This Means … 

“The body of Christ, the bread of Heaven; the blood of Christ, the cup of salvation”

When I say these words to our children, our youngest faithful, during Communion, these are some of the things I tell them to explain what these words mean:

This means God loves you.
This means God knows your name.
This means God thinks you are absolutely great.
This means that if you ever get lost, God knows where you are and will find you.
This means that when you are sad, God is sad, too.
This means that whatever happens, God will always be close by.
This means that God understands.
This means that God is your home and, guess what?  It means you are His.  For ever. Selah. 
Amen.

By Harrison Higgins, October 2019

Yearbook Entry #2 The Amazing Sushi

Yearbook Entry #2

The Amazing Sushi by Michele Murphy

After celebrating my former church’s centennial, everyone moved to the parish hall where a bountiful reception was held. I was part of the team that worked in the kitchen and the game plan was a pass-around appetizer affair. Each member of the team had prepared a signature appetizer, as well as soliciting our town restaurants and markets for donations. My son was the chef at the local Irish Pub and planned to contribute a noteworthy presentation. His appetizer consisted of raw sushi-grade tuna in a small dice served on a triangular fried wonton drizzled with a soy chive oil. It was beautifully presented on a large black platter. Since the platter was so large, I decided to bypass our young servers and pass the dish around to the guests myself. As I made my way through the crowded room and eased my way into the small groups, I announced my presence with a call of, “sushi-grade tuna,” sounding like a fishmonger on Barnegat wharf.

The reaction to my arrival was animated to say the least. Some guests stopped talking and immediately scooped up a crispy wonton with the delectable highly mounded tuna and made sounds and moans not usually heard in the church parish hall. Others scrutinized the platter with its beautiful appetizer and asked cautiously, “What is it?” To my reply, they demurely lowered their eyes and with a slight shake of the head and a whispered, “No thank you,” they turned away. Were they embarrassed because the tuna was raw? Should it be covered with another wonton chip? Did they not want to offend me since I was presenting this treat to them? Whatever their reasons, the reaction was repeated by numerous guests.

Then there were the angry responses, “No, no! I don’t do sushi!! Take it away!” While others waved their hands back and forth saying, “Yuk! No, no, not sushi!” Was their waving to prevent me from forcing a tuna-covered wonton down their throat? Should I wave back?

After the second time of passing the platter around the room to the same reactions, I decided to project my personality into the situation. “My son is a chef and he prepared this and if you’ve never had sushi before, you will be hooked with this delicacy.” A couple of very brave souls took the bait, but most held their ground and their strong denial.

After the fourth time of passing the replenished sushi platter around the room, I felt like the pied piper with a trail of raw-fish eaters following in my wake. One of the followers even suggested that people should pay me for this delectable treat. There was still resistance by some but not as blatant as initially observed. (Perhaps the cheese puffs had mellowed them.)

As I continued to interject myself into the little clusters of people calling out with my fish-monger greeting, I became stronger and suggested to the hand-wavers and the angry non-sushi eaters that they could perhaps tone-down their inappropriate responses and be a bit more tolerant of the raw tuna and that a simple, “No, thank you,” was all that was necessary. My comments seemed to shame them into acknowledging their rudeness to sushi and they immediately became humble (after all it was a church affair). Wanting to appease me (and possibly the tuna) they volunteered to try an appetizer. It was amazing to see. I thought I was on the “Sushi Reality Show.” I was prepared to cheer them on, perhaps hold their hand, or find them a quiet corner in which they could perform their miraculous deed of bravery.

When reflecting on people’s reaction to the amazing sushi, I wondered if we react to all things passed before us with the same energy as was demonstrated.

Is our “sushi behavior” a reflection of who we are?

Do we just want the sure thing, or are we willing to extend ourselves and try something that makes us uncomfortable?

Do we need a hovering cheerleader? Someone to encourage us and acknowledge our bravery?

Is this how we face all obstacles when they intrude on our life?

Not being a philosopher but a mere “passer of sushi” I leave the answers to others much wiser on such matters.

Yearbook Entry #1 "By Our Fruit"

Yearbook Entry #1

Year A Proper 21 WEDNESDAY, 2 October 2019
St. James the Less Episcopal. Ashland, VA
“By Our Fruit”

Collect: O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Matthew 7:13-21
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”

We begin looking through the focus of “Lead Holy Spirit Into the Depths of God”-- our new yearly theme. On Wednesdays, we have a little more time to play and unpack some things, to filter things through these ideas.

Jesus warns us that those who try to follow him will not be the crowd. We will have to get off the interstate and take the side route. We will need to avoid the main entrance and come in the service door. There will be large gatherings following false prophets. I saw an online satire article about a certain mega-church pastor who had started a new line of Pastor Suits under the title of “Sheep’s Clothing.” I snorted. Having heard some of this man’s talks, it is hard to call them sermons, I doubt he would catch the reference from today: false prophets are wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Then Jesus talks about us bearing fruit. It is how to know the good tree from the bad. What is its fruit? Bearing fruit is something we all do. But what kind of fruit do we bear?

Here is one of the key things about the life of following Jesus. For too long in my life and leadership in the Church, I have thought the fruit I was trying to bear was outcomes, product, stuff I could point to and say done. (Looking at through the Rohr book Falling Upward, this was not bad but more likely the first half of life.) But more and more I think that our fruit is far more intangible, and all the more necessary.

In Galatians, Paul unpacks the Fruit of the Spirit, and not a one of them is something we do, but rather it is who we are. It is the difference from being an apple farmer and being an apple tree. An apple farmer may produce apples. An apple tree cannot help but make apples. St. Paul gives us two lists in Galatians 5. The works of the flesh, and the fruit of the Spirit. The works of the flesh are things we do, or rather should not do. “Fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.” [Gal. 5:19b-21a] Notice how many of these are about being divisive. In these divisive times, think on that. If people are working toward Us v. Them, no matter how righteous the cause, be wary.

But when we are the apple tree, when our DNA is structured in such a way for us to bear fruit, what does that look like? “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” It takes a long time and a lot of work to rewrite your DNA. Or as Jesus put it, “For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

This year, I trust that the Holy Spirit will lead us together into some deep places. Deep can be scary. Deep can also be awe-inspiring. We drove by the Luck Stone Quarry out in Goochland the other day. I tried to describe it to my kids. I remember going out there on a field trip with my school. Looking into it from the top, HUGE earth-movers at the bottom looked smaller than Hot Wheels cars. It is scary on the rim. But from the bottom looking up, the amount of work to make this inverted mountain, this hole as big as a mountain, was inspiring. It is all about how we view things.

If we are led by the Spirit, the nature and tenor of what we do will be like these fruit of the Spirit. In the midst of what is setting up to be some dark days, (I pray that they will not be but we all can see the clouds forming) living lives led by the Spirit will be all the more required and all the more necessary. May we pray it together, “Lead Holy Spirit, into the Depths of God!” Amen