May 23, 2013

It is no Sin to Have Wealth …

Posted by johnmangels under Monasticism, Personal | Tags: , , , , |
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I’m attracted to money and the things that money can bring into my life.  I think most of us are.  Most of my life I was paid for my work.  It may not have been my main motivation.  I had another career started, once upon a time, that promised to be more lucrative.  Money has not been my primary motivator in discerning a call.  But I don’t think I would have done the work that I did most of my life if I had not been paid a living wage.

There was a time when my furniture consisted of a fold up mattress, a lamp for reading and some crates to hold books, and my clothing was limited and pretty much all hand me down or thrift shop (except athletic shoes) and I was perfectly happy.  Today I want (possibly even need) a comfortable bed to sleep in and a comfortable chair to read in, and my stuff (which once fit into a VW bug) easily fills a home.  That is a problem in retirement:  how do I move my old office into my home?

I found myself thinking about this after reading (in Celtic Daily Prayer):  “It is no sin to have wealth, but it is sinful to be attracted to wealth. (more…)

 

May 22, 2013

Sister Faith Anthony on Living Into her Life Vow

Posted by johnmangels under Looking for God | Tags: , , , |
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All of us remain, always, on a spiritual pilgrimage.  Sister Faith Anthony’s reflections on the aftermath of her life profession in the Order of St. Helena speak eloquently to this:

On January 4, the Order of St Helena elected me to make my Life Vow, and I did so on March 19 at the Church of the Good Shepherd.

The service was lovely, and so was the reception. I was in the seventh heaven that night. Yet I had not really expected any change. Yes, now I am given the big cross, and the ring, but I had been under the temporary Vow for three years, and I had been living in the same Order for five years.

However, the next morning, when I entered the chapel, I felt, “This is different!” I felt that I had crossed an invisible threshold, and I am not the same person as the day before.

What I sensed was unspoken “acceptance” and “welcome.” God confirmed the call. I said “Yes” and the Order said “Yes.” Now I am in full service for God with these sisters for my life. The sisters received me as one of theirs in spite of all my shortcomings, trusting God’s intention and my willingness to grow. This is a pure gift. And I realize that what I vowed is a far deeper commitment than I had imagined, and now I have a huge responsibility to the Order.

The honeymoon period did not last long, (more…)

 

May 16, 2013

Pentecost and the Tower of Babel

Posted by johnmangels under Church Year, Pentecost, Sermons | Tags: , , , , |
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So here’s a draft of my sermon (presumably) for Yuba City this Sunday:

What are we to make of the story of the tower of babel – a sort of anti pentecost – as our first reading today on the day of Pentecost?  And really, what’s going on in this story?  Is our God a God who wants to hold people back from becoming all they can be?  Is our God a God who wants us to be unable to communicate and cooperate with each other?  Or is this really more of a description of the human condition? (more…)

 

May 14, 2013

Rebekah and Hospitality

Posted by johnmangels under Bible, Feminism, Saints | Tags: , , , |
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I know I’ve read chapter 24 of Genesis before, though not necessarily as a unit.  But I’ve always been inclined to dismiss it simply as “they found the boy a bride.”  I’ve never really looked at the chapter.

It comes right after the story of Sarah’s death, and Abraham’s purchase of land in the Promised Land for her burial, and her burial.  Abraham, for the first time, is a land owner.  It sounds like Isaac would have been born when she was about ninety years old, give or take a year or two.  She died when she was 127 years old.  So Isaac was probably 35 plus years of age at the time of her death.

Always assuming we’re supposed to pay any attention to ages in a chronological sense. (more…)

 

May 4, 2013

The Man by the Pool

Posted by johnmangels under Bible, Jesus, Sermons | Tags: , , |
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So, once more, here is a draft of tomorrow’s sermon for Yuba City:

Easter 6 C

I’m going to throw you a curve this morning, and use the alternate gospel reading for this Sunday.  Not only that, as allowed by canon, I’m going to preach on a slightly longer text than is specified.  We are always allowed to expand the reading, and I’m doing it so that you hear the whole story.  Don’t worry, it’s not that long!

When the story starts, Jesus has gone up to Jerusalem, to attend a religious festival.  When he arrives, near the Sheep Gate, which may have been how he entered the city, he passes a pool of water, around which are gathered all kinds of invalids.

Why are they gathered there?  If you look at the copy of the gospel I passed out at the beginning of the service, you will see a bold footnote, number 1, just before verse 5.  — Did you notice that our reading had no verse 4?  What the footnote tells us is that the best and earliest sources did not have a verse 4.  But other sources had, wholly or in part, an explanation:  they were waiting for the stirring of the water, because when an angel stirred the water, the first one in would be healed.

One man had been waiting by the side of the pool, receiving charity from the faithful for his livelihood, for thirty-eight years.  I’m thinking he had become comfortable and complacent in his disability.  And I’m thinking Jesus thought so too.

Recognizing that the sick man had been there a long time, Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be made well?”

You would think the obvious answer to this question is, “Yes!  Yes!  Please God heal me.” (more…)

 

April 19, 2013

Resurrection or Resuscitation?

Posted by johnmangels under Easter, Sermons | Tags: , |
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Once again, I doubt that anyone from Ft. Bragg is going to see the sermon I intend to preach this Sunday before I give it.  (If I’m wrong, and you plan to be there Sunday, probably you should skip reading this for now.)  Also, I apologize to any followers who read “Thrift Shop Resurrection” – most of which is given again here.  So here it is:

Easter 4 C

 

I have problems with this morning’s reading from Acts!

Is that allowed – to have issues with scripture? (more…)

 

April 8, 2013

An Easter Surprise …

Posted by johnmangels under Easter, Jesus | Tags: , , |
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I talked to a young (to me) woman last week.  I believe (I’m not entirely sure) that she would consider herself a Christian.  (I’ve actually talked to her on a number of occasions.)  She knows I’m an Episcopal priest, and she was wondering about Easter …  What happened on Easter?  What were we celebrating? (more…)

 

March 30, 2013

Maybe Only of Interest to People Who Lead Worship?

Posted by johnmangels under Personal | Tags: , |
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This has been my first Holy Week since I retired.  And it’s absolutely bizarre.  After some thirty years of planning and leading worship (and all the extra planning and sermons for the special services during Holy Week) I got to choose what services I participated in and where I worshiped.  I only led one (public) service all week on Palm Sunday.  I did the major offices of Matins and Vespers (mostly) at home.  I attended a Maundy Thursday service at an Episcopal Church.  I attended an Easter Vigil at a Lutheran Church.  I’ll probably say Matins in the morning at home.  It’s actually nice just to be there to worship.  Although, after some thirty years in the field, it’s pretty much automatic that you are critiquing every service you attend.

Maybe they shouldn’t let clergy attend services led by others!

But I find myself thinking that every three to five years all clergy should be required to attend someone else’s Holy Week and Christmas services.  Not everything was done the way I would have done it.  And that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing! (more…)

 

March 30, 2013

A Contemporary Easter Story?

Posted by johnmangels under Easter, World Events | Tags: , |
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This is The Lead on Episcopal Cafe today.  If you watch the video on the link, I’d be interested in your responses:

DOMA, Proposition 8 and the Easter story

John Fugelsang draws a contemporary parallel to the story of the Passion and Resurrection in this commentary. Does its analogy hold up for you?

 

March 30, 2013

Bishop Dan and Mr. Rogers

Posted by johnmangels under Religion | Tags: , |
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Bishop Dan of Nevada has been engaged in an interesting conversation on how Christians are perceived.  Here’s the lead in to his post:

THE MR ROGERS POST: WHOSE FAULT IS OUR BAD REP?

Last week, I shared this Rollie Williams link in praise of Fred Rogers on my FB page: http://www.upworthy.com/the-nicest-man-in-history-had-a-shocking-secret-you-never-knew-about?c=ufb1 The basic point was that Fred Rogers was a great guy and his shocking secret was that he was a Christian. The author said Mr. Rogers’ message was the opposite of the  “lack of love and compassion” that characterizes most of Christianity. It praised Rogers for his caring, generous spirit (my words) and for keeping his faith secret (actually, he was not at all secret about his faith. See.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eliot-daley/fred-rogers_b_862976.html While proselytizing was not his ministry – and that could never have happened on publicly funded TV even if he had wanted to – Mr. Rogers’s religion was never a secret. He even concluded his acceptance speech for his Emmy, “May God be with you.”) I take the thrust of Rollie Williams’ post to mean that secularists should not despise all Christians because, although most of us are harsh, judgmental jerks, some Christians are ok – so long as they keep their relationship with Christ a secret.
Feeling my faith damned by faint praise, I shared the Williams link saying I was left perplexed. While Rollie Williams’ view of Christians is wrong on the facts, I still want to know how he came to think this of us.
If your interest is engaged, you can find his whole post here.
 

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