Filling the Emptiness

Several weeks back, our seminarian Evan Clendenin gave the sermon at the 10:00 a.m. Eucharist. It was November 8, the Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost. The readings are important, of course, but what resonated with me then was his powerful evocation of the nature and manufacture of glass. “I like glass,” he said. “Those who know me and engage me in conversation know that I almost always find a way to talk about glass.”

Evan described one glass making process that involves a wax mold surrounded by sand. When you pour the hot, molten glass into the wax, the wax disappears and what remains is the glass object you’re working to create. “Something better takes the place of the wax…as God fills the emptiness in our lives.”

Evan went on to note that our worship spaces are mostly empty -- large, cavernous building interiors. Then he drew us back to the Old Testament reading from the book of Ruth in which we learn about how Ruth became the wife of Boaz and about the relationship of Ruth to her mother-in-law Naomi. “God is strangely invisible in the Book of Ruth,” Evan tells us. But “it is in the words that people speak out of their miraculous abundance that God’s presence is apparent.”

Pray for Peace

These are headlines from today’s (only today’s) New York Times:

U.S. Woman and Italian Man Convicted in Italy of Briton’s Murder

36 Killed At Mosque For Officers in Pakistan

After Assassination Attempt, Guinea’s Junta Leader Leaves Country for Treatment

NATO Pledges 7,000 Troops for Afghanistan, but Details are Few and Questions Are Many

Iran Limits Data to Atomic Agency

Revised Report on Virginia Tech Shooting Faults University Anew

The Book of Common Prayer contains a useful appeal for a day like this:

3. For the Human Family
O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us
through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole
human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which
infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us;
unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and
confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in
your good time, all nations and races may serve you in
harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen.

The Perversity of Things

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try to do something, you just can’t make it work. I’ve been trying to get a certain computer program to work for me, and it is failing. I’ve used this program 1,000 times before. It has worked in the past and now…NOTHING. It’s frustrating to me, but also a lesson that I’m not in control and I can’t always have my way. It’s also a lesson that I need to ask for help from others who know these things better than I do. It could also be a lesson that it’s very late at night, I’m tired, and perhaps I’m forgetting some essential step. Perhaps I could easily accomplish the job with a fully rested mind and body. Who knows? In any case, the feeling of powerlessness – over computers, the weather, world history, the result of an election, or even how the toast turns out when it emerges from the toaster – is a sign. It’s a sacrament, I suppose. A visible manifestation of the presence of God in the world.

Trees

We have beautiful Christmas trees on sale at St. Clement. More than 150 freshly cut trees arrived yesterday. Thanks to Father John for helping the truck driver unload the trees.

Selling Christmas trees is one of the most important fundraisers in our community each year. We hope you will come out and support this effort...and tell all your friends.

Here is a photograph of my office holiday party with one of the beautiful St. Clement trees. Thanks to Rudy Garcia and Dru Hortum for helping me pick it out. My colleagues and I decorated it during our office holiday party on Friday. It's the first live Christmas tree we've had in our office and it really makes a big difference.

Celebrate the Advent-Christmas season with a beautiful tree from St. Clement and support the church community we all love.

Peace,

Pat

Received in the Episcopal Church

Today I was formally received into the Episcopal Church. I can’t tell you the theological or doctrinal significance of this. But I can tell you how it makes me feel. Today I was received into a church that embraces radical hospitality manifested by an unbridled sense of inclusion. I like that!

Before the Eucharist this morning, the bishop who presided at the service had a short chat with me and the other four newly received. He said something that blew my mind and made me KNOW that I had made the right decision for me. I’m paraphrasing, but the bishop said essentially this: “Being received into the Episcopal Church has nothing to do with conversion. Everything that led you to this point in your life is worthy and good. If you were baptized and confirmed in the Presbyterian Church or the Baptist Church or the Roman Catholic Church, that’s a part of who you are. That’s a part of what led you to be where you are today. We celebrate everything about you, including the religious traditions you have embraced up to this point. When I made my confirmation as a Presbyterian at age 12, I meant it. There was nothing wrong or in error about the commitment I made at age 12 even though I went on to become a bishop in the Episcopal Church. The same is true for you. You’re not packing up and leaving your house. You’re simply moving to a different room in the same house. And I believe someday God will break down all those walls that separate the rooms in this house. When all is said and done, I don’t think God cares one wit about denominations.”

So there you have it. Thanks to my good friend, Leslie Hortum, for being my sponsor; to John Hortum for preparing me; to Bishop David Jones for blowing my mind and making me feel so welcome today; and everyone at St. Clement in Alexandria. Thanks to you for all the support and encouragement you have given me over more than 51 years of my life. Today I made a choice that’s right for me and celebrates all of the faithfulness of my life. I want to celebrate that in all of you and everyone I meet. One day when my son or daughter comes to me and says, “Dad, I’m a gay Buddhist werewolf,” I pray that I will have the grace (and the good sense God gave gravel) to say, “Amen, child. I love you and embrace you and the journey you’re on. I will help you and support you in every way I can.” That’s what I pray I will do. I think I can. Hallelujah!

Peace,

Pat

Blog Action Day

I thought you would be interested in this upcoming event. Here is a short description of the event from the Blog Action Day Website:

First and last, the purpose of Blog Action Day is to create a discussion. We ask bloggers to take a single day out of their schedule and focus it on an important issue. By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue. Out of this discussion naturally flow ideas, advice, plans, and action. In 2007 on the theme of the Environment, we saw bloggers running environmental experiments, detailing innovative ideas on creating sustainable practices, and focusing their audience's attention on organizations and companies promoting green agendas. In 2008 we covered the theme of Poverty, and similarly focused the blogging community's energies around discussing the wide breadth of the issue from many perspectives and identifying innovative and unexpected solutions. This year we aim to do the same for Climate Change, an issue that threatens us all.

-- Pat Jones

Mile Long Yard Sale

The "West End" of Alexandria has the traditional Mile Long Yard sale along Taney Avenue and adjacent streets during one of the final Saturdays of September. Today was the day. This year we were lucky the rains held off and neighbors and friends were able to enjoy a good bargain in cool and dry -- if not sunny -- weather. Everyone seemed to have a good time. From food and furniture, to lawn implements and old videotapes, electronic devices that were cutting-edge at one time, well loved toys, musical instruments, shoes, and jackets, the yard sale this year was the bargain hunters heaven.

Returning home, I started thinking about the wonderful community building aspects of our own St. Clement yard sale when, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we invite the extended family over to our place to purchase one of 600 or so beautiful Christmas trees. Ah, you can smell the aroma of Douglass firs wafting out from the branches, sticky, pungent sap on your hands, and needles in your socks and hair. The air is cooler then -- the hot coffee or cocoa between your hands serves a useful purpose -- and I have an even warmer feeling when I see old acquaintances, friends who perhaps I see only once a year...in pursuit of the perfect tree.

The Mile Long Yard Sale is like that. It happens a couple of months earlier. And it's a wonderful harbinger of the colder months and the warm thoughts to come.

-- Pat Jones

ALIVE...Marching Captains!

Three volunteers from ALIVE (Alexandrians Involved Ecumenically) came to our house today and took away the bunk beds that had occupied the girls' room for a number of years. Now another Alexandria family will be able to enjoy the bunk beds, thanks to the great volunteers at ALIVE. Katie is enjoying her freshman year at Christopher Newport University (CMU), so Maria has a new bed and room to herself. Maria (left) and Katie posed for this picture during our recent "Family Weekend" at CNU. Katie, an active member of the music program, is festooned in the silver and blue of the CNU Marching Captains. Go Katie!

-- Pat Jones