My Blog

Category: From the Rector

  • What I Am Giving God This Year ~ My Trust

    I'm reflecting on the custom of gift-giving, which is grounded in God's greatest gift to us.  We spend a lot of time selecting just the right gifts for our loved ones.  And what shall I give to God?  Advent provides me with the opportunity to consider that question.

    Today, I'm thinking the gift of my trust is something God would value.

    John the Baptizer had the task of pointing others to a greatness into which he himself did not enter. That required a great deal of trust on his part.  In a Bible study course on the gospels, when we came to Matthew 11:2-11, the passage where John sends his disciples to ask Jesus if he is the Messiah, the question arose, “Was John having second thoughts?  Did he have doubts that Jesus was the long-awaited anointed one?”

    I don’t think John was having second thoughts about Jesus.  I think John realized his particular task was just about complete.  His fate was sealed.  The last thing he needed to do was to send his own disciples to Jesus so that they could join in following him.  It was not John but John’s disciples, therefore, who needed convincing that day.  So they said to Jesus:  “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?”  And, Jesus reply was meant for them that they might believe – as eyewitnesses to his Messianic work:  “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.  And, blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”

    Someone tells of how from the windows of his house every evening he used to watch the lamplighter go along the streets lighting the lamps.  But the lamplighter was blind.  He was bringing others light that he would never see.  Like the lamplighter, John had to trust that his work had a purpose beyond what he could see with his own eyes.

    Trust!  That’s something I want to give God this year.  But it is a costly gift.

    It is so easy to fall into doubt and fear.  It is so tempting to back away and agree, “You’re right, it’ll never work, let’s take the safe way, the familiar way, the heavily traveled road.”

    When I turn my life over to God, I give God leadership. Doing that means I will advance even though I do not know where God will lead me.   It means I have to reshape my thinking to make my thoughts large enough for God to fit in!  I have to let the size of my trust set the size of my aims and objectives in life so that my expectations match God’s abilities.

    One of the things my Father and I always did together at this time of year was to string lights on the roof of our house.  At first, my help was confined to checking the bulbs.  Then, later, I could stand on a ladder and hang the ones under the eves.  Finally, I was allowed to get up on the roof.  But that required assistance.  I needed a boost getting up and help getting down.  The booster and the helper was my dad.  If I wanted to help put up the lights, I’d have to trust him not to drop me.  Because of that experience, I knew Dad could be trusted not to drop me.

    The everlasting arms of God are even more trustworthy. They undergird all of us.  They boost us up and they keep us from falling.  Blessed are we when we trust God above all others.

    I’m giving God my trust this year.

    Ron Short Signature

  • What I Am Giving God This Year – A Life That Bears Delicious Fruit

    I'm reflecting on the custom of gift-giving, which is grounded in God's greatest gift to us.  We spend a lot of time selecting just the right gifts for our loved ones.  And what shall I give to God?  Advent provides me with the opportunity to consider that question.

    John the Baptizer came preaching repentance, saying, “Bear fruit worthy of repentance. . . every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire” (Mt. 3:8, 10).  In other words, “Give God a life that tastes as good as it sounds!”  That’s one of the things I want to give God this year, a life that bears delicious fruit.  How do I do that?

    I have to recognize the need for change and growth.  A plant that stops changing and growing stops producing fruit. Things happen to people that cause them to stop changing and growing and their lives are not fruitful.  A life that tastes as good as it sounds knows the necessity of change and growth.

    I also have to learn to recognize good from evil.  Have you ever bitten into a beautiful piece of fruit that has no flavor or is bitter?  When dealing with fruit, it doesn’t take much more than a taste to tell the difference between good and bad.  Why is it more difficult in dealing with the fruit of our lives? A life that tastes as good as it sounds recognizes the difference between good and evil.  But then…

    I have to make a choice. We may not be able to choose our parents or color of our skin or land of our birth.  But we must choose how to respond to the people and the conditions around us.  To give God a life that tastes as good as it sounds, we’ll have to change and grow, discern between good and bad, and make some responsible choices.

    Our tradition includes both John the Baptizer and Jesus the Messiah!  With only John, I’d know I am a snake, an unproductive bush.  But with the Messiah, I know I have divine help.

    Christian Baptism is not so much the dedication of a person’s life to God as it is the dedication of God’s life to a person and to a community of persons.  John baptized with water for purification.  But Jesus brought a baptism that included fire and the Holy Spirit.  In Baptism, we are incorporated into God’s life, provided opportunities to turn to God, warned that being a faithful witness is costly, and given the Holy Spirit to help us live a fruitful life that tastes as good as it sounds.

    Ron Short Sig 150-1

  • What I Am Giving God This Year – My Undivided Attention

    “’Tis the Season!”  You may wonder why I’m just getting around to saying this inasmuch as our shopping malls have been displaying Christmas merchandise since Halloween, reminding us that it is the season for gift-giving.

    When we worship during Advent, we are reminded of the reason for the season.  Our custom of gift-giving originated in our attempt to emulate God who gives himself to us.  But, it is easy to forget to put God on our gift lists.  After all, the One who has given us the one necessary gift, is worthy to receive a response from us, isn’t he?  So, I’m going to concentrate on what I’m giving to God this year and I especially want to give God my undivided attention.

    To say that I am giving God my undivided attention doesn’t mean that I am supposed to find a hermitage somewhere and leave this life behind.  It means that in the midst of everyday activities I need to be alert to the One who is looking for me through those events and guiding my response to them.

    Advent is about those long centuries of waiting for the promised Messiah.  Advent is about the thrill of knowing that promise has been fulfilled.  Advent is about the expectation that the Messiah will come again to take us unto himself.  But mainly, Advent is about watching and waiting for his appearance in the present moment. 

    "Therefore you also must be ready," says Jesus, "for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour" (Mt. 24:44).

    A tourist stepped into the beautifully kept garden of the Castle Asconti in northern Italy.  He encountered the gardener and asked when the owner was last there. “Twelve years ago,” the gardener said.  The tourist then observed, “But you keep the grounds as though your master was coming back tomorrow.”  The gardener quickly replied, “Today, sir.  Today.”

    A Christian watches and works as though the Master will return this very day because he does.  He greets us in the mystery of Word and Sacrament on Sunday morning and at the intersection of Main and Broadway on Wednesday afternoon.  In this sense, as in the ultimate sense, his coming into our lives is something to which we should look forward.  That merits my undivided attention.

    Ron Short Signature

  • Something to Think About on Thanksgiving Day

    Theologian Walter Brueggemann points out that the observance of Thanksgiving reminds us that life is a gift.

    Thanksgiving is a contradiction of the values of a market economy that imagines we are self-made and can be self-sufficient. When we give thanks, we commit an act of defiance against the seductions of our society. . . We may sing all kinds of patriotic songs and feast to satiation on Thanksgiving Day. Beyond all of that is our acknowledgement that life is a gift that evokes response. We are never self-starters. The drive for self-sufficiency is an unnecessary and futile idolatry.

    Enjoy family, friends, and a bountiful feast on Thanksgiving.  Then, sometime during the day, find a place where you can be alone and quiet for half and hour or so.  Take a pen, some paper, and this quotation with you.  Read it over a few times and then make a list of things that make your life what it is because God and others have blessed you – evidence that you are not self-sufficient.  Say a prayer of thanksgiving over that list and think of ways to express your gratitude to whomever else is on the list.  Do it right away before the pressures of everyday life make you forget.

    Here is a video meditation for your Thanksgiving on a text by Brian Wren with piano accompaniment arranged and performed by Tom Howard.

    And here is the Collect for Thanksgiving Day from The Book of Common Prayer.

    Almighty and gracious Father, we give you thanks for the fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those who harvest them. Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of your great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

    Ron Short Signature

  • Something More Precious Than a Precious Stone

    I have a great old rolltop desk in my study.  There are a number of treasures on my desk, including a small stone.  This stone was given to me by a dear friend and colleague, The Rev. Jim Nelson, rector of Church of the Good Shepherd in Friendswood, Texas.  He gave me the stone to remind me of a parable he tells.

    A wise woman who was travelling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But, a few days later, he came back to return the stone to the wise woman. "I've been thinking," he said. "I know how valuable this stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious.  Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me this stone."  Sometimes it's not the wealth you have but what's inside you that others need…A Precious Gift inside you.

    I believe that the wise woman had the inner gift of generosity and I pray to receive it every single day when I see the stone my friend Fr. Jim gave me.

    Ron Short Signature

  • Having a Right Relationship with God – And Our Stuff

    The Canons of The Episcopal Church list thirteen specific duties of Rectors and Priests-in-Charge.  Among those thirteen duties is the duty “to ensure that all persons are instructed concerning Christian stewardship, including: reverence for the creation and the right use of God’s gifts; generous and consistent offering of time, talent, and treasure for the mission and ministry of the Church at home and abroad; the biblical standard of the tithe for financial stewardship; and the responsibility of all persons to make a will as prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer” (Canon III.9.5.a.2).

    My performance of this duty has never required a canon as motivation!  As far as I am concerned, the ability to be stewards is a gift of God that distinguishes human beings from all other creatures.  It is a privilege to exercise that gift as an expression of faith in the Creator.  There’s no more important priestly work than that of helping those given into our care to develop a healthy relationship with their possessions.

    Our Lord had the same conviction. More than half of his sayings concern possessions.  He wanted to liberate people from bondage and knew that our possessions have a way of possessing us. If you don't think you've given your possessions power over you, take a moment and consider how you've felt about them – or the loss of them – during the last couple of years.  Jesus mission was to restore us to unity with God and one another, so he spent a lot of time helping people sort out their relationship with whatever estranges us – mainly, our possessions.  He has entrusted that mission to us.

    The invitation to make an annual "pledge" to God for the work of the Church is an opportunity to take a step toward healing our relationship with our possessions.  We are invited to make a new commitment concerning what we will give to God, in acknowledgement of God’s sovereignty over our stuff.

    One expression of stewardship is to practice tithing, the ancient biblical custom of returning to God one-tenth of what God has entrusted to us.  Gay and I learned to tithe from the clergy who taught us in our childhood and from our parents.  We do not regard tithing as a law or obligation, but as a spiritual discipline that helps us maintain a healthy relationship with our possessions so that they will have less interference in our relationships, so that we will be free to be stewards.  To us, it is a precious vocation and we commend it to you as you consider your stewardship decision.  We grew into tithing by starting with a percentage we could live with and then adjusting our lives so we could add at least 1% annually until we reached 10%.  We now regard that tithe as God’s.  Amazingly, the remaining 90%  has always been enough.

    Whatever we have, whether spent or saved or given away, is a sacred trust from God.  We believe the least we can do is return the first portion of it – for us, a tithe – to God who has entrusted 100% of it to us to invest it in those things that further God’s ongoing Creation.  We invite you to join us.

    Ron Short Signature

  • Take comfort in rituals

    On a Sunday morning in September, while we were visiting our son in Vancouver, I walked to the Anglican Cathedral for a celebration of the Holy Eucharist.  Along the way, I noticed an inscription etched in the glass door of a Starbucks shop.  I have since realized that it is on most Starbucks doors.  The inscription read, “TAKE COMFORT IN RITUALS.”  It struck me that I was on my way to participate in a ritual because I do indeed take comfort in them.  So, I took a photo. Take Comfort Vancouver

    When I arrived at the Cathedral, there were many things that comforted me – the holy water in the stoup, the Compass Rose insignia of the Anglican Communion, people kneeling in prayerful preparation, the processional cross leading the choir, liturgical ministers, and clergy down the aisle. There were familiar hymns, the opportunity to make an offering, the exchange of the Peace, the bread and wine, the Celebrant making the sign of the cross during the absolution and the blessing, the dismissal by the Deacon.  I took comfort in those rituals!

    However, I also realized a certain amount of dis-comfort.  The sermon pricked my conscience at several points.  The degree of inclusive language was far beyond what I am accustomed to and, although I happen to agree intellectually with their choice of words, I was startled nevertheless. I was likewise approving of, yet surprised at the dis-comfort I felt in, the multicultural diversity represented in the worshiping congregation.

    So, it was an epiphany for me to realize that there is also DISCOMFORT in rituals.  That is true of just about any rituals, religious and otherwise.  Even a visit to Starbucks or a morning cup of their great coffee, which are rituals for many, can be discomforting.  But this leads me to another epiphany: the word comfort has more than one meaning.  Our modern use of the word comfort has to do with “solace.”  An earlier meaning is to “strengthen intensively.”  And an even earlier meaning is “together strong.”  That’s the one I like best!

    So many times I have guided people through rituals at some of the most uncomfortable moments – ministration at the time of death, funerals, prayers before surgery, sermons about the “hard sayings” of Jesus, and fall stewardship campaigns, to name a few.  The desired outcome is always to help them find comfort, solace.  Beyond solace, however, we hope they find the strength that comes from the rituals we do together – strength to go on, strength to face an uncertain future, strength to do the right thing.  COMFORT – together strong. 

    The rituals Christians experience together often make us uncomfortable in the process of making us strong.  That is an important reason God calls us to gather week by week in worship.  In one of our Eucharistic prayers, we ask God to “Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Table for solace only and not for strength.”  That’s what I am getting at!

    Let us indeed take comfort in rituals, religious and otherwise.  But let us remember that comfort is not merely solace, as important as that may be.  Comfort is also strength – the strength we gain from engaging together in the sacred rituals of our faith in the One who is the source of that strength.

    Ron

  • You are Christ’s Body

    Each Wednesday, we have a noon service of Holy Eucharist and Healing at Lexington's Church of the Good Shepherd.  A couple stopped me after one of those services at to share something that had happened that day.  Their experience illustrates how the Church manifests the Body of Christ, even in ordinary every day encounters.  I asked them to put their story in writing:

    For several years we have attended the Wednesday Healing Service.  We usually eat at a local restaurant either before or after.  A week ago, the proprietor astutely observed that we either come at 11:00 a.m. or 1:00 p.m., so she asked what we did from noon until 1:00 p.m..  We told her that we attend the Healing Service at Good Shepherd.  Today, as we were leaving about 11:30, she approached us with a slip of paper and asked us to pray for a 6 year old boy born with brain damage and cannot walk.  We invited her to join us, but said she could not leave the restaurant – just to add him to our prayer list.

    Upon arrival at the service, they requested prayers for the boy.  I am confident that there will be more to this story and that our prayers will play a central role.  The words of Teresa of Avila come to mind:

    Christ has no body but yours,
    No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
    Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world,
    Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
    Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
    Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
    Yours are the eyes, you are his body.

    The ministry of Christians extends into the nooks and crannies of the city and beyond.  Grace-filled Christians are sent into the mission field at our doorstep to be a Sacrament to a world in need of Love Divine.  Daily, our people recognize and respond to opportunities to be the body, the hands, the feet, and the eyes of Christ.  Even the simplest gestures are multiplied and magnified by the Lover of Souls.

    St. Paul expressed it this way: “He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God” II (Cor. 9:10-12).

    Ron

     

     

     

     

    P.S. Here's a musical setting of St. Teresa's words, sung by the Washington National Cathedral Choir.

  • Are you ready to give?

    A friend of mine, when he was a clergyman in a downtown church, was confronted one day by a street person who was seeking assistance.  My friend observed that the man was wearing only one shoe.  “I see that you’ve lost a shoe,” said my friend.  “No,” the man replied with a cheery, toothless smile, “I found one!”

    My friend said he learned a valuable lesson that day from an unexpected teacher.  Things are not always as they appear.  Sometimes we tend to notice what is not there instead of what is.  It’s a matter of perspective. Faithful stewardship requires a perspective that is focused on what is rather than what is not, on abundance rather than scarcity.  That is why St. Paul held up the generosity of the poor and persecuted Macedonians as an example to the more affluent Corinthians.  He counseled them, “…if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what one has not” (II Cor. 8:12).

    God doesn’t expect us to give out of what we don’t have, but from the resources God has provided.  God has certainly been generous with us.  Shouldn’t we in turn be generous with God?  Of course!  All we need now is the readiness to follow through on that belief.

    Many churches are asking members to make new stewardship commitments at this time of year.  Our church's Commitment Sunday is November 7.  Wherever you may be, I invite you to give prayerful consideration to the stewardship commitment you will make to God for the coming year.  Christian stewardship is not about the Church’s need to receive but about each Christian’s need to give.  When we are dealing with our need to give to God, we are probing one of the most sensitive areas of our spirituality.  Money comes between people and God more often than anything else.  That is why prayer has to precede decisions about giving.

    As you pray, first ask God to remind you how much you have received.  Next, ask God to grant you the readiness to give from that abundance.  Then, ask for a clear, honest assessment of your priorities.  After you have answers to these requests, you will find it easier to decide how much to give.

    None of us ever fulfilled our destiny or achieved anything great by focusing on what we can’t do.  Let the extent of our gifts reflect a perspective that sees an abundance of possibilities and resources. When the readiness is there, God can accomplish amazing things through us.

    Ron

  • An Epiphany From a Ginko Tree

    Ginko1The leaves on the Ginko Tree outside my study window are turning yellow.  This is not a rare or  disturbing phenomenon.  The tree is not dying.  What is happening is the predictable effect of photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and sugar.  The word means “put together with light.”  Chlorophyll gives plants their green color and helps make photosynthesis happen.  As summer ends and autumn arrives, days become shorter and there is not enough light for photosynthesis.   So, during autumn and winter, the trees stop producing food.  They rest and live off the food they stored during the summer.  The green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves and other colors are visible.

    Soon, the leaves will fall to the ground and add nutrients to the soil that will benefit the tree when spring and a new era of growth arrives. This annual process of change is necessary in order for the tree to thrive.

    Human life also involves change.  But we do not have to regard ourselves as “victims” of change.  Unlike trees, which do not have the privilege of deciding how to manage change, humans have choices.  We have options!  The greatest options involve intangibles such as attitude, inspiration, perspective, and spirit.  After all, the inner life of a child of God is different from that of a tree.  The kind of light we “put together” with the elements of our lives is a different kind of light, one we can seek in any season.  Enlightenment is the human equivalent of photosynthesis.

    We regard our Creator as changeless.  Creation, on the other hand, is made alive by change.  Of all God’s creatures, humans have the most options for managing change in purposeful ways that impact the unfolding story of creation.  When we are able to work with changes that impact our lives, they are more likely to become springboards that propel us into the next stage of growth.  Learning to live creatively with change allows us not just to survive but to thrive.

    So, in the light God gives, let us relish opportunities to explore changes that are thrust upon us and to purposefully initiate changes that will promote life and growth.  In learning from change we expand our lives and become more fully human.  By exercising our faith in God to guide and protect us through transitions, “we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this life” will find rest and refreshment in God’s eternal changelessness.                               
    Ron