Summer is a Gift from God

It is NOT snowing. It is OVER 50 degrees. Some days it even gets HOT. OK, there are a few mosquitos. But mostly this is a wonderful time to be outside without a jacket and snow boots.

Especially in Michigan, we need to thank God that we get this wonderful respite from the vagaries of our climate. Open the windows, take a bite of a June strawberry and say "THANK YOU" to the Big Guy Upstairs. It's summer!

Saint of the Week -- Irenaeus of Lyon

St. Irenaeus lived in the Lyon area of what is now France in the second century. He survived the persecutions under the emperor Marcus Aurelius, but he is best known for writing his mammoth work Against Heresies refuting Gnosticism.

This work was the main source for everything we knew about Gnosticism until the Nag Hammadi scrolls were found late in the last century. Irenaeus asserted the importance of bishops, of the long stream of tradition dating back to the apostles, and the authority of Scripture. The New Testament was not finalized yet, and Irenaeus argued for the reliability of the four gospels as four different and authoritative pictures of the life of Jesus.

Irenaeus helped to shape the church, the New Testament, and the future of Christianity. He is a "Father of the Church" in the Roman Catholic tradition.

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One Book, One Community

The selection for MSU's "One Book, One Community" program for this year is They Poured Fire On Us From The Sky, a book about three "lost boys" from Sudan who trekked to safety and freedom when they were just children.

I met yesterday with some other area clergy and representatives from the "One Book, One Community" committee. All Saints and other local churches are going to serve as gathering places for a symbolic 'trek' to campus on September 14, symbolizing the journey of the Lost Boys, and ending at Adams Field, where an African Cultural Festival will be held.

The book is assigned to all incoming MSU freshmen, and is offered to the wider community for us to read as well. A variety of events, including presentations by the authors, take place over the course of a month from late August to mid-September.

If you'd like to participate in "One Book, One Community", we will be able to get copies of the book at cost for sale at All Saints. Keep abreast of all the activities as they are added at the "One Book, One Community" website.

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Looking Ahead to Lambeth

The Lambeth Conference begins next month in England with some amount of trepidation and anxiety. This is a gathering of all the bishops from the Anglican Communion, which is held every 10 years at the Archbishop of Canterbury's invitation. This Lambeth is marked by some invitations withheld (Gene Robinson and Martin Minns among them), some invitations declined (Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria and Archbishop Michael Nazir-Ali of Rochester, England, among them), the upcoming discussion of an Anglican Covenant, and a lot of posturing and mystery.

To try to sort out all the issues and players, the July-August issue of The Messenger, which is already online at our website and is in the mail to you today, has a look at Lambeth, what the fuss is all about, and how you might answer questions from your friends and co-workers, as Episcopalians and Anglicans make news for yet another summer.

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Reading Ahead -- Pentecost 7

Well, this week's lessons are another great look at the concept of Biblical Family Values.

In the Bible, families really don't behave the way we think Bible families ought to behave. Brother kills brother, daughters get their father drunk and have sex with him, fathers sell their daughters for prostitutes, men have multiple wives and concubines, and Abraham, the founder of three world religions, has to be forcibly prevented from killing his son Isaac.

That's just the Hebrew scriptures ... in the gospel lesson, Jesus says "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."

Do you find this difficult? Do you struggle with it? I am struggling this week myself, looking for the Good News for Sunday ...

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An Episco-free World

I have been eavesdropping lately on conversations going on around me in public spaces. Not out of some prurient interest (although I still play Harriet the Spy’s ‘diner game’ from time to time, listening to people behind me and trying to imagine what they look like, then turning around to see if I guessed right.), but out of another kind of curiosity.

Simply this: What ARE people talking about these days anyway?

Well, let me tell you, people are NOT talking about the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Communion, Gene Robinson or Rowan Williams. The names Jack Iker or Robert Duncan do not pass their lips. Nor does the name of Katharine Jefferts Schori.

Despite the furor on the blogosphere, or in our Parish Halls, or in our diocesan gatherings, the things that are of such deep and obsessive interest to us are simply not on the radar of the general public.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. While we may be generally known as “the church that’s fighting over gay bishops,” it’s not really at people’s top-of-mind awareness. Which leads me to believe that there is room for us to work, room for us to create an awareness of our denomination that would go beyond the bickering and legal annihilation we practice so enthusiastically.

What if we really COULD get people talking about the Episcopal Church? What if we could overhear folks in coffee shops and supermarkets, on line in the airport or riding on the bus, saying things like:

“You know that school was built by the Episcopal Church for our children … not the rich children, but our children, right here in the barrio.”

“I went on a mission trip to Haiti, and you should see all the things the Episcopal Church is doing in that country … the feeding programs, the sustainability projects, the schools, they even started an orchestra.”

“Well, I know the Episcopal Church will speak up for us against these developers.”

“I have a whole new sense of my purpose in life. I have to tell you about my church and how God has changed me … yes, my church. It’s that Episcopal Church on the corner.”

It’s something to hope for, and something new to strive for. In the meantime, I think it’s helpful to listen. To hear what people care about, are curious about, are enraged about, are tickled about. To hear the voices of people going about their everyday business, chatting about their everyday concerns. That business, those concerns are of deep and abiding interest to the God we serve. Perhaps they are even of more interest to God than the internecine battles of our tiny denomination.

(This also appeared today on Episcopal Cafe.)

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Food, Fun and Fellowship -- A Spiritual Practice

The "Three F's" we used to call them, teasing our youth minister, who always promoted Food, Fun and Fellowship as the "bait" for any youth group gatherings. And his youth group meetings were fun, and there was food, and the youth found themselves making friends with other teens from at least six different high schools, because of the fellowship.

He was on to something, and the something he was onto was community. We live in a culture starving for community, where people chat and text and Facebook and email, but rarely sit face to face, even around a family dinner table. Luis Coehlo's piece in today's Episcopal Cafe essay reminded me again of how important community gathered around a common meal -- whether it's the Eucharist, coffee hour, a potluck, or the church picnic -- can be.

Coehlo writes, "In churches, similar events also happened. From “dinners on the grounds” to Shrove Tuesday pancake suppers, food, community and conversations have always been part of our Church life. The rich noise of children running around the parish hall and vivid conversations between parishioners of different sorts still can be heard in many of our Churches across the world. In many places, however, this community life centered around food and conversation is dying, often substituted by an innovative “consumer Gospel”, which produces short term growth, but in the long run has increasingly contributed to empty houses of worship."

All Saints knows the gift of the common meal, the gift of the "Three F's." This is a place where people do gather to eat and chat at leisure, building bonds of community that sustain us in the rest of our lives throughout the week. We'll be eating again tomorrow at Patriarche Park, rain or shine, in the picnic pavilion. Service at 10, food, fun and fellowship directly after.

+ Kit