My Blog

Category: Lawrence

  • Stephen’s Seven Effective Ways to Follow God’s Call

    Tiger & Piglets Last Sunday, our friend Deacon Stephen L. Segebrecht preached a fine sermon about following the call of God.  The entire text of the sermon can be downloaded from here.  Included in his sermon was an illustration involving a tigress and some piglets along with a list of seven effective ways to follow God's call.  I commend these seven principles and the sermon for your own reflections.

    Stephen’s Seven Effective Ways to Follow God’s Call

    One ~ We have to put on the clothes of those we serve.
    Two ~  We strive for the greatest gift that we have to offer God at any given time.
    Three ~ Often we are led to do something we normally wouldn’t do.
    Four ~ Service is done with a sense of affection or attachment.
    Five ~ Our call to service can have an effect on others that we never expected.
    Six ~ Our ministry seems to change with time.
    Seven ~ When we give of ourselves and serve Christ in others, we too are nourished.

    Ron

  • Do prayers really help?

    We've been asked to pray for those who are suffering in Haiti and those who have gone to their aid.  People have been praying for a member of our parish who is a Haitian student living in Lawrence.  A mother came by the office yesterday to place her daughter's name on the prayer list because she has gone to Haiti to help out in the relief effort.

    Do our prayers really help?

    The following message from former Presiding Bishop Ed Browning speaks to this question.

    "Almighty God, you have promised to hear the petitions of those who ask in your Son's Name…"     (For the answering of prayer, BCP p. 834)

    Some researcher somewhere has determined that people who pray, or who have people praying for them, have such-and-such better chance of recovery from gallstones than people who don't. Good. I often pray that sick people will get well.

    But I also pray for many people who don't get better. If my prayers do not turn these things into the releases and healings for which I long, does that mean they've failed? Does it mean I didn't pray right? Didn't pray hard enough? Only if the narrow test of immediate historical change is the only test of prayer's efficacy. If the only useful prayer is a prayer that works right here and right now, in just the way I want it to work, we're in trouble.

    Prayer is not a way to get around human sorrow, a special incantation that produces a desired result God would otherwise withhold from us. It is a thread of holy energy that binds us together. It enables the communion of my soul with the souls of others, whether I know them or not. "I could feel myself lifted by all the prayers," someone will often tell me after a serious illness. Get enough of these holy threads wrapped around a person, and she will feel them, quite apart from the issue of whether or not she gets what she wants.
     
    – From A Year of Days with the Book of Common Prayer by Bishop Edmond Lee Browning.

    May God use our prayers as a "thread of holy energy that binds us together" with one another and all those for whom we offer prayers!

    Ron

  • Sermon for January 17, 2010

    Here is my sermon for January 17, 2010.

    Ron

  • Where is God in the Haitian Earthquake?

    Evangelist Pat Robertson said earlier this week that he believes the earthquake in Haiti is the result of a pact with the devil made by Haitians long ago.  Here is a thoughtful response to Mr. Robertson's viewpoint.  I hope it lifts your heart and strengthens your confidence in our compassionate God.

  • Prayers for Haiti

    Tuesday's devastating earthquake in Haiti has sent shock waves around the world.  We've asked our people to pray and we are asking for contributions for Episcopal Relief and Development to sustain their efforts on behalf of the people of Haiti.  Other people in other churches and in other countries, heads of state and legislative bodies, rescue and military personnel, health professionals and engineers – all sorts and conditions of people -  are responding in ways that show us the spirit of compassion knows no boundaries.

    Haiti Cathedral Wedding at Cana The Episcopal Diocese of Haiti is the largest diocese in the Episcopal Church with somewhere between  100,000 and 150,000 members in 168 congregations.  Yet they have only 40 Priests and one Bishop.  Many of our churches, including Holy Trinity Cathedral and School have been destroyed.  I have posted the photo of a mural in Holy Trinity Cathedral, Port au Prince, painted by a Haitian artist.  I was inspired by this mural when I visited Haiti in 1972 and lived for a week in St. Peter's Episcopal School.  The mural depicts Jesus' first miracle at Cana, this Sunday's gospel.

    Even in the best of times, the people of Haiti struggle, living in the poorest country in the hemisphere.  Now this.

    We will pray for the people of Haiti and those who are helping them.  Our prayers are powerful because the One to whom we pray is powerful. "Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested" (Hebrews 2:18).  The words of William Bright's hymn sum it up,

    At your feet, O Christ, we lay / your own gift of this new day; / Doubt of what it holds in store / Makes us crave your aid the more; / Even in a time of loss, /Mark, it Savior, with your Cross.

    And, among our prayers will be the appeal that the Savior of us all will show us how to become a part of the answer to our prayers for those who are hurting.

    Ron

  • e-piphanies about Epiphany

    Yesterday, January 6, was the Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord.  For the next six weeks, we will continue to reflect upon the epiphanous events in Jesus’ life.  This is a good time for me to explain how my blog came to be called e-piphanies.com.

    First, let me make sure we’re all on the same page regarding the meaning of the word "epiphany," especially as Christians use it.  Answers.com offers a pretty comprehensive definition if you are not sure what I'm talking about.

    Our Christian concept of epiphany starts with the manifestations of Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, and continues in our own lives as we recognize the reality of his reign.  In other words, he is not finished manifesting himself to us!

    Brian McLaren’s book, The Secret Message of Jesus, heightened my awareness of the kingdom of God as the core of Jesus’ message.  Moreover, I realized that I was not alert to the signs of the kingdom all around me.  McLaren writes, “I think that the best glimpses of the kingdom of God come to us unexpectedly in everyday life – and the sermons we hear (or books we read) help us keep our eyes open so that when those moments come, we don’t sleepwalk through them.”

    With that prompting, e-piphanies.com was born.  I intended it to be an interactive online journal of glimpses (epiphanies) of God’s hand at work in our lives.  Sometimes, my postings must suggest that I just have a firm grasp of the obvious.  However, that’s what is so amazing about the kingdom in our midst, isn’t it?  It is hidden in plain sight!  What may be obvious to some of us may be an epiphany for the rest of us.  Jesus went around pointing out signs of the kingdom in what often appeared to be ordinary.  That's what I want to do in e-piphanies.com.

    So, I hope you will enjoy reading and contributing to e-piphanies.com.  Use the comment feature (below) to share your own insights, glimpses, and concerns.

    I also hope you will take advantage of the season of the Church wherein we are reminded of ways the kingdom was manifested in Jesus’ life and his invitation to us to be witnesses of that kingdom.  Our testimony will be more believable if we've actually seen it so we can tell "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

    And, I hope you will find a copy of The Secret Message of Jesus and read it.  Your eyes may be opened a little wider to discover glimpses of God’s hand at work.

    Here's a wonderful passage from the book:

    Earlier in the season, I heard the unmistakable sounds of a flock of cedar waxwings passing through on their way north.  I never saw them, but by the high chatter of their unique song, I knew thy had passed by as I lay in bed.  Before I learned the distinctive call of these common birds, I heard the sound, but I didn't know what I was hearing. . . I wonder if the secret message of Jesus isn't like that.  Maybe you've been hearing it all along, but you didn't realize it.  Maybe you've been seeing it or seeing signs of it, but you didn't know what you were seeing.  Maybe the best outcome of this book is that your ears and eyes – your heart and mind – will have been in some way "born again," so that you will now and forever know it when you hear it or see it, when it comes near and sings its song in the high branches.

    And, in its own way, maybe my e-piphanies.com will provide for you a similar outcome!

    Ron

  • January 1, 2010

    Hour Glass

    The top of the hour glass is full again.

    Maybe today really is different in certain ways.

    I'll look more closely today and tomorrow.

    Maybe there will be some e-piphanies.

    Ron

  • The Vocation We Share

    On Tuesday evening of this week, I attended the ordination of William Breedlove to the Sacred Order of Priests at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Mission, Kansas.  A fine congregation of lay persons, priests, deacons, and the Bishop of Kansas were there to set this man apart for priestly work in Christ's one holy catholic Church.

    Throughout my ministry, the hangings and vestments used for ordinations have been red, symbolizing the Holy Spirit and the ministry of the Apostles.  However, on this occasion, we were asked to wear white.  The explanation that was given was that it was to emphasize the relationship of Holy Orders to Holy Baptism.

    Perhaps it was the change of color that nudged my consciousness and caused me to hear certain elements of the service in new ways.  For example, at the beginning of the portion of the liturgy referred to as The Examination, Bishop Wolfe read these words from the Book of Common Prayer:Ordination Breedlove

    My brother, the Church is the family of God, the body of Christ, the temple of the Holy  Spirit.  All baptized people are called to make Christ known as Savior and Lord, and to share in the renewing of his world.

    It was as if I heard those words for the very first time.  Everything that follows in the liturgy emphasizes the priestly work of nourishing Christ's people from the riches of his grace for the building up of the family of God so that all may fulfill the calling we all share by virtue of our Baptism, to "make Christ known as Savior and Lord, and to share in the renewing of his world."

    These are truly powerful words about a powerful force set loose in the world!  May we reflect on them as we enter the time of Advent when we offer Ember Day prayers for those in Holy Orders, those discerning a call to ordained ministry, and all Christians in their vocation.  December Ember Days are Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday following December 13 (St. Lucy's Day).  The Book of Common Prayer offers three prayers for use on those days.  Here is the one that applies to all the Baptized:

    Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before you for all members of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

    Ron

  • The Value of Taking a Second Look

    Our family from Russellville, Arkansas visited us in Lawrence over the Thanksgiving holidays.  On Friday, we had an outing that took us along the "Farmers Turnpike" over to Lecompton, the territorial capital of Kansas, just west of here.  Since neither of our vehicles could acomodate six people, we took both cars.  The two nephews, Jake and Jon, were with Gay and me and their parents, Joy and Gregg, followed in their car.

    Bald Eagle by Joy Our route took us over the oxbow lake.  As we crossed over it, I noticed a bald eagle sitting on a tree limb.  I pointed out the window so Joy and Greg could see the eagle.  They nodded and after a minute or so, we drove on.  When we arrived in Lecompton, I said, "wasn't the bald eagle a surprise?"  They replied, "what bald eagle?"  They thought I was pointing at the lake.

    On the return trip, we went back to the oxbow lake to see if the eagle was still there.  When we arrived, there were two of them!  They were calling to each other.  Joy took this great photo of one of the pair.

    There's an epiphany in this event.  Sometimes, we have to revisit an experience in order to get the full effect.  Often, the experience is twice as rich as the original when we look again.  Even more so if we miss the point the first time!  It's the same when we catch a glimpse of God's hand at work in our lives.  If we'll look closely, it becomes a moment of wonder, an occasion of praise, an opportunity for transformation, an experience of love divine.

    My friend, Deacon Patty Minx, and I had a Facebook chat this morning regarding the subject of Advent waiting.  She pointed out that while we are waiting on God, God is also waiting on us.  That, too, is a very helpful insight, and one that came because we revisited the matter of waiting, seeing past our own experience to God's experience of us.  Moreover, it is moving to be reminded that Advent and Christmas have to do with God coming to us and arriving when we least expect it.

    I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew
    he moved my soul to seek him, seeking me;
    it was not I that found, O Savior true;
    no, I was found of thee.

    Full text and music

    Ron