Farewell and Welcome

The end of worship services at Holy Apostles signals the beginning of a wonderful new adventure for members of its congregation. You can see and hear the sermon from the last service by visiting here: http://theholyapostles.com/2009/12/29/our-last-sermon/

It was a joyous event filled with true spirit. Visit us to share the good news. http://theholyapostles.com

Where to Now?

As this years end rapidly approaches, it signals the end of one journey, and the beginning of another. Our group of Holy Apostles are about to embark on a very unconventional, way out of the box adventure.

The series of events that have occurred over the last year or so, have left the congregation of Holy Apostles Episcopal Mission without a sanctuary to call home. It will do no good to wonder about the what if’s and whatever’s of the decisions that led to our current circumstance. “It is what it is.” It’s time to move forward.

The majority of our small congregation will be “spreading the love” after the beginning of the new year. Our vision is to visit a new place of worship each week, and then get together afterwards to discuss how each of us felt about the experience. After our meeting we will post some of the comments and feelings we came away with on our website.

We also will be continuing our Bible Study group, “What was Jesus Thinking”. We’ll more than likely continue to hold our meetings at the church at Brighton and Fries, Tuesday evenings, 7:00 PM. The Diocese has offered the use of the building for as long as it is feasible and for that we are grateful.

I’d like to give a special thanks to Rev. Sare. She has been a true inspiration and guiding light for our congregation. Her insights, love and friendship have been our binding force over the last year. Thank you and May God bless.

This is going to be an exciting time for our community. We hope you’ll stop back at the website often to find the latest news, events and announcements of The Holy Apostles.

Peace

Seminary Flashback

Daily Office Mark 10:46-52

Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus (as if we weren’t certain)… he brings the ole memories back.  I remember having to do an in depth study into this passage for my introduction to the New Testament course.  I researched the meaning of every significant word in the original Greek, cross referencing with other places in the Bible those words had been found, comparing meanings, secondary meanings, tertiary meanings, and finally honed in on one or two points and wrote a several page paper on these six verses.

Do I remember one single, solitary thing about it?

Proper 14, Year B

Weekly Prayer

Spirit of God, lend us your liveliness and courage to time and time again think and do and be in the world in the spirit of love taught to us by Jesus, we ask through the same Messiah, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Jesus *facepalm*

Daily Office: Mark 10:32-45

There are days I wonder how Jesus put up with his disciples.

Yes, okay, most of the time I have the proper humility and I put myself in their shoes and I think, sure, sure, that would be difficult, anyone would kick their best friend when they were down, in the face of the Roman Empire, and with the threat of your own painful death before, sure, sure…  But days like today… well, if I were in charge of a modern-day reinactment of this part of Mark, I’m sure Jesus would have done a *facepalm*, possibly growled and might have let loose a string of profanity.  I’ve got the phrases all lined up.  I shant repeat them, here.

It’s just one of those moments – you know them.  It’s the moment when you and someone you love/trust are going along and you think you’re on the same page.  You think you’ve been on the same page for quite some time.  You’re in the lead, but that’s only because you intuitively get the lay of the land a bit better, but it doesn’t matter, right? Because you’re all on the same page! Right.

And then the person/people you’re with who are supposed to be on the same bloody page as you bust out with the classic stupid question that flaunts their ignorance.  

Now, I’ve always considered myself of the school that there is no such thing as a stupid question, but I think I could refine that.  I think there is no bad in a questioning attitude, a discerning mind, but when people bring their arrogance, their power, and going beyond this story, their hatred and malice, when they bring these things and throw them at you in question form…  Oh, no. No, no, no.

Jesus doesn’t roll that way.

Desert Pack Animals & Sewing

Daily Office – Mark 10:17-31

There are two things I think about when I read this passage these days.  In no particular order, as the order depends on my mood on any given day, I think about the weirdness of translation, and I think of some of my favorite principles of Buddhism.  So let me tell you what a camel and a sewing machine have to do with Zen…

Weekly Prayer & Exercise

Howdy!  Here is this week’s prayer and exercise.  Enjoy!

Prayer

Let your never-say-die love, O God, renew and remake the Church; and, because it cannot continue in health without your help, feed and water it with your Spirit so that it may flourish enough to bring light and life to all the world; through Jesus Christ our Messiah, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Exercise

Spend five minutes, three times a day, looking within yourself to see if you can find the seed of love that God has already planted within you.  Maybe it’s still a seed.  Maybe it’s already starting to take root in your life. What does it look like? What does it feel like?  How is it affecting your life? Having trouble finding it? –recall a time you felt affection, or compassion, or joy, or hope, or peace. Relive the experience.  This will be the opposite of what you feel when you’re having road rage, or busy being quietly resentful against a colleague or family member.  Get in touch with that positive sensation and explore it.  Look at it.  Poke it once or twice.  Get to know it.  See if you can provoke it into happening…  But mostly, just find it, this week. (Advanced studies on love and compassion to follow…

Saul’s Madness Leads Us to This?

…when they heard this, they lost all hope.

Daily Office for Thursday  in Proper 9, Year 1.  We’re sticking with First Samuel today, and the story continues on, 16:14-17:11, in which we see God exit stage left, Saul go mad, his court present the the harp cure, thus introducing David into his good graces… and the beginning of a battle scene with the philistine threat, as my OT professor always used to say. (Threatening because they had advanced metalworking and chariots, besides whatever strength of numbers they also might have had.)  But the story stops before they get to the good bits – the whole slingshot David-n-Goliath episode.

Nope.  Tonight’s episode simply ends after Goliath challenges the army, utterly intimidating them.  And when they heard this, they lost all hope.

I’ve got no other commentary on that, other than to say, yep.  Been there.  In all sincerity, I’ve been there.  Haven’t most of us?

Barbecued Rattlesnake v. Undercover Work

Daily Office. Yep, it’s back.

There’s all kinds of good stuff in the readings today.  In Acts 10:1-16, Peter has his vision about what to eat, and over in 1 Samuel 16:1-13, God is telling Samuel to calm the hell down, get over Saul, and go do a little spy v. spy and anoint the new king.

As interesting as I find food (and dude, I finally cooked something for potluck, and it rocked. No one died) let’s talk about Samuel, because a little undercover work always beats out barbecued rattlesnake in my book.  Okay.  I admit.  I’ve never actually had barbecued rattlesnake, and the closest I’ve come to undercover work is the International Spy Museum and the collective knowledge of entirely too many Cold War movies, but we’re still going with Samuel.

Pride Festivities

Hey yall!  Lenore and I had a great time passing out suckers with our flyers attached at Pride weekend.  Lenore was at the Dyke March yesterday and we were both at the Parade today.  The suckers were popular, the flyer was read, and we went through 600 pieces like they were nothing at all.  Young and old, straight and gay – everybody loves a sucker!

It was great to see so many people whose t-shirts and outfits proclaimed they were exploring their own sexuality in healthy ways mingling around with families, kids, the religious, non-profits, for-profits – as if to say, ‘God made me like this – whether or not you want to accept it is moot.’

I was part of a twitter conversation between some people who had divergent views on whether or not the Pride festivities should be family friendly, and one person said yes, the other no.  I understand where the ‘No’ vote was coming from – he was on the Marcella’s float, which always has many beautiful people wearing not so much clothing, but my view is this: God made us beautiful, and beautifully.  If more children got a chance to witness more people secure in their sexuality, in their bodies… well, in the words of one my parishioners, ‘maybe we’d have fewer gay teens trying to commit suicide.’  Indeed.  Maybe we’d have few straight teens committing suicide as well, to say nothing about our culture’s serious issues with eating disorders.

Anyway, on an up note: it was great fun, passing out a little cheer and having a little impact on the lives of complete strangers.