In Search of the Spirit

As Christians we sometimes find ourselves in search mode. Searching for the right church, the right priest, the right job, the right home. We wake up fresh with purpose and direction and spend our days working tirelessly to find or attain what we think is missing in our lives. We hold meetings, talk among friends, family and co-workers about how to make more money, improve our relationships, creating processes to most efficiently get all we need to get done. So much of our time is spent searching we don't realize we already have everything we need to live our life as God intended.  That is until we think we've lost it.

Here we are at All Saints' Episcopal Church again in search of a Priest in Charge. Our leadership has been at work holding meetings to discern what is our mission in the community; searching for our purpose. They spend much of their time planning and executing events to bring in money and people to help us grow. Our parishioners work hard doing many of the day to day operations of the church:  polishing the pews, counting the collection, planting the flowers,  singing in the choir. And yet we still feel like we're missing something.  We feel that if we just had the right priest all our problems would be solved.

All these efforts are certainly noble and worthwhile and necessary. The right Priest in Charge will definitely be a welcome addition to our church family and improve upon what we have created here at All Saints. But the Spirit of who we are as individuals and as a community of Christians committed to serving each other has always been with us and will continue to be, no matter who is in charge. To realize this all you have to know is how it feels when someone isn't in church on a Sunday. It's then that you can feel their Spirit. It's felt in your missing them.  It's felt in your memory of what they may have done for you or said to you that made you feel so good.

So in our search for a Priest in Charge or whatever we may personally be searching for, let us remember we already have what we need in ourselves and in each other. As Christians we are blessed by knowing that the Holy Spirit is already alive in us; flowing through us and into everyone we meet.  We are never alone, never without, never at a loss. We already have it All.

A Psalm of David: Psalm 23:1-4
"The Lord is my Shepherd; I have everything I need.  
He lets me rest in fields of green grass and leads me to quiet pools of calm water. 
He gives me new strength. He guides me in the right paths, as he has promised. 
Even if I go through the deepest darkness, I will not be afraid, 
Lord, for you are with me. Your shepherd's rod and staff protect me."

May God Bless Every One of You and All of You!

Niki Sarkis, Junior Warden, All Saints Church, West Newbury, MA

New England Lutherans have a new bishop.

A news item ... in fact, a Good News item!

Bishop Margaret Payne of the New England Synod of the ELCA is retiring after twelve years, so last Friday and Saturday the Synod Assembly elected her successor. I had the privilege of being one of the 550 or so electors in that Assembly.

He is the Rev. James Eric Hazelwood, and presently serves as the pastor of St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Charlestown, RI.

In his statement to the assembly before the third ballot (of five) Pastor Jim explained that he grew up in a household that didn't participate in any church, so he knows how to communicate with folks in that situation.

I think we'll learn a lot from his approach to ministry in the 21st century.

Ollie Jones+

Come On. Be Tacky!

By Suzanne DeWitt, St. Paul's, Newburyport
Don’t you love it when God lines things up to create seemingly random coincidences?

Since January I’ve been attending a study of Jesus’ healing ministry at St. Paul’s Church in Newburyport. The twice monthly study is led by pain relief specialist Bob Keller. It centers on Biblical accounts of Jesus’ healing power, and provides an opportunity to explore and practice healing prayer techniques.

On Thursday May 17 a Christian Science healing workshop was held at the Newburyport public library. I’ve studied Christian healing for about 10 years and thought it might be interesting to see how Christian Scientists’ approach it. The place was packed. People of all ages were represented, and there were several wheel chairs and at least one oxygen tank present.

People are hungry for healing. They want to believe it. They want to search it out.
On May 18 and 19 a healing conference was held at Christ Church in Exeter NH, and run by The Rev. Dr. Jack Sheffield from Christ Healing Center in San Antonio. Attendees came from Episcopal churches around the region. Like the study at St. Paul’s it was a wonderful time of teaching, encouragement, and hands-on prayer.

On May 20 I participated for the first time on St. Paul’s Sunday morning healing prayer. Our God of transcendence and immanence lined up a 4 day immersion project for me, coincidentally timing the three events to occur sequentially in one long weekend.

Fr. Sheffield is an entertaining and informative presenter. His eyes sparkled when he said things like “I just LOVE this Jesus!” after describing a miraculous healing. He knew his audience however, and passed along a quip that resonated. He said that as Episcopalians we can do anything as long as it isn’t tacky. The crowd laughed, knowing it to be true. We Episcopalians are a tasteful bunch. But what do the scriptures tell us? Do they teach us to avoid doing the embarrassing?

Imagine the babble at Pentecost, with its accusations of drunkenness. Or consider how tacky it must have been to touch the skin of a leper. How déclassé to wash anyone’s feet, let alone those of subordinates. How appalling to eat with sinners and harlots, to lodge in the unclean stench of a tannery, or to be touched by a woman who has hemorrhaged for 12 years. Not to mention the tackiest Biblical account of all; the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Christianity is certainly tacky in this sense. It is potentially embarrassing. Societally offensive. It draws attention in uncomfortable ways. But Christianity should also be tacky in the alternative sense of the word. The World Dictionary defines tacky as "slightly sticky or adhesive". The nascent church was definitely adhesive, when Pentecost’s babble brought thousands to follow The Way. When healings and resurrections drew throngs of people to follow Christ. It was sticky indeed. And it still should be.

People are hungry for healing of all kinds. Jesus gave his healing power to his church. He left it with and in us. He wants us to be His hands and feet and heart, offering healing to a hurting world.

You and I can be part of that. Consider coming to St. Paul Newburyport’s study of Jesus’ Healing Ministry. It is held at 7:00PM on the 2^nd and 4^th Tuesdays of each month. Click here for more information.

Come on! Be tacky!

It has been a busy week....

I have two things on my mind…..

First - On Pentecost in the Epistle to the Romans there is that line about “who hopes for what is seen?”  If I know what the gift I am about to receive is – then I don’t need to hope for it at all.  It is either what I want and need or it is not.  There is no mystery in that at all.  “If we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”  

Now I will readily admit that patience is not one of my strong points.  I am a do it now – get it done sort of gal.  My idea of waiting patiently for something to happen is to play with my smart phone while I pat my foot and become increasingly anxious over the outcome of my plans.  But I think there is a subtle difference here.  I think what Paul is trying to say is that this thing that is not seen is so beyond our wildest imagination – that we don’t even know it is coming.  What God has in mind is not even on my radar screen.  So of course we wait with patience – we do not know it is coming.  And yet in some mysterious way we do.  And that is what the hope is really about – this hope for what is not seen is faith.  And in the end when we have no words to even approach the mystery we do not see, it is God who gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit and it is the Holy Spirit who speaks for us – and you got to love this line.   “With sighs too deep for words”

Second - On Pentecost we hear in this wonderful story of the early church how the Holy Spirit came and lit up the followers of Jesus literally and figuratively.  They went into the streets telling Jesus’ story to anyone who would listen and they were understood in unexpected and miraculous ways.  And so I wonder, when are our voices unintelligible?  What is it that touches our tongues so that others might hear and understand?  What is it that takes the words we speak and transforms them for the hearers into God’s message?  The author of Acts tells us that it is the very Spirit of God that fills us with love, compassion, and a willingness to reach out to our brothers and sisters, to listen intently to the stories of struggle, to speak truthfully and openly in telling our own stories.  When we open our hearts up to God and allow the Spirit to work in and through us then we are speaking the universal language of Love and we are able to be understood and to understand.

God’s Love, God’s Light, God’s Spirit comes to us as a free gift.  It is given to all – each in her own language – so that all might share in the grace of it.  It sets us on fire with energy and excitement.  It burns like a hot coal in our bellies giving us the passion and desire, and energy to climb to the top of the mountain.  It is all we need for the journey.  God’s spirit fills every void and stretches as far as the imagination can carry us.

11^th Century rabbi named Meir ben Issac wrote a poem for that speaks of God’s Love:

"Could we with ink the ocean fill, Were every blade of grass a quill, Were the whole world of parchment made, And every man a scribe by trade, To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry; Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky."