Maundy Thursday

We have had this discussion before. When does Lent end?

Is it after the striping of the Cross Thursday night? Friday after attending church? Saturday the second before Midnight?This seems to be more and more a discussion about dogma than substance.

What is important is that we carry what we have learned and experienced during Lent into our daily lives. Why should we discontinue fasting, praying, and meditating?The difference between Lent and the other seasons is Easter.

Once a year we celebrate something that is so special in our lives that winning the Final Four, beating the Yankees, and winning Powerball all pale in comparison.

We begin this Maundy Thursday on the most sober of notes. Jesus is led away to the cross. We are devastated. We cry like young Jake when his favorite team loses. Yet as a Jewish proverb says, “ as soap washes a body, tears wash the soul.”

I apologize for the trivialization, but can anyone watch or read about a reenactment of Christ’s passion without tears? I can’t. We even know the happy ending, and I still cry.

This day allow yourselves to cry, to allow the tears to wash your soul; because come Sunday your tears will be of another variety.

Wednesday in Holy Week

A man who is willing to undertake the discipline and the difficulty of mending his own ways is worth more to the conservation movement than a hundred who are isisiting that the industries and governments mend their ways. -- Wendell Berry

This applies to our spiritual lives as well. This Lent we have tried to make small changes in our own lives, although the changes may seem larger than life. The result may not be readily apparent, but may be greater than we can imagine. It is called the “butterfly effect.” Someone goes back in time and accidentally kills a butterfly, and centuries later the world is changed for the worse. In our case we have made changes for the good, and who knows what positive changes will result.I have become a great believer in dealing with my own inner demons and not blaming societies’ ills. This may be naïve or burying my head in the sand. Yet, if I can change for the good; I add a small light to a dark world. Who could have ever dreamed that Jesus death would save humankind – only God. We are not Jesus. We are not God. However, on this day before we remember Jesus’ sacrifice for us, let us contemplate and act on what God asks us to do. It is probably very small although difficult. Yet one of us may be able to change the world more than governments.

Tuesday in Holy Week

What is the use of praying if at the very moment of prayer, we have so little confidence in God we are planning our own kind of answer to our prayer. -- T. Merton -- Thoughts

Merton was a great believer of mediative prayer. He believed prayer is a conversion of our entire self to God. It is hard to let go of thinking that we know what is best for us. This goes to our job, our health, our family, and everything we are involved. As we approach the very end of Lent, we still find ourselves trying to hang on, rather than surrender. We are not alone. Jesus asked if there wasn't another way other than the cross.Yet we have made progress. In the words of "Father Luis" we have gone as far as we can go and that in itself is pleasing to God. In our feeble attempts we have started down a path toward God. They may be "Baby Steps" like Bill Murray's in What About Bob. Yet steps they are and now we must ask ourselves, " How do we continue?" Are we going to slide into old habits or are we going to lengthen our stride? I suggest that the answer is found not our own answer, but in having the confidence in God's answer.

Monday in Holy Week

It will be like they have dipped themselves in magic waters. James Earl Jones -- Field of Dreams

Batter up! It is opening day for another major league baseball season. Will the Yankees return to championship form? Will we have an upstart make it to the World Series like Tampa Bay did last year? Will the Cubs finally win it all? Anticipation is in the air. What will happen?Jesus entering Jersuleum was greeted by the masses with enthusiasm and anticipation as well. Will he throw out the Romans and declare himself as King? Will he heal the sick and lame, and return the Jews to previous glory as God's chosen people. What will happen?What does happen is that is what no one could forsee. The world changed forever on that Easter day. If we allow it to change each of us "it will be like (we) have dipped ourselves in magic waters."

Palm Sunday

It was a beautiful day, a glorious service, and wonderful sermon by Luis, that I can not give justice to by trying to even hit the highpoints. Cherry blossoms and flowers are in bloom and we begin Holy Week in a festive mood. We are brought back to reality by the reading of the passion and the reality that to get to "Hail the Festival Day, we go through the pain of the death upon the cross.

Jesus even during the last few days hoped that there was some other way his purpose here on Earth could be accomplished without having to experience the suffering he was about to undergo. Like all of us he prayed for another way.I have found myself asking in much less significant matters to let there be another way -- another way less painful and less painful for those I love so very much. Perhaps you have had or will have that experience as well.

This is why we all need faith. Faith that at times we must accept the tough times ahead. Faith that we will endure, not without pain, but we will endure. Faith finally, that at some point in this life or afterwords that we will sing, "Hail the Festival Day."

Friday in the Fifth Week of Lent

We do not learn only from great minds: we learn from everyone, if only we observe and inquire. -- C.A. Doxiadis

I have a young friend who has a habit of asking, " Why is that. What do you mean." It is a little unsettling to have to respond. We are so used to putting forth a position and then walking away, figuratively. Her questions are not meant to be unsettling or uncomfortable. She is inquiring, she is attempting to learn from all.

Imagine this conversation for example. " How are you doing?"
"Very well, thank you."
" Why is that?"

We can learn from my friend's inquiries. Most of the time we are satisfied by hearing or observing another's response. We accept that if someone says or appears to be doing well, that is all we need to know. We do not inquire below the surface. Yet, if you truly love, you don't accept a "canned response." Suzy for example will tell me when I say, "Everything is fine."
She responds, "I know you better, what is really going on."

When we pray to God, who loves us all, he is not going to accept our responses that life is fine, when it isn't. God knows better, and God wants us respond in prayer by telling him what God already knows. Why? The answer is a simple as my friends inquiry, "Why is that, what do you mean?" God knows the first person we need to learn from, inquire about and observe is ourselves.

Thursday in the Fifth Week of Lent

Oh for the wonder that bubbles into my soul. -- D.H. Lawrence

A setting sun going down into the ocean, radiant in color, and then disappears. Where did it go? Beaches and rising or setting suns obviously "bubble into my soul." I suspect each of us see, hear, or smell something that causes us wonderment. Even a newborn child finds wonder in finding his/her hands and feet. We find wonder when we witness this phenomena.

I suspect D. H. Lawrence is going beyond oceans, scents, or discovery of hands. I think he is describing the wonder of God's love that transcends understanding. How can anyone but God forgive it all -- all of our foibles and transgressions are wiped away, and we are called simply to be loved in comforting arms.

My grandmother had a housekeeper who was an image of God's love. No matter how much trouble I got into or deserved, I could run to Fanny and she would love me, hold me and feed me. My children experienced this as well. I remember a time when the woman who was our housekeeper, baby-sitter, and close, close friend can out one day after Suzy and I had been out of town, saying before I could even get out of the car, "Webb Hubbell don't you do anything to hurt my babies, they didn't do anything wrong."

In that image we view a small portion of God's unconditional love for all of us. That love is the "wonder that bubbles in(to) our souls."

Wednesday in the Fifth Week of Lent

It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching -- St. Francis of Assisi

I don't think St. Francis is just talking about just Priest and Ministers in the above. His message has meaning for us all.I think we all know someone who doesn't just "talk a good game." He or she embodies our view of what is good and right in the world. People who met Mother Theresa and Ghandi don't talk about their words, they talk about how they led their lives. As we approach the end of Lent and prepare for Holy Week we have been fasting, praying, and meditating, some better than others. ( I am one of those others).

We are beginning to walk.

Tuesday in the Fifth Week of Lent

When the stomach is full it is easy to talk about fasting. -- St. Jerome

I have talked about the Lenten discipline of fasting this year, but it is hard to ignore the news. I heard last week that 70% of Americans know someone who has lost their job or had a reduction in their time at work or pay. My son tells me that 1 out of 6 mortgages in Las Vegas is either in foreclosure or over 90 days past due. The heartbreaking stories go on and on. Yet if we put our Will hat on we also see and listen to stories of God's goodness. The people of the Midwest spending day after day building a sand bag dike around Fargo, the employer who refuses to lay off any employees, and a community embracing a family who is experiencing a tragedy. Bad news apparently sells papers and gets higher ratings, but it doesn't bring warmth to your heart or a tear to one's eye. This lent in addition to fasting find that opportunity. You know the saying -- There is no coming to heaven with dry eyes. -- Thomas Fuller

Monday in the Fifth Week of Lent

Jake: The fourth hole on the Golf Course I don’t like. It has water in front of the green, and I always hit in the water.

Will: I love it. There are ducks on the water. I like ducks.

Don’t you wish you could have Will’s attitude? Where others see the water in front of the golf green as an obstacle. Will sees the water as a place for ducks to swim. Many of us see the obstacles to our goals, while Will sees the obstacles as a place for his beloved ducks. Many of us have faced what we thought were insurmountable obstacles. In these difficult times many can only see the difficulties that lie ahead. The difficulties are real. The obstacles are real, but we could all use a little Will right now.

In golf they call water in front of a green a hazard. Those who play golf know the way to avoid a hazard is to not focus on it, but focus on the goal of the flag stick beyond the hazard. This is easier said than done. We also face hazards in our life and we tend to focus on the hazards not the goal. Perhaps Will is offering a different approach. Maybe when we see a hazard, difficulty, or obstacle to our goals we just let it be a place for someone else to swim.

Fifth Sunday in Lent

We need only look at ourselves. I have more lines and gray hair than I did five years ago, but I weigh less. I’d like to believe that though my soul is more lined and grayed with use, it is also lighter than it was five years ago from having been made new every day.

Today’s quote comes from an anonymous source and found in Forward Day by Day. It strikes true to me. When I go to the barber shop I notice how gray my hair has turned. Scientists write about how the cells of our body keep dying and at the same time are being built. Now as Easter approaches here in DC cherry blossoms are coming out, spring flowers are starting to peek, and azaleas are starting to bud. Mother nature is starting to work her magic.

The same holds true for ourselves. This Lenten season with fasting, prayer, and meditation we fill renewed. We are spiritually restored. Our souls are lighter, and our hearts are once again open to love and wonderment. In the Book of Common Prayer we acknowledge “all things are being brought to their perfection.” Although our hair may be a little grayer or thinner, and we may not weigh less; we have again been made anew. God’s creation is not a one time occurrence it happens every day, and so it is with us as well.

Saturday in the Fourth Week of Lent

If we wait to get the numbers, then we will be lost in the numbers. -- Mother Theresa

A little known pet peeve of mine is politicians who poll before they take a position. I shouldn’t be upset though our society is full of examples of doing surveys before new products, new ideas, or new concepts are introduced. After all a politician may lose an election or a business might lose money if the answer wasn’t known before a risk was taken.

But I tend to believe Mother Theresa has it right. If we wait on the answer we become lost in being popular rather than being right or doing what is right. God’s call to us is not -- “be popular.” I think that is why the gospels are so emphatic about Jesus' disciples being called to follow him and the cast away whatever they were doing and walked with Jesus. Now I wasn’t there at the time and maybe the disciples had been listening to Jesus for awhile before they left with him. But the gospel writers had a point to make. When we receive the call we shouldn’t poll or check the “numbers.” We are to drop our “nets of entanglement” and follow God.

Another story in the gospels points out how difficult this is to do in real life. The young man who asked Jesus what he had to do? He tithed, he gave to the poor, etc. But Jesus saw the “net” that was holding on to him. So Jesus told him to give up all that he had in worldly possessions, and the young man could not set aside that net. I don’t know many people who could do that as well. We do get “lost in the numbers.” Lent is a time to examine our lives and discover what is keeping us tangled in the nets of life. Lent is a time to think about quit waiting on the numbers.

Friday in the Fourth Week of Lent

We do not succeed in changing things according to our desire, but gradually our desire changes. The situation that we hoped to change because it was intolerable becomes unimportant. -- Marcel Proust

Proust reminds us that life is full of obstacles that we think we must surmount, but in time we find a way to get around the barrier, and once past it we can hardly see it as have being in our way. I suspect we have all had something in our life, in my case more than one, that we thought we could not overcome. Yet, we did, and now look on it as a blip on the radar screen.

Perhaps that is what Jesus meant when he said do not be anxious. Many people in these times find themselves anxious, worried about how they will be clothed and fed. Jesus's comforting words do not sound real to them right now. How can they not feel anxious and afraid? But God will provide and at some point today's difficult times will be but a memory.

I talked to man yesterday at lunch. I was having a bowl of white bean soup. He said, " White beans were the cause of his leaving home and joining the Army during the depression. He had white beans for dinner, white bean sandwiches, and white beans for breakfast." He went on to tell me that when he entered the service it was the first time he ever tasted red meat. He loved his first roast beef sandwich. He is now almost 93, a successful businessman, and hunger and the depression are now just a memory.

How will God provide for the people today who are anxious. Maybe, just maybe, that is a question we should be asking ourselves, because the answer may just be "us." Can we do with a little bit less to help others, can we provide someone something we can do without, or can we just offer a little comfort to those who need comfort. This is not meant to be a guilt trip, just food for thought. Is there someone in your life that you can assist getting around that "intolerable obstacle" right now.

Thursday in the Fourth Week of Lent

Luis in Wednesday's homily discussed there is a place for "good anger" in our lives and a need for "balance." A dear friend in Santa Barbara introduced me to a man who helps you become "balanced." Now I can't repeat nearly as well as Luis’s homily. Nor can I explain what Christiam does to help you become "balanced." So I will not try. But the just the word "balance" brings me some comfort.

Yesterday was a day that started out "unbalanced." Unhappy clients, unreasonable demands, and stress flying at me at all directions. So like a 3 year-old I took a time out. I went to St. Johns for Eucharist, watched Tom Keating talk about centering prayer, and then went to a quiet restaurant and reflected on the many positives in my life. It wasn't the quiet room of centering prayer, but it was close. I emerged and returned to work "balanced."

For each of us we have to learn to practice finding that quiet place in our lives. Lent is a perfect time to engage in "spring training" ourselves. Use it to stretch, loosen up, and get in shape with our spiritual lives. Spock used to say, "live long and prosper." Maybe he should say, "live balanced and prosper."

Wednesday in the Fourth Week of Lent

Tom Keating when he is discussing "Centering Prayer" demonstrates with his hands today's Lenten thought. He reminds us that we open our hands to the sky during prayer so we are ready to receive a gift, but once we receive a gift we grasp it and by closing our hand around it we not only hold on to it, the hand is no longer able to receive another gift. He suggests we receive the gift and then let it go, so we can receive another.

Lenten fasting is much like what Father Keating suggests. For 40 days we let go of something we have become attached in order to receive another gift. I think we can go further with this than chocolates or wine. Is there something you are holding on to today that prevents you from receiving a gift from God. Is it material? Is it something in your past? Is it a relationship?If it is preventing you from receiving God's gift loosen your grip on it and open yourself up to receive once again. It is easier said than done, I know; but, Lent is a practice session for learning to let go.