wonder and blessing

It was a little after 4:00 in the morning and Yoda and I are taking advantage of the pre-dawn stars and the quarter moon to take a walk. I am looking up at the little dipper and thinking about the runaway slaves who "followed the drinking gourd" of the big dipper which pointed to the North star of the little dipper in order to find their way to freedom. Yoda was lost in his smells and in my thoughts when we both heard the sound and saw the lights of the garbage truck coming up the road. I was annoyed because it interrupted our reverie but I stopped when I realized he was doing his job. I was doing my job of being a parson and he was doing his job of being a garbage man. Both of our jobs at times are similar as we both deal with the stuff of which people prefer not to deal.

Big Dipper pointing to the North Star of Little Dipper

As he passed by I waved a greeting - I guess a little like a half-hearted blessing.  I thought of all the other invisible people working at that moment. The nurses and techs on the third shift (or second shift if they are on 12 hour shifts)at the hospital, some of whom are my parishioners and who I don't get to see that often because they are hard at work dealing with people who get sick. I think of the policeman whose son was born a couple weeks ago and thought of him either working checking the buildings, like the church,  to make sure they are locked ( and who all too often call me and get me to come to lock the church back up in the middle of the night) or walking the floor with his child. I thought of the people working  in the all night stores in the second or third jobs in order to make ends meet- also some of my parishioners. The teachers who get up early to finish the lesson plan or to grade the papers or the students who have to finish writing those papers. All of these invisible people who don't have the leisure to look at the stars.

As I write this I offer a prayer of blessing for all of these people, some I know and most I do not but they are doing God's work in our cities and towns. May they know that they are faithful and find joy in their labor. As Augustine says: "People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without wondering." 

May we all be in wonder today under the cope of heaven.

Morning walk in the waning moon

One of the best times I have here on the Outer Banks is the Pre-dawn hours. I am an introvert so I find the quiet conducive to my soul. The difference between an introvert and an extrovert is that if an introvert wants to find out what s/he extrovert really thinks or feels they will get off by themselves and get quiet whereas an extrovert will need to connect with a couple friends to check out reality. My walks in the morning are my way to return myself to sanity- or a version of reality in which I am comfortable.

The Outer Banks has a darkness with very little ambient light especially in the off season. In my neighborhood we have no street lights and the waning half moon this morning gave all the light that was necessary. Oh sure, there are some houses that I pass that are owned by people who are here part time and they have all their outside lights ON as if they are part of the witness protection program and want to feel as if they are back in the city. For the most part the permanent residents came here to get away from the lights.

The waning moon reminded me that all the light I had was only a reflection of the much greater light that I could not see directly. It is how I know God - not directly but only through pale reflection. How puny all of my observations are and how silly it seems to be an expert on that which I can only see filtered. I am reminded of the inhabitants of Plato's cave. I am able to look up and see the sky and am aware of how large the universe seems to be and how small all the things I worry about are and how limited my vision is.

This morning I was walking Yoda, the dog we got from the shelter a couple weeks ago, and he was so interested in all the scents of the deer, fox, cats and what all that had been left behind for his enjoyment and to give him an opportunity to cover over with his own scent that it was not a good exercise walk but it was good to slow down  and listen to the crickets. Usually when I am walking I try to work out a sweat as a way to cleanse my body and brain -- today was easy as my companion and I  both were struck with how our universe is greater than our ability to leave a lasting mark. Today I will see people and will try to leave some small compassion but will point to the one who is greater than I instead of just me.

Parson Tom's Tomes:

 Wednesday September 5, 2012

I went to the Board of County Commissioners Meeting yesterday to deliver a prayer at the beginning of the meeting. I had been sent the agenda and it was a standard meeting. The first items of business were to give out County Service pins for county employees; a reference librarian for ten years services, a deputy sheriff with the schools for ten years, a child protective services worker for fifteen years, a building inspector for 25 years and a deputy Sheriff Investigator - the Employee of the month who is retiring in a few months after 25 years. Although the county is 90 miles long, it is still a small county and these people had names as all good and faithful workers. The County stopped their business to honor them for the names they had lived into. After all those presentations the presenters, the honorees and their families went outside to get their pictures taken. When that crowd left the meeting room, only two or three people were remaining on the side by the door. It reminded me of a shotgun wedding congregation with only a couple people on the “groom’s” side.  

The business continued for there was a proclamation of the week of Sept 17-23 as US Constitution Week. There was more: some bids to vote on, the use of social media by the county, the discussion about certain bonds, something about a NC DOT grant, an agreement about leasing computers, some board appointments and so on. I had some more business to attend to and I left after about an hour and yet what I was seeing was a government in action. I don’t agree with all of the commissioners, but then it is less important that they agree with me, than the fact that these are people of integrity – and they are – for they also live into their names.

The agenda called to mind three quotes; (1) the phrase “Goodliest Land under the Cope of Heaven” comes Sir Walter Raleigh’s 16^th century explorers description of Roanoke Island to Queen Elizabeth I, (2) the phrase “come reason together” is stolen from Isaiah I:18, and (3) “We the people  . . .  ” is lifted from the Preface to the US Constitution.  This is a prayer about faithful everyday life.

Gracious God, Creator of this the “Goodliest land under the Cope of Heaven” we ask you to bless this meeting of our County Commission. As we give thanks for our dedicated employees and their conscientious work may we all be reminded that it is in faithful service to something much greater than ourselves that we find true liberty? We remember this month an attempt when “We, the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, . . . d(id) ordain and establish the Constitution for the United States of America.”

This magnificent yet flawed document, written by honorable but flawed people in a flawed time finishing deliberation on September 17, 1787 is a basis of how, we flawed people in our flawed times, continue to re-interpret and re-deliberate our systems of governance. We give thanks for our founding fathers who met in Philadelphia for those five hot months with different agendas yet chose to respect differences and arrive at a compromise for the good of the whole. Help us to learn from their example that we might respect our colleagues in this experiment in self- governance and “come reason together” for the good of your people. Give us tolerance and help us to find delight in our coworkers and continue to “establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,” This we ask In your name. A-men

Labor Day, September 3, 2012

I remember when I was in 5th grade the teacher took us on a trip to a factory so we could see how are shoes were made. We were packed up in a bus and toured the Endicott Johnson Shoe company. The noise, the smells, the activity  in what was at one time the largest shoe company in America formed a powerful image on me. This is what work was like in the real world!!! If it is I better stay in school.

E-J started as the Lester Shoe company in the 1850's as work was changing and it was the site of some interesting developments in labor history as machinery was instituted to make shoes faster. One stitching machine could do the work of 80 people and the factory system took over. The old craftsmen seeing themselves displaced by "green hands"- immigrants hired to run the machines, formed a labor organization called the Knights of St Crispin which tried a strike in 1869 and failed, The Knights disappeared in the depression of 1873 unable to buck the trend by owners treating their employees like just another machine

The original owners started to retire and die out in the 1890s and the Endicott Shoe company bought out the remaining Lesters and Johnson, the foreman, was brought in as a partner. Lestershire became Johnson City and the company changed the way it dealt with the workers and began an era where the company tried to provide all the needs (churches, schools, hospitals, parks, minor league baseball teams, housing etc, )of the workers in order to keep them so they did not feel the need to unionize. For many years the plants were seen as a benevolent capitalism model, some called it "welfare capitalism".  The company lost its market shares in the 1960's as shoe companies went overseas in order to control costs. Instead of paying for a worker to feed his or her family, the plan changed to piecework by third world children. Our school teachers tried to tell us how progressive Endicott Johnson was as a company with its interest in the welfare of its employees, but it died in the encroaching of the rust belt in the northeast. E-J's demise became an object lesson on venture capitalists about the need to focus on making lots of money for their investors instead of treating workers with respect.

On this Labor Day it seems like Labor is only being tolerated rather than respected as the campaign to get rid of what politicians like to call "entitlements" e.g. retirement pensions programs, medical care, safety regulations works its way across the system.

Creator God, you who worked to create this world, help us to remember that Jesus worked with his hands as a carpenter, help us to treat with respect all those who work for wages to feed their families in factories, mines, motels, restaurants, stores. Send your spirit of compassion to overcome our greed so that we will work together as a nation on building your kingdom on earth as it is in heaven where justice is shown as your love distributed. Amen

St Aidan: 31 August

Today I am finishing up my work so I can take tomorrow off from work of being the Rector of this Church but do I ever take the day off from being a "PARSON", an old English term meaning be a person who can be counted on to show God's grace? A Rector is Job title meaning "Ruler (Latin. Rex -ruler)- whereas a Parson is an ontological  state of life. However there are many days people can only see the Rector and the Parson gets swallowed up by the role.Rector.

Tomorrow is the feast day of Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, the Apostle of Northumbria  who died on this date in 651. He was a gentle man called from the monastery in Iona to bring back  the Christian message in the north of England. He is usually shown holding a lighted torch.  What was special about him was his gentleness and his lack of taking himself too seriously. There is a story that the King of Northumbria gave him a horse so he would be able to travel faster and Aidan gave it away to a beggar. He was always giving away things that people gave him because he did not want to be burdened as he shared his faith, indeed he gave himself away.

 


I think of the simpleness of this man and the kind of STUFF  with which we encumber ourselves in our churches as we try to get across the message. The problem is that we spend all this energy to proclaim ourselves as the the singer and not the song of love which is our main job. currently in this campus we have two organs and three pianos and we are trying to get another piano (to be fair the Lutherans  who use one of our gathering spaces own one of the organs and one of the pianos.)  I love music and it forms a real part of my ability to meditate on God -our choir is WONDERFUL and we give glory to God with music and our cghoir director keeps pushing the choir to do its best- not as a show  or performance  but as shared worship. I am continually being converted not by talent but by  having people live their lives with integrity and in awe of something greater than themselves.

The Venerable Bede said of him: "Wherever on his way he saw any, either rich or poor, he invited them, if pagans, to embrace the mystery of the faith; or if they were believers, he sought to strengthen them in their faith and stir them up by words and actions to alms and good works."

Do we invite people in mystery of do we shovel down dogmas and creeds and ceremonies. There is something to refer to mystery- which is something not to be solved but an unanswerable way of  living in paradox. Not having ready answers but having an open heart.

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Prayer          O loving God, who called your servant Aidan from the peace of a cloister to re-establish the Christian mission in northern England, and gave him the gifts of gentleness, simplicity, and strength: Grant that we, following his example, may use what you have given us for the relief of human need, and may persevere in commending the saving Gospel of our Redeemer Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. .Amen