e-piphanies

Open to the Great Mystery

Facebook friend Tom Brackett was describing "three categorical responses to our changing world and the impact of those changes on the churches we hold dear": Those who want to go back, those who want to stay the course, and those who want to open up to the future through retradition and reinvention.

While there is something significant about each type of response, Tom and I are definitely in the third group.  Here's how Tom describes it: 

"They are looking for the kind of transformation (individually and collectively) that opens us up to the Spirit's dreams for our future. They are ready to acknowledge our blind spots and ready to take on new patterns of behavior and new patterns of conversation. They are, one might say, looking for Communities of Practice that are committed to retraditioning and reinventing."

Then, Facebook friend Jonathan Priest offered this fascinating perspective on the third group:

"The thing is, we open to the great mystery when we sign up for this road. Also, it seems to me  that this retraditioning and reinventing is probably pretty necessary for getting close to Truth,  though the glue of tradition has its uses. I don't think full circles exist. The earth spirals around a  moving sun, which spirals around a moving galactic center. We have never been here before, so why should we expect to have things work just like they used to? They never did before.  The cesium atom 'spins' at a little more than 9 billion times a second. Our sun rotates around the galactic core once every approximately 225 million earth years, so the whole thing is moving, changing, dynamic. Isn't this vibrant, radiant universe (what fraction of 1% do we even perceive, much less pretend to understand?) the sort of thing we might expect of The Spirit we seek to know?"

It is in this hopeful, cosmic context that I celebrate the Resurrection!  Alleluia!

Clouds

One of my favorite Joni Mitchell songs is "Both Sides Now." I'm partial to the Judy Collins rendition because I'm partial to Judy Collins in general. Nevertheless, the line "...but clouds got in my way" has always intrigued me. There are times when clouds are high up and unreachable. At other times, like now in the photo taken from our balcony at Mt. Magazine Lodge in Arkansas, I have been enveloped in clouds and can't see what lies before me. Clouds, high and low, both figuratively and actually speaking, often get in my way!

In Scripture, a cloud is symbolic of the glory or presence of God. In the Hebrew scriptures, a cloud descends on the tabernacle/temple to show that God has entered it. Jesus is enveloped by a cloud at the Transfiguration. From the cloud, the voice of God speaks and Jesus shines with the glory of God. In the Revelation to St. John the Divine, we read that he is "coming with the clouds."

What for me may be an obstacle to seeing is also a sign of the glory and presence of God. Is this another paradox? Is it another example of the "otherness" of the Divine? Is it a reminder of the necessary limits of human life? Is it an invitation to wait upon God?

Perhaps being lost in a cloud or having clouded vision is an invitation to keep looking until what God intends for us to see is revealed in an epiphanous moment.

Advent Balance

The following message was first published on November 29, 2007.

     It’s Advent.  Advent is hard to observe in our culture, isn’t it?

     The Church tells us it is a period of preparation for the Feast of the Incarnation, Christmas.  Our faith tradition encourages us to make it a reflective time during which we identify with those who waited long centuries for the appearing of God’s anointed one.  The liturgy for the Sundays and weekdays in Advent direct our attention to the wonderful gift that has come to us in Emmanuel and the promise that he will come again at the end to establish his victorious reign over all things.

     Yet, here we are again with all those sights and sounds and smells that tell us it is time to be the world’s most accomplished consumers.  Our culture encourages us to believe that the things we need and the things our loved ones need to make their lives complete can be bought for a price, and quite possibly must be acquired if life is to be worth living.  The liturgy of advertising and shopping mall directs our attention to the near frenzy involved in getting there while supplies last.

    I’m not really suggesting that we should not buy gifts or support our local merchants who work so hard and rely so heavily on sales at this season.  I enjoy going to the mall and listening to the music in the stores.  I like to shop for presents and believe it is a good thing to be thoughtful and generous with others as God in Christ has been thoughtful and generous with us in offering us his very life.

     What I am suggesting is that the spiritual dimension of the season can easily be overshadowed.  We need to find a balance and the Church can help.  Go to the mall, after you’ve gone to church.  Buy gifts, after you’ve left your gift at the Altar.  Spend time shopping for the perfect gift, after you’ve spent time in communion with the most perfect gift, Christ the Savior.  Have a wonderful, peaceful, and blessed Christmas!

How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven.
No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him, still the dear Christ enters in.

"O Little Town of Bethlehem"

The Rt. Rev. Philips Brooks (1835-1839)

Martin Luther King's Last Sunday Sermon

Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution

In case you find yourself drifting into a sentimental state of contentment by hearing another reading of Dr. King's great "I Have a Dream" speech, try reading or listening to his last Sunday sermon, delivered in an Episcopal Cathedral four days before his assassination.

Click the following link to read and/or hear the sermon, "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution," delivered by The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Washington Cathedral on March 31, 1968.

Dr. King's Last Sunday Sermon

It expresses the depth and breadth of Dr. King's message, including but moving beyond racism, and prophetically calling America and the world to accountability.  Let us take this sermon to heart, examine our conscience, and ask ourselves, "where do we go from here?"

Stone carving of Dr. King in the Pulpit of Washington National Cathedral

Galveston can set the example for environmental stewardship.

By Ronald D. Pogue

So much about the quality of our life on Galveston Island depends upon maintaining a harmonious balance with nature. In that special sense, Galveston is a microcosm of the planet. Through production and use of renewable energy and other practices that are good for our environment, we can set an example for the other human inhabitants of this fragile earth. It is inherent in Galveston’s heritage to do things that others find worthy of duplication elsewhere. Many things they said couldn’t be done were first done right here on this small island!

Look at what we already have going for us. Development of the new biodiesel production facility and the potential consumers of that fuel here are positive signs that Galveston welcomes those who are helping to preserve the environment. We are proud to have non-profit organizations and for-profit businesses working to promote awareness and conservation of everything from sea turtles to rainforests, to estuaries, to butterflies, to migratory birds, to historic buildings. Ecotourism is emerging as an attraction for Galveston. The wind farm under development off our coastline in the territorial waters of Texas will provide a tremendous amount of clean energy and generate tens of millions of dollars in annual royalties for our state.

Our mayor and city council are encouraging us to take a closer look at making Galveston a more pedestrian and bicycle friendly city, as well as to be more intentional about recycling. There are simple, positive ways each of us could contribute personally to such an obvious common cause. Hopefully, we can all get behind those initiatives. Many of our religious congregations, scouts, service clubs, businesses, and households are already exercising good stewardship of the environment. Let’s hear more about those efforts and recognize them.

Perhaps T.A.M.G. and U.T.M.B. could even find new ways to creatively and usefully recycle some of our pungent annual seaweed crop. What if seaweed could be an additive to make ethanol a more efficient or less costly fuel? What if it became a cash crop for us?

With a little extra effort, we can set a great example that will inspire visitors to properly dispose of recyclable materials such as aluminum cans, plastic containers, and empty bottles. Maybe they will return to their homes and tell others that spending a little time in Galveston helped them to realize how important it is for us to be good stewards of the environment that sustains our life. My personal awareness of the importance of recycling was influenced years ago when I spent a few days as a tourist in Durango, Colorado where signs proclaimed, "This community recycles."

I write as an Episcopal Priest and resident of Galveston for the past seven years. My faith tradition teaches that in the very beginning our Creator placed the care of creation in the hands of human beings. No other creature bears that privilege or responsibility.

However small or large the plot of ground each of us lives on, we cannot expect any other creature to exercise responsible stewardship for it. It is a privilege and a responsibility to be a contributor to the care of the island, the nation, and the planet we call “home.”

This article was submitted for publication in the Galveston County Daily News on June 7, 2006.
The Reverend Ronald D. Pogue is Rector of Galveston’s Trinity Church.

The Most Important Issues Facing the Church in its Ministry to the World

Many assumptions about theological systems that developed before, during, and after the Protestant Reformation are being challenged. The cultural shift we are experiencing has resulted in iconoclastic behavior on the one hand and a bunker mentality on the other, challenging the Anglican via media and drowning out voices of moderation and conciliation.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the debate surrounding human sexuality. The emerging generation of Christians will be energized in addressing these issues if they are equipped to thoughtfully reexamine traditional moral theology and cast fresh teaching on the subjects it touches. A refreshed moral theology will most likely develop among those who are less concerned with changing minds or being right and more concerned to see the Holy Spirit do a “new thing” to teach and guide us.

This dialogue needs a resurgence of an Anglican understanding of the authority and role of scripture, interpreted through the God-given lenses of tradition, reason, and experience. Sound biblical studies coupled with substantive theology, and the freshest insights of archeology, anthropology, and the natural sciences should be at the forefront of seminary curricula.

The Church’s leaders and our seminaries must help facilitate dialogue about authority in the Church and teach appropriate respect for and expression of that authority. In order to preserve the integrity of that authority, we must also emphasize the spiritual disciplines as a central part of in the progressive formation of those who are leading others in ministry.

Other pressing issues seem to get less attention: secularism, consumerism, our multicultural American population, need for reconciliation, ecumenical and interfaith dialogues, dysfunction within congregations, learning to listen to voices from the Global South, domination systems, international debt, racism, sexism, and poverty.

In each case, Christians have a vocation to search for insight and to act upon that insight. The Church is called to scan the horizon for signs of God’s reign and the mysteries of God that are often incarnate in the issues themselves. Recognition of divine activity, prompts us to respond in ways that further God’s purposes, so that God’s kingdom will come and God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven – in the heart and mind of God. We can never fully know what is in God’s heart and mind. But we can be alert and discerning, hoping each moment, with each breath, to catch a glimpse of God at work in our world and in our lives and let that inspire and inform our contributions for the sake of the world.