felix hominum

on retreat

am off for a few days on retreat.  regular blogging resumes on Wednesday. BTW had a marvellous funeral this afternoon for long time (I mean loooong time) faithful soul.

I'm tellin' ya, faithful women who pray and serve are the backbone of the church

To Carthage then I came, burning burning

To Carthage then I came    

Burning burning burning burning    
O Lord Thou pluckest me out    
O Lord Thou pluckest

burning

TS Eliot:  The Wasteland

Veni Karthaginem, et circumstrepebat me undique sartago flagitiosorum amorum.

Augustine Confession III.i

"Alberta jails are banning nicotine patches because some inmates are smoking them, releasing toxic fumes."

CBC Edmonton news story

connect the dots...

Augustine - the Lenten blog project series

Pears, power and pretense: augustine & the second temptation

In book II Augustine recounts the episode of the “theft of pears”.  He will return to this episode again (as will I).  He stole some pears.  He thought that he “got away with it”, and thus showed how “free” he was.  But as he recounts, it was a “counterfeit liberty” (II.vi) like the pretended freedom of a runaway slave.  At its heart, sin contains a counterfeit of goodness, and the temptation to it contains a lie.  For now I want to look at this episode in light of the second temptation of Christ, according to Luke’s account:

Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.  And the devil said to him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please.   If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." Luke 5: 4-7

What is this temptation about?  Yes, it is about the desire for power and glory, and the incorrect means of obtaining and using those things.  But underneath, in the subtle (remember the garden of Eden) layers of this temptation, is a well disguised lie.

“I give it to anyone I please”.  Now on the surface the reader is tempted to take these words at face value, as a true claim by Satan.  Yet the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; and as Jesus stands before Pilate, he tells Pilate that he would have no authority over him, had it not been granted from above.  Is not the devil lying in this temptation?

Which brings us back to Augustine’s theft.  The temptation to sin always contains a lie – a promise of something which it does not really have the power to deliver.  And so it was in the Garden of Eden – the first temptation began with a lie (you will not die, you will be like God!).  Temptation and sin always contain a falsehood and a counterfeit.  Just as sloth makes a pretense of peace and quiet, and vain ambition hides behind the name of ‘honour’ (II.vi), so all sin pretends to give us good things, but it is a lie.

The young Augustine believed that to commit a sin and escape unpunished would mean that he was free from God’s authority.  After all, why obey a God who doesn’t have the power or will to stop a crime?  And in this pretense to liberty and freedom we find many of our own sins.  God does not see.  God does not act.  If I do this, then I will be free, I will be like God.  The same lie found in the Garden is still with us.

ps  For those who think St Augustine had no sense of humour, I refer you to II.viii, where he asks himself what he gained from this episode of the theft of pears:

Quem fructum habui miser aliquando in his, quae nunc recolens erubesco...

Get it?  What did I, wretched man, have as the fruit of these things...  Augustine is not above the occasional  groaning pun.

Augustine - the Lenten blog project series

The trial of the Patriarch

Propaganda is an attempt to prepare a mood, preliminary to preparing a revolt in the future.

The Moscow Church Trial, Apr 26 - May 7, 1922

Presiding Judge to Patriarch Tikhon:  "You therefore consider that the Soviet government acted incorrectly?"

    A crushing argument!  It will be repeated a million times more in the nighttime offices of the interrogators!  And we will never answer as simply and straightforwardly as:

The Patriarch:  "Yes".

... On May 7 sentence was pronounced:  of the 17 defendants, 11 were to be shot.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, "The Gulag Archipelago" (p 348-51)

AJ: Hutchison 'discouraged'

Archbishop Hutchison acknowledged that some Canadian Anglicans are “angry” that he signed the communiqué, but explained that he had taken his lead from U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. “I told her (Bishop Jefferts Schori), ‘It’s all about you. If you decide not to sign, I won’t sign. I’ll be there with you.'"

from the Anglican Journal

Those wretched, wretched babies

Of all things for which Augustine is remembered, perhaps the most notorious is his description of what we have come to call a theory of "original sin".  Leaving aside the history of that idea, we see Augustine writing about the "sin of my infancy" (I.vii).  "For in thy sight can no man be clean from his sin, not an infant of a day old upon the earth." 

I have written elsewhere of the proof of "original sin" which I have seen exemplified in my very own household.  But what is this all about in the Confessions?  Augustine sets out a few principles in the first few chapters of Book I.  In chapter vi he gives us a description of how our present nature reflects God's intention in Creation:  the harmony seen in the nursing mother and the hungry child reflects something of the original goodness of Creation.  The mother provides (and even needs to provide) for the infant who needs the milk.  In this relationship their is a kind of harmony.  Yet, Augustine writes, the infant goes beyond wanting what is necessary (vii), and there is a universal desire to "have more" than what we need.  He writes that "I myself have seen and observed a little baby to be already jealous;  and before it could speak (literally the meaning of in-fans) what an angry and bitter look it would cast at another child that sucked away its milk from it." (vii)  The infant, he says, is capable of a jealousy of others, even though that particular infant is fully fed and has all it needs.  It is this reaction of jealousy, this self centredness, which leads Augustine to write:

...it is not the mind of infants that is harmless, but the weakness of their childish members

If the will of infants could be fully expressed, it would be mayhem beyond belief (side note:  we see remnants of this in the toddler's sandbox).  We "grow" out of childishness - on many levels.  Yet the root of sin is there:  the desire to have more, the desire to have it all, even though we have what we need, and a covetousness of others.

He is fascinated by infancy - the age at which one does not speak - and how it is that we come into speech.  His theory of speech in I. viii seems to leave no doubt that speech, for Augustine, is 'natural' to the rational mind made in the image of God.  Speech gives us access to a whole new 'world';  not just in the next stage of human growth (puertia), but in our ability to grasp rationally universal ideas, and to realize that there exist beings besides ourselves.

Augustine - the Lenten blog project series

Augustine's Confessions - the Lenten blog project

William Watts, Rector of St Alban's, London, took it upon himself to translate Augustine's Confessions as a Lenten discipline in the year 1641:

This translation I began for the exercise of my Lenten Devotions;  but I quickly found it to exercise more than my Devotions:  it exercised my skill, (all I had); it exercised my Patience, it exercised my Friends too (for it is incomparably the hardest task that ever I yet undertook.

I was taken by the words of Wm Watts (found in the preface to the Loeb edition) - I found his Lenten project to be intriguing, and have thought to myself that one day I would also walk with the Confessions through Lent.  Since first reading the Confessions almost 25 years ago, I must say (I dare not write 'confess') that Augustine has been a rather faithful companion to me.  For the next 40 days I intend to blog my way through Augustine's Confessions.

There will be a mix of posts.  This will sometimes be commentary, sometimes reflection on how the Saint's writing has made its way into my own discipleship, sometimes mere query as I peer into things of which I haven't the foggiest notion.  Once in a while I may descend into the Latin, at which point I might refer to the critical editions, if for no other reason than to give some people an excuse to put Latin on their blogs (...fecisti nos ad te, et inquietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in te).  For the most part I'll follow then the Loeb edition and Watts' translation (though I will depart from some of his translation for my own).  I've had several excellent teachers over the years, and so in advance I will claim no great originality in the posts I write (except in cases of abject stupidity - that alone is mine).

Magnus es, domine, et laudabilis valde:  magna virtus tua, et sapientiae tuae non est numerus
Thou art great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised:  great is thy power, and thy wisdom cannot be numbered.  (I.i)

It is perhaps a radical departure from contemporary practice to start with God, rather than ourselves.

The prophet Joel

is not very seeker sensitive...

Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming, it is near- a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come.

Update:  and a marvellous Ash Wednesday it was.  I must commend my curate on a fine bit of labouring in the vineyard tonight.

Ash Wednesday is a visible reminder of a very important truth.  Sin results in death.  The two go hand in hand.  When sin entered the world, death followed on its heels.  In the story of Creation in Genesis, when Adam and Eve sinned, death came close behind.  They were created out of the dust of the earth, and because of sin, they returned into the dust of the earth.  Sin has consequences.  Separation from the will of God, from the love of God, from the guidance of God – leads to death.  God is life, and he who would turn away from God has only one direction in which to go – death.

In that first story, God warned us:  “In the day you eat of it, you shall surely die”.  We did not believe Him.  We chose instead to believe the serpent.  Ever since the Fall from the garden of Eden, when we found out the hard way that sin results in death, we have been trying with all our might to avoid death. 

We have been trying to root out its causes, we have been trying to remedy its illnesses, we have been trying to push it away to the furthest boundaries of our lives.  With all our research and technology and advancements, we have forgotten the ultimate cause of death - sin.  We have spent so much time and energy and money and worry addressing only part of the problem.  We have not addressed the problem of sin.  What would our lives look like if we spent as much time and energy and effort avoiding sin, as we spend avoiding death?

We mark ourselves outwardly with ashes as a reminder to ourselves as to what we are:  in our bodies we are no more than dust and ashes.  We were taken from the dust of the earth, and to the dust of the earth we shall return.   These bodies are already marked for destruction.  These ashes are a sign of sorrow – at sin which ruins life,  at sin which allowed death to enter the world, at sin which robs us of the abundance of life that God wanted to give us in the garden of Eden, and still wants to give us today. 

In the parable the fool is reminded: “this very night your soul is required of you”.

Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.   Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him.

repost: Annual Shrove Tuesday pancakes

• So you start with a bit of this:

• Then it should look like this:

• And after you've eaten about 19 of them, they feel like this in your stomach:

hence the desire to fast for 40 days...

why, when I was your age...

The soft underbelly of the Canadian winter childhood.

"Living God's Blessing" - an open letter from Integrity Toronto to General Synod 2007

From the Integrity Toronto website:

The place of GLBT persons within the life of the Anglican Church of Canada will be debated again at General Synod 2007 this coming June. We have prepared an Open Letter to be sent to all members of General Synod. We would ask that you visit our Living God's Blessing website and add your name to those supporting our Open Letter.

The text of the open letter:

Anglicans of homosexual orientation have formally, by episcopal decision, been accepted as equal members of the Anglican Church of Canada since 1979. However, that acceptance did not include accepting any form of sexual expression for homosexual persons, who therefore have never been treated as equal, embodied persons. Though celibacy is understood in scripture to be a vocation (Matt. 19:12), it has been imposed on gays and lesbians, making it not vocation but compulsion, and denying them any sanctioned form of sexual intimacy.

The affirmation in 2004 by General Synod, the church's highest governing body, of "the sanctity and integrity of committed, adult same-sex relationships" was a step towards real equality. However, since then, there has been a moratorium on further use of blessings outside New Westminster. In the face of the growing split in the Anglican Communion, General Synod 2004 referred the question of blessing same-sex relationships to the Primate's Theological Commission. Its St. Michael Report has recommended that such blessings are a question of doctrine, but not of core doctrine. This means that General Synod will be able, in 2007, to affirm the blessing of same-sex relationships.

We believe that:

1. Silence contributes to the injustices experienced by gays and lesbians.
2. Truth, love and justice are biblical imperatives not to be jeopardized by clamours for unanimity disguised as "unity". Unity in Christ, proclaimed as Lord, requires truth and justice for all.
3. We have the obligation to use reason to interpret scripture in the light of new knowledge and understandings.
4. It is unbiblical, unjust, ethically wrong, and morally unsound to impose celibacy on gay and lesbian clergy.
5. Because the core of the gospel message is covenant with God, with family, and with community, the covenants between same-sex couples should be affirmed and blessed by the church, as is the case for heterosexual couples.

The church has acknowledged the sanctity and integrity of adult committed same-sex relationships. Civil marriage for same-sex couples is now the norm in Canada. Thus it is time for the church to accept as valid all marriages performed in Canada, and to bless the marriages and unions of all who request such a blessing. This can happen while the discussion continues about the possibility of the solemnization of same-sex marriages in the church.

The Open Letter to General Synod 2007 invites those in agreement to sign, and includes a list of those who have already added their signature.

The list includes Anglican laypersons, clergy, and (retired) bishops.

the Primates Meeting

As explained by Dave Walker of Cartoon Church:

For the rest of Dave's analysis of this event, visit the full cartoon analysis here.

Have a miserable Lent

We will be kicking off our annual Lenten misery with the Imposition of Ashes on Wednesday at 7 pm. 

Just to remind you that you will die.

But before that there is apparently some sort of Shrove Tuesday feasting thing the evening before.

Just to remind you that you will live.

Andrew Hutchison blogging from Tanzania

The Council of Elrond Primates of the Anglican Communion are meeting in Tanzania.  Archbishop Hutchison of Canada offered these thoughts:

It all came into perspective for me after I arrived at the Dar es Salaam airport at 7:30 in the morning.  The drive to the conference centre takes about an hour.  Despite being tired my eyes were wide open as we drove over dusty unkempt roads and through a sea of thousands upon thousands of people.  Most were standing beside the side of road looking desperate and without hope.  Adults and children intermingled and behind them were some of the most dilapidated shacks that I had ever seen.  For many these are the only houses they will ever know.  Most were patched with cardboard and jammed together.  So many different things kept running through my mind – there is no space for these people, hardly an inch of grass for any kind of rest or refreshment, never an opportunity for a quiet moment, pollution and dust a constant feature.

I am going to a meeting with a gospel of hope and a preferential option for the poor and we are debating who is in and whom we are going to keep out.  I have been at this long enough to know that it never boils down to one simple question.  Meetings like this are filled with all manner of ego, authority and power but as we gather and are preparing to begin, that endless stream of humanity that I saw on my way haunts my memory.  I wish we were dealing with what difference a gospel of hope could make in their lives, rather than worrying about strategies for the Primates and the politics that are an inevitable part of such gatherings.  Please remember to pray for my brothers and sister who share in these meetings in the next few days.  There is a huge amount at stake and the world needs to hear the good news again – that the gospel does not say God so loved the Church – rather it says God so loved the world!

Israel to webcast Temple Mount excavations

The Israeli authorities have installed cameras to film excavation work being carried out near the Temple Mount or Haram Sharif in East Jerusalem.  The footage will be broadcast live on the internet, in an attempt to ease widespread anger in the Muslim world.

from the BBC

The webcast, which is set to start on February 15,  will be seen here.

teach us to pray

And your father, who sees in secret,
will reward you...

Taize in Edmonton

“Leaving Discouragement Behind – Finding new Hope” -
A weekend led by Brother Emile of Taize – February 23rd – 25th

Join other young adults (18 – 35) for a time of prayer, reflection and sharing. Be part of the Taize community’s  “Pilgrimage of Trust across the Earth”. This is an ecumenical event.
Venue: St. Matthias Anglican Church, 6210 188 Street, Edmonton
Contact us 428 6323
Cost $15
Meals are provided
Starts at 6:00 p.m. on February 23rd and goes to 1:00 p.m. on February 25th.

more info here; 
as well, there is a program for those in high school

I hate Macs

I hate Macs. I have always hated Macs. I hate people who use Macs. I even hate people who don't use Macs but sometimes wish they did. Macs are glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults; computers for scaredy cats too nervous to learn how proper computers work; computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui...

the anti mac rant by Charlie Brooker in the Guardian

via Codex

Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh

It's been a rather difficult week or so at school for SJ.  A few times she has just decided to burst into tears in the classroom.  All the king's horses and all the king's men haven't been able to figure out why.

I suspect one of her greatest frustrations (shared by those around her) is that her processing and expressing of language is hindered.  She will sometimes be in obvious distress of some kind, but be unable to express it in a way that those around her can understand and help.

I do not know what it is.  I do know that there will come a time when she will be freed of these constraints, when the perfection of a resurrected body will enable her to express,

or perhaps the perfection of my resurrected body will enable me to hear...

You have received your reward

There are certain structures of verbs which denote completed action in the past tense, and certain ones which denote the future.

But woe to you who are rich,
for you have already received your comfort.
Woe to you who are well fed now,
for you will go hungry.
Luke 16: 24, 25

Throughout this little passage, Jesus draws distinctions: past, present and future.  The language is divisive in that sense:  it divides time itself.  What was, what is, and what will be.  Everything seems to hinge on the present (now, now, now, now;  v 21,25).  Jesus tells us that we will make sense of the present when we look to the past and to the future.

There are some who will not receive justice, or food, or mercy in this life.  That is why we also read this week from Paul's letter to the Corinthians:  "But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep."  There is a life yet to come.

So who is Jesus talking to?  "Looking at his disciples, he said..."  Can you be a disciple and be rich?  And well fed?

blessed are you who are hungry...

Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.

Ever wonder why Jesus told his disciples to fast?  One of the reasons is that not many of us have ever had the experience of real hunger.  We have never had the experience of being hungry and knowing that there is nothing to eat.  We cannot even imagine the feeling of having so little that one dies of starvation, of malnutrition.  Jesus offers comfort to those people.  They will be first in line at God’s feast in the kingdom.

We often think of the word “blessing” as implying some kind of favor from God which is seen as material or physical comfort.  We’ve been blessed with a good job.  We’ve been blessed with a prosperous nation.  We’ve been blessed with this or that.  Jesus turns this idea upside down, and we don’t like it.  Jesus says the poor are blessed.  Of course, most of us tend to assume that Jesus wants someone else to live that kind of life. 

Do I really want to be blessed?  Not that badly.

no, not the (un)comfy chair!

There was in my grandmother’s farmhouse an uncomfortable chair.  No matter how you squirmed or re-arranged yourself in it, it never seemed to offer you the fullness of getting into a satisfying position.  It seemed specifically designed by the carpenter to make sure you could never relax.

I get that same feeling from this week’s gospel reading.  No matter how I squirm or re-arrange myself or soften it up with cushions from other parts of the Bible, it still prods me like a bony elbow.

Then he looked up at his disciples and said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. "Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.  Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man.  Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.  Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. "Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.  Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

What does Jesus say?  It is pretty simple.  He tells us who has “blessing”, who has “woe”.  This is not my idea of blessing and woe, and not your idea of blessing and woe, or the world’s idea of blessing and woe.  This is Jesus’ idea of blessing and woe.  And so we should listen. 

I think my blogging for the week is planned out:  a blessing and a woe every day until Sunday.  At which time sol café will be gathering again after the field trip (and yes, we always use real wine).

no matter how busy you are

there is always time for snow angels...

Pam's Story: aborting a Down Syndrome baby

Eleven years ago this coming May, I had a “therapeutic” abortion when I was four and a half months pregnant with my only son, a Down’s syndrome baby—James Kent. Well-meaning professionals impressed upon my husband and me how we were rescuing our son—and ourselves—from a life of needless pain and suffering...

Our family doctor told us James Kent would be our shadow for the rest of our lives in choosing to birth him. We didn’t realize my son would be our shadow for the rest of our lives in choosing to abort him.

A short but powerful story, posted here., from the BeNotAfraid site.

BTW, our own family's story is up on that site as well:

In February of 2001 my wife were expecting our second child. We had gone for the usual routine ultrasounds, and were waiting for the standard commentary from our obstetrician. What we heard instead was that the baby appeared to be having some difficulties. There were signs of congestive heart failure. It was explained to us that there were several possible factors which might be causing this. One factor was the possibility of a genetic abnormality. We consented to having an amniocentesis – a genetic test. The results of the test confirmed to a high degree of probability that our second child had Down Syndrome, or Trisomy 21. We were asked if we would like to terminate the pregnancy.

Our first reaction to the news was akin to grief. As parents we want our children to be healthy, happy and we desire them to grow up to lead full lives. We already had a wonderful healthy daughter, and we felt grief that this baby was already suffering from a heart condition in the womb. We felt a sense of confusion - - we were on a steep learning curve: Trisomy 21, Down Syndrome, ASD, VSD. We felt there were so many new terms being thrown at us we hardly had time to digest the information, let alone deal with the reality of it.

We chose to have the baby. It was in some ways an easy decision, and in some ways very difficult. It was easy in that we loved this child – we wanted to be parents, we wanted siblings for our first daughter. And we both felt that our responsibility as parents began when we chose to get pregnant. It was difficult in that we had no romantic illusions about what parenting this child would mean. It would mean sacrifices – physically, emotionally, perhaps financially. What would this child’s future be? Would be caregivers for the rest of our lives? How would this impact our marriage, our family, our careers?

As we look back, a big part of the choice had to do with the difference between love and fear. I work in a major Canadian university with a large teaching hospital. I have many friends in professional fields of health care, education and counseling. As we became more educated about Down Syndrome, and got in contact with people in all of those fields, we began to ease the fear that can easily overwhelm parents of children with disabilities. I am also an ordained Anglican priest – our faith in God is part of our lives and we trust that Jesus and his way of life are part of our decision making. As we look back on that choice between love and fear, we recall the saying from the Christian Scriptures that “perfect love casts out fear”. We believe that God is on to something there: that so many of our important decisions in life have to do with the choice between love and fear. We could choose to love this child (no matter what), or choose to be afraid of the future, of how this person would change and affect our lives. In choosing to have the baby, we did not think God would magically “rescue” us from difficulties now or in the future, but that he would give us the courage to learn how to love more deeply through whatever the future may hold.

Today Sarah Joy is 4 years old; she will be attending the local preschool this fall with her neighbourhood friends. And the journey has been both difficult and rewarding in many ways. Such things can really only be lived, not explained. We have been through surgeries and specialists, developmental and education programs, and we continue to love her through everything. She is a great little sister for Emily, and she is a caring big sister to Adam. She loves music and dance, she loves to garden with us in the back yard, and she loves to go for walks with Grandpa’s dog. She is mischievous in her own way, and often collaborates with her older sister in sneaking treats from the kitchen cupboards. She has taught us something about the difference between love and fear, and continues to live up to her name – she is full of joy, and shares it with those around her.

 

 Update:  Sarah Joy is now 7 and entering Grade 1

Luke 5: 1-11 [the pet peeves of fishermen]

...he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch."  Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets."

I have been told on good authority that there are at least two things fishermen hate:  someone watching them while they fish, and someone telling them how to fish.  Of these two sins, the latter is the greater.

I suspect that many of us have shared the sentiment expressed by Peter:  "we have worked all night long but have caught nothing".  This sentiment can go one of two ways.  It can be the expression of frustration after a long and honest effort which seems to bear no fruit.  Or it can have that fisherman's look of "don't tell me how to do my work, and lest you think I've been slack, let me tell you just how hard I've been working."  How easy it is, when confronted by Jesus with the inadequacy of our efforts, to fall into a self-justifying expression.  But look!  I've been working hard all night!  Don't accuse me of feeble efforts.  And I know my business; this is after all, my trade and craft.

Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.