Tag: Hope

Looking Forward Together

Last Sunday we had our first Drive-In worship service at St. Martin’s. We had about twenty cars in the parking lot and forty-five worshipers. The devoted people who have been providing online worship for the past five months successfully made a quantum leap forward in adding the celebration of the Holy Eucharist so those outside could receive. Our Regathering Team contributed in very helpful ways to our planning. St. Martin’s staff took care of numerous details that are necessary to such a service. Conversations with our Bishop and other clergy sparked creativity and identified resources, We are grateful to all of you!

Even after we are able to resume some level of in-person worship inside the church, I expect we will continue the Drive-In worship for those who are uncomfortable or unable to be inside. On August 23, our Eucharistic Visitors will begin taking the Sacrament to those who are unable to get out. In September, our Christian Formation Commission along with Children’s and Youth Ministries, will be rolling out some new online opportunities to learn and grow together in our faith. Sometime in October, we plan to offer a Discovery Class for those interested in membership or exploring their relationship with God and the Church.

There is much to look forward to! In the days ahead, you’ll find us recalling this encouraging word from the Prophet Jeremiah, “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). We’ll be listening more closely and looking more deliberately to see God’s hand at work in the world around us. Surely, there are signs of hope from God all around us. When we find them, we’ll join hands with God and one another to help bring in a new and better time beyond this pandemic. Offering hope to the world is central to our mission, isn’t it?

Whenever I think about the mission God has entrusted to us, I am always guided by the words of Titus Pressler, “Mission is not fundamentally something we do as Christians but a quality of God’s own being. It is not a program of ours but the path of God’s action in the world. The mission of the Church, therefore, derives from the mission of God, and it has meaning only in relation to what God is up to in the universe. Already engaged in mission, God simply invites us to participate in what God is doing.”

On the evenings of August 20, 23, 27, and 30, we will be engaging in virtual holy conversations about what God is up to in this parish. We’re calling the series, “Yearning to Know God’s Will.” Our conversations will be about discernment, honoring the past, embracing the present, and reaching out for what lies ahead. Click HERE for more information and to register. I hope we have broad participation!

As we move through this time, I invite you again to pray this discernment prayer from The Book of Common Prayer daily:

O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who
call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand
what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and
power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ
our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Blessings,

The Very Reverend Ron Pogue
Interim Rector
St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church

August 13, 2020
A Virtual Hug for Families With Children and Youth
This message is addressed to families with children and youth and those who care about them.

We have reached a point of frustration with this pandemic that is about to be compounded by the myriad of issues surrounding the opening of school. Our kids are anxious about what that is going to look like. Parents are concerned not only for their safety if they return in person, but also for the challenges raised if they participate in a virtual classroom. Either way, many parents will have to make a choice between family and employment, sooner or later.

Then, there are the people who make school happen – the teachers, counselors, administrators, cafeteria workers, custodians, bus drivers, and others without whom schools in normal conditions would simply stop working. They, too, risk exposure to the Coronavirus if the students return to the campus. What happens to a classroom of students when the teacher tests positive or a busload of students when a driver tests positive? Do they all go into quarantine at home? Who looks after them? A dozen other questions come to mind, but I’ll stop there.

Several weeks ago, St. Martin’s made the painful decision not to reopen our school. The change in student/teacher ratio, the added sanitation protocols, announcements of free public school early childhood programs in the area, no liability coverage for COVID-19-related incidents, a bleak financial outlook, along with the aforementioned questions, presented a perfect storm of obstacles. We could not see a way to open the school and safeguard the health and well-being of our kids and our teachers.

All that said, I do understand the difficult decisions public and other independent schools are facing. The decisions their leaders must make and the decisions parents and families must make are daunting. Like you, I wish I knew the right answer. But I don’t.

What I do know is this:
- The people of St. Martin's will not shame parents for whatever difficult decisions they make.
- The people of St. Martin's will stand by our parents, pray with you, and do whatever we can to help you uphold what you think is best for your children and youth.
- The people of St. Martin's will remain steadfast in offering an abundance of faith, hope, and love to parents and families.
- When this is over – and it will eventually end – the people of St. Martin's will be here for you and rejoice to see your faces reflecting the light of God’s countenance, the God who always sees us through both the bad times and the good times. Maybe that is actually the light at the end of this tunnel!
I remind you of St. Paul’s words, which we read last Sunday, in the hope that you will let them resonate in your heart and mind during this time when all these things conspire against us and seem so overwhelming:

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose…What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?…Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?…No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:28, 31, 35, 37-39)

May this message be a great big virtual hug for our families with children and youth. We love you!

Blessings,

The Very Reverend Ron Pogue
Interim Rector
St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church
Keller, Texas
July 30, 2020
A Preacher’s Candy Shop

On Sundays, we have been reading our way through the stories about the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) in Genesis, through the Letter to the Romans, and through the Gospel According to Matthew. The Preacher sometimes is able to tie more than one reading together in a coherent homily. Sometimes, that is just impossible.

Then, there are Sundays like the one coming up where the decision about which passage should form the basis of the homily is incredibly difficult because each of the readings and the Psalm are so powerful that the Preacher has a hard time deciding what to do. Each text almost preaches itself.

It’s a Preacher’s Candy Shop!

There is the passage in Genesis about Jacob’s flight from Beer-Sheba to Haran to escape the wrath of his brother Easu, whom he had cheated. One night, he uses a stone for a pillow and dreams of a ladder to Heaven on which angels are ascending and descending. The dream is so powerful that it changed his life. “So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called that place Bethel” (Genesis 28:18-19a). Bethel means House of God. Bethel is about eleven miles north of Jerusalem. It became a principal place of worship for the descendants of Jacob (Israel). Jacob’s sacramental action described in the text is nothing less than the consecration of the stone and the place. “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!…How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Genesis 28:16-17).

Jacob was not seeking God. He had stolen his brother’s birthright and his father’s blessing and was running for his life. There, in the middle of nowhere, God found Jacob and blessed him. That’s the kind of God we worship: one who shows up in unlikely places, to unlikely people, and gives undeserved blessings that transform our lives and, through us, the lives of others. We will be reading more amazing stories about Jacob in the coming weeks. In each one, we will see how God’s patience with Jacob was grounded in God’s hope for Jacob and his descendants.

Then there is Psalm 139. A perfect response to the reading from Genesis, it is an unbridled outburst of praise for the eternally patient God who has always known us, loved us, pursued us, blessed us, and guided us. Just read it!

St. Paul wrote to the Romans during a time of suffering. His words are balm for us during this Pandemic: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). We can only hope! Yes, hope! We can’t see what the future holds, but we can and we must hope that it will be better than the present and the past. If we knew what the post-pandemic world will be like, we wouldn’t need to hope for it. “For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Romans 8:24b-25). This is a timely word for us at this point in the “sufferings of this present time.” I don’t know about you, but I’ve reached a point where I’ve baked about all the bread my freezer can hold, put together enough puzzles, binge-watched plenty of TV shows, and listened to all the arguments about mask-wearing I can stand. I need patience! St. Paul reminds us that when we have hope, we will find patience.

Finally, in this Preacher’s Candy Shop, there is the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares. In this parable, Jesus explains that our attempts to purify the Church, or society, or our own spiritual lives for that matter, place us in danger of making premature judgements. What appears to be good wheat now may eventually be revealed to be weeds. What appears to be weeds now may eventually be recognized as wheat. So God holds back the hoe because we tend to be too impatient. Our prejudices toward people with a different color skin, different nationality, different politics, different religion, different language, or any difference, may cause us to write them off. When we are privileged, we tend to do that quite often. What would the world be like if we devoted ourselves to fostering hope in others, especially those who are different from us? Such hope, of course, requires patience.

Take some time to read each of these passages in this Preacher’s Candy Shop and enjoy the flavor of each nougat. As you do, remember the immortal words of Forrest Gump, “My mom always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.” He’s right. So, we always patiently hope for the best.

Blessings,

The Very Reverend Ron Pogue
Interim Rector
St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church
Keller, Texas

July 17, 2020
A Ray of Hope
This morning, I was reading reports about the impact of the Coronavirus and struggling to find a ray of hope to share with you. Then, I saw a Facebook post by our friend Jim Mayfield in Henderson, Nevada. It provides a window through which that ray has begun to shine. Here is his post in its entirety.

The world is in the midst of a sea change. Sea changes cannot be controlled nor can reliable predictions be made of resulting outcomes. However, historical lessons can guide the development of policy and strategies to effectively react to unpredictable conditions.

The Black Death of the mid-1600’s and worldwide plagues of the 18^th, 19^th, and early 20^th Centuries triggered massive destruction to existing social, economic, and political strictures. For example, the Black Plague ended the Medieval period by unleashing forces that brought about the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, and the redistribution of wealth and political power. Therefore, the study of plagues is relevant today because of insights they reveal about how to cope with resulting disruptive breakdowns attributable to them.

Plagues consistently cause
Attempts by wealthy interests that control governments to manage the crisis and return to the pre-plague status quo fail and delay implementing essential changes. The reason their efforts fail is that a plague-driven crisis reveals already existing inadequacies in social, economic, and political structures to equitably distribute wealth to working persons, middle class persons, and persons who are structurally disadvantaged.

The bad news, which we are finally having to acknowledge, is that this is going to get worse before it gets better. Reality is staring us in the face: COVID-19 is not just like the flu, the virus is not just going to miraculously go away, and that reopening is not making everything normal again. We can no longer pretend that racism is a thing of the past, that wealth inequality can be corrected by giving more to those who are already wealthy, that affordable healthcare is a privilege and not a right, and that our government isn't dysfunctional.

The good news is that we can seize this opportunity to devote the best that is in us to turning our breakdowns into breakthroughs. That’s what those who came before us did, resulting in major cultural, scientific, social, and technological advances. We were designed to be agents of creative and purposeful change in the ongoing process of creation. We are called to overcome evil with good.

As I said a few weeks ago, I doubt that things will return to “normal” and I’m not sure even a “new normal” will be all that great. This sea change must result in a new creation; one that is better, more just, inclusive, and loving than ever before. I admit that I have more questions than answers. But I have confidence that people of good will, working together, looking for answers, reaching in hope for what lies ahead, can accomplish great things, especially if they ask for God's help.

People don’t like change. I get that. I’ve actually studied resistance to change most of my life. That's why my ministry for the past ten years has been helping churches through transitions. However, in times like these, change is trust upon us and the God who made us also has equipped us with the will and the capacity to bend change toward our benefit and the benefit of those who come after us.

Can you see the ray of hope that is breaking through? It is breaking in to us and through us so that we can bring hope to others; hope for a better tomorrow, a new creation. “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).

Blessings,

The Very Rev'd Ron Pogue
Interim Rector
St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church
Keller, Texas
July 2, 2020
Righteousness and Rewards

The Gospel for The Fourth Sunday in Lent this year is John 9:1-41. Jesus seems to give a non-answer to a very serious question about a blind man’s suffering.

Rabbi Harold Kushner's book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, was a best seller. In the book, the rabbi addresses the haunting question about the correlation between sin and suffering, about righteousness and rewards. Rabbi Kushner says it all has to do with luck. There is good luck and there is bad luck – neither of which is dependent upon a person's goodness or badness. There is a kind of randomness to life.

Today, we want explanations, answers that make sense to us and reassure us that we are okay. Thousands perish of AIDS and famine in Africa, people are crushed in an earthquake in Haiti or Chile, hurricanes destroy lives and property in Puerto Rico and the British Virgin Islands, floodwaters destroy people's homes, terrorists gun down innocent people in the streets, and the Coronavirus Pandemic casts a pall of sickness, unemployment, economic calamity, and death across our planet. How can God be good and still allow bad things like these to inflict good people like us?

Jesus' own disciples asked him questions like that. “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus didn't take Rabbi Kushner's approach. In today's climate, Jesus wouldn't win any awards in the pastoral care department either. He said, “Neither. This man was born blind so that the glory of God might be revealed.” Consistently, Jesus denies any direct correlation between the kind of person you are and what happens to you. In another instance he declares that, God “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45).

Why did this happen to me? Probably, for no good reason. Bad things happen to the good and the bad all the time. The notion that only good things happen to good people was put to rest when they crucified Jesus. Now, this same Jesus takes our question and makes it cruciform: can you trust God – in joy or in pain – to be your God? Can you love God without linking your love to the cards life deals you?

And then, we have televangelists who tell us that this pandemic is divine retribution for some views people have on various social issues. They want us to believe that if we don’t agree with their particular view of things, God will smite somebody at random and it will be our fault. That’s a pretty scary way to look at our God.

God's love carries no promises about good or bad save the promise that God will not allow anything worse to happen to you than happened to God’s own Son and that beyond sickness and death, life is changed, not ended.

Saint Augustine of Hippo mused over the great suffering that occurred when the barbarians sacked Rome. He noted in his City of God that when the barbarians raped and pillaged, Christians suffered just as much as non-Christians. Faith in Christ did not make them immune to pain and tragedy. Augustine wrote, “Christians differ from Pagans, not in the ills which befall them but in what they do with the ills that befall them.” The Christian faith does not give us a way around tragedy. It gives us a way through it!

What do we do with our neat little distinctions in a church where we think being nice is the way to salvation? God's sunshine and rain keep blurring them! This is the way God responds to our questions – not with answers that flatter us, or make the world simpler than it really is, but with God’s life given for us, that we might more fully give our lives to God.

So, during this time of anxiety, let's look for ways for God might be manifested in our lives and ways God can use us to bring peace and calm and hope to others. We don’t know how long this social distancing will last nor do we know the full impact of this health crisis. Gathering together is central to how we have always done Church but we can't do it right now. We are trying to learn and practice more and new ways to be Church when we can’t physically meet together. Worship will be streamed by video each weekend we are apart. Our clergy and pastoral care ministry are reaching out to people in the parish who are vulnerable. We are encouraging everyone to connect to our online directory (Breeze). We've set up a Helping Hands Network in order to learn who needs to receive help and who is willing to provide help. Groups are meeting via video, teleconferences, and email chains. When we need to get important information out, we will be more redundant than usual, employing a variety of avenues including social media, email, voicemail, and text messaging.

If you have put off learning how to use new technology in order to communicate with others, please, please find someone to help you learn what you need to do today! We need to see each other’s faces and hear each other’s voices. This situation is not likely to be over for months. Our faith compels and equips us to find the way through this and do it together!

Blessings,

The Very Rev'd Ron Pogue
Interim Rector
St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church
Keller, Texas

March 19, 2020
What does it mean to have faith?

Religion has never meant quite the same thing to all persons. In history there have been essentially four ways in which religion has been meaningful to people: To some religion is inward fellowship with God; to others, religion is a standard for life and a power to reach that standard; to others religion is the highest satisfaction of their minds; and, to yet others, religion is access to God, that which removes the barriers and opens the doors to God’s living presence.

It was this fourth conception of religion that attracted the writer of the letter to the Hebrews. He found in Christ the one person who could take him into the presence of God. Jesus, for the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, was the one person who gave access to reality and access to God. That is the key thought of this letter, this book of the Bible. In the eleventh chapter we find a magnificent exhortation to have faith. What does it mean to have faith?

To have faith is to have a new way of looking at reality. Each of us is born with five senses, which enable us to apprehend reality as it appears on the surface. We see, hear, taste, touch, and smell the world in which we live. The organs that make this possible are a part of our natural equipment.

We might think of faith as an organ that takes us beyond the five senses and enables us to perceive another, deeper level of reality. By means of faith, we are able to trust the truths of God that are beyond our natural ability to understand. Thus, faith is itself a verification – the verification of the things we cannot see. So, we often speak of seeing with the eyes of faith.

Such faith, according to the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, enabled people like Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac to trust God’s promises and to obey God. When faith dawns and begins to develop in a person’s life, one is able to look at reality as it appears to the five senses and apprehend still another dimension that gives things a meaning and purpose they did not have before. Faith gives us a new way of looking at things.

To have faith is to have a new source of energy. The key to understanding the power of faith lies in the wonder of the human psyche. Faith is itself the power given to those who have made a decision to believe and to trust. It is the power to act. Indecision keeps all that power locked up and causes depression, anxiety, and frustration.

On the other hand, confident decisions unlock enormous reservoirs of power and energy we will need to carry out those decisions. Thus, if we want to experience the energy of faith, we have to decide what we’re going to do about the new understandings we have seen through the eyes of faith.

Finding creative solutions to complicated problems is the specialty of people of faith. Faith keeps us from giving in easily to problems and provides energy to struggle with them until they have been mastered and overcome. It doesn’t take eyes of faith to look at the past or to maintain the status quo. What about tomorrow?

I believe we can and we will keep our eye on tomorrow because we are people of faith. The kind of faith we have is the sort that guided and empowered the patriarchs and prophets and our Savior and the early Church to persevere. It will be the same for us. We have a vision and we will act on it, trusting in the promises of God. This faith is nothing less than the fuel cell of the Church! To have faith is to have a new source of energy.

To have faith is to have a new kind of security. Jesus said, “Have no fear, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the Kingdom. Sell all your belongings and give the money to the poor. Provide for yourselves purses that don’t wear out and save your riches in heaven, where they will never decrease, because no thief can get to them. For your heart will always be where your riches are” (Luke 12:32-34).

What does he mean? He means that the Kingdom of Heaven, the Realm of God, is the most valuable thing in the universe and it is God’s desire to give it to those who place their primary trust in him. Whatever we possess here is but a shadow and dim reflection of the great treasury of that Kingdom. Like Abraham, who lived in a tent, with no permanent home, we look for that city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. And yet, we cling for security to so many things.

Whether or not we actually sell all that we have and give the money to the poor, the role of faith is that it produces a sense of security apart from our attachments to the present material world and our possessions. Faith gives us a new kind of security.

Finally, to have faith is to have new life. When Abraham answered God’s call to leave his safe, secure homeland and journey into a land he did not know, he began a new life. All who have such faith are the descendants of Abraham and have God’s gift of new life.

Martin Luther said, “Faith is a living trust of the heart.” To live in faith is to live under the conviction that everything and everyone belongs to God. Faith, therefore, conditions the way we relate to our world and the people in it. And what is the opposite of trust? Fear. The good news is that faith is the agent that enables us to overcome fear. It relives us of some anxiety that is produced by our idea that God won’t come through. It frees us to accept our place in the divine plan for all things.

We have a commission to live life to the fullest, equipped with this living trust of the heart. So, we have new life to live today and every day, until for ever. When, with the YES of faith, we see and greet from afar the heavenly city where life never ends, we begin to experience a foretaste of that life here and now. That vision illuminates and transforms our present reality and we are alive unto God. To have faith is to have new life.

In a Nutshell… To have faith is to have a new way of looking at reality, a new source of energy, a new security, and a new life. So, fear not, little flock. for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. Don’t trust your fears more than you trust your God to keep promises. Reach out and experience the world and the persons around you with the five senses. Then, experience all of these things with the faith that comes from God so that you might see it all as God does. It will transform you and free you become all you were made to be! And, it will attract you to other people of faith in ways that overcome differences for the greater glory of God as together we work, pray, and give for the spread of the Kingdom of God.

I'll see you in Church!

The Very Reverend Ronald D. Pogue
Interim Dean
St. Andrew’s Cathedral
Jackson, Mississippi

P.S. I have always found these lines from this secular song to be a beautiful illustration of faith.

The Rose

It’s the heart that fears the breaking
that never learns the dance.

It’s the dream afraid of waking
that never takes a chance.

It’s the one who won’t be taken
who cannot seem to give.

And the soul afraid of dying
who never learns to live.

When the night has been too long
when you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong

Just remember in the winter – far beneath the winter snows
lies the seed that with the sun’s love
becomes the rose.

March 14, 2019
Why Blue for Advent?

The Season of Advent

The word “Advent” is derived from the Latin Adventus, which means “coming” or “arrival.” It is the season of preparation for the celebration of the Birth of Jesus Christ, God’s Messiah. Advent has been observed in the Western churches, since about the fifth century C.E.. Advent begins the liturgical year and includes the time from the fourth Sunday before Christmas, until Christmas Day. The first Sunday of Advent is always the Sunday nearest the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, November 30^th, and always falls between November 27^th and December 3^rd.

The Color for the Season

For centuries, the season of Advent was observed as a penitential season. Sometimes, it was even referred to as the “Little Lent.” And, following the pattern of Lent, the designation of the four Sundays of the season were Sundays “in” Advent rather than Sundays “of” Advent. Also, as in Lent, the color violet or purple was the seasonal color.

During the ecumenical liturgical reforms of the 1960’s and 1970’s, a strong consensus emerged that Advent should be a season of hope and anticipation, rather than penitence. As the new lectionaries were developed, the Sunday readings reflected those themes. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer reflects that emphasis on hope and anticipation.

Many churches sought a different seasonal color. Liturgical leaders were drawn to the color blue, which was used in the ancient Sarum Rite (Salisbury, England). In subsequent years, use of the color blue has become widespread during Advent. Blue symbolizes hope, confidence, anticipation and expectation, all adjectives that describe the season of Advent.

The Advent Wreath Candles

Use of the Advent Wreath entered our observance of the season during the last century. The wreath consists of four candles, one of which is lighted on each of the four Advent Sundays. As the days grow shorter and the nights grow longer, we light more candles until we celebrate the birth of the Light of the World on December 25, symbolized by a larger white candle in the center of the wreath.

When purple or violet was the seasonal color, that was the choice of color for the hangings, vestments, and Advent Wreath candles. However, rose, a lighter shade of purple, was often used on the third Sunday. Rose was thought to be representative of a less penitential theme for that Sunday, on which the first word of the Introit was “Rejoice.” Now that Advent is no longer observed as a primarily penitential season, the candles, like the hangings and vestments, are blue and there is no need for a rose candle to suggest that we “lighten up.”

I invite you to take time in this season of Advent to prepare your heart and mind in new ways for the news of the birth of Jesus Christ, God With Us. When you see the color blue in the Cathedral, or anywhere for that matter, may it trigger in you a reminder that God’s Messiah is always moving in our direction to assure us that we are beloved, to foster hope for a brighter future, and to lead us to “walk safely in the glory of God” (Baruch 5:7).

I’ll see you in Church!

The Very Reverend Ron Pogue
Interim Dean
St. Andrew's Cathedral
Jackson, Mississippi

November 29, 2018
Easter is more than a day!

During the forty days of Lent each year we spend time getting ready for the celebration of Easter. There is fasting, self-denial, prayer, intensified devotion, scripture study, and other disciplines designed to cleanse our hearts.

Then, comes the big celebration. Easter. Like so many Christian holy days, Easter seems to disappear the next day as life returns to "normal." But Easter should be more than that to us! It certainly was to those early disciples. Easter is more than a day!

Easter is a season of celebration. The Risen Christ walked among his disciples for forty days after his resurrection. He taught them, ate with them, prayed with them, and loved them. Before he was taken up into heaven, he promised to send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. The promise was fulfilled on the fiftieth day when they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Jewish feast of Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks. In Greek, it is called Pentecost. Pentecost is seven weeks, or fifty days, after the observance of Passover and commemorates the spring wheat harvest. This feast has also been associated with the remembrance of the giving of the Law to Moses. As the law was written on tablets of stone, the Spirit would write God's law upon the hearts of believers. When Moses came down from the mountain, he found God's people worshipping an idol and 3,000 of them died. When the Spirit was given, the disciples were obediently waiting in Jerusalem. 3,000 people were saved! The New People of the New Covenant were empowered by the Life-giving Spirit to be Christ's Body in the world, proclaiming to everyone the Easter message that Christ is alive.

Easter is a lifestyle. We are Easter People! As those early disciples in Emmaus and Jerusalem and in Galilee experienced the living presence of the Risen Christ, so we recognize that he stands among us today. To paraphrase Jesus, "believing is seeing." When we gather to hear the Word and share in the Holy Meal, it is usually easy to experience his presence "enthroned upon the praises of his people." The challenging part comes when we disperse. As Christ's Body touches the world through you and me when we are apart from one another, do you suppose the Living Presence is felt?

Easter is our only hope. St. Peter writes, "By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…" (I Peter 1:3). There is a lot of help out there for people with all kinds of needs. But Christians believe that beyond help, people need hope. So what if you are physically or emotionally well. Life is just not complete without hope. The Easter faith gives the world hope.

So, don't let Easter fade like the blooms on your Easter Lily! Easter is more than a day; it is a season, a lifestyle, and a faith that fills our lives with hope.

I’ll see you in Church!

The Very Reverend Ron Pogue
Interim Dean
Saint John’s Cathedral
Denver, Colorado

April 13, 2017
Inasmuch
Senior Warden Tom Keyse and I spent a couple of hours today with The Rev'd Lynne Butler, CEO and Executive Director of Metro Caring, Denver's leading frontline hunger prevention organization. I was heartened by everything I saw. This is the kind of place that offers real hope to our neighbors in need.

Just a few of the programs I learned about are:
- Healthful Foods Access
- Nutrition and Gardening Education
- Seeds for Success Job Training
- Self Sufficiency Counseling
- Financial Literacy Education
- Identification Document Assistance
- Metro Caring Market
- Legislative Action
- Benefits Enrollment Assistance
Saint John’s Cathedral has members who serve on the board or volunteer in one or more programs. I saw some of those members who were exercising faithful stewardship of their time by sitting with guests of Metro Caring, engaging in conversation, listening, and demonstrating genuine care. It was as if I were witnessing a living tableau of the scene described in the twenty-fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew:

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Mt. 25:31-36)

During lunch after our tour, Lynne told us that one out of four children in this state faces hunger. She also told me that a person enrolled in SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) in Colorado receives $126 per month in food stamps. That’s far less than I would have imagined. She then told me about a challenge that was given to Denver religious leaders in June. Each of us is asked to personally contribute $126 to Metro Caring and then to ask 126 more people to contribute the same amount. If even one of us did that, it would raise $16,000. The funds raised in this campaign will be used by Metro Caring to fight hunger in the following ways:
- Reduce local food waste to ensure all have enough
- End food deserts by going mobile
- End hunger at its root through Seeds for Success, Metro Caring’s signature employment training program for food-industry jobs.
In several ways, it is an awkward time to be doing this because of the start up of fall stewardship campaigns among my friends around the country. However, inasmuch as I am so impressed with the good work being done through Metro Caring, I’m going to make my contribution. If you are moved to do likewise with a gift over and above what you plan to give to your faith community, please do so. This is a personal suggestion and not a Cathedral campaign. Contributions can be made online or by mailing a check to:

Metro Caring
P.O. Box 300459
Denver, CO 80203

Everything I saw today convinces me that Metro Caring will exercise faithful stewardship over our gifts, hope will be restored, and lives will be transformed.

I’ll see you in Church!

The Very Reverend Ronald D. Pogue
Interim Dean
Saint John's Cathedral
Denver, Colorado
August 9, 2016
Now the Green Blade Rises

Three weeks ago, the Lawn of St. John’s Church was covered with snow. A few days after Easter the snow is gone and the grass is amazingly green. I'm reminded one of my favorite Easter hymns, Now the Green Blade Rises. Take a moment to read these wonderful words of new life, hope, and springtime:

Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many years has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

In the grave they laid Him, Love Whom we had slain,
Thinking that He’d never wake to life again,
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

Up He sprang at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain;
Up from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

When our hearts are saddened, grieving or in pain,
By Your touch You call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

We all know those seasons of life when things seem frozen, lifeless, hopeless, or entirely unfair. Easter is God's word of hope that life and love will triumph over all that. In the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, we find that news most perfectly expressed.

May the Great Fifty Days of Easter be filled with reminders of that good news. And, beyond that, may we all be Easter People throughout the year, bringing that message of hope to others.

Enjoy this rendition of the hymn by the Choir of Ely Cathedral.

I’ll see you in Church!

April 8, 2016