Armed Forces Day

I salute all of you who have served or are currently serving in any branch of the Armed Forces. I find you heroic and doing all those things the rest of us do not wish to do. And often at great sacrifice.

How dare I salute you? Though not in uniform, I served the Armed Forces for 12 years and according to the Department of Defense, had I been in uniform I would have had the rank of an Admiral (though I didn’t deserve it). So I salute you. For those among you who do not understand the salute, the lesser rank salutes the greater which says “Loyalty given” The greater rank in returning the salute says “Loyalty returned.” That really means a great deal to me—there is so little loyalty today outside of the military.

Let me tell you about my twelve years. There were the best twelve years of my life. I worked as a doctor for the Armed Forces Medical School, called The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, abbreviated USUHS, and nicknamed USELESS.

These Medical Students worked twice as hard as any other Medical Students, for not only did they learn the routine things one learns at Georgetown or EVMS, but they learned how to be an officer, all about world wide diseases and how to set up a MASH unit. The AMA accreditation committee told USUHS that they were working their students too hard. But there was no way around that. It was not an unusual site to see them scaling down the sides of the building, doing pushups in the hallways, or marching in formation in the streets of the campus.

Though I had taught the Medical Students, I had more connection with the residents in training and the doctors at Bethesda Naval Hospital, Walter Reed Army Hospital, NIH and the Armed Forces of Pathology. And I loved it.

There were perks, such as being a Medical Consultant to five of the Presidents of the United States. (Told a story about Reagan).

The perk of being accompanied by a military guard through the hospital to meet any VIP, such as Mubarak.( Told a story)

The military can be very efficient when it needs to be. Take the first Gulf War. I walked into a normal hospital one Wednesday. The next Thursday, the 300 plus patients were all discharged to other hospitals or home. Friday, all personal were having their shots updated and lawyers were present to transfer power-of attorney. Saturday, 800 medical personal were on the ship, The Comfort, heading for the Gulf. I took vacation. When I returned
a week later, patients were back in the hospital and 800 reservists were in place. And none of them were complaining. They actually had a good time and after returning to their practices, some would come back once a month to teach the residents.

But that doesn’t really tell you why I liked it so much. The order created in the services leads to wonderful things—loyalty (leave no man behind), honor and respect. And those attributes permeated every day. And camaraderie developed. And most of these people became or are friends for life.

In all the institutions I have worked in outside of the military, it was unusual to find these qualities. Think about your big corporations, especially recently. Have you witnessed loyalty, honor, respect, deep friendship.

Let’s come locally. It’s a war zone over at some hospitals, without armed forces. Go to the ER and you are greeted by a police officer. No one can visit someone in the ER, unless you show an ID, are photographed with a serial number. Very welcoming. Even priests can’t get past the barricade.
Some doctors do not treat the patient with respect and some patients have come to disrespect their doctor—not all, but some. There is not much teamwork between the doctors and the other care providers. This is not so in the military. The officer and non-commissioned officers must work as a team.

The color of the skin is not a problem in the military. It often is in our world.

Well, we had a gospel reading today, so I’d better bring it in. After all, we are in a church learning the good news from the gospel. A centurion is commander of 100 men in a Roman Legion. They make a relative small class of people governing the military. A centurion can tell almost anyone what to do and he must do it. Messengers from this centurion came to Jesus, delivering the centurion’s message: “that he was not worthy to have Jesus in his home.” I think in my own way that he was saluting Jesus—he was showing him loyalty, certainly honor and certainly respect. And Jesus responded, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith”. He certainly honored him and respected him.

I believe that Jesus would ask that behavior of us all toward everyone. Let us show loyalty, honor and respect to all. AMEN

Love Yourself

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself”
Question?
What are the two most important words of the second commandment?

“As yourself” Do you love yourself? Do you love yourself?
For if you don’t love yourself you cannot love your neighbor . If you do not love yourself, you cannot love your neighbor.

It is said that every religion shares the Golden Rule. However, the Golden
Rule is usually stated as “Do unto others as you would have them do unto
you” or ” Treat others as you would have them treat you”. I find both of
these rules easier to follow than the one Jesus gave us. Both of these have
action verbs, “do” and “treat”, which are much clearer than “love”. “Love” is difficult to define exactly. Each of us would have a different meaning.

In our particular society we tend to live with feelings of failure,
inadequacy, helplessness, lack of control, self hatred and yearning for
something better. We tend to ignore our gifts, our successes, our good
qualities, our joy. In order to love yourself requires true self knowledge.

Ten days ago, Jim Bickford ran a terrific seminar on steps you could take to
truly know yourself and then perhaps to love yourself. How to accept your
short comings and love them, as well as loving the wonderful things about
yourself. You are truly missing something when you don’t attend his seminar
on Wednesdays.

I personally believe that one of the first steps in loving yourself is
understanding that God loves you. After all, if you were known to God before you were born and you are first and for most God’s child, then you must be loved by God. Perhaps you have had no trouble understanding this, but I sure did.

Through the early ’80s, I truly believed that if I worked hard enough, God
would love me the Pelagian part of me. Well, it didn’t work. I never felt
God’s love. In 1984 my father died. He was a very significant person in my
life and still is. His death along with other surrounding difficult
circumstances threw me into a depression. A psychiatrist got me through the
crisis, but then I asked the psychiatrist if he thought I needed further
help. Wanting my money, he said “yes”. I told him that I wanted to work on my relationship with God, for I felt that that relationship stunk. Now this
was the era of Freud, so naturally he said he couldn’t help me. So I left
and was directed to a Pastoral Counselor.

Now I had never known of such an entity, but she saved my life and I have been recommending Pastoral Counseling ever since. The first day I went to her she asked me if God loved everyone? I said “yes” Then she asked if God loved me? I answered her absolutely honestly, NO. Then she asked “Well what makes you so special to be picked out by God from all the millions of people not to be loved? I had no answer.

The next day I was with a colleague of mine who teaches residents in
radiology with me. He was complaining about a resident who just wasn’t
learning anything. I said that it sounded like the resident just didn’t
want to learn. He said “Yes, it’s kind of like God. He loves you, but if
you aren’t open to His love, you’ll never know His love.

I had a lot of work to do. Now my brain knew His love for me, but my heart
didn’t feel it. Yet opening up to it, it came. To this day, I remember the
first moment I caught that glimpse of his love and than I began to love
myself.

I was given a book this summer called “the boy who saved my life.” It was
written by a grandfather. He describes his life as follows: “I had not desire to continue living, save to carry out my responsibilities. I endured. I felt inadequate. Laughter was a stranger. Beauty was hidden. As I looked inside of me, I couldn’t find a life I wanted to live. As for my soul, my essence, my reason to be…I think I had forgotten about it. That deepest part of me had receded into the shadows. Except for my family, whom I loved, and those whom I counseled in my psychotherapy practice, to whom I was dedicated, I shut people out. I had given up on hope. For whatever reasons, I thought I would die within the next few years. That is simply how I felt.”

Then his grandson Charlie was born. At age 2 and 1/2, Charlie stopped talking and stopped looking at people. He stopped responding and was diagnosed as autistic. The Grandfather then says, “I was suddenly overwhelmed with my desperate need to reach Charlie. I understood that I must enter Charlie’s world. I knew I had to come out of my dark world to meet him in his world. Together we had to walk out into the light of a better world.”

“Charlie brought into my life the wonder of bright sunshine and fresh air. He gave me new life. He rescued my soul.”

Slowly they did various things together, sitting together on the floor or on the couch, then engaging in activities. When Charlie began to talk, he said “I don’t know what I would do without myself. I really like myself.” And the grandfather learned to love himself. He discovered his soul.

Get to know the true you. Discover your soul. Accept that God loves you.
Love yourself and then love your neighbor. Amen

RESULTS OF MY SERMON ON “THE CHURCH” GIVEN AUGUST 21

As you may or may not know that I substituted the Nicene Creed with The Affirmation of Faith and the Confession of Sin with the Prayer of Forgiveness, both from the New Zealand Anglican Prayer Book.  This was done with Win’s permission. They are written out below for those who were on vacation.

 

The results were: Out of 120 people, 60 couples or singles turned in votes of affirmation. Only 7 turned in votes of no, occasionally or undecided.  No one gave me a verbal “no.” Many gave me a verbal affirmation.

 

The Affirmation of Faith

 

You, O God, are supreme and holy.

You create our world and give us life.

Your purpose overarches everything we do.

You have always been with us.

You are God.

 

You, O God, are infinitely generous,

good beyond all measure.

You came to us before we came to you.

You have revealed and proved

your love for us in Jesus Christ,

who lived and died and rose again.

You are with us now.

You are God.

 

You, O God, are Holy Spirit.

You empower us to be your gospel in the world.

You reconcile and heal; you overcome death.

 

You are our God.  We worship you.

 

Prayer of Forgiveness

The priest or deacon says

We come seeking forgiveness

for all we have failed to be and do

as members of Christ’s body.

 

silence

In God there is forgiveness.

 

 

 

Congregation

Loving and all-seeing God,

forgive us where we have failed to support one another

and to be what we claim to be.

Forgive us where we have failed to serve you;

and where our thoughts and actions have been

contrary to yours we ask your pardon.

 

 

The priest says

God forgives us; be at peace.

In-Vitro-Fertilization and the Vatican

It didn’t matter that the vote was eleven to one, for that one vote had “the right ear of the Pope.”

In November 1985, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences convened to examine the question of whether in-vitro-fertlization (IVF) was licit and consistent with the Catholic doctrine. The Portifical Academy was created soon after Galileo’s time in order to prevent the duplication of the Vatican’s Galileo fiasco. The purpose of the Academy is, from time to time, to convene experts to discuss scientific developments and have these scientific developments interpreted by moral theologians of the Vatican and made available for suitable action by the Pope.

At the meeting held in November 1985, twelve were present–President Carlos Chagas and three gynecologists, Dr. Rene Frydman of Paris and Drs.Howard and Georgeanna Jones, who had brought into the world the first IVF baby in the Americas. The other eight were moral theologians or scientists, half from the Vatican.

At the first organizational meeting, the participants were told that everything that was said would be recorded and each participant would receive a transcript of the recording. The transcript would be published, as were all deliberations of the Academy, and would be made available to the Pope, as well as the other members of the Vatican to incorporate into the doctrine of the church.

The participants had lively intellectual discussions for five days. The discussions revolved around the process of IVF with many questions asked by the theologians.

On the last day, President Chagas asked each one of the moral theologians present whether they thought that IVF should be considered licit or illicit. Each one, except for Monsignor Caffarra, said he thought the procedure was licit. Caffarra thought IVF was illicit because it “was outside the bonds of conjugal love.”

A lively discussion was held defining “conjugal love.” Caffarra’s definition was “conjugal love was sexual intercourse.” President Chagas made an intensive effort to persuade Caffarra to change his position. When the President failed, he asked Caffarra to please remain silent, and not vote. Caffarra responded that he would not–and that all should remember that he “had the right ear of the Pope.” (the right ear to the Pope, at that time, was Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict.)

Following adjournment, no one ever received a copy of the transcript promised on the first day of the meeting. It is believed that the Pope never received a copy either. Monsignor Caffarra was the only voice heard from that meeting. On February 22, 1987, instruction was issued and referred to as the “Donum Vitae”: IVF, donor eggs and sperm and surrogacy were illicit because they were “outside the bonds of conjugal love.”

Dr. Georgeanna Jones, incensed by the document, wrote an open letter to the Pope in reply. She challenged Caffarra directly to change his definition of conjugal love. According to the Vatican, “procreating without intercourse is illicit, and intercourse without the possibility of reproduction is illicit.”

Dr. Jones writes in her article, “The Vatican should redefine conjugal love between human beings in terms that emphasize all-encompassing love instead of limiting it to sexual intercourse. The Vatican should realize the scientific factualness–naturalness if you will, God’s law as I prefer–of the two-fold function in intercourse–reproduction and pleasure–and the changing importance of the two functions in the lives of two individuals joined in conjugal love.”

Though her letter was published, the Pope probably never read her letter.

All of this is so important and significant for today. That document, the “Donum Vitae” was put out by the Vatican under the aegis of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, the prefect of which was none other than Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.

On December 12, 2008, the Vatican published the instruction “Dignitas Personae.” The prefect was again Pope Benedict. Twenty years after the publication of “Donum Vitae,” this particular doctrine states “that the teaching of the ‘Donum Vitae’ remains completely valid, both with regard to the principles on which it is based and the moral evaluation which it expresses.” As long as Ratzinger is Pope, his definition of conjugal love will continue to exist and any scientific advancement, such as stem cell research, will be considered illicit. This is the document the Pope handed President Obama at their meeting in Italy on July 11, 1009.

The author is grateful to Howard W. Jones, Jr., M.D. for providing the facts of the above entry. All facts can be confirmed by other sources.

SIN:

Someone asked me why we never preach a sermon on sin. It’s easy—it’s an unpopular subject. Paul talked about sin today in Romans, but it’s not my cup of tea. I thought I would take a try at what I thought about sin and spin it around so we come out on the positive end. Essentially we must get out of the sin consciousness and into one of affirmation and grace. The sin consciousness is destructive and the affirmation and grace consciousness is constructive.

My husband, Glenn, who recalls everything ever written, tells me of a poem written by W.H. Auden about Herod. As he remembers it, Herod was mulling the thought of killing the first born son in every family. Herod fortified himself with “I love to sin, God loves forgiving sins. Really, the world is admirably arranged.”

Many protestant preachers still denigrate the sinful and praise Christ as the Savior. The Anglican Church in Western civilization in the last half of the twentieth century moved the church to different thinking. It deemphasized sin and salvation, in favor of the more progressive theology of social justice and the affirmation of the individual self. Thus the difference between the 1928 and 1982 prayer book. Rite I emphasizes sin and salvation, while Rite II emphasizes affirmation and grace. We are all born imperfect and we are all accepted by God with our imperfections through His grace.

My difficulty with sin began as a child. I am a cradle Episcopalian and as a child I refused to say the confession. And there are still many Sundays when I have trouble saying it now. I cannot figure out what I have done so wrong that I must get down on my knees and beg for mercy. Perhaps that’s my sin.

I have always had trouble with the image of Christ dying for our sins and I have preached about that on Good Friday. If he died for our sins, how come we are still sinning? To me, the importance of the cross was that God was present as Jesus was the suffering. He did not take away his suffering. And thus God is with us as we suffer taking each step with us as we gain courage and strength to become more whole
The Rev. Skip Hutton was one of my primary teachers throughout my home seminary process, along with Win—and through Skip was intimidating and not one to be argued with, I still had to argue and state my heart. When we studied St. Augustine I could barely read Augustine’s doctrines of predestination and human total depravity. According to Augustine we are conceived as sinners, born sinners and spend our entire lives as sinners except when we are rescued through Jesus. Skip knew I refused to accept that, so he had me read another theologian from that time by the name of Pelagius. Pelagius disagreed with Augustine and talked about the freedom of will and the “primacy of human effort in spiritual salvation.” I am became a Pelagian and continue to be so.

I took CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) at Riverside Hospital. It is training to be with the diseased in a hospital setting. I really didn’t need any more training in that. I probably needed more training in sin. My advisor was a Presbyterian—and we spent an hour each week for a year together going over my work. He was clearly a man who believed that he lived in sin all the time. I would present him a “verbatim”(or a word by word discussion of what transpired between myself and the patient.) At the end of each “verbatim”, he would always ask me what role sin might have played in my patient’s disease. Of course my answer was always, “Sin had nothing to do with the disease.” I would explain that as Episcopalians we were accepted with our imperfections through the grace of God. . My Presbyterian counterpart never understood. He never gave me a very good grade.

Finally I asked Skip for a definition of sin. He said that “Sin is staying in a box. Sin is limitation. All the possibilities around you seem limited. One is caught in a place where one cannot live fully. Jesus tries to say one can live more fully”. THAT’S IT. THAT’S IT.

Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. John 10:10. Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. And Jesus modeled how we were to have that abundant life. He did so by breaking every social barrier, every legal barrier and every religious barrier. He broke all limitations.
Bishop Spong also says the Christ came for one reason only—that we might have life and have it more abundantly. Spong challenges us all to live with three things in mind: 1)to live fully, without limitation, 2) to love wastefully ( I love that expression, “love wastefully”—throw away your love to everybody, no matter who they are or how they respond) and 3) to be all that you can be.

Get out of the sin consciousness and move into the one of affirmation and grace. Then be ready for the unexpected and pure joy. There will be no more sermons on sin from me. AMEN

JUDAS ISCARIOT(Some different thoughts—what do you think?)

“Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me. It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” So when he dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas.

Now just a few lines preceding this passage, Jesus tells his disciples, “I know whom I have chosen, but it is to fulfill the scripture. ‘The one who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’”

Jesus’ journey was to his Crucifixion, so that his Resurrection would occur.

For with his Resurrection, John tells us “the Son of Man has been glorified and God has been glorified in him.” So someone had to betray him.

We know from the Gospel of Matthew that Judas, full of shame, committed suicide by hanging himself.  The question is should he be condemned forever? Judas only played the role he was chosen for

I am sure many of you have heard about “The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot.” It was a document written in the 2^nd century, found in 1945 and made public in 2000. I won’t go through how it was discovered, the travels it took and how it was authenticated.  I will just tell you of some of the contents.  This Gospel portrays Judas as being asked by Jesus to betray his identity to fulfill the prophecy and to liberate his soul, entrapped in his body. His soul could then to ascend to heaven. Judas was to help him to die so that the divine within could be released.

There is a Ballad about Judas Iscariot that was written in the 13^th century by Robert Buchanan, long before the Gospel was discovered.  The Ballad is rather long, so I won’t read all of it.  The first part is about his suicide and departing from his body.  Then it describes the wandering of his soul about the Universe, trying to find a place to rest. Here are some excerpts:

He wandered east, he wandered west,
And heard no human sound:
For months and years, in grief and tears,
He wandered round and round.

For months and years, in grief and tears,
He walked the silent night;
The soul of Judas Iscariot
Perceived a far-off light.

A far-off light across the waste,
As dim as dim might be,
That came and went like the lighthouse gleam
On a black night at sea.

“Twas the soul of Judas Iscariot
Crawl’d to the distant gleam
And the rain came down, and the rain was blown
Against him with a scream.

T’was the soul of Judas Iscariot,
Strange, and sad, and tall,
Stood all alone at dead of night
Before a lighted hall.

Inside the Bridegroom sat at table
And the lights burnt bright and clear—
“Oh, who is that,” the bridegroom said,
Whose weary feet I hear.”

T’was  one looked from the lighted hall,
And answered soft and slow,
“It is a wolf runs up and down
With a black track in the snow.”

The Bridegroom in his robe of white
Sat at the table-head—
“Oh, who is that who moans without?”
The blessed Bridegroom said.

T’was one looked from the lighted hall,
And answered fierce and low,
“T’is the soul of Judas Iscariot
Gliding to and fro.”

The Bridegroom stood in the open door,
And was clad in white,
And far within the Lord’s Supper
Was spread so broad and bright.

T’was the Bridegroom stood at the open door,
And beckon’d, smiling sweet:
T’was the soul of Judas Iscariot
Stole in, and fell at his feet.

“The Holy Supper is spread within,
And many candles shine,
And I have waited long for thee
Before I poured the wine!”

The supper wine is poured at last,
The lights burn bright and fair,
Iscariot washes the Bridegroom’s feet,
And dries them with his hair.

These are my thoughts about Palm Sunday. Does anyone agree?

 

These are my thoughts about Palm Sunday. Does anyone agree?

I dislike this Sunday.   I have always disliked it.  So much so that I usually stay in bed and read the newspaper.  As a kid, I remember loving Palm Sunday.  It was a celebration. It was a parade.  We sang wonderful hymns and laid a path of palms for Jesus.  And we took our palms home and waved them all day long.  I do not remember the Passion narrative being included on Palm Sunday and I suspect that it wasn’t. Palm Sunday meant to me the beginning of Holy Week, Christ’s triumphal entrance into his known suffering and death for us.

But now we cram  most of  Holy Week into this Palm Sunday service.  I have always thought, without foundation, that the Church believes that people will not come during Holy Week; therefore it must tell the story of the Passion on Palm Sunday.  Otherwise the congregation will go from one celebration to another without experiencing the difficult and painful journey Christ made for us.

Well, I for one, have great difficulty in crying “Hosanna in the Highest” one minute and then in less than 45 minutes crying “Crucify Him, Crucify Him”.  I have trouble envisioning him entering Jerusalem in triumph—on a donkey, yes—but still in triumph and then immediately envisioning him mocked, whipped and spat upon.  I have trouble seeing him riding atop a softly cloaked donkey and then immediately seeing him burdened and stumbling over a rocky way carrying his own cross.  I have trouble going from “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord” to “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”

It seems similar to how we lead our lives.  We compress hours into seconds. We microwave our meals instead of slowly cooking them for hours in the oven. We leave messages on answering machines, but never connect.  We power walk or jog for 30 minutes instead of leisurely walking though the park to absorb the sights and sounds of nature. We run from meeting to soccer game, instead of sitting together to share the day. We take no time to reflect.

I need time to reflect. I need years to process and understand the journey of Jesus. But at least I am given one week each year.  I have a week to reflect on and share the experience of the camaraderie of the “Last Supper”, the intimacy of the washing of feet, the weeping while others slept at Gethsemane, the agony of betrayal, the silence of Christ at his trial, the pain of Peter’s denial, the horror of Christ’s Crucifixion, the tenderness of His entombment with spices in linen cloths. If I did not have this time, I’m not sure that I would experience the absolute joy of His Resurrection with the deep intensity that I do.

I hope and pray that you will give yourselves the gift of this next week to reflect and experience these events so that you may experience an even fuller and richer joy on Easter day.  Amen.