Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer

For those women and men who brought universal suffrage to all, and for those who continue to work for full freedom and equality for women and men everywhere; Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer

For Dr. Martin Luther King whom we remember this day, for his Dream of a Land where Freedom rings from every mountain and hill across this good land, Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer

And above all for your son Jesus Christ, for the gift of his life, for the forgiveness of sin and the gift of eternal life, for his compassion and love for all without regard to orientation, gender, class, race, ethnicity or language and for his command that we love one another, may Jesus’ church become and remain “A House of Prayer for ALL People”; Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Celebrant; We thank your for your servant Dr. Martin Luther King who led your children to become free at last, Grant that your church, may make no peace with oppression, but raise up prophets in every generation, so that we may come to love and respect the dignity of every human being.

The Persistence of Joy!

2012-01-03T21:11:00.002-05:00

Depression and Priesthood

This is such a difficult time of year for so many people. All these images of joyful people gathered with their families, with smiles written across their faces, and full of radiant happiness; all of this can be difficult for those who do not share in the joy.

In my line of work, not only do the joyful gather on Christmas Eve to celebrate the Most Holy Night of the year, many also come to my office to pour their hearts out over great, deep and insistent depression.

I was working on the phone with someone not all that long ago, a young man in his twenties. He was so despondent that he was in fact wondering how to go on the way he was. Life had become close to hopeless and the prospect of living many more years this way was becoming overwhelming.

I listened intently. I searched my heart and my spirit for something to say when this finally came to me;

"Have you forgotten how to love?"

There was a long silence.

I thought of a plant or even a goldfish. Anything. Something.

But there was Nothing.

The despair deepened.

Fear began to take hold, when I thought to ask the question again.

"Have you forgotten how to love?"

Then I stumbled across the image of the manger and asked this question very, very softly and with a profound degree of tentative respect;

"Imagine a baby, it is cold and the baby is alone. The baby has no home. His mother is very young and unmarried. They are poor and they are homeless.

Would it be possible for you to pick up that child and give him some warmth and human affection?

Or would you leave the baby there unloved?"

Still a long silence.

Yet I insisted on an answer.

There was a voice on the verge of tears that said, "Of course I would pick up the child".

So then, there was another long silence.

"Would you embrace the child?"

"Yes"

Could you love the child?"

Silence.

More silence.

"Yes".

"The Child is You", I said.

After a time, I went on;

"This is why we have Christmas.

It is to remind us that the Holy Child is YOU!

You may notice that you are sometimes cold, far from home, alone, and uncertain about your future, poor, despondent.

Yes, that is why The Child was born in that cold, stable, of an unwed Mother.

He came into the world to remind you that you are invited to pick up the Child in your own arms, to enfold him with your own warmth and love.

But this is the greater lesson of Christmas.

The love of that Child is not just for God or his Son Jesus.

That love is for all of God's children, rich and poor alike, male and female too, all races and ethnicities and yes friends, for gay folks as well as for the rest of us."

"The Holy Child of Bethlehem, you see, is not someone from a long time ago and in a faraway place.

That Holy Child is YOU!"

Thus I spoke that night with a loved one.

Thus I speak with you.

Remember to love the Child of Bethlehem within you.

Merry Christmas and Joy to the World.

Fr. Paul

Tax the Rich; Jobs for the Poor!

2011-12-17T13:27:00.003-05:00

Mary's Song

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones

and he has lifted up the lowly

He has filled the hungry with good things

and the rich he has sent away empty

This is not Socialism or Robin Hood economics; this is the heart of Christianity. It is the Song of Mary from Luke's Gospel in the very first chapter. Mary exults in the just dealing of God. If that just dealing is not brought to earth by the obedient human heart it will be provided to us by the Mighty Hand of God.

This is what the End is about. It is the purpose of God to feed the hungry with good things, and if the rich won't do that because of the hardness of their hearts, God will send them away hungry.

In order to deliver the rich from this fate we must tax them fairly. Obviously everyone should contribute to the commonwealth of the nation. The poor should give a nominal amount, the working people something more, the middle class, the upper middle class and the rich thus should contribute according to their means.

I suspect that the rich will fight this notion with all their the resources at their disposal. They will buy votes in Congress. They will buy the airwaves, and brainwash the public into thinking that the poor, the foreign, the gay and the government are the problem.

Thus we should cut all programs to the elderly, the disabled, the children in school. They will argue against regulation of the financial system. They will seek to disband the improvements to clean air, clean water. The rich will deny climate change. They will deny Evolution and other Scientific facts

They will decry governmental intrusion into our private lives except when it comes to whom we should choose to love, and how women choose to deal with their own bodies. They will call freedom of choice murder. They will call execution justice. They will deny gay folks a place in our families at work, in the military, in marriage, in school, and in church. This is the abomination!

These are all a denial of Mary's Song.

Mary wants us to tax the rich so that all Americans can get back to work.

She and her beautiful son want to heal humanity of its illness and want health care for all.

Government, poor people, foreign people, gay people are not America's problem.

The rich, the super rich, and the multi-national corporations are America's problem.

Tax them! Hire the unemployed!

Give Americans health care!

Let Mary sing her song so that every human heart may exult in the Goodness of God.

The Kingdom that is within us all demands that Mary's Song be sung by all and for all!

Happy 4th Advent!

Fr. Paul

God is Love; pure and simple

2011-12-13T22:31:00.002-05:00

I know what Rick Perry said.

I know what Romney said to the veteran in New Hampshire who happens to be gay.

I know what others have said of gay folks, poor folks, foreigners and so on.

But that's NOT what the Holy Writings say; because God has the final Word. God IS the final Word; the Word Who became flesh to dwell among us and this is what God says;

God Is Love

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. ~1 John 4

I Have Come to Bring Good News to the Rich?

2011-12-10T16:17:00.004-05:00

To listen to the Far Right Wing in America you would think this is what Jesus said. But I checked the scroll. Wrong!

The Christ of God, The Anointed One couches his entire ministry in these words; "I have Come to Bring Good News to the POOR". They were offensive then, and Praise God, they are offensive now.

The Powers and Principalities would have us believe in Social Darwinism yet at the same time defend Creationism against scientific fact.

What they will defend is the Rich, the Super Rich and the Multi-National Corporation. They will say that Corporations are people and in the same breath blame the poor for being lazy, shiftless and good for nothing.

We are on to them, though, and know that their words are a perversion of the truth.

Thus we take to the streets, and Occupy Wall Street, and hundreds and thousands of Cities and Towns around the world.

The Powers and Principalities moved in on our encampment this morning around 5am. There was no pepper spray, just a brigade of crowd control experts and they arrested about 46 of us and charged us with trespassing. We're a classy crowd in Boston, so it was a gentle eviction as evictions go.

Do not despair Occupy; the Mother of Jesus had to go to a stable to give birth to the One who Brings Good News to the POOR.

BUT WE'RE NOT GONE!!!

I seem to remember that we saved the big financial institutions and corporations because they were too large to fail. But we are evicted from our tents for asking for jobs.

All we want is work.

You saved Corporations and Financial Institutions because you think they are people.

What is the American Worker?

Are we not people?

What are the poor?

Are we not people?

What of the vanishing middle class?

Are we not people?

They were too big to fail!

What of us?

Are we not People?

Are we not Critical to the Recovery?

How can we do this without jobs to pay our mortgages, our car payments, our bills, and to put food on the table for our families?

Do you care more for Corporations than you do for Real Living Persons?

We're not asking for a bail out.

Just give us jobs.

You can send the bill to those Rich People who have 99% of the money and the wealth in this country.

Don't lie to us. We will no longer stand aside and allow you to grind the poor, the worker and the American Middle class into the dust of oppression.

Thus my heart returns to the Bible, because there once was a person who valued us. Many claim him as a Savior, but few have read his words. My heart returns to the Bible because there are so many who pervert it into what they would rather hear. They want Good News for the Rich. But that's NOT what the Book says. My heart returns to the Bible, because that's where we hear Good News for the POOR!

The assigned reading from the Old Testament for most of the Christian world for this Sunday is from the Book of The Prophet Isaiah, Chapter 61. It is the very passage Jesus uses to announce his ministry. These are the words Jesus used when he read from the Prophet.

By the way, you will notice they rejected him then too!

Luke 4

The Beginning of the Galilean Ministry

Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

The Rejection of Jesus at Nazareth

When Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’ He said to them, ‘Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, “Doctor, cure yourself!” And you will say, “Do here also in your home town the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.” ’ And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.’ When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

Go back to the Bible yourself sometime and see for yourself what Jesus actually said. He concluded his ministry with this statement about the judgement of the Nation. Watch out America! Watch our rich folks.

Matthew 25:31ff

The Judgement of the Nations

‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’

A blessing on you Poor!

Jesus came to preach Good News to you.

Is anybody listening to what Jesus said?

Fr. Paul

A Prayer of Self Dedication

2011-12-06T15:18:00.002-05:00

It seems appropriate from time to time, to stop and remember that in the hubbub of life, opinion, politics, the struggle/battle for survival; there is this very simple human impulse to pray.

It is seldom we see a prayer of Self Dedication. Goggle that and see how far it gets you. Most prayer is request, petition, intercession and a wholesale shopping list of what we want God to do.

That's all wrong. More to the point is what Jesus wants done. And that's up to us.

I took a shot at such a prayer back on St. Francis Day. Allow me to share that prayer with you now.

A Prayer of Self Dedication

by Paul Bresnahan

St. Francis Day 2011

Now in the quiet of the day, I beckon to my soul and listen.

There is only silence

It is a silence I love to return to.

Because I am not alone there.

In that silence I come to my heart of hearts.

The silence becomes a Presence.

And comes to life in a way that invites me to love.

The Presence wants to love me.

I resist that.

But the silent Presence insists.

I look again into the mirror of my soul and see the mystery

It wells up within me to gratitude.

I search for a name for the mystery.

And then do I remember God.

I discover that God is there within my heart.

And God’s heart beats within me and among us.

There is a love that speaks to me.

And extends its Heart toward me and fills me.

I find myself aware and awake.

To the joy of life and sorrow of suffering; the ugliness of hateful violence.

The noble beauty of creative art,

The sin that destroys the self and seeks to destroy others.

God’s heart moves in mine and dispels the fear.

Hear the Word of God and listen

God requires justice, love, mercy and compassion

And Jesus reaches out his arms to the farthest ends of every human heart.

And here I dedicate myself to Jesus.

In the poor and the homeless, the hungry and those who suffer.

The heart of Jesus moves in me, and the love of God

Knows no bounds.

It Gets Better, I promise!

2011-12-05T14:11:00.004-05:00

Jamie finally couldn't take it any more. He took his own life and the bullies involved have been suspended from school for a few days, according to the Buffalo Evening News. What is worse; this precious child's death, or a slap on the wrist for the bullies who drove him to his death. Shame on Williamsville!

I've been uncomfortably close to loved ones for whom suicide seemed a way out. I've talked way into the wee hours more times than I can count. I will do that for as long as God gives me time on earth to do it.

Listen to me, God loves you so much that he gave his only beloved Son for you and for me. I even wrote a book, "Everything you need to know about sex in order to get to Heaven" to be sure you knew that you are not going to hell...you are going to heaven...AFTER you live a good long life. (If you want that book cheap, or for free, write to me)

Don't let the bullies get to you.

Don't let any self doubts get to you.

Don't let the nagging voices bring you to despair.

Get in touch with someone who you can pour your heart out to...and if you can't find anyone right away, get in touch with me.

It will certainly get better, even if you have to go through a tough patch for now.

Remember my old buddy, Winston Churchill, who was fond of saying; "If you're going through hell, remember, keep going!"

And remember, God loves you and so do I.

As for the rest of you. Stop the bullying. Stop the bullies. Don't put up with any wise cracks about gays. And for God sake, don't let politicians and religious quacks get away with their hate.

Lets talk it up folks.

Tell the kids God loves them and so do you.

Tell them right now!

Listen to their heartache.

Wipe away their tears.

And finally remember this; the basic commandment is this and it is mandatory; "LOVE ONE ANOTHER!"

That is not an opinion...that's what Jesus said before he died for ALL OF US.

"LOVE ONE ANOTHER".

I can't see how I can make that plainer or simpler.

This is a matter of life and death.

God loves you.

And so do I.

Fr. Paul

Of Powers, Principalities and Pepper Spray

2011-12-03T21:51:00.004-05:00

You know we're doing something right when the police use pepper spray on an 84 year old woman as pictured left, or on students lined up, unarmed and non violent, as we've seen a hundred times on TV.

These are the Powers and The Principalities: those whose power in in their billions and trillions. They line up the defenseless and the powerless and attack us with high tech torture to quell the human spirit.

But it only serves to propel us on in our struggle. The ringing words of scripture come to mind from the beginnings of the Christian Experience when the Empire that we confronted was the Roman Empire. The Empire we now confront is the Oligarchy of the American Experience.

Only thirty years ago there was an 80/20 split between the Oligarchs and the Middle/Working Class. That split is now 92/8 as a percentage. The "trickle down" promise made by Ronald Reagan, was a lie. The wealth is "trickling up".

This is why we have taken to the streets; to contend against the powers and the principalities until All Americans are working at a decent wage.

To the Streets!

Here is one of my favorite passages. Please note the section in bold.

The Whole Armour of God

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints.Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak. ~Ephesians 6

God bless us one and all,

Fr. Paul

A General Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T22:20:00.004-05:00

The table is set; therefore let us keep the feast. Humble perhaps by many standards, but no lest festive than all the others. A month ago today David suffered a stroke. Thankfully it was a very tiny one. Still for a young man, age 31, it was a shock, both literally and figuratively.

We were the beneficiaries of a host of prayers, good thoughts, and benevolent vibes of all sorts .

A short month later, we are here, together as a family to celebrate Thanksgiving.

For Christian folk, Thanksgiving is not only a holiday but a way of life. The Eucharist is a word that means "Thanksgiving". The word, however is a verb, not a noun, for it is in the doing of gratitude that we find life's joy and abundance.

We celebrate the Eucharist at our birth at Baptism, at our Marriages, at times of illness, and of course at the ultimate moment of life when we enter the Blessed rest of Eternal Life. In the meantime, Sunday after Sunday and at all major Feast Days, we mark the seasons with this kind of gratitude.

It is a gratitude that expresses our Love for God by expressing our love for one another. It is no gratitude at all unless it is marked by a quest for Justice through which we strive for Peace.

Today, no less than all days we said our prayers. David said the "Grace" today. He recited with us gathered at our Table the ancient words of the General Thanksgiving that comes from the Prayer Book Tradition.

It seemed especially appropriate that we say this prayer today. It is one of David's favorite. It is among mine as well. We got to the word "preservation" before the voices broke and the tears fell, broken voices and tears of the profoundest gratitude we are capable of.

May God grant us so to live with gratitude that God's joy may be in us, and that God's joy may be complete.

The General Thanksgiving

Almighty God, Father of all mercies,
we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks
for all your goodness and loving-kindness
to us and to all whom you have made.
We bless you for our creation, preservation,
and all the blessings of this life;
but above all for your immeasurable love
in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ;
for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.
And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies,
that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise,
not only with our lips, but in our lives,
by giving up our selves to your service,
and by walking before you
in holiness and righteousness all our days;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit,
be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.

May the Blessing of Gratitude be with you all

Fr. Paul

Black Friday-Boycott Walmart-Occupy Walmart!

2011-11-19T22:12:00.004-05:00

Of all the blasphemies I can possibly think of, the idea of Black Friday and Walmart stands highest and at the top of the list! A little Child is born in Bethlehem, homeless of an unwed mother, poor, cold, and destined to die for the poor and those left out in the cold. Walmart opens early for a shopping frenzy of expensive foreign made trinkets for our children. Americans stand unemployed, homes lost, and left out in the cold. And the rich count their billions and roll around in their greed snorting satisfaction.

Blasphemy!

For many of us who are unemployed, without health insurance, and having lost our homes, a boycott of Walmart will be an easy thing. Millions of us already stay away.

But what if we Occupy Walmart on Black Friday? What if we block the doorways? Pepper sprayed victims from across the country cry out for justice. The Machine is grinding us and moves against our cry for jobs at decent wages.

We'll never get good jobs from Walmart. We will never get decent wages at Walmart. We will never get health insurance from Walmart.

Boycott Walmart this Black Friday. Send a message they will feel in their pocket books. Millions more are beginning to hear your cries for justice.

Boycott Walmart! Occupy Walmart!

This is the Peace that passes understanding...Justice!

Fr. Paul

The Goodness of God

2011-11-17T21:52:00.004-05:00

It is a funny thing about the Goodness of God. I discovered it only in the wake of my dad's death at Christmas when I was a boy. It flooded in again in the wake of my son, David's stroke in October. He's coming home Tuesday after an amazing recovery. There is much reality still to be dealt with, but there is this extraordinary thing called the Goodness of God.

I brought Communion to a Charlie today. He's a 20 something and has a pretty rugged go of it with Cancer. Still there is this thing called the Goodness of God. I cannot shake the idea. I suggested the idea of the Practice of the Presence of God. I believe in it with all my heart.

Plumbing the depths of my own heart, searching fearlessly for the Truth deep within I discover the Companionship of God. This gives me the courage to Love the God within, myself and all others I treasure. This I suggested to Charlie.

I've often watched the Pelican dive into the sea when I visited the Gulf of Mexico years and years ago. I love watching such a feat. Up s/he comes with a fish! What magnificence is life!

And so dad, I still remember you, even though you died so many years ago. It was your death that led me to priesthood. Coming up on 39 years now, countless souls blessed, baptized, married, and carried off to God. How good You are to tend my dad and all these good souls.

You are so good to look after David. That could have gone another way. There's still a very long way to go before a full recovery, but this looks so good.

Thanks too for Charlie. He could use a miracle too right about now. He's learning to spend some time with you and this is a very good thing. In then end that's all of us have; thanks for being there for my dad, my son and for Charlie.

Fr. Paul

Good and Evil; Everyone's Fundamental Choice

2011-11-17T00:58:00.002-05:00

The problem of Good is as real as the problem of Evil. The first extant document we have of the early church is "The Didache" or "The Teachings". In it is the notion that the pathway to Death and the pathway to Life are always before us. This is true at every level of life it seems to me, personal social and historical. To be sure, large institutions like Nations and Churches have merits. But they also have stains that blot out any hope of seeing redemptive value in what they are. But there is this thought. If we say we believe in Democracy, then of necessity we must have politicians and government. If we say we believe in Justice, it follows then, that lawyers and courts become an inevitable necessity. And if we say we believe in God, then clergy and churches become yet another inevitability. Seen from this view, there is plenty of sin to go around. But there is also beaucoup redemption. The fundamental question for us is which will we choose; the pathway that leads to life or the pathway that leads to death. A ponderous question for each of us to ponder because I believe God is calling each of us to step up to the plate. Apathy only guarantees that someone worse than ourselves will take power.

America Cracks Down on Human Rights

2011-11-15T19:27:00.000-05:00

From Oakland to New York and around America, the crackdown has begun. Democracy; government of the people, for the people and by the people has been successfully claimed by government of the rich, for the rich and by the rich.

Had this happened in Tiananmen Square, Cairo, Libya, or Syria, we would be hearing loud and sanctimonious words decrying gross abuses of "Human Rights"!

Not so when it happens in our own back yard. Thankfully, this will only serve to spur on the demonstrations. American are waking from slumber. It is now clear that the police are merely acting at the behest of the Plutocrats who pull the economic purse strings.

What threatens them is the idea that we want a bail out too. Except we’re willing to work for it. They just wanted the money to dress their portfolios. They are robbing us of our money, our jobs, and our homes, and we want them all back.

This next Sunday is the Feast Day of Christ the King. The Gospel reading for the day is well worth reading. In it The Son of Man summons the all the nations before him and separates the sheep from the goats. The sheep are invited into the kingdom with the these ringing words; “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”

Of course, the righteous wonder when they did these things to Jesus. And of course the answer is; "Insofar as you have done it to one of the lease of these, you have done it to me."

The goats are then driven away into a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, because when they saw human suffering, they turned away, did nothing, and treated the “least of these” shamefully.

The question I have is this; Is America in danger of failure as a civilization? If we insist on turning our backs away from the least of these, we incur the wrath of Jesus and the long arc of history will bend toward another civilization willing to treat her poor in a kinder and gentler way.

In the meantime, I have news for Mayor Bloomberg and his minions around the country. We are not going away. We will be back in the streets, today, tomorrow and the next day. Take heart my fellow Occupiers; back to the streets!!!

We want jobs! We want justice!

I so admire the courage of these people!

Fr. Paul

Hallelujah Chorus -Quinhagak, Alaska

2011-11-12T16:00:00.000-05:00

Notice how Jesus comes to us in the faces of the young and old of an obscure village in the Middle East long ago or in Alaska as recently as today. If we want to think about Jesus coming in the latter day, and at the end times, lets notice how Jesus is here right at this very moment.

This is because the end times are always here and now!

I do hope you have noticed that with the coming and going of one civilization after another, one constant is the command of Jesus; "Love on another".

The purpose of Advent and Christmas is not just to tell an ancient story of a faraway land. This Jesus is our story today, and the job of a people who know how to embrace winter with relish and abandon is the story of the amazing grace of humankind.

We are all kinds of people of all kinds of orientation, gender, class, race, ethnicity. Some day we will learn what Jesus has taught all along; "Love one another".

Learn from these Children.

And remember God loves you and so do I.

Fr. Paul.

Greed Cannot Inherit Heaven!

2011-11-08T22:06:00.003-05:00

Poor folks, gay folks, illegal aliens all seem to catch it from the far Right Wing Evangelical/Republican alliance. One wonders if they've read much scripture. As we see in this passage, so we see in history; its not the poor, the gay or the illegal alien who is our problem; it is the rich, the super rich, and the multi-national corporations.

When a nation becomes an oligarchy of the rich, the few crumbs that are spent on those in need are not the problem. It is the greed that concentrates wealth in the hands of the few that is always the undoing of a civilization. When they take away our jobs, our homes and our health care, they incite the public to rise up. It is happening right before our eyes.

Wake up America!

Read this if you don't believe me;

Mark 10:17-25

The Rich Man

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.” ’ He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’ Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’

The People Flex Their Muscle!

2011-11-02T17:01:00.002-04:00

Your voice has been heard. You have flexed your muscle. The Bank of America and Netflix have reversed their decisions on price gouging.

Now press on! Bank of America, give us back our jobs. You are making money hand over fist. You laid off thousands. Hire every one back.

Now that you have flexed your muscle and know that you have the power to influence and persuade power and money...press on.

The movement is gathering steam.

Not until we achieve full employment at a fair wage with health insurance for all...not until then will we return from the streets.

The power belongs to the people. We will not rest until justice flows like a mighty stream from the mountain of God!

The Christian Masquerade

2011-10-28T07:08:00.009-04:00

For thousands of years greed and militarism have paraded along the long line of history as Christianity. Lying in the wake of this masquerade is the blood of millions. You know the drill; first send in the missionaries and soften them up with talk about how Jesus loves them, then send in the conquistadores and claim the land as belonging to some queen or king, cough on them a few times and the rest is history. Exploit the land, exploit the people, and count the spoils.

We now face a particularly grotesque incarnation of this masquerade. It comes in the guise of common sense. It mocks those who disagree and dedicates itself to falsehood and distortion.

It protects the rich, the super rich and the multi-national corporation while the working people, and the middle class continues to be squeezed by the concentration of wealth in the hands of the nation's 1%.

We the 99% continue to watch our jobs vanish and our homes taken from us. All the while, these folks and their minions steadfastly protect the interests of the rich.

Every single candidate for the other political party brandishes the cross of Christ and carries its Bibles underarm and oppresses the poor in the name of Jesus. This is a masquerade and a particularly grotesque one.

How can anyone actually read the holy writings of any faith and not see the bias of God for the poor and the vulnerable.

We are desperate for jobs, health care and a restoration of hope for the working people, and the middle class. Meanwhile, it attacks education for children, Social Security for the elderly, Medicaid for the poor, and science for the intelligent.

Meanwhile the masquerade wraps itself in the flag and in faith of Christ, and turns its back on the vulnerable.

The faith I know and love states with utter simplicity that we are to Love God and love one another.

The scripture says "If anyone says I love God and yet hates his neighbor, that person is a liar". (1 John 4:20). This mouthpiece of arrogance has introduced himself as a savior to the right wing of American Politics. He is embraced by the masquerade with delight.

The Arrogant One has dedicated himself to the denial of jobs and health insurance to the American people. He and his minions want to take Social Security Medicare from the elderly, Medicaid and programs to help children and the poor. We have stood silent and anemic before his taunts. If you call this Christianity, then I renounce it! It is a masquerade! There is no Jesus, there is no God in this masquerade.

The reason folks have taken to the streets is pure and simple. We want jobs. We want health care. We want everyone to take a fair share of the tax burden. Those of you who make millions really should pay as much in taxation as I do just like Warren Buffet said. You probably should pay even a little bit more.

In summary, we want to love one another. We were told to live this way by the Author and Finisher of the Christian Faith.

There is among us an amazing embrace of love of the friendship of many faithful people as well as those who are onto the masquerade who want nothing to do with it. I honor all these folks.

In the heart of it all is the love of humanity whether driven by faith or driven by common human decency. This I call God, because very simply, the kingdom of heaven is within.

To be clothed in Christ is to be clothed with love and compassion for our neighbors. All other clothing is a masquerade!

Do not give up; God will not be mocked!

Fr. Paul

So Why Did Jesus Refuse to Condemn Gay Folks?

2011-10-22T23:08:00.001-04:00

So Why Did Jesus Refuse to Condemn Gay Folks?

If you look at the long list of televangelists who have made it big and if you listen to their teaching, there is one thing we know for sure. Gay folks are bad news. At the very least, they are an abomination to the Lord. Everybody knows this who has any knowledge of Leviticus or of Paul. At the most, you really should stone them to death just like the Bible says. Mind you there are all kinds of people you should stone to death if you read Leviticus closely as you can see from the previous link.

Besides this, it is not just the Right Wing televangelists who condemn gay folks; pretty much the entire world of faith from Christianity, to Judaism, to Islam has a similar dim view of gay folks. The LGBTQ community is one of the last great outcasts for humanity.

So then why did Jesus refuse to condemn gay folks? The Biblical Literalists of his day wanted to know what the greatest law was. Jesus rightly quoted the “Shema”, the foundational commandment for all Judaism; “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the universal commandment that really applies to all believers.

But for Jesus there was more; much more. Jesus insisted the we “Love one another” too. He didn’t just make that up because that was his opinion. No indeed! He selected one half of one verse from an obscure place in the book of Leviticus of all books to make his summary proclamation. “You shall love your neighbor as you do yourself. (Leviticus 19:18b)

With all the laws in Leviticus, why would Jesus pick this one. He could have chosen a whole host of other laws to condemn a whole host of people. Not Jesus! Instead he chose that one tiny law that has made all the difference then and continues to do so now.

Jesus was confronted by tiresome biblical literalists then as many of us still are. Somehow there were always Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, and Doctors of the Law all conspiring to find a pretext to have Jesus done away with. They always seem to want to catch him in his words. I can sympathize with Jesus here.

The same literalists keep showing up. And there always seems to be a note of judgmentalism among this crowd. They always want to find a good reason to condemn people.

When the Episcopal church decided to ordain women as bishops and priests, we had to listen to those who said we’d had done something that we didn’t have the power to do. The male of the species can be priests. Period. So the traditionalists reasoned. We reasoned differently decades ago. We are glad to see that the Church of England has finally seen fit to follow suit.

When we decided to ordain gay folks as priests and bishops and to bless their relationships, you would have thought we had committed an abomination against God and the church. We felt we had finally removed one last great stain of exclusion from the church.

They wanted to exclude the Episcopal Church from the Anglican Communion. They wanted to come up with some kind of reason to condemn gay folks and keep them outside the embrace of Jesus.

But not Jesus! He loved people very much. In fact he went out of his way to seek out folks who were at the margins; sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors, eunuchs, lepers and so forth. You name it, Jesus loved them. This is what makes Jesus such a powerful figure in sacred history. He seems to have a special bias in his heart for people, all people! No exceptions!

The Right Wing was a mean bunch then, just as so many of them seem to be still. One day, bright and early, when they found someone worth stoning, they hauled her right up to Jesus and insisted on stoning her to death just like the Bible said we should. You can read that story here. Jesus was aware of their malice. He was also aware of who set this whole thing up. We are told in the story from scripture that Jesus wrote something in the sand. He looked at them intently as he often did. “You who are without sin, cast the first stone”. Notice who walked away first. Interesting isn’t it, that beginning with the elders they walked away one by one. It makes you wonder who had their way with this woman. If you ask me, clergy misconduct is nothing new!

Jesus is a marvel. He knew that the most difficult thing is also the most simple. Love God, Love your neighbor. Love yourself.All three of these great loves are a marvel of challenge to a spirit that is fully alive to God.

So now I put this to you. Are you ready to love God? If you think you are, you may also have to love your neighbor, and that will include folks you may find difficult to love. Who said following Jesus was going to be easy. His first followers had to give their very lives for folks who were difficult to love.

Ultimately you will also need to love yourself. You will need to abound in forgiveness for yourself and everyone else. If you think you’re up to it, then you may follow Jesus.

If you don’t feel you are up to it, you may still follow Jesus. When you find yourself unable to love, Jesus will remain constant, immovable, and always standing on the cross, extending his loving arms, so that everyone may come within his saving embrace.

Occupy the Churches!!!

2011-10-18T17:15:00.003-04:00

Here's another idea. What about the churches? What if we occupy them and take them back to the Love of God? The Episcopalians are having a battle royal over gay folks. It wasn't long ago that we ordained women and that raised all kinds of fuss. Isn't it about time that all the churches stand up for ALL people whatever orientation, gender, class, race or nationality? I'm glad at least this one has the guts to do so. Thank you Episcopalians near and far away!

Isn't it about time we stand with Jesus? Anybody remember how he gathered all the outcasts? Tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers, common fisherfolk? You can translate that into anything you want. I'll settle for the LGBTQ crowd, women who insist on free choice with respect to their bodies, those suffering from AIDS. If you think Jesus took on the Right Wing in his day, don't you think he'd want to take on the same crowd in our own time? If we have the courage of our convictions, we'll take on that crowd with all kinds of backbone.

Don't let them take something as precious as the Love of God and co-opt it into a hateful exclusive club where religion is made safe for arrogance and privilege.

NO! Occupy the churches! Take back what belongs to us. Take back our churches so that the Compassion and Love of Christ might once again be known as being at the heart of God! Don't threaten to leave the church. THREATEN TO OCCUPY THE CHURCHES EVERY SUNDAY MORNING!!!

And a blessing on you all,

Fr. Paul

The Day Thou Gavest Lord Is Ended : The Choir of the Abbey School, Tewk...

2011-10-17T23:02:00.000-04:00

Anybody can sing this one; alone, with just a handful, or as artfully and as skillfully as here at the Abbey. One cannot help but think of the blessings of life as we listen to such a tune and more especially still at the concluding descant.

God bless you!

Fr. Paul

Guess Who's Coming to Wall Street!!!

2011-10-17T15:49:00.000-04:00

Friends of mine of Facebook liked this a whole lot. I thought you'd like it too. After all, it all ended up at the Temple, the place where all the outcasts were kept away. Jesus brought all his friends there and then stared down the evil of greed in the Holiest Place in Israel's faith.

The problem won't go away. Neither will Jesus. Neither will we. We're here to stay from Wall Street to Main Street, here in The USA and across the planet. When the 1% gouge out the 99% percent and greed us out of justice, we will be the hands, the feet, the heart of Jesus until all Justice flows like a mighty stream.

In the meantime, give us jobs!

Bank of America...take that!!!

2011-10-16T22:42:00.000-04:00

How very cool is this! Church and community leaders in San Jose divest from Bank of America. Many more are closing their accounts. If enough of us keep up the pressure, we will be heard. You go Padre. We are so proud of you. Read more here.

Peace and Justice to you all,

Fr. Paul

C'mon admit it; You support the President!

2011-10-14T21:26:00.002-04:00

Now that we've found our voice, let's use it. If we really do want jobs, tax the super rich, cut welfare to the multi-nationals and all that, let's come right out and say it. For heaven sake, he's the best President out there and there is NOBODY on the horizon who can even touch him for acceptability.

He's part of the reason we're out on Wall Street and elsewhere across the country. He needs our support to deliver jobs.

JOBS! JOBS JOBS! We're not going home until we get JOBS!

Jesus said to Peter; "Feed my sheep"

2011-10-13T22:39:00.004-04:00

"Feed My Sheep"

John 21:15-19

Jesus and Peter

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.

Pretty straight forward. Hey "Rocky, Feed my sheep!" (In Aramaic, Spanish, French, Greek etc Peter=Rocky) I love my iMacPro and iPhone as much as any priestly geek out there. And the death of Steve Jobs was a profound loss for someone who appreciates such brilliance. But the starvation of millions! Has anybody noticed? And nearer to home, the unemployed millions! Has anybody noticed? We are beginning to waken from slumber. Our occupation of Wall Street/Boston and Main Street is an attempt to put America on notice. We can do better than this.

We are the wealthiest nation on earth. Can we not "Feed God's Sheep"? Can we not put Americans to work? Or is it only Wall Street, Banks and GM that we want to save? Are we really a government of the 1%, for the 1% and by the 1%?

You and I can so something. We can give to Oxfam, or in the case of my own church we can give to Episcopal Relief and Development. Some have noticed, but only some and far too few. Millions are starving and the message is as old as Jesus' words to Rocky; "Feed my Sheep"!

AND we can take to the streets!

Fr. Paul

God & the People vs Wall Street

2011-10-12T20:49:00.003-04:00

One day, Jesus found himself up against a bunch of Pharisees, that's the Evangelical Right wing of the New Testament. They also tried to mess up Moses long before this by making a Golden Calf, but more about that another time. These Pharisees gave Jesus a coin and, to set him up, said: "Is it lawful to pay your taxes or not?" They thought they had him dead to rights on this one. After all, if Jesus said it was lawful to pay taxes, he would be putting his followers in a pickle because they were seeking to build a kingdom, not of this world. But, if he said it was not lawful to pay taxes, he would get himself arrested and that would effectively put him out of the way, which was the Fox Network wanted anyway. After all, Jesus had this thing for poor people, outcasts, prisoners, foreigners, eunuchs, etc. In other words Jesus put people first in all his teachings, particularly those people the Right Wing didn't particularly like.

So Jesus, true to form, took the coin they gave him and asked them whose image was on that coin. The answer: Caesar! Well then, quoth Jesus; "Give to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are God's."

So what belong's to Caesar? Obviously, all that money and all those coins. The Empire had assembled quite a sphere of influence for itself and its symbol was the coin of the realm.

Now look what happened! What with inflation and the like, the coin of the realm looks like this now (see left). We call it the Almighty Dollar. It has become our God! It is a symbol of the Greed that has put the Global markets into a tailspin. Through a very sophisticated series of undercapitalized investment instruments, we found ourselves exposed to a downturn in the real estate markets from which we have yet to recover.

To try and save the economy, both the Bush and Obama administrations poured billions upon billions into financial institutions, banks and corporations. It was the hope and trust of the government (that's us by the way), that these folks would take our tax money and invest it in business so that the money would "prime" a recovery. Millions of us would be hired and put to work. What happened instead was that these very institutions kept that money, tightened up on it and the recession continues to this day. Worse still Bank of America laid off 30,000 MORE people and gouged its debit card holders by assessing a $5/month service fee. And, they paid their executives at rate that can be called nothing less than CONSPICUOUS OUTRAGE!

So Jesus teaches us to give to Caesar those thing that belong to the Caesar (aka Government), and give to God the things that are God's.

What belongs to God? Let me venture provide a good guess at an answer; People belong to God. In the very first chapter of Genesis, the biblical tradition teaches that we are all created in God's image whether male or female.

That does not mean that God looks like us, by the way. It means that we have the potential to act like God by loving one another, which is what Leviticus and Jesus both taught. We have the potential to organize our common life around human suffering and injustice. We can make things right if we want to. We can care for one another.

Instead, we've got it dead wrong. We created a graven image to Greed and called it our God. We've amassed wealth and greed in so few hands that the suffering and injustice we the people face is growing day by day. In the 70's and 80's, 80% of us had almost 20% of the wealth. Now we have less than 8%. Meanwhile those at the top of this pyramid scheme, have so much wealth that they threaten to collapse the entire system.

So addicted are they to this wealth that they will sooner see the destruction of our entire national experience than to share that wealth with us even in a more reasonable 80/20 split with which we were willing to live with in former decades.

That's why we have taken to the streets Mr & Mrs America. And we are going to STAY THERE until you fix this problem.

We want jobs for every American now. You saved the financial institutions with billions upon billions because they were too big to fail. You did that over a weekend! Now you MUST save us, because we are too many to fail. This is just as urgent a matter as the salvation of a bank. The salvation of the people is what we stand for in solidarity with Jesus!

Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, but to God the things that are God. Use the Almighty Dollar to serve the will of THE ALMIGHTY!

Then we can save the economy from the bottom up. Because once you give us some work to do, and a decent pay check, we can pay our bills, get caught up on our mortgages, and buy some durable goods and trinkets for the kids.

For God's sake America, wake up before its too late.

And a blessing on us all,

Fr. Paul

Two Mormons and a Priest on the way to the Moon

2011-10-10T10:04:00.003-04:00

The moon was a brilliant presence in the sky so I took my rather modest Nikon P90 down to the Beach at the end of the street. I tried all kinds of things but it just looks fuzzy when I took some shots. Then I sat down to steady my arms, extended the zoom as far as I could and lo and behold, I got a number of shots like this.

As I was so involved, two handsome young men stopped by and asked me if I had been able to get any good shots of the moon. I showed them the viewfinder and they were as amazed as I was at the result of my endeavors.

The pleasantries aside, they then asked me if I knew were I was going when I die. I told them that didn't matter as much to me as where I go while I'm alive. You know, build a homeless shelter, feed the poor, cloth the naked and put coats on the cold; that sort of thing.

They told me they were Mormons, members of the Church of Latter Day Saints. I told them I was an Episcopalian. Just a fat dumpy priest dressed in a short sleeve shirt and shorts with a camera dangling over my neck.

I told them that I was so disappointed when I was in Salt Lake City, because they wouldn't let me in to see the Temple. The younger fellow was surprised by this...he must have been in training. The older fellow suggested that if I became a member, I could see the place. He said that the Mormon folks considered their place so holy that only members could see it.

I then told him that I had been to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, The Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, I had visited fabulous Cathedrals in Britain, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Something told me these places were holy too and yet everyone was welcome inside to see it.

I even told them that I visited the Dome of the Rock, the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Western Wall. Those places are very holy too according to lots of people.

I said that it just surprised me that I was not welcome to see their holy place.

They offered me their card and invited me to look at their website. I gave them my card and invited them to see my blog, my website, and my church website. I'd love to see the look on their faces when they read about the emerging Rainbow Church, Rainbow Marriage and all the other things I go nattering on about.

But there you are, its grand to be in a free country when we can go out and chat about the faith on the way to the moon. The Mormon fellows headed back to the Stake. I went back home to post some pics on Facebook.

Blessings on you all,

Fr. Paul

Blessed are those who Occupy Wall Street

2011-10-09T22:17:00.001-04:00

According to the Gospel passage for today, a King gave a great banquet for his son's wedding, but the invited guests refused to come. So the King compelled his servants to go out into the streets and compel the poor, the halt, and the lame to come and fill his banquet hall.

Come to the banquet, all you poor, unemployed, homeless, you persecuted lesbigay folk, Come to the banquet! Come in out of the cold and feast at God's Banquet table!

All you who Occupy Wall Street and Main street, your time has come. The poor will be filled and the rich will be sent away empty. Just the way Mary said in her great song.

The Gospel economics cry out for justice, from Jeremiah to Jesus, you are the Blessed ones of God.

Read this again and remember who Jesus really is. By the way, you may not hear these words from the right wing but they are what the Biblical scholars call; "The Christian Manifesto". Pour yourselves into the streets and take heart; you are invited to the Banquet of God!

Matthew 5

The Beatitudes

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Arrest that bishop!

2011-10-08T22:35:00.002-04:00

Pleases the heart to see Bishop Regas of LA tossed in the slammer like Blessed Paul the Apostle. Finally Christians getting good and salty. No more war. Give Americans jobs! You go church!!!

The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth

2011-10-08T07:23:00.007-04:00

Too Big to Fail?

Too Many to Fail!

When Congress saved the 1% with TARP funds they said they were too big to fail. We are 99%. We are too many to fail. It is our turn now. You gave those huge financial institutions zillions and zillions. All we are demanding is;

1. JOBS, JOBS, JOBS

2. At A Living Wage

3. And Universal Health Care

That's what it all boils down to. Give us work.

Corporations are people? What! Who said that? No wonder you gave them zillions and zillions, then they took the money gave the their executives gigantic and immoral bonuses, laid us off by the tens of thousands, and charged us $5/month for our debit cards. You are gouging us to death! You have more heart for corporations than you do for people. Nuts to you!

Corporations are not people. People are People! WE ARE THE PEOPLE. We are 99%. You have 92% plus of the wealth, we have 8%. You are 1%, we are 99%. This is morally wrong.

Here's what we are going to do.

Monday morning we are going to close Wall Street. We are going to bar the door, join arm to arm and sit down and close the place.

That's in NYC

In LA we're going to do the same thing for Bank of America. CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!

The enemy here is Greed.

Here is what you are going to do. Tax the rich folks and give to the poor folks. Warren Buffet already said he's willing to pay the bill. So send him and his friends the bill. We finally have a President who has a faint inkling of what needs to happen. So lets make him do it! Lets give him a big push and shove this over the top. JOBS! AT A LIVING WAGE AND HEALTH CARE. TAX THE RICH FOLKS.

Congress; you are mostly millionaires, surrounded by multi-milllion dollar influence peddlers.

We are 99%. We don't have much money, but we do have numbers. We are the ultimate lobby. We have taken to the streets. We have occupied the streets, now we're going to close Wall Street and Bank of America. We are the people; give us jobs. In the meantime, Wall Street and BoA are CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!

You may remember the story of Jericho. Joshua surrounded the city and the walls came tumbling down. S/he's back! S/he is a child in New York City arrested by police. Joshua wants us to surround and Wall Street and The Bank of America until those walls come tumbling down.

That wall is GREED. That's our enemy folks. It's not Liberal against Conservative; Democrat against Republican. We are all Americans and we want work.

So give us jobs, at a living wage and health care. Don't take away Social Security or Medicare. Don't beat up on the poor and take away food programs that feed children. Don't be mean to the people. If you do get mean, we'll get angry and we will take to the streets until Justice flows like a mighty stream from the mountain of God.

By the way; I have no plan. All this is coming to pass spontaneously from the hearts of the people. The folks in Cairo and Madison woke up last Spring. The Arab Spring has become the American Fall.

So then America, to the streets. Nice weather in the East for the next few days. Nice weather to close Wall Street and the Bank of America.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. You are the ones God admires; Jesus said so.

YOU SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH!

Peace and Jobs to you all,

Fr. Paul

A Prayer of Self Dedication

2011-10-05T09:46:00.006-04:00

There are still some who see the connection between faith and action, since without action there is no faith. Faith is known in the heart, understood in the mind, but expressed with the body. Without all three faith is dead. Thus I offer this prayer, written on St. Francis Day, to those of you who wish to dedicate yourselves to God's purposes.

A Prayer of Self Dedication

by Paul Bresnahan

St. Francis Day 2011

Now in the quiet of the day, I beckon to my soul and listen.

There is only silence

It is a silence I love to return to.

Because I am not alone there.

In that silence I come to my heart of hearts.

The silence becomes a Presence.

And comes to life in a way that invites me to love.

The Presence wants to love me.

I resist that.

But the silent Presence insists.

I look again into the mirror of my soul and see the mystery

It wells up within me to gratitude.

I search for a name for the mystery.

And then do I remember God.

I discover that God is there within my heart.

And God’s heart beats within me and among us.

There is a love that speaks to me.

And extends its Heart toward me and fills me.

I find myself aware and awake.

To the joy of life and sorrow of suffering; the ugliness of hateful violence.

The noble beauty of creative art,

The sin that destroys the self and seeks to destroy others.

God's heart moves in mine and dispels the fear.

Hear the Word of God and listen

God requires justice, love, mercy and compassion

And Jesus reaches out his arms to the farthest ends of every human heart.

Here and now I dedicate myself to Jesus.

In the poor and the homeless, the hungry and those who suffer.

The heart of Jesus moves in me, and the love of God

Knows no bounds.

Close all accounts!

2011-10-04T21:29:00.002-04:00

Here's an idea. Pure simplicity itself. Close all accounts with Bank of America.

First they accept zillions of our tax dollars to save their skins because they are "too big to fail". Then they refuse to invest in businesses that would hire American workers.

Then they lay off 30,000 American workers and close hundreds of local branches.

And if that isn't enough they tack on a $5/month charge for the use of debit cards.

If you ask me, the answer is simple; close all account with Bank of America. Lets spread the word. These folks should be ashamed of the name they have on that bank!

Fr. Paul, a little riled by corporate greed run amuck.

An American Manifesto

2011-10-03T21:17:00.003-04:00

What began in Cairo and Wisconsin is now spreading nationwide. "Occupy Wall Street" is being repeated all over the United States, and just this weekend moved into Dewey Square in Boston; "Occupy Boston" is now underway. One of the advantages the other side has over us is their clarity and their singleminded agenda.

We need just such an agenda.

Here's my shot at it.

1. We demand Full Employment now. Put Americans to work. Put people around the world to work. If we can figure out how to spend zillions and zillions of dollars over a single weekend to save huge financial institutions that were "to big to fail", we can certainly save the people of this county and their families from poverty and homelessness.

The Unemployment Bureau, should be called the Employment Bureau. Unemployment insurance shall be known as Employment insurance. It is time for the Government to ante up and save the people who are "too important to fail".

2. Double the minimum wage. Tax the rich, the super rich, and the multi-national corporations. Let them forgo this year's obscene bonuses, and give people a living wage.

3. Provide Health Care for ALL Americans NOW!

4. Declare an indefinite moratorium on foreclosures until all Americans are at work.

5. Quit beating up on teachers, police, fire, EMT's and public workers. Quit beating up on gay folks and the LGBTQ community. Quit beating up on children and education. The extreme Right Wing of this country has become utterly immoral.

All around the country we are rising up and taking to the streets. The Arab Spring has become the American Fall. Momentum is building. Hope is here!

I remember the 1960's with fondness. We're back again; we fought for civil rights, gender equality, and a kinder, gentler embrace of the LGBTQ community. Now we're demanding economic justice for all.

TO THE STREETS AMERICA!!! OCCUPY AMERICA!!!

Fr. Paul, a simple parish priest.

In the interests of marriage equality

2011-09-30T10:34:00.006-04:00

Michaelmas 2011

Two weeks ago, I officiated at my very first same sex union in Chicago. What joy it was to stand in solidarity with my son and his best friends as they began their new life together. That same young man, my son Michael, is in Hico (pronounced Hyco) West Virginia for yet another wedding of yet another very best friend. And I am in Thomaston Maine to officiate my goddaughter's wedding. She is the daughter of one of my best friends who also served as the Senior Warden of my very first church in Malden, Massachusetts. In fact this fall in Salem, Massachusetts where I serve as priest-in-charge, I have officiated at a number of marriages, and celebrated the love of half a dozen couples.

In every case, for all 38 years of my priesthood, I have stood by young people (and some old ones too) who love one another, listened to scriptures, exchanged the vows, said the prayers and tied the knot (by the way, we actually do that with the stole that we clergy wear for such occasions. That stole represents the burden, the joy, and the authority with which we carry Christ with us upon our shoulders).

In all of these cases except for one, the configuration of those marriages has been male/female. In only once case was the configuration same sex. We mean no offense to the heterosexual community of which my wife and I are joyful members.

We are no threat to traditional marriage whatsoever. We merely stand witness in Chicago, in Hico, and in Thomaston to the love of Christ for ALL people.

In fact, if you think about it marriage equality is in the profoundest sense, the ultimate defense of marriage act.

It is in our faithful lives together by whatever configuration we arrange ourselves that we celebrate the joy of being together in a life long union of love. (My mom had to do that three times with three different fellows before she got it right, but by God, she finally did get it right.)

And so today in Maine, by the sea, two very beautiful young people celebrate their love for one another. May the day come speedily when all young people will be granted the blessing of a church and a culture that realizes the the ultimate and final command of all is the last one Jesus gave; "Love one another".

And remember God love you, and so do I.

Fr. Paul

Recession and Depression

2011-09-29T21:23:00.004-04:00

A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words!

One may ask; "What is the difference between a recession and a depression?". The answer, as the old saw goes; "A recession occurs when your neighbor gets laid off; a depression happens when YOU are laid off."

From Wisconsin to Wall Street comes this alarm; they have their sites on teachers, public service employees, police, fire, and EMT's. Budget cuts=job losses by the hundreds of thousands.

The picture here says it all. Unless we take to the streets, they will have all our jobs.

TO THE STREETS!!!

Woe to you who grind up the poor!

2011-09-28T22:26:00.004-04:00

Pardon me if I sound like Amos, but I did think that it might be in order to remember those parts of the bible that the far right wing evangelicals seem to avoid. Here are two amazing passages. In the former passage we have the prophetic warning from Amos to those who "take their ease in ivory palaces". By the way, a prophecy, biblically speaking, in not soothsaying about the future, it is a warning against an injustice. In this case the ruin of Jacob and the impending exile are connected to economic injustice. Read the passage for yourself.

Amos 6

Complacent Self-Indulgence Will Be Punished

Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory, and lounge on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the stall; who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, and like David improvise on instruments of music; who drink wine from bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile, and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.

The Lord God has sworn by himself (says the Lord, the God of hosts): I abhor the pride of Jacob and hate his strongholds; and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.

See, the Lord commands, and the great house shall be shattered to bits, and the little house to pieces. But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood— you who rejoice in Lo-debar, who say, ‘Have we not by our own strength taken Karnaim for ourselves?’ Indeed, I am raising up against you a nation, O house of Israel, says the Lord, the God of hosts, and they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath to the Wadi Arabah.

I do sometimes wonder how God looks upon a land that turns a cold shoulder against the poor.

And here is yet another passage from the Gospels. I must remind you, the sin is not in being rich, the sin is turning away from the sorrow and the suffering of the poor. Read this one. Why are these passages and stories not told to us by the tele-vangelists?

Rich Man and Lazarus

‘There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.” But Abraham said, “Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.” He said, “Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.” Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.” He said, “No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” ’

I love the irony here..."even if someone should rise from the dead..." Did anyone tell this fellow that Someone did!

A blessing on the just!

Fr. Paul

God's Great Name and Budget Cuts!

2011-09-26T20:33:00.007-04:00

Tell me this; why is it you don't hear these passages from the so called "Evangelical Right Wing?" Could it be they don't know these parts of the Bible. When I took this picture earlier this evening I thought of the Greatness of God.

But then I remembered that the Greatness of God is measured by how well we treat the poor. After all God is high above the nations. Nations come, and then they go. If they lift up the poor out of the dust, such a nation will be great in God's eyes.

If such a nation grinds the poor into the dust, that nation will be in great danger.

Warning! We are treading on thin ice if we think we can avoid God's attention. The budget cuts we are making in this nation are a threat to national security; they are economically unsound, they are immoral.

Three examples; from the Psalms of David, from the Song of Mary, and from the Final Judgment of the Nations as Jesus envisioned it.

	Psalm 113 Laudate, pueri

1	Hallelujah! Give praise, you servants of the LORD; * praise the Name of the LORD.

2	Let the Name of the LORD be blessed, * from this time forth for evermore.

3	From the rising of the sun to its going down * let the Name of the LORD be praised.

4	The LORD is high above all nations, * and his glory above the heavens.

5	Who is like the LORD our God, who sits enthroned on high, * but stoops to behold the heavens and the earth?

6	He takes up the weak out of the dust * and lifts up the poor from the ashes.

7	He sets them with the princes, * with the princes of his people.

8	He makes the woman of a childless house * to be a joyful mother of children.

The Song of Mary Magnificat

Luke 1:46-55

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; *
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed: *
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him *
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm, *
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, *
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, *
and the rich he has sent away empty.

The Judgment of the Nations

By What Authority Do You Do These Things?

2011-09-24T23:07:00.003-04:00

In particular, how do we justify embracing the LGBTQ community as eligible for marriage, and ordination? By what authority do we proclaim that we are all one in Christ without regard to race, ethnicity, class, gender or orientation?

As a matter of fact, I worked it out in every particular in a book I published in 2004. In that book I suggested to the world of faith and to the culture around it that it was time to grow up and face facts. Gay folks have been with us for a very long time, and they will be with us for a very long time to come. In God’s good time we will embrace all humanity in a gentler and kinder way, I believe that time has come now. My proclamation, of course, played to mixed reviews.

When I became the Priest-in-Charge of St. Peter’s Church in Salem, Massachusetts I encouraged the membership to read my book; “Everything You Need to Know About Sex in Order to Get to Heaven”. There is humor in that book, there is satire, but there is also the story of my family embedded in the biblical analysis of that book too. I wrote it word for word, Honest to God. Many of the vestry of St. Peter's Church read that book and they still consented to my appointment as Priest-in-Charge.

I had yet to really fully understand by what authority I proclaimed St. Peter’s a “House of Prayer for All People”, but I did so from the outset. And when I did, I painted the proclamation clearly with the Rainbow to make it abundantly clear that I meant what I said.

Members of the LGBTQ community were already members of the church, and we then sat down to figure out the particulars of how this could be and by what authority we could make such a claim.

In our first vestry retreat we asked ourselves if we could in fact call ourselves “A House of Prayer for All People” and do so from the bottom of our hearts. Not only did we embrace that statement we also decided to use it as our mission statement.

We did a Bible study on the origin of these words. When we discovered that the proclamation came from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah in the 56th Chapter, it was as if the scales fell from our eyes. There in black and white were the questions of the foreigner and the eunuch; the former asking why he had to be cut off from the House of Israel and the latter lamenting that he would become “a dry tree”.

The Prophet gave a grand reassurance to both.

⁴ For thus says the Lord:
To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths,
who choose the things that please me
and hold fast my covenant,
⁵ I will give, in my house and within my walls,
a monument and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that shall not be cut off.

⁶ And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
and to be his servants,
all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it,
and hold fast my covenant—
⁷ these I will bring to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.

Suddenly, we understood as one what God meant for us. Foreigners and those whose sexual identity was ambiguous at the very least were embraced by God and they were to be given the highest honors within God’s House of Prayer.

We were no longer tentative about our proclamation. We were now authoritative because we knew by what authority we spoke. In our own case at St. Peter’s Church, many foreigners largely from the Dominican Republic have made this church their home. There is one particular little child whose mother and whose partner asked me to baptize. I was delighted. They haven’t missed a Sunday since. In the abundant answer of the Prophet Isaiah; as he said “Yes” to the eunuch and the foreigner who so tentatively wondered if they could be included in the embrace of God, could I do less than give the Prophet’s “Yes” to these people?

In recent months I found myself returning time and again to Christ’s teaching on marriage in Matthew’s Gospel. And again the scales fell from my eyes. Here Jesus is challenged by the same tiresome religious authorities who second guess him on everything he does and all that he teaches. In responses to the drilling Jesus teaches that marriage is to be a life long covenant. But the Scribes and the Pharisees wanted to know why Moses permitted a certificate of divorce. Obviously, Jesus said, “because of your hardness of heart”. The disciples, perhaps bewildered by the impossibly high standards Jesus set for marriage, then assert that it is probably better then not to marry. Then, in an instant and seemingly tangential to the previous verses, Jesus then tells the disciples; “Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.” (Matthew 19:12)

To be sure castration among males and even females is common in the Ancient Near Eastern world, but what about those “born that way”? Explain that one to me. The ambiguity of sexual identification in this passage is really not all that ambiguous if you were in fact “born that way”.

In my own faith journey, I happen to be the nephew of a man who was “born that way.” He had a life-long union of more than 50 years with another man “born that way”, and I happen to be the father of two sons who were also “born that way”

And so in the fullness of time, my son’s best friends in Chicago asked me to officiate at their civil union. What a joy it was to claim that blessing before God and all that friends. There was a bit of uncertainty and maybe even a bit of tension that day as the young couple and this priest took his place with them. But we proceeded with the pronouncement of that union as a sacred and complete in the eyes of God, in the eyes of the Church and in the eyes of all their friends. I can assure you that the celebration that followed was of unbridled joy. I can tell you that everyone in that sacred space felt embraced by God as never before.

As Jesus replied to his interrogators with a question, so do I. So then, I ask you this question; “By what authority do we now do these things?”

A blessing for ALL God's Children,

Fr. Paul

I wish Catholicism were a bit more catholic

2011-09-18T13:23:00.006-04:00

The Problem Seems to be Sex

Yes, what a shame, but that seems to be the case. When I was much younger and could understand what celibacy meant, marriage was out of the question for a priest, and I knew right away that I sure didn't want to be a priest in that church. When I met scores of former priests who left the priesthood for marriage, that fact merely reinforced my earlier reactions.

Mind you, sex is a problem for other churches too. My mother could not be married in the Episcopal Church in 1956 because she had been divorced. My uncle felt unwelcome because, truth be told, he was gay. In fact most of my family thought that the whole church thing was a bunch of bunk anyway; superstition and ignorance were the words they used to describe the whole of the religious world.

It befuddled my family to no end when I decided to become a priest. But I loved God, I loved Jesus, and I loved the whole thing about Jesus bringing Good News to the poor (Luke 4:18), I loved how he treated the "least of these" and how he recruited fisherfolk, and outcasts, how he healed the sick. And most of all, I admired his pure grit and courage in facing the religious authorities of his day. It seems, that we will always have to face the religious authorities of the day.

Thankfully, I was brought up in the Episcopal Church, so getting married was no big deal; in fact it was more or less expected that family life would be normative in this church.

This is how it has been for Reformed Christianity in The Episcopal Church/Anglicanism, and in the Lutheran Church for more than 600 years. I wish Roman Catholicism were just a bit more catholic.

As I child, I said the Creed each week. In it I said; "I believe in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church". I was taught in Confirmation class that the word "catholic" means "universal". That puzzled me more since "Catholicism" seemed to be identified to a huge exclusive club, and not to all of humanity. It seemed hardly "catholic" to me.

I knew this because when I went to Mass with my friends, I was told I was not welcome to receive Communion. Rome is still making that claim, as if the Eucharistic meal instituted by Jesus were their exclusive province. That made no sense to me at all, since, when Jesus fed the multitudes on the hillsides of Galilee and elsewhere he didn't check to see if folks were card carrying "Catholics". Those folks hungered for God and Jesus fed them not just with bread and wine but with every word that comes from the mouth of God. At that point everybody, including Jesus was Jewish anyway, unless they were Samaritans or Gentiles of some other description. Jesus fed them too!

It took Episcopalians a long time to figure out that EVERYONE is welcome at God's table. After all, the Holy Table belongs to Jesus, and not to any "organization". If the church is "Catholic" then it belongs to Jesus anyway and not to a select group in Rome who decide who's in and who's out.

It took us a long time to figure out that divorced persons could be remarried. Similarly, it took a very long time to figure out that women could be ordained.

Rome still hasn't figured out that priests can be married, let alone that women can be ordained. In the meantime, an enormous scandal involving pedophilia has emerged. Rome still hasn't figured out that priests need to have background checks from an outside agency. Unfortunately the church is doing its own self policing. And frankly, that's a bit like asking the wolf to watch the hen house.

Again we figured this out and that cleaned out our clerical house in a whole hurry up. We're not without sin even yet. But the problem of child sex abuse has been largely weeded out of our church but persists in Rome and is far more widespread than many of us expected, as I pointed out in a previous post on this blog.

Now the big problem is the LGBTQ community (that's shorthand for Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgendered, and Queer). I have argued that we are becoming a Rainbow Church that is now willing to celebrate the Rainbow Marriage. I have argued the biblical base for both and believe that the move toward catholicity is irreversible.

I only wish that Roman Catholicism were a bit more catholic. A universally catholic church will learn to embrace marriage for its clergy, see women as being equal to men in every sense and even at the Church's Altar. A catholic church will ultimately embrace what God has made of all humanity; whatever race, ethnicity, class, gender or orientation. The day is coming when God's church will become a "House of Prayer for ALL People". I've argued that position too in this blog in an earlier post.

I do wish Roman Catholicism were a bit more catholic. Vatican II gave us such great hope. We cannot become One until we become catholic in the deepest sense of that meaning. Many Catholics pray for that Day. Many Anglicans/Episcopalians pray for that day too. We all hold to One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

In the meantime, in this tiny corner of the world of faith, we believe that catholicism is very much what God wants of his church, a church that rejoices in the Rainbow, a church in which all are welcome, a church which is "A House of Prayer for ALL People".

Remember God love us all, and in particular; You!

Fr. Paul

Oscar Romero-a Prayer

2011-09-16T11:56:00.005-04:00

A Hero of the Church

There are some few who stand head and shoulder above the rest. One such is Oscar Romero. In those dreadful days when right wing extremists began a campaign of terror, the church in El Salvador stood with the struggles of the people. A campaign of terror was launched by the revolutionary junta. Romero criticized the government and the United States for aiding and abetting the repressive regime. A turning point for Archbishop Romero was at the time of mass executions and assassinations of local clergy. He begged for a return to sanity. The reward for his tireless work for justice was his own assassination on March 24,1980. It is easy for us to become discouraged when we look around at the sing to the right we see in this country. Do not be discouraged; The Way of God will prevail, justice and the love of God will always prevail. Here is a prayer a friend of mine sent out today (Donald Krickbaum) that Romero himself composed. I commend it to you too!

Fr. Paul

"It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise

that is God's work.

Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the kingdom always lies

beyond us.

No statement says all that can be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection.

No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No program accomplishes the church's mission.

No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

"This is what we are about.

We plant the seeds that will one day grow.

We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

"We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

"We cannot do everything, and there's a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete,

but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace

to enter and do the rest.

"We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master

builder and the worker.

"We are workers, not the Master Builder; ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own."

~Oscar Romero

The Emerging Rainbow Church

2011-09-15T21:39:00.005-04:00

A House of Prayer for ALL People

It seems as though we are a very minuscule, tiny corner in the world of faith. We are the ones who claim the blessing: "all the sacraments for all the baptized". We boldly announce to the world that we are "A House of Prayer for ALL People". We base this claim on biblical authority as well as on tradition, and reason. I have argued so in my first book, "Everything You Need to Know About Sex in Order to Get to Heaven".

Many take the opposite view focusing their arguments on Romans 1 and on several passages in Leviticus. I have dealt with these passages in depth in my book. But here's an interesting thing. When Jesus said that his house should be a "House of Prayer for all people", he didn't mention all the exceptions. Christians have argued that there were exceptions based on racial, ethnic, class, gender lines, and obvious to most...this goes conclusively and obviously for non heterosexuals.

The emerging Rainbow Church argues that when Jesus said that his church would be a "House of Prayer for all People", he meant ALL people. To Jesus there were no exceptions; certainly no exceptions of human invention such as race, ethnicity, class, gender or orientation. In fact Paul argues that once we are in Christ we are no longer Jew or Greek (or any other race/ethnicity), we are no longer slave or free (or anywhere else on the economic totem pole), we are no longer male or female (obviously you see a pattern emerging; that goes for orientation too!!!)

Thus we are becoming obedient to Scripture, the more we become ONE, the more we cultivate the emergence of the Rainbow Church. We may be tiny now, but God's Kingdom is at hand, just as Jesus said it was.

"A House of Prayer for All People", a biblical base.

The event is called the "Cleansing of the Temple" by biblical scholars. You can read it for yourself. It is the only event using physical force that we see in all four Gospels. You can read more in detail on a fine article in Wikipedia. Imagine if you will, King Jesus arrives at the Temple on a donkey. His retinue is every imaginable outcast, blind, maimed, deaf, the poor by the thousands, sinners of every sort and description, tax collectors and prostitutes and lets not forget the eunuchs who were very specifically excluded from the temple in Leviticus as were all the rest of the unsavory sorts that were always with Jesus.

He enters the Temple precincts. I've been there. There is a sizable area inside the Temple walls where hawkers of religious trinkets can sell their wares, flea market style. They can peddle pigeons, and other sacrificial items, for the observant folks of Judaism.

But most of the people Jesus had with him were excluded from the Holy Place by definition. We can see the conflict building throughout the Gospels. It reaches now a crescendo as he sees what he can no longer tolerate. Buying and selling on the very sacred ground that is dedicated to the Father, His Father.

Then comes the outburst. He overturns the tables, and makes a whip and chases all the traders in trinkets out of the place and manages to seal his fate. This remember is Palm Sunday. By Thursday evening, there is the Last Supper and the arrest of Jesus. The next day he is tried and crucified on charges of blasphemy.

I studied this passage with my parishioners on retreat some few years back and I asked that we study the passage this decisive event was based on. I was amazed at what I found and so were my parishioners. It is easy enough; just punch up the phrase in any biblical word search online. I use the Oremus Bible Browser. All the others will give you the same result in any and all translations.

Look at Isaiah 56. Read the whole chapter. Read it more than once. Notice that the prophet Isaiah is interested in justice as he often is. Notice that the prophet does NOT want the foreigner separated from the people of God. This is quite a challenge to a religious tradition that is based on the exclusive nature of purity. Then the prophet does not want to allow the eunuch to say that he is a "dry tree". Look at that very carefully.

In my earlier blog post on the Rainbow Marriage, I argued that the eunuch held an interesting place in the culture of the Ancient Near East. What makes Matthew 19 interesting is that Jesus refers to those born "that way". He is not talking about castrated males here, but people who were born without an interest in the opposite sex. You cannot escape the fact. Jesus makes his statements in the context of his teaching on marriage. Read Matthew 19:7-12 again. And he notes that his teaching is "difficult for many to accept".

Thus Isaiah is saying something that is difficult to accept. Foreigners and eunuchs are part of God's loving embrace. God wants justice for both. Consider how we treat foreigners and eunuchs.

So what are eunuchs anyway. Castrated males? How can they be "born that way"? Explain that to me. I'm waiting. It seems obvious to me that we're talking about folks who are not like heterosexuals and they were born not like heterosexuals. I've always known people who were "different". Some called them names.

Jesus calls it as he sees it. They were "born that way".

But Jesus didn't want to exclude foreigners or eunuchs from his Temple. Neither did he want lepers or outcasts of any sort to be excluded. He wanted his place of worship to be "A House of Prayer for ALL People". Moreover, he was willing to give his life for them; more correctly, Jesus wanted to give his life for ALL.

And so he did. And from that time his church has grown like topsy all over the world. Until it came to this one last group of outcasts. Finally there is one tiny, minuscule church that is willing to be obedient to Jesus.

He overturned those the tables of the Temple many years ago. The shock waves of that event reverberate down through the centuries, and yes through the millennia. The prophet Isaiah set the stage well before that. Then King Jesus gave his life so that his place of worship might one day become what he wanted to be all along; "A House of Prayer for ALL People".

Thus there is this Emerging Rainbow Church. It will build across denominational lines. Many Roman Catholics are very quietly finding ways to become part of this movement. Other Protestant denominations are struggling with the question.

For now, there is the Episcopal Church. The Anglican Communion and the Archbishop of Canterbury may set its sanctions against us. That is their prerogative. But we can do none other than embrace Jesus, because when Jesus stretched out his loving arms on the hard wood of the cross, he did that for EVERYONE!!!

And remember, God loves you, and so do I.

Fr. Paul

A Rainbow Wedding in Chicago

2011-09-14T21:18:00.004-04:00

A Celebration and Blessing of Civil Union

I met Andre and Kevin on Facebook. My son introduced them to me when he celebrated their engagement to his friends right there in front of God and everyone on Facebook. Being who I am, I rejoiced in the announcement. Both young men were children of the church, but their particular denominations were a bit hesitant to celebrate and bless their love. Not me! I was among the first to congratulate them.

Andre and Kevin then wondered aloud to Michael if I would travel from Boston to Chicago to perform their nuptials. They asked, and I gladly accepted. I would travel half way around the world to celebrate and bless the wedded bliss of those who wish to love one another, just as Jesus said we should. After all I am a priest of the church and this is what we do. We marry off folks, we baptize babies and adults, we bury the dead. We visit the sick. And as long as there is life in me I will do the deeds and travel far and wide for anybody asking the church's blessing for any and all of the above sacraments.

I know that some churches are reluctant to bless folks who love one another if they happen to be of the same sex and propose to enter into covenantal relationships with one another. But I do not represent "some churches". I represent one tiny corner of the Christian/Faith world that rejoices as I do when folks fall in love. When that love gets serious and is more than just infatuation but is of the sort that wishes to be faithful in a life long union, I'll be the first in line to bless such a union.

There are no barriers to such a union in my church. There are no racial, ethnic, class, gender or orientation barriers in my church. We are tiny. Not all of our priests are gung-ho about such relationships, but I am. We are a scandal to much of the Communion. Our Archbishop has rattled our knuckles with his ecclesiastical ruler. But we all smiled and embraced the beloved of God and removed all barriers to Baptism, Marriage, and Burial and even ordination!

When I got home from Chicago, I put it up on Facebook that "The Deed is Done". Scores of people expressed their joy and enthusiasm and were quite complimentary to me for being "cool", one even called me a "dude"...a first for this cleric.

But then I was taken to task by one of my West Virginian friends. He questioned the blessing by saying that I was merely playing up to the culture and fudged on my responsibility to preach the truth of God. This he suggested was the more loving thing to do. I tried to reason with the man, alas to no avail.

I removed his posts from my Facebook page ultimately because I felt we all have a right to go to our marriage bed with delight and glee just as I did when I married my lovely bride 31 years ago. When we heterosexuals get married, we have the privilege of doing so without our loves being a matter of debate.

I have decided the same will hold true for my LGBTQ friends. My church is a "House of Prayer for All People". PERIOD. We are not Jews and Greeks, we are not slave and free, we are not male and female in my church. We are one in Christ just as the blessed Apostle to the Gentiles said (Galatians 3:28). It follows we are not defined by race, ethnicity, class, gender or orientation. We are defined as being one in Christ. Thus I have argued before in this blog when I set forth a biblical base for the Rainbow Marriage.

Please don't be offended when I use the name of Jesus and Christ. When I use the Name, I am not doing so to be exclusive, but to be centered. I am clearly Christ centered in the sense that I believe that Jesus is the clearest example I have seen yet of the love of God made flesh in human form. But I am not Christ exclusive. Neither was Jesus. When he fed the multitudes on the hillsides of Galilee he didn't check church membership, or any other convenience of human classification.

The only requirement to be loved by God in the Person of Jesus, is to be human. That will suffice. Be human, that is all that Jesus requires.

And that's all I require too. So if you want to get married, have a baby/child/adult to be baptized, have a loved one who is sick, or if there are the dead to be buried, just let me know. Or let any priest of the church know. And we will be there for you.

By the way, I am an Episcopalian, if that matters to anybody. So far that's the only Catholic and Apostolic church around that comes right out and says such a thing.

And remember, God loves you and so do I,

Fr. Paul

A Perversion of Christianity

2011-09-11T15:40:00.002-04:00

Here's a post I picked up from a young man of Facebook. Joshua Goins is his name. These are his words. He is "befuddled" by what has become of Christianity. He thinks it is high time we speak up to the extreme right wing. I'm with him on this and wanted to give him an audience.

Joshua Goins

It befuddles me as to how people can take wonderful, beautiful ideas and pervert them into unrecognizable drivel. I've considered myself to be a Christian, and to be at one with my Creator since I was six years old. I'd read the entire King James Bible twice before I was 12. I can't help but stare in aghast bewilderment as the lunatic faction of self-proclaimed Christianity takes the religion I hold dear and turns it on it's head in the most offensive manner I can conceive of. The teachings of Christ have been almost completely ignored by the modern lunatic fringe who like to call themselves Christian. This is a heretical affront to the very teachings of the founder of the religion. Christ taught of compassion, of love, of turning the other cheek, of throwing the money-changers out of God's Temple. He taught that the rich should be benevolent and compassionate to those less fortunate and, if need be, part with their worldly posessions in order to take care of those unable to take care of themselves.

Modern, "Conservative Christianity" has turned this entire paradigm on it's head. Now, those who are in need are seen as morally intransigent, as being less deserving of compassion and care because they are perceived to be morally faulty in one manner or another. Seeing self-proclaimed Christians clamoring over one another in a race to see who can formulate the most austere and downright punative measures to further deprive those who are the least well-off in our society sickens me. Did Jesus ask for proof of insurance or ability to pay before healing the sick? How is it following the example of Christ to deprive millions of access to even basic healthcare? To a living wage? The so-called "Right" constantly laments the loss of the nuclear, two-parent family in which one parent has the ability (not the necessity) to stay at home and take care of their offspring, while continuing to do everything in their power to destroy the middle class and the decent paying jobs that would allow this to be an option?

The constant attacks on unions and any workers with a decent pension or job security flies directly in the face of the moral foundation they so vehemently claim to uphold. This, my friends, is hypocrisy of the highest order.

It is high time that we fight back. Do we want the Michelle Bachmanns and Rick Perrys of the world to control the discourse?

Pulling together Labor and the Middle Class

2011-09-09T17:29:00.002-04:00

King’s Beach Statement

Paul Bresnahan

Revised September 9, 2011

We may or may rise up just yet, but momentum is building. Eventually we, working class, middle class, first responders, teachers, etc. will all see that we are all on the same side. We will not allow them to divide us and leave us impotent of power.

I only hope it is not too late. Here's the latest revision. We need to be clear, concise and united.

Preamble:

From Cairo to Wisconsin the people have taken to the streets to demand justice. The grinding poverty under which too many of us are living has caused enough pain and we will join in solidarity with all those who are suffering on Labor Day all across this country.

We labor for wages that cannot support a family, while the super-rich are giving themselves billions in bonus money. The corporate machine lays us off and the government cuts our jobs, and now they even want to take away collective bargaining. They want to take away a hard won health care victory, they want to take away our homes, they want to take away our social security, and cut medicaid all for the sake of lower taxes for the rich. They have no idea of the pain they inflict upon the poor and the worker and now even on the middle class.

It is time for us to gather on Labor Day at the Lincoln Memorial, every State House in the Union, every City/Town Hall and let them know we mean business. They saved the skins of the Financial Giants because they were too big to fail. They saved the Giant Corporations like GM for the same reason. So what about us? What about the 90% of America who are on the brink because of the excesses of Wall Street? BUDGET CUTS=JOB CUTS. NO! HELL NO!

HERE IS WHAT WE DEMAND!

1. Jobs and Job Security

We demand full employment. Unemployment Bureau is a misnomer. It should be THE EMPLOYMENT BUREAU. Unemployment insurance should then be EMPLOYMENT INSURANCE. The government shall be the employer of last resort.

We demand that all teachers, police, fire and EMT’s be rehired and that we beef up education and public safety. It is a matter of national security! We cannot afford not to do this at the very least. Figure out how to bring our jobs home again. We want to buy American made products again.

2. Wages

We demand an immediate doubling of the minimum wage.

We demand an immediate increase of 20% of all wages under $100,000. You can figure out how to pay for that but you can begin with a super-tax on the super-rich.

And we want another 20% bonus for our work too on November so we can spend it on Black Friday and pump up the economy. They’ve been giving themselves billions in bonuses while we were losing our jobs and suffering from cutbacks, and losing our homes. You owe us!

3. Universal Health Care

We have fought long and hard for healthcare. It is unconscionable that in this country anyone should be deprived of good health care. Now you want to take away this modest advance on behalf of millions of folk in this nation! NO! We demand healthcare. We’re willing to negotiate how to pay for it. But we demand it and we demand it now. Hands off heath care!

4. Two Year Moratorium on Foreclosures

You made a huge mess and we bailed you out (Banks & Mortgage Companies, Finance Institutions.) Now its your turn to bail us out. No more foreclosures for two years while we secure the American worker with good jobs and good pay. Then you better be ready to cut a deal, or its back to the streets!

5. Three Weeks Paid Vacation

You keep preaching to us about family values. I’ll tell you about family values. We want a minimum of three weeks paidvacation, two weeks annual allowance for illness, and five personal days a year. We cannot afford what you have. The least you can do for us is give us time with those we love. Then, as a bonus we'll take four weeks after five years working for you.

6. Quit picking on Gay Folks! Quit the bullying! Quit the threats on Obama and the Liberals! IN CASE YOU HADN’TNOTICED THE GREAT AMERICAN EAGLE CANNOT FLY WITHOUT BOTH WINGS. YOU NEED US AND WE NEED YOU. WE WON’T FIGURE THIS OUT UNLESS WE DO THIS TOGETHER.

Paul Bresnahan is a semi-retired Episcopal Priest living in Lynn, Massachusetts.

It Gets better

2011-09-06T13:28:00.000-04:00

It is so important we get this message out there. I've been through some tough days with some wonderful people. God loves you, so do I, so do a million more.

Get the word out there!

"I believe in God; its the institutional church I don't believe in..."

2011-09-04T16:07:00.007-04:00

We clergy are often called upon by strangers to administer the sacraments. Not long ago, I got a call from a perfect stranger, and was asked to go to the bedside of a dying woman. There I stood with a grief stricken family, no questions asked, no invoices sent, and administered the last rites of the church as any priest worth his or her salt would do.

Hundreds of baptisms, weddings and funerals of perfect strangers have come and then they've gone, never to be heard from again.

They believed in God; all of them, it was just the Institutional Church they didn't believe in.

Then I thought about it and wondered how in the world we'll ever get to proclaim the Gospel unless we do that in community. Today's Gospel lesson is set within the context of conflict. If two folks are at disagreement, they are to grow up and work it out together. If that doesn't work, then grow up; get a few others and get your facts straight. If that doesn't work take the matter before the church; lets say the vestry, for instance, lay the matter before the church, grow up and figure out a way forward. If that doesn't work treat the offender like a Gentile (outsider) or a tax collector. Interestingly enough, we know how Jesus treated Gentiles and tax collectors. According to the Gospel accounts, Jesus found room in his heart for all. So should we too.

So it seems that at the heart of the Christian Gospel there is the skill of conflict management. And thus when two or three are assembled together, we're told there too is God in their midst.

This is a model for modern life. The call has gone out to work out the particulars by growing up, facing facts, face to face with others, particularly when you find yourself at loggerheads with another. We find the rule honored more in the breach than in the observance so often.

Thus much of the world lets itself off the hook though this classic cop-out. "I don't have to go to church to be Christian or to believe in God".

How often I have heard that go by me and just let it go. "I find God in nature, down at the seaside, or in the forest, in a beautiful sunset," or my personal favorite; "at the golf course".

This is all a giant cop-out.

It is like saying; "I believe in Democracy; its just Government and Politicians I don't believe in."

Or; "I believe in Justice; its just the Courts and the lawyers I don't believe in".

What brought this home to me was a conversation I had not all that long ago with an attorney. The same predictable cop-out; "I believe in God; its just the institutional church I don't believe in."

"Well then, why do you want your daughter baptized here?" Oh well, some grandmother somewhere or another insisted, and so, of course I gladly baptized that baby. I joined all those other hundreds in marriage, and being rather late in the game, I commended the dying and the dead to God's keeping. It is quite simply what I was ordained to do, and as a matter of fact I was only too glad to do it.

But, I cannot help but think, if I end up in jail in the middle of the night, and call on a lawyer to bail me out, I'll get a hefty bill in the mail.

A man of God doesn't get to send out invoices in the same way.

So I am left to wonder with you; if you want your democracy, you with have to put up with your government and your politicians; if you want your justice, you will have to put up with your courts and your lawyers; but if you want your God, the church and her men and women of God may simply be dismissed with a casual dismissal; "I believe in God, its just the institutional church I don't believe in".

Folks I don't buy that any more.

I hope you don't either.

And when you hear those words again I do hope you challenge them. If you use them yourself, I hope you'll think twice before using them again.

And most of all; I hope we'll grow up a bit and face facts in community. Our Churches, our Government, and our Courts need us to salvage what we can of this civilization. I believe it is still worth saving.

Fr. Paul

The Sanctification of Time

2011-09-03T11:25:00.002-04:00

Each and every day in the Christian Year is set aside to remind us of the sanctification of time itself. Speaking in terms of Einstein's physics, as we sanctify time we sanctify space, both are related one to the other in a dynamic of relativity. All things then are brought under the reign of God, then, for as we sanctify one, we sanctify all, for as the scripture says, God is all in all. (I Cor 15)

Wade in the Water - Dianne Strong

2011-09-03T00:09:00.000-04:00

Oh yes, indeed, God is going to trouble the water...you mark my words...God is going to trouble the water!

Honoring American Labor! Mass Rallys all Across America!

2011-09-02T10:12:00.003-04:00

Mass Rally at the Lincoln Memorial

Every State House, City/Town Hall in America

Labor Day, 2011

THE KING’S BEACH STATEMENT

PAUL B. BRESNAHAN

I wrote this statement last Spring as I looked down the long barrel of class warfare being waged against us. I'm in this for the long haul. We need to be clear about where we stand. What I list below is a reasonable set of demands. What is not reasonable is that we should carry the rich on 10% unemployment, working for $5 an hour, with no health insurance, no vacation, and then having them takes our homes away.
We may or may not do it this time, but momentum is building. Eventually we, working class, middle class, first responders, teachers, etc. will all see that we are all on the same side.
I only hope it is not too late.

Preamble:

HERE IS WHAT WE DEMAND!

1. Jobs and Job Security

We demand that all teachers, police, fire and EMT’s be rehired and that we beef

up education and public safety. It is a matter of national security! We cannot afford not to do this at the very least. WE INSIST ON UNION PROTECTION FOR THE AMERICAN WORKER.

Figure out how to bring our jobs home again. We want to buy American made products again.

2. Wages

We demand an immediate doubling of the minimum wage.

We demand an immediate increase of 20% of all wages under $100,000. You can figure out how to pay for that but you can begin with a super-tax on the super-rich.

3. Universal Health Care

4. Two Year Moratorium on Foreclosures

5. Three Weeks Paid Vacation

Paul Bresnahan is a semi-retired Episcopal Priest living in Lynn, Massachusetts.

Silence

2011-08-31T19:16:00.002-04:00

Most of Prayer is listening to

the Silence

Eventually that silence becomes

A Presence

That Presence then becomes

A Companion

And speaks to the heart

but only in terms

the heart can understand

Most often without words

Most always without words

The admirable duck

2011-08-31T11:20:00.002-04:00

I admire the duck. When I was a child I loved Donald Duck and learned how to talk like the talk. I still do to entertain children. And then I lived with ducks by a pond in West Virginia. Whether it rained or snowed, whether it was hot or cold, the ducks just sat there and quacked. They seemed content in season and out of season. As I say, I admire the duck.

Vermont and others have taken a big hit

2011-08-30T11:19:00.002-04:00

A lovely place with covered bridges, has become inundated with torrential rains, rivers, and hundreds of roads have been closed. Whole towns and cities are isolated and cut off. It will take years to recover. You can help by giving to the Episcopal Relief and Development Fund, or to another charity of your choice. We have a number of churches in the Diocese of Vermont, and they have many needs to respond to. God bless you for your generosity.

Fr. Paul

The Hinge of Recovery Turns on the Experience of Doing

2011-08-29T12:57:00.007-04:00

Many of my friends have been working the 12 Step Program for a good long time. Pick your poison; alcohol/drugs, tobacco, sugar and so on; the truth is that too many drink/drug too much, too many die of lung cancer and obesity is pandemic. My poison of choice is of the latter sort for my entire lifetime. In fact, it goes back way beyond me into the very genetic structure of my ancestry.

I have resigned myself to live with my imperfections, except that along the way I did discover Weight Watchers and over twenty years ago I became a lifetime member, having lost over 100 pounds.

But as with so many things, the weight jumped back on me over time. Various illnesses have creeped into my existence like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and most recently diabetes.

The primary factor in all this is the "weight management". Anyone who takes a quick look at me could have a quick chuckle about that one given the fact that I have so much extra weight to carry around. So many of us now share this "burden" that it has become a national concern.

The bout with prostate cancer sobered me up a bit and now I'm working at the recovery. I've got the sugar under control. I did buy a bike last year and do ride it, but not quite often enough.

A few moments ago, I came back from a visit with my nutritionist, and I must say, how wonderful it is to have such supports.

My bride and I are really pulling for each other now. She's doing well with the weight loss, I'm struggling with it. But I cheer myself with several good thoughts

1. I am quite a character with a fabulous sense of humor.

2. I am an indefatigable fighter for justice especially for the poor, the homeless, the outcast and marginalized and believe that the church I love should be a "House of Prayer for All People" just like Jesus said it should be, and that there should be NO outcasts. So that whatever race, ethnicity, class, gender or orientation we should be one in Christ, just as Paul said it should be. (Galatians 3:28)

3. I am an activist priest; race, class, gender, and orientation have been my rally cries and now I am calling for us all to mobilize ourselves for Labor Day. Wake up America, they want to take away our economic freedom and give it all to the rich.

4. But, like my namesake, Paul of Tarsus, I have this "thorn in the flesh" (2 Corinthians:12). I am a human being. Damn! So this I am learning; my recovery turns on the experience of doing. Eat right and exercise. That's it. Not rocket science!

So I stumbled across this phrase and it excited me. And now I have the rest of my life to look toward. A sea gull looks out over the sea, and I know what s/he's looking for. Man/woman does not live by bread alone but by every word that falls from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4) and this is my word for today; "The hinge of recovery turns on the experience of doing".

Thanks for listening.

Fr. Paul

Bike skills by Danny Macaskill

2011-08-28T17:35:00.001-04:00

This is an amazing video. Listen to the song too. An abandoned factory where there are no jobs, a war that wants to use him as cannon fodder, religions that pound away at any credibility. Youth makes of it what it can, and what a wonder it is to watch.

Fr. Paul

For the Church and the World

2011-08-28T09:06:00.003-04:00

A Prayer

For the Church and For the World

Typically I’d be in church at this hour, saying my prayers with quite a bunch of characters. Hurricane Irene has inserted herself into our routine, so I thought I’d do the next best thing. I thought I’d pray for the church and the world I live in from this perch.

My prayer for the church is that she will become a “House of Prayer for all People” just like Jesus wanted it to be. I pray that folks will come to know that whatever walk of life, God’s loving and saving embrace knows no limits. Folks like to categorize people by race, ethnicity, class, gender and orientation. God doesn’t see things this way, God made us all a little different so that as pure colorless light goes into a prism and emerges every color of the rainbow, so too each of us reveals something of the Glory of God. That’s how God and Science see it, so do I.

As for the world, we keep screwing things up with wars and such. Things do seem to be warming up if you take a good look at the polar ice caps. Our scientists tell us we're fouling things up a lot. There still is too much suffering and way too much poverty. There are a whole lot of people fussing about class warfare, as if we the poor, middle and working class were waging it. The truth is that it is the rich who wage war as they always have, and somehow they manage to convince so many that it is our fault.

So my prayer is that we find our voice again and tell the truth with such a resounding voice that America may turn her heart again toward the poor and the suffering with a heart of compassion. This will take the prayer of everyone, so I will need a lot of help with this one. Can you help me?

There are all kinds of sick and dying people out there, many, many suffer. As any one diminishes so we all do. The healing touch of Jesus cannot be present unless each of us provides a healing touch because we are all the very hands and hearts of God.

Finally, the church triumphant; all those who have gone before, we commend them to you, especially those whose lives meant so much to each of us along the way. Especially my grandmother, just another unknown saint, known to almost no one but You. Please enfold her in your love and as we take our turn on earth, help remind us of how we too are Companions along the way to one another.

I do thank God for each of you. How wonderful it is to be in your company day by day, just like my dear, dear friend St. Richard of Chichester (1197-1253) was fond of saying;

“Thanks be to Thee my Lord Jesus Christ,

For all the benefits Thou hast given me

For all the pains and insults which thou hast borne for me

O Most Merciful Redeemer, Friend and Brother

Day by day

May I know thee more clearly

Love Thee more dearly

Follow Thee more nearly

Day by day.

Blessings on all,

Fr. Paul

It Takes Two Wings to Soar

2011-08-27T23:23:00.005-04:00

To Soar Like An Eagle

It is a symbol of America; flying, soaring, free, noble and beautiful. The eagle cannot soar without both wings; right wing and left wing.

The left wing tends to be liberal, with a heart for the poor and the disadvantaged, the working people, and the middle class. The left wing sees the need to adjust taxation so that the rich, the super-rich and the multi-national corporation pay their fair share.

The right wing tends to be conservative, with a heart for those who have earned their money and are doggedly committed to letting them keep it. The answer for these folks is tax cuts, so that business can save us all

Thus I over-simplify, but no doubt each wing can express their feelings and thoughts with conviction. That, at least, is the idea. However, what we see instead is partisanship hobbling our national spirit. Bi-partisanship is a word, but it is like statesmanship; marked more by its absence than by it presence.The right wing found its voice with Limbaugh and Fox News. Now, finally the left wing is finding its voice too, somewhat too little, too late.

The problem is that we are no longer able to have conversation with each other. Both the left and right wing deny each other, without realizing the Eagle cannot soar without both. As a left wing liberal, I am convinced we need the conservative wing, but I am not so convinced that the right wing thinks the same about me. In fact I am convinced that the right wing thinks I pose a threat to the republic with my socialist leanings. Truth be told, I feel the same way about the right wing because if the wealth of the country is concentrated in too few hands the republic is also threatened.

Just today I tried to have conversation with yet another conservative. It quickly degenerated into accusation and counter accusation. This concerns me. If we cannot have civil conversation in this country, we will never learn to fly let alone soar.

Congress in in gridlock for much of the time. The nation is divided into polarities and we seem to push one another further apart. This is what poses a threat to the republic; not so much that the left/right wing is correct and the other wrong; it is because we cannot seem to come and reason together.

A nation that cannot hold conversation cannot endure. In almost every quarter, we hear of the tenor of debate in Washington has deteriorated to the point where there is no conversation, merely posturing and political arm wrestling. Moreover, we are not so much in gridlock as we are in a cat-fight. Our political life seems poisoned with diatribe, vitriol, and a constant undertone of racism. I am reminded of an old Irish Limerick that goes like this;

There once were two cats from Kilkenny

Each thought there was one cat too many

So they fought and they fit

And they spat and they spit

'Til instead of two cats, there weren't any

The Limerick is not only a telling object lesson for feuding families and their tragic ends. They are also a prophetic warning to us. Unless we learn to listen, probe, and support one another and then respond with the same courtesy in return, we run the risk of watching this nation go to ruin.

Read the history books my friends. It was the threats from within, that felled the Republic of Rome. The sad chronicle of each succeeding Empire is full of the divisive self destructive tendencies from within, one tiresome time after another. Is this to be our fate? Just another Empire, just another civilization coming and going?

The Eagle! What a glorious symbol for a nation! A house divided against itself cannot stand. A bird without two wings cannot fly. I miss a time when Eisenhower considered all of us Americans. I miss Lincoln and those fine Republicans who pulled us together. What I miss mostly however, is just you and me, in the art of conversation; an art-form that has fallen sadly into disrepair.

Fr. Paul

It is worse than I thought

2011-08-26T11:15:00.004-04:00

The Scandal Continues

Here Our Lady holds her son in her arms. In Catholic spirituality she is known as "Our Lady of Sorrows". I cannot help but think that her heart is broken every time she has to face the daily account of clergy sexual abuse of children. I had no idea it was this bad. Today's Boston Globe lists 159 archdiocesan clerics who have been accused of abusing children sexually. It is indeed much worse than I thought. Some charges have been dismissed but there are far too many who appear to have been the agents of a child's undoing. Lest we forget, Jesus gets very agitated about the undoing of a child; "If anyone causes on of these my little ones to stumble, it would be better if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he be thrown into the sea" (Matthew 18:6) Those are strong words for a fellow known for his capacity to forgive and have compassion.

This is very serious stuff. The scandal reaches across the country, into Canada, Ireland, Germany. There are those who raise questions about the oversight of this whole mess in all the above mentioned places. Even the Holy Father's oversight in his former Archdiocese has been under scrutiny.

One cannot help but wonder in all this how well celibacy is holding up as a valid discipline for clergy. It is abundantly clear that clergy are human beings, and human beings have sexual drives. It is as simple as that. To impose such a discipline without a fuller understanding of how pent up sexual energies may express themselves over time is very risky business.

We (The Episcopal Church) discovered that clergy can act out more than 20 years ago and began mandating that every single priest be subjected to a background check every single time s/he moves from one congregation to another. And more to the point, we contracted an outside agency to do those background checks. Obviously we are a whole long way from pure, but we are making headway. AND at least we allow our clergy; male and female, to marry and to love those they promised to love.

Furthermore, when the Church does its own discipline, it becomes suspect. It raises eyebrows. It makes one think of the wolf watching the henhouse. When the hens keep showing up dead, one begins to suspect the wolf. It may make some sense to get background checks done on every single priest, and to contract that work to an outside agency.

Many clergy rail on about abortion, and I mean in rather uncharitable ways, and end up calling those of us who are pro-choice "murderers". May I point out that we must get our priorities right. Lets worry about the children we have on the planet right now, and lets protect them from predators inside and outside the church. My God, imagine we have come to the point where we have to speak so bluntly.

To raise the credibility of the church, lets hear her raise her voice for the victims of abuse, the victims of poverty, homelessness, war refugees and so on. Lets take care of the living breathing children we have in front of us right now. Then we'll can stand on a much more secure ethical footing when we speak to the issues of family planning, abortion and so on.

In the meantime, I must hasten to express my profound gratitude to all those who serve the church faithfully and keep the vows they made some time ago. There is this one assuring thing. The church has survived a very long time with human beings running the show and we will continue so. And the Gospel light of Jesus will continue to shine through it all. And the radiant faces of the faithful who show up day after day to make manifest the love of God to this sin-sick world, will continue to reflect the Glory of God.

And when we act so, Our Lady's sorrows are not so much to bear. She will continue to embrace her child in her arms, until all human suffering is brought within God's embrace.

May God bless us all.

Fr. Paul

Doomsday Drivel

2011-08-25T08:53:00.004-04:00

Whacky Religion

Get ready; some religious whacko out there is about to make some dire predictions about the end of the world. They'll be nattering on about an earthquake in Washington and a hurricane along the Eastern Seaboard. They'll be whacking well worn leather bibles, gesticulating, and spewing out all kinds of divine judgment agains liberals, atheists, abortionists and all their ilk.

They will no doubt quote the scripture. God knows that there are plenty of passages to pick from in the Gospels, and the Book of Revelation to support these warnings.

I'm sure many will remember Pat Robertson's famous "Pact with the Devil" quote about the suffering people endured in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti. Other's will remember that the same Mr. Robertson thought hurricane Katrina was God's judgment against abortionists, and that it was somehow connected to 9/11. Using the word "thought" in connection to anything that comes out of Pat Robertson's mouth is a stunning misuse of a word.

What makes all this drivel so dangerous is that there are so many who believe it. Pat Robertson is just the latest in the long line of snake oil salesmen. Rest assured that Limbaugh will find a way to blame Obama for whatever reverses befall America. I am indebted to Mark Twain in this rather acerbic view of latter day religious charlatans.

In the meantime, all we have is FEMA and human compassion. That should sober you up in a whole hurry up! There are plenty of humanists, atheists, and the old standard brand religions who will no doubt mobilize to respond to impending disaster. Episcopalians have the Episcopal Relief and Development Fund. There are scores of other good charities that can carry relief to those in the sites of nature's fury.

If we want to look for the end, we needn't look for signs. It is a simple calculation. Some people live; some die. Civilizations come; civilizations go. The list of disasters that befall humanity is endless; warfare, global warming, population explosion, etc all bring "ends" in and of themselves.

The "End of the World" can have a double meaning. It can be understood to be a catastrophe. Whacko religious zealots think the whole world is about to burn up into a cinder and that the rapture will carry off all the true believers. They believe a whole bunch of other kinds of malarkey too which I don't want to bother with except to warn you about it. I personally give much more credence to the scientific community whose dire warnings about all the above are based on very careful mathematical calculation. If you are looking for "ends" you need not look any further than science.

If I read the scripture right, "the end" of the world we live in is more purposeful than that. Our "end" is to love God and to love one another. Those two commandments are interchangeable just as Jesus said they were. (Matthew 22:36-40) If you say you love God, but don't love your neighbor, you're not quite hitting the nail on the head. The scripture is less polite than I am. (1 John 4:20) It says you're an outright liar if you don't love both.

So the end is at hand. The kingdom is at hand. It always has been But the end of both is not about bad news; it is about Good News. And the end is this; love one another. No big mystery here. Love one another. In the meantime keep the many millions in your thoughts and prayers. Some will die. Many will loose their homes. There will be unforeseen calamity. But don't listen to the Doomsday Drivel that is inevitable.

Instead watch out for one another and see one another through the storm, and give to the charity of your choice. This is God...human beings caring for human beings.

Fr. Paul

Idolatry in the USA?

2011-08-23T20:38:00.006-04:00

Think Idolatry is a Thing of the Past?

The story goes that as Moses tarried on the mountain, the people soon grew impatient with a God you cannot see, hear, touch or feel. So they made a Golden Calf for themselves, they made a god like the other nations roundabouts had. It was very tangible indeed. (Exodus 32)

If we were to read the Biblical narrative aright, we would notice a clear and present bias on behalf of the poor. In the one unmistakable moment of social gospel in Matthew, Jesus indicates that the nations would be judged by the way in which the least among the people would be treated. These words hold are a stunning moral imperative for any nation.

“Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;³⁵for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” ³⁷Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? ³⁸And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? ³⁹And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” ⁴⁰And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25)

I am puzzled and perplexed by what appears to be a profound disconnect between all the clamor of what passes for religion in America, when what is really being preached is a belief in the Almighty Dollar. The poor are blamed for being poor. They are lazy and shiftless and deserve their plight. All the while the rich are fleecing their pockets, the super-rich and the multi-nationals pay little or no taxes. Jobs are shipped overseas, and the jobs that are left in the public sector are falling to the scythe of budget cuts. In the meantime any attempt to ask the rich, the super-rich and the multi-nationals to share in the tax burden, is spurned by folks who use the name of God to fleece the pockets of the rich.

This while Mary sings her song;

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,

my spirit rejoices in God my Savior;

for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed:

the Almighty has done great things for me,

and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him

in every generation.

He has shown the strength of his arm,

he has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,

and has lifted up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,

and the rich he has sent away empty. (Luke 1:46ff.)

Folks this is not just beautiful poetry. This is the very Dream of God; it is when the poor are lifted up and the rich are sent empty away. I think that's a bit harsh. I'd settle for just plain justice. But as it turns out, the rich have never been well known for their generosity, with some very notable exceptions, like Warren Buffet for instance; who is calling for a more just tax code.

So I submit this proposition to you. Given the biblical bias for the poor who are the atheists in a more contemporary sense? Are they the ones who, in human compassion call out for the needs of the poor, the homeless or the naked, or are they the ones who turn their backs on human need and suffering?

I know an atheist when I see one. I know the Almighty Dollar when I see it. I know that it is not the use of the name of Jesus that makes anyone Christian, it is rather the way we treat the least of these. For when we treat the poor with compassion we treat all of humanity so; and that is the Dream of God. For when you treat humanity with compassion, we also touch the heart of God.

Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him. Peter claimed he did. If that is so, Jesus insisted, also three times, then "Feed my sheep!" (John 21).

I know an atheist when I see one. It is not the one who denies God's existence. It is rather the one who turns his/her back on the poor. As Jesus himself rather pithily put it at the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount; "Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my father in heaven." (Matthew 7.21)

Folks I'll take a secular humanist who cares for the poor any day, over a so-called "christian" who turns his back on suffering and poverty.

I also know idolatry when I see it. It is something you can feel, touch, see; it is the Almighty Dollar and the bottom line. Compassion, love, generosity and forgiveness are a much tougher sell.

I know an atheist when I see one.

Fr. Paul

Butterflies and Baptisms

2011-08-22T22:08:00.004-04:00

Stunning Beauty!

It was a pleasant summer day for a drive into the Berkshires. There in a town called South Deerfield is a place called "Magic Wings". It is a butterfly conservatory and I took a number of shots there of some of the most beautiful creatures on the planet. It was an enchanting experience. Quiet New Age Music, butterflies flitting about, and flowers and fountains all making a quiet tribute to the beauty there is all around us every day.

It is no wonder that the early Christians selected a butterfly to be the symbol for the resurrection. It is interesting to note that such an everyday event like a grub becoming a chrysalis, and then emerging as a beautiful butterfly became a symbol for baptism and the resurrection.

The early Christian church understood that what God was looking for from the human family was a total change and not just "membership". For faith to take root, there needs to be a total renewal, a "metamorphosis" of the nature of human nature itself.

This is not just a few drops of water on the forehead. This, like a butterfly, a whole new way of being.

We were really enchanted by the butterfly conservatory. We wandered transfixed by beauty and silence. How like God to evoke in us a sense of the holy in just such a way. How awesome is life. We wander transfixed by the magnificent dimensions of the many moments we experience.

If we want to absorb it in in all its fullness, we will be much more than a common grub, or even something cooped up in a cocoon.

We will emerge at some point into what we were meant to become. We are meant to be "something beautiful for God".

Fr. Paul

Dead Sea Scrolls

2011-08-17T10:25:00.002-04:00

Dead Sea Scrolls Online

One of the most exciting discoveries of modern biblical scholarship was the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Containing 972 of some of the oldest texts known to exist from scripture were found at the site on the Dead Sea between 1947 and 1956. Now the materials have been published online

Take your choice of Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek. Any of those languages. They have been translated into English for those who are limited to the last few hundred years of human experience. The passages give us an amazing window into the ancient world, its thought, its faith, and its practice. It tells us much about the Essenes, a community Jesus may well have known about; some go so far as to say he may have been taught there.

Whatever the case, happy trails for those of you wishing to take a look into the Ancient Near Eastern World.

And then there is the literature itself. Here's a favorite passage from the Servant Songs of Isaiah. God's word does not return empty. The servant may suffer, there may be a national calamity, such as the one Isaiah and his people faces in the Babylonian Captivity. But God's word endures for ever.

Here is an example of beautiful Biblical poetry;

10 The Second Song of Isaiah Quaerite Dominum
Isaiah 55:6-11

Seek the Lord while he wills to be found; *
call upon him when he draws near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways *
and the evil ones their thoughts;
And let them turn to the Lord, and he will have compassion, *
and to our God, for he will richly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, *
nor your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, *
so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

For as rain and snow fall from the heavens *
and return not again, but water the earth,
Bringing forth life and giving growth, *
seed for sowing and bread for eating,
So is my word that goes forth from my mouth; *
it will not return to me empty;
But it will accomplish that which I have purposed, *
and prosper in that for which I sent it.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Rainbow Marriage

2011-08-14T21:43:00.003-04:00

God set a rainbow in the clouds for a sign to all humanity of a covenant between us and God. It is a thing of great beauty. All the colors of the spectrum are present in the rainbow. Many of us see it as a sign that God's love is inclusive in ever widening circles of compassion.

Speaking of God's love and human love, there is a teaching of Jesus about marriage that is certainly provocative. It is this:

"Some Pharisees came to him, and to test him they asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?’ He answered, ‘Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning “made them male and female”, and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”?So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’ They said to him, ‘Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?’ He said to them, ‘It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but at the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery.’

His disciples said to him, ‘If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.’ But he said to them, ‘Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.’" ~Matthew 19

This is one of the most interesting passages in the Gospels. Jesus teaches his disciples about marriage and divorce, and suddenly he veers off into a totally unrelated subject about eunuchs. What in the world does that have to do with marriage? Or does it?

We can only imagine. Whatever Jesus is teaching, we do know this; not everyone can accept it. This passage cannot be easily dismissed. Eunuchs are common in the ancient Near Eastern world. The practice of castration for any number of reasons is widespread.

But what of the ones who are born "that way"? And what of the ones born that way who love others born "that way". Explain that to me.

Here it is now in black and white. Explain to me why Jesus goes to these lengths to embrace those "born that way"? Why, when he is teaching about marriage does he say that this teaching is so difficult for humanity to accept?

The fact is Jesus reaches out to all the outcasts; and specifically those distanced from the Temple by the Levitical Law code; such as prostitutes, lame, blind, tax collectors, and other unclean sorts. Leviticus specifically distances maimed sorts like eunuchs. Jesus contradicts that law code by his very life and in this particular teaching, by indicating that eunuchs can make themselves so for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. How remarkable!

Dare we say that Jesus is teaching us something about eunuchs we don't want to hear? Jesus didn't shy away from confrontation and controversy. So when he finds himself besieged by biblical literalists who press him for his thoughts on marriage, he describes an ethic of uncompromisingly high standards.

Then the disciples are bewildered and wonder why anyone should marry at all if these impossible standards are set in a manner that is so uncompromising.

Then, in an instant we find Jesus teaching something else difficult to accept.

Marriage is a covenantal relationship. Many heterosexual folks establish such relationships; some don't. Many gay folks have covenantal relationships that last a lifetime, some don't. Here is a controversy for you; when Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, do you suppose he died for those who love one another in fulfillment of Jesus' own command of whatever orientation?

The rainbow is a very beautiful thing. It is a sign of a covenant between God and his people. Jesus expects God's people to keep that covenant with God by keeping a covenant with one another. In this provocative scripture do you see what I see? Another rainbow in the clouds where all people may keep the covenant they make with one another!

Blessings on us one and all,

Fr. Paul

A Prayer of Trust~Thomas Merton

2011-08-13T11:06:00.002-04:00

Here's a fine prayer. Many know it well. I shared it earlier today with a friend. I share it now with you. Thomas Merton is a favorite, I know he is a favorite of many. Have a glorious and joy-filled day.

Fr. Paul

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Announcing a cure for depression!!!

2011-08-10T12:08:00.006-04:00

When a priest is "installed" as the rector of a church, s/he is required to say this prayer;

O Lord my God, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; yet you have called your servant to stand in your house, and to serve at your altar. To you and to your service I devote myself, body, soul, and spirit. Fill my memory with the record of your mighty works; enlighten my understanding with the light of your Holy Spirit; and may all the desires of my heart and will center in what you would have me do. Make me an instrument of your salvation for the people entrusted to my care, and grant that I may faithfully administer your holy Sacraments, and by my life and teaching set forth your true and living Word. Be always with me in carrying out the duties of my ministry. In prayer, quicken my devotion; in praises, heighten my love and gratitude; in preaching, give me readiness of thought and expression; and grant that, by the clearness and brightness of your holy Word, all the world may be drawn into your blessed kingdom. All this I ask for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

When I stand at the altar, or sit in the church in a quiet moment these words come back to me. This prayer of oblation reminds us that it is not so much what God does for us that is critical, it is what we do for God and more especially what we do for God's people that matters more.

This wondrous prayer is a constant reminder that there is so much to do. This is not a duty. This is a joy. Remembering that just being alive is a gift, we cannot help but think that it is in the giving of life to others that great joy is to be found.

Depression is the common cold of the modern world. So is anxiety. I, no less than you, am subject to fits of depression and anxiety, but the best way I know to shake it off is to remember to give away all that I have; not of my money but of my life. This kind of giving is the greatest joy of my life, and is so easily forgotten. A prayer like the one above puts it all back in perspective. It is a wonderful prayer full of grace.

Best of all it is not just for ordained sorts like me, it is for the priesthood of all believers, folks of every way of life, believer and non believer alike, churchman and non-churchman as well. Give your life for others, and you will have joy; boundless joy!

Fr Paul

A House of Prayer for ALL People-A Biblical Base

2011-08-09T16:53:00.006-04:00

The Cleansing of the Temple

Even people who don't know much about Jesus know that he drove the money changers out of the Temple. Why this event is so memorable is anyone's guess, but I suspect it satisfies something deep in the human spirit. Something in us suspects the Temple authorities of corruption at the heart of religion. Jesus often looks askance at the super religious and sees hypocrisy, and a tendency to be exclusive, and sometimes even hateful, especially of those who are "different". There is also the sniff of money in the so-called holy places and Jesus gets pretty riled up when his Father's house is used for anything other than prayer.

There are so many left out in the cold when it comes to religion. Notice the poor if you will, notice the prostitute, the tax collector, the ordinary working folk be they fishermen or farmers, servants or slaves; notice the sick, the dying, the weak, the blind, the lame and the lepers. Even those of you who don't know much about Jesus, know that these were the very ones Jesus sought out to be his disciples.

So let me set the scene for you. Jesus enters the holy city, Jerusalem. There in tow with him are these very outcasts laying palm branches at the feet of the savior's donkey. When he arrives at the Temple gates his disciple remark at how impressive they are. Not Jesus; he wasn't one bit impressed. "Not one stone will be left on stone before all will be cast down".

We know that he Temple authorities were keeping close tabs on him. Remember the Pharisees, the Sadducees, The Scribes and the Sanhedrin. The literalists still like to run their mouths against the outcast like the scribes of old. Again, lots of my non religious friends know even this much about Jesus. That's why many like him just fine but look askance at his church. But I digress...back to the story!

He arrives at the Temple gates, and enters the Temple precincts and there they are; a slew of money changers right there along the main entrance to the Holiest place of faith for the people. They were peddling pigeons and anything else by way of religious trinketry that would appeal to the simply faithful folk of the time.

Jesus cannot take it any more. The very outcast he worked so hard to love and bring within the saving embrace of God were subjected to peddlers of the sacred, as if you can sell such a thing, a thing that is more precious than the pearl of great price, reduced to the profane profit motive of corrupt crooks.

Enraged, he turns over their tables, and the money is scattered everywhere. He drives the charlatans out of the place while saying these words: "My house shall be a house of prayer for all people, but you have made it a den of thieves!" This is what finally earned Jesus a spot on the cross, as the scriptures notes right there in black and white. Even there, in the heat of the moment, he goes right ahead and heals the blind and the lame and the children sing "Hosanna to the Son of David"! It was that following Friday that they trump up charges against him and lift him on the cross for all the world to see. By the way, all you biblical scholars, you can read all about this yourself. The story is in all four Gospels; Matthew 12:21-27, Mark 11:15-33, Luke 19:45-20:8, and John 2:13-16.

So the question then arises, when Jesus says "My house shall be a house of prayer for all people", does he really mean "all", or are there some exceptions, lets say gay people for instance? If we listen to the scribes and literalists of our own time, there seems little doubt of where gay folk are headed. Leviticus says that their behavior is an abomination. (18:22), and that both men doing such a thing deserve to be put to death. (20:13) Seems we have lots of killing to do, even though Moses tells us not to murder people. (Exodus 20 & Deuteronomy 5) Paul says they deserve to die (Romans 1). You can see where the literalists and the scribes get their nasty dispositions.

Here's what interests me. Jesus spent lots of energy on outcasts, and you can't get much more outcast than gay folks. Most religious people all the way up to this present moment have a big hang up about gay folks.

Jesus based almost everything he said on biblical material. We have no exception in this case. The expression; "My house shall be a House of Prayer for all people" comes from the most quoted prophet of Jesus; the prophet Isaiah, in chapter 56.

Read the chapter for yourself and make up your own mind. The prophet tells us to maintain justice and to do what is right. Then he tells us to be mindful of the foreigner who is fearful of being separated from his people (verse 3) and in the very same verse, the prophet is worried about the eunuch who fears that he will become just a "dry tree".

God then speaks to the eunuchs who do God's will "I will give within my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off." (verse 5). Wow! Eunuchs are specifically forbidden from worshipping God as are blind, lame, dwarfs and folks with broken feet! (See Leviticus 21 if you think I'm making this up), and here they are given an everlasting name that will never be cut off in the book of the prophet Isaiah. Which is it? And notice too that foreign folk are given this reassurance; "these will I bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer". (verse 7) Compare that to the evangelical right wing who want to deport all the illegals out of this nation, "under God".

When the Levites cleansed the Temple of all the unclean, they made it fit only for certain folks. When Jesus cleansed the Temple, he made it fit for all folks, eunuchs, blind, lame, dwarf, and folks with broken feet too! That together with all the others the Levitical code specifically excluded; these were included by Jesus. It was this very inclusivity that was at the heart of Jesus' ministry. Even folks who don't know much at all about Jesus, know this.

So then, let me ask you this; who are eunuchs? There is a great deal of speculation about this question and many are merely satisfied that we're talking about those who are literally mutilated by themselves or others for service in a harem or an official in the King or Queen's court. Other scholars see that the Hebrew makes room in the word "saris" for a more figurative and metaphorical meaning, and some scholars will even argue that we may indeed be talking about gay folks when we are talking of eunuchs in the bible

When we look at what Jesus taught about marriage, we find him teaching that divorce is forbidden under any circumstance (Mark 10) But in Matthew, a Gospel written a bit later on than Mark, Jesus seems to cut us some slack at least in the case of adultery. Then in one of the most extraordinary insertions of all scripture, that seems way out of whack of the context, Jesus said "For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves so for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can."

Notice that Jesus is talking about marriage here. Then he is talking about eunuchs who were born that way...who do you think he's talking about here? You can't cross-breed self mutilation into a new born baby, no matter how hard you try. Some of us are just plain born that way. And most telling of all, Jesus points out that not all will be able to accept this teaching. If ever there were an understatement, that's it!

Many biblical scholars argue that the word "eunuch" used in this sense, particularly in the sense of someone "born that way" is a reference to what we have come to know as lesbians and gay folk, bi-sexual and transgendered, LGBT for short. There are many biblical scholars that will argue against the mere suggestion that Jesus makes any room at all for gay folks within God's great salvation plan.

So the question remains; when Jesus said "My house shall be a House of Prayer for all people", did he mean all people, or everyone except gay people? Given what he says of marriage and eunuchs, I submit to you that when Jesus says his house shall be a house of prayer for all people, he meant ALL people.

There is just a tiny corner of the Christian world seeking to be obedient to the Jesus whose heart is big enough to be the perfect offering for our sins, and not for our sins only but for the sins of the whole world. (paraphrase of 1 John 2:1-2)

The Episcopal Church is part of that tiny corner of the world of faith and I am so glad I stumbled into it when I was born. My uncle was gay so are two of my kids. And in my church's view, there is plenty of room in God's love for them, as there is their dad's heart.

I believe that there is a smile in God's heart for the emerging inclusive church. As the blessed Apostle himself said "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female, for we are all one in Christ" Galatians 3:28. When Paul says "Jew or Greek" he means any race or ethnic group. When he says slave or free, he obviously proclaims that the Gospel means rich and poor too. And when he says male or female, there is at least one corner of God's church that understands this; that means gay or straight too!

That all means that there is room in God's heart for you. No matter who you are. Now that is very Good News indeed!

Those of you with ears to hear, listen up!

Paul of King's Beach.

Thoughts on the priesthood

2011-08-08T16:53:00.002-04:00

This Is No Job!

The priesthood for me is not a job, nor is it even a profession. The priesthood is a way of life. Just being a Christian is a way of life, although even as I use that word, I find that it sticks in my throat like a bird's feather. Christians have so sullied that word with bigotry and narrow minded hatred that I find it harder and harder to use it to describe what I want to say about the Way of Life.

We are on a journey and there is a way of living our way through that journey that brings us closer to God and to one another. The priesthood brings this way of life into sharper focus when it is doing what it is supposed to do. The journey toward the human heart, a journey that requires rigorous honesty and courage, also brings us closer to the heart of God. This is where heaven is, within us. And the more we come to the truth about ourselves, the more likely we'll meet God within as well. Thus we all become a lens through which we look into the heart of God. Here is where we can detect the heartbeat of God, when we listen very closely to the silence within, a silence that becomes a Presence. Don't be surprised when all you hear is silence when you pray. That's the first step toward the truth. Soon enough you will hear your own heart speak to you something of the truth. This is why I write, for it is in writing that I discover something I hadn't noticed before. The hand that takes up a pen to write does so with a Muse Who teaches, and speaks in surprising ways indeed.

As to the people who gather with their priest at the Altar of God, special gifts are exchanged between ourselves and God. In the gifts of bread and wine we may see through the eyes of faith the very being of Jesus. This feast then brings us so close to Jesus that it is as though his body and blood are actually present to us in the bread and wine we consume. It is only bread and wine, but so much more. In this bread and this wine my heart and the heart of Jesus become one. The chiefest fruit of that encounter is a way of life that overflows with love, forgiveness, and reconciliation. The scales fall from our eyes in this encounter and we see what it is to imitate Jesus. We see what it is to imitate God.

There is a way of life for all who would dare to call themselves "Christian" by name. That way of life is much more than a name, it is the way and the truth and the life itself of God. This priesthood is more than a priesthood prescribed in an ordination service. It is a priesthood of all believers gathered around a priest. Out of this wondrous encounter we respond to a cry for help, healing, forgiveness, reconciliation, peace. We become present to one another in ways we never dreamt possible. And we become present to God.

To be a priest thus is no job. It is a way of life. To be someone daring enough to call oneself a "Christian" is also to claim a way of life. In that way of life we find joy such as no other way can bring.

The early church taught that there are only two ways to live; the way that leads to life and the way that leads to death. Everyone is welcome to live with such joy that many will be brought to God through the radiance that faith brings to the human face, because it is in the human face that we see the likeness of God. And the likeness of God is not in an appearance. It is in a way of life.

Welcome to the priesthood of All Believers!

Fr. Paul

St John the Divine in Iowa

2011-05-29T20:24:00.003-04:00

There is a new film in the pre-production phase that I commend to you. You can see a clip at by clicking here;

http://vimeo.com/23872058