Gathering Life for Eternity

Dostoevsky gets me blogging again

2010-06-07T22:33:00.002-05:00

So, here's my first post in well over a year...
Back in September of 2008 my wife presented me with a cool old copy of Fyodor Dostoevsky's the Brothers Karamazov that she found at a garage sale. A decade earlier I had seen the film starring Yul Brynner and became captivated by the story. So fast-forward a decade to September 2008 and on my fist clergy retreat I began reading the Brothers Karamazov. And so I've reading it on and off the last couple years. It's amazing what a good story can do for the soul. And I've found the following lines from Dostoevsky so compelling I had to share them, so good it forced me to get back into the blogosphere(!). This is advise that one of the superiors of the monastery, Fr. Paissy, gives to the protagonist, the young monk, Alyosha:
"Remember young man, constantly" Father Paissy began without preface, "that the science of this world, which has become a great power, has, especially in the last century, analysed everything divine handed down to us in the holy books. After this cruel analysis, the learned of this world have nothing left of all that was sacred of old. But they have only analysed the parts and overlooked the whole, and indeed their blindness is astounding. Yet the whole still stands steadfast before their eyes, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Has it not lasted nineteen centuries, is it not stilll a living, a moving power in the individual soul and among the masses of the people? It dwells as unshakably as before in the souls of the very atheists, who have destroyed everything! For even those who have renounced Christianity and rebel against it, in their inmost being still follow the Christian ideal, for hitherto neither their subtlety nor the ardour of their hearts has been able to create a higher image of man and of virtue than the image manifested by Christ of old. When it has been attempted, the result has been only grotesque."
Amazingly profound insight into the human condition. We keep trying to create a more exalted version of humankind; through medicine, science, education, politics, consumerism, philanthropy...and none of them change the human condition. We keep trying to sanitize the soul out of individuals and out of the masses. Political correctness requires it. But sanitizing the soul out of people leaves us with only a few dead-end options: "spirituality", consumerism or philanthropy. Spirituality without Christ is nothing more than "finding myself", and fankly I'd much rather actualize Jesus in my life than Joel, He's far better. Consumerism is merely shoving stuff into the same God-shaped hole. Or, full of good intentions we strive to serve others through our philanthropy. But even that, sans Christ, is bogus because philanthropy for its own sake seems to be 1) because it "makes me feel better about myself" and 2) has an aire of looking down one's nose at "those poor pitiful people" who need me to save them. Call me cynical, but in the American Suburbs I see exactly what Dostoevsky was talking about over 100 years ago here. When we try to invent an image an virtue of humankind without Jesus Christ the result is grotesque.

Nashotah House Peru Mission 2009

2009-04-13T17:18:00.002-05:00

Check it out here: http://nashotahmissions.blogspot.com/

Sermon: John 1:1-7 ~ The Light Has Come to Shine Through Us

2009-01-13T16:06:00.002-06:00

Preached at Light of Christ Anglican Fellowship (AMiA), Kenosha, WI on December 27th, 2009
The Light has come to shine through us. Merry Christmas! Here we are on the fourth day of Christmas. Anyone get four calling birds today? Three French hens? Well I mention this Carol because it drives home what is an often lost understanding in modern American culture: Christmas does not end on December 25th, it begins! It’s not a day but a season. Twelve days long. It is a time when we can immerse ourselves in the joyful reality that Jesus has come into the world! We’ve celebrated a season of anticipation and hope in Advent. A season where the Church historically prays "Maranatha!" or “Oh Lord, come!” And now we celebrate His arrival into the world. We have twelve days to immerse ourselves in the truth that the Light has come into the world in order to shine through us.
Today’s Gospel is very familiar to many of us I’m sure: “In the beginning was the Word…” It’s the great prologue to John’s Gospel. Why does the Gospel open with these words? Essentially what John is saying is that when it comes to Jesus “Let us begin at the beginning." And where else do we hear “In the beginning…” in the Scriptures? It is these words which begin God’s message to his people. The Scriptures begin at Genesis 1:1 with “In the beginning…” And John is very intentionally using that same phrase here to indicate that in that very same beginning...Jesus! It’s interesting to note a progression among the Gospels. Matthew starts Jesus’ genealogy with Abraham: the first Hebrew. Luke begins Jesus’ genealogy with Adam: the first man. But what does John begin with? Before the first Hebrew, before the man, before the Creation itself…Jesus.
John uses a unique description for Him too. The Word. Well what does this mean? Why does he call Jesus "the Word"? It comes from the Greek λογος which means “reason” or simply “word.” And the incredible thing about John’s use of this particular description for Jesus is that it communicates effectively to a number of different audiences. For the Greeks, like the Stoic philosophers, they would understand this to mean the principle of order that holds the universe together. So for the Greeks "λογος" means something. What about the Jews or the early Jewish-Christians? Throughout the Old Testament the “Word of God” is understood as the creative force. In the Creation account we have God speaking things into being, “Let there be ____, and there was _____.” The Word is also a message: “The Word of the Lord came to Isaiah” for example. So tied up in this description of Jesus as “the Word”, is this sense of the Creative Power and very essence of God and that which holds the universe together. This Word was with God at the Creation. And He is God.
An interesting thing to note is the parallel this passage of John’s Gospel has with the Nicene Creed. For example the phrase “Begotten not made” certainly is suggested when John begins with “in the beginning” as opposed to Matthew or Luke’s “starting with Adam…” or “starting with Abraham…” We also see it in “through Him all things were made."
What we seem to have in today's Gospel is John building for us the identity of Jesus. He is eternal. He was present in the beginning with God. He is God. He is the medium through which everything was created. And then we come to our next point which is also in the Creed.
Christ is Light. “Light from Light” as the Creed says. Or as our Gospel says “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness…” And this bursting forth of the Light is a wonderful hinge for us in our liturgical life together. We’ve come through Advent, a season of longing for the Light to come into the darkness of our world. With Christmas we celebrate the arrival of the Light. But the journey’s not over because we are moving towards the great Christian Feast of Light: the one from which we get our name (Light of Christ Anglican Fellowship). Epiphany. With Christmas we celebrate the arrival of the Light into the world. With Epiphany we celebrate the Light going forth into all the world.
This procession of the Light of the World into the world brings me to the next important section of today’s Gospel. John the Baptist. As I’ve reflected on John the Baptist it seems to me that, in the American Church, John the Baptist doesn’t get much attention. Two Sundays ago Fr. Eirik brought with him the three-paneled icon called a deisis which has Christ in the center with Mary on his right and John the Baptist on his left. In every Eastern Orthodox Church this deisis with John the Baptist is in the center of the Church, a beautiful wall before the altar. John the Baptist stands before millions of Christians throughout the world before millions of altars. So obviously certain Christian traditions think he’s a big deal. And I think we should too. Why? First, Jesus suggests that he’s the role-model of discipleship. “I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." (Luke 7:28) It’s Jesus paradoxical way of exemplifying John in such a way as to urge us to follow his lead. Second, it’s rather remarkable that in a passage meant to explain who Jesus is that John comes up. Anyone else being mentioned at all seems exceptional to begin with, but then considering that someone is mentioned who might we expect? Mary? One of disciples? An angel? No, rather we find John the Baptist. Somehow, tied to the Light coming into the world is John the Baptist and his ministry. And it’s kind of funny because in this passage just when we think we’ve heard the last about John the Baptist, the John the Evangelist mentions him again in verse 15! It’s like he can’t stop talking about John the Baptist! So based upon Jesus, John the Evangelist and the Eastern Orthodox tradition we have good evidence that John’s a big deal.
So what do we see John the Baptist doing here? Why is he a big deal? He's bearing witness. He has one mission. “To bear witness to the Light, that all might believe through him.” The Light has come. And John knew that the reason the Light came was to shine through him. As he says later in the Gospel John the Baptist knew that “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (Jn 3:30) We need to make John our example, our role-model. Just like the beautiful deisis in the Orthodox Churches we need to hold his example before us to remind us that the Light has come in order to shine through us.
In this sense we’re like a lamp. We’re meant to contain the Light of Christ so that He can shine though us. Our responsibility as people who celebrate the arrival of the infant Jesus, the Light of the World, is to let Him shine through us. And this has two key elements. First, we have to keep the lens clean in order for the Light which is in us to have its greatest effect. Secondly, we need to direct our light into the darkness. Like John, we need to bear witness to the Light. Jesus says about our Light, "Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:15-16)
Where are you called to bring the Light of Christ? Where am I called to bring the Light of Christ? Look at our relationships first. Our homes. Our families. Our coworkers or our classmates. Friends. Those people we do hobbies or sports with. Then move outward to our communities that we live in. Our State. The World. Henry Blackaby in his book Experiencing God has a great admonition. “Find out where God is at work and then join Him.” Where is God at work in your corner of the world? Pray about where you’re called and then bring the Light of Christ there.
And the Incarnation also informs where we bring the Light. Our Gospel says that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” God took on human flesh in order to live among us. And the word used for dwell here is the same word used in the Old Testament to describe when God would tabernacle Himself, when His glory would dwell, among His people. Another way to say this is “The Word took on flesh and His glory dwelt among us.”
I’d like to share an example of this theology of the Incarnation from our own Anglican history. In the 19th century in England a revival was occurring in the Church. This revival was known as the Oxford Movement and it has had lasting effects upon, and informs, how we worship today. So what was this revival all about? These Christians were rediscovering the treasures of the Early Church. And central to the foundation of the way the Early Church worshipped and did mission was their understanding of Incarnation, "the Word becoming flesh and His glory dwelling among us." God became matter. And because God became matter, “matter matters.” An early saint of the Church from the 7th century named John of Damascus has a wonderful quote I’d like to share:
"I worship the Creator of matter who became matter for my sake, who willed to take his abode in matter; who worked out my salvation through matter. Never will I cease honoring the matter which wrought my salvation!"
The Incarnation, God’s taking on human flesh to dwell among us has dignified it. Jesus has “graced” matter by taking on matter. This is why we as Anglicans reverence the bread and the wine in the Eucharist, it’s why we find value in water and oil which has been set apart for blessing and healing. It’s why we value symbols like the Cross or the colors in the vestments that clergy wear. Not because these things have value in and of themselves but because they represent, they point to, the inner reality of the Incarnation. Christ's dignifying of matter.
Throughout the history of the Church these were important because of what they represented however at the time of the Oxford Movement this theology of the Incarnation had become weak. The Eucharist was celebrated with a small amount of reverence. Clergy didn't vest. Things such as candles, a Cross in Church or even making the sign of the Cross were considered scandalous. A priest could even get thrown in jail for using them. And the Oxford Movement brought back things like frequent celebration of the Eucharist, vestments, candles, etc. But not because they liked playing dress-up. They did this because they thought that matter mattered, because God said so in the Incarnation of His Son, and that worship ought to be beautiful. As the Psalmist says, “Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.” They wanted to bring the beauty of the Lord and His worship to the drab world of the slums of England.
This lack of “color” in worship common to their day was in some ways symbolic of the drabness that had entered the ministry as well. During this time, for most, going into the priesthood was a career move. The profession of a gentlemen, like becoming a doctor or a lawyer. It was motivated by a desire for income and prestige. The Oxford Movement reclaimed the priesthood and said it was a calling from God which one ought to abandon themselves to completely. Why? The Incarnation. Because Jesus abandoned Himselg completely to the Father's will for our sakes. And because the dignity which Christ brought to matter such as bread, wine, oil, water or symbol paled in comparison to the dignity Christ brought people. Christ’s Incarnation dignified and made present Himself in every human being and was present in "the least of these" in the slums. This was the era of Oliver Twist. Horrendous slums. Children working in factories. Hunger. Three and four families crammed into a small tenement with no heat. Filth in the streets. And it was in these poor that Christ was present. Just as Our Lord says in the parable of the Sheep and the Goats, “Whenever you did it to one of the least of these, you did it unto me.” These men and women went into the slums to abandon themselves to God's will and bring Christ and the beauty of His holiness to "the least of these."
Another tradition the Oxford Movement recovered was what's called reserving the sacrament in the tabernacle. The tabernacle is a special place to keep the bread of the Eucharist, which is a way to acknowledge Christ’s presence among us and focus our devotion towards Him. One of the defining statements of the Oxford Movement of our Anglican forebears was said by missionary bishop Frank Weston, “You cannot worship Jesus in the tabernacle if you do not pity Him in the slum.” And this drove these priests into the slums of London were they lived and died among the poor: risking cholera during epidemics to minister to people and bring beautiful worship to an otherwise drab world. They wanted to let the Light of Christ shine through them.
This theology of the Incarnation ought to motivate us as well. We cannot claim to honor Jesus in the Eucharist and not have compassion on Him in our neighbors, can we?
Christ is the Light who came into the world to shine through us. May we follow the example of our Anglican Forefathers and honor Jesus in the Sacraments and minister to Him in our neighbors. May we follow the mighty example of John the Baptist and bear witness to the Light. May we embrace the Light which has come and allow it to shine in and through us into the world. And may we make today’s Collect our prayer as we enter into the Celebration of the Incarnation: “Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives…” Amen.

Seminarian Humor from Yours Truly

2008-12-11T14:42:00.002-06:00

Christmas Gift Ideas

2008-11-30T23:54:00.005-06:00

OK...so I'm not trying to promote capitalistic visions of holiday $hopping. But the fact is, one of the ways we remember God's most incredible gift in His Son Jesus Christ's coming to earth, is by giving gifts to one another for His birthday. That said, I've added some links for Christmas Gift Suggestions in the left side column of my blog. This is all stuff I truly believe in and support: Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee, some of my favorite Children's Books (including a few Christmas-specific titles) and Monk E Gifts which I just discovered.
Land of a Thousand Hills is absolutely one of the finest coffees I know of (and I'm a total coffee snob) and they're helping rebuild Rwanda and support Christian ministry with 30% (!) of their sales.
Monk E Gifts is a one-stop resource where numerous monasteries from all over the country who have a specific trade can sell their items. They have tons of cool stuff. I especially think the Spa Gift Basketts are a really nice idea but they have all kinds of chocolates, fruit cakes, music, you name it. Check it out. Your purchases help support real Outposts of Faith and Prayer which are doing good work for Jesus in the world.
Finally, Kid's Books. I love good kids books. And I'm especially a big fan of the lives of Saints for kids. Who better to have as role models than godly "superheroes"? These are some of favorites that I love to share with my Mancub, neices & nephews, god-children and other wee friends. An especially wonderful Christmas book is the story of the real St. Nicholas.
As I've said recently, if we must spend money, why not spend it in places that are doing good work in the world? And while I don't know what kind of charitable work Amazon is doing, they do bless me with a small percentage of your purchases and for that I thank you.
May you enjoy a blessed Advent and and glorious celebration of the birth of the Savior!

Wendell Berry

2008-11-22T22:49:00.003-06:00

OK, so I feel a bit daft. I've just discovered Wendell Berry. How is it I've never come across him before? He is a champion of Crunchy Con sensibilities and...check this out...he was born, raised and lives in the same county my Grandma and Grandpa lived in Kentucky. He's from Newcastle and that's the big town we'd go into to grocery shop, etc when we visited my grandparents tobacco farm.
He's described as a defender of the family, traditional family farms, local economies and rural communities. He's written tons of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. He doesn't own a computer and hand-writes all his work which his wife then edits and types on a typewriter. He still farms and plows with draft horses instead of a tractor and uses an outhouse. (Not unlike my great-granfather in rural Kentucky in the 1960's). I can't wait to start reading his stuff.
I stumbled across his 17 rules for the healthy functioning of sustainable local communities. He summarizes ideals I've tried to live by for a long time. I'm preparing to dive into his Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community: Eight Essays and after that would like to check out What Are People For? I've listed his 17 rules here for you:

1. Always ask of any proposed change or innovation: What will this do to our community? How will this affect our common wealth.
2. Always include local nature - the land, the water, the air, the native creatures - within the membership of the community.
3. Always ask how local needs might be supplied from local sources, including the mutual help of neighbours.
4. Always supply local needs first (and only then think of exporting products - first to nearby cities, then to others).
5. Understand the ultimate unsoundness of the industrial doctrine of 'labour saving' if that implies poor work, unemployment, or any kind of pollution or contamination.
6. Develop properly scaled value-adding industries for local products to ensure that the community does not become merely a colony of national or global economy.
7. Develop small-scale industries and businesses to support the local farm and/or forest economy.
8. Strive to supply as much of the community's own energy as possible.
9. Strive to increase earnings (in whatever form) within the community for as long as possible before they are paid out.
10. Make sure that money paid into the local economy circulates within the community and decrease expenditures outside the community.
11. Make the community able to invest in itself by maintaining its properties, keeping itself clean (without dirtying some other place), caring for its old people, and teaching its children.
12. Sees that the old and young take care of one another. The young must learn from the old, not necessarily, and not always in school. There must be no institutionalised childcare and no homes for the aged. The community knows and remembers itself by the association of old and young.
13. Account for costs now conventionally hidden or externalised. Whenever possible, these must be debited against monetary income.
14. Looks into the possible uses of local currency, community-funded loan programmes, systems of barter, and the like.
15. Always be aware of the economic value of neighbourly acts. In our time, the costs of living are greatly increased by the loss of neighbourhood, which leaves people to face their calamities alone.
16. A rural community should always be acquainted and interconnected with community-minded people in nearby towns and cities.
17. A sustainable rural economy will depend on urban consumers loyal to local products. Therefore, we are talking about an economy that will always be more cooperative than competitive.

Monks Rock!

2008-11-21T10:48:00.003-06:00

We have to spend money. Therefore it behooves us to be intentional about where we spend it. If you have to buy coffee, for example, why not buy it from a Land of A Thousand Hills which gives 30% of its profits to Rwandan widows and orphans and is helping create a local economy? You need to buy ink and toner for your computer printer? Why not buy them from Cistercian monks who use proceeds to help fund all kinds of wonderful ministries?
Ta Da! Meet Lasermonks! They're cheaper than Officemax, and as I said, you're both helping support a community of men who have committed their lives to prayer and serving Jesus and helping fund good stuff.

You can click here for there website. So next time you need toner, remember...Lasermonks!

Another great monastery is St. Benedict's Abbey in Bartonville, IL. They're friends of mine and I've done some retreats there. As you prepare to do some Christmas shopping, check out their gift shop (click here). They're a great bunch of guys and I'm very to commend them to you (I highly recommend the fruit-cake-in-a-jar and the hot sauce).

Sermon: Psalm 1 ~ Stand as Saints

2008-11-19T10:37:00.003-06:00

Will we choose to stand firmly as a saint or slip away like a scoffer? There’s a quote which has recently become very dear to me. It comes from the Journals of Father Alexander Schmemann, a Russian Orthodox priest and theologian who is a great source of inspiration in my walk with the Lord. If you’re not familiar with his Journals they’re wonderful reading and I highly recommended them to you. The quote is this…

Then how should one live? Gather life for eternity, which means to live life as
being eternal.

That is the picture the Psalmist is painting for us in Psalm 1. He is answering the question “How should one live?” Answer? Gather life for eternity. And eternity, this sense of permanence or stability is at the heart of this Psalm. We have two contrasting images. Eternity, permanence or stability on the one hand versus slipping away, a downward spiral or being blown away like chaff on the other.
Another image in Psalm 1 is that of a path. And the Psalmist seems to lay it before us as a choice. He gives these competing images as if to say, “Here are the two ultimate options for your life. Choose.” Interestingly he begins by presenting the negative imagery. “Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor lingered in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seats of the scornful!” So he begins by saying what ought to be avoided in order to be happy, or blessed as other translations render it. And you’ll note an interesting pattern here. Those “who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor lingered in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seats of the scornful.” Walked. Lingered. Sat. It’s an incredibly insightful picture of how we can be seduced away from the Lord isn’t it? It’s not as though one day we are completely solid in our walk and the next we’re firmly planted in wickedness. No, it’s a process. And it begins when we’re willing to listen to the “counsel of the wicked”, to be influenced by those whose chief priority is not the Lord. Whether it’s friends, family, the things we listen to on the radio, watch on TV or movies, magazines we read. It’s sitting idly by and allowing those things which are not of the Lord to seep into our soul. This is entertaining the “counsel of the wicked” and we must avoid it. At this point, says the Psalmist, we’re still in motion, we’re walking. But then it degenerates into “lingering in the way of sinners”. We’re not just tolerating ungodly things, we’re spending time there. We’re hanging out there. And then finally we stop and make our home there. We “sit in the seat of the scornful.” Unlike “walking” or “lingering” which imply a passive toleration “to sit in the seat of the scornful” means to actively participate in the mockery of the sacred. We become a mocker, a scoffer. And this is why we have to be so careful to guard where we walk. To guard our path. And I think this is especially pertinent for the young adults among us. To be especially thoughtful about how you spend you’re time, who you spend it with, what you spend it doing.
I’d like to illustrate this with a story about two friends. When they were young men they met shortly after giving their lives to the Lord. They shared their joy in their newfound faith together, partnered in ministry together, shared their new families' lives together and for a number of years seemed to be on the same path. Both of them came from similar backgrounds, had similar struggles and (initially) similar levels of discipleship. Same kind of guys. Same path. You’d think they’d wind up at the same destination wouldn’t you? Sadly, this isn’t the case. Fast forward a decade and these two men, who had started at the same point on the same path, arrived at two very different destinations. One of them became an ordained minister in the Church. The other went through a bitter, painful divorce after succumbing to adultery; declaring bankruptcy and finally found himself hospitalized after alcohol, drug and gambling addictions nearly killed him. How did these two men arrive at such vastly different destinations? One of the key differences was the choice whether to guard their path or not. Again, same kind of guys, similar backgrounds, similar struggles, similar levels of discipleship, same starting point but two different destinations. One clearly identifiable difference was the choice “not to walk in the counsel of the wicked”. Not to allow oneself to receive influence from those things which are not of God. While it may seem like a small choice now not to associate with a certain individual, or avoid certain TV shows or movies, or music, or magazines, or places, or activities I can attest that a small choice not to avoid “the counsel of the wicked” now can lead to a trail of pain and brokenness years ahead. We must guard our path diligently. And I say this especially to you young people. Think carefully about how you spend you time and who you spend it with. It can change the entire course of your life. Because these choices will lead to one of two things. Standing among the saints, or slipping away with the scoffers.
So how do we stand among the saints? How do we gather life for eternity? As I said, first, we need to guard our path. This is our spiritual discipline of abstinence. But what is a discipline of engagement? The Psalmist sums it up with one phrase. “Their delight is in the law of the Lord, and they meditate on his law day and night.” This leads to the question, “What does it mean to delight in the law of the Lord?” Innately we all have some sense of what it means, but let’s unpack it a little.
Often when we think of “the Law of the Lord” what do we immediately think of? Rules. The Ten Commandents. The Law of Moses. The 613 mitzvot that pious Jews keep. That certainly is one definition. And we can broaden the scope to the Word of God, the Bible, the Old and New Testaments. To delight ourselves in the reading, studying, “marking and inwardly digesting” of God’s Word. This is very close to what the Psalmist is driving at here but it still comes up a bit short. What the Psalmist is driving at, that thing we ought to delight in, is the entirety of God’s divine will. One commentator summarizes it this way, “It is not merely study and intellectual awareness that bring divine favor. Study of the law is suggestive of the correct attitudes and behavior that should result from an awareness of and commitment to God's moral will.” Not merely study and intellectual but the correct attitude and behaviors that result from a commitment to God's moral will. One translation of this verse puts it this way “he finds pleasure in obeying the LORD's commands.” To delight in the Law of the Lord is to find pleasure in obedience to God’s will. Our greatest delight ought to be in the things of Him.
We ought to do some personal inventory and ask ourselves, “What is it that I delight in?” What are the ways that I find pleasure in obeying God’s will? What are some areas of life that I can work on this? And what are some things that need to go to make room for this?
The other half of this verse rounds it out for us. To “meditate on his law day and night.” So what does this mean? The original language carries the connotation of muttering to oneself, pondering, or speaking to oneself. So this means to speak to yourself God’s will day and night. I’m reminded of Paul’s exhortation in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to “pray without ceasing”. In the Eastern Orthodox Church one application of Paul’s exhortation here has been manifested in what’s called the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, have mercy on me, a sinner.” The book the Way of the Pilgrim describes a man who, after hearing the Epistle to the Thessalonians read in Church, wants to learn to pray without ceasing and so is instructed by his spiritual director to pray this prayer daily: first 1,000 times a day; then 3,000; 6,000 and so on. It sounds incredible. [It may beg the question: Is this what Jesus was speaking against in Matthew 6:7 when he says, “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words”? No! The key adjective is empty and to pray in the Name of the Lord in faith is never empty.] And as this pilgrim prayed this prayer it trained his mind and his heart to be in a state of constant awareness of, responsiveness to and communion with the Lord. He was meditating on God’s will day and night. So our prayers are one way we meditate on the Law of the Lord.
Another practical way to do this is to memorize the Scriptures and speak them to yourselves throughout the day. Memorize a Psalm. Memorize this Psalm! Μemorize the Beatitudes, the Ten Commandments, a short Epistle. [I suggest Jude!] Fill your mind and your heart with the Holy Scriptures and speak back them to yourselves, pray them to the Lord. Meditate upon Him. Day and night. One of the commentators I read has a great line, “An individual is formed by what one loves and reflects on continually. What delights us invades us.” To be invaded by our delight in the law of the Lord, invaded by our pleasure in obeying His will. What do we know about being invaded? Invaders take over. Isn’t it a wonderful thought to be completely taken over by pleasure in obeying the Lord?
So as we see, one of the hallmarks of the righteous person in this Psalm is consistency. Stability. To stand as a saint requires our consistency. And the Psalmist makes two very clear pictures for us of this. A fruitful tree and chaff blowing away. Why the image of a fruitful tree? Because a tree that is bearing fruit is fulfilling the purpose for which it was created. When we delight in the law of the Lord and meditate upon it day and night, we are fulfilling the purpose for which we were created. We are gathering life for eternity. We are standing firmly as a saint. May we cultivate the discipline of meditating on the law of the Lord, of finding pleasuring in obeying His will, of asking ourselves what we delight in, in guarding our path that we can be found like a tree planted by a stream of water, fulfilling the purpose for which we were created. Amen.

Deaconing with Bp. Godfrey

2008-11-01T20:34:00.012-05:00

As those of you who read this blog know, I spent two weeks in Peru last January visiting the Anglican Diocese of Peru which is under the care of an incredibly inspiring father-in-God, Bishop William Godfrey. This week he was here at Nashotah House to received an honory Doctor of Divinity degree and then speak at our Missions Conference. The Missus, the Mancub and I had a lovely week hosting the Bishop, his wife Judith and their son Fr. Matt. And today I had the joy of serving as deacon for him at the Eucharist, my second ever diaconal liturgy. What a joy and a privilege!

the Ordination of a Deacon

2008-10-25T21:05:00.009-05:00

Here's a quick photo-journal of my ordination on Thursday night.
The six ordinands, or "My six-pack" as our bishop has dubbed us, as we're processing into the Chapel clad solely in our white albs.
Standing before the bishop, seated in front of us, making our vows.
Prostrating ourselves before the altar as the Litany is prayed over us.
The bishop charges us with the responsibilities of our new ministry.
The bishop lays hands upon my head and prays, "Therefore, Father, through Jesus Christ your Son, give your Holy Spirit to Joel; fill him with grace and power, and make him a deacon in your Church."
I am then vested in a deacon's stole.
And then in a dalmatic.
The bishop then places a Bible upon my head and prays, "Receive this Bible as the sign of your authority to proclaim God’s Word and to assist in the ministration of his holy Sacraments."
We are then presented to the congregation as the six newest deacon's in Christ's Christ.
Here we are at the altar as the Eucharist is prepared.
Here we are processing out joyfully singing our Seminary Hymn, now clad in the stole and dalmatic of a deacon.

Our bishop with his "Six Pack" (and the two assisting priests and his chaplain in the back row).

The new deacon with his bishop, father-in-God, mentor, hero and friend.

Here's mancub helping Daddy clean-up after our reception. One of the jobs of a deacon, as outlined in the Acts of the Apostles, is to be a table server. Looks like the Mancub already has a handle on how to be a servant. Praise God!

Becoming a Deacon

2008-10-17T22:34:00.007-05:00

So what is about to happen to me? And how do I feel about it ? Well, I'm terribly excited as this is the realization of many years of longing to serve Our Lord's Church in Holy Orders. I'm also humbled by the huge responsibility I'll be charged with which is best articulated in two places: St. Paul's first epistle to Timothy...

Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much
wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. They must hold the mystery of the faith
with a clear conscience. And let them also be tested first; then let them serve
as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. Their wives1 likewise must be
dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons
each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own
households well. For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for
themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. 1
Timothy 3:8-13

And in the Ordination Rite with which the Bishop will ordain me...

My brother, do you believe that you are truly called by God and his Church to the life and work of a deacon?
Answer I believe I am so called.
Bishop Do you now in the presence of the Church commit yourself to this trust and responsibility?
Answer I do.
Bishop Will you be guided by the pastoral direction and leadership of your bishop?
Answer I will.
Bishop Will you be faithful in prayer, and in the reading and study of the Holy Scriptures?
Answer I will.
Bishop Will you look for Christ in all others, being ready to help and serve those in need?
Answer I will.
Bishop Will you do your best to pattern your life and that of your family in accordance with the teachings of Christ, so that you may be a wholesome example to all people?
Answer I will.
Bishop Will you in all things seek not your glory but the glory of the Lord Christ?
Answer I will.
Bishop May the Lord by his grace uphold you in the service he lays upon you.
Answer Amen.

Please do pray for me, as well as the Missus and the Mancub as we prepare to serve the Lord and His Church in this new commitment. Glory to God for the wonderful privilege!

My Diaconal Ordination...Glory to God

2008-10-06T16:07:00.006-05:00

God Willing and the People Consenting,
The Right Reverend Keith Lynn Ackerman, DD, SSC
Eigth Bishop of Quincy will ordain

David Morrison Adams, Jr.
Colin Moore Ambrose
Frank Rosser Dunaway, III
Joseph Robert Hermerding
Rodney Shane Hurst
Joel Allen Prather

To the Sacred Order of Deacons
In Christ’s One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church

Thursday, the Twenty-third of October
In the year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Eight
At Five o’clock in the Evening

The Chapel of Saint Mary the Virgin
Nashotah House

Your prayers are requested

Thank You

2008-10-05T23:11:00.003-05:00

As many of you know I just overhauled this blog. One of the things I've added is a counter to see how many folks actually visit and I'm shocked! Apparently I've already had 60 visitors since Oct. 1st. So if you're a regular visitor let me know by leaving a comment on a blog entry you enjoy, I'd love to hear from you.
Also, if you're an Amazon.com shopper and are not currently making purchases to benefit another organization would you consider using my links here? It doesn't cost anything extra and I get 4% of your purchase in Amazon gift certificates which I intend to use to build my pastoral library. Again, thanks to everyone who read this. I hope it's a blessing to you.

St. Francis of Assisi

2008-10-04T22:30:00.005-05:00

Today the Church remembers one of my heroes, St. Francis of Assisi. In a sermon last year I had the privilege to speak of the things I find so inspiring about him. He was a man who deeply desired to be faithful to Jesus and to really live the Gospel. As a result he helped the Western Church find it's true love again and started a reformation that preceeded the Protestant Reformation by 300 years. He's most commonly remembered for his love of creation which I find unfortunate because this pales in comparison to his passion for deep intimacy with Jesus. Another little known fact is his desire to peacefully share Christ with Muslims, evidenced by his crossing enemy lines during the fifth crusade to preach the Gospel to the Sultan who was so impressed that he sent him away with gifts of fruit and ice!
Today I also remember the birthday of my Great Aunt Ida, may she rest in peace and rise in glory, and had the pleasure of spending a wonderful day with her son, my cousin Gordy, and his wife Anne: walking under newly changing leaves along the lake here, touring the chapels at the seminary, ringing the Angelus together (great fun!), going to the local gelateria (fruit? ice? who says gelato isn't a Franciscan devotion!) for gelato and espresso and sharing a dinner together around our table talking about our family, their numerous and wonderful recipes and their ancestral Italy over sausage and pasta. Truly a fitting way to celebrate Aunt Ida and St. Francis.

Escaping from Darkness to the Light of Love

2008-10-03T10:04:00.004-05:00

So as I've mentioned previously I've been intending to read the Brothers Karamazov for way too long and finally begun last week. I'm not far along but am already struck by the depiction of one of the main characters, Alyosha, in Chapter 4. I find it a wonderful description of what living in the manner of Christ can look like:
He was simply an early lover of humanity, and that he adopted the monastic life was simply because at that time it struck him, so to say, as the ideal escape for his soul struggling from the darkness of worldly wickedness to the light of love...In his childhood and youth he was by no means expansive, and talked little indeed, but not from shyness or a sullen unsociability; quite the contrary, from something different, from a sort of inner preoccupation entirely personal and unconcerned with other people, but so important to him that he seemed, as it were, to forget others on account of it. But he was fond of people: he seemed throughout his life to put implicit trust in people: yet no one ever looked on him as a simpleton or naive person. There was something about him which made one feel at once (and it was so all his life afterwards) that he did not care to be a judge of others that he would never take it upon himself to criticise and would never condemn anyone for anything. He seemed, indeed, to accept everything without the least condemnation though often grieving bitterly: and this was so much so that no one could surprise or frighten him even in his earliest youth. Coming at twenty to his father's house, which was a very sink of filthy debauchery, he, chaste and pure as he was, simply withdrew in silence when to look on was unbearable, but without the slightest sign of contempt or condemnation....
Everyone, indeed, loved this young man wherever he went, and it was so from his earliest childhood. When he entered the household of his patron and benefactor, Yefim Petrovitch Polenov, he gained the hearts of all the family, so that they looked on him quite as their own child. Yet he entered the house at such a tender age that he could not have acted from design nor artfulness in winning affection. So that the gift of making himself loved directly and unconsciously was inherent in him, in his very nature, so to speak. It was the same at school, though he seemed to be just one of those children who are distrusted, sometimes ridiculed, and even disliked by their schoolfellows. He was dreamy, for instance, and rather solitary. From his earliest childhood he was fond of creeping into a corner to read, and yet he was a general favourite all the while he was at school. He was rarely playful or merry, but anyone could see at the first glance that this was not from any sullenness. On the contrary he was bright and good-tempered. He never tried to show off among his schoolfellows. Perhaps because of this, he was never afraid of anyone, yet the boys immediately understood that he was not proud of his fearlessness and seemed to be unaware that he was bold and courageous. He never resented an insult. It would happen that an hour after the offence he would address the offender or answer some question with as trustful and candid an expression as though nothing had happened between them. And it was not that he seemed to have forgotten or intentionally forgiven the affront, but simply that he did not regard it as an affront, and this completely conquered and captivated the boys...

New Blog Title

2008-09-30T23:55:00.004-05:00

So I've changed the title of my blog. We'll see if it sticks. The original title "Revelation 4" was taken from my love of this Chapter of the New Testament and how it shapes and informs my worship and my orientation to the world and to Christ's Church. Nonetheless, it's ambiguous. So much of where my heart is at is concerned with how to disengage from the distractions we all face as we live in modern, media-glutted, consumer, over-achieving, Suburban America. So what do I think we're distracted from? Christ. Glory. Family. Virtue. Tranquility. Celebration. Joy. Life. So often we settle for cheap imitations. Schmemann's quote in my previous blog has been resounding in my heart all day and so we'll try it on for size as the new title to this blog. Regardless, I pray my reflections in this blog encourage those who read it to truly gather life for eternity.

Gather Life for Eternity

2008-09-30T10:42:00.006-05:00

A great quote from the Journals of Father Alexander Schmemann dated Monday, September 23,1974:
Then how should one live? Gather life for eternity, which means to live life as being eternal. To sow perishable goods, so that "after" death they would rise up indestructable. But one can choose to live "gathering death," to live by "the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life" (1 John 2:16) which is already a torture, already death. One can choose to submit to daily bustle, to empty one's soul, to serve idols - a dead end - death...
It seems this is the question that Americans especially, and all people, have before us. Do we fill our soul's by gathering life for eternity or do we gather death by submitting to the daily bustle, serving idols?

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

2008-09-24T15:34:00.010-05:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, I need to read more great literature (and have been saying this for far too long). I'm drawn to Russian literature, art, worship, culture, you name it...maybe it's the Kievan blood my great-grandfather Dmente Prokopenko, a.k.a. David Prokof, has given me. Anyhow, I've been enjoying reading the Journals of Father Alexander Schmemann and he writes about his friendship with Solzhenitsyn. This lead me to read Solzhenitsyn's 1978 Harvard Address and in it he makes a statement which resonates deeply with me which I'd like to share. I think it captures the spirit of some of my recent posts.
He is speaking here of the suggestion that the United States might offer a cultural model for the oppressed Russian people. The struggle for "three decades for the people of Eastern Europe" hits home for me, I can remember as a little kid the friends and family coming to the U.S. from Communist Poland to my great-grandma's house and telling us stories of the endless lines one had to stand in for food and the political suspicion they constantly lived under.
I most like this excerpt from Solzhenitsyn's speech because he shows the danger of becoming shallow when we're immersed in leisure and plenty. Of course, we should give abundant thanks to God for all we have, however, this prosperity does not absolve us from pursuing "whatever things are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous and praiseworthy."
But should someone ask me whether I would indicate the West such as it is today as a model to my country, frankly I would have to answer negatively. No, I could not recommend your society in its present state as an ideal for the transformation of ours. Through intense suffering our country has now achieved a spiritual development of such intensity that the Western system in its present state of spiritual exhaustion does not look attractive...
Six decades for our people and three decades for the people of Eastern Europe; during that time we have been through a spiritual training far in advance of Western experience. Life's complexity and mortal weight have produced stronger, deeper and more interesting characters than those produced by standardized Western well-being. Therefore if our society were to be transformed into yours, it would mean an improvement in certain aspects, but also a change for the worse on some particularly significant scores. It is true, no doubt, that a society cannot remain in an abyss of lawlessness, as is the case in our country. But it is also demeaning for it to elect such mechanical legalistic smoothness as you have. After the suffering of decades of violence and oppression, the human soul longs for things higher, warmer and purer than those offered by today's mass living habits, introduced by the revolting invasion of publicity, by TV stupor and by intolerable music.

Books I've Been Reading Lately

2008-09-18T12:25:00.005-05:00

In light of my last post, I've spent exponentially more time reading. Here's what I've been reading...
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
A gift from my buddy Jeff in Omaha. Hilarious, superby written humour with the perfect quirky character.
Making Room for Life: Trading Chaotic Lifestyles for Connected Relationships by Randy Frazee
I heard this author talking about "Hebrew Day Planner" and was intrigued. He champions the Convivium; or nightly family dinner with conversation, maybe some spiritual devotions, maybe just a boardgame...but having the Table be the center of the day, the home and the family. Good stuff.
Family Driven Faith: Doing What It Takes to Raise Sons and Daughters Who Walk with God by Voddie T. Baucham Jr.
I saw him with my father and brothers-in-law at a men's conference. Τhe theme is how to create a family with multi-generational faithfulness to Jesus. Inspiring reading.
the Journals of Father Alexander Schmemann by Alexander and Julianna Schmemann
Ahhh...Schmemann. Like a cold drink of sweet tea after spending the day in the dry, hot sun. He understands what life in Christ and the Church should be. Truly an inspirattion to read. Themes are life, light, joy and beauty in Christ in the mundane things of the world.
Suprised by Hope and For All the Saints by N.T. Wright
Fantastic! Both are about what a proper, biblical understanding of "life after death" is (and how most of the culture, including Christians, has it wrong) and how having a proper understanding of this reorients our lives.

Saints, not Suburbanites

2008-09-03T11:25:00.011-05:00

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are

just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report,

if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. ~ Phil 4:8

Mediocrity...suburban American malaise....the frog in the pot...becoming a lemming... lack of inspiration: these are things I fear have characterized the last year for me.

The symptoms of the disease?: Too much television, not enough reading. Too much Jim Belushi-George Lopez-Ray Romano-Homer Simpson, not enough Fess Parker and Ben Cartwright. Shopping at the Big Box where I don't know anyone vs. the Ma 'n Pa shop where I know Ma and Pa. Eating dinner at McTacoBee's vs. our family dinner table. Sitting at an air-conditioned, halogen lit Charbucks for a $6 grande no-fat extra-dry half-caff' mocha-latte-cheeno instead sitting in the fresh air breeze in my front yard in glorious rural WI with cup of coffee from my kitchen with my neighbors.

A lot of different things, including what I've written above, have gotten me thinking about the verse above. For examle: going to a town fair and seeing the disparity between a band singing beautiful harmonies to the sound of clean, crisp, musical guitars and drums and doing it for the sheer pleasure of it vs. having my eardrums blown out by the screaming and distorition of drunken middle-aged men trying to relive their Senior year of high school 25 years later..."Dude!" Seeing myself and my friends and family glutted by TV, movies & video games vs. great literature or board games. Going to the mall or the movie theatre vs. Old World Wisconsin or the park.

As I said, much of this has been a sense of frustration with myself because I've spent too much time in column A pursuing mediocrity instead of beauty and virtue. We visited very dear friends of ours recently in Omaha and had a wonderful time of fellowship and respite. One day I said to my dear buddy Jeff, "I don't read enough great literature. I really need to read more classics like the Brothers Karamazov." He looked at me and replied "You've been saying that to me for ten years Joel". And he's right. It made me think about how much time I spend living unintentionally and in mediocrity. Sitting down and turning on the TV, not because there's something specific I'm interested in watching but, just because I'm lazy and/or bored. Or always wanting to eat out instead of sitting at the table in our home. Or wasting an entire evening watching a mindless movies when I could be playing a board game with friends or family. Or constantly thinking about the stuff I want (that I convince myself I need) instead doing things that build the virtue and character of myself and my wife and son. Spending my leisure time doing things that are mediocre instead of things that fill me with inspiration and life, things that help me become the more true and real version of Joel Allen Prather that Our Lord Jesus Christ intends.

So I have a new Rule of Life I'm gonna give a try which is simply spending my time on things that are "true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous and praiseworthy." I want to live like a Saint, not a Suburbanite.

Crunchy Cons?

2008-07-27T21:51:00.007-05:00

Being in seminary has made me think a lot about self-identity lately. Not in the deep, penetrating psychological sense but more in the "what labels fit me, if any?" kind of way. Like all good Americans, I'm in search of a demographic provided by U.S. News & World Report which my identity can easily be absorbed into (hee hee) and...voila! now I've found it. I...ladies and gentleman...am a "Crunchy Con". What's a Crunchy Con you might ask? It's a term which basically means right-wing valued people who eat, drink, shop, socialize, educate, read, etc. like left-wingers. Here's a link to the Crunchy Con Manifesto as well as a good overview in this article.

So what sets me apart from typical Christian Conservative types and lands me in the Crunchy Con camp? I drive a Subura, eat organic meat & produce, wear Birkenstocks and Burt's Bees, want to home school, always prefer local/small/family businesses to megaplexes, am a Bradley Method Dad, pick bluegrass, read First Things as well as Mary Jane's Farm, road bicycle and watch the Tour de France, live a sacramental life, am suspicious and skeptical of media-driven pop culture-laden suburbia, embrace the world's food/music/culture and listen to NPR especially Garrison Keilor.

In many Christian circles that description would qualify me as anywhere from "kind of liberal, isn't he?" to "a dirty hippie". No worries.

All in all does it really matter to fit into a demographic? Nah. Is it nice to know I'm not the only weirdo like me? Sure. Nonetheless, I encourage you to read the Crunchy Con Manifesto. It gives pause for reflection on a lot of things American Suburbanites take for granted. Such as "Why do we send our kids to public school? Just because everyone else does? Or because it's best for our specific child?" Or "Who's going to invest more in my community? Wal-Mart or Merton's farm up the road where I buy my eggs?" Or "What fosters the best in our kids? Nintendo? Or reading the Classics?" Of course I don't shun public school, Wal-Mart or Nintendo. But I do try to think about why I'm doing it and if it's the best choice. Crunchy Cons seems to value virtue, beauty, community, health and family. And they make those decision for themselves rather than letting the next summer blockbuster, Oprah and Dr. Phil, Starbucks and Old Navy tell them what values to pursue.

So raise yer freak flag high for Jesus, organic produce, home-schooled kids and Lake Woebegon.

Sermon: Trusting God When We Give What Up Cherish Most ~ Genesis 22:1-14

2008-07-14T20:57:00.004-05:00

Preached at Three Pillars Nursing Home in Dousman, WI on June 27th, 2008...
In today’s reading we have the story of Abraham’s Sacrifice of Isaac, which is probably as familiar to us as it is confusing. So what is it all about? Well, we have Abraham…whom the Bible describes as the father of all who believe: He’s our forefather in the faith. But why isn’t this special place given to say Noah, or Adam? It can all be boiled down to one word: Trust. He is the example par excellence of what it means to trust God.
All throughout Abraham’s life God gives him opportunities to trust. These start with God asking Abraham to leave everything he knows and go somewhere completely unknown. God says, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.” And I know many of you have left everything to go somewhere unknown too, like Maria and Wanda have done (Eastern European immigrants who live at the Nursing Home I'm working at), you’ve left your country and your family to come to here to America. That’s what Abraham did. And it was an incredible act of trusting God.
Abraham’s entire life was characterized by God giving him these opportunities to trust and all of these culminate in our story today. God asks him to give up Isaac, his only son. Now, this is the son Abraham had dreamed of and prayed for his entire life; when all hope seemed lost, when Abraham was 100 years old, God miraculously gives him his son Isaac. All his dreams had come true. But now God was asking Abraham to give up Isaac, the son he cherished.
And I know all of you have had to give up things that are precious when you came here to Three Pillars (the Nursing Home). You’ve had to give up careers, and homes, your old neighborhood; living near your children and grandchildren. You’ve had to say good-bye to some dear friends as they’ve passed on. And most painful of all, you’ve had to say good-bye to your husbands or wives who died. There are so many things you’ve had to surrender, those things you’ve cherished the most.
So what does this have to do with Abraham being our forefather in faith? Well, the reason God chose Abraham to be our forefather in the faith is because of his example. Abraham trusted God even when he had to give up the things he cherished most in his life: his country, his family, even his own son. Abraham is the ultimate example of trusting God when that’s the hardest thing to do.
But it’s not a blind trust. Rather, it’s a trust that is based upon the absolute reliability of God. We can trust God because He’s reliable. Just as Abraham said at the end of today’s story “The LORD will provide”…I believe that God always provides what we need. Maybe not what we think we need, or what we want; but what God knows we need. God loves us so immensely and so incredibly that he will never let us down. Now I realize that’s a daring thing to say, that God would never let us down. But I believe God proved it to us when He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place and pay the penalty for our sins. God Himself knows what it’s like to surrender someone he cherishes, and loves more than anyone else. This is God’s evidence that He’ll never let us down.
And we need to follow the example of Abraham and when we’re struggling with the things we’re called to give up; when it’s scary, or lonely, or confusing, or frustrating, or painful we need to trust God. And the beautiful thing is that when we have those days where it’s difficult to trust Him we can pray and say, “Lord I’m, having trouble trusting You, please help me.” Which is what the Psalmist did today, he begins the Psalm with a lot of despair “How long O LORD, will you forget me forever? How long shall I have perplexity in my mind and grief in my heart, day after day?” Does that sound familiar? (Raise my hand). But how does he end, “But… I put my trust in your mercy, my heart is joyful because of your saving help.” The Psalmist ends by reminding himself of God’s saving help. We need to do likewise. Like the Psalmist we need to go to God and talk to him about our struggles with trusting. But then we also need to listen for His answer. And the most tangible way to listen to God is by reading His Word, the Bible. And so I’d encourage you to spend time reading the Bible and hearing God’s answers to you. And if you’d ever like someone to read the Bible with you David, or Marcus, or myself; or Sunny (the other Chaplains) would absolutely love to read the Bible or pray with you.
So may we follow the example of Abraham, and when we have to give up the things we cherish most, may we trust God.

Sermon: Inscribed on His Palm ~ Isaiah 49:8-16

2008-07-14T20:36:00.004-05:00

Preached at Light of Christ Anglican Fellowship in Kenosha, WI on May 25th, 2008...
Before our son Jude was born each day I would lean over and say to him in Tammy’s tummy, “This is your Daddy, and I love you.” And after he was born I changed it to a question, “Who loves Jude?...Daddy loves Jude.” When he was an infant I would say the question and then answer it for him. And then when he started to talk I would ask him, “Who loves Jude?” and he would reply, “Daddy loves Jude!” And the reason I would do this every day is because I wanted to ingrain in him, at the core of who he is the truth that I love him. So that no matter what the circumstances, he would never question that Daddy loves Jude. I still ask him that question every day. And as we’ve entered toddler-hood there’ve been those times when he’s needed to be disciplined and afterwards I’ll ask, “Who loves Jude?” “Daddy loves Jude.” Of course, in that moment he might not feel as though Daddy loves Jude, but I want him to know that even when it doesn’t feel like it, Daddy always loves him.

And this is where we find Zion in today’s reading. They don’t feel like God loves them. They’ve been disciplined and it just doesn’t feel like God loves them anymore. So what happened?

Isaiah is writing about 750 years before Jesus and he’s prophesying to Israel about what will take place 150 years in the future. And it’s a prophecy of judgment. You see; they’d been rebellious, and sinful and turned against God. And Isaiah is prophesying to them that they’ll be disciplined for their sin and disobedience. He’s prophesying about what will arguably be the worst event in the history of Israel: the Great Exile into Babylon and the destruction of the Temple.

One of the greatest sources of security Israel had was their land. It was the sign of God’s promise to them. It was the symbol of their Covenant with God. And as long as they were in the land, they could rest securely in that promise. But Isaiah's prophesy is that their greatest source of security, their land, would be stripped away. They’ll be exiled to Babylon. And not only that, but the symbol of their identity will also be destroyed: the Temple. The Temple for them was the source of their ethnic identity, their political identity, and their faith identity…it was where the Presence of God dwelt among them in the Holy of Holies and where their sins could be atoned for. Isaiah is prophesying to them that all of their security and the source of their identity will be destroyed. Why? They’re being disciplined.

Isaiah lays out how it is they’ll be disciplined and then we see a shift in his message. He begins to tell them of a Servant. And this is where we find today’s passage. It follows one of the Servant Songs of Isaiah, a more notable of these is Isaiah 53 which describes the Suffering Servant. Each of these describe the Servant who will restore Zion. In verse 6 immediately before today’s reading we see the mission of the Servant summarized: "to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth." And so we shift from a prophesy of judgment to one of restoration. God has just told Zion about the Servant He will raise up to restore them, and He then goes on to describe for them how He’ll do it. And how does He tell them about their restoration? He woos them.
In English we lose the poetry of this passage. When God is speaking in this passage he’s using poetic language. And the sense I get when I read this and studied it in Hebrew was that it was like a poem or even a lullaby. God is telling them what their restoration will look like by wooing them, by singing them a lullaby. There’s an almost sing-song sort of rhythm as God is speaking to Zion. It’s beautiful language; peaceful, comforting. The Lord is extending His hand to reach out to them in love. But how does Zion respond? As Isaiah exhorts them to? By "singing for joy” or “exulting”? No. After all these words of comfort and compassion; after the Lord reaches out His hand to them they say, “The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.” The LORD Himself is telling them of His comfort and compassion and yet they feel forsaken and forgotten. Why?

It’s because they think that God is who their circumstances say He is. Not who He’s telling them He is. They have let their circumstances dictate to them who the LORD is for so long that they can’t even consider another picture of God, even if He Himself tells them! It is as if they been driving down the same old road for so long that the tire ruts are so deep they can’t turn and get out of them anymore. God tells of His comfort and compassion and all they can feel is forsaken and forgotten. And why do think they’re forsaken and forgotten? Because they think they’ve out-sinned the love of God. They rebelled against God and were disciplined harshly and therefore they feel abandoned by God, or maybe they feel as though they don’t deserve his love because they’ve “sinned too much”. God is reaching out His hand to them telling them how He will intervene smack into the midst of their circumstances, into the midst of their exile, and restore them; but they don’t believe He will or that He wants to because they’re feel like they’re not worthy.
And how does the Lord respond to Zion? He tells them that His love for them surpasses even the most powerful kind of human love: that of a mother for her baby. He uses the imagery of motherhood to paint a picture for them of the depth of his tenderness and compassion for them and how he will never forsake them or forget. And He uses imagery which may seem a little starnge to us today. He says He’ll inscribe their name upon His hand. But what does that mean? What exactly is He saying when He says this? Once again He is using imagery of tenderness and intimacy. For the ancient Hebrews the palm of the hand was a symbol of intimacy, of closeness, of being cherished. Like placing your palm on your loved one's cheek. And God says it is exactly in this place, the cherished place, that He will inscribe Zion’s name.
When we hear this in English I think it might conjure up imagery of writing a name on your hand with a laundry marker, pretty permanent, but eventually it’ll fade. This is not the imagery the LORD is using. The word Isaiah uses for “inscribe” is the same word used elsewhere in the Old Testament for engraving or carving. Utterly permanent. The Lord is telling Zion, “Just like something is etched in marble, that is how your name is kept in my cherished place. You’re name is carved in the palm of my hand.” And I can’t help but think of palms of the hand of Jesus. Which were also stretched out for the restoration of God’s people. And that in a sense, our names were carved into the palms of His hands by the nails He was crucified with.
It is the hand of God, which is reaching out to us that we need to cling to when we’re letting our circumstances tell us who God is and we can’t hear who He is telling us He is. Because just like Zion we get stuck in those ruts. We don’t believe that God will intervene in our lives. Or we don’t believe that we deserve it. We might hear stories of missionaries or “super-Christians” who have miraculous healings or provision or protection and we believe God does it for “those extra-holy Christians” but we don’t believe He will for us. We read the book of Acts and relegate those miracles to the lives of the Apostles. We tell ourselves we’ve out-sinned the love of God. Or even if we know in our heads that the Lord forgives us and desires to restore us, we don’t live our lives like we believe it. So what do we do?
We have to stop and look at what we believe about God. Do we believe that he desires to restore us? To forgive us. To transform our lives. No matter where we’re at. No matter how far we feel from Him. And do we believe that He will intervene in our lives? That by His grace He’ll transform us. That He will fashion us more and more into the image of His Son; and that we’ll be less and less that broken image of ourselves. Once we’ve identified those wrong attitudes, those areas where our faith is broken, we need to say, “These are the ways I’ve wrongly believed who God is” and let them go at the foot of the Cross. Once we’ve done that we need to fill ourselves with who God says He is. Just like Zion, He’s telling us who He is and how He’ll restore us. He’s reaching out His hand to us.
That’s why we need to allow ourselves to hear God’s voice every day. We need to be in God’s Word; reading, studying, memorizing it and reflecting on it. We need to make time for prayer and worship, to be face to face with God. We need to be connected to other believers: to meet for discipleship or mentoring or spiritual direction, and to have accountability and as James says, “confess our sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” All of these are ways in which God communicates to us who He is. They are ways He reaches out His hand to us. Through our faithfulness in our spiritual disciplines we build our foundation of faith. We live our belief that God is who He says He is. And when our circumstances want to get the best of us and tell us something false about God, or our feelings deceive us, our faith will help us to see His Hand reaching out. The hand that has our name etched into its cherished place. The hand of Our Lord Jesus, which was pierced that we might be restored. If we commit ourselves to knowing God through a disciplined spiritual life then in those moments when our feelings deceive us we’ll be able to hear His voice calling out, “Who loves you?” “Daddy loves you.”

Visit to St. Vladimir's Seminary

2008-06-04T20:40:00.005-05:00

Greetings all from St. Vladimir's Orthodox Seminary just outside New York City. So as you can see I've been in communicato for some time now. The end of the semester workload was intense but I am now officially a Senior!

This past weekend we celebrated the life of our dear friend and brother-in-Christ John Fawcett who went to be with the Lord after a long battle with cancer. His funeral was actually one of the most glorious worship experiences I've had and certainly a fitting celebration of John. Please do pray for his wife Margie and two young children Charlotte and Josiah.

So as I said, I have the joy of coming to St. Vlad's for a conference hosted by the Fellowship of St. Alban & St. Sergius. It's a treat to be here with three of my comrades from Nashotah House, along with two of our faculty and my Bishop, who is one of the keynote speakers (I've never been to New York City so it was fun to go to a neighborhood grocery deli for a pastrami Rueben too). Tomorrow is the Feast of the Ascension for the Orthodox Church and so tonight we attended the Ascension Vigil. Two candlelit hours filled with incense, beautiful harmonious singing; psalms and intercessions and being anointed by His Eminence Kallistos Ware in the spiritual home of one of my favorite authors and theologians, Fr. Alexander Schmemann. St. Vlad's Press is also the publisher of some of the Mancub and me's favorite books, which include the most incredible illustrations by an artist named Niko Chochelli, I highly recommend you get some for the children in your life.

I'll try to post more while I'm here. In the meantime I pray you all are enjoying a blessed summer.

Precious in the Eyes of the Lord is the Death of His Saints

2008-05-27T12:34:00.005-05:00

JOHN WILLIAM FAWCETT

friend of God

10-21-61 to 5-27-08

Dear friends, this morning an incredible saint of God passed from this life into the Glory of Our Lord. John Fawcett was my friend and an incredibly important part of my spiritual formation, having taught me the deep things of what it means to worship Jesus. Thank you John for your godly life, and godly death, which you shared with us. Please pray for his wife Margie and children Charlotte and Josiah as they grieve his loss.

Sermon: the Road to Emmaus ~ Luke 24:13–35

2008-04-16T12:14:00.006-05:00

Preached at Light of Christ Anglican Fellowship in Kenosha, WI on April 8th, 2008...
In this morning’s Gospel St. Luke is writing in such a way as to communicate two messages to his audience. The first is what he made clear at the beginning of his Gospel which is “to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the truth concerning the things of which you have been informed.” (v. 3-4) To simply provide a record of the events of Jesus’ life, and that of the nascent Church, just as a journalist or historian would. The second is his intention to convey, by the way he writes, some deeper truths and patterns for the early Church.
The Road to Emmaus is about how Christ is revealed. How He was revealed to Cleopas and his traveling companion, and how Christ is revealed to the Church and to us.
Our Gospel this morning begins on the day of Christ’s Resurrection, the women have just returned from the empty tomb to tell the Eleven of their encounter with the Angel who proclaimed the Resurrection and reminded them of all that Jesus had told Him about Himself. The scenes changes and the camera pans to two disciples walking down the road talking. They’re leaving Jerusalem for Emmaus. They’re headed home. And this is a strong indication of the condition of their hearts, because as they themselves say, they heard the testimony that Christ had indeed been raised (v. 22-24) but what did they do? Headed home. Contrast this with Peter’s response, what does he do? (v. 12) “But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.” Peter runs towards the tomb and when he confirms what the women say, he marvels. On the contrary these two disciples aren’t interested in confirming it. They leave town disbelieving. Their hope that Jesus was the Messiah crushed.
Into this sad walk home steps Jesus who “drew near to them” to engage them in dialogue. And it’s at this point that we find the first of a few unusual things. First, they are prevented from recognizing Him. It’s not that their grief, or tear-filled eyes, or their presumption that He’s dead is confusing their ability to recognize them. They’re prevented from recognizing Him.
But why might they be prevented from recognizing Him? What if they did recognize Him immediately? They would be elated, ecstatic and respond much like Mary Magdalene and the other women at the tomb and Peter. But if this happened something important would be lost. You see, one of the problems these two disciples had is that they had forgotten what the Scriptures said about the Messiah. And obviously they’d forgotten what Jesus had told them about Himself. They needed to be firmly planted in what the Scriptures teach about Messiah in order to properly understand Jesus. But if they had immediately recognized Jesus this opportunity to be instructed and firmly rooted in Jesus’ identity as the Messiah foretold by Scripture might have been lost in the moment. And a correct understanding of who Scriptures say the Messiah is, is absolutely crucial to our faith isn’t it? It’s like when an airplane’s travels 1 compass degree off its intended course. If you go ten miles, you’re not too far away from your destination, but travel 100 or a 1,000 miles with your compass 1 degree off and you’re nowhere near your destination. Properly understanding the Messiah, and having this understanding firmly planted in what the Scriptures foretell about Him, is so important that Jesus prevents His disciples from recognizing Him in order that He might instruct them in this most important Truth. What an incredible teaching it must’ve been to have Our Lord “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”
What do these two reflect about it? That as Jesus did so their hearts were burning within them. To me, it creates this image of the refiner’s fire. They have some dross of wrong belief in their heart, about who Jesus is, and as the Lord teaches them their hearts burn within them, the dross is burned away and what is left is a pure belief in the Messiah.
The second unusual feature is when and how Jesus is finally revealed to them. It’s not once He’s done teaching them. That would seem to make sense wouldn’t it? He’s taught them, corrected their misunderstanding and then…BAM!...He reveals himself. But He doesn’t. It’s also not when they beg Him not to depart but stay with them. This would seem to be an opportune moment to reveal Himself to them. They’ve been taught and then beg Him to stay with them. They certainly seem ready to recognize Him. But He doesn’t reveal Himself here either. No. Where is He revealed to them as Messiah? In the breaking of bread.
They recognize Him in the breaking of bread. Is this random? Is it because at that moment they finally recognized something familiar about Him? His gestures. His hands. The specific prayer He used to bless the bread? Maybe a particular phrase that He had always used before? Is it a coincidence that they recognize Him in the breaking of bread? No. Why not? Because what happens the instant they recognize Him? He vanishes. He would not do something as miraculous, as dramatic, as His vanishing without a specific intention. There was a reason He vanished. And there was a reason He vanished at the precise moment He did. It was because He wanted to punctuate that He had revealed Himself to them in the moment in which He broke bread. Imagine your at the Eucharist on Sunday and immediately after Fr. Eirik (our priest) breaks the bread and says “Christ our passover has been sacrificed for us…” then whoosh! He disappears. Gone. Vanished. You would remember that Eucharist for the rest of your life wouldn’t you? Jesus didn’t vanish after the teaching. He didn’t vanish before they could urge Him to come stay and eat with them. No. He vanished after they recognized Him in the breaking of bread. After instructing them in Scriptures about Himself, the Messiah revealed Himself in the breaking of bread.
And so we have Luke’s journalistic narrative of this event. What about the deeper Truths he’s communicating to his audience, the Early Church? The modern scholars, as well as the early Saints and Fathers of the Church agree that the way in which Luke describes the breaking of bread here is his classic way of describing the Eucharist throughout his Gospel and the Book of Acts. What Luke is driving at by his specific use of language is that “the risen Christ will be present to his assembled disciples, not visibly, but in the breaking of bread.” What he’s driving at for his audience is that, just as the Lord was revealed to the Emmaus disciples in the breaking of bread, he can be revealed to them, and therefore to us, in the breaking of bread.
And this emphasizes how crucial for our Christian life our participation in the weekly Eucharist is. You see, these disciples had been with Jesus for some portion of the last three years of their life. Jesus taught them that the Messiah would suffer and rise in three days, as they themselves indicate when they said, “And it is now the third day.” They had likely witnessed Jesus miraculously break bread in the feeding of the 5,000 and His many other miraculous signs and healings. But in three short days since His crucifixion they’d forgotten it all. They were leaving town. A tragedy occurred and they’d forgotten all they’d been taught…and by Jesus Himself!
And it’s not much different for us. We come to worship Jesus in our celebration of the Eucharist each Sunday and often have those days where we feel great joy, or strength, or faith during our worship. But then Monday comes…life. Now, we don’t always face a tragedy like these two disciples did but we still have distractions: jobs, kids, school, family, bills and homes. And our rooted-ness in the Truth about the Messiah can wane and get watered down by these distractions. We begin to forget that He is who He says He is, who the Scriptures say He is. And He starts to become who we think He is or who we think He ought to be. Or who are circumstances may be trying to tell us He is. But all of these are false.
This is why our liturgy begins with the proclamation of God’s Word: the reading of Holy Scripture, an exposition of these Scriptures by the preacher and then an affirmation of who the Messiah is in the Nicene Creed. All of these have the power to burn away the dross of mistaken belief in our hearts. To correct our compass when it’s just that one degree off.
You see our faith is an anchor, and our instruction in the Word is like adding more weight to that anchor. It makes us more stable in our Faith. Less easily tossed around by the waves of life. This is why it’s so important to return each week to the Eucharist: to the celebration of the Word and the Table. Because if these two disciples, who were instructed by Jesus Himself, can go astray in three days, be tossed around by the waves of life, how much more can we in seven?
But beyond mere correction, don’t our own hearts often “burn within us” when we hear the Word? A particular verse of Scripture, something the preacher says or a point we profess in the Creed touches us in a meaningful and powerful way and “jumps out” at us. We need to make room for the Word to burn within our hearts regularly and one of the best places for this is in the weekly Eucharist.
And then we move from the Word to the Table. To that place where Our Lord so strategically chose to reveal Himself to us as He made so clear by His preventing, revealing and then vanishing from these two disciples. Jesus desires to reveal Himself to us in the breaking of bread. As the Holy Scriptures teach, and our Anglican heritage has inherited, we believe that Jesus is truly present under the forms of the bread and wine. Jesus is revealed before us in our celebration around the Table, in the words of institution prayed over the bread and wine and in the bread and the wine itself, His most precious body and blood.
This is why the weekly celebration of the Eucharist is the anchor of our Faith. And why it is so important to return to it each week. To dispel our doubts and distractions, to reorient the compass of our belief, to allow the word to burn in our hearts and to receive the revelation of Jesus in the breaking of bread.
So we’re faced with a decision. When the waves of life toss us around how will we respond. Will we forget what the Scriptures say and leave town, like these two disciples? Or will we respond like Peter, who ran towards Jesus and when He discovered the empty tomb marveled? May we respond like Peter and run towards the revelation of Jesus available to us in our weekly celebration of the Eucharist.

Future Star...the Mancub

2008-03-10T10:40:00.007-05:00

This weekend at Nashotah House's annual talent show the Mancub and I performed a song together (as we did last year). I asked him what song he wanted to do and he said he wanted to do "the good Peru song" from my new friends' CD. So I grabbed my charango and the Mancub grabbed his ocarina and we sang Llegamos, lleagamos ya... Here's the video, check out the Mancub busting a move, singing in Spanish and rockin' out his ocarina. Enjoy!

Sermon: Be Holy, For I the Lord Your God Am Holy ~ Leviticus 19

2008-02-29T16:28:00.006-06:00

Preached in my Old Testament class at Nashotah House Theological Seminary, WI on December 5th, 2007...
This text is arguably one of the most significant passages in all of Scripture. It begins with the injunction to “be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” and concludes saying “love your neighbor as yourself”. And it is this very Scripture which both Our Lord and the Apostle Paul say is the summary of the entire Law and the Prophets and leads to eternal life. Eight times we find this Scripture referenced in the New Testament with similar references found elsewhere in Leviticus and Numbers, as well as its striking similarity to the Decalogue (Ten Commandments). You could say this is the “Short Catechism” for Yahweh’s people. So what is the origin of this Catechism?
The Hebrews have fled Egypt, they are encamped in the wilderness and the Lord is now dwelling among them. He has tabernacled Himself among His people. Into this context He addresses Moses at the Tent of Meeting giving him instructions, which are essentially the book of Leviticus. Within the book of Leviticus we find specific instructions on holiness, the Holiness Code, which extends from chapter 18 through 26. And it is within this Holiness Code that we find our text. So Yahweh has delivered His people, He is dwelling among them and He now intends to catechize, or teach, them regarding how to be His people.
He declares “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” thus saying that their identity is to be intrinsically linked with Him. More than anything else His chosen people are to be identified with His character, the culmination of which is His holiness: His sacred-ness, His moral perfection, His set-apart-ness. St. Gregory the Great unpacks it this way: God is telling them “Choose me and keep away from what displeases me. Do what I love; love what I do.”
Having declared the source of their identity He then provides examples of what holiness should look like. First, and most importantly, the evidence of holiness is made manifest in our relations to one another. And while these examples are very specific I would suggest that rather than being an exhaustive list of commandments they are illustrations of what holiness incarnated, or made real in your life, looks like. It looks like an obligation to those who are in need, allowing the Truth to reign in our life and relationships, fairness and compassion, righteousness impartiality…all of which can be summed up in one thing: Loving our neighbor as ourselves. It’s important to note that these illustrations are punctuated by their identification with Yahweh. Each one ends with the refrain “I am the Lord your God”. So as we can see this Catechism has a movement from its foundation in Yahweh and an exhortation to be holy, to an illustration of what holiness incarnated looks like, to its culmination in love for our neighbor.
Another important point is that these illustrations are a cross-section of all our dealings in life. Our holiness is not intended to be “compartmentalized” into one safe place but to permeate every aspect of our existence. While some scholars, such as Martin Noth, would like to suggest that the disjointed-ness of these illustrations indicate they existed independently prior to being collected here in the book of Leviticus, I suggest; along with scholars as varied as Everett Fox and St. Augustine; that this seeming disjointed-ness is not evidence of their being a collected group of miscellaneous sayings. The purpose behind this is to show that holiness is intended to permeate of all the various areas of our life. And I believe Our Lord and St. Paul’s references to them as the summation of the Law and Prophets support this.
Having said all this it begs the question, “Do we allow our own identification with Yahweh to permeate every aspect of our life? Or do we relegate it to our time at Church?” Is our pursuit of holiness rooted in the character of God? Or is it rooted in our Church's particular brand of piety or mountaintop experiences? This Scripture suggests that our identity as Christians absolutely must be rooted in the character of Almighty God. And the only way to accomplish this is to devote ourselves to learning about, and receiving, godly character through our worship, our prayer and study of His Word. And our litmus test of whether or not we are growing in holiness is if it affects the way we relate to one another. To know if we are indeed “holy as the Lord our God is Holy” we only need ask ourselves, “Is there evidence in every aspect of my life that I the Lord with all my heart, mind soul and strength and that I love my neighbor as myself?”. To paraphrase Blessed Johnny Cash, "If you were on trial for being a follower of God would there be enough holiness in the evidence to convict you?"

Light of Christ Anglican Fellowship, Kenosha WI

2008-02-25T09:41:00.003-06:00

Greetings All,

The Church-plant we attend, Light of Christ Anglican Fellowship, now has a website up and running. This is the Church I am doing my Field Education at this year. It's a wonderful community which is a part of the Anglican Mission in the Americas and is growing rapidly under the leadership of Fr. Eirik Olsen and Catechist Jan Anderson.

Here is a link: http://www.lightofchristkenosha.org/

Blessings,
Joel

Sermon: Kingdom People are Cross People ~ John 3:1-17

2008-02-18T10:25:00.006-06:00

Preached at Light of Christ Anglican Fellowship in Kenosha, WI on February 17th, 2008...
Today’s Gospel contains what’s arguably one of the most popular and familiar verses for the Church. John 3:16. I suspect many of us even have it memorized. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” It rolls off our tongue. And it’s an incredible verse, in it we have the entire message of the Gospel summarized. But I think sometimes it’s become so familiar it simply becomes a cliché that is disconnected from the dialogue between Nicodemus and Jesus in which we find it. So it’s my hope that by looking at it in light of the entire passage we can see more clearly the crux of this message which I believe is that Kingdom People are Cross People.

So we have Nicodemus, he’s a Pharisee and a ruler of Jews and would be considered one of the best and most trusted teachers of Israel. And he comes to Jesus to tell him he thinks Jesus is sent from God. It seems like an admirable thing to do, doesn’t it? “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.” You would think Jesus would commend him for this. But how does Jesus reply? "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Huh? It almost seems like Jesus answer doesn’t even match what Nicodemus just said. Sort of, “Hey I just said I think you’re from God because of your signs and wonders and you reply by telling me I can’t see the Kingdom of God unless I’m born again?” Why would Jesus respond this way? Well what’s Nicodemus really saying?

First, he addresses Jesus as Rabbi. Now with Nicodemus being who he is, a Pharisee and teacher, by addressing Jesus as Rabbi what he’s saying is, “We’re equals. I’m a Rabbi, you’re a Rabbi. This is a safe relationship.” Second, and more importantly he says he knows something. He knows that Jesus is a teacher sent from God because of the signs He does. Nicodemus is telling Jesus, “I understand the Kingdom of God and what it looks like.” He’s telling Jesus, “I have the Kingdom of God all figured out. I know what it looks like. I’m a Kingdom Person.” And I think what Nicodemus wants to tell himself is, “I’m safe. I’m in. I’m doing enough. I’m doing enough to be a Kingdom person. I don’t need to change.” But Jesus’ reply says to him, “Actually, you’ve got it all wrong.”

What Jesus’ reply says to Nicodemus is, “You’re claiming to see and understand the Kingdom of God. You’re claiming to be a Kingdom Person. But I’m telling you, you can’t even see the Kingdom of God unless you’ve been born again.” Jesus starts his statement with “Truly, truly…” which is his customary way of saying “Listen up! Because what I’m about to tell you is one of the most important things you’re ever going to hear.” And what is this most important thing? If you want to be a Kingdom Person you’ve got to be born again. Kingdom People are Cross People. To paraphrase an early Christian Saint, Theodore of Mopsuestia, what Jesus is telling Nicodemus is “If you really believe I’m from God, and my miracles have convinced you of it, then you have to do something about it.” You have to have a completely and utterly new way of life. A Kingdom life. St. Basil, another early Christian, says that being born again means you have to cut off your old life and then start a brand new life. What would it look like to cut off our old life? Many of us might think of this in monumental terms of our first big step toward Jesus when we first surrender our life to Him. Our conversion. And at that moment we cut off our old life to begin our new life with Him. But what about those little pieces of our old life that still pop up from time to time? We need to cut those off too, and sometimes it may be a daily process. It may be frustrating and difficult. But if we want to be Kingdom People, we can’t play it safe like Nicodemus. We have to completely surrender ourselves to Jesus. We have to be born again.

So Jesus replies to Nicodemus’ claim to be a Kingdom Person by telling him he has to be born again. Nicodemus then is confused or struggling with what Jesus is telling him. He asks how a man can be born again and takes it in a literal sense. So Jesus explains it for him. Being born again means being born of the water and the Spirit. So what does that mean? I suggest that for Nicodemus the phrase, “born of the water” would call to mind for him something like John’s baptism. A baptism of repentance. A baptism that is that cutting off of the old life in order to start a new life. A taking up our Cross. “Born of the Spirit”, to a Jew of the time like Nicodemus would bring to mind the Holy Spirit, which hovered over the waters at Creation, who spoke through the mouths of the prophets and rested upon the Kings of Israel…this same Spirit will empower us and transform us when we start our new life. And isn’t this exactly what the Sacrament of Baptism is? It’s our profession that we desire to cut off of our old life and the means by which we begin a Spirit-empowered new life in Christ. All of us need that cutting off of our old life. To die to ourselves by taking up our Cross. And by doing so we receive the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit which makes us, and empowers us as Kingdom people.

So Nicodemus claims to be a Kingdom Person and Jesus says you’re not because to be Kingdom People are Cross People. Nicodemus doesn’t understand so Jesus explains it to him: being born again means being born of water and the Spirit. And Nicodemus still doesn’t get it. But it’s not that he simply doesn’t understand. I think he’s refusing to because he doesn’t like what he’s hearing. He doesn’t want to take up his cross, he doesn’t want to change. The reason I think so is because of how Jesus responds: “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand this?” Essentially Jesus tells him, “You come to me as a Pharisee, one of the most trusted teachers in all Israel. Claiming to be my equal. Claiming to understand the Kingdom of God. Claiming to be a Kingdom Person. And you can’t even understand the most basic things of the Kingdom?” And he then tell him “you do not receive our testimony.” You’re rejecting what I’m telling you.

I think this begs the question for us: Are we coming to Jesus with what we want to see? With our expectations of what the Kingdom of God should look like? And when Jesus shows us the Truth do we resist? Or are we willing to cut off the old life and allow the Holy Spirit to help us? Because the question isn’t, “Will this happen in our life?” but “When this happens?” There are going to be times when we’ve got it all wrong. We’re going to think we’ve got it all figured it and that we know what being a Kingdom Person means. But the Lord will show us an area that needs to be cut off. He’ll give us an opportunity to take up our Cross. And sometimes we’re like Nicodemus. The Lord is trying to tell us something, and explain it, but we resist. But we need to surrender to Him and allow the Lord to change us because if we don’t then we’re going to get stuck spiritually. Stagnant. Jesus tells Nicodemus, “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” In order to see the Kingdom we’ve got to trust the Lord in the mundane things, only then will wee see the heavenly things.

And this leads to what seems to be a disjointed set of statements by Jesus. “No one has ascended into heaven…” and “As Moses lifted up the Serpent…” Why would Jesus throw these in here? He just got done telling Nicodemus “If I’ve told you earthly things and you don’t believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” and then says He’s descended and will ascend to Heaven. Why? He’s telling Nicodemus “You shouldn’t resist what I say because I speak with more authority regarding the Kingdom of God than anyone because I alone came from heaven and will return to it.” Those moments will arise when Jesus is a calling us to believe Him in an area of our life in order to be Kingdom People. If may feel scary or unsafe or difficult. But the reason why we can put our absolute trust in what He says is because He is the final authority on the Kingdom of God.

And He is not merely the final authority on the Kingdom of God, He is the source of the Kingdom of God. What makes the Kingdom of God possible is the Cross. For the Jews, like Nicodemus, the reference to Moses lifting up the serpent would have been a symbol of the provision of life for God’s people. When Moses lifted up the serpent people were saved. They were healed. Jesus is telling Nicodemus that He is God’s provision of life, of salvation and of healing for His people. And this brings us back to John 3:16, that Jesus is the source of the Kingdom of God. And the source is His Cross. Kingdom People are Cross People.

And the season of Lent is such an appropriate time to submit ourselves to this. Lent is that great season in the Church, to quote Fr. Eirik Olsen, of preparation and fulfillment. In Lent we’re preparing to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. What greater celebration of the Kingdom is there than the feast of the Resurrection? But in order to come to it rightly we need to prepare ourselves. We enter the Kingdom through the Cross. And in Lent we have two disciplines of abstinence and engagement. Abstinence which is fasting from perfectly good things simply to make more room for God to work but also cutting out the pieces of our old life. And engagement being the taking on of disciplines such as meditating on Holy Scripture, more prayer, giving alms or acts of service. By taking up our Cross, and participating in the Cross of Jesus through our remembrance of His Passion, we can truly become Kingdom People. And sometimes it the thought of taking up our Cross sounds burdensome, or difficult, or frustrating. And this is why we have to keeps our eyes fixed upon the goal, the Kingdom. We have to let the Kingdom fill our horizon and hold our Cross in the foreground. And then, with our horizon filled with Kingdom, our cross is in its appropriate perspective…like a little scraggly tree cast against a tremendous beautiful sunset. Keeping our eyes fixed on the Kingdom while we bear our Cross is our source of expectant hope. What could be more wonderful to become a Kingdom Person? A person formed into the image of Jesus Christ. This Lent may we truly be born again, of water and the Spirit, transformed; that we might see the Kingdom of God. Amen.

A Day in the Life of Seminarian

2008-02-12T20:11:00.015-06:00

8:00 a.m. ~ Chapel. Time to ring the Angelus on our 140 year old, one ton bell "Michael". Each student is responsible for a one week rotation of Chapel duty in the morning and afternoon (such as Bell Ringer) each semester.

Chapel begins with the ringing of the Angelus. We then have Morning Prayer and Holy Eucharist in St. Mary's Chapel (one of 7 chapels on campus) every morning. Attendance is mandatory Monday through Friday.
9:00 a.m. ~ Breakfast and Dish Crew. On weekdays we go straight from Chapel to the Refectory (that's old school for cafeteria). We have thirty minutes for Breakfast and twice a week each of has a turn on Dish Crew.
9:40 a.m. ~ Classes. Each morning we have class from 9:40 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. when Michael rings the Angelus again. This term I have Hebrew, Old Testament, Systematic and Historical Theology and Homiletics.
12:30 p.m. ~ Lunch and Dish Crew. Back to the Refectory for a quick Lunch.

1:15 p.m. ~ Work Crew et al. Each student is assigned to a Work Crew for one afternoon each week. I am on Ourdoor Work Crew which includes shoveling snow, splittng wood, mowing grass, etc. On the other afternoons of the week we have Choir practice, Work Scholarship (part-time paid job), Chapel Rehearsals and meetings for things we belong to such as the Mission Board, Worship Committees, etc.

Our preparation for ministry, or "formation" as we're fond of calling it, as seminarians at Nashotah House is based upon the Benedictine monastic model of Prayer, Work and Study. So Work Crew and Chapel are is just as much apart or our formation as Classes.

During a Free Moment ~ Taking some personal time to pray and be still before the Lord. Not making time to be alone with Our Lord Jesus is the spiritual equivalent of driving on fumes....eventually you'll stall.

4:30 p.m. ~ Chapel. We officially end our day in Chapel, donning our Surplice to chant Evensong (sung Evening Prayer) . While our day is officially over...the fun is just beginning.

5:15 p.m. ~ Head Home. Time to regroup at the Circle "P" Ranch and be a Husband and Dad. Here I am walking past Michael the Bell after Evensong on a typically beautiful, snowy Wisconsin evening.

5:30 p.m. ~ Family Time. Chef Booj prepares the evening meal! Dinner time, some sword-fighting, maybe a movie on special nights then its time for Dad and the Mancub to read some stories for his bedtime.

Story Time ~ Okay. So these are not our typical bed-time stories (but the picture kind of works). Actually I'm reading for Historical Theology here while the Mancub is diving into the Early Fathers. He's an avid reader of Hagiography actually...a highly under-rated form of Children's Literature in my opinion, I think it wonderfully inspires kids imaginations and faith. Some faves are St. George, St. Nicholas of Myra and St. Herman of Alaska and any Niko Chocelli children's books (they're amazing!).
8:30 p.m. ~ Study and Write Papers. Just when you thought the seminary day was over....now it's time to study! Memorizing Hebrew vocab and grammar. Reading theology until there's pinwheels in your eyes. And papers, papers, papers!

All Work & No Play... One of the wonderful blessings of seminary are the friendships we've made here. We definitely play as hard as we work. And no, we're not the Village People...this is my comrades and I studying for a Hebrew Exam. We found a hilarious Yiddish Alphabet song on YouTube (in an effort to help memorization) where the characters wore ridiculous costumes...therefore the Missus provided us with these in order to follow their shining example.

The Study Carrel ~ A seminarian's home away from home....our Study Carrel in the Library. This is where the magic happens and blank pages become papers. Many a bleary-eyed night get passed here burning the midnight oil while positing the mysteries of such things as the Holy Trinity, Salvation and whether or not I'll look better in a band collar or a tab collar .
?:00 a.m. ~ Sleep. And what do seminarians dream about? Ordination. Finished papers. No more Hebrew. Getting more sleep.

Help a Peruvian Seminarian

2008-02-11T16:15:00.001-06:00

Greetings Friends,
As those of you who read this blog know, I spent two weeks in Peru recently on a short-term mission trip. One of the two seminarians who was our guide each day is a wonderful and godly man named Marco. Marco works for the Diocese full-time in addition to studying for the priesthood and was just commissioned to oversee their work in Arequippa which is about an 8 hour bus-ride from his home in Lima. With so much travel now, a laptop computer is a need he has expressed which would make his new position much, much easier however he is unable to finance it himself. If you, or anyone you know has a laptop they would like to donate to Marco or would be interested in making a monetary donation to the Anglican Diocese of Peru on his behalf please contact me. I can arrange for Peruvian missionaries currently in the U.S. to deliver it to him upon their return. Marco is such a great guy and is so dedicated to Our Lord Jesus that I am hopeful this humble blogpost will help him meet this ministry need. Gloria Dios!

Peru: Last Day

2008-01-23T17:12:00.000-06:00

Greetings Friends and Family,
So today is our last day here in Peru. We started our day with Morning Prayer, or Matutinas, at the Cathedral and then were taken to the Inca Market, a kind of outdoor shopping mall, to do some shopping. We had a lot of fun haggling for the best prices on pottery, alpaca clothes, hats and other colorful stuff (the colors here in the textiles are incredible!).

After the market all of the clergy and seminarians in the Diocese of Peru had farewell luncheon at a Chifa buffet (Chifa is Peruvian slang for Chinese food which is extremely popular here).

(This photo shows about 1/4 of our group.)

We had a wonderful time of fellowship together. The Diocese of Peru presented us all with gifts which was extremely kind of them. Then both the Peruvians and Nashotah-ites gave speeches back and forth sharing with each other how much we felt blessed and encouraged by one another and thanking God for the ways He has brought us together. It truly is amazing how big the Kingdom of God is and yet how our common Faith unites us across cultures and languages.

(Sven translating Micah's speech.)

After lunch we had our much anticipated soccer match. To our surprise a couple days ago we were presented with uniforms with the Nashotah logo embroidered on them! So we had a very serious soccer match at the stadium with uniforms, a ref and everything.

(The Peruvian Seminaristas: ?, Raul {from Cristo Redentor}, ? and Marco {from Jesus es Salvador & Oasis}.)

(Friends: Orlando, Jasper {who was helping us out, hence the Nashotah Jersey} and me.)

(Los Futbolistos de los seminarios de Ss. Augustin y Nashotah.)

They take soccer very, very seriously here. Of course the Peruvians annihilated us and the star player was the Vicario, Fr. Julio who scored the winning goal.

(The Vicario, in red, giving his "A game".)

We then had a much more evenly matched game of volleyball.

(Sven, Isabel, Claudia and Raul trying to get under the ball.)

Afterwards it was time to say goodbye to the wonderful friends we've made. It's difficult to put into words what an incredible trip this has been. We have seen such incredible faith and sacrificial service to Our Lord Jesus here and we have seen the Church exploding throughout Peru from downtown to shanty-towns to the vineyards & cottonfields in Ica. We also are incredibly excited for what the future holds for the relationship between the Anglican Diocese of Peru and Nashotah House Seminary. We all hope this is merely the beginning of a long and meaningful relationship. Glory to God for providing this incredible opportunity and for the wonderful works He's doing here!

(Our last few moments together.)

So we leave for the airport at 7:00p.m. (CST) and our flight leaves at midnight. Our ETA for Nashotah is about 2:00p.m. tomorrow. Please pray for us as we travel, for safety and health (for those of us who've had a stomach bug).

Muchas gracias Senor Jesuscristo por este visita, y muchas gracias nuestros hermanos en la Diocesis Anglicana del Peru for su amor y hospitalidad. Gloria Dios!

Peru: Day 12

2008-01-22T18:27:00.000-06:00

Greetings All,

So today Joe, Ellora and myself stayed home as we weren't feeling well. Therefore I don't have much to report other than successfully getting a haircut without a translator and sleeping all afternoon. One blessing today was that It was uncharacteristically sunny so the view out the window was beautiful.(Today's view out the window.)

Michael has written the following report on the day's activities of the team...

Today, we started our day with three of our hearty group sidelined with the Inca’s Revenge. No matter. The remaining six team members stopped first at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd for Morning Prayer, and then we travelled with Susan Delgado-Parks to our first stop, Santa Maria Virgen. This parish is a well established and thriving one that specializes in job training programs for women in the Parish. They teach skills such as shoe making, jewelry making, sewing and knitting so that each women can better earn a living and provide for their families. They showed off some of their wares, and their work was quite impressive. Many of the members of the team bought jewelry and garments while we were there.
After a short stay at Santa Maria Virgen, we left to visit or at least see the four missions that Fr. Aurelio has opened in the last year. Take note of that: four missions in ONE YEAR! We had to walk a short way up a 30 to 40 degree grade to get to the first mission, which consisted of four woven cane walls and ceiling. It was pretty bare, but Fr. Aurelio says that they have Mass there every Sunday, and he plans to turn the mission into a center for training mechanics and handymen. It is important to note that the area in which these four missions are located has the most expensive and most contaminated water in the world.
While at this first mission, we were treated to some amazing hospitality. The woman who was in charge of the mission welcomed us and provided us with soft drinks. Soon after this, we walked further up and over the top of the hill to see and visit the other missions. Fr. Aurelio had just finished pointing out one of the missions that we were not going to visit, when he stopped on the road and introduced us to a mother and child he knew. Because the child was sick, he, and all of us around, gathered to pray healing upon this sweet little girl.
We then walked down the mountain and stopped in front of the third of the four missions, before we stopped at the fourth for our main work of the day. Fr. Aurelio showed us around the area and introduced us to the ladies that were already there, and then we started working. Our job was to move a large pile of bricks across a road so they could build a wall. We managed to move about a third of the pile before everyone was tired. Then we moved back into the mission, which consists of three and half woven cane walls and a roof and dirt floor, for Mass. Fr. Aurelio celebrated using the Anglo-Catholic style Mass that Bishop Godfrey brought to Peru when he became the Bishop. Fr. Aurelio started by leading the congregation of about 50-75 people in about a half dozen praise songs. He loves to sing and broke into song numerous times during the service. There was an adult man who celebrated his first Communion at the service, and after the service, Fr. Aurelio blessed the marriage of a couple that had been married for 17 years.
After Mass, the ladies of the mission treated us to a wonderful lunch of chicken, rice and vegetables plus chicha morrado, and then a fantastic desert. Then, Fr. Aurelio took us across the street to the site of the new church. The land was donated to the diocese and is literally a part of the side of the mountain. The women of the parish have been working to clear a flat place for the last year. They have a retaining wall and about half of the land cleared. They are carving the lot out of the side of the mountain with picks and shovels and hard work. As Fr. Aurelio was showing us the wall that they have built, he called it their “wailing wall”. Being the smart seminarians that we are, Sven, Michael and Micah showed off our cultural prowess by bobbing back and forth and singing the Shema in Hebrew. Fr. Aurelio thought it was hilarious.
Before we left, the children of the mission performed two incredible native dances for us, involving some of the group at the end of the first dance. We were also each given a personalized certificate commemorating our visit. The hospitality of the people was overwhelming.

Peru: Day 11

2008-01-21T21:11:00.000-06:00

Greetings All,
So on this day we went to Santisima Trinidad (The Most Holy Trinity) where they have a Church and a school for children. Dcn. Anderson (his first name, again English names are popular here) serves here and his wife, Isabel, runs the dayschool.

(Isabel)

(Dcn. Anderson)

(Some of the ninas clowning around in their toy house.)

So we were given our choice of projects today. Paint walls outside or paint a mural in the kids playroom in the school. We eagerly asked to do a mural. Marco is a painter and has done many of the murals in the Churches around the Diocese. So we were asked to paint Jesus con los ninos and I asked if we could paint kids in traditional Peruvian attire and the ladies who run the school were very excited at that suggestion. So we spent the afternoon having the time of our lives painting a mural for the kids at Santisima Trinidad.

(Here's Marco drawing the outlines of everything on the completely blank wall. Marco is an incredible artist and it was fun to watch him effortlessly create his art.)

(It starts to take shape. The painters, L to R: Mark, Dcn. Anderson, Sven {crouched down with sombrero}, Sandy, me, Edith and Marco.)

(Me adding details to the chico on Jesus' lap.)

(Mark, Sven, me, Edith, Sandy and Marco.)

(Lots more color now, and clowning around...Marco painting Sven's face while Juan Carlos is unknowingly painting Marco's head. Ha ha!)

(It's really starting to look like something.)

(We ran out of time so weren't able to completely finish it but here it is! Aren't the traditional Peruvian costumes way cool?)
(Los artistas!)

After painting we visited a mission parish in a shanty town. Most of us agreed this was the toughest area we visited. While the poverty was extreme in places like Oasis and Collique this area felt very rough, more edgy. This area was very steep and had a lot of pigs being raised here.

(The steep hike up to the mission.)

(Here it is.)

The Vicario, Fr. Julio was the celebrant and he invited Micah to assist. There were a lot of kids there and one of the more funny moments was when the kids were dismissed for kids Church during the sermon. They all rowdily ploughed their way through us to the little Sunday School room and Fr. Julio starts reading the Gospel and then come bursting back into the room and are all grabbing chairs literally out from under us. They made so much commotion that Fr. Julio had to stop reading. So kids are milling around everywhere grabbing chairs, plough back through us and take them all into the Sunday School room. It was like a tornado blew through and took all the chairs in like 30 seconds. It was hilarious.

(Micah assisting while Fr. Julio prays the Eucharist.)

(Fr. Julio distributing the elements.)

Our visit here was filled with all kinds of unique experiences. One was that all during the Eucharist we could hear pigs squealing, which was kind of strange, and I could help but think of when Jesus was met by the Gerasene man possessed by demons that Jesus sent into the herd of pigs.

(Mariela and Juan Carlos standing at the back of the mission. A pretty incredible view, eh?)

That said, this was some of the most Spirit-filled worship I experienced here and many of us agreed that was true here. We were originally going to sings some different songs but I felt compelled, maybe even lead, to sing a song I learned in Brazil called Sua Prescena e Real (Your Presence is real) which Marco helped me translate into Spanish from Portuguese. It's a song about God being present with us in our worship therefore with will praise Him with the Cherubim and Seraphim .
(Fr. Julio administering the sacrament to Bill while Marco and I sing praises.)

So after a short (for Peru) Eucharist we headed back to the apartment ready for some rest. Today Joe and Ellora stayed home as weren't feeling well. Many of us picked up a stomach bug in Ica and weren't feeling well, myself included.(Sandy with one of the little ninas.)

After coming home we found out today is Bill's birthday! So we had a little festivities and Mariela and Marco came over. We had some great conversation with them about our trip. They were very concerned that we were enjoying the trip and getting a lot out of it, they've been incredible hosts and have puts tons of work into this for and made lots of sacrifices. We talked a lot about future trips and how we can strengthen our relationship between the seminarians here and at Nashotah House. I pray God will bless our future together and we can be a resource and encouragment to one another for many years. Gloria Dios y Feliz Compleano Bill!

Peru: Day 10

2008-01-21T18:10:00.001-06:00

Greetings Dear Friends,
For the sake of time I'll just post a few pictures and comments from yesterday. After the morning Eucharist we spent most of the day driving home on the bus so, while worship was wonderful, not too much to report.

One person I do want to tell you about is John (English names are very popular here, kind of sheik). He is a 17 year old young man from Arequippa which is south of Ica. A few months ago John came to Ica thinking he'd stay for a few days and after seeing the need there went home, got all his belongings and has been there ever since. One of John's primary ministries while we were there was leading musical worship. I was privileged to sit with him for a few minutes before each service to learn/rehearse songs. John would always ask us to pray for the service and the prayers that came from this young man were incredible. He has a depth of maturity and sense of urgency about his faith which I rarely find in people twice his age. He spends a lot of time in Ica working with the youth, doing physical plant type work and praying and leading worship. May God bless you John!

(John and I.)

Another great moment in Ica before we left Sunday was Bill having an opportunity to talk to a young man. This young man shared that he has recently come to faith in the Lord and is struggling to overcome many of the same things which Bill struggled with in his past. Bill was able to encourage him and tell him of the healing, transformation and victory he has found in Our Lord Jesus. To see the look of hope this young man's face after talking to Bill was wonderful.

(Bill sharing his testimony and godly encouragement while Sven translates.)

Peru: Day 9

2008-01-21T06:44:00.000-06:00

Good Morning from Lima everyone,

OK, Saturday; Day 10. We were told in the morning that a new Deanery or Vicaria (district for you non-Anglican types) was being established for all the Churches in Ica and the Vicario General (Canon to the Ordinary, a.k.a. Asst. to the Bishop), Fr. Julio would be coming down to Ica from Lima for a special Eucharist to celebrate the new Deanery.(This sign reads: "the Anglican Church of Peru - Deanery of the Resurrection - District of St. John the Baptist and Ica - Welcome".)

(the Canon to the Ordinary, Fr. Julio.) (Now that it's daylight you can see better the Church building and the "Dublin Inn".)

(My nemesis...this rooster began crowing at about 3:00a.m. and didn't stop...EVER! I actually was asking myself in the middle of the night how much I would have to pay the family who owned it if I...uh...silenced him. Ha ha.)

Our agenda for the day was to tour the various missions and parishes around Ica. As a quick aside, it sounds strange that on some days our "mission" is simply to visit the missions and parishes and we're often given a royal welcome with gifts, food, etc. "How the heck is that mission?" one might ask. But we were told that a bunch of their American brothers and sisters travelling halfway around the world to visit them was tremendously encouraging and affirming to them.

Fr. Jaime, one of the Deans (head of a district) in the Diocese, guided the tour. The earthquake happened on August 15 and the Diocese sent people down two days later to begin relief work immediately. From the time of the earthquake through December the Diocese provided 2,500 meals each day. Another important ministry Fr. Jaime described was comforting people who were afraid to go back into there homes, for days, as they were terrified of another earthquake. He told us how many of the seminarians had travelled down to Ica to help with the relief work. While driving he told us that many come down to Ica for weeks or a month at a time to do relief work, including John (more on him in a minute) who came down prepared to stay three days then went home for his belongings, returned and has been home since. Fr. Jaime said the relief work in Ica was truly their "seminary". That was a tremendously humbling comment.
(Fr. Jaime)

On our tour we also saw the destruction from the earthquake.

(The Roman Catholic Church in Ica which was devastated by the earthquake. You can see some damage on the bell tower on the right. So why did I say it's devastated? Because the only thing left of this Church is the front...the entire backside is gone.)(A family's home reduced to a pile of rubble.)

(Directly across from the rubble is their makeshift, temporary housing of reed mats and tarps.)
(This is a typical Peruvian Cross which you'll find everywhere here. Each symbol on it represents something.) (Dcn. Ruben , Sven, Micah and Marco make a side trip into the desert. Can't you just hear the soundtrack from "the Good, the Bad and the Ugly" playing to this?)
(This is one of the typical methods of hauling things in Peru, even in Lima. It's the first clear picture I could get. As you can see it's a motorcycle chopped with a cart added to the front. People also do this with bicycles.)

(And the more common method of hauling things in rural areas.)

While my comrades went to check out the above-ground cemetary I sat and befriend this older gentleman named Roberto. He said he had a stroke 23 years ago and was in the hospital at the same time as six other stroke victims and was the only one to survive and each day he would walk five or six times around the town square for exercise then sit down to read the paper.(Roberto and I.)

In the photos from yesterday you saw a picture of Orlando, Juan Carlos' brother. Well, he has an incredible story. Six years ago he went to Colombia to attend a seminary there but was kidnapped by geurillas who held him hostage as a laborer cooking, chopping wood, etc. After a year he asked if he could do ministry with the children and they agreed. So one of the kids tells him how to trek to a bus stop secretly and Orlando takes off for it and within a day is on his way back to Peru. Orlando has a huge heart and does great stuff with the kids here in Ica.

(Orlando.)

After touring the missions and parishes we had a Eucharist to celebrate the inauguration of the new Deanery. It was celebrated outside on a peice of pressboard on two saw horses but the "reredos" (decorative back wall) was the foothills of the Andes!

(Who needs a beautiful building when you've got this, eh?)

(The altar party: Fr. Jaime, Fr. Julio and Dcn. Ruben.) (The Peruvian-American worship team: Joe, me, Sven Julio {seated}, Juan Carlos, ? maroon shirt and Jhonny.)

(Our "Sanctuary".)

(The faithful coming forward to receive the precious Body and Blood of Our Lord.)

Peru: Day 8

2008-01-20T22:38:00.000-06:00

Greetings from Lima friends and family,
We’ve returned safely from our trip down to Ica. It was an intense trip. The Lord is doing wonderful things there and it was a privilege to see it all. Friday…Our day began with a stop at the Church, Jesus el Nazareno, which I was eagerly looking forward to as I was told there was a musical group there who played traditional Peruvian music with a Christian message.

Deacon Patricia gave us a tour of the Church which is decorated with all kinds of lovely murals.

(Deacon Patricia and Sue Ellen our translator; note the mural in the background.)
(One of the many murals in Jesus el Nazareno.)

After our tour we were invited to listen to the musical group, Nazareno, and they were simply incredible. They played some of the best live music I've ever heard. I had the joy of sitting in with them and being shown how to really play the charango, it was a blast! I was overwhelmed with how awesome the Kingdom of God is that a guy like me from Chicago would be sitting on the far edge of Lima, Peru playing music with my brothers and sisters in Christ in their mission Church. As fun as it was, it was more encouraging to see that their musical talent is surpassed by their love for Jesus. These musicians are the same folks who are in seminary, working in the missions scattered throughout Peru and spening weeks at a time down in Ica using personal vacation time away from their families to help with relief work.
(Diego, Enrique, Jhonny {a seminarian who accompanied us to Ica} and Sixto.)

(Jamming with Nazareno: me in the green t-shirt on the left, Marco, ? girl, Pilar, Roger playing the charango, Diego playing the guitar, Enrique playing the flute, Sixto singing and Jhonny on the drum.)

The children did some singing and dancing for us and we all got a little silly having ballon fights and starting conga lines. I'll let the pictures tell the story. (The kids singning and dancing their hearts out.)
(Too fun!)

(Sven, Micah and I get a conga line going.)
(Ballon fight!)

(Micah being...well?...Micah!)

After our visit to Jesus el Nazareno we started our five hour bus trip to Ica. It was a pretty drive with the Pacific Ocean on one side of the highway and desert on the other with the foothills of the Andes in the background. It was also a nice chance to catch up on some sleep.

(The sun setting over the foothills of the Andes on our way to Ica.)

We arrived in Ica after dark, after what seemed like a long trek along a single track dirt road covered by a canopy of trees...it felt a little foreboding, like we were heading deeper and further away from civilization (which we were). When we arrived the Church was showing a movie in the community on the side of building. Apparently since the earthquake most people don't have electricity so showing movies is one way to make a contribrution to the community, provide leisure activities (which help keeo the youth out of trouble) and also provoke questions about Jesus since he films they show contain Christ-centered themes.

(Orlando, the brother of Juan Carlos; who gave his testimony about a 3 hour bus ride each way to serve at San Patricio; greets us uopn our arrival. Notice he's got all our names on there. Jhonny from Nazareno is on the left, from Nazareno and caught a ride down as he'll be working in Ica for a few weeks.
(The recently constructed Church building which serves as a kitchen, guest house, worship space, etc; about the size of a garage.)

As promised, our accomodations were indeed "muy rustico". Half of us slept in the Church building while the other half of us slept in the tent pictured below. All throughout Ica we saw tents like this with the symbol of various national relief organizations on them. Our tent was given by the government of Ireland. Imagine... Americans and Peruvians sleeping in an Irish tent on the edge of the desert, go figure?

(The Dublin Inn in Ica..."I wonder if they'll be serving tea and toast in the morning?")

(Sven settling into our accomodations with the P.A. equipment. Looks roomy, eh? By bedtime this tent was occupied by Sven, Micah, me, Paul {Sarah's husband}, Jhonny, Juan Carlos and Marco!)

Alright friends and family. I've got two more days worth of pictures and news I'll get up hopefully tomorrow. It's late so time to sign off as we'll be here in Lima painting tomorrow. Until then. Gloria Dios y bendiciones!

Peru: Day 7

2008-01-17T22:19:00.000-06:00

Saludos Todos!
We pray you all are doing well. Today was a light day intended as a chance to rest a little before we trek south to Ica to help with earthquake relief work. This morning we returned to Fr. Misael and Claudia's Church Cristo Redentor which was the area we visited on Day 2 (the day Michael played a drumkit).
(Each morning begins with a bus ride to the Cathedral to pick-up whoever is translating for us, and then a bus ride to the parishes/missions we'll be visiting. Buses and taxis here have all kinds of interesting and colorful signage. This bus says "Read the Bible".)

Today at Cristo Redentor we worked with the young children. We started by giving a couple brief testimonies and then singing with the children.(Mark giving his testimony while Eli translates.)

(Some of the ninas dancing.)(Joe and I singing and clapping with the kids to what has become our favorite song here, "Si Tuvieras Fe" {If You Have Faith}.)

Afterward the kids broke up into groups to go to class where the small kids (4-6 years old) did crafts, making maracas by decorating condiment bottles and filling them with rice; while the older kids got cooking lessons.(Making maracas...)
(Aren't these some of the best smiles you've ever seen?)

Before we left, Fr. Misael and Claudia spoke to us briefly on this bus. This couple are pretty incredible. Fr. Misael has a quiet, peacefulness and confidence about him and Claudia has passion, zeal and committment to Jesus that is exemplary. An interesting side note, we learned that Fr. Misael was in the Peruvian military's special forces as a paratrooper during the "Shining Path" era when terrorism was rampant here. It was quite startling to hear this as he is so peaceful and soft-spoken. Joe took pictures of Claudia speaking to us as he hoped to catch her earnestness whenever she speaks about the Lord.

(Claudia speaking to us as we prepare to leave. It's as though you can see strait into her heart through her eyes, no?)

Some of you may be familiar with Compassion International, a Christian organization which sponsors children to provide for their physical needs as well as nuture them in the Faith. Cristo Redentor and San Pedro are a part of Compassion. If you're not familiar I encourage you to click on the link/name and learn more.

So upon returning to the apartment, some of us were feeling saucy and decided we should all cram into the elevator. And between the 9th and 10th floors it stopped...kaput! (We're on the 15th floor). Now, common sense would say that an elevator that comfortably fits four people shouldn't have seven people, two guitar cases and seven backpacks crammed in....but I guess the sun has made us all a little punchy. Thank God Sven was on there with us to yell to the elevator repair man in Spanish and follow his instructions. We were stuck on the elevator for about a half an hour only so that's not too bad. It was an... um... uh... interesting time of fellowship seeing as we were packed like sardines.

(Ellora, me, Mark, Sven, Michael and half of Micah; Joe took the picture. And yes, the space we're crammed into is the size of a closet.)

Since this was our rest day some of decided to walk over to the beach to grab dinner. We had a great meal but even more wonderful was the conversation. We talked at length about what this trip means to us and how we should respond to all we've seen. We talked about what we see as the strengths of the Church here and how we hope to build a strong relationship between Nashotah House and the Anglican Diocese of Peru. We also talked about ways we can support the ministry they're doing here and how we can share their gifts and strengths with the U.S. (Bill, Sven, Micah, me and Joe; Ellora took the photo.)

(The view from along the coast in Lima, note the huge cross lit on the hill.)

Tomorrow we head about 5 hours south to Ica which is near the epicenter of August's earthquake. We'll be there through Sunday helping with relief work. The conditions were described by our Peruvian friends as "very rustic" so we would covet you're prayers that we would be able to serve 110% in these conditions and be a blessing and a witness for Our Lord to those affected by the earthquake.

I will not post any blogs while we're away but will post upon our return which should be Sunday night. Please don't worry if you don't see a post. Schedules are flexible here and plans can change. So until our next update may Our Lord Jesus Christ bless each of you richly. Please pray for us and pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ here in Peru. Gloria Dios!

Peru: Day 6

2008-01-16T20:31:00.000-06:00

Greetings Friends and Family,
We pray you all are doing well. We're nearly halfway through our trip which is hard to believe considering we've seen so much in our short time here. Today we traveled north to the Mision San Andres Centro Poblado: Cerro Cajamarco which marked our first trip outside the borders of the city of Lima.

The bus pulled up to San Andres to the sound of about fifty children singing loudly to welcome us. San Andres is pastored by Fr. Benjamin who was ordained to the priesthood one month ago and they worship in a space which was donated by a local woman (unfortunaley I can't remember her name).

(Fr. Benjamin and the woman who donated her land for the Church greet us and tell us the story of the Mision.)

After some more singing and introductions we were invited to sing and so today witnessed the inaugural performance of Los Seminaristas de Nashotah! Joe, Sven, Michael and I sang a song in Spanish with our newly acquired traditional Peruvian instruments for the kids which was lots of fun. As is the case here, music is a part of every gathering and is one of many expressions of how our Peruvian brothers and sisters joyfully celebrate life.(International singing sensation "Los Seminaristas de Nashotah". L to R: Jose on la guitarra, Miguel on la cajon (drum), Joel on la charango y Esven on la guitarra y canta.)

San Andreas is in the process of building a new building and the children were very excited to take us to see it. As is the case with almost everywhere we've visited, since we're in the foothills of the Andes, most shanty-towns are built into the sides of hills and therefore things are setup on steep inclines. Today took the cake though. Simply to get to the site of the new Church building which is under construction, only 100 yards away..and up!, was exhausting. I can't imagine what it must've been like to haul the bricks up.

(The kids leading us up to the site of the new building, the red bricks on the upper right. Looks are deceiving, this was quite steep.)

After seeing the new building the kids shot up the steep hillside and waved us up. So most of us climbed up the rocky hillside to a small plateau which then continue onto various pathways further up the mountains (technically foothills). One such mountaintop had a cross and a shrine at the top as is very common throughout Peru and something we've seen in numerous places.(Look very closely and you'll see the cross at the top of this hillside. This photo is taken from about halfway up from the site of the current Church. Joe, Ellora and I {Joel} climbed to top of this.)

We had a great time singing and worshipping together with the mothers and children, and then climbing through the hills with the children here at San Andres. After visiting for a few hours we boarded the bus to continue north to San Patricio.(The mothers and children of San Mateo, the Nashotah House seminarians, Fr. John who translated and Peruvian seminarians Edith, Jerry, Marco, Mariela and Fr. Benjamin.)

One treat was that we stopped to each our lunch at a beach on the way to our next visit. Most of Peru is inhabited along the coast of the Pacific and the view was beautiful. There were some pretty serious waves too.

After lunch we drive another hour along the coast to visit Mision San Patricio where, as you can see, they were eagerly expecting us. This is the mission that Juancarlos works at. You will recall he gave a testimony yesterday (see Day 5) where he described a three hour trip one way to serve a mission, this is his mission. We received an incredibly warm welcome and started by playing games with the children, including "Simon Says" which Sven did a wonderful job leading in Spanish.

(Sven leading us all in "Simon Says")

After playing with the children, we had a time for sharing testimonies, with three of us and three people from the local community sharing our stories. It seems that giving speeches is very popular in Peru and frankly it's been a very nice way to share our hearts with one another.

(Here I am giving my testimony about what brought us to Peru, beginning with the Bishop's visit to Nashotah House a year and a half ago, and telling them how inspiring their faith is.)

After testimonies and more singing, from both ourselves and the Peruvians, we helped serve everyone "lunch" which is Peruvian slang for a snack. As has been usual the snack is a thin version of oatmeal or quinoa that people drink like a beverage.

(Here's Mark serving one of the ninos some "lunch".)

After lunch the Church presented each of us with beautiful handwoven blankets made by a woman in the congregation. She had been preparing them for two weeks in anticipation of our arrival. They are absolutely lovely and will be a treasured memento of our visit to San Patricio.

(The woman standing between Sven and Ellora made these lovely blankets for us.)

So the day after tomorrow we will travel to Ica which is near the epicenter of where the earthquake struck last August. We'll be staying there overnight for two nights to help with earthquake relief and during that time I do not anticipate having internet access. I will add a post upon our return however. We'll still be around Lima tomorrow and I'll post an update tomorrow evening. Until then...Dios te bendiga!

Peru: Day 5

2008-01-15T21:18:00.000-06:00

Greetings in the Name of Jesus dear family and friends,

Today was yet another wonderful day. We're all feeling a little tired as a typical day runs from about 8:00a.m. until between 7:00-9:00p.m. and are looking forward to some down-time Thursday. As has been the case each morning, our team began with Morning Prayer and today the "Prayer for Mission" was incredibly meaningful...

(St. Mary's Chapel South...Daily Morning Prayer in our apartment in Lima)

O God, who has made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and didst send thy blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near; Grant that people everywhere may seek after thee and find thee; bring the nations into thy fold; pour out thy Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of thy kingdom; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Our first visit today was to San Mateo Mission and School. All of the Churches in the Anglican Diocese of Peru are required to provide (at least) one social program in their community...for example, yesterday in Collique was the meal and Bible school...and San Mateo's is a subsidized private school for poor families.

(San Mateo Mission and School on the east side of Lima)

We were given a tour of the school and then charged with digging postholes for roof supports and painting. Many buildings, including the Chapel at San Mateo, go without roofs for a long time and one of the reasons this is possible is because it never rains in Lima. Now, it's terribly humid of course, but Lima has an usual meterological feature because of its juxtaposition between the ocean and the mountains so it simply never rains.

(The Chapel of San Mateo, we white-washed the trim which is the altar area and dug the holes; which you can see in the foreground. The cross typically hangs on the white pillar above the gray desk.)

The children who attend this school come from shanty-towns at the foot of the mountains directly behind the school; literally out its back door. While we were there we heard very loud music that we thought was Chinese or Indian pop music and were told it was actually traditional Peruvian music which the children were being taught to dance to.

(The area out the school's back door that the children come from.)

(The children learning traditional Peruvian dancing.)

After our visit to San Mateo we had a joint Eucharist at the Cathedral with the Peruvian Seminarians of the Seminario de San Augustin. The service was primarily in Spanish and we were invited to serve in the liturgy again. Nashotah House is known for our excellence in liturgy and the Peruvian Seminarian are still in a process of learning this so Fr. John said this would be a great opportunity for his students to see what they've been learning in action.
(From L to R are Bill {kind of hidden, torch-bearing} Joe - crucifer; me - torch-bearer; Fr. John and Deacon Anderson in the far background, Mark in the white alb serving as thurifer and our guide Marco, who was the preacher and did an awesome job. Seeing as he's with us all day I wonder when he prepared his sermon?)

After the Eucharist we had a time of fellowship with the Peruvian seminaristas in which three of them and three of us each shared our story. All of the testimonies had a common element of the Lord working miracles in our lives, perseverence and the joy we find in pursuing our calling. A particular delight for our team was hearing Bill's testimony of how the Lord has done a powerful work of healing and transformation in his life which brings hope to many others. Juancarlos gave an equally powerful testimony of his work at a far-off mission which is three hours one way by bus, where he serves a few days a week...on top of being a husband, dad, working full-time and studying in the evenings!

(Bill giving his testimony to the group).

(Juancarlos tells about one night when he stayed so late he missed the bus and had to walk 2 hours to the nearest bus station and then take the bus home arriving at 5:00a.m.! Fr. John translated for us all.)

(The joint group of seminaristas sit together to listen to one another's testimonies. From L to R: Ellora, Fr. Misael and Claudia {from Cristo Redentor & San Pedro: Day 2}, Bill, Juan Carlos, Edith and three other Peruvian seminarians.)

After giving our testimonies and exchanging questions with one another we shared a traditional Peruvian meal of Pollo de Brassas y pappas, roasted chicken and french fries with the best hot sauce ever. Edith, who was with us at Collique yesterday came out in traditional garb and sang a beautiful Peruvian song and then all the Nashotah-ites sang "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing".

(Edith in traditional Peruvian garb.)

(Clowning around together for the camera.)

We had an absolute blast fellowshipping with our Peruvian brothers and sisters tonight. Teaching each other songs, talking, joking and sharing what excites us about serving God. This picture is a good summation of the fun we had with each tonight.

(Sven, Raul and Edgar teaching one another songs.)

One of the things I've been so struck by is the passion for ministry and the intensity of the vision of the leaders like Fr. Misael and Claudia (Cristo Redentor & San Pedro), Marco (Jesus es Salvador & Oasis), Edith (Collique) and Raul (the youth at Cristo Redentor). During our Q & A time they asked if there was anything that's has impacted us on this trip and I shared with them that they've set the bar very high for us and are an encouraging and inspiring example of serving Christ.

Tomorrow we're off to an area we are totally is terribly poor (again, an ironic statment coming from these folks) and has a high rate of children with physical and mental handicaps. Please pray for us tomorrow to be
fresh as its a three hour bus ride there (often the bus rides are exhausting in and of themselves) and to be sensitive to God's leading as we work in these circumstances.

All that said, praise God for the ways He knit our hearts togethers with our Peruvians brothers and sisters today. Gloria Dios!

(Ok, so I'm a bit of a dork but I really thought it was fun to wear this red cassock. The guys joked it looks like I have episcopal aspirations {to become a bishop} in this photo. Lord have mercy! Ha ha!)

Peru: Day 4

2008-01-14T20:32:00.000-06:00

Saludos in el Nombre de Jesus!
Today was an incredible but exhausting day, both physically and emotionally, and can be summed up by a sign at the first Church we visited this morning, Jesus es Salvador…

(The Word of God has life and power. Hebrews 4:12)

Over and over today we saw how Jesus radically transformed lives in midst of desperate situations. We started by driving about an hour south to Jesus es Salvador which is in an area similar to the area we visited Saturday (San Juan de Miraflores), neighborhoods which about 30 years ago were settled by squatters and have since become established neighborhoods; poor but established nonetheless. The Church, Jesus es Salvador, has been in this area over 23 years and this woman has been there from the beginning.
(Unfortunately I can’t recall her name)

Marco is a lay minister who serves both Jesus es Salvador and Mision San Andreas de Oasis and studies at the seminary in the evening...whew! After giving us a tour of Jesus es Salvador, which has a beautiful new building, Marco and some members of the Church took us down to a district called Oasis.
(the new sanctuary of Jesus es Salvador)

On the way there they were careful to tell us that this area very poor. Somewhat ironically, Marco and co. are from an area that itself is very poor, so for them to describe where we were going as very poor was startling.

While San Juan de Miraflores (the first shanty-town we visited) was poor, people lived primarily in brick homes, had legal power, etc. In Oasis people lived in makeshift shacks made from whatever materials they could scavenge, dirt floors, illegally acquired electricity by tapping into lines, etc. This was certainly the worst poverty I’ve ever witnessed. And, like all the shanty-towns we've visited, what you see in this pictures seems to go on forever.

(Look closely and you will see a cross next to the red and white flag, modeled on the Peruvian flag, which says "Oasis")

Marco made pastoral calls on a number of families and took us with him. He asked for prayer as serving two Churches and studying at night is taxing on him but he loves the people in his care. Please say a pray for Marco to have strength, refreshment and encouragement in his ministry.

(Sarah - a British missionary who was our translator today, Marco from Jesus es Salvador, Rosa and another young girl whom he made a pastoral call to. Marco loves God's people immensely.)

(the lovely family - Rosa, Giancarlo, Elva-mom, Grandma and Grandpa)

One lovely family we visited invited us all into their home. We learned that around the time the Mision San Andreas de Oasis was started the father, of the family pictured above, was murdered and the priestvRuben (who is working currently in the area hit by the earthquake) counseled the family through it and they all subsequently gave their lives to Jesus. Gloria Dios! They were an absolutely beautiful family and I was again humbled to sit in their simple home (their entire house was about the size of a typical American’s living room) and see the joy on their faces in spite their circumstances.

During our visit to Jesus es Salvador Marco was kind enough to show me a charango (a small Peruvian stringed instrument similar to a mandolin) they use for worship. Some of the ladies traveling with us took us to a music store who sold high quality charangos for a very reasonable price and after Marco (our guide, not be confused with Marco from Jesus es Salvador) inspected one meeting his discerning eye, I became the proud new owner of the coolest souvenir I’ve ever gotten overseas! (And all for $40). And I also got a real zampona (pan pipes) for mi hijo. I can’t wait to learn to play it. Michael and Sven purchased box drums like that used at last night’s show. We’re hoping to rock out some worship songs Peruvian style. Arriba!
(the world's newest charangista)

In the shanty-towns one thing I found fascinating was that even in the worst slums there were Internet Cafes, sometimes in the same kind of makeshift buildings as the homes I mentioned.
(If you look closely in the left of this picture you'll see a vertical, blue sign that says "Internet")

(A young boy sitting on the side of the road playing his charango and zamponas who was elated when I stuck my head out the window to snap his photo)

We then drove two hours from the south of the city at Oasis to the far north to visit the community of Collique to visit a new mission of the diocese. This area was another shanty-town that is known for being home to many thieves and bandits. Most families here are a single mother with children from numerous fathers who are not present. While the other areas we visited were poor, they didn't feel unsafe. Collique was the first place we visited that seemed to have have a threatening vibe.

(A typical scene in Collique - a shack with laundry hanging, mangy dogs and pigeons wandering and the mountains surrounding the community)

The mission does not have its own building yet and meets in the home of local woman named Suzy who donated the 1st floor of her house to the mission. She had to add a second floor in order to make room for herself to live!
(Jerry; Suzy and Edith, Jerry's wife)

Suzy herself was a thief who gave her life to Jesus and now runs an afternoon program Monday through Friday for the local children teaching them Bible lessons and then giving them a small meal of bread with jelly and a beverage of powdered milk and quinoa (like oatmeal). This is the only evening meal these children eat each day.

(This picture the children made of the Good Samaritan was riveting to see here in Collique, seeing as we too had to come through a roadway known to be inhabitted by bandits to get there.)

One of the main purposes of our visit was to help paint Lucy’s home. While helping paint was fun we had the time of our lives with the 80 children who came for lessons and a snack today. I could talk about it...but the pictures tell the story(Before...)

(...and after)
(Sandy with our new friends)
(These little cuties were delighted when I showed them their picture in the display on the camera pointing and covering their mouths and saying in Spanish, 'Look it's me! It's you Luis!')
(Marco - our guide and Micah playing volleyball with the kids)
(Bill fell in love with the little ones in Collique)
(Ellora being mobbed by 'ninas' as we prepare to leave)
(Joe saying grace with the kids before snack time)
(One of the best moments all day, Mark was staining the door when he got a surpise hug from Jesus...we have now officially dubbed Mark "Cuddly-Bear")

We fell in the love with these kids. Praise God for changing the lives of women like Suzy, the theif-turned-Bible Teacher. We saw so much joy and hope shining forth in this area today. In such a desperate, hopeless set of circumstances the only explanation for the kind of joy, hope and faith we saw was Jesus' Presence. Amen. Amen. Amen. Gloria Dios!

Peru: Day 3

2008-01-13T23:13:00.000-06:00

Greetings from Peru family and friends!
Today was another eventful and wonderfully day. We began our day at the English-speaking service at the Cathedral. The congregation is a mixture of ex- patriot Brits, Americans and English-speaking (and learning) Peruvians.

(Catedral del Buen Pastor)

We were invited to serve at the English service today and every member of the team did so. I read the New Testament lesson, Mark read the Old Testament, Sandy and Micah were ushers, Ellora lead the Prayers of the People; Sven, Joe and Bill served in the altar party and Michael preached (a great message!). This was a fun chance for us, as Nashotah House seminarians, to do what we do best.

(Bill {hidden}, Sven and Joe showing what Nashotah does best...liturgy!)

We then attended the Spanish service which included the Baptism of a young girl named Vanessa. It was a privilege to witness the beginning of this young girl’s life in Christ and; even though we were halfway around the world, in a different culture and language; reaffirm our own Baptismal vows together with her and our Peruvian brothers and sisters in Christ in this congregation.

(Michael preaching)

We then were invited to the home of Dean of the Cathedral, Fr. John, and his wife Susan for a great time of fellowship and a wonderful lunch.

This afternoon we visited the Mision la Ascension, a very small, new church in the city which is the home Church of Mariela and Marco (who you can see in photos from Day 1). They have been our guides here everyday and are such a blessing. They have true servants’ hearts and have become great friends to us.

(Mision la Ascension, about the size of a typical American garage)

Their priest, Fr. Alberto lead the music and also gave an awesome message on the Baptism of Christ which Sven translated for us. (Sven translating for Fr. Alberto...and possibly the only evidence of him ever wearing a tie!)

The worship was Spirit-filled and lively with a true Peruvian flavor and the faith of the people in this tiny Church was so encouraging to see. We had a great time worshipping with them and fellowshipping after the service.

(Paola {in the purple floral shirt} and members of Ascension; Joe, Ellora, and Bill listeing to Fr. Alberto's sermon)

They are growing and therefore need a larger building so asked for our prayers, please do say a prayer for a new building for Fr. Alberto and Mision la Ascension. Thanks!

(the wonderful band, note the box the drummer is sitting on; its actually a traditional Peruvian drum played much like an African djembe...Cool "guitar mans" huh Booj?)

Tonight was our “free night” and Fr. John and Susan recommended we go to a buffet and show a couple blocks from our apartment. The food was traditional Peruvian food which consisted of rice, cold and hot potato dishes with a curry(ish) sauce; beef, poultry and pork in various sauces; lots of olives and all kinds of wonderful fresh fruit…oh and octopus ceviche (marinated in lime and spices), mmmm!

The show consisted of a live band playing traditional Peruvian music and about a dozen different “acts” of all kinds of traditional Peruvian dancers. One word for the quality of the music and dancing…fantastico!

(Traditional "Scissor Dancers" accompanied by a violinist and harpist {behind "Air Inca"}, these men hold two halves of scissors in one hand which they play like castanets while dancing and doing all kinds of amazing acrobatic feats...a little like American break-dancing. The harp and violin music was Peruvian but vaguely reminiscent of Irish/Celtic music believe it or not.)

The quality of the music, dancing, costumes, etc was really incredible. As one who absolutely loves indigenous / ethnic music this was a real treat for me. It was a fun night out and a blessing from the Lord.

Today was a great day. I must say the highlight for me was visiting Mision la Ascension. They are such an inspiration and encouragement to me as one who aspires to plant Churches after seminary. Then again, all the Christians I’ve met here in the missiones (missions) and parroquias (parishes) have the kind of faith which inspires me. Praise God for the faithfulness of His saints in Peru. Gloria Dios!

Peru: Day 2

2008-01-12T22:34:00.001-06:00

Greetings in the Name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ dear friends and family!

So today our team visited the shanty-towns on the southern edge of Lima. The bakdrop to this area is the Andes mountains as you can see in this picture, a truly breathtaking panorama...This picture is the same view, more or less, for 360 degrees; the shanty-towns spread out literally as far as the eye can see and are areas that are at the foot of the mountain are legal neighborhoods; the further up the mountainside you go they are illegal squatter communities. We spent our day towards the "top" among the squatter communities. The poverty is saddening and the immensity of how many people are here (if I recall, our translator said there are about one million in the shanty-towns!) is staggering. Most of the people who live here are Quechua Indians who've migrated from the Andes.

(Pictured are some women washing clothes at the community water spicket.)

The area on which they build homes is very steep so the way people build is by carving out the mountainside to make a flat enough space for a house (all by hand with pick axes and lugging rocks in a bag).

The purpose of our trip was to visit two Churches in the shanty-town, Cristo Redentor and San Pedro. The couple who run these, Fr. Misael and his wife Claudia, are an incredibly godly couple; totally sold out for Jesus and committed to serving Him. Likewise for a young seminarista, Raul, who works with the youth at Cristo Redentor. Their passion for ministering to the children and youth in these slums was incredible to see. (Sandy, Fr. Misael, Claudia, local kiddies, our translator Clara, Mariela (in the blue shirt) and Ellora)

We had a great time with the kids, singing songs and playing games. Then with the teenagers one of our group, Sven, gave a wonderful short exhortation to them about finding their identity in whom God created them to be.

(pictured L to R: Marco, Sven, Joe, Ellora-seated and Michael-drums)
One fun moment for me was having my new friend, Marco who is a seminarista (seminarian) at the Anglican seminary here, help me translate some Portuguese songs I know into Spanish.

(pictured: Marco, me and Joe)

After our time at Cristo Redentor we got back on the mini-bus to return to downtown Lima and were bid farewell by a common sight...a dog on the roof...

On the way back to downtown Lima where we're staying we got an impromptu tour of the city from our driver.

They have these neat little motorcycle taxis out in the shanty-towns (mototaxis).

After dinner our group, a little sunburned and tired from hiking up and down all the steep inclines like those pictured here...

...prayed Compline together and had fun cracking up excessivley at each other in our tired, slap-happy state. (our team: Joe, Ellora, Michael, Mark, Sandy, Micah, Bill, me, Sven and one of the local priests, Benjamin)

Once again, all I can do is praise God for the privilege to be here and see the passion of those who are ministering for Him. It's truly inspiring. Please pray for Fr. Misael, Claudia and Raul and the churches of Cristo Redentor and San Pedro. They're doing awesome work here to bring the "least of these" to faith in Jesus Christ. May Our Lord bless each of you abundantly! Gloria Dios!

Peru: Day 1

2008-01-11T16:31:00.000-06:00

Greetings Family and Friends,
So after a long day of travel my comrades and I arrived safely in Lima. As I write this I’m sitting looking out the window and enjoying some homemade chicha-morada, a fruit drink made from cooking pineapple and blue corn then adding sugar and lemon. Last night we were warmly greeted by our hosts from the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd at the airport and taken to the five-room apartment my team and I are sharing. It was very foggy this morning and to our surprise, upon returning home from our day, we looked out the window to discover the beautiful view of the ocean in this picture. It's a little foggy but you can see a mountain and the ocean in the background (this photo doesn't do it justice).

Our day today started with Morning Prayer at the Cathedral followed by an official welcome presentation on the history and work of the Anglican Diocese of Peru.

(Here we are sitting in a choir stall as Fr. John gives us the history and vision of the Anglican Diocese of Peru. L to R: (front) Sven, Mark, Sandy, Ellora (back) Bill, Micah, Michael, me and Joe took the photo.)

The Lord has been, and is doing a mighty work here and the Diocese is growing faster than they can keep up with. The Cathedral is its own little walled community which includes the Church, a fellowship hall, library, diocesan offices and (I believe) some residences. (The Cathedral compound, the Churh is on the right and the fellowship hall is the brown doors on the left. I'm standing on stairs leading up to some offices. More offices are through the passageway.)

So after not using my Spanish in years I fared pretty well today talking to our new friends; Mariela, Fr. John and Marco; telling them about my family (mi hijo con pelo rojo y mi sposa qui studia nuovo testamente ala seminario) and where I’m from. Pictured are Mariela and Marcom seminaristas (seminarians) and lay ministers who will be our guides during the whole trip and Fr. John the Dean (priest & head pastor) of the Cathedral. I love the name seminarista, that's what's on our nametags here too...sounds cool huh? Like we should be wearing sombreros with gun belts crossed on our chests shouting "Viva Jesus!!! Y viva la Iglesia!"

(L to R: Me, Mariela, Fr. John and Marco.)

This afternoon we visited pre-Incan ruins that are just a few blocks from the Cathedral smack in the middle if the city. They date from 200 to 700 A.D.

Here are some photos of “American camels”, as our tour guide at the ruins called them, a.k.a. llamas. Guinea pigs are also very popular here in Peru…

...on the menu! They call them cuy (for the sound they make). We’re supposed to dine on cuy at some point while we're here. Should be...uh...interesting.

All that said, I feel so blessed and privileged to be here in Peru seeing the work God is doing. Thanks for your prayers and please continue to pray for my comrades and I. Gloria Dios!

My Wife's First Icon

2007-11-17T17:36:00.001-06:00

Behold the first icon my wife has ever written (icons are "written" versus being painted). After roughly a six month process which involves meditating on the person of Christ, prayer and reflection while mixing one's own egg tempera paint and using real gold leaf to create it here is her finished work. Isn't it beautiful? Glory to God. And well done my Love.

One More Reason to Love JPII

2007-11-14T23:36:00.002-06:00

Karol Wojtyla (Voy-tee-wa), a.k.a. Pope John Paul II is a personal hero of mine (I stumbled across this picture and had to post it). He's Polish like me, he's a lover of Jesus like me and he liked stylin' shoes like me (have you ever seen his shoes?! The man had style! Look here, here, and here).

I can remember the day he become Pope like yesterday. I was five years old and we were at my Polish great-grandma, Regina Prokof's house watching the t.v. broadcast of his election. My great-grandma's new live-in nurse, Josephine, had just arrived from, then Communist, Poland and the election of a Polish Pope was a cause for huge celebration among my Polish Catholic family, for Polish Catholic Chicago (which is the second largest Polish-speaking city in the world, including those in Poland!) and among the then-oppressed Poles. I can remember the tears of joy and excitement especially from Josephine, who was singing in Polish and crying and toasting us all. What a memorable day for this little pierogi.

So I just completed my Middler self-evaluation for seminary and one of the questions inquired about my "ability to laugh at myself". Anyways, this pictures would seem to suggest I'm in good company for being able to do so. Seeing JPII reminded me of that special day back in '78. And now Pope John Paul II and my Great-Grandma have gone to rest with the Lord and Jospehine has returned to Poland. Rest in Peace Il Papa...Rest in Peace Grandma...God bless you Josephine.

P.O.D.

2007-11-02T10:39:00.000-05:00

These guys are one of my favorite bands. They're a bunch of ex-
gangbangers who are totally sold out for Jesus, sleeves of tattoos and
all. They rock hard for Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and bring the
Gospel to a lot of people. They've got a new album on the way and thus
new ministry opportunities. Pray for them.

Fullness of the Holy Spirit

2007-10-31T14:56:00.001-05:00

This weekend I attended a retreat with Renewal in Christ Ministries and on the $1.00 used book table found a book I had read in college and found most helpful in my Christian walk (and had given away a handful of copies of) called Baptism and Fullness by John Stott. In an age where many evangelists and teachers talk about "baptism in the Holy Spirit" or being "full of the Holy Spirit" a book like this is so helpful. Rev. Stott goes straight to the Bible to help determine what being filled with the Holy Spirit is, and what it is not and this is one of the best scholarly works on this I've come across. As with all of our Christian life we need to be informed by good, Biblical, apostolic theology and this little gem provides just that. It is not only a book of theology butalso addresses many of the questions we have about "Well what about...?" or "How does one become filled with the Holy Spirit?" Our Christian life is rooted in the belief in a Triune God and often-times I find that one-third of the Trinity doesn't get much attention. So I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a simple yet bountiful treatise on God the Holy Spirit the Lord the Giver of Life!
(and would be glad to loan you my recently acquired copy).

A New Brother

2007-10-29T11:54:00.001-05:00

A couple weeks ago I preached and concluded my sermon with an invitation for those who have never considered Jesus to say "Yes" to Him. Well, talking to Fr. Bill after the service I discovered there was one man in the congregation, Allan, who had been coming for a few weeks who was really searching for God. So I've been praying that my words would plant seeds of faith in his heart. Yesterday I ran into him at Church and and he shared with me that he felt like Fr. Bill and I were speaking directly to him in our sermons. And he shared that he desperately wanted to give his life to God at some point because of the peace he felt at Church. I replied, "Let's do it right now!" So right there in the hallway by the bathrooms we prayed together for him to repent of his sins give his life to Jesus. He immediately said that he wanted to be baptized! We shared this with Fr. Bill who gathereed myself and my schoolmate Fr. Daudi to all lay hands on Allan and pray for him again. Allan will be meeting with Fr. Bill this week to prepare for his upcoming baptism!
Please pray for this this new brother to be surrounded with godly encouragement, strength to persevere and tha he will fully receive the joy of his new life in Jesus!
GLORY TO GOD!

How to Study for a Hebrew Midterm

2007-10-22T22:53:00.003-05:00

A construction worker. A fireman. An engineer. And a viking. No this is not the Village People. This is my comrades and I studying our upcoming Hebrew Midterm. Now, to give a little context...my comrades and I are studying for Hebrew last week and, in search of a song for the Hebrew alphabet, stumble across this video. This was so absurd, and we laughed so hard, it has now become our official Hebrew study session anthem. Well, taking a nod from our inspiration we decided it fitting to study in like fashion, in the hopes that it might actually sink in. One important lesson about seminary life is, if you work hard and don't play hard you'll burn out.

Sermon: Always pray. Don’t lose heart. God is faithful. ~ Luke 18:1-8

2007-10-22T09:54:00.003-05:00

Preached at St. Mark's Church of the Anglican Communion in Silvis, IL on October 21st, 2007...
Always pray. Don’t lose heart. God is faithful. Our Gospel this morning opens by saying that “Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” Always pray and not give up. But why does Jesus need to tell his disciples to always pray and not give up here?
In order to understand this we need to look at the passage preceding it in Luke 17:20-37. The Pharisees ask when the Kingdom of God will come and Jesus responds by telling them they’ve got it wrong because it is “within you”. He then tells his disciples “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it”. He then goes on to explain that it will be dreadful and catch people unaware. And afterward his disciples respond in a way that shows they will indeed long to see His day… “Where, Lord?”
So Jesus tells them they’ll long to see one of His days, but won’t therefore pray always and don’t give up. Some other versions of the Bible translate it…“never quit”, “not become weary”, “not lose heart” and “not faint”. And I believe what Jesus is giving them in one sense is some preventative medicine. Because longing that goes unrealized has the potential to lead to despair or anger or apathy. Think of a situation where you’ve longed for something that hasn’t come to pass. What might we do? We doubt God, we lose hope, we become angry at God, or we just stop caring. All of these are attitudes that have the potential to become faith destroyers. And into this Jesus presents us with the example of how to overcome these potential faith destroyers. And what does he prescribe to overcome these? Hopeful, prayerful perseverance. And He shows us what it looks like to persevere, to be one who always prays and doesn’t lose heart. And who in Jesus’ opinion models it for us? A widow.
To understand how powerful Jesus’ example of hopeful, prayerful perseverance is we have to understand what it meant to be a widow. To be a widow in Jesus’ day typically meant, that in addition to the trauma of losing her husband, she was poverty-stricken, helpless, oppressed, exploited and unable to get justice. Widows were a symbol of utter helplessness. Now contrast this with judges. They held great power and authority and therefore were called to be absolutely impartial, to shun bribes, to not favor the rich or the poor. Judges had to be absolutely blameless. So when Jesus describes this judge as unjust he describing this person as a scoundrel among scoundrels. So here we have one of the most helpless members of society seeking justice from one of the most corrupt people in society. If ever there were an utterly hopeless situation this is it. The most helpless seeking justice from the most corrupt. It certainly would be easy to lose heart, to give up, to throw your hands in the air and say “It’s hopeless”. Or to get angry and say “Not fair!” But does the widow do this? No, what does Jesus say? “She kept coming to Him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.” She kept coming to him. The original languages imply that, she kept coming to him again and again and again. It reminds me of the scene in the Passion of the Christ where Our Lord is being flogged and it’s absolutely brutal. He’s knocked down, suffering and the Roman soldiers are standing over Him as He’s lies on the ground, helpless…and then He gets up! And their expressions of mocking and jeering turn to astonishment. And this is what the widow models for us. A completely hopeless situation. But rather than give in to despair she perseveres. She refuses to lose heart, she refuses to give up. She keeps coming to the judge. And we likewise need to keep praying. Because prayer is our anchor in those times when we’re longing and waiting and hoping. Not simply because we’re continuing to ask for our need to be met. But because by praying we’re maintaining our relationship with the Lord during our time of need. We’re returning to our source of strength and peace. And more than any other time in our life, it is when we feel desperate that we absolutely have to cling to God. This is when we have to always pray, don’t lose heart, don’t give up.
And one of those reasons we should not lose heart is because God is faithful. Jesus concludes His parable by saying, “Listen to what the unjust judge says…” Now in the language of His day this was how you said, “Pay attention, I’m about to give you the moral of the story here”. “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to Him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, He will see that they get justice, and quickly.”
Pay attention, this is really important…The lesson here is this: God will come through for those who persevere. When we’re longing, when we’re waiting we have to remember God is faithful. He will come through.
Now in the Gospel here it says, “He will see that they get justice, and quickly”. And it’s important to spend a little time on what ‘quickly’ means. I think what we might hear is that God is going to do what I pray for fast. If I pray today, He’ll answer tomorrow. But this isn’t what this means here in Jesus’ language. He’s not saying God will grant justice ‘after a short waiting period’ but He will grant justice ‘suddenly’. Bam! And this is consistent with Jesus parable, the widow doesn’t get her request the next day does she? What Jesus is saying is, God is faithful and He will answer suddenly, sort of “when you least expect it God will show that He’s faithful”.
And this is an important thing to remember when we’re in a place of longing, of desiring justice or what’s fair. God isn’t necessarily going to work according to our schedule. He’s not going to do things the way we want Him to or according to our plan. But He is going to come through. And when He does it’s going to be perfect. And if we are mindful that God will come through, and that when He does it will be exactly what we need how could we give up? When our longing is placed upon one who has a perfect plan for us and loves how could we lose heart?
Therefore, how we wait is what will make the difference. Will we be like the widow? Prayerful, hopeful, persevering? Always pray. Don’t lose heart. God is faithful.
And this is how Jesus ends this lesson. “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” At first it sounds a bit disconnected from the rest of what He's saying. Almost an out of the blue. But I believe what He’s saying is, “Will I find this prayerful, hopeful perseverance? Will I find the faith of these widows? Or will I find those who’ve given up? Who’ve stopped praying? Who’ve given up on God, their source and their strength?” What He’s saying is, “God will prove Himself to be faithful, will you?” God will prove Himself to be faithful, but will Jesus find those who always pray, who don’t lose heart, who are characterized by prayerful, hopeful perseverance? Not even, but especially when it hopeless. When we want to throw in the towel. When we’re just exhausted, spent. When we can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel… That’s when we need to always pray, to not give up, to not lose heart and to remember that God is faithful. In those times will Jesus find that kind of faith in us? Jesus tells us in this passage that God will prove Himself faithful. Will we? Always pray. Don’t lose heart. God is faithful.
And for those of us who have given our lives to Jesus this is what we’re called to. And there might be some of us here today who haven’t even given much thought to God, or maybe you struggle with believing that He’s really there or that He cares; maybe you don’t believe that God is real at all, maybe your running from Him. Wherever you are, if you’ve never said yes to God, then I challenge you to take a risk. To take Jesus at His word. To allow God to prove that’s He’s faithful, that He cares for you, that He’ll come through and that He’s real. If that’s a decision you’d like make today, then say Yes to Jesus.

Synod of the Holy Spirit and a Visit to St. Mark's

2007-10-21T20:19:00.001-05:00

The Missus and I just returned from our Diocese's 130th Synod. As usual it was a wonderful reunion and homecoming of everyone from the Diocese. A highlight was seeing our dear friend and a mentor Fr. Mario Bergner, whom I had the privilege to do an internship with at Christ Church while we lived with his wonderful wife and kids. As always, I was blessed and inspired to be with my dear bishop and father-in-God, Bp. Ackerman. Our Synod Mass was a Votive of the Holy Spirit with a wonderful address by +Abbot Alberto, OSB from St. Benedict's Abbey with a closing exhortation for all of us to "lift our hands up to heaven" as he prayed for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
After Synod the Missus and made a visit to our sponsoring parish, St. Mark's and had a wonderful night of fellowship with Fr. Bill and Linda, followed by Sunday worship where I was the preacher. It was Visitor Sunday, where the members of Church invited a friend to attend, and I therefore felt I should give a presentation of the Gospel and so concluded my sermon with a bona fide altar call! As always our visits to St. Mark's are a blessings; Fr. Bill, Linda and the good people of there have become wonderful and dear friends and I am always blessed to see how they have the courage to be real, honest about who they are and committed to serving Our Lord Jesus Christ.
May God richly bless Bp. and Mrs. Ackerman, the Diocese of Quincy, Fr. Bill and Linda and St. Mark's abundantly!

A Few of My Heroes

2007-10-16T17:48:00.002-05:00

So I've been rediscovering some saints who have shaped who I am today in Christ. That said I thought I'd share them with you and encourage you to learn more about them.

St. Francis of Assisi
The Church recently celebrated the life of St. Francis of Assisi and in a recent sermon I had the privilege to speak about the things I find so inspiring about him. He was a man who deeply desired to be faithful to Jesus and to live the Gospel. As a result he helped the Western Church find it's true love again and, I would argue, started a reformation of sorts that preceeded the Protestant Reformation by about 300 years. He's most commonly remembered for his love of creation which I find unfortunate because this pales in comparison to his passion for deep communion with His Lord and living a life of obedience. Another little known fact is his desire to share the love of Jesus with Muslims, evidenced by his crossing enemy lines during the fifth crusade to preach the Gospel to the Sultan who was so impressed with St. Francis that he sent him away with gifts of fruit and ice! St. Francis' Prayer becomes more meaningful to me the more I pray it over the years.

Jim Elliot
Somone who had a profound impact on me in college was Jim Elliot. I read the books Through Gates of Splendor and Shadow of the Almighty, which are accounts of his life and include entries from his journal. He, like St. Francis; had a deep passion for Jesus Christ, living a life in obedience to him and sharing Him with others. He was a missionary in Ecuador and one of the first to ever make contact with a then-feared tribe of aborigines known as the Aucas. He and his five companions were martyred by them on January 8, 1956; and that story was popularized in the movie End of the Spear. A quote of his which has resonated with me throughout my life is, "Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation that you believe to be the will of God. Another is, "Saturate me with the oil of Thy Spirit, that I may ve aflame. Make me Thy fuel O flame of God."

Glenn Kaiser

Ahhh...the KAIZ. He has been a huge influence on me spiritually. He is a pastor at JPUSA as well as an incredible musician. And as a musician he has produced some of the finest worship music on the planet because, more than anyone else I've heard except Keith Green (below) he gets what worship is all about. As a straight up guitar-slinger he's fantastic too, he can boogie on a Dobro just as well as he can plug his Les Paul into a Marshall stack and tear the top of your head off with some screamin' blues...and all in Jesus' Name (ha ha). And while I love his music I love his message even more...holiness. Living a godly life. Being holy because God is holy. Being hallmarked by a life of repentance and gratitude for the incredible love of Jesus. Like the other saints listed here Kaiz is intense, and his intensity is JESUS.

Keith Green
This is another saint I discovered in college through reading his biography No Compromise. He was an incredible musician whose spiritual search for Truth in the '70's lead him through eastern religions and drugs and ended when he found the only real "guru"...Jesus. Like myself, Keith Green didn't discover Jesus from anyone "witnessing" to him or the result of evangelism but from simply reading the Bible. His zeal to completely yield every part of his life to Lord was incredible. And he produced some powerful Christian music that, much like St. Francis, called the Church into account for having forgotten their first love. He also had an incredible passion for the missions. He was intense, about Jesus, about missions and about becoming more like Jesus. I encourage you to check out some of his music.

No Compromise is what the whole Gospel of Jesus is all about...'For I tell you...no man can serve two masters...' In a day when believers seem to be trying to please both the world and the Lord (which is an impossible thing), when people are far more concerned about offending their friends than offending God, there is only one answer...Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him!

Sermon: If You Want More Faith, Be Faithful ~ Luke 17:5-10

2007-10-09T22:36:00.004-05:00

Preached at Light of Christ Anglican Fellowship in Kenosha, WI and St. Mary's Chapel at Nashotah House on October 7th, 2007...

If you want more faith, be faithful. “Lord, increase our faith.” This is the request the apostles make of Jesus in our Gospel today. I’m sure we’ve all prayed a prayer similar to this: “Lord increase my faith”. But notice that Jesus responds to this request with strong words. He says, “If you had even a mustard seed of faith you could say to this mulberry tree ‘be uprooted’ and it would obey you.” And he then gives the example of the dutiful servant. So they make a request which elicits strong words from Jesus. But why did they ask this and why does Jesus respond so strongly?

Immediately before they make their request Jesus gives them a challenge for radical discipleship. He tells them if their brother sins against them to forgive him up to seven times. Now, the Rabbis of their day were telling them if you forgive your brother three times you were doing really well. But Jesus doubles it and adds one. He demands radical forgiveness and His disciples respond by asking "Lord, increase our faith”. Essentially, "That’s too hard for us, we can’t do it so you’re doing to have to make it happen." Their request is an acknowledgment of their resignation. It reminds me of a scene in the Star Wars movie the Empire Strikes Back. Luke Skywalker is on the planet Dagobah being trained to become a Jedi by Yoda the Jedi Master. At one point Yoda tells Luke to use the force to lift his X-wing fighter out of the swamp. Luke kind of sighs and says, “I’ll try” and Yoda sternly responds by saying, “Do. Or do not. There is no try.” The Message, a paraphrase of the Bible, translates it this way "You don't need more faith. There is no 'more' or 'less' in faith.” Of course I’m not comparing Jesus to Yoda but I couldn’t help but noticing the similarity here. Luke Skywalker and the Apostles are issued a challenge, they respond with resignation and then are fittingly rebuked for it and told “Do. Or do not”, “there is no more or less in faith”, "If you had even a kernel of faith you could do incredible things." It’s a harsh reply from Jesus, he’s essentially saying you either have faith or you don’t, so have it! If you want more faith, be faithful.

And I believe the reason Jesus responds so strongly is because understanding this is crucial to being a disciple. Faith is the foundation. He’s sending them the message, “Pay attention! You have got to get this one right because it is the basis for everything else you’re going to do”. He is using a strong example to explain to them that faith is so important, so foundational because it is a source of incredible power for us. This is an example He uses often in the Gospels, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed you can move a mountain, tell a mountain to go into the sea, tell a tree to go into the sea”. What Jesus is saying is that if you have even a kernel of faith you can do incredible things for God. "Pay attention to this guys because it’s the foundation of your life in God and a source of great Kingdom power."
He then gives, what to us as modern people, might seem to be an unusual example. A servant comes in from working hard in the fields and tending sheep and instead of sitting down to eat he changes clothes, serves his master until he’s done, and then he eats. He doesn’t get any praise for going above and beyond because he’s simply done his job. Jesus is using this example because it's something His disciples would’ve understood. Sort of a, “Of course a servant doesn’t sit down and eat until his master’s done. We get it.” And Jesus ends it by saying, “So you too, when you’ve done all the things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.” We don’t get special accolades for being faithful. Doing all that Jesus commands isn’t going above and beyond. Being faithful is our duty. It’s what’s expected of us as Christians. And if we want more faith, we need to be faithful.
Someone whom I think embodies this example of the faithful servant is St. Francis of Assisi. St. Francis was the wealthy and popular son of a merchant when he had a powerful conversion to Jesus. He had an incredible desire to be faithful to the Lord and spent his days in prayer, in serving lepers, preaching and living a life pleasing to God. And...He took Jesus at His word. As people started to follow him he decided they would need a Rule of Life. To compose it he asked a priest to open the Gospel three times and whatever passages it opened to would be their Rule. Upon doing so he received the following: “If you will be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor", "Take nothing for your journey" and "If anyone wishes to come after me, let them deny themselves, take up the cross and follow me." So what did he do? Exactly what these Scriptures said he should! He did “all the things that were commanded of him”. He craved more faith. And he knew exactly how to obtain it. By being faithful. If you want more faith, be faithful. What was the result? Within his lifetime those who wished to follow his way of faithfulness numbered in the thousands and St. Francis sparked a movement that would help the medieval Church, which had “forsaken its first love” (see Rev 2:17), return to its Gospel center.

And I believe this is one example of the power of faith Jesus was talking about when He said “If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea’ and it would obey you”. If you have even a kernel of faith, you can do the most incredible things for the Kingdom of God. As I think about Light of Christ Anglican Fellowship and Nashotah House’s place in the Kingdom of God right now I’m excited to see evidence of the power of our faith at work. It reinforces for me the importance of these works being utterly founded on our faithfulness. Who knows where these wonderful things begun now can go if they remain grounded upon faith?

But I think it important to take a moment to talk a little about what exactly faith is. It’s a word that is so commonly used in our culture that I think it can easily be taken for granted. As I studied what faith means I found that it has elements of belief, trust and hope. So one aspect of faith is belief, do we believe that God is who He says He is and that His Word is true? And is there evidence that we believe Him by the way we live our lives? Another aspect of faith is trust, the kind of trust that empowers someone on the windowsill of a towering inferno to jump to the fireman with outstretched arms who says “I’ll catch you!” And finally hope, that forward-looking virtue which is expectant of the Kingdom of God to appear in our lives. This is what we should desire more of; belief, trust and hope. The virtues that when weaved together become faith. If you want more faith, be faithful.

As we prepare to receive from the Lord in the Eucharist I encourage each of us to take a moment in quietness and ask the Lord to reveal any areas where we need to yield to Him in faith: in our belief, our trust, our hope. May each of us respond in the way of St. Francis, in the way of the dutiful servant and may we do all the things which Jesus commands us saying, “We have only done that which we ought to have done”. May we obtain the power that lies in faith, by being faithful.

Sermon: Real Princes Wear Aprons, Not Crowns ~ Matthew 20: 20-28

2007-10-09T15:12:00.002-05:00

Preached at Christ Church (Episcopal) in South Hamilton, Mass on July 15th, 2007...

Our passage opens with a Mom and her two boys. And she wants the best for her boys so she makes a bold request: that they sit at the right and left of Jesus when He comes into His Kingdom.
She desires greatness, honor, prestige, position, power. Now it might be easy to look down our noses at Mom and the Zebedee boys here. You know, “The nerve!” Βut we’re culpable too. We may not be as bold as Mama Zebedee about it but we need to admit we all want greatness. It’s something that’s built into the fabric of our culture. What’s the direction we all work towards in our careers or vocations? Up! Promotions. Μore money. Or what about: “I golf every Tuesday with Rick Warren” or “My brother-in-law…he just became CEO of Microsoft” or “I graduated from Oxford”. What do we think we hear statements like these? “Wow, I sure would like to be them.”
So we need to be honest and examine ourselves and ask, “What kind of greatness am I pursuing?” I know I myself struggle with this as a man entering the clergy. You know, I get to wear a clerical collar now and when I put on my collar and my robes and I look in the mirror there’s a part of me that thinks, “This looks good! I like how this feels.” But it’s false. It’s not real. Because real princes don’t wear crowns. And I think each of us needs to look into our heart and figure what kind of crowns we’re chasing after.
Our desire for greatness is fed by our sense of entitlement. We’ve earned it. We’re ready for it. We deserve it. And that’s what we see in this passage. Jesus says, “You do not know what you are asking for. Are you able to drink the cup I am about to drink?” And they boldly reply, “We are able.” I think the reason they’re asking this is because they really believe they’re able. If they didn’t think they had some kind of entitlement they couldn’t ask. And how does Jesus respond, “to sit on my right My right and on My left, this is not Mine to give, but it is for those it has been prepared by My Father.” You’re asking the wrong question. They’re asking for something Jesus can’t give them. They want to be princes. And they want to wear crowns. But the problem is real princes aprons, not crowns. In God’s economy you can’t be a real prince and wear a crown. And sometimes we’re asking things of God for ourselves that aren’t possible because they go against the character of God or His will. When we examine our desires we need to ask; “Is this consistent with the character of God??”
So we’ve got the Ζebedee brothers who think they’re entitled to top billing in the kingdom of God. And what do the other disciples do when they hear this? They’re indignant. They get into an argument based on a worldly economy. “What makes them think they’re any more entitled to that than we are?” But Jesus says, hold on guys you’re called to be different. “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not so among you” To paraphrase, “C’mon guys…you know that’s how the world operates. But you’re called to be different”. Worldly greatness looks like that, but Kingdom greatness looks like this. And if you want to be Kingdom great you’re going to have to change your thinking. Remember, real princes wear aprons, not crowns.
If we as Christians are going to understand what it means to be great we have to change our thinking from that of the world. And the Lord is saying that greatness looks exactly the opposite of it. “Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.” You want to be a REAL prince? Stop window shopping for a shiny new crown and instead go put on an apron and get to work. And for the disciples and those of Jesus day I have to think his words must’ve had some startling impact. Be a slave? Someone who does the most menial tasks for others? The most humbling, humiliating of all stations in life? Slaves don’t even own the right to themselves? And like a slave someone who’s truly great in the Kingdom of God completely relinquishes their right to themselves and serves others. Jesus tells the disciples that greatness means being a servant and then gives Himself as the example, “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve”. And this is exactly what He models for them the night before He died. He stripped down, put a towel around His waste, got down on the floor and washed His disciples’ dirty feet like a slave. Their Teacher, their Rabbi, is doing the most menial task in their culture possible for them. He shows them that greatness is about serving and to be truly great you need to strip down, wrap a towel around your waste and wash dirty feet.
So do we desire greatness? Ιf we do, have we examined that desire? Do we want to be really great for the Lord? Then we need to follow His example. If we want to be a real prince in the Kingdom of God then we need to put on an apron and serve our brothers and sisters. Because real princes wear aprons, not crowns.

Food They Serve In Heaven

2007-10-08T20:06:00.000-05:00

So my sis' enjoys reading this blog and, as you can see, I haven't posted in a while. So eager for a post she says, "Hey bro' since your slackin' off I got an idea for ya" (she was actually much nicer than that). So for you culinary enjoyment I offer you...

Sis' List of Food Served in Heaven:

-Steak from Gibson's

-Bigos ("bee-gosht"): Polish hunter's stew

-Banana cheesecake from Cheesecake factory!

-Mom's artichokes

-Mexican style corn bread!

-Mom's stuffing
-Dunkin Donuts coffee!

Of course, not to be outdone here's a, longer and more obnoxious,

My List of Food Served in Heaven:

-Wifey's Hot Wings

-Mom's braciole ("bra-zhawl"): stuffed flank steak in Italian gravy

-Teppanyaki

-Churrascaria

-Vietnamese Beef w/ fresh herbs & sweet- sour sauce from my friend Vu

-Anything cooked on the grill outdoors and eaten with friends and family

-"Chowdah" from the North Shore of Boston

-a proper Chicago hotdog

-Chocolate Chip Cookies, props to the Highberger family

-Irish coffee

-Any desert from Papadeux especially their Praline cheesecake

-Rwandan Coffee from Land of a Thousand Hills

-New Glarus beer

-A "medium cream and sugar" (that's how those 'in the know' order a medium coffee with cream &sugar from Dunkin Donuts)

Eat Yer Heart Out Burt!

2007-09-21T23:45:00.000-05:00

It all started about five years ago on a trip to Maine. I discovered the archetype for all cologne...Burt's Bees Bay Rum. It's natural, it smells good and it's inexpensive. It's my smell. I'm known by it. Complemented for it. Then suddenly Burt stops making it!

No need to worry. I stock pile a few bottles and, ironically, by the time I'm down to the last few drops good ol' Burt puts it back on the market! Yay Burt! But...he jacked up the price and the bottle's are half the size. Grrrr. Bad Burt!

Now I had always presumed Bay Rum cologne was an invention of handsome Burt (pictured left) but not so! It's been around forever in the Caribbean where it originated and there's a dozen or so companies who make it. However while Google-ing it I discover that the purists actually make it themselves.

The recipe? So simple it beautiful...Dark Rum and Bay Leaves then, depending on your preference any combination of

cinnamon, cardamon, cloves, and orange peel. Put it in a mason jar and let it sit in the dark for a month and voila!

So I now have a jar my own special blend, Java Joel's Bay Rum, brewing in the cabinet and on October 21st will put on a few splashes to restore balance to my universe. So look out Burt, there's a new Sheriff in town...and he smells better than you!

Church-planting Again!

2007-09-15T22:03:00.001-05:00

"Just when the world thought it was safe not to go to Church... meet... the Church-i-nator!" Ok, ok...very dorky I'll admit. Frankly I couldn't find a picture to go with this post. Anyhow...
The Missus and I are passionate about Church-planting. It's foundational to our call to ministry and my call to the priesthood and we've had the privilege to be part of two in the past, Church of the Cross and Advent Anglican Chapel in Chicago.
We are tremendously blessed again to be a part of Light of Christ Anglican Fellowship in Kenosha. One of our priests, and a dear friend, from our home Church and his family are pastoring this Church and we were recently approved by Nashotah House to do our Field Education there. We're tremendously excited for this opportunity. It's wonderful to be worshipping with dear friends from our home parish and be on the front lines of God's Kingdom. If you're ever in Kenosha look us up.
Here are links to our friend's blog with photos of the Chapel and photos from Sunday worship .

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIECE!

2007-09-12T10:54:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear Niece-ey...Happy Birthday to you! Hope you have a wonderful birthday sweetheart! May the dear Lord bless you! May dear Lord bless you! May the dear Lord bless you Niece-ey...may the dear Lord bless you!
We love you!

Blessed Johnny Cash...R.I.P.

2007-09-12T10:49:00.003-05:00

February 26, 1932 - September 12, 2003

Be Healed!...um...Εlmo?

2007-09-10T22:57:00.000-05:00

So tonight my son and I are preparing for bedtime and he's sitting in the rocker in our room with his Elmo doll cradled in his lap. I'm looking through the bookshelf for some bedtime stories when I hear, "Thank You Lord..." I looked and he has his little head bowed and is praying, "Make him all better. Amen. Amen." It was priceless! So I ask him, "Whatcha doin' Bud?" "My baby's sick Dad, so I prayin' for him".

Now whenever he's been sick or hurt I often sit in his rocker with him cradled in my lap and pray for Jesus to make him all better. So I guess he was just doing like his Dad.

So he's finished praying for "his baby" and laid him down in his bed (the clothes basket) so he could get some sleep and be all better. Seeing how toddlers understand the Faith is so wonderful. The Lord Jesus' words ring so true in precious moments like these, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Amen.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEPHEW !!!

2007-09-10T10:15:00.001-05:00

Hey Nephew!

Happy Birthday to my awesome nephew! I remember the day you were born like yesterday Buddy and look at you now you little man you. I hope you have the best, coolest birthday ever today.

I love ya,

Uncle Joel

We're Back...

2007-09-10T10:14:00.001-05:00

....ΟΚ, just a quick note to acknowledge my two month absence from blogging. But more importantly, see my next post...

Brethren, Pray for Us.

2007-07-07T21:07:00.001-05:00

Greetings Friends! All is well for us here on the North Shore. We spent the 4th of July in Boston where we got to ride on the Swan Boats in the Public Gardens, a real treat for our son as we've been reading Robert McCloskey's Make Way For Ducklings with him a lot lately (the story takes place in the Public Gardens). The fireworks were incredible, we saw the Blue Man Group, the Boston Pops...who performed the 1812 Overture with canons and fireworks!...and I had the pleasure of seeing John Mellencamp. It was a pretty incredible Independence Day celebration. Thanks Boston!

We've been fully immersing ourselves in New England living as much as possible and here's some highlights: Fried Clams at their birthplace here in Ipswich, Sea Fishing and seeing the my friend's oldest son catch a little shark (a.k.a. Dogfish), Beaches-Beaches-Beaches, Chowdah, Walking the Freedom Trail in Boston on Independence Day, more Dunkin' Donuts per capita than Starbucks (for once!), walking along the Seashore in numerous historic little villages, a fun trolley ride through Boston, a Harbor Tour, "Ocean Boats" (as my son calls them) , Buffy the Buffalo at a local Farmstand, and most of all our wonderful friends whom we've had the pleasure and privilege of sharing their home with the last two weeks. They're a wonderful godly family, people who know how to enjoy life to the full and good friends. They're off to the Midwest for some family R&R and we sure miss them. May the Lord Jesus bless their rest, praise Him that we got to share their life for this special time.

So how's Church interning going? Very well. I've had more opportunities lately to delve into the pastoral side of ministry with hospital visits and pastoral meetings. Life is tough and this fallen world isn't fair and people are hurting. But I praise God that Jesus and His Church are the Hope of the World. This devotional from C.H. Spurgeon poetically sums up what I've seen and learned recently about being a minister of the Gospel. It's a little long and wordy but worth the read...

"Brethren, pray for us" ~ 1 Thess. 5:25

This morning in the year we reserved to refresh the reader's memory upon the subject of prayer for ministers, and we do most earnestly implore every Christian household to grant the frevent request of the text first uttered by an apostle and now repeated by us. Brethren, our work is Solemnly momentous, involving weal or woe to thousands; we treat with souls for God on eternal business, and our word is either a savour of life unto life, or of death unto to death, A very heavy responsibility rests upon us, and it will be no small mercy if at the last we be found clear of the blood of all men. As officers in Christ's army, we are the especial mark of the enmity of men and devils; they watch for our halting, and labour to take us by the heels. Our sacred calling involves us in temptations from which you are exempt, above all it too often draws us away from our personal enjoyment of the truth into a ministerial and official consideration of it. We meet with many knotty cases, and our wits are at a non plus; we observe very sad backslidings, and our hearts are wounded; we see millions perishing, and our spirits sink. We wish to profit you by our preaching; we desire to be blest to your children; we long to be useful both to saints and sinners; therefore dear friends, interecede for us with our God. Miserable men are we if we miss the aid of your prayers, but happy are we if we live in your supplications. You do not look to us but to our Master for spiritual blessings, and yet how many times has He those blessings through His ministers; ask then, again and again, that we may be the earthen vessels into which the Lord may put the treasure of the Gospel. We, the whole company of missionaries, ministers, city missionaries, and students, do in the name of Jesus beseech you "BRETHREN, PRAY FOR US."

My new Wardrobe

2007-06-28T13:29:00.001-05:00

As a Postulant for Holy Orders whenever I am representing my Bishop, such as during my Summer Internship, I now wear clericals: i.e. a black shirt with a clerical collar. Funny how something as simple as clothing can affect you. Putting them on makes me realize that every single thing I do and say represents the Lord Jesus Christ. I need to think twice about yelling at someone who cut me off, eh? (Of course, I strive to have my behavior be the same whether I'm in clericals or my pajamas for that matter). And I realize that it's an incredible privilege to be able to represent Jesus and His Church and I give thanks for it.

Of course on one hand it makes getting dressed for my day easier, "Hmmm, should I wear the black today? Or the black today?" Seriously though seeing people's reactions has been interesting. Some people look upon someone dressed as a representative of the Church with respect, like the Indian woman at the store who addressed me with, "Good morning Sir, thank you Sir, have a good day Sir" and others with suspicion, like the parents at the clothing store who, when I walked into the area they were in, called to their children "Come here kids, please come over here right now!" with the unsaid message of "priests are child abusers so get away from that man". I can't say I blame them, the Church has failed in that area so miserably and I think that those who've abused the office of priesthood to hurt children have a special ring of Hell waiting for them. Then they're those who don't get that a guy wearing a collar is married. Sigh! Oh well.

As soon as people see you in your "uniform" you've immediately got expectations to live up to, dispel, or both. Hopefully I can be an example of a true follower of Jesus and dispel people's negative expectations and may the Lord strengthen me to live up to people's positive expectations.

I wonder how Clark Kent felt when he put on the ol' cape and blue tights? He had a lot to live up to I bet.

A Week in the Life of A Church Intern

2007-06-27T14:34:00.000-05:00

So it's been a week and what have I been up to as a fresh out of my first year of seminary, summer intern in a local Parish?
So far I've preached at two mid-week services, attended a Staff Meeting, had mentoring sessions, assisted at a grave-side burial, been trained as a Subdeacon,
and spent the majority of my time learning how to work with some Church Administrative software and working on the creation of Christ Church's new website. It's been a great lens into what it takes to keep a parish running.
That said, much of my time is spent in the office doing the admin and website work.
Our family has been having fun. We found an awesome local seafood monger and last night the Missus made some awesome fresh steamed mussels and pasta...ahhhh the joys of New England, fun treats we can't get in the midwest. My son and I have been having bike races in the little circle drive in front of the house. He's become an expert at "leading me out" so I can "break away". So life is good. Until next post may you know the blessings of the Lord Jesus.

Welcome to Ipswich

2007-06-22T12:07:00.003-05:00

Greetings all, it's been a while since our last post and we've been wicked busy. ("Wicked" is New England slang for "very, very"). The Missus and I had a great time in Hawaii and when I have more time I'll try to add a Post re: that. We had 3 days home to pack for our 6 week stay here on the North Shore of Boston. We did a marathon 1 and 1/2 day drive here...for which my son deserves Sainthood, he was a content little man reading his books and eating snacks, and we will make it a 3 day trip home with fun stuff, 'nuff said...and arrived late Monday. Let me just say the layout of roads here completely defies any sense of intuition. Logic would tell you that to get to the thing East of you you head East, right? Not here!

We're staying with our dear friends and my son's having a ball assimilating into their clan of 5 GREAT kids. I am interning at Christ Church with my friend and mentor Mario+ and so far have preached twice and am learning the inner workings of Parish Life.

Wednesday Night we went to Woodmans in Essex for fried clams (which is my favorite seafood). The fried clam was actually invented in Ipswich. Then we walked around the docks and looked at the boats. My son is very excited to go on an "Ocean Boat" and we hope to take him whale watching sometime soon. Next week is the Festa in Gloucester and I hear the big event is a bunch of guys trying to climb a greased pole. Sounds like a hoot. So that's the news from Ipswich folks. I'll try to do better about keeing you all posted. Until next time May Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ richly bless each of you.

Aloha!

2007-06-06T23:46:00.001-05:00

So what has the Prather Family been up to lately? Sitting in the car. Last Thursday we drove to Peoria, IL and back for the Ordinations of two dear friends (one of whom is pictured in the previous post). It was wonderful to celebrate such an incredible occasion with them. We then had a quick trip to Chicagoland Sunday for the Missus' bro's 30th, a visit with my sis' and kids and a visit with some dear friends (all of which we did in about 36 hours!). Other than that we've just been doing stuff around the house to prepare for our trip to Massachusetts and a short vacation for me and the Missus.

Tomorrow morning we leave for our first-ever trip together without our son...an early Wedding Anniversary getaway (this Sept 5th marks nine years). Through some incredible circumstances and the generosity of family we've got 6 days in the land of Blessed King Kamehameha...a.k.a. Hawaii! We're stoked. We're attending a Christian Marriage Retreat and are going to relax and enjoy some fun in the sun. It'll be nice for the two of us to get away. God is very gracious in the gifts he lavishes on us. I feel the need to do something zany and daring while we're there like cliff dive, surf in a typhoon, wrestle a shark, get a tattoo, walk on hot coals... I don't know, maybe I could get a tattoo of myself surfing on a shark across hot coals off a cliff? Even if I don't do any of those, it's gonna be a blast with the Missus!

Other than all the above I've just been enjoying being my usual summer bike nerd and having fun with my son. Today was the first time he ever came up to me and said, "Dad...you wanna builds trains with me?" Yes! I dropped everything and we built a sweet train layout downstairs. Being a Dad just keeps getting better.

So I got in my first long ride of the year on Memorial Day with my dear friend Scott, who just became the Rev. Scott...congrats brother, who dragged me through 60 miles of beautiful, and grueling, WI hill country. Being from the flatland of IL I'm not used to all these hills! As I would pant my way to the top of a hill feeling every fiber of my muscles screaming in pain, gasping for breath there was Scott...who'd crested it well before me with a look that said, "Hill? What hill?" This is to say Scott is one hell of a great cyclist, an awesome climber and a dear friend and riding companion whom I'll truly miss having as my next door neighbor. This summer I will being doing another Cycling to Seminary too so stay tuned.

So....you won't see any posts for a few days while we're in Hawaii presumably drinking out of a coconut, wearing grass skirts and strumming a ukelele on the beach...ahhhhh. Thank you Jesus for such awesome blessings.

Phew!

2007-05-29T20:59:00.000-05:00

You'll notice the lack of posts for a while. The last two weeks have been busy. We had finals two weeks ago and then last week was Commencement week. A sort "all hands on deck" week with tons of family, friends, bishops, trustess, etc. here at Nashotah.

It's a bit strange, we went from the campus being swarmed with people and tons of activity one day to a virtual ghost town the next. It's been tough to say good-bye to some really great friends we've made this year but are excited that they're moving on to serve in Christ's Church.

Sooo...I've just completed my first year of seminary. One year ago I was working at State Farm, pulling all-nighters to prepare our house to sell and wavering between, "I can't believe I'm really going away to Nashotah House to study for the priesthood!" and "I can't believe I'm leaving my career, selling my house and moving out of state...to go away to Nashotah House to study for the priesthood." Ha ha. God is so good though. After this year I can say even more confidently this is a dream come true.

We've got a little bit of down-time for the next three weeks and then off to Massachussetts for a six week internship at Christchurchhttp://www.christchurchhw.org/

Re: the picture above. On a recent Sunday afternoon the Junior Class gathered for a cookout and some dodge-ball. A few chaps and I thought it all too barbaric and opted instead for a nice genteel game of croquet. To be in good form we thought it appropriate to play in our blue blazers, smoke our pipes and have a spot of Sherry to top it off (never mind the shorts, tennies and funky socks). It was a grand.

And the future of the Church is being entrusted to this?

Look! Up in the sky...

2007-05-14T23:00:00.002-05:00

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's...

SUPERBOY!

Yes, it's Superboy - strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal toddlers. Superboy - defender of law and order, champion of equal rights, valiant, courageous fighter against the forces of hate and prejudice on the playground, who disguised as a the son of a seminarian, mild-mannered coloring book artist, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American way.

On his trusty Superbike our hero is on the lookout for those in distress. Ever vigilant in dispersing villians with his mighty toddler strength and speed. Those in need take courage and evil-doers beware!

Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound! It's Superboy!

A Boy and his Bike

2007-05-11T22:12:00.000-05:00

My son got his first real bike tonight. One day he's a baby and the next minute...future Lance Armstrong. A bike you say? For him? But he's only two-and-a-half!...I know, I know, but stay with me.

As you can tell from this blog the Prather Family likes bikes. I started riding the year before my son was born to get exercise and completely caught the bug. We're Tour de France junkies now and last summer he loved to watch the sprint for the finish line each day, he'd yell "Sprinters!" while pumping his arms like pistons, as Robbie McEwan and Thor Hushovd battled for the finish line. Last Fall Grandma and Grandpa got him a tricycle which he mastered in...oh...about 3 pedal strokes! Zoom! Off he went. As soon as the snow melted he decided his tricycle was soooo One-Year-Old so got on his four-year-old friend's two-wheeler (with training wheels of course). He could barely reach the pedals, but again...Zoom! Every day he's been zooming around the yard on his buddy's bike. Proud Papa moment here: he's two-and-a-half and is flying around on a 4-year-old bike!

So tonight we go stop at REI and he's hauling through the store, I mean hauling, on this 2-wheeler. So much so that an employee says he needs to put on a helmet! The Missus and I think, "OK, maybe it's time to get him a Big Boy bike". The BMX-style bike he's zooming around on is a bit chincey so we try to coax him onto a different bike that's better-made but more like an old-fashioned cruiser. He will not have it. He wants a cool, fast bike. So we go down the street to see if the bike shop has anything that meets his demanding two-year-old standards but is a bit sturdier. We walk in to discover...the bike.

Now, my son loves, I mean loves, St. George and the Dragon; we read the story and play "Saint George with sword an' shield an' helmet" all the time. If you look closely you can see a cartoon dragons with shields on the chainguard and red fleur-de-lis that resemble St. George's Cross on the bike. Voom! He's off zooming through the store and weaving between the bike racks! I was amazed, I'm running behind him with baited breath, wincing every time he has a near miss with a bike rack. The boy's got skills. He's weaving in and out like Tour de France pro. I couldn't believe it. It's getting late and we don't want to buy anything on impulse so tell him we'll look at bikes tomorrow. He says, "Daddy, take this bike home...take it to our house!" Now, he's zoomed around stores on a zillion bikes but when it's time to go he's fine, no fits or anything. Not tonight. "Take it to our house!" The very kind mechanic (who's now stayed past closing to let him try this bike out) looks at us and says, "I don't think you're leavin' here without that bike" and agrees to stay even later to prep it for us.

So we bring it home and he's immediately riding through the house. It's bedtime and he wants to ride it. I tell him if he goes to sleep now he'll be able to ride it when he wakes up. The typical response to this would be protest, tears, stalling, requests for milk, a story, etc. Tonight? None of it. "OK Dad." Goes into bed and shuts his eyes as if to say, "The sooner I go to sleep the sooner I can ride my new bike!"

A boy and his bike...is there anything sweeter?

The best part for me? Seeing his joy and...this morning we went for our first-ever Big Boy Bike Ride together. Thank you Jesus for your good gifts and simple pleasures in life.

Happy Birthday Wifey

2007-05-10T09:58:00.000-05:00

On this day in 197# at St. James Hospital in Chicago Heights my beautiful wife was born. She is my beloved in Christ, best friend, wife and mother of my son. The following is from the Book of Proverbs chapter 31 and is most fitting regarding how I feel about her. Happy Birthday Love.

A wife of noble character who can find?

She is worth far more than rubies.

Her husband has full confidence in her & lacks nothing of value.
She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life...
She sets about her work vigorously;

her arms are strong for her tasks.
She sees that her trading is profitable,

and her lamp does not go out at night...
She opens her arms to the poor

and extends her hands to the needy.
When it snows, she has no fear for her household;

for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
She makes coverings for her bed;

she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
Her husband is respected at the city gate,

where he takes his seat among the elders of the land...
She is clothed with strength and dignity;

she can laugh at the days to come.
She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
She watches over the affairs of her household

and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children arise and call her blessed;

her husband also, and he praises her:
Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.
Charm is deceptive, & beauty is fleeting;

but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Give her the reward she has earned,

and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

We are the soldiers under God's command...

2007-05-08T21:55:00.001-05:00

...we hold His two-edged sword within our hand!

I can remember it like it was yesterday. Summer of 1987. I was given a copy of Stryper's Soldiers Under Command as a gift by my Confirmation Sponsor. I had their posters on my bedroom wall. My first concert was their To Hell With the Devil tour. And Oz Fox, their lead guitarist, was my hero. I'll never forget the time, after sending him a letter, that I got the mail and saw Stryper on the return address! He wrote me back! It was sooo cool. I still have it. He wrote about music but also about putting my faith in Jesus. This guy was ranked among the top three heavy metal guitarists and was encouraging me to put my faith in Jesus! Awesome!

They truly were great heroes to have. My friends used to make fun of me because I was active in Church and sang in the choir...you know, "Joel the God-boy". And they would make fun of the fact I liked Stryper, the "God-band"...that is, until they listened to them play. Then my friends would shut up, because you couldn't argue with the fact that they played metal better than anyone else. And that became my m.o. in high school...you could call me a dork or whatever you wanted, but put a guitar on me and I was a different kid.

It's funny, back then I loved God but didn't completely understand what it meant to make Jesus the Lord of my life. That came in college. And here I sit 20 years later writing to you from the library of the seminary I'm attending preparing to become an ordained minister. And I just got out of the car with the stereo cranked as loud as it can go...rockin' to Stryper. I may 33 years old, in my second career, a husband, Dad and going bald but I will always rock for JESUS!

Sold-iers, so-ol-diers...un-der command!

St. Augustine of...Arrrggh!!!

2007-05-07T21:18:00.000-05:00

So one of the assigned text-books for my Ascetical Theology class is the Confessions of St. Augustine. I'm a quarter of the way into this and have put it down three times already. I just cannot get into it. I believe St. Augustine had a foreknowledge of this being assigned reading for me in seminary and therefore made it the most verbose, dense, dry piece of literature possible. I Wikipedia-'ed it and it says it's the first Western Autobiography...blah, blah, blah. I love the Fathers of the Church, very much so, but if Purgatory were a real place I'm confident this would be the assigned reading (along with all of the appliance and children's toy assembly manuals I've never read).

So I'm going to get through this by force of will with the help of Blessed Johnny Cash. Now there's a saint who could write! Phew! I hear that train a comin'...it's rollin' round the bend...

I'm (not) Batman

2007-05-03T23:20:00.002-05:00

So the CDC called with results of the Bat incident and it did not have rabies...thanks be to God! Therefore I do not need to undergo the treatment (shots) for it. Nonetheless, a couple of guys from class have suggested the, incredibly cool, nickname for me of "Batman" due to my Bat-ness.

You know, the priesthood and Batman do have a lot in common...fighting the forces of evil, taking a stand for justice, coming to the aid of those in distress, an affinity for black clothes. So someday when I'm a priest (Lord-willing and the people consenting of course) if you ever see a Cross-shaped beacon in the moonlit clouds rest assured that it's simply my Bishop summoning me to the aide of those in need of the Church. In my utility belt I'll be carrying a Bible, a Crucifix, stole, holy water, anointing oil andthe Blessed Sacrament.

To the Priest-mobile Robin! Na-na na-na na-na na-na....

St. Thomas...the Tank Engine?

2007-05-01T21:36:00.000-05:00

So my son and I are getting ready for bed and he's saying the names of everyone he wants to pray for. He runs through friends and family and then says, "Daddy...pray for Thomas". Since we don't know anyone named Thomas I ask, "Which Thomas is that?" "Thomas da Tank Engine Dad, and pray for Diesel 10 and Sir Topham Hat". Ummm...OK, priest-in-training...can you pray for a...a Tank Engine?! Better think fast Dad. I begin to pray, "Lord Jesus, we thank you for good stories like Thomas the Tank Engine; and we pray that we can learn to obey our Bosses just like Thomas obeys Sir Topham Hat, that Daddy will obey Bp. Ackerman and my Little Man will obey Daddy; and when we're bad like Diesel 10 please help us to obey and to say we're sorry. And Lord, help us to be Really Useful. Amen."

Much of this lingo may be unfamiliar but the goal of every Tank Engine is to hear Sir Topham Hat tell them they are a Really Useful Engine. A lot like Jesus saying "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Jesus, Coffee and Bicycles?

2007-04-27T22:33:00.001-05:00

...some things I'm really excited about lately.

Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Co.
I love coffee. I'm a Barista. I love making coffee, drinking coffee, smelling coffee...you get the idea.
I love Jesus. I'm a Christian. I love His Church, His Mission, His people...

Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Co. is where these two things meet. LoTH produces outstanding Rwandan coffee which is helping rebuild Rwanda by providing living wages to coffee farmers, small-business loans to widows of the genocide and funding a Christian healing & reconciliation ministry for widows and orphans.

SO BUY THIS COFFEE! Because...
1) It's one of the best coffee's I've ever had (and I don't say that lightly!)
2) The money goes to a GREAT cause.
3) Friends don't let friends drink Starbucks.
Go check out their web-site and "Drink a Cup and Do Good"

Project Rwanda
In recent years I've become an avid cyclist. I am now a dork who wears spandex and watches the Tour de France every summer. Could be worse I guess. Anyhow...Tying together my passion for Jesus, Rwandan coffee and cycling is Project Rwanda. Coffee farmers in Rwanda need bikes and Project Rwanda gives them to 'em. Long-story-short, something as simple as a bicycle is helping rebuild the Rwandan economy. Because the farmers can use time more efficiently (3x faster!), visit one another to build stronger co-ops, etc. This is a way-cool project. A couple others like it that deserve are attention are Cediworks and the Africa Bike.

It's amazing how things we take for granted, like bikes and coffee, can help change the world, eh?

...in the Belfry...in Greek Class

2007-04-27T17:05:00.000-05:00

So I'm in Greek class today and walk over to get a tea bag for my tea. I take the tea bag and turn to walk back to my seat when I feel something funny on my hand. I look down and see something but simultaneously am not sure what, yell "Eeeeyach!" and fling said thing off my hand. Thud! A bat with about a 6 inch wing span is spread out and dazed on the desk going "Eeeek! Eeeek! Eeek!" And is staring a picture of John Paul II holding a monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament in it. The bat wasn't moving at all so we joking presumed it was venerating the Blessed Sacrament.

We called the CDC and had to deliver the bat to the Humane Society to be euthanized and tested for rabies. If it's positive or inconclusive the CDC suggested I go through the rabies treatment-shots. I wasn't bitten but they said you can never be too safe since untreated rabies will kill you.

So I got that goin' for me...which is nice! Ugh!

Brave New Blog

2007-04-26T15:08:00.000-05:00

Here it is...Joel's blog. The intent of this blog is not to rant about anything in particular. I just wanted to have a forum for keeping in touch with everyone "back home" during our time here in seminary. For the most recent update on the Prathers visit our website at www.prather-family.com and click on News, then you can peruse our Newsletters.

I've also added links to things we have a connection to and/or believe in.

Re: the title of the blog Revelation 4 is one of my favorite passages of Scripture. It depicts both what we participate in when we come together as the Church on Sunday and what we have to look forward to when we enter into Christ's Presence for all eternity.

Blessings,
Joel