The God of Surprises (A Sermon Spoiler)

One of my favorite stained glass windows at Duke University Chapel shows the disciples on the road to Emmaus. The disciples are walking down the road, and Jesus is walking up behind them, looking like he’s about to tap one of them on the shoulder: boo! Jesus’ appearance to his friends comes as a surprise-a welcome surprise, a world changing surprise, but a surprise nonetheless.

In our Gospel for Sunday, the disciples find out that the resurrection isn’t just a rumor – it’s real. And they discover that it’s real in a tangible way as Jesus breaks bread with them. In Jesus, God shows himself to us as not just able to be seen, but able to be touched. And God chooses to be known that way. God gains nothing by being seen or touched. God would be God regardless of how we experience God. But God chooses to be with us, to share Scripture and bread with us, to be perceived. The fact that God chooses to be there on the road with us, that God breaks bread with us, shows us that this is a God who can be trusted in the absence of perception as well as in its presence. God chooses to be in that kind of intimate relationship with us, and that tells us how much God loves us, how safe we are in God’s hands. God chooses to invite us into a relationship of new life - a new life of peace.  This is the new life that Jesus invites us to share in, through baptism and every time we share the Eucharist with each other. Our faith isn’t ethereal and theoretical, it’s something that we touch and that touches us.

Join us this Sunday to be surprised once more by grace, and to find out how this story ends!

Yours in Christ, and in Christ alone,

Kara+

God’s Chosen Family

Dear friends,

Greetings from Holy Cross Monastery in West Park, NY, where a group of Trinity folks are enjoying a time of prayer, discussion, and renewal before Holy Week and Easter.  While we have primarily been discussing the Gospels for Holy Week, our conversation has also included the lessons and sermons we have heard in worship with the brothers. Today we observed the Feast of St. Joseph, one of two major feasts that falls during Lent – the other is the Annunciation on March 25. Today’s sermon began with a mention of the Thanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a Child in the Book of Common Prayer, a short liturgy to give thanks for a newborn baby or to give thanks for the adoption of a child at any age.  In the case of adoption, the priest presents the child to his or her parents, saying, “As God has made us his children by adoption and grace, may you receive N. as your own son (daughter).” The service then continues with the Magnificat, the Song of Mary.

In Jesus Christ, God configures our relationships in ways that transcend biological heredity. St. Joseph is, of course, a model of this kind of relationship, acting as an adoptive earthly father for Jesus. But each one of us is adopted as a child of God through Jesus Christ our brother. God doesn’t stand at a spiritual or physical distance from us. Rather, he takes on our humanity and names each one of us as beloved children. In doing so, he also gives us to each other as chosen family – chosen by God from before the foundation of the world. As we prepare to walk the way of the cross, there is no better time to contemplate the Church as a family in Christ, a family constituted even from the Cross itself. In St. John’s passion narrative, we read:

‘Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Here is your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.’

We often think of Pentecost as the birthday of the Church, but here on Good Friday, at the very foot of the Cross, Jesus knits his followers together. May we walk these days of Holy Week knowing that we are so much more than a loose affiliation of church members, we are family to each other in a very real sense.

Yours faithfully in Christ,

Kara+

PS On March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, Archbishop Sarah Mullally will be enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral. While the service won’t be available live due to BBC restrictions, you can watch it here after the broadcast.

Baptism of our Lord

I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live. – Deuteronomy 30:19

In the calendar of the Church year, we have just celebrated the feast of the Epiphany. This Sunday, we will commemorate the Baptism of our Lord. At Epiphany, Jesus is revealed as the Son of God to the Gentiles. The question of Epiphany is: Who is this one who is shown to the gentiles, and to all the world? He is none other than the Son of God. The question of the first Sunday after the Epiphany is: What is this baptism in which we’re united to the Son of God, and to each other?

Baptism is about our inclusion in the household of God, to be sure. It is about God accepting us, and about our accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior. But there are also things to be rejected: the powers of death, the forces that draw us from the love of God, all those things that corrupt the creatures of God. In baptism, we say “no” to death and “yes” to life, as we pass by God’s grace through death to life in Jesus’ cross and resurrection. This “no” and “yes” is the ground of our Christian lives.

The 20th century Episcopal lay theologian William Stringfellow wrote that “the vocation of the baptized person is a simple thing: it is to live from day to day, whatever the day brings, in this extraordinary unity, in this reconciliation with all people and all things, in this knowledge that death has no more power, in this truth of the resurrection. It does not really matter exactly what a Christian does from day to day. What matters is that whatever one does is done in honor of one’s own life, given to one by God and restored to one in Christ, and in honor of the life into which all humans and all things are called. The only thing that really matters to live in Christ instead of death.” In Jesus Christ, God has said “yes” to us, unequivocally. God calls each one of us to say “yes” to life, to live in Christ, and to walk in love.

Yours in Christ,

Kara+

Preparing a Way

Jesus said to the disciples, “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. – Matthew 24:36

Last weekend, a group from Trinity Church gathered at the Community of St. John Baptist in Mendham for a time of prayer and discussion as we look towards Advent. To spend time in prayer in such a beautiful setting was a gift, and if you’re reading this I hope you will consider joining us for our next retreat in March!

During our discussion of the Advent Gospels for Year A – the readings that we’re about to hear in church between now and Christmas – we explored what it might mean to “prepare the way of the Lord” in our hearts and our lives. As we developed a list of concrete practices as a group, we thought you might find it helpful too.

This Advent, you may want to try:

·      Reading a chapter of the Bible or praying a Psalm before you pick up your phone.

·      Changing your Instagram or Spotify algorithm by following more church-related content.

·      Read the Advent devotional from Trinity (I Witness, available at church) or another devotional book

·      Listening to the podcast of Morning Prayer or Evening Prayer from Forward Movement.

·      Listening to sacred music. Try this playlist of upcoming music from our choir, or this playlist of my own favorite Advent songs.

As I have led retreats over the past few years, probably the most common insight I hear from folks is how much it changes your experience of the world to put your phone away. It sounds clichéd by now, but the presence of phones in our pockets is one of the most serious spiritual challenges of our time. This Advent may be a time to re-examine your relationship with your phone - and to reflect on whether or not that relationship needs to change. I know I will be doing that myself!

In the coming days of Advent, we will see the love of God for this world. This is a love so complete that in God’s good time, “the way things are” will be transformed into “the way things should be.”  It is a love so complete that we will know conclusively that the only possible logic of the world is one of peace, of harmony, of new life, of love and redemption. We will know this because the knowledge of God’s truth will fill the world. No longer will we see dimly or guess at God’s designs. We will know at long last what Julian of Norwich saw in her vision: “Would you know your Lord's meaning? Know it well, love was his meaning. Who showed it to you? Love. What did he show you? Love.” This indeed is something to prepare for – not just by decorating our homes and getting all the festive foods ready, but by making a path in our hearts.

Yours in Christ,

Kara+

The Other Triduum

This weekend, western Christians around the world will observe what sometimes is called the little Triduum: the three days of All Hallows Eve, All Saints Day and All Souls Day. It’s a parable or a signpost of the other triduum: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil. Both of these sets of three days confront us with the truth about death and resurrection. The Triduum of All Saints is about our death and resurrection, and the Triduum of Easter is about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is his death and resurrection that makes our resurrection possible.

 If we look at historical and contemporary debates, there have been a lot of words spilled on the relationship between All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. What does it mean on All Saints’ Day that we celebrate the saints? What does it mean that All Souls’ Day is also called the commemoration of all the faithful departed?  A more Catholic approach would say that the saints are special examples of holiness that have been recognized as such by the church. All Souls’ Day, then, is for all of us faithful who die in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection.

A more Protestant understanding might follow the logic of Martin Luther, who says that we are all sinners and yet we are all equally saints redeemed by the cross of Christ. As the famous hymn goes, “there’s not any reason, not in the least, that I shouldn't be one too.”  But regardless of which theological position you take, the message of this week is simple: resurrection. This weekend we remember those who have joined the company of faithful departed before us, and perhaps we will meditate on our own mortality as well. But above all, I hope that you will remember God’s “yes” to you, spoken at Easter that is good news for each one of you.

Yours in Christ,

Kara+

The Joy of Beauty

It’s that most wonderful time of the year here in Princeton, when the leaves begin to turn, the weather gets cool, and the radiance of fall is all around us. This time of year lends itself well to quiet contemplation, to thinking more deeply about our world – which is in the first instance God’s world. For me, it’s a time to revel in the beauty of creation and the joy of being a creature in relationship with God.

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about beauty and the role it plays (or doesn’t play) in our culture, especially after reading a marvelous interview between Peter Wehner and the novelist and nonfiction writer Marilynne Robinson. Robinson is, I think, our greatest living chronicler of the dignity of humanity as God’s creatures – a humanist in the classic sense.

Here’s a link to the article, which I commend to you enthusiastically. (I hope the gift link doesn’t die…) 

Our contemporary culture, Robinson says, has fallen into a functionalist and materialist aesthetic sensibility, so that anything that points at beauty and the soul is seen as somehow untrue or – at best –an unnecessary luxury:

“It’s like we have made beauty into something falsified. Calvin says there is not a blade of grass that God created that was not meant to ravish us with its beauty. The idea of the beautiful is a signature of God, I think for Calvin and Jonathan Edwards and many other people. This distillation of the joy, the sensory joy, of being among things in the world.”

Despite any cultural claims to the contrary, we live in an enchanted world, shot through with the glory of God and the fellowship of human souls both living and in that “great cloud of witnesses” who rejoice in God’s nearer presence. The spiritual aspects of life are as real (or more real) than the material. As Robinson puts it, the enchantment of the world is “reality clearly perceived.” She continues, “I think God enchanted things and it is for us to acknowledge the fact.”

In this beautiful season of the year in our community, I pray that you will find time to slow down, take a breath, and look for those signatures of God in the enchanted world all around us.

Yours in Christ,

Kara+

Sabbatical

Image: The 1889 Land Run

Dear friends,

It’s almost time for me to load up the wagon and head west! One of the great privileges of serving as a parish priest is the chance to take a sabbatical, and it’s time for mine this year. Because I worked in a part-time church job and an academic administration job before coming to Trinity, this is the first sabbatical I’ve taken since I was ordained 13 years ago. I’m both excited and grateful for the opportunity to spend a summer doing something different. 

My sabbatical plan has three parts. First, from May 12-16 I will attend the Oratory of the Good Shepherd silent retreat at the Community of St. John the Baptist’s convent in Mendham. I will be back for the weekend of the Choir Tea. Then, from May 19-26 I will take a ‘bucket list’ trip across the country on Amtrak. Finally, I will fly back to Newark and load up the car for two months serving as Theologian in Residence for the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma. 

From June 15-August 15, I will be living in Tulsa and affiliated with Christ Church, a growing suburban parish with a vibrant ministry to families. I will be present at Christ Church on Sundays and will preach on occasion, but I won’t have any day-to-day pastoral responsibilities.  My goals for the summer are the following:

• Enjoy a time of renewal and come back with new energy and new ideas for Trinity Church. 

• Learn from a successful parish and diocese in a very different context from Princeton. Christ Church Tulsa is a rapidly growing congregation that excels in ministry to young families and in integrating newcomers into active (and pledging) membership. Two of the five fastest-growing congregations in the Episcopal Church are in Oklahoma: Grace Church in Yukon and Christ Church in Tulsa. 

• Serve as a resource for the Diocese of Oklahoma as they witness to Christ in a challenging social, political, and cultural environment. 

• Begin preparation for my second book. This summer will mostly involve reading and thinking about what I want to say. ‘

I’m excited about what this summer will bring, and I look forward to sharing what I’ve learned with you. 

Yours in Christ,

Kara

PS I will not be available by e-mail this summer. During my sabbatical, I will be deleting all e-mails I receive, so please e-mail me again after August 15th if anything comes to mind during the summer. In case of emergency, contact Annie Bryson at the parish office and she can get in touch with me quickly. 

PPS For more on Christ Church, see here:

https://www.christchurchtulsa.org/

https://livingchurch.org/news/progress-in-the-pandemic-christ-church-tulsa/

Reminiscences of Bishop Tuttle

Last week I spent a few wonderful days on a pre-Holy Week vacation in Utah. Back in graduate school, I gave a paper at a conference on Kierkegaard at Brigham Young University, an event which sounds implausible but which really did happen. During that trip I didn’t have time to explore the outdoors, so it was a joy to finally be able to do so. 

While I was there, I started reading a book that I came across quite accidentally: Missionary to the Mountain West: Reminiscences of Bishop Daniel S. Tuttle. Bishop Tuttle was a larger-than-life character in the history of the Episcopal Church. After he was consecrated bishop at the age of only 29, he traveled by train and then by stagecoach into the heart of the American frontier. Establishing his home in Salt Lake City, he served as missionary bishop of the combined area of Utah, Montana, and Idaho. By the time he died in 1923, he had been a bishop for an astonishing 56 years. 

Bishop Tuttle arrived in Salt Lake City only 20 years after Brigham Young saw the Great Salt Lake and exclaimed “This is the place’ to build his theocratic American Zion. When Tuttle established St. Mark’s Cathedral, it was the first non-Mormon religious building in Utah. The Latter-Day Saints knew him as a tireless leader who treated them with respect, even as he vehemently and publicly opposed their theology and practices, particularly the practice of polygamy. 

One might expect this lion of the Church to be supremely self-confident, maybe even egotistical. But he was not. In a bout of loneliness while ministering in a particularly rough Montana mining town, he wrote to his wife: 

Ah, dear, do you not see and know that if I leaned on, or trusted in, this community, or in my large audiences, or in aught human here, I would now be plunged in the lowest deep of despair? It astounds me to think of and realize the breadth and depth of wickedness and vice in which this whole community is steeped.

Nothing but God's Almighty power, with His loving, cheering grace, keeps me patient and courageous, or in fact restrains me from giving up in despair and fleeing Eastward across the mountains, scarcely daring to look behind me, any more than Lot upon the cities of the plain. 

The stories of our faith are full of people like this. They were ordinary people with ordinary fears, yet they relied on God who empowered them to do extraordinary things.  They were also people who were empowered by grace to treat everyone with respect and kindness, even when they profoundly disagreed. 

Our own stories may not be epic Western tales like Bishop Tuttle’s. But each one of us is given the same grace as he was to meet our own difficulties and opportunities. 

Yours in Christ, 

Kara 

PS The book is sadly out of print, but you can request a copy through inter-library loan at the public library. You can also find it online here: 

https://archive.org/details/reminiscencesofm00tuttrich/page/n7/mode/1up