Morning Prayer, Brokenness, and Wholeness

Well, Rev. Cynthia Park did it again. She led the 10:00 a.m. congregation in a stunningly beautiful morning prayer service last Sunday, with only two day’s notice that the rent-a-priest who was to have presided over Sunday Eucharist would not be able to do it after all.

The first reading was about David and Bathsheba. You know the story: lust, betrayal, adultery, directed killings, etc. Old Testament stuff. Somehow, in spite of David’s many character flaws, meanness, sins, and what my children would call “epic fail,” God chose David to lead his people. In Cynthia’s exegesis, God chose David not because of the universally horrible attributes we see David display in this particular reading. Instead, God chose David because of the God inspired ability – I guess we call it grace – which David exhibits at the end of his life when he acknowledges his moral bankruptcy before God and asks for mercy. Wow, that’s heavy!

Somehow, Cynthia connected this story to the 900-mile journey on which she was about to embark to spend a week in the woods leading her young grandchildren in an artsy “Granny Camp” at the request of her own children. Cynthia emphasized that “Granny Camp” was not high on her list of favorite things to do, but that her children expected her to love doing it because their grandmother (Cynthia’s mother) seemed to love doing it when they were youngsters. Long story short: I think there’s probably some kind of grace that enables Cynthia to immerse herself in a hellish chore with her grandchildren (sorry kids!). And in truth, Cynthia’s mom probably hated doing it too, but did it anyway with grace – both the human-elegance kind and the godly-theological kind.

I don’t really know what else to say about this except that I wish I had written about it five days ago when it was still fresh in my mind. I hope that God’s grace will overcome my memory lapse and feeble attempt to tell the story of one wonderful hour in the St. Clement worship space. Peace be with you.

-- Pat Jones

Let’s get over the excessive umbrage

We've all done it. Everyone on the planet has done it. We overreact. We say something or do something we wish we hadn’t done. We assume the worst about another person’s actions and lash out in a less than civil way. It happens to everyone. And we regret it.

The clear message of President Obama’s Thursday night sit down in the Rose Garden with Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Cambridge, Massachusetts police sergeant James Crowley is this: “Let’s get over the excessive umbrage, sit down, and get to know each other.” Michael Kinsley wrote eloquently about this sentiment in a July 31 Washington Post op-ed article.

It’s hard to hate another person when you walk side by side with that person and his family on a presidentially guided tour of the White House, then join that person, the president, and vice president for a cold beer in the Rose Garden. As for President Obama’s own hastily chosen words about someone acting “stupidly,” he’s human too, just like his companions in the garden.

-- Pat Jones