Finding Pura Vida

To follow the travels of Dallas and Mark 

and experience our move to Costa Rica go to our new blog at:  

markanddallasfindingpuravida.blogspot.com

Pura Vida!

Father Mark + 

The End of a Journey -- the Start of a Journey

Costa Rican Diary

The Great Escape to Pura Vida

Altos de Antigua

La Palma, Puriscal

San Jose, Costa Rica

December 29^th was my last Sunday to celebrate Holy Eucharist at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Jacksonville, Florida. I had fully expected to serve the parish until my 70^th birthday but once I passed that magical day of full retirement age it was harder and harder to answer the bell every Sunday morning, not to mention perform all the routine chores and decisions that are required of a solo clergy person in parish life. I was surrounded by smart and able-bodied staff and volunteers who love the church and supported their pastor in many wonderful ways. But in the end—in that final hour— no person ever has wished that they could have spent a little more time in the office.

My wife and I both ended our careers on the last day of the year 2019 and moved our household to Costa Rica. What follows is a diary or blog about our experiences during this journey. I am writing in near real-time so that my memories are fresh and clear with the hope that you who read and follow this adventure will feel empowered to make the similar decision—before it’s too late!

Much of what I write will be about the experiences we went through on this adventure. We hope to be able to offer insight which might be helpful to someone considering a similar journey. We want to be encouraging of the hopes and dreams you might have but not sugar-coat the ups and downs, the ‘goods’ and ‘bads’, the smart decisions we made and the knuckle-headed mistakes as well.

If all that we accomplish is to entertain you with our story of a couple nomads who left it all behind in search of a world full of beauty, peace, and love, that will be enough. How we did it, and what we might do differently—this is the story of our Great Escape to Pura Vida.

Hasta luego,  Father Mark

Why We are Episcopalians “Our Bounden Duty”

The Episcopal Church often speaks of our life as a “journey.”  We journey toward God and we journey toward spiritual well-being. Our journey is facilitated and encouraged by walking the Jesus path—by doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God.

And while we have no requirements for membership, Episcopalians share a language of belonging and duty when we describe members as Baptized, Confirmed, and Members in Good Standing.  I have spoken often of the marks of Christian discipleship.  These marks are an extension of our bounden duty listed in our catechism.  We may be members of a parish without following these marks, but our journey is made more fruitful and worthwhile if we submit to the expectations Christ placed on his disciples—on you and me.

“It is the duty of all Christians to follow Christ; to come together week by week for corporate worship, to work, pray, and give for the spread of the Kingdom of God.”  (BCP, 856).  This is the crux of our "bounden duty" and I elaborate by adding study of Scripture and participating in Christian fellowship.

Episcopalians do not engage in superficial evangelism, or political preaching—nor do we equate personal prosperity or success with the Gospel.  The Episcopal church is one of dedicated people—laity and clergy—striving to build a better world by receiving God’s love, loving each other, and returning that love to God through a genuine, intentional spirituality.

Father Mark +

God Cheats for Us

While watching the PGA Tour on TV one week I saw an ad with Bill Murray, comedian of Saturday Night Life fame and renowned, passionate golfer. He was recounting his score on the hole he had just completed. “In the water for one; in the woods, two; green-side bunker, three; on the green, three puts, hmmm, I’ll take a four,” he said.


It reminded me of another video I saw somewhere that said God cheats for us. God keeps score of our lives like Bill Murray keeps score in golf. No matter how many times we hit the ball into the water, no matter how many times we are in the bunker, no matter how many putts we take to get the ball in the hole, God will still give us a par.


As we go through our mistake riddled lives, we fail many more times than we succeed. We are beautifully made yet flawed individuals struggling to earn a par, knowing that we do not deserve such a lofty score. But God’s mercy covers a myriad of sins, failed dreams, and missed putts. God’s love for us causes God to mark our score card with the par we don’t deserve.

Father Mark +

“How you see the world depends on where you look.”

Fourth Sunday of Easter

                                                            

Acts 9:36-43; Psalm 23; Revelation 7:9-17; John 10:22-30

O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

You may know that after 15 years of every Sunday preaching in the church, I am not a huge fan of the sheep and good shepherd metaphors that John likes to use in his Gospel. But since today is affectionately dubbed “Good Shepherd Sunday” I am somehow forced to use that theme in my message.

Let me start by saying that John not only wants us to think of Jesus as the Good Shepherd who leads his sheep to green pastures, John also wants us to think of the followers of Jesus as sheep who know the voice of the shepherd--who hear the shepherd’s call and follow him.

There is another character we should consider, and that is the devil, represented by the wolves who are able to snatch sheep from Jesus and the Father’s hand.

What a dark and ominous world this picture paints. Knowing the shepherd and following his voice, we still could be snatched away and devoured by wolves—right from the hand of Jesus.

Doesn’t that sound scary? That all our good intentions and the good intentions of Jesus could be wiped out simply and quickly by the actions of the wolves around us?

I thought that once we were firmly in the grasp of Jesus, we were safe! Once we recognized his voice and learned to follow him, we could relax and enjoy the green pastures to which he had led us.

Honestly, I guess not. How does this happen? How can we lose our way so easily when we are guided by the Good Shepherd? How do we fall off the pathway—the Camino—the way, when we are so positively guided by Jesus?

I sort of pride myself on the variety of sources I sample when I get my news. I know that many people only listen to Fox or CNN or MSNBC. Some read the NY Times or the Wall Street Journal. Or have their opening pages on their internet browsers  set to MoveOn.org or the Huffingham Post.

I read and listen to a little bit of everything, and one of my favorite sources is the “One A” hosted by Joshua Johnson. It is produced by American University in Washington DC and carried by NPR.

In one of his recent programs, Joshua Johnson made the comment, “How you see the world depends on where you look.”

The comment struck me and has stuck. I’ve thought about that a lot over the last few days.

“How you see the world depends on where you look.”

It is very true—and where you look also means with whom you associate, who you listen to and who you ignore, what draws your attention, how you like to spend your time and money, where you were raised and where you live.

All these things influence your world view. How you see the world depends to a large degree on where you look and what you find and what you expect to find.

Look in the sewer you see garbage and rot.

Of course, that is what you expect to find in a sewer, but when we have problems with our septic system and it backs up into the yard or the parish hall, I get very upset. “Why do people flush junk down the drain and stop up the system?” I wonder.

Or when people drive by our dumpster on Lone Star and throw their trash over the fence, I’m often out there picking the mess up, I get upset. “Why don’t people put their trash in their own garbage bins?”

If you keep looking in the sewer and looking in the dumpster, your view of the world starts to change. You begin to see things not as beautiful and pristine, but full of trash and debris and in need of a good cleaning.

 

Look in the courtroom and you see litigation.

Of course, that is what happens in a courtroom. Justice is served and the unfairly accused receive fairness and impartiality.

But when we see people in chains and cuffs—people crying over their lost loved-ones or suing over unjust treatment or dishonesty I get upset. “Can’t we all just get along and treat each other rightly?”

Look into the darkness and you face the unknown.

I know you can get lost in the daylight, but it is so much easier to get lost at night—to become confused and disorientated. Especially if you are in an unfamiliar spot.

Where you look does effect how you see the world. 

How you see other people and how you interpret what goes on around you and how susceptible you are to the forces and pressures of the wolves that try to devour and destroy us.

But, look in the garden you find new growth.

We sometimes need to look past the bugs that eat our tomatoes before they ripen and the weeds that encroach upon the good soil, but we can easily see that something miraculous happens when water and dirt and seeds come together. And new life begins.

And, if you look into your brain, you find ideas.

Old ideas that maybe you’ve forgotten and left behind and new ideas that you have never tried. And you might find ways of beating back the wolves and new ways of understanding the world around you.

Look in scripture and you hear the truth. 

Other voices around us try to beat back the truth of God as it has been taught to us. Other voices try to beat back the Church—the body of Christ as a place full of hypocrites and sinner, instead of a place of healing.

But if we stay focused on the truth, we know that it is only wolves that try to sway our understanding and get us to look only at the ugly and obscene.

Look to Jesus and what do you find?

Do you find the Good Shepherd who leads you into the ways of justice and fairness and peace; away from dangers and wolves. Do you find the source of our Hope? Do you hear the plea to Fear Not? Do not be afraid?

“How you see the world does depend on where you look.”

If you want to stay in this world, to be afraid of your life and live in fear that when we die this is all there is and ignore the truth of God’s word and Jesus’ direction, just keep looking at worldly things.

Or, look to your Heavenly Father . . . the source of all good things. The source of Everlasting Life.

Father Mark+

First Day of School

Grandpa had picked up Nigel and Zoe and they were riding home from school when grandpa interrupted the silence and asked how the first day had gone. Nigel was the first to answer and he said in a huff; “They made us change-up the teams in our basketball game partway through. If they had let us play with the team I was on at first, we would have won all the games, but they made us change. That’s not fair.”

A wiser Zoe explained to Nigel that they shook-up the teams so that everyone would have a chance to win. “It’s not fair that one team wins all the games, Nigel,” she said. “Everyone should get a change to play on a good team. Everyone should get a chance to win.”

“But, it’s not fair that we should have to change teams just because we are better than the rest of them. It’s not fair. We should get to win, ‘cause we’re better,” Nigel protested.

Again, Zoe tried to explain the concepts to Nigel, that everyone should get a chance to win. "Everyone should get to play on a winning team, Nigel. You were just lucky you won because you were on a good team and the other guys were on a bad team. Everyone should get the chance to win.”

Nigel took a deep breath and prepared himself for a final retort; “Oh yeah! Well that’s just what they tell you when you’re losing!”

It’s gonna’ be a long year, grandpa thought to himself.

A Few words About Prayer

Like most parents, as my wife and I were raising our children we worried that we were not doing it the right way; that somewhere along the way one of us would say or do something that would lead them astray or would not equip them with the right stuff to be productive members of society. Wow, what righteous dreams we had for them, and for ourselves.

It didn’t take too long to realize that as long as we were talking, we were doing the right things. When there was communication going on between the four of us, our family was making progress, and everything would be alright.

Prayer is kind of like that. We have lofty goals for our prayers, and we worry that we are not accomplishing what we should with our prayers. Or, we worry that we are not equipped with the right prayers to say in every situation. We bog ourselves down with too much head-knowledge that we cannot offer prayers from the heart.

Often, we believe that there is a right way and a wrong way to pray and that we only know the wrong way; that God doesn’t listen to prayers offered in the wrong way and that God finds our prayers unworthy of attention or action. I went through a stretch thinking God was grading my prayers. Imagine how frightening that was.

Trust me when I say, there is not a wrong way to pray to your Father in heaven. Well, actually the wrong way is to NOT pray to your Father in heaven. Avoiding prayer is not prayer and it is not growing in relationship with God. When I realized that our family was talking together, exchanging ideas and thoughts with each other, and strengthening our bonds with each other, I stopped worrying about whether we were raising our children the right way. It was when there was no communication that I worried.

I imagine God feels the same way.

Prayerfully,   Father Mark +

The Future of Starbucks

Howard Schultz recently retired as the CEO and President, of Starbucks, the coffee producer and distributer in Seattle. For nearly thirty years Schultz led Starbucks’ growth from a small chain of coffee shop in the Pacific northwest to an international corporate behemoth with more than 28,000 shops in 77 countries producing net revenues of $22.4 billion in 2017.

Bryant Simon observed in his book “Everything But the Coffee”, that Starbucks customers believed because of their grande lattes—that they were “cooler, richer, and more sophisticated” than non-Starbucks coffee drinkers.  As long “as Starbucks customers could get all of this for the price of a cut of coffee, even an inflated one, they eagerly handed over their money, three and four dollars at a clip.”

One might think that Schultz’ successor to this empire would be facing a “slam-dunk” future in the coffee business, but one would be wrong. Today, Starbucks faces declining sales, a problem with social issues in many locations, and difficult choices in planning the opening of new locations and closing existing, under-producing stores.  Starbucks must find ways to continue to satisfy its legacy customers while also developing new product offerings to attract new customers into its 28,00 stores world-wide.

As I listened to this story, I thought of the Episcopal Church. A long-time successful “brand” in the Christian Church marketplace, the Episcopal Church struggles to continue to offer the style of worship that appeals to its legacy member base, and to attract new, young congregants to its wide network of churches. In addition, too many churches were built in areas that are no longer supportive of their multi-church presence. Arlington (Fla) is a good example with five or more Episcopal churches located in a five-mile radius.

Unlike Starbucks, however, the Episcopal Church has a superior CEO and President who always has a plan for his church. It doesn’t take much to see that God is firmly in control of God’s church and will never let it fail if we continue in our mission to bring all people into discipleship of Jesus Christ.

We may change—shrink and expand—but failure is not an option.

Thoughts from Your Rector

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church has come under criticism recently for not using the pulpit to speak to (or protest) current political actions in our world. Lately, we have seen a rash of activity from the leadership of the empire that many consider racist, homophobic, xenophobic, bigoted, and morally bankrupt. Often these policies and behavior come from leaders who count themselves as good Christians or Jews or Muslims or other religious types.

If I have chosen not to directly confront Evangelical Conservatives or their arch opponents, Progressive Christians, who clutter our airwaves with sound bites and Twitter feeds and Facebook pages, it is because I believe there is a better way.

Kings come, and Kings go. Presidents are elected, and Presidents are defeated. Senators and Representatives and lobbyists and captains of industry all have their day in the sun, yet we cannot as Christians stake our future and wisdom on the opposition to any particular party or leader.

Our leader, the source of all wisdom, love, compassion, mercy, forgiveness (and many other good things) is Jesus Christ. We cannot be the voice of Progressive Christians or Evangelical Christians or Left Wing or Right Wing or Moderate Wing or even the voice for America.

Our voices, whether timid and feeble or strong and clear must remain rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ or we become nothing more than the religious arm of the current political party in protest. We must draw our strength from the teachings of Jesus, the iconoclastic and spiritual leader who started a lasting movement based upon love. This was his message, not the overthrow of the Roman Empire but the building up of the Kingdom God.

This is our message; love God with all that we have, and love of neighbor as we love ourselves.

Peace,  Father Mark

Who We Are

Assume for a moment that Jesus is more interested in who we are, what we are called to do, and what our values are; in what do we believe. That is a slight stretch for some because many still believe that Jesus’ life and death were about our salvation and eternal life. I’m not denying that was part of the plan, but I also believe that Jesus wanted our world, here and now, to be more than it is and be more like what God created it to be.

I believe that the difficulty that Jesus’ mission poses for us is that he calls us to take a stand. Who are we and whose are we? What do we stand for, and what exactly do we believe? What are our values and what are we willing to sacrifice to have those values? If we are to be followers of Jesus, exactly what do we need to do to stay on the path upon which he leads.

If Jesus has won the battle over sin and death, which we purport to believe, what is left to do; collect our winnings and start accumulating our stuff? Are we to sit back and enjoy the good life while others less fortunate fend for themselves as best they can?

To follow Jesus is going to require some tough decisions. We will have to buck the current and get our feet wet. After a war is won, the mopping up often takes the longest and is the most difficult. Defeating the defeated insurgence is no task for the uncommitted. It takes grit and determination and a fearless leader.

We have the leader. Do we have the grit and determination?

Faithfully,   Father Mark +

Pride Goeth Before a Fall

In C.S. Lewis’ classic Screwtape Letters, senior demon Screwtape is mentoring his nephew Wormwood, a junior Tempter, on the ins and outs of securing the damnation of a British man we know only as "the Patient".

"We (demons) want cattle who can finally become food; (God) wants servants who can finally become sons". With this end in mind, Screwtape urges Wormwood to use unconventional tactics and promote apathy and irresponsibility in the Patient. Screwtape says to Wormwood; "(God) wants men to be concerned with what they do; our business is to keep them thinking about what will happen to them" (Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis). Screwtape has learned that the quickest way to a man’s heart is not through his stomach but through his ego, and that’s where he wants Wormwood to focus his efforts.

Pride is the root of all our sin. Through pride we turn away from God and turn our attention toward ourselves. Because of pride, we rebel against God and what God wants for us. And when we put ourselves ahead of others; when other’s feelings are less important than our own, when we believe other people are constantly out-performing us regardless of how well we do, we are acting prideful.
Jim Carrey said it well in a commencement address in 2014; “If you listen to the ego, there will always be someone doing better than you. No matter what you gain, the ego will not let you rest. It will tell you that you cannot stop until you’ve left an indelible mark on the earth, until you’ve achieved immortality. How tricky is this ego that it would tempt us with a promise of something we already possess?"

Faithfully,
Father Mark +

Will You Support Your Church in 2018?

Whenever I think of those who find themselves outside of God’s kingdom and God’s church – looking in – I am reminded how much being raised in a Christian home meant to me as a child. I also remember the confusing times when I found myself separated from God. As a young man in his twenties and thirties I questioned the existence of God and the need to pretend to worship God in his church.

Like many people at that like age, I thought that the answers the world was searching for could be found in our culture – not in God. I could not imagine how any god could alter the direction of humankind; that answers and direction could only be found in science and human activity.

But I also saw that God was not pleased with the path in which we humans were headed.  Our problems were too large to be handled on our own. We needed direction. I needed direction.
I found that direction in God’s holy church – not as a leader, but as a disciple. And now I know that discipleship is the path toward happiness, love, mercy, and God’s grace. Whatever difficulties you face, whatever problems challenge you, God has what we need and freely offers it to us. We just need to accept God’s gift.

We can best be disciples in God’s church – the Body of Christ. And like all human structures, the church needs to be loved and supported to ultimately succeed. This is our chance to give our support to the church and God’s work in the world; to spread the Good News of Christ, to promote justice and peace in our neighborhood and world, and to equip the Saints for the work ahead.
Will you join me in supporting your church with a pledge this year?

STEWARDSHIP SIX – Final Chapter: Where do we go from here?

For the past six weeks I have been speaking of our spiritual life and how it affects our stewardship life, and now I ask, “Where do we go from here?” Our faith life is dependent upon our economic well-being, our personal faith, our spiritual satisfaction, and our commitment to God. We may talk about not feeling connected to our church, but the more basic concern is separation from God – the source of all that we are and all that we have. Are you grateful for all that God has done for you –for God’s love and mercy and care? Are you confidant of your place in God’s kingdom and the good news of Jesus’ Gospel?

Our spiritual journey follows a complicated and circuitous pathway. It leads us away from and toward our destination with startling and upsetting detours. Sometimes we feel secure in our voyage and confident in our destination. At other times we are alarmed by the lack of empathy and love we feel for those things which we once held near and dear to our hearts. We are prone to wander as we long for God – hungering for God’s love – searching for something to fill what can only be described as a “God-shaped-hole” in our hearts. Whether we are believers on not, God has sovereignty over our lives and made to be God’s children and adopted heirs of God’s kingdom.  And when we allow our secular world and the culture in which we live to trick us into doubting or denying God, our spiritual health is endangered.   

What can we do if this describes our own situation? How can we bridge the gap between our spiritual life and God – between where we are (spiritually) and where our heart longs to be? Well – the first thing to do is realize that we cannot bridge the gap by increasing our payment of ‘dues’ to the church club. We cannot become spiritually well by opening our checkbook to God to prove our faithfulness and love toward God.

We need to reach across the gulf that has developed between ourselves and God by reaching out – by reaffirming our love for God and for the many blessings we have received from God! We need to recognize that when a gap between us and God develops it is because we have moved away from each other. And when there is a distance between us, who do you think has moved to make that distance – you or God?

God cannot bridge the gap that has developed between us. We must make the first move and become the disciples of Jesus we were meant to be. By praying, worshiping, studying, loving our neighbors in community, and serving – and then we can be good stewards.                                     

STEWARDSHIP FIVE – Bridging the Gap

I was born a child of the sixties. I never fully understood exactly what that meant except that I was torn between following rules and rebelling. I was an adolescent. And it was a time of war and conflict. By the time I comprehended that I could be sent into harm’s way in service to my country, I had a lottery number for the draft and I had begun to realize that the Presidents which I had supported and believed – had lied to me!

This was the beginning of the loss of trust I experienced in figures of authority – politicians, law enforcement, clergy, and God. If every President that had served since I was born could lie to me – and the American people – how could I trust anyone?

For many years thereafter, my life was marked by divide, separation, and wandering. Over time I found guidance – for time truly heals all things. I discovered Psalm 124; “My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth,” and in Robert Robinson’s haunting hymn, Nettleton (H 686), where the wanderer laments “Oh to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be!”  I realized I owed my life to the grace I had received and, so I sought and found solace in God.

I didn’t know that God couldn’t reach into my heart and draw me across the great chasm that had grown between us. I didn’t know that God could not bridge the gap that had developed because of the ugliness and bitterness that had taken root in my heart. It was close. I was nearly lost.

But I answered that call God placed on my heart and though I was “prone to leave the God I loved,”— I didn’t. I said, Yes.

Someone once later told me, “you never know what lies on the other side of obedience.” I had no clue what that meant but my decision to trust in God and to be obedient to God, as best I could, has made all the difference.

For I am now a disciple of Jesus.

STEWARDSHIP FOUR - Building your spiritual muscle.

One of the most important habits we have as Christians is the habit of daily prayer. It is how we connect with God – it is how we ask for God’s intercession or his healing or his love – and how we offer our love to God.

When we pray to God we strengthen our relationship with God by practicing an ancient communication means with our creator. Why is that important?

The important people in my life are those with whom I have developed a bond through regular communication – people I see or talk to on a regular basis.  We develop an understanding and rapport through which a bond of trust and connection may occur. When I need support or guidance, these are the people I seek out because I have done the heavy lifting to build a relationship which will provide that bond. If I do not do the work to build this relationship, the support and guidance is not forthcoming.

The same can be said of God. Without regular attention to our relationship, God can feel distant, cold, and aloof. Without nurturing this relationship, it is not as vibrant and vivid as one that received regular attention through my prayers and supplications.

Prayer may be done privately and individually, or it may be done corporately in the presence of other parishioners. Prayer can be incorporated into a daily "thought life", in which one is in constant communication with God. (Pray without ceasing).  But the reality of our time is that many people have lost the habit of prayer and many find Sunday worship dull and church activities self-serving.

Why is this so? What is happening to our religious commitment? It may be too time consuming. It may be that religious extremism and fundamentalism have turned many away from God. We need to ask if we have allowed our image of God to be twisted by others who wish to destroy our faith and trust in the Lord, or if our spiritual health is endangered because we have allowed religious corruption to cloud our religious beliefs?

Allow yourself to turn to daily prayer and build your spiritual muscle through regular communication with God.

STEWARDSHIP THREE – Our Journey

Sin is the seeking of our own will instead of the will of God, thus distorting our relationship with God, with other people, and with all creation. (BCP page 848)

I have been taught, sin is that which separates us from God. But, why is sin sinful?  Why is it bad for us? Because, we need spiritual health and there is no way to have spiritual health and well-being if we are separated or disconnected from God.

Separation from God is a forlorn and lonely place. Regardless of how we arrived there, it is the place from which we must start our journey back to the source – God our creator. Alienation from God, manifested by our having fallen out of our habits of discipleship, is a most pressing and serious issue in the church.

We live in a culture that is full of apathy and skepticism – the result of losing our way. As a people, we have become lethargic – weary and listless. We wonder if there is a better way or something more that we could get from our spiritual life but, we neglect to do anything about this. We fail to develop resources that will meet that deep need to satisfy our spiritual hunger and relationship with God.

Our journey in life is not to reach a destination – but to continue to grow and mature into a greater purpose – into something of true value.

It is one thing to feel that the church is staid and out of touch with the reality of today’s culture – that our worship is boring and dull – but if we allow our minds to remain stuck in this misconception, we lose the fundamental quality which sets humans apart from the rest of creation; a relationship with God and our identity as Children of God and adopted heirs of his kingdom.

STEWARDSHIP TWO - How healthy is your spiritual self?

When I was installed as the Rector of St. Andrew’s in 2008, Bishop Howard told me, “don’t worry about the numbers,” just love the people and God will take care of the rest.

I told him, “but I am a finance and accounting guy, I have to worry about the numbers, it’s in my DNA.”

Over the years I have worried about our numbers in some way or form. I pour over the Income Statement and Balance Sheet and look for trends to try and tweak the budget to make room for new programs, worship services, beautify our grounds, and maintain our property. But ten years of trying have taught me one thing, there isn’t much relationship between the time and energy spent in these endeavors, and the growth in the church and its contributions.

Some people will try to use financial results to undermine their leaders. But pledge results are about personal faith and economic well-being. The healthier your spiritual self, the more you are willing and able to give back to God and his church. The more willing you are to give to God’s work in the world.

Gratitude is difficult to feel when we are in financial distress – but most of us are not. We have survived the economic hardships of previous times and have moved on. Our financial condition may not be splendid, but it is solid – and for some its great!

Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven …”

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

We give back to God because we are grateful for God's gifts to us. We are grateful for the food we eat, for meaningful work, our education, shelter to protect us, and much more. All which should invoke a certain level of gratitude to God. But most giving, and certainly any giving beyond the token dollar in the collection plate, arises from deep gratitude, spiritual wellness, and maturity.

STEWARDSHIP ONE - Up or Down?

Contributions to churches across the country have been in freefall for years. Attendance at Sunday services is stagnant or declining, as is church membership. The cause of this phenomenon is not clear, though many authors have written many words while trying to understand and explain what is happening to the faith lives of so many of our friends and neighbors.

This is the background that our Annual Stewardship Campaign is set against.  Many have fallen out of the habits of discipleship. We pray less than we used to. We attend worship services on fewer occasions than before. Scripture no longer holds our interest and attracts our attention to study. Our time is in short supply so we no longer feel drawn into service to others. And the time we used to have for fellowship with other church members is dwindling – we are called to other, more exciting activities.

There is a growing distance between ourselves, our clergy, our church, and our God.  We no longer nurture the relationships between ourselves and church or God. We do not see the connection between what we feel we should give to God – and what we actually give to the church. We may not think that God really needs our money so we don’t give our money to support our church and the work it does in our communities and the world.

How do we approach Stewardship in times like these? What we need to do is examine our economic well-being, our personal faith, our degree of spiritual satisfaction, and our commitment to God – the source of all that we are and all that we have.

Pentecost 14 Proper 16C

[NOTE:  I rarely post sermons on this Blog but I received so many requests this week for copies, that I decided to make an exception.  This is the text of the sermon I preached on Aug. 21, 2016 at St. Andrew's Jacksonville]

Almost every Friday my son Ian calls or texts me to say “Happy Friday.”  Which I guess means “The weekend is coming!”  A day of rest is upon us.

Which always makes me wonder, “How will you rest? How will you keep the Sabbath?” 

Scripture suggests two origins to the Sabbath commandment.  One comes from the creation story—as God rested on the seventh day, so also should all creation have a time of rest and renewal. 

Pretty straight-forward and unambiguous. God endorses a day off from our work for us to rest.  

The second Sabbath story comes from Exodus. The Hebrew slaves working for Pharaoh never, ever had a chance to rest. So, the commandment and promise of rest was extended to all; rich or poor, adult or child, human or animal, everyone needs a time to rest, and so God makes it a commandment to safeguard rest for all. 

It was an important question for the Jewish community in Jesus' day. Jesus rebuffed those interpreters of the Law who argued that even healing should be put on hold until the Sabbath was over. 

Jesus recognized that the larger purpose of the commandment was to free God's people from whatever holds us in bondage, including work.

When he healed the crippled woman he did so in order to free her from a condition that had held her in bondage for eighteen years.

Whenever we hear a story of Jesus healing or doing some other ‘forbidden’ act on the Sabbath Day, look for the bondage from which he is freeing us. And look for the overriding Law of Love which guides Jesus and you and me.

Ask yourself how you might reclaim the necessity—and the gift of a weekly Sabbath from daily work?

We are most faithful to the Sabbath when we use it to help and protect each other; to take a time of rest and refreshment from our daily work and routine and not insist on Sabbath it for its own sake.

As I suspect you have also, I have been watching a lot of the Olympic games from Rio and I have been hearing many stories of dreams that have been fulfilled by the athletes as they trained and participated in these games.  One in particular came to mind and reminded me of the woman in today’s lesson. 

Stacy Lewis is a woman golfer who has achieved the pinnacle of her profession by winning two major championships.  The amount of sacrifice and practice that she put into her sport is amazing, especial considering she suffered from scoliosis, which was diagnosed at a young age. She was treated by a spinal fusion when she was in high school, and missed her first collegiate golf season at the University of Arkansas recovering from the surgery.

As a child, Stacy wore back braces to try and correct the results of the disease—a curvature in her spine which affected her posture. In a TV interview she described how difficult it was to wear these braces, then return to the doctor only to be told that she had to continue to wear them another three months. Finally, her back was straight and she no longer had to wear the brace.

The commentator asked Stacy if it was difficult to look at the brace he had in the studio.  She said no, because they made he into the person she was today—they made it possible for her to be a Championship Golfer.

Stacy had dreams for her life. She wanted to be a golfer and she wanted to be cured from scoliosis.  I wonder what goals the crippled woman had that Jesus cured? 

I doubt if she wanted to play golf. Maybe she simply wanted to stand tall and erect, free from the pain of her affliction?  Did she envy the other women who were able to carry water from the wells to their homes?
We all have dreams and we all struggle to achieve our dreams.

So I have for us five ways to tend to our dreams .

First, dreams don’t happen overnight.

It takes commitment and hard work to achieve our dreams.  When we hear of someone who has burst onto the scene, we are often told that person is an overnight success.

There is no overnight success.  Success takes years of preparation, practice, wearing a back-brace, study.

Robert Schuller, the American televangelist who built Crystal Cathedral said, “Spectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation.”

The second way to tend your dreams is to remember, you may want to believe that someone out there has all the answers for you. They don’t.
Someone else may have a part of the answer you need, but only you have what’s necessary to put your dream together.

One of our great thinkers and leaders, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Rarely do we find people who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”  So wherever you need answers, THINK.

Third, never settle for some for less than your best. There is always an improvement that will make your idea better.

When Henry Kissinger was Secretary of State, he gave an assignment to one of his aides.  The young man was excited to have been trusted with an important task. He ran off and burned the midnight oil completing the task and the next day returned it to Kissinger’s desk. Later that day it was returned with the note: “Nice beginning, try again. H.K.”

The aide doubled down at re-wrote to paper, checking all his research again and then put it on Dr. Kissinger's desk the next morning. Again, later in the day it was back on the aide’s desk with the note, “This looks kind of light. H.K.”

This time the aide tore his work apart, looking for every possible way to improve his writing. The next morning, he carefully placed the edited document on the Dr.’s desk and said a prayer. Again, later in the day the paper was back on the aides desk with a new note, “Is this the best you can do?  H.K.”

Despondent, after the third re-write, and worried that his short career in the diplomatic corps was about to end, the aid made an appointment with Dr. K. 

He said, “Dr. Kissinger I have put my heart and soul into this paper. I’ve checked my research, referenced every citation, and followed up on every quotation. Sir, this is the very best I can do.” 

Without looking up, Dr. Kissinger took the paper from the aide and said, “Ok, now I’ll read it.”

Fourth. Never believe that someone else is at fault when things don’t go according to your dream. You can’t blame your teachers, your father or mother, or even your most trusted adviser.

If you want to tend your dream you're the one who has got to change—take responsibility because it's always your fault.  

Finally, as you chase your dream remember, it is not the goals that are important. It’s passing the milestones and inch-pebbles along the way that are important. Steady progress. 

Life and dreams are never about the goals themselves. It is about the journey—the steps are what are important.

If we did not have God’s Law, it would be everybody for him or herself. But God has given us the Law as His gift to help us live into God’s dream of abundant life for everyone. 

We are most faithful to the law not when we blindly follow it but when we use it to help and protect each other, not insist on it for its own sake or for personal again. 

Sabbath is for our benefit. A gift from God of rest and refreshment.
Now, rather than looking out for ourselves, we have a whole community of people looking out for us, even as we look out for others.

We are invited into this new life, placing the law of love above all other laws; reaching out to help those around us stand up a little taller—a little straighter—as they hear of and experience God’s love through our words and deeds.   

Amen.

You are invited to observe a Holy Lent

During Lent we talk of repentance, resisting temptation, and the Passion of Jesus.  We dramatize the story of His final days and make movies which reenact those terrible moments of pain and suffering Jesus underwent for our sake.  

We live in a world of competing stories. In such a world, we must know the Christian story in order to resist the false stories that seek to take us captive. The reading in Luke 4:1-13 is the familiar story of Jesus’ temptation by the devil in the wilderness. This story is so well known that we sometimes conflate the different accounts in Matthew, Mark, and Luke into one story about Jesus’ temptation. But each account is unique from the others.  As we read Luke’s version carefully, we can see two competing stories: the story that Jesus taps into in order to resist the devil and successfully navigate the temptations laid before him and the narrative the devil presents.

 We have stories as well, concerning our temptations with the devil and our challenges to be the kind of person we seek to be.  We face temptation each day and we try to resist that still small voice which whispers into our ear, leading us away from the path we intend to take.  

Lent is a good time to take on new things and one thing we all should take on this year is the attitude that all of our stories and resolutions find their genesis in God.  We can resist temptation if we turn to God; through God, we are able.

Peace, 

Father Mark+