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“Holy Week”
For us to be made new Holy Week is a very special time during the last week of Lent in which the specific events of the Passion are singled out and emphasized. Personally, and liturgically, we travel the spiritual road from sublime fulfillment, through pain and loss, to absolute victory and fulfillment. The services of Holy Week coincide as closely as possible with the events of Jesus’ last days, and the great spiritual importance that the anticipation of that final washing of the Lenten ash imposed some forty days ago. These are among the most important saving events that God had brought to pass through his Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. This week of worship begins with Palm Sunday: when Jesus entered Jerusalem amidst a huge demonstration of support by the common people. Many thought he was going to declare himself a Messiah in the tradition of the conquering Maccabees, who had once temporarily restored the glory of the Jewish nation until it was conquered by the Romans in 63 B.C. But, the triumphant entry was an ironic celebration as many of those who were hailed as King this day would demand his death just five days later. Holy Week observances continue with Stations of the Cross on Wednesday night, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday. In the past, we have held a vibrant Holy Saturday gathering for the children in our area. This year, we will observe a Holy quiet Saturday: a time to stop in the eye of the storm. Holy Week delivers us to Easter Sunday when we gather for a Festal Eucharist proclaiming Jesus’ resurrection and our salvation. The services of Holy Week are the heart of our corporate observance. However, each day is an opportunity for us to individually reflect personally on the Passion of our Lord:
Each year we gather during this special week of observance to immerse ourselves in the truth of sacrifice and the example of supreme love. The church has provided this time for us to receive this love and to accept this sacrifice anew, with open hearts and wanting spirits. Come. Come to God in the spirit. Use what the church has provided and accept Christ as He is. Together our love for each other, in the light of His love for us, can break the bonds that hold us and set us free to accept the saving grace of God. Faithfully in Christ, Fr. Bill+
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The Bible tells us in Genesis 1, that we were made in God’s image. This means that we have emotions because God has emotions. What a blessing to live in the likeness of God every day with every emotion we experience! While our emotions are a divine gift, not recognizing them as such and managing them can make them more of a curse than a blessing.
We cannot flee from our own feelings, and trying to ignore them seems to make matters worse. Our only option is to learn how to deal with them. The stewardship of our emotions is critical to a healthy spiritual life, and recognizing emotionality and spirituality are two very different things. Emotion For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh (Romans 8:5a) Emotions are feelings related to worldly life. We are happy or sad; angry or joyful; loving or distant. Emotions are produced by our interactions with the world, by living and experiencing life through our expectations. “I am excited about going to the party (happy) because it’s going to be fun.” “I am sad and a bit angry (dejected) because it wasn’t fun and a waste of time.” Emotions are a product of the complex process of desire and expectation interacting with reality. The dangers of unchecked emotion are legion. If we base our decisions—especially our faith decisions, on emotion, we will be led not toward God, but away. Emotion-based faith is misleading because it uses feelings to interpret our circumstances and form our thoughts about God. This is putting feelings before faith. With emotion, the criterion for positive opinion is a product of “what makes me feel good,” not necessarily “what God wants for me.” An emotional perspective seeks satisfaction or confirmation of the self first and receives all things according to an emotional need. Sadly, Christians often confuse ‘good feelings’ with spiritual awareness. Spirituality …but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. (Romans 8:5b) Spirituality is about being godly in thinking and acting, focusing on unearthly or unworldly life, and divine realities. Spiritual awareness leads to equanimity and tranquility of the mind, emotional states which are the result of divine influence. To experience life through spiritual growth and reflection is to encounter the world without the expectation of ‘my happiness,’ but rather with the foreknowledge of God’s intention. A spiritual perspective seeks God first and receives all things in the companionship of the Holy Spirit. Integration As we are created in the image of God, Scripture calls us to be people who feel what we believe; people who not only know truth but experience it. Our emotional life is hallowed in our earthly experience when it is in line with the divine intention. Our feelings and emotions must be governed and guided by God. We should fear the Lord, hate evil, love the truth, mourn over sin and injustice, and rejoice in our sufferings. These are not idle commands, but precepts given by God in light of who God is and what Jesus has done. We are supposed to feel the weight and power of the truth revealed in Scripture and be informed and inspired in mind and soul. The key is not to pursue feelings themselves, but to pursue the Lord Jesus Christ by looking to Him, knowing His ways, pondering His promises, and obeying His commands. God has created us as emotional people. As we hear in Ecclesiastes, “There is a time to weep and laugh, to mourn and dance, to hate and love” (3:1–8), but it is faith that gives birth to godly feeling. As the English Reformer John Bradford noted, “Faith must first go before, and then feeling will follow.” The pursuit of a deepening spiritual life includes both knowledge and action. As St. James tells us, "But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing" (1:25). It relies on the power of the Holy Spirit to live according to God's will. The Holy Spirit serves to lead us into all truth (John 16:13), gives joy (Ephesians 5:18), and convicts when we sin (Ephesians 4:30). As St. John teaches us, "This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:5-8). True spirituality depends on the supernatural power God gives through the Holy Spirit rather than dependence on human expectation. St. Paul tells us that when a believer lives by the power of God's Spirit, it produces godly qualities and brings honor to God. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law" (Galatians 5:22-23). Growing in the Spirit creates a life able to serve others and point the way to Christ. As Jesus taught, "In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). From this perspective, Christian spirituality is for the honor of God, and personal maturity, and serves as a blessing to others, both through the good deeds that take place, as well as a heart attitude that points others to God. Spiritually in Christ, Fr. Bill+ “Watchfulness is a spiritual method which, if sedulously practiced over a long period, completely frees us…” St. Hesychius, Watchfulness and Holiness
In recent years, the term “mindfulness” has found its way from meditation centers and academic classrooms to everyday conversation, but because of its supposed origins, new-age observances, or psych counseling, it is often rejected out of hand. Mindfulness is thus guilty by association and as a result, is mostly ignored—or worse, rejected through ignorance. Yet mindfulness can be seen as a modern term for the practice of watchfulness written and preached about in the 5th century by St. Hesychios the Priest. In his writing, Watchfulness and Holiness, St. Hesychios commends to all Christians a discipline of prayerful focus on Jesus. He writes: Continuity of attention produces inner stability; inner stability produces a natural intensification of watchfulness; and this intensification gradually and in due measure gives contemplative insight into spiritual warfare. This in its turn is succeeded by persistence in the Jesus Prayer and by the state that Jesus confers in which the intellect, free from all images, enjoys complete quietude (7). Watchfulness is the practice of being self-aware and dedicating that awareness to God in order to be elevated from the mundane to the spiritual. The term mindfulness can be defined as a moment-to-moment awareness of one’s experience without judgment. It is the moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment with openness and curiosity, with the intention of rising to a better state. To achieve this, mindfulness techniques include focused relaxation, meditation, conscious review, a very close mirror to silence, awareness, and prayer. St. Hesychios writes: Just as the richness that comes from moving closer to God is evident in the angels, so love and intense longing for God is evident in those who have become angelic and gaze upwards towards the divine. Moreover, because the taste of the divine and the ecstasy of desire make their longing ever more intense and insatiable as they ascend, they do not stop until they reach the Seraphim: nor do they rest from their watchfulness of intellect and the intense longing of their aspiration until they have become angels in Christ Jesus our Lord (201). Mindfulness, or watchfulness, as a practice for people of faith, draws us closer to God by being aware of the self and offering all aspects of the self back to God. Joy in Lent Lent is a season of reflection and repentance—but also of a curious type of joy. In Lent, we reflect upon our sin and brokenness and the fleeting stability and reliability of life. We also practice repentance, which moves us past regret into action; an attempt to be obedient to God in the things which we find ourselves lapsing. This gives Lent a bad reputation: an accusation of being a killjoy season. But that would be a hasty deduction at a great expense to this season’s benefits. There is joy in Lent, but it is the kind of joy that comes in being made whole; the sort of peace that arrives in taking a drowning man and hauling him on the deck of a rescue ship. If Easter were to come to life and be a type of personified joy, we might envision it as a dancer. “There goes Easter, round and round in pure ecstasy, unstoppable and unable to let anything slow it down!” Lent is a different kind of joy. It’s the joy that comes in serenity: the joy of being rescued and realizing there is another day ahead of you. It’s the joy of holding the hand of a loved one as he or she passes peacefully into the arms of Jesus. Lent is the joy of insight or understanding; the joy which accompanies self-reflection and awareness: wisdom’s precious advent. Lent isn’t bombastic; it’s a time when mysteries stabilize into greater faith; a season where the crooked lines ever so gradually connect into symmetry. In Lent, joy isn’t decorated in celebration but with confidence and expectant sobriety. Lent is the time offered for us to experience and achieve self-reflection and repentance. We don’t realize this simply by the tearing of our garments, we rend our hearts so that God Himself can fill them up and make them anew in the Good News of Jesus Christ. The curious joy of Lent is that for those who live awaiting God’s consummation of all things, there is a Man who walks beside us in the here and now. This Man invites us to cry the tears we dam up behind pretexts and platitudes. The joy of Lent is not a dance; it’s the peace of rescue, the application of Good News, God’s presence in suffering. In watchfulness, Fr. Bill+ In 331 A.D., Athanasius I of Alexandria (c. 296–298 – 2 May 373), who was also called Athanasius the Great, Athanasius the Confessor, Athanasius the Apostolic, and who served as the 20th Bishop and Pope of Alexandria and is regarded as one of the Church Fathers, wrote to the church in Alexandria as was his regular custom—a 3rd-century newsletter, if you will. In his “Festal Letters,” he outlined the importance of a period of forty days of fasting prior to, but not inclusive of, the stricter fast of Holy Week. Exhorting to his flock, Athanasius wrote to motivate the people, “to the end that while all the world is fasting, we who are in Egypt should not become a laughing-stock as the only people who do not fast but take our pleasure in those days.” While there was some discussion of the best methods of Lenten observance, fasting was not in dispute as a powerful Lenten discipline.
Almost two millennia later, Steven R. Harmon, author of Ecumenism Means You, Too, Frederica Mathews-Green, author of The Jesus Prayer, and Michael Horton, author of The Gospel-Driven Life, add to the conversation in a joint article in Christianity Today. Here, they promote fasting as a foundational and wholistic practice: Lent is a time of year to remember that God has seen fit to make us not airy spirits but embodied human beings living in a beautiful, material world. The soul fills the body the way fire fills a lump of coal, and what the body learns, the soul absorbs as well. Spiritual disciplines such as fasting are analogous to weight-lifting equipment. One who uses them in a disciplined way will be stronger, not just when he’s lifting weights, but also for every situation he meets. The early Church Fathers recognized about the soul what we have come to understand about our physical selves: that we must exercise or risk atrophy and decline. Modern advances in Alzheimer’s research have categorically shown the value of “mental exercise” in staving off or decreasing the advance of the disease; physical therapy is simply necessary after injury or surgery to rebuild the afflicted area; and in all areas of our lives, exercise is a creation-based component of how we grow and prosper. To complete the analogy, then, Lent is an ancient observance that has stood the test of time because it is a “training camp” for those who would recognize their need for spiritual health and growth. In our time of multiple afflictions, both without and within, our focus on relief and healing is not only expected, but promised in scripture: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Mt. 11:28-30). Jesus calls us to himself, but when we come, we must bring ourselves. If you have not been observing Lent so far, fear not—it is not too late. Start today! Fasting is a wonderful, easily accessible ancient church practice that focuses the soul outward even as the feeling of deprivation is felt inward. If you are confused about fasting, please call or contact me. There are also many online resources. What’s most important is taking the time and energy to be focused on God. Fasting is a way of doing that. Above all, be honest with yourself and God about the life you are living and the reasons you do—or do not do—what you do. God is already aware of that, but we each need the opportunity to cleanse our lives, accept God’s grace, and be strong for what is to come. Faithfully in Christ, Fr. Bill+ Please join us SUNDAY afternoons for our Lenten Program, “My Own Private Wormwood” We will gather after the 10:30 service on Mar. 5, 12, 19 & 26 for Sunday lunch and fellowship followed by our Lenten Program “For we must never forget what is the most repellent and inexplicable trait in our Enemy; He (God) really loves the hairless bipeds He has created and always gives back to them with His right hand what He has taken away with His left.” --Screwtape
Fellowship is so important in our lives as to make the difference between depression and happiness. We have suffered long through the pandemic, separated from each other and unable to participate in regular fellowship events. Sadly, the “Prayer Corner” and prayer cards from our last Lenten Program (March 2020) are still pinned to the dividers downstairs in the Parish Hall. Suffering the outbreak of COVID and being forced into isolation, we stopped that Lenten Program after only two meetings. How wonderful it will be to gather again, in the company of our Lord, to restart our Lenten Fellowship! As we re-gather for our Lenten Program, things have changed a bit. We are meeting on Sunday afternoons this year, instead of Wednesday nights. This is a big change. We may return to Wednesday night next year, but we have made this difficult decision based on responses of parishioners wanting and being able to attend this season’s program. It’s a brave new world, in-person friends! I am sincerely hoping you will give it a try, even if the subject and format are not your first pick. As always, there will be a Zoom link provided for our out-of-town friends and for others who cannot attend in person. And as always, long before the pandemic, come to all or one; come to any portion you can in whatever way you can, and you will always be welcomed. That’s what the Creator family is all about! And now, for some “teasers” from our Program: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." Martin Luther "The devill . . the prowde spirite . . cannot endure to be mocked." Thomas More “Why did you do that?” The old answer, “The devil made me do it,” was once so popular it was the title of multiple pop songs. Our culture still wrestles with its understanding of good and evil; and, of course, so does the church. Renowned theologian C. S. Lewis takes up this question in his masterful 1942 manuscript, The Screwtape Letters. Through Lent, we are going to hit Screwtape head-on and wrestle with his diabolical instructions as he counsels “Wormwood,” his devil apprentice, in the art of human corruption. Through a study of Lewis’s satirical and didactic “Screwtape’s letters,” we will gain new insights into the ways of “the devils” and perhaps learn a few things about ourselves in the process. Come and join the other “hairless bipeds” this Sunday (and the next three Sundays) after Church for food, fellowship, and a close encounter of demonic kind… Be alert and of sober of mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him firm in your faith. 1 Peter 5:8 Peace, Fr. Bill+ By the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread,
till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for thou art dust, O mortal, and unto dust thou shalt return. Genesis 3:19 Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. In the Book of Esther, Mordecai put on sackcloth and ashes when he heard of the decree of King Ahasuerus (or Xerxes, 485-464 B.C.) of Persia to kill all of the Jewish people in the Persian Empire (Est 4:1). Job, in response to his awareness that he had conducted himself equal with God, repented in “dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord that the Babylonian captivity would last 70 years, so he “turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes" (Daniel 9:3). When Jonah arrived in Nineveh to proclaim God’s wrath and condemnation on an apostate people, the king “arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes” (Jonah 3:6). In each of these occurrences, and others in Scripture, it is a revelation--that is, self-awareness in the light of God’s presence, that drove people to dust and ashes. As people of faith, it is hard to believe that being exposed to the Revelation of God would produce anything less immediate than humble devotion. The witness of Old Testament accounts affirms that once God is realized, the physical response mirrors the spiritual awareness, but this was not always the case. Jesus himself spoke of a growing and obstinate refusal to enter into the presence of God even when God was present in the flesh. Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. (Matthew 11:20-22) Throughout scripture, sackcloth, dust, and ashes symbolize mourning, mortality, and penance, but the revelation must be encountered in the spiritual center—from the inside, for the symbol to have true meaning on the outside. Tomorrow, during our Ash Wednesday service, you will be invited (in the words of the BCP) to the observance of a Holy Lent, by self examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting and self denial; and by reading and meditating of God’s Holy Word (265). With blessed ashes made from the burned palm branches distributed on the Palm Sunday of last year, the sign of the Cross will be marked on your forehead with the words, Remember that thou art dust of mortal, and unto dust thou shalt return. Before the imposition, we recall that we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:23) and we mourn and willingly anticipate penance for our sins. We again commit our hearts to the Lord, who suffered, died, and rose for our salvation. We renew the promises made at our baptism when we died to an old life and rose to a new life with Christ. Finally, mindful that the kingdom of this world passes away, we strive to live in the kingdom of God now and look forward to its fulfillment in Heaven. The revelation of God is made manifest in us through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit and that awareness drives us to sackcloth and ashes. For 40 days we are compelled to a Holy Observance, painfully aware of our sinful nature, but we are embraced by the love of Christ even as we take up our cross. Receive the ashes in humble awareness and persevere through Lent in humble devotion and joyful expectation of a new life in Christ! Faithfully in Christ, Fr. Bill+ Dear Creator Family,
Many thanks to all who attended the 2022 Annual Meeting this past Sunday. It seems strange to hold the “2022” Annual Meeting in 2023, but for all parishes, the annual congregational meeting is mostly reflective of the past year, with only two items that look forward to the new year: vestry election and budget presentation. Reports are intended as summaries and tallies, often with acknowledgment and gratitude woven in; for what is parish life, if not the people who act, tend, and steward our common life? That being said, our lives, and especially our faith, are present, momentary events. Present because all we really have is the present: Jesus said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself” (Mt 6:33-34a). And momentary events, because the moments of our lives are acted upon. That which we held dear in 2022—our faith and our family—remain our greatest strengths, which carry us through each moment as time passes around us. Below is my report to the parish for 2022. God bless you all. I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess. Martin Luther 2022 was a year of recovery, transition, uncertainty, and light. Uncertainty We entered 2022 as the COVID crisis transitioned from acute to chronic. We had lived through a “never before” and were realizing a new normal that would change every aspect of our lives. With fears on the rise concerning economic recovery, international relations, internal political strife, and fractured familial relations (due to the distancing of COVID), it became apparent that many had “thrown out baby with the bathwater.” Popular media and polling services reported a drop in church attendance and an up-trend of individualized spirituality. To complicate matters for our Creator Family, we were also recovering from three major facilities breakdowns and growing concerns over our drop in attendance. Transition It has been difficult to embrace the “new normal” of the post-COVID experience. Try and try again, there are aspects of our cultural and societal life that are so foreign that phrases such as “I don’t understand” and “it's incredible” have partially lost their meaning. Interestingly, the process of transition has been itself a transition. Once transitioning was an active, even energetic process, but now it seems to progress more through attrition than dedication. Every day draws us closer to a passive acceptance of the “way it is now” and frees us from the angst and fear of personal failure. Recovery The new normal of 2021 continued to prove itself as we optimistically entered 2022 with a broken water main and broken boiler. Logistical expenses continued to mount as we struggled with financial concerns and questioned our methods. Still, amidst the distress of the moments and the reality of the observable trends, we went on. Step after step, plowing through the new normal with time-fashioned resolve and optimistic intent. We repaired and talked and met and loved each other despite how tired we all felt. In a way, we were recovering from our COVID malaise and moving towards wholeness precisely because of the challenges we faced. In fact, in a recent conversation, one of our Creator Family said it should be called “new wholeness,” -wholeness encompassed by self-awareness in the light of Christ and faithful devotion to God. I like that. Light I am sure this process is taking place everywhere, but here it’s not self-focused, it is Christ-centered. Here, we have not lost ourselves. The same two years that have diluted the faith of so many and led them to chronic spiritual navel-gazing have led us to a wide-eyed stare at the Cross. The light that blinds some illuminates others. Our devotion to Jesus and our Parish is not “blown about by the winds of doctrine” as St. Paul says; we did not “throw away our confidence” as the author of Hebrews says; we are not “abandoned of destroyed” as Moses proclaims; for God is our only Rock, and salvation, our fortress (Psalm 62:6); …our refuge and our strength, a pleasant help in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1); our…refuge and our stronghold ( Psalm 9:9). 2023 meets us with many challenges ahead and we are ready to greet them! To be a Parish Family means to take care of all we have been entrusted with--together! It means to seek one another and hold up each other through whatever may come—and go, and to love with a great BIG love! We are here together because God has called us here together, and our witness of faith in God is illumined by the light of Christ who calls us to persevere and overcome--together. Jesus said, “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. John 17:6-10 We reply, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Galatians 2:20 Faithfully Submitted, Fr. Wm. H. Burk+ OP Dear Creator Family,
This Sunday, following a shortened 10:30 service, we will gather for our Annual Congregational Meeting. Please consider yourself an important and appreciated attendant with a voice in our parish’s mission and operations. As we draw closer to Sunday and all the information and amazing opportunities we will hear about, there are a few misgivings I have heard that I would like help with:
See you Sunday, Fr. Bill+ His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 2 Peter 1:3-4
Many of the goals we set for ourselves are easily achieved because we can see the results of our efforts. A haircut, a diet, physical exercise, a cooking class, all of these and every one like them afford us a tangible result: make it or not, we can see it. Not so with spiritual growth. In my experience, the difficulty of recognizing spiritual change is the chief reason people falter in their efforts to grow spiritually. Spiritual growth is thought of as an amorphous, ethereal, and mysterious undertaking. Christian history is riddled with persecutions and executions of Christians whose only crime was telling others about their spiritual experience and trying to help others to grow spiritually. The result of this sad and tragic lineage is the lack of teaching from the pulpit and the lack of interest in the pew. …so that…you may become partakers of the divine nature Our very nature is wrapped up in the Divine Will. We are wonderfully made in the image of our Creator to live lives of divine intention. We are created to grow in the likeness of God and to be transformed in the spirit so that we may be transformed in the flesh. you are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ's own for ever. Amen. BCP pg. 308 In Baptism we are sealed by the Holy Spirit, not by the Priest. The Holy Spirit physically enters into our person physically because spiritual transformation is not separate from our physical being, but a part of it—this is incarnation. The Holy Spirit dwelling in us calls, encourages, fosters, and prefects our desire and our effort to grow in the likeness of Christ, but it is often a slow process and hard to see. In a world where we have moved from distraction (“our parcel hasn’t arrived in three weeks”) to anger (“it’s 3 o’clock the day after we ordered and ‘it’ is still not here!”), there is little sympathy for a process that can take a lifetime. But the amazing truth behind our conscious efforts to grow spiritually is that the Holy Spirit is working in us all the time, even when we are unconscious of the presence of God. You may recognize the work of the Holy Spirit in you in the moment of joy or interest or excitement when you hear something about God. That ‘tickle’ is not simply the Holy Spirit leaping with joy but actually, your spirit as it has been transformed and ‘primed’ for the Word of God. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8 Spiritual Growth is not an event; it is a relationship. Spiritual Growth is a lifelong process of relational growth that depends on our study and application of God’s Word (reading and studying the Bible); our walk in the Spirit (ascribing ‘credit’ to God throughout the day for all things—literally “God on my mind”); praying (talking to God and asking for help); and emptying ourselves of ourselves in order to be filled by God with God. Spiritual growth is the process of becoming more and more like Jesus Christ. Here are a few passages from Scripture to help you on your way.
Fr. Bill+  Epiphany is a season of four to nine weeks, from the Feast of the Epiphany (Jan. 6) through the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. The length of the season varies according to the date of Easter. The gospel stories of this season describe various events that manifest the divinity of Jesus. The coming of the Magi is celebrated on the Epiphany. The Baptism of our Lord is observed on the Sunday after Epiphany. The gospels for the other Sundays of the Epiphany season describe the wedding at Cana, the calling of the disciples, and various miracles and teachings of Jesus. The Last Sunday after the Epiphany is always devoted to the Transfiguration. Jesus' identity as the Son of God is dramatically revealed in the Transfiguration gospel, as well as the gospel of the baptism of Christ. We are called to respond to Christ in faith through the showings of his divinity recorded in the gospels of the Epiphany season. Episcopalchurch.org
As we look at the calendar above, we are immediately aware that the seasons of Epiphany and Pentecost are symbolized by the color Green. This may seem odd, especially when we are thinking of Pentecost and the fiery orange-red of the “tongues of fire,” but there is a good reason for it. The Festival of Epiphany is always on January 6th (thirteen days after Christmas), and the season of the church year that follows is about the unwrapping of the Father’s gift to the world of his only-begotten Son (‘epiphanos’ is a Greek word for ‘to be visible’). Christmas was about Jesus as fully human—a baby son born to Mary and laid in a manger. But Epiphany is about a Jesus who is fully divine—the Son of God, made known to the world. The revelation of God in the form of a child revealed the love of God in a manner that no one had ever imagined. God would sacrifice all to offer everything to those who, though they did not know it, had nothing. Green. Green is symbolic of resurrection and the newness of life. Spring is a time of rebirth and the revelation of life; green blossoms within us feeling of praise, growth, prosperity; a new beginning, flourishing, and restoration. There are many passages in the Bible in which the color green is invoked. The description of growing things inspires and brings a certain peace to the lessons being taught and provides an apt metaphor for the people of God. “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8 The connection between a flourishing and fruitful world and a growing and deepening disciple is found through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Fiery red is the color of the Spirit in presence at the moment of revelation, but green is the color of the Spirit in constant revelation in and through everything that God has made. Green, during Epiphany, reminds us that as we meet Jesus in the Gospels, we are growing in Christ through the Holy Spirit and hearing the call to spread God’s Word throughout the world. The Epiphany revelations of incarnation and blessing (the visit of the Magi and Jesus’ Baptism in the River Jordan) are linked to the color green to remind us that we are workers fed and sustained by the actions we take in response to that revelation. In the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, the lament goes forth that without God the intended and proper flourishing of creation (of the individual) is impossible, The waters of Nimrim are dried up and the grass is withered; the vegetation is gone and nothing green is left. Isaiah 15:6 Anyone who has lived in a non-green part of the world for a length of time knows just how primal this truth is: there is an actual spiritual ache for the witness green growth. This is the other reason the oasis in the tan sea of the desert is such a welcome sight. Be immersed in the green of Epiphany and send forth new shoots to the Son! Be bathed in the Light of the Word and reflect that light so that others may grow! Recline in green pastures God has led you to and find the peace and joyful repose that will calm your soul. Growing in Christ, Fr. Bill+ |
AuthorFather Bill Burk† Archives
March 2023
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