Happy Halloween!

RFSJ

Bush the Terrorist?

Francois Furstenberg, Professor of History at the University of Montreal, writes in the NYT:

And though 18th-century France may seem impossibly distant to contemporary Americans, future historians examining Mr. Bush’s presidency within the longer sweep of political and intellectual history may find the French Revolution useful in understanding his curious brand of 21st- century conservatism.

And this:

Though it has been a topic of much attention in recent years, the origin of the term “terrorist” has gone largely unnoticed by politicians and pundits alike. The word was an invention of the French Revolution, and it referred not to those who hate freedom, nor to non-state actors, nor of course to “Islamofascism.”

A terroriste was, in its original meaning, a Jacobin leader who ruled France during la Terreur.

How ironic!

RFSJ

The Proper of the Day: SS Simon and Jude

Today the Church observes the Major Feast of Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Apostles. We don't know too much about either of them; it's possible that Jude is the author of the Letter of Jude in the New Testament, but we really don't know one way or another. St. Jude, of course, is the patron of last resport, and apparently this is so because you wouldn't want to think of him to closely with Judas Iscariot, so you'd go to all the other saints first and then to St. Jude as the last on the list.

The First Lesson at Morning Prayer today from Isaiah contains this wonderful line:

For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little.

It's actually repeated again a few verses later. The NRSV footnote helpfully adds, "Meaning of this verse in the Hebrew uncertain." Indeed! It was always great fun to hear this lesson read aloud at seminary; even the the lector often couldn't get through it without grinning. I wonder what it sounds like in the original language. Do you have other fun passages in Scripture that are particularly good when read aloud? Let us know in the comments.

O God, we thank you for the glorious company of the apostles, and especially on this day for Simon and Jude; and we pray that, as they were faithful and zealous in their mission, so we may with ardent devotion make known the love and mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

RFSJ

The Proper of the Day: Pentecost XXII

Today the Church celebrates a Feast of Our Lord in the Eucharist and readings from Joel, II Timothy, and Luke. The passage from the prophet Joel contains the vision:

your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

your old men shall dream dreams,

and your young men shall see visions.

In the second letter to Timothy, St. Paul is lamenting his own predicament and defending his ministry and promising that the "crown of righteousness" will be reserved for him and by implication for all of us after we ourselves have each ben "poured out as a libation." A libation is a drink offering, where the offeror literally ours out a chalice onto or in front of the altar. Most of the uses of the word "libation" int he NRSV come from Jeremiah, which we just finished reading last week.

And today's passage from Luke is the famous Pharisee and the Publican, or Tax Collector. You know the one, the one who says, "Lord, I'm glad I'm not like that tax collector over there." I know I am often guilty of that same feeling. I need to be aware of who it is I am marginalizing by my own holier-than-thou mentality. Even if I don't express is publicly, I sometimes think it. I think we all do. Jesus calls us to remember that in God's economy, none of us are better than anyone else. Salvation is purely a gift of God and we can't earn it - it's freely available to all, which means we are all equal in God's eyes. That's the Good News - God really doesn't look at us with our own attitudes and our own value systems. And thank God, too - can you imagine if we actually got what we all deserve? But in Jesus of course we don't. We get God's own limitless and all-forgiving love for each and every one of us, whether we sometimes act like a Pharisee or sometimes like a Tax Collector.

RFSJ

Some Good News from the Courts For A Change

This was the case of the young man who was sentenced to ten years in prison....

ATLANTA, Oct. 26 — After more than two years in prison for having consensual oral sex with a fellow teenager, Genarlow Wilson shook the hand of a warden Friday at the Al Burruss Correctional Training Center in Forsyth, Ga., and smiled shyly as he walked into the arms of his waiting mother and young sister.

Read it all here.

RFSJ

Music...and Dancing!

Researcher Daniel Levitin wants to know:

THE fall concert season has begun at music halls around the world, and audiences are again sitting in rapt attention with their hands folded quietly in their laps. Does anyone besides me find this odd? ... Most of us would be shocked if audience members at a symphony concert got out of their chairs and clapped their hands, whooped, hollered and danced — as people would at a Ludacris concert. But the reaction we have to Ludacris or U2 is closer to our true nature.

I don't know how Ludacris is (although I do know U2), but I think it might be fun to sing along with a Mozart symphony. Or how about Beethoven's Fifth? Da Da Da Daaaaah!

Read it all here.


RFSJ

This is just so wrong

From today's New York Times:

HOUSTON, Oct. 24 — The presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is the target of a rising national outcry a month after turning away the last appeal of a death row inmate because the rushed filing was delayed past the court’s 5 p.m. closing time.

The inmate, Michael Richard, was then executed for a 1986 sexual assault and murder — the last person to die in Texas while the United States Supreme Court reviews the constitutionality of lethal injection. (Full article here.)

This is a travesty, that it has come to this, that a technicality of timing - because of a computer problem!!!! - is all it takes to kill a man. It doesn't matter that he is innocent or not, this was a clear and undebatable miscarriage of justice. "Sorry, I can't help you, I've got to go have my evening cocktail now, too bad the office is closed, he'll just have to die. Come back on Monday."

The only good news is that there appears to be a de facto nationwide stay of all executions while the US Supreme Court examines the constitutionality of the current lethal injection regimens.

I pray for the time when there will be no executions in the United States. As a Christian, how can I believe and preach about God's forgiveness for any and all sin and then allow the state to take away the opportunity for those who have sinned mortally to repent?

RFSJ

I Feel Old

I'm watching Aliens on TV. I just realized it was made in 1986 - that's 21 year ago. Oi!

RFSJ

Pray for California

The fires in California have been beyond devestating - nearly 1 million households now affected, and you can see them from space:



Holy Lord, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal One, Have mercy upon us.

And after you pray, put your prayer to good use and consider a donation to Episcopal Relief and Development, which is even now moving to provide aid and comfort.


RFSJ

The Proper of Yesterday: St. James of Jerusalem

Yesterday in the West the church celebrated the Major Feast of St. James of Jerusalem. (I'm observing it today because I read my calendar incorrectly.....) There are at least three and possibly up to 8 persons named James in the New Testament, and we commemorate three of them: James son of Zebedee, who was in Jesus' "inner circle" along with Peter and John; James son of Alphaeus, one of the Twelve, often called (sadly for him) the Less; and James of Jerusalem, often called the Just.

James of Jerusalem is also called the Brother of Our Lord. He may well have been a blood relative of Jesus. He's considered to be the first bishop of Jerusalem, and therefore in a sense the first Christian bishop. He was the acknowledged leader of the Jerusalem congregation, and even the Pharisees admired him for his adherence to the Law and his good works. James was executed in 62 AD, and he may also be the author of the Epistle of James, but the book itself doesn't say.

I was struck at Morning Prayer by the line in the Song of Zechariah, "Through his holy prophets he promised of old * that he would save us from our enemies." The first lesson just before this was a lament from the prophet Jeremiah about the plot against his life, and then comes this line, and then the excerpt from Matthew about being a sheep among wolves, and that the one who perseveres to the end will be saved. James is a martyr, of course, and that word has the connotation of one who dies for the faith. But "martyr" really means simply"witness." In that sense, we are all martyrs when we witness to the faith. Each of us does that in different ways because we each have differing skills and abilities and talents. James did it unto death, and there are many in 2007 around the world who are also doing that. But I wonder what James has to say to us in the New York metro area in 2007? How am I being a witness to the Good News? How are each of us? To what degree, if any, are we giving anything up for the faith? It seems to me that to intentionally witness implies, to some degree, a choice not to do something else with one's time and energy and money at that moment. There is, I think, a positive commitment in witnessing. It means not merely doing good things, but doing good things for a reason, in response to the Good News, and that implies some sort of positive proclamation of one's motivation.

I'm mindful of Jesus's admonition in the Sermon on the Mount, of course: don't trumpet your good works on the street corner. But what I'm thinking about is how we deliberately mold our lives to specifically witness to Jesus, or just do it in a haphazard sort of way, or don't think about it at all. St. Francis is said to have said, "Preach the Gospel at all times - use words if necessary." That's good, but those who see one's Gospel-preaching actions, even without words, need to be able to receive the Good News in those actions and have the opportunity to react to it that way. I wonder how many of our actions, good intentioned as they are, are really effective witness?

Grant, O God, that, following the example of your servant James the Just, brother of our Lord, your Church may give itself continually to prayer and to the reconciliation of all who are at variance and enmity; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

RFSJ

New Ministry Opportunity Needed

As some of you might know, much of my work at Trinity Parish and The Windmill Alliance (WA) is as Executive Director of the WA. We do a lot of really excellent work, and I am so proud of the staff we have. Unfortunately, the State of New Jersey has not honored its own regulations in what they are supposed to pay us for the work we do with our developmentally disabled clients. WA is a provider agency for the Division of Developmental Disabilities, and there are, on paper at least, some rather clear rules about payment for services rendered and all that. To make a long story short, we have been working with the State to remedy a funding shortfall that has been going on for some time. It does not look likely that it will be remedied, and we need to balance the 2008 budget. As Executive Director, I recommended that one of the things we should do is cut administrative overhead, and that it should be me. The Rector and President reluctantly agreed.

So I'm deep in the throes of looking for a new ministry opportunity. Fr. Jerry has graciously said I can stay as long as I need to, but I am well aware of the bottom line we need to solve. I'd appreciate your prayers and more importantly, your leads! Please click on The Proper of the Day Archive (also in the sidebar) for my current resume and Church Deployment Office profile. I love the Northeast but I am willing to consider any location.

RFSJ

Don't Confirm Mukasey

Frank Bowman of Slate magazine notes the following:

The Constitution conferred on the Senate the power to reject presidential nominees not merely, or even primarily, to keep rank incompetents from federal office. The appointment power is one of the weapons granted Congress in order to protect the political structure and human values enshrined in the Constitution itself from presidential encroachment. If a nominee for attorney general, however smart, sincere, and capable, refuses to disavow torture and espouses an anti-democratic, anti-constitutional doctrine of presidential hegemony and congressional subservience, he should be rejected. If the Senate is foolish enough to ratify the replacement of a bumbling toady with an accomplished apostle of the gospel of executive supremacy, it will deserve every snub this and future presidents inflict. But the rest of us deserve better.

His conclusion, along with that of Jed Rubenfeld (who practiced under him and know his jurisprudence) in today's NYT, is that Judge Mukasey must go.

My thought: there may by be no one who can stand up to this President's imperial view of executive power that he will actually nominate. Perhaps I am informed by my understanding of Episcopal Church polity that power at every level, parish, diocese, and national church is formally divided between clergy and laity. Of course I am also informed by the intent of the Founders themselves: presidential power was never intended to be absolute; just read the list of grievances in the Declaration of Independence for a refresher.

Senators should reject Mukasey as a warning shot and then use the considerable power of the purse to ensure Justice Dept. hands are kept clean when the budget is passed. Let Bush veto it if he wants to. Let's have a real fight about executive power. It's gone too far, and it's time to debate it out in the open, not in undisclosed locations under so-called "top secret" rules.

RFSJ

College Football Week 8 Results

Well, the good news: Ohio State is still No. 1 after a b it of a squeeker against Michigan State. On to #24 Penn State on Saturday.

The other news: I picked 9 of 16 correctly in last week's games. You might recall I picked every favored team to beat its point spread as an experiment to see what affected point spreads have on a purely random selection. I'm not sure of any conclusions, but it seems the point spread serves the same purposes as a handicap in golf - it allows teams not as good as other teams to still compete, at least in the eyes of the betting parlors. So now it kinda makes sense to some degree. Without the point spread, a pure pick-who-will-win scenario will almost always favor the higher ranked teams, and that's who a savvy bettor should always pick to win. The point spread serves to even the odds. I wonder why it took me so long to figure this out? I guess I had to do the experiment to see what is probably clear to every other fan of college football out there!

I will post this week's picks when I actually do the selection. Any suggestions?

RFSJ

The Proper of the Day: Pentecost XXI

Today the Church observes a Feast of Our Lord, and we also wrapped up a long Jeremiah cycle, and continue reading from 2 Timothy and Luke. The passage from Jeremiah 31 contains the great "New covenant" promise:

The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt-- a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

The phrase "new covenant" is a haplax legomenon - it's completely unique in all of the Hebrew Scripture. But we hear the phrase every time we attend the Eucharist. This passage is very significant because Jesus, at the last supper, makes the incredible claim that he is the embodiment of the New Covenant promised by Jeremiah. In Jesus we know God, he says, and it's in Jesus that God forgives our iniquities and remembers our sin no more:

"This is my blood of the New Covenant, given and shed for all for the forgiveness of sins."

The days are not surely coming - in Christ they are already here!

Almighty and everlasting God, in Christ you have revealed your glory among the nations: Preserve the works of your mercy, that your Church throughout the world may persevere with steadfast faith in the confession of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

RFSJ

College Football Week 8

As an experiment, I selected every favored team this week to beat their point spread. Last week I got about 50% right, and I've averaged 50% over the course of the season thus far. Not every favored team will beat its assigned point spread, of course, but I wonder what percentage actually do. I mean, does point spread mean anything otherwise?

We'll see.....

RFSJ

From the Ministry of Transport....

This just goes to show, the British do love their Anglican Chant....

h/t to bls.

RFSJ

More on "Humilty, Grace, and Freedom"

I've been thinking about Dr. Cassidy's speech at St. Chad's Durham earlier this week, which I recommended already below. At one point, he says:

I say this because the only good reason I can think of for asking the Episcopal Church to hold back, or to turn back, is if gay members of that church authorise their church to do so, by saying that they are willing as a group to suffer continued exclusion, at least for the time-being. In other words, unless we excommunicate sexually active gay people, they are part of our church: it is not up to us to exclude them from such things as episcopal governance, for they are us -- unless we have classes of membership, say a class for the more righteous and a class for the less righteous. But if we don't segregate people in such ways, it would be for them to decide sacrificially to exclude themselves as the cost of being part of a worldwide communion that cannot or will not change any time soon - if that's the right thing. I realise that even asking the question in such terms is difficult, but that's what is being asked.

This has touched me a bit. I don't know what to say. At what point does the radical nature of the Gospel bump up against the natural fallenness of humanity? St. Paul, in 1 Corinthians, talks about not eating meat sacrificed to idols, even though there's no moral problem with it that he can see, if it will hurt the conscience of another member of the community by doing so. It's an admirable suggestion and in so many ways exhibits the self-sacrifice of the Cross (and Paul's own ode to love in Ch. 13, especially, "Love never insists on its own way"). But Paul is unfortunately silent on how long that should go on, or if there's ever a teaching moment to say to the conscience-burdened brother or sister, "You know, there really no reason for you to be upset. I've been bending over backwards in honor of your conscience for a long time now, but I don't see any movement or even any willingness to explore other ways of thinking about this from you."

Should we have waited for conscience-burdened slaveowners to come around? How about women? "You know, those fallen men just aren't ready to talk about this yet. Could you just wait for a while?" I hear what both Dr. Cassidy and St. Paul are trying to say, and I keep coming back with "justice delayed is justice denied."

And my own situation is of course mixed up completely with this. Should I renounce my orders, or at least abstain from exercising my sacerdotal functions? Granted, that the commotion seems to be about bishops, not priests and deacons at the moment, but still. And what does that mean vis-a-vis the Baptismal Covenant to ask some people, who are called into the Body of Christ just like anyone else, to voluntarily not use some of the gifts that God has given them to build up that body? The ministry of baptized GBL Christians is OK except when they are ordained? They can use all their gifts except if those gifts are in ordained ministry?

I just don't see how, try as I can to "walk a mile in their moccasins," that exclusion of anybody for innate God-created characteristics, based on nebulous passages of Scripture, can be justified.

RFSJ

I Thought I was Anglican....

Eucharistic theology created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Orthodox You are Orthodox, worshiping the mystery of the Holy Trinity in the great liturgy whereby Jesus is present through the Spirit in a real yet mysterious way, a meal that is also a sacrifice. Orthodox 69% Luther 63% Catholic 50% Calvin 38% Zwingli 19% Unitarian 0%

How do you score? (Hat Tip to Ember Days.)

RFSJ

Thank God It's Friday!

RFSJ

On Anglican Comprehensiveness

The Rev. Canon Dr. Joseph Cassidy spoke recently at St. Chad's College, University of Durham, on Anglican ideas, ethics and thought. An excerpt:

[A]t the heart of what attracted me to Anglicanism, was a kind of institutional humility, even a kind of potential holiness, that I find compelling. Despite a few loud voices now and then, Anglicans do not pretend to be the epitome of the Church. They - we - don't think that Anglicanism on its own is the future of Christianity, though we trust that God may bring unity to his universal church by building on a few things that Anglicans have learnt over the centuries. We don't claim infallibility for our bishops or archbishops. Even though we can do so, we don't tend to excommunicate people for holding on to erroneous doctrines. We allow all sorts of people to call themselves Anglicans simply by being on a parish role, or less, no matter which church they were baptised in.

It's a really excellent article and I commend it to your attention.

RFSJ