Reflection and Poem for 20 November "Greater Allegiance"

A Reflection for the Feast of Christ the King            All Saints’ Episcopal, Southern Shores, NC November 20, 2016                                                            Thomas E. Wilson, Rector

Jeremiah 23:1-6                                Canticle 16                          Colossians 1:11-20          Luke 23:33-43

Greatest Allegiance

Today is the feast of Christ the King, which is the last Sunday before Advent. What do we mean by “King”? The King is an outward and visible sign of the spirit of a nation, and therefore he is invested with a quasi-divine status as God’s representative on earth. Often the King is the political and military leader of that nation and is invested with symbols of worth - palaces, regalia, titles, ruffles, and flourishes. Musicians often play anthems to announce the comings and goings of the King. He is given a place of honor, which is usually above his subjects, so he can look down on them with condescension and they will look up to him in awe. To rise up against a King is considered treason and is fought with the King’s military and political power. 

We call ourselves citizens of a republic because we, in our history, threw off the yoke of King George III, but what we did then was to elect Presidents to whom we have, over the centuries, invested with the aura of Kingship. We created semi-monarch figures who live in a palace with lots of regalia. Instead of “God Save the King”, our musicians play “Hail to the Chief” preceded by four ruffles and flourishes. That particular song takes its title from a Sir Walter Scott poem, The Lady of the Lake, as the hero advances in glory. “Hail” in this context means the awareness that we are in the presence of a powerful force with an almost divine stature to which we acknowledge authority over our lives and imaginations.  We see “Hail” used in history with “Hail Caesar” or “Heil Hitler” or “Hail Mary”. We don’t usually consider disagreement or opposition to the President as treason, but some will plot an overthrow by ballots at the next election if their lives are not satisfactory. An Oxford historian, Frank Prochaska, observed “the Loyalists lost in the Revolution but had their revenge in the republic”. Monarchies blame their Kings for their misfortunes, and we blame our Presidents. Novelist Jennifer Donnelly reflects, “Most of the mess that is called history comes about because kings and presidents cannot be satisfied with a nice chicken and a good loaf of bread.”

Shakespeare did a great number of plays where the theme is the nature of being a King.  Some were tyrants and scoundrels, some were good and heroes, but almost all of them lived with the anxiety of losing what it meant to be a King.  In Henry VI part 3, Act 3, scene 1 after several attempts by others to take Henry’s crown and become King, Henry disguises himself and goes for a walk. A gamekeeper stops him and, in their discussion the gamekeeper asks him, if he (Henry) is a King, where is his crown? Henry replies:

“My Crown is in my heart, not on my head:
Not deck'd with Diamonds, and Indian stones:
Nor to be seen: my Crown is call'd Content,
A Crown it is, that seldom Kings enjoy.”

The Bible spends a lot of time looking at what it means to be a King and still be faithful to God and pursue justice and mercy. Jeremiah, in today’s Hebrew Testament reading, reflects on all who were Kings in the past.  He uses the image of a shepherd for King, and concludes that they were failures in that they were never satisfied nor content; rather they, in their thirst for power and fear of losing it, destroyed and scattered the sheep in the pasture. Jeremiah has a vision which looks forward to a new kind of King who would rule faithfully as God’s regent on earth.

What the Jesus movement promotes is to see this new kind of King in Jesus. The Kingdom they envisioned was not plots of land with borders and political and military strength. Rather they saw Jesus, who was crowned with a crown of thorns and raised up upon the cross to look over those who were his subjects - and his enemies - as the outward and visible sign of God’s Kingdom. The writer to the Colossians lays it out saying the church sees Jesus as an embodiment of the Christ, the creating and communicating energy of God, who chose not to announce the presence of God through power and might or ruffles and flourishes, but through vulnerable love. Over the years they reflected that, when they had seen this Jesus, they were really seeing through Jesus into God’s communicating love. 

We seem to like Kings and strong rulers, but this Christ Jesus brings us up short.  Today in the 1^st Chapter of Luke’s Gospel, we have the Canticle from the Song of Zechariah in which Zechariah declares that God is calling his son, who will later be called John the Baptizer, as the one who will prepare the way and preach the God of tender compassion. Later in the same Gospel, Luke paints a verbal picture of the scene of the crucifixion. The disciples have all fled. At the top of the cross, the official declaration makes fun of the title “King of the Jews” with the implied threat that this will happen to those who choose to follow anyone other than the one with the power of the occupying army. At the foot of the cross, the soldiers mock Jesus as a failed King. One criminal, who tradition says was named “Gestus”, on an adjacent cross to the left, baits Jesus as a poseur and pours out bitter scorn that if Jesus is innocent, then it would have been useless to repent since Jesus seems to have no power. The other criminal, who tradition says was on the right and was named Dismas, is the only one who sees with a different vision and becomes the first citizen of the Kingdom, breaking in as Jesus has been placed on the throne of the cross. This is the first royal proclamation of the Kingdom of Tender Compassion.

I have a great niece, River, whose mother is my niece, born in Charlotte and who has a dual citizenship in the United States and Canada.  The child’s father has a dual citizenship in Great Britain and Canada, so River has a choice as she grows up as to which country she will claim citizenship. But the reality is that all of us have choices today on our ultimate citizenship. This is the tension in which we, as Christians, live. William Henry Seward, who was Secretary of State under Lincoln, lived in this tension when he was a Senator as he thundered after the Supreme Court Dred Scott decision, “There is a Higher Law than the Constitution, there is a greater Judge than the Supreme Court.”

After our recent election, many of the parishioners in this church were either delighted or flabbergasted in horror over the results.  My idea of a political statement is a pledge to “Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God”, a statement that never made it to the ballots.  We are all living in a nation tinged with the “loyalist’s revenge” of investing semi-divine status on our Presidents. When we as a church celebrate Christ the King, indeed every time we come together, we are saying that there is a higher power to which we pledge allegiance. All the lesser powers are also-rans, and while we invest time, energy, and money in those lesser powers, we pray for them, not to them.  Our ultimate loyalty is elsewhere.

Greatest Allegiance

Once again the air is filled with chants,

Declarations of loyalty to the winners

or “wait until next time” ‘fore winters

of future when will get a new chance.

Cries of such pain issued of accusing

the almighty for choosing a bad side,

ignores that our enemies share a ride

with us. So much now needs excusing.

We forget that we are all thus related;

children of the same God formed out

of same mother earth, on a same route

and in God’s infinite mercy are fated

to be judged and loved equally by how

we treat others not as an it but a thou.

Warren Cameron Judge III Reflection for November 13, 2016

A Reflection for a Celebration of the Life and Ministry of Warren Cameron Judge III

November 13, 2016                                        Thomas E. Wilson

I want to start off by thanking St. Andrew’s Church for joining with All Saints’ to celebrate Warren’s life. St Andrew’s was the church to which Warren and Tess belonged before they came  to join the new mission first envisioned by as an act of faithful generosity by St. Andrew’s Parish and an act of courage by those who entered into the early life of that mission. They met in living rooms and elementary school cafeterias until they built the building - which is still too small to accommodate all the people we expected for Warren’s service.

I would like to also thank Gail Sonnesso of the GEM Adult Care program who had planned a service here at this particular time, but graciously postponed that service because, as she said, “Warren was such a supporter and had attended each yearly service since the beginning that the people who usually come would have wanted to pay respect to his faithfulness.” Warren had a lot of friends in this county.

I first met Warren when I came to the Outer Banks for an interview for the position of Rector of All Saints’ more than 13 years ago. I had driven in from Georgia and the church put me up at a hotel at which they apparently had “an arrangement”. There was this huge man behind the desk who welcomed me just as if I was an old friend. I did not know he was one of the owners and he didn’t tell me he was a member of the church. He did not try to interview me, or pass judgment, or push an agenda; he just welcomed me as if he believed what Jesus had said when he said those who welcomed followers of Christ welcomed Jesus. Now we could say that welcoming was part of his job in the hospitality business, and that is fair. Yet, welcoming was part of his very soul. It was a spiritual gift that he brought into play in the material world, which is what we are called to do with all of our gifts. Warren did not live into his last name, for he did not judge others because he knew that God’s judgment is always tempered with welcoming Grace. Welcome, that is what Jesus said. That is what Warren, in following Christ, did. This is who Warren Cameron Judge III is.

Jesus never asked us to worship him; he told us to follow him. That is what Jesus said. That is what Warren did. This is who Warren Cameron Judge III is.

Jesus said to love your enemy. Jesus gathered his followers from all sorts and conditions of people. Scripture tells us that Jesus called Matthew the tax collector, who was working for the occupying enemy, and he called Simon the Zealot who was a warrior against the Romans - two people who had nothing but hatred for each other and yet Jesus bound them together to work for a common goal. One of things that Warren did was to keep saying that he didn’t care who got the credit as long as the job got done. I remember when Warren’s party lost the election for control of the County Commission and Warren was then a minority member. Now, if he were not Warren, he would have been instrumental in trying to block any attempts by the other party in order to make them look bad. But he was Warren, and even when he would lose a vote, he would work to implement the program as legislated. He had not signed on to be right, but to help govern. He understood that Public Service was not about who has the biggest ego, but about the public being served so that this Dare County could live into John White’s words of 1587, that this is the “goodliest land under the cope of heaven.”  Warren could be counted on to serve. Jesus said, “Let your yes be “Yes” and your no be “No”; anything else comes from the evil one.” That is what Jesus said. That is what Warren, in following Christ, did. This is who Warren Cameron Judge III is.

Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.” That is what Jesus said, and when Warren followed Jesus, that is what he did. If you had a program that would help people, you could count on Warren being there to work with you. He did that at our church, he did that in our community tirelessly. I used to joke with him that I could count on two pictures of Warren in every edition of the local papers because he was there to lend his strength and support to any cause that made peoples’ lives better.  The prophet Micah said, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.” Jesus said “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” This is what Jesus did. This is what Warren, in following Christ, did. This is who Warren Cameron Judge III is.

Jesus said; “Let the little children come unto me.” Jesus’ disciples saw children as an interruption to their work, but Jesus held them and blessed them, seeing them as part of his family, as fellow sons and daughters of God. Warren would ask the question “How is what we are doing affecting the children?” Warren was interested in children. He took four kids and made them his own, creating with Tess a family where love was the center. But beyond his family, he worked in the communities in which he served. His children speak of the time when he was a Town Councilman and, spending his own time, money, and energy, headed up the effort to make sure that the children would get uniforms for their Little League teams. Yet, more importantly he was a coach for over 13 years. He was a coach not just so kids could play but he was a coach so that young boys could grow up to be men who respected themselves, respected the community, respected the rules of life, respected their opponents, respected women; he showed them by word and especially example what it means to be a man. He was heavily involved in a community response to youth substance abuse. And when one of his kids got into some trouble, he came before the group, walking humbly with his God, and said, “It can happen in any home; it is not about those people over there somewhere else, but about all of our families.” Jesus asked us to follow him in blessing children. This is what Jesus did. This is what Warren, in following Christ, did. This is who Warren Cameron Judge III is.

You may notice that I say “is” about Warren, not “was”. In my theology, God calls each person before we are born for a ministry of making a difference in this world. For those who are serious about their faith, they see their whole lives as ministry to show God’s love, not just in religious institutions, but in and to the family, in and to our neighbors, in and to our community, in and to the nations of the world, in and to our environment, so that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is the prayer that Jesus taught us and what he did. This is what Warren, in following Christ, did. But we are also to follow The Christ by giving our lives, even through death - which does not end God’s love - into a resurrection of serving God in the deeper life after we have shuffled off this mortal coil. As we say in our service that life is changed not ended. Life is a Call.  There is a poem written in 1633 by George Herbert entitled “The Call”:

Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:

Such a Way, as gives us breath:

Such a Truth, as ends all strife:

Such a Life, as killeth death.

Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength:

Such a Light, as shows a feast:

Such a Feast, as mends in length:

Such a Strength, as makes his guest.

Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:

Such a Joy, as none can move:

Such a Love, as none can part:

Such a Heart, as joys in love.

You will notice that all are invited to come to Communion. Neither the Church nor I are the one who invites you to come forward. God’s love invites you, and we are not to stand in the way of a foretaste of being in full communion with God as we live in this world and the next. Who may come? All may, some should, none must. The ushers will come to the end of each row and invite you to come forward.  If you come forward for communion, there will be a clergyperson up front to give you bread and a layperson to give you wine.  If you do not wish to receive, cross your arms and you will receive a blessing.  Jesus gave bread and wine as a small part of his greater ministry of blessing and called us to follow him to bless others.  Blessing is what Warren did. Blessing is who Warren Cameron Judge III is.

Whenever I have communion in my church or in a hospital or living room, my imagination, my heart, and my spirit know that I am not alone with just the bodies in the room. The energy of all those who have gone before is present, and I am aware that they are on the other side of the table, just in another dimension. Fifty years ago my father died, and his love and strength are still with me. We will miss Warren when we are not paying attention, when we get too busy with our own agendas and no longer seeing the spiritual side of this life.  The Love through Warren is with us, for love does not die, but rather, as Herbert notes, it is the love that “killeth death.” That is what Jesus did. This is what Warren did. This is who Warren Cameron Judge III is. 

You may notice that the family has suggested that instead of flowers you donate to the Mortgage Reduction effort at All Saints. That would be nice. But let me tell you what would be better. Jesus said, “In my Father’s house there is room for all.” Work with your family, friends, neighbors, and especially your enemies to build a better community, a place where families are nourished, love is honored, respect for others is the norm, and all are welcomed, none are judged. That is what Jesus did. This is what Warren did. This is who Warren Cameron Judge III is.

Warren Cameron Judge III

He straightens up from behind the counter

And my God he is big, the biggest is his smile

as he welcomes me and signs me in,

as if this is his own home.

Never being there before, me a stranger

who he treats me as if I belong,

a friend he has not met before.

My paranoia wonders about his agenda,

but welcoming is only thing on the table.

He moves, it seems as if defying gravity,

shoulders lift his body, directing his walk.

Learning over the years of how much those

shoulders carried; children, family, friends

church, county, state, but always with that smile.

I was not aware until he died and then I realized,

when the world seems heavier, that I was one of

those burdens he helps carry with a smile

as he follows one who says, “Come unto me . .  “

Different Imagination

A Reflection for XXVI Pentecost (Proper 28)           All Saints Church, Southern Shores, NC

November 13, 2016    (8:30 AM)                                           Thomas E Wilson, Rector

Isaiah 65:17-25           Canticle 9          2 Thessalonians 3:6-13            Luke 21:5-19

A Different Imagination

The Bishop is coming for the 10:30 service today so the 8:30 people have to put up with me. But he will be here for a forum at 9:30, so you can get a chance to meet him for coffee hour and beyond.

Walter Brueggemann, Hebrew Testament scholar, posits the Bible has an underlying theme showing history of the world as a contest between two different imaginations. There is first the Empire Imagination which says that the fearsome God of the Empire has blessed the rulers and the way to live into that Empire Imagination is to control and conquer others, to force compliance to the Empire’s agendas, to allow the rulers to rule in the name of their security and the hierarchies to be nourished by the exploitation of the vulnerable. Empires are ruled by fear; fear of loss of power, fear of neighbor, fear of those who are different, fear of loss of influence, fear of scarcity, fear of being merciful, fear of the loss of their fearsome God’s blessing and therefore those Gods must be appeased by sacrifice. The height of the Empire’s power becomes the “Golden Age”, an idealized past and so there is a tremendous distrust of the future and a compulsive desire to live in that nostalgic moment of the idealized past. The people and pages of scripture have a narrative that is sprinkled with struggles with Empires; the Egyptian, the Philistine, the Assyrian, the Babylonian, the Persian, the Greek, the Roman and even their own homegrown attempts at Empire.

In contest against the Empire Imagination there is the Prophetic Imagination which is an attempt to change the narrative of the people to create and live in a community with a loving God of justice, mercy and peace with neighbor and with each other where fear no longer rules our lives. The prophets come forward out of what they hear God calling them to live now faithfully in the hope of the future. “What does the Lord require of you? To do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.” This is the message that leads us into the New Testament. This is the message of Jesus. This is the message of the church when it is not infected with Empire Imagination.

Let me say a word or two about the Book of Isaiah which is a proponent of the Prophetic Imagination. It is a long book there are 66 chapters. When I was in Jerusalem years ago, Pat and I went to visit the Shrine of the Book, a repository of the Dead Sea Scrolls and it is shaped like a rolled up scroll. In one circular room there is a copy of the unrolled scroll of the Book of Isaiah printed on the circumference of the wall that is 24 feet long defining the room. The Dead Sea scrolls were found in 1947 by the Dead Sea when a Bedouin Shepherd boy was watching his sheep and he was idly tossing stones. He threw the stones and they made sounds of hitting the ground except one in which he threw into an opening in a cave and he heard the surprising sound of breaking pottery. He dug and squeezed into the opening and found a hidden cave room There were a whole collection of sealed pots containing a total of 220 scrolls. They had been hidden and placed in that cave sealed in these pots for safe keeping in about the end of the 1^st Century after Christ in the dry desert air by a religious group at Qumran who looked all around them and thought that the final battle between the sons of light and the sons of darkness was about to begin and they were expecting the ends of the world as they knew it. The scroll of the Book of Isaiah was the best preserved. The scroll was carbon dated to the 4^th Century BC with some marginal notes in the 2^nd Century BC. Scholars suggest there seems to be three sections to the Book of Isaiah The first 39 chapters seem to be attributed to an 8^th Century BC prophet, Isaiah of Jerusalem, when the Northern  and Southern Kingdoms are facing a tremendous threat by the Assyrian Empire, and corruption in the government, and abuse of the poor and marginal by the homegrown Empire mentality, and the nations need messages of hope. In the Northern Kingdom  we get Amos and Hosea and in the Southern Kingdom we get Micah and Isaiah of Jerusalem. The Psalm for today is from the writings of the original founder of the School of Isaiah from the 12^th Chapter as he sings about the presence of God in the middle of daily life; “trusting in God and not being afraid”. Hope in the middle of so many things going wrong. Faithful hope is always tinged with sweat as we work with God to create the better future.

The Second section of the Book is written in the Spirit of Isaiah by students of the School of Isaiah in the 6^th Century BC, about 150 plus years later, when the people, conquered by the Babylonian Empire, are in exile and need a message of hope. This section from the Book of Isaiah comes from a time when the nation lies in ruins after a series of years of disastrous decisions made by warring factions in the ruling elites and by hostile enemies of the homegrown Empire wannabees. The economy is in ruins, the city walls are torn down so there is no protection from marauders. Only hope can keep them alive, faithful hope tinged with sweat working together as a community with God for a better future.

The third section is still later as some of the exiles are returning and the blame game is intensified as each side finds fault with the other. In the middle of this fault finding, God calls forth one of the prophets of the School of Isaiah who tells the nation what he or she had heard God say. Our first reading is from that writer. In the first 16 verses of this chapter before this 2^nd part of the chapter, the prophet goes through the past suggesting that the present can be understood by the past of wanting to live in the Empire Imagination. However, here in verse 17, the prophet changes tack and sings that we do not have to dwell in the nostalgia of the dim shadow of the past but can now live into a full present lit by the hope of the future. The prophet sings the vision that as humans change from fighting each other the world will itself change. Faithful hope is tinged with sweat.

Paul when he writes to the Thessalonians in today’s lesson is giving the people hope. Some have given up hope and move into wish fulfillment fantasies that God will fix all things and they will leave the sweat tingeing the hope to others. They have been infected with the Empire Imagination when they attempt to take advantage of others. They claim a special privilege and status from God over mere working folk. Paul writes that we are all in this together to work together following the Christ Jesus, faithfully working, sweating and hoping together.

Jesus in the Gospel lesson from Luke for today listens to some nostalgic drivel from his disciples about how impressed they are with the Temple, an Empire Imagination symbol of the need to appease a fearsome God, which had been built during the time of their fathers, but now they were under the rule of the Romans whose God needed to be appeased as well. They are nourishing themselves with an Empire Imagination about how good it would be to trust in the trapping of Empire, the monuments of ego. Jesus tells them that they are not to put trust in institutions or building but in the strength of God working within us to be able to endure all things. Hope is how we live boldly in the present by the light of the future even when everything is going wrong. 

What kind of world are we living in today? What kind of Imagination do we use to see the world? Where is our hope? To what or whom do we commit to work for in the present by the light of the future?

A Different Imagination

Election Day is now past almost week:

brutal victory campaigns do not cease

the bitterness that will deny us peace,

we’re made tired and opponents weak.

Not Isaiah vision; wolves savage lambs,

lions clawing ox, passing up the straw,

serpents, preying on yet another flaw,

preening to fans like rock show hams.

Today’s prayer is that “these former things

shall not be remembered or come to mind”

so ere soon all we as one might be aligned

whenever the bell sounding worship rings,

blessing an enemy, remembering to commit,

gain strength in imagining Prophetic Spirit.

Saint Facing Dreams All Saints Reflection and Poem

A Reflection for All Saints Day (Transferred) All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Southern Shores, NC

November 6, 2016 Thomas E. Wilson, Rector

Daniel 7:1-3,15-18 Psalm 149 Ephesians 1:11-23 Luke 6:20-31

Saint Facing Dreams

Fellow Saints of All Saints, I bring you good news. You have two more days to vote, two more days to listen to political ads, and then this election season will be over. Despite words from both sides that respect of others was the hallmark of their lives, it has been a very discouraging time in which some good people were slandered and some scary people cheered as they attacked. It is hard to believe that the harm unleashed can ever be redeemed. Yet in the middle of all this broken landscape of incivility, we come together as brothers and sisters to be the body of Christ, which is what Paul calls the church. The church, like the bread, is gathered by Jesus, blessed, broken and given for the feeding and healing of a broken world.

The Hebrew Testament lesson for this late celebration for the Feast of All Saints is from the Book of Daniel. Daniel is the legendary figure of a prophet in the time of the exile in the 6^th Century BC, but much of the book seems to be written in Aramaic and Greek in the 2^nd Century BC when Israel was being victimized by the misrule of the Seleucid Emperor, Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

In this passage (we read only six verses of the twenty eight in this 7^th chapter), Daniel has a dream, a vision, which disturbs him. He then approaches one of the heavenly attendants around the Ancient of Days, a circumlocution for God, and asks the attendant to interpret the dream for him. This is a standard practice in dream interpretation. The dreamer picks one of the images in the dream and asks it questions, what a teacher of mine, Bob Hoss, calls the Six Magic Questions:

     1) Who or what are you (name and describe yourself as the dream image)?
    2) What is your purpose or function?
    3) What do you like about what you are?

4) What do you dislike about what you are?

5) What do you fear most?

6) What do you desire most?  

In dreams all figures in the dream have to do with parts of us. As he questions the attendant, Daniel comes to the understanding that he too is an attendant of God. In this case, the attendant is an angel who is attending God, working to being God's will on earth as it is in heaven, who is disturbed at how the world is suffering from the damage of people and institutions that act like beasts and yet finding hope. The attendant in Daniel finds hope by seeing with the eyes of faith, finding in that new vision that God will redeem all things by using what the attendant in Daniel's dream calls a “bar enash”, an Aramaic phrase meaning a “human being” which is translated into “Son of Man”.

In his letters to the churches, one of which we have as our second lesson, Paul uses the word “Saints” when he is referring to those who serve God by their lives, their words, thoughts and deeds. In the dream and in Paul's letters and in the real world, the world looks like a horrible place, but the Saints find hope seeing that the Christ is redeeming all things. Paul, who was raised reading the scriptures, says that the Christ, the one who appeared as a “bar enash”, was the one known as Jesus, the one he calls Christ Jesus, and is the one in whom we place our hope, not for our individual redemption but for the redemption of all creation.

Jesus will use that phrase from Daniel as he describes himself as a person who comes at the end of the old way of living in the world and into a new way of living into a broken world. In the Gospel lesson for today, Luke passes on one time that Jesus describes the Christ-vision of the saint, the one who looks deeper and sees in the middle of all the brokenness the hope of the future. Luke remembers Jesus seeing the Saints working to comfort the weeping, to feed the hungry, and to share the riches of God's Kingdom with the poor.

Hope is not closing our eyes and crossing our fingers, wishing that things could be better. For a saint, human beings who serve God in their lives, it is the opening of hands and hearts as the Spirit of Christ gives us strength to work for that new future for which we pray every Sunday, that God's will be done on earth as in heaven. Emily Dickinson wrote:

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

A Saint is not a pristine, sanitized, plaster figure of a good person in the past, but a flawed human being holding on to hope who works in the present to bring hope into a broken world. A Saint sees the world, and the people in it, as God sees it and them, loved and incomplete, who God keeps calling to live in the Divine Love, working to bring about our living into God's vision, Daniel's dream, Paul's letters and Jesus' words and following the one who came into the world as a human being so that we might become God filled complete human beings being the outward and visible signs of the body of Christ in this world.

Saint Facing Dreams

Wishing could be good saint

but fall short of what I ain't.

If I hear one more smear

delivered with a sneer

by one more smiling toad

I with rage will explode.

     The thing is that I can see

      that that toad is part of me.

I pat myself on my back

that silence gives me slack.

     Nightmares are but dreams

     coming back with screams.

So now I will pay attention

to patterns of condescension

snaking out of my thoughts

nourishing clever pot shots.

    Christ give me strength today

    to act fully as I would pray.