Tomes for June

Parson Tom’s Tomes for June

There was a little girl, who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead,
And when she was good, she was very, very good,
But when she was bad she was horrid.

This page of the tomes is the second thing I wrote this morning and in both I quote from Longfellow’s poem. The first was to a visitor who came to the 10:30 service on Mother’s day and while very complimentary of our facility, music, enthusiasm and service remarked that he was disappointed that no one came up to speak to he and his wife .  In my note of apology for our not remembering William Temple (Archbishop of Canterbury during World War II) dictum “The church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.”, in response to him I quoted the beginning of this poem because earlier that week I received another note from a person who was so pleased by he and his companions welcome here.  And so it goes; this is who are: as Luther used to say ““Simul Justus et Peccator” – simultaneously a saint and a sinner.

William Temple

I look at the Episcopal Church and continue to love it and bemoan when it misses the point when it gets all sorts of fussy about religion and religious institutions. Again, to go back to Temple: "It is a great mistake to suppose that God is only, or even chiefly, concerned with religion.”

For my sins I was appointed to a committee to find a new Bishop for this diocese and the diocese needs to struggle with this tension of being an institution that serves its members and a society that changes the world for Christ. The public listening sessions seem to be divided on the desire for a Corporate CEO type Bishop and the opposing desire for a modern day St. Francis; in many ways similar to the decision leading up to the present Bishop of Rome. I am leery of clergy who are centered on climbing the job ladder and spend all their energy building up little empires for privilege and agendas for the benefit of their supporters and at the same time long for a diocesan office that functions well or my longing to have as Mussolini said “the trains run on time”.  

Every morning I start off the day reading and mediating on devotion by Richard Rohr, a Franciscan Monk who heads up the Center for Action and Contemplation in New Mexico, and am always rewarded by the Spirit speaking what I need to hear. The last part of Friar Richard’s meditation on May 20 was:

Any exercise of power apart from love leads to brutality and evil; but any claim to love that does not lead to using that as power for others is mere sentimentality and emotion. I must admit, it is rare to find people who hold both together in perfect balance—who have found their power and use it for others, or people who have found love and use it for good purposes. I think the Reign of God includes both love and power in a lovely dance. I think that is what Jesus means when he tells us to be “cunning as serpents but gentle as doves” (Matthew 10:16). It is a beautiful combination of both authority and vulnerability.