Good Book Club 2019--Romans 14:1-12

Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God 

 (Rom 14:5-6 NRSV). 

A monstrance where a consecrated host
is placed for Eucharistic Adoration

I have always believed that one of the Episcopal Church's greatest strengths is its ability to hold a wide spectrum of beliefs and practices within a framework that proclaims Jesus as Lord. Because our tradition has unfolded over time through the influence of many theologians, preachers, mystics, divines, and worshipers from traditions and cultures across the globe, we have an eclectic and abundant set of traditions melded together. There is beauty in this model,and there also can be great tension as factions within the church try to defend their own position as more honorable or holy than the other.

One huge shift in our tradition, which in many ways realigned us more with the past, was the Oxford Movement of the 19th Century. To oversimplify this movement, the Anglican Church reclaimed many of the traditions of Roman Catholicism lost in the various English Reformations and applied them in ways that made sense to Anglicans. We see this again and again in our 1979 Book of Common Prayer, which adopts many practices out of this movement--perhaps most visibly, Holy Eucharist as the primary weekly service.

People worshiping in song and posture
with hands raised to the heavens

Looking only at ritual practices, we see a wide range of practices within our Episcopal Church, even when they use the same words from the prayer book. For example, one church might have incense, chanted prayers, a choral anthem in Latin, and lots of kneeling while another might have a praise band, spoken prayers, extemporaneous prayers of the people, hand-raising, and even praying in tongues. Both of these ends of the spectrum are permissible and, when done in the right spirit of holy worship, pleasing to God. I imagine, however, that every reader has a negative reaction to one or the other--if not both!

Why is this?

First of all, worship is and should be an incredibly emotional and personally transformative act. Each of us has sensory memories tied to our own places of worship as well as the way in which we were raised and the ways in which our faith has grown. Likewise, many of us bear scars of betrayal from church that may have harmed us and can have sensory memories of worship that link to those thoughts.

How do we know what it "right?" How does God want us to worship?

Here is where Paul becomes an incredible help to us.

First of all, if we read through the entire Pauline corpus, we find that Paul address different congregations differently and even has different guidelines for each one based upon their experience(s). Context matters! Just as it would be out of place for the worship in the barn at the camp where I worked for there to be fine vestments, incense, and a chanted Gospel, it would be equally out of place in the Church of the Advent in Boston for there to be a priest in cargo shorts and a stole singing along to teenagers jamming on guitars and drums. Within their context, however, both styles show forth true joy in their sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving and God is well pleased.

Secondly, Paul reminds us in today's reading from Romans that it is not as much what we do as it is why we do what we do. Both those who eat and those who abstain give honor and thanks to God. Those who practice Eucharistic Adoration--a practice this Protestant-leaning priest struggles with--give honor and thanks to God when they do so in a posture of praising God. Those who raise their hands to the skies and pray in tongues and interprets the tongues--a practice this Anglican priest struggles with--give honor and thanks to God when they do so in a posture of praising God.

What practices of the church resonate most with you? Which do not? Why? How might re-framing those practices with which you struggle as acts of praise and thanksgiving shape your understanding of those who practice them?

Good Book Club 2019--Romans 12:1-8

Whew! I will be the first to admit the difficulties of trudging through the last few chapters of Romans. There's much to glean from Paul's dense prose, and we also should have the humility to know that scholars for hundreds of years have struggled with Paul's words.

Today, however, we come to this brief passage which our guide has graciously given us two days to walk through. They are words so beautiful, that I feel justified in doing what every writing professor told me not to do and reproduce them here:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect (Rom 12:1-2 NRSV).

If you look to page 376 of the Book of Common Prayer, you will find that these words are an option for the priest to read as the offertory sentence (the sentence that invites the congregation into presenting their money, lives, and joy to God in the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving that is about to occur in the Holy Eucharist).

I could pick apart these words for hours, and I think they transition beautifully into Paul's next section on spiritual gifts.

My the mercies of God--Paul recognizes the importance of our bodies, our lives, and our spiritual worship. We cannot divorce our physical selves from our spiritual selves because God mercifully made us as both. When we give all that we have of ourselves to God, we are united fully to God and can join all the heavenly host in worshiping our creator.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed--Again, the created world in and of itself is not bad. It is God's creation. Humans, however, through disobedience and hardheartedness (review Romans 9-11) have turned to our own will rather than to God's will. When we align our will with God's, we are transformed and experience the creation as it was meant to be experienced.

That you may discern what is the will of God--This leads to our ultimate happiness and ultimate flourishing. Through this knowledge and conformity to the will of God, our spiritual gifts flourish. As we read in the next section, Romans 12:3-8, each of us has so much to offer the world, and the world is better--more the way God intended it--when each of us develop our gifts and share them with one another.

What gifts do you have?
What gifts do you see in others?
How might you join those gifts together for the betterment of the world?

Gramma Jean--February 2, 2019--Feast of the Presentation

On the day I was born, so goes the story in my family, my father was so nervous that he spent most of the time in the bathroom with diarrhea. My grandfather was pacing the waiting room, and my grandmother was upset. She thought she was too young to be a grandmother. She was a beautiful woman with youthful features, and she was adamantly opposed to being thought of as old in any way. She had already decided in her mind that this child-to-be would call her "Aunt Jean" and never "Grandma."

Then I came.

Gramma Jean told me five million times that the first second she saw me, she fell completely in love. She would stand at the window looking into the hospital nursery for so long that a nurse pulled the curtain in her face to try to get her to leave.

Since the very fist moment of my life, Gramma Jean and I were inseparable. She bought me clothes, took me to see a Russian ballet company perform The Nutcracker, taught me to play the piano, and showed me how to blow the paper off your straw across the restaurant. I had memorized her phone number before I memorized my own, and I knew how to call her to tell her what I did that day or if someone upset me or, most of all, to ask her if I could come stay with her and Pawpaw for the weekend. In all my life, I have never loved anyone more than I loved her, and no one has ever loved me as much as she did.

This morning, around 9am, my Gramma Jean died. She had been in very poor health for many years, and the nursing home where she lived was her own idea of hell. Her death came as something of a relief for both her and me, even though it has left an enormous hole in my heart.

I can remember when I was a little boy, I sat on the counter in front of the huge mirror and piles and piles of beauty products where Gramma Jean undertook her daily routine--of at least an hour--of applying her make-up and doing her hair. With every brush, bottle, or palate she picked up, I would ask, "What's that?" She would patiently explain every single step, and sometimes would even put a little on my face.

"Everyone looks better with a little make-up," she would say as she caked her face in the foundation she used every day.

I can still smell the sweetness of her powder and the pungent, spicy smell of Elizabeth Arden "Red Door."

Gramma Jean and Pawpaw c. 1960

My grandmother might be accused of being vain, but I don't think that was exactly the case. What Gramma Jean believed intensely was that appearances matter. She believed that you couldn't just roll out of bed and face the world. You had to prepare yourself. You had to make yourself into the best person you could be, and you had to put on your red lipstick and go into the world confidently even when you feel like you can't possibly go on.

Today, on the Feast of the Presentation, I am in México with a group of clergy and lay leaders from the Diocese of New York taking a two-week Spanish intensive. This morning, I knew what was coming, and I felt like crawling under my covers and hiding forever. Gramma Jean would have hated this. She would have told me to put on my brightest, reddest lipstick, spray my Red Door perfume, find some big, stylish sunglasses and a big floppy hat, and hit the road with a toothy grin on my face. I didn't wear any lipstick, perfume, or hat, but I did take a shower and go with my group to visit the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation, and the words of Simeon are ringing loudly in my ears:

"Lord, you now have set your servant free *
   to go in peace as you have promised;

For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, *
   whom you have prepared for all the world to see:

A Light to enlighten the nations, *
   and the glory of your people Israel" (Book of Common Prayer, 135).

Simeon had waited his whole life to see the messiah. He remembered the promise God had made to his people and how God had never abandoned them. He remembered that even in exile and even under Roman conquest, God kept God's promises and delivered God's people. Then, finally, he got to see God made man in the baby Jesus, brought to the Temple by his mother and father.

Gramma Jean c. 1960

In no way do I equate myself with Christ. However, I do believe there are some parallels here. Gramma Jean spent much of her life praying, playing the church organ, and studying Holy Scripture. When we cleared out her library, I found at least a half dozen Bibles, and every single one was covered in highlighter and notes in the margins. She studied the Holy Scriptures every single day, and they taught her that even when life feels unbearable, God never abandons us. God loves us and keeps us, and, for that reason, we can put on our red lipstick and heels and run into the world in faith. She also got to see me and my brother Michael grow into men shaped by the love she and my grandfather taught us. Even though she always had an aversion to growing old, I know that she died having seen the messiah in this world, and today she rests eternally in his arms.

I am deeply grieved, dear readers. My very best friend and the closest ally I have ever had has died, and my life can never be the same. The pain in my heart is almost unbearable. However--I still have hope. I still cling to faith. I know that Gramma Jean saw the savior and today sees the savior, and one day we all will dwell together in that land where there is neither suffering nor death.

I will head to bed after I write this, and I will get up early tomorrow to go to a church here in Cuernavaca, Morelos, México. I will feel like hiding under the covers, but I will put on my red lipstick and heels--or at least my alb and green stole--and I will walk into the world with my head held high. Gramma Jean taught me that. She taught me that God will never forsake me, and I know she will be walking alongside me the whole way.

Good Book Club 2019--Romans 8:9-17

In today's lesson, Paul writes about spirit and flesh. What does it means to be alive in the spirit? What does it mean to be dead to the flesh? I think that sometimes we read into lessons like that that our bodies--physical things--are somehow bad and the only good things are those spiritual things beyond the physical.

In church yesterday, we heard Paul in 1 Corinthians use the body as an illustration for what it means to be the people of God--what it means to be church. In Paul's image of all of us coming together to form the Body of Christ, he has an overwhelmingly positive view of the body. It is a marvelous, wondrous thing that allows us to do Christ's work in the world and live into the fullness of who we are. Through the body we can flourish and have joy-filled lives.

When Paul talks about "the flesh" I think he means those things which serve ourselves, whereas "the spirit" means those things that further God's plan. God's plan, seen throughout all of Holy Scripture, can be summarized into a world of abundance, peace, justice, and love.

Paul writes that "if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness" (Rom 8:10). Sin, that which separates us from God, has a death-like effect on us. Jesus, however, through the Spirit, restores life by reuniting us to God. In other words, we who have strayed away from God's plan of abundance, peace, justice, and love are brought back into that reality through Jesus' faithfulness in the cross.

For those of us who profess the love of God and of Jesus, we have a duty to live into that vision and share it with the world. What would the world look like if we really lived as if Christ's life-giving Spirit dwelt within us? What are some concrete ways we could live this way?

Good Book Club 2019--Romans 7:7-13

We're getting into the really difficult stuff now, folks! Chapter 7 of Romans completely captured the imaginations of early church fathers like Origen and Augustine. Through these lenses, particularly that of Augustine, the reformers of the Protestant Reformation also shaped much of their theology.


I was taught that when we read the works of the past, we should read them with generous eyes. After all, it would be arrogant to think that we're somehow smarter than our ancestors just because we live in later times. I base much of my belief on inherited tradition of the church on what I learned from the translators of the Authorized (King James) Bible. Writing of translators prior to themselves, the translators of the Authorized Bible wrote:

Nothing is begun and perfected at the same time, an the later thoughts are thought to be the wiser: so if we building upon their foundation that went before us, and being holpen by their labours, do endeavour to make that better which they left so good.

In other words, each of us owe what we have learned to the past, and we should have the humility to understand that future generations will stand upon our shoulders and reveal further truths through our labors. This is a progressive view of history that has deep, deep respect for the past.

As we've discussed in previous posts here and on the Trinity Episcopal Church Facebook group, there is a tradition of interpreting Paul as incredibly anti-Jewish. I, and all biblical scholars of good repute, reject this notion. Remember that Paul was a Jew!

Stanley Stowers in his dense but incredibly helpful book A Rereading of Romans argues that the entirety of Romans is directed to a gentile audience. These gentiles, possibly through exposure to Christ followers or through exposure to Judaism, came to adopt many of the teaching of Judaism and of Jesus. Perhaps most importantly, they would have known the Ten Commandments and most likely much, if not all, of the Torah.

Stowers interprets Chapter 7 of Romans as Paul's explanation that both the Law and Jesus provide a means of being in relationship to God. However, you cannot and should not subscribe to both. Mark Nanos goes even further in his essays found in Reading Paul Within Judaism in arguing that Paul believes that God intends for Jews to remain Jews and Christ-followers to be something new so that God's promise of blessing to Abraham might spread such that Jews bless gentiles and gentiles bless Jews. (I am greatly simplifying this argument and encourage interested parties to read Stowers and Nanos.)

Ok, ok . . . I'm being really technical here. Why does any of this matter to us?

The "I" that Paul writes in Romans 7:7-13 is not an autobiographical writing, but Paul using a common Greek rhetorical device of a kind of Everyman--in this case a gentile Everyman. Paul says that the Law is good in that it teaches us what sin is, but he also does not believe that the Law, for gentiles, cannot bring us into relationship with God. Only Jesus can do that.

For this reason, Paul can say that "the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good" (7:12). Sin, however, separates us from God. The Law can teach what sin is, and it can also have a dangerous effect, for Paul, of allowing sin to take root.

For those of us who are Christian, especially those of us who have never been Jews, Paul is teaching us that we do not need to become Jews to know the God of Israel--Jesus provides that link that adopts us into the family of God. Likewise, Jews do not need to become Christians--God covenanted with Abraham to make them God's people.

This makes Jews and Christians members of the same family. We know the same God, and we experience that God in different ways. Perhaps our differences reveal something greater about the loving nature of God.

Good Book Club 2019--Romans 6:1-14

"Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means!" (Rom 6:1-2 NRSV)

This seems like such an obvious statement to me, yet Christians throughout the ages have had to ask Paul's question of themselves many times. Paul asserts that in our baptism we are united to Christ's death and resurrection: "For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his" (6:5). This assertion has led many Christians into conversations about salvation and how death and resurrection actually works. If we are baptized and united to Christ, can we ever do something so bad that we fall out of that grace? If we can fall out of grace, is baptism efficacious? If we cannot fall out of grace, does that mean that we can do whatever we want? 

I think the biggest problem with this means of thinking is that it takes a mechanical approach to salvation. If you follow steps A, B, and C, then you get to proceed. Remembering that our baptism is an entry into Christ's death, Paul writes that "our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin" (6:6). Does this mean that if we're baptized, we no longer sin? Judging just from my own life, from the age of 5 to 35, I have done some additional sinning. What this means for me is that I am no longer held captive by sin. In other words, I don't have to worry if I fall into sin because the grace of God has already been given. I don't read this as meaning that I can do whatever I want, but that I can dive head-first into life attempting to live out the kingdom of God without the fear that I will somehow fail. Paul says it this way:

No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness (6:13).

My task as a Christian, according to Paul, is to use my life--my very body--as a means of establishing God's righteousness. Because I am a human being and far from perfect, I will inevitably mess up sometimes. I will make wrong decisions, I will hurt people, and I will fall short of the glory of God. HOWEVER, because I have died and been risen with Christ in baptism, God's grace will far outshine my shortcomings. I can be an instrument of righteousness and peace, and the sins and mistakes I make out of my humanness will not enslave me.

This has incredible implications for our daily life. You've probably seen that meme going around that asks the question, "What would you try if you knew with certainty that you could not fail?" Paul assures us that with Christ, we cannot fail. Wow! Even if we do mess up, there is forgiveness and there is grace.

Attempt to spread God's love. Live like you believe it. When you mess up, ask God for forgiveness and learn from the experience, and above all, know that God's love for you never diminishes. 

Good Book Club 2019--Romans 2:17-3:20

God wants us to live abundant lives.

Over the past few days, we have read a bit of Paul's talking about "the Jews" who are not faithful to the Law because they do not understand the Law. This gets into some tricky territory. I like to think that Paul, the good scholar of the Hebrew Bible, is channeling the same sort of prophetic voice that we hear in prophets like Micah, Amos, and Isaiah. These prophets, Jews writing to other Jews, make the point that the Law and the sacrificial system puts us in right relationship with God only when we acknowledge the ways in which we have turned away from God. In other words, going to the temple begrudgingly in order to get a "get out of jail free card" doesn't cut it. The Law teaches us how to live in right relationship with God, and the sacrificial system is a means whereby we join the entire community in repenting of sins, turning back to God, and offering praise and thanksgiving.

If I think about this in our contemporary Christian context, I think about the ways we can make the sacraments transactional experiences for our own betterment rather than taking them as a means of channeling grace. I remember when I was a hospital chaplain, I encountered a woman who was incredibly upset because her leg was to be amputated even though the priest put holy water on it and she had taken Holy Communion every day. Now, I cannot imagine the trauma of having to lose my leg, so I meet this woman with sympathy and love. I also think that magical thinking that the sacrament of Holy Communion will keep us from physical harm does not get at the deeper mystery of the Eucharist.

Through lamenting with this woman, I was able to learn alongside her that the power of the Eucharist was greater than a magic pill that would save her leg. The Eucharist is a physical reminder and channel of grace whereby we become one with Christ and know that even in our suffering, Jesus is with us. Even when we do not feel whole, we are made whole in him.

This, I think, is Paul's major point that our faithfulness will not nullify the faithfulness of God (paraphrased from 3:3). God always remains faithful to God's people. God always loves us. Sin, however, keeps us from experiencing that love. It's not that God stops loving us, but when we wander far from God, we are unable to see that love. God wants us to have full, abundant lives. The Scriptures show this over and over again. Paul offers to us that following Jesus and living deeply into Jesus' teachings are not rules that we follow to get a reward, but, rather, a way of living that allows us to experience that abundance which God has set forth for us.

Good Book Club 2019--Romans 1:18-32

When Paul gives warnings against worshipping false idols and false Gods, he's making an incredible statement about God and the creation:

[They] worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator (1:25).

When you think about the glory and beauty of nature, it makes sense that people might be in awe of these sights and confuse them with God. An eagle soaring on the wind, a colorful sunset, even the human figure all contain awesome beauty. This beauty, however, points beyond the thing itself and toward the creator. God's "eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made" (1:20). Paul writes these words in order to move people away from false idols toward the one true God. I also think that there is an invitation here to know God better through the creation. We cannot see God face to face, but we can know something about God through the eagle, the sunset, and through one another.

At Old Swedes Church in Wilmington, we have a labyrinth that I like to walk when I need to think or pray. I love being outside and hearing the sounds of the city mingle with the sounds of nature around the church: squirrels running, leaves rustling, birds singing. Through meditation on the creation, I find myself closer to God. The same can be said of any activity that utilizes our senses. God can be found in the taste of a ripe strawberry. God can be found in the softness of a warm blanket. God can be found in the scent of someone we love lingering on our clothes after a hug. Each of these things, especially when considered collectively, leads us to a fuller image of God.
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The Good Book Club 2019--Romans 1:8-17

Two things come to mind when I read the "thanksgiving" portion of Paul's letter to the Romans.

• The incredible love and trust Paul places in people whom he has never met
• Paul's summary statement on the role of faith and salvation.

Paul says that he is "longing to see" the faithful in Rome (1:11) in order that they "may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith (1:12). Wow. Think about that. Paul doesn't know these people at all. Certainly he has heard stories or perhaps conversed with some of them who have traveled to places where he was, but he never has visited their church. Imagine if your church received a letter that read something like this:

Dear Trinity Parish,

I am so sorry that I haven't been able to come and worship with you. I've seen your Facebook, and I even followed you on SoundCloud to listen to the beautiful music and hear the sermons. You are clearly such people of incredible faith. A friend of mine was going through Wilmington and said she joined a group of you in preparing a meal for the women who live at Friendship House. I just know in my heart that if I came and spent some time with you, I would learn so much about what it means to follow Jesus. I, too, have been proclaiming the Gospel, and I think we could learn a lot from each other.

I imagine that if I were reading Paul's letter as a member of the church in Rome, I would be incredibly flattered. Furthermore, I would see that Paul's zeal for spreading the Good News somehow resonates with what we had been doing in our church. What exactly is the connection between our faith professed and our faith lived out?

Moving to the second point, I don't want to say too much except that I believe that Rom 1:16-17 provides an summary thesis statement for the whole letter. It's worth reproducing:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”

As we continue reading through the book, this statement gives us some key themes to look for:

• What is the role between faith and salvation?
• What is the role between the Jews and the Gentiles?
• What does it mean to live by faith? (Perhaps also the role between faith and works.)
• What is the righteousness of God? 

The Good Book Club 2019--Romas 1:1-7

The Good Book Club 2019

Romans 1:1-7

Today begins our Epiphany journey reading through Paul's Epistle to the Romans. In these first seven verses alone, Paul lays out who he is:

"A servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God" (Rom 1:1 NRSV)

 who Jesus is:

"descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead" (1:3-4)

and what Paul's mission is:

to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of [Jesus'] name (1:5).

That's a lot for just seven verses! It also is preview of the density of this letter. It requires careful, prayerful reading, which is why I am so happy that we can undertake this task together.

Be not afraid!

This group reading should be marked by 

JOY!

It is appropriate that we begin this journey the day after Epiphany. Our weekly lectionary juxtaposes Matthew's account of the Wise Men with Paul's letter to the Ephesians wherein Paul lays out his belief that through Christ, the Gentiles are adopted into the covenant with Israel. Put more simply, those who are not Jews may know the God of the Jews through Jesus. This in no way invalidates Judaism--if anything, it heightens the importance of it! The Jews are already in relationship with God, but Gentiles could not be because the covenant was made with Abraham and his descendants (see Genesis 17). Paul, writing to Gentiles in Rome, wants to stress that:

1.  They are now part of the covenant with Israel
2. Jews and Gentiles are not enemies, but family

A few things to remember as we read through Romans:

• Unlike many of the other letters of Paul, this letter is addressed to a group of people whom Paul had never met. He is thorough (and sometimes complicated) because he has not had a chance to visit them and teach them. He's starting from scratch.
• There has been a tradition within Christianity of reading antisemitism into the text. Taken along with the entirety of the Pauline corpus, this is not a valid reading. 
• Romans does not stand alone as a complete theology. It is one of many letters of Paul (not to mention all the letters, sermons, and teachings we no longer have). We must understand the letter in the light of the other Scriptures.

A few resources for the journey:

• An introduction to Paul: https://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/people/main-articles/paul
• The Good Book Club website: www.goodbookclub.org
• Trinity Episcopal Parish's facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/587124081740370/