Category: From the Rector

 On Sunday, November 16, worshipers returned to the Nave of Galveston's Trinity Episcopal Church for the first time since September 12 when Hurricane Ike struck the Texas Gulf Coast.  With temporary electrical service finally established, we were able to have lights and the pipe organ.  Ron Wyatt played the organ as if he'd been able to practice  on it daily for the past two months.  The Choir was in full voice.  Bishop Coadjutor Elect Andy Doyle was the preacher.  All the clergy were present and vested (John Donovan, David Dearman, Doug Tucker, and Kyle Stillings).  We had a full team of Acolytes.  Greeters and Ushers were in place doing what they do.  The Altar Guild had everything in order, even though the sacristy is not yet fully functional.  Linda Jenkins and her maintenance crew did a fantastic job of preparing the room, polishing the floors, and setting up for our after worship coffee and fellowship.  We had good attendance and the congregation participated in a lively way.  We had a number of visitors who were warmly welcomed.  All in all, it was a wonderful day in the long history of this resilient parish.  It is good to be home again.  Thanks be to God!

John Harprider, pictured here with Bishop Coadjutor Elect Andy Doyle and me, is a truck driver from North Dakota.  He called me on Sunday morning at 7:00 for directions and service times for Galveston's Trinity Episcopal Church.  He told me that he was making a delivery here and that it is his practice to find an Episcopal Church wherever he is on Sunday so he can celebrate the Holy Eucharist.  Now that's the kind of Episcopalian I'm talking about!

This morning's sermon centered on our Lord's summary of the Law recorded in St. Matthew's gospel: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul, and mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets." I recalled Corrie Ten Boom's opinion that this is an "unbeatable combination" and remindedus that learning to give snd receive love like that is a lifetime project for most of us.

After the service at our coffee and fellowship time, one of our members gave the sermon to me with a concrete example of what I had tried to say. She said that after the service, she noticed a fellow parishioner was wearing a beautiful silk scarf just like one her husband, now deceased, had given her. The other parisioner told her that the scarf was precious to her because her father gave it to her. The first parishioner told the one wearing the scarf that she had lost her's in the hurricane. The one wearing the scarf immediately took it off and gave it to her neighbor.

I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day!

Isaiah 51:1-6

Thus says the Lord:
"Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness,
    you that seek the LORD.
Look to the rock from which you were hewn,
    and to the quarry from which you were dug."

Toward the end of our summer vacation, we spent three days at a friend's vacation home on Lake L.B.J. in the Texas Hill Country between Llano and Marble Falls.  Just outside Marble Falls is the largest granite quarry in the United States, situated in a gigantic 866 foot granite dome that covers 180 acres.  The state historical marker, pictured here, tells part of the story of why this particular quarry should be considered very significant to every true Texan:

This mountain, like all granite formations, was once melted rock, similar to lava. As the molten rock cooled thousands of feet below the earth's surface, it hardend into large crystals of quartz, feldspar, and several dark-colored minerals.

Whenever strength, durability and beauty of finish are required, granite is a favored building stone.

The mountain was part of a grant made to Texas colonist William Slaughter. The site became famous commercially when a dispute arose in the 1880s over the type of stone to be used in the Capitol in Austin.
The issue was settled in 1885 when Governor John Ireland resisted demands to use non-native limestone.

Following this decision, a special track was built to haul the granite to the rail line in Burnet. The stone was generously donated to the state by quarry owners G.W. Lacy, N.I. Norton, and W.H. Westfall.

Today, granite from the quarry here is shipped to all parts
of Texas, the U.S. and foreign countries for use in monuments, shafts, jetties, and buildings. It has been used in the Galveston Sea Wall and in new state office buildings near the Capitol in Austin. (1979) 

This beautiful granite has been used in markers for the graves
of Texas heroes, such as the one for George Campbell
Childress, co-author of the Texas Declaration of Independence, located in the Trinity Episcopal Cemetery in Galveston, and even for the markers in our Columbarium at the Church. 

This
particular granite is very distinctive.  Once you've made the connection with the quarry near Marble Falls, you will recognize it when you see it.

So, when we see these stones at work, we might wonder from whence they were hewn.  Now we know.  There is an epiphany in them.

And what about us?  What is the source of rock-solid faith in God that makes a sound foundation for our lives?  The Prophet Isaiah says that when we pursue righteousness, we should remember Abraham, whose trust in God was considered righteousness.  St. Peter, whom Jesus called "Rock," referred to Jesus and his followers as "living stones."  This means that we are not our own source!  Our life and our goodness are not our own doing.  Our trust in God is not even possible without God's help.  The foundation of our faith has its origins in the quarry God has provided.

Last Saturday, Gay, Matthew, and I were invited to help celebrate the 93rd birthday of our dear friend and Trinity Church member Velma Bradshaw Leavell at her home in Galveston.  Velma put on her party hat for the small gathering of her family (4 generations) and close friends,which included her wonderful miniature wonder horse Cisco.  Cisco was invited inside "as a member of the family," Velma said, and he really enjoyed the cake, which he removed from several plates.

We don't often have the opportunity to help celebrate 93 years of life.  When you encounter someone who has lived so long, you naturally want to gain some wisdom from them.  In Velma's case, I think life has always been understood as NEW life and a gift from God.  In fact, I've decided to erase my old mental image of the face of God and replace it with Velma's face.  If God has to have a face, I suspect Velma's would be just about the best kind of face to convey love, acceptance, generosity, kindness, and every other divine attribute one would expect to see.

Happy Birthday, Velma!  What an epiphany of God's gracious love you are.  May you enjoy many more happy, healthy years of NEW life!

While on vacation, one of the churches we visited is one where they have worked very conscientiously to make the language of their liturgy gender-inclusive.  One of the consistent challenges to such efforts is how to make “kingdom of God” gender-neutral.

In this particular congregation, they substitute “kin-dom” for “kingdom.”  It is an approach I haven’t encountered before.  While the jury is still out, it does help us think of the kingdom of God in a slightly different way.  Usually, we think mainly in terms of God’s reign in our lives.  Kin-dom causes us to focus more on the relational dimension of life in God.

When we are brought into God’s realm and made citizens of it in Baptism, we are related or “kin” to everyone else in that extended family, past, present, and future, just as we are “kin” to God who is the Source of life, Ground of Being, and eternal Head of the family.  We are “one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world."  There is a familial relationship and a familial responsibility that goes with it.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer called the kingdom of God “The Beloved Community.”  In so doing, he too emphasized the relational nature of life in God.  God’s steadfast love and faithfulness binds us to God and to one another with ties that are stronger even than the ties that bind us to our human families.  As we are beloved of God, we live in love with one another.

How are we doing?  Does our kinship with one another reflect our kinship with God?  When strangers come among us, can they sense a quality and a character that is divine in origin?  Do our kinfolk know how much we care, how generous our commitment is, and how completely they can count on us?  Can you think of some signs of God’s life that can be seen in the kinship we share?

We probably will not adopt “kin-dom” of God in our liturgical gatherings.  However, I am grateful to have encountered the term along the way.  Soon, we will celebrate Rally Day, a kind of annual God’s family reunion at the end of the summer vacation season.  As we prepare for that reunion, let us take some time to reflect upon how we are kin to one another, to those who have gone before us, and to those who will come after us.  And let each one of us make a renewed commitment to full participation in the life and mission to which God calls this particular branch of the family tree!

Jogging along the sidewalk atop the Galveston Seawall the other day, I noticed that someone had taken chalk and written in large letters,

 

The Race Goes Not Always to The Swift. . .But to Those Who Keep On Running.

 

Encouragement!  Someone put those words there to encourage people who were running the race.  Don’t give up!  Keep on keeping on!  There is value in the running of the race.  There is victory in completing it.

 

When Jesus sent the twelve apostles out on their mission, he let them know that not everyone would welcome them.  “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. (Matthew 9:14)”

 

Encouragement! Jesus told them that to encourage them to continue in their mission even when they were not welcomed.  A friend of mine once called this “the sacrament of failure.”  Jesus gave his apostles permission to fail and an outward sign that would help them leave that failure behind and continue in their mission.

 

The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews also knew there is value in running the race to its completion.  “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)”

   

Keep us faithful always to You

Whatever the path we trod

That we might run with patience, Lord,

The race that is set before us.

 

And through it all may we praise Your Name,

For it is only by Your power,

That we can run with patience, Lord,

The race that is set before us.

   

A missionary people need encouragement to persevere in the work of Christ.  He’s in it  with us.  Every age and mission outpost has its challenges.  If we will continue to faithfully put one foot in front of the other, Jesus will provide what is needed to endure and to transcend the challenges.  When we fail trying, he will keep us from settling into that failure and help us move on toward completion.

 

As my wife, Gay, once said, “Life is not about falling down. . .it’s about getting up and trying again.”  Let us encourage one another to continue in the life and work of Christ.