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Allison Grisham
Bell Tower Reflection for 4/24/20
By Allison Grisham
Kermit the Frog was wrong. It IS easy being green. We just have to understand what it means to be “green.” I’m not talking about recycling or solar energy, although we would be better off with more of those. I’m talking about being IN the color green.
Before COVID-19, doctors in the US were beginning to prescribe “Forest Bathing” for their patients. Forest Bathing is like taking a guided meditation through a nature space. It focuses the mind on the present through the five senses as a way of connecting deeply to nature. Practitioners show decreases in blood pressure and stress hormones. Forest Bathing sounds like something we could all use right now.
If you can, please get out into God’s creation this week. Find a socially isolated space. Listen to the birds singing; smell the oils from the trees; touch the earth beneath your feet, sand, dirt, rock, grass, or water. Stay there and be fully present and fully alive in that moment of grace.
All of us may not be able to get out to Rattlesnake Canyon or hike Cold Spring Trail, and those of us who can, may find the trailheads are too crowded for social distancing. In those cases, I have another idea.
I wonder if we could get the same relaxation benefits of Forest Bathing in our backyard or from a large houseplant. What if we were to lie down under a tree or bush in our backyard or to put our head under a houseplant, noticing it and our breath for ten minutes. How would we feel afterwards if we spent those ten minutes in awareness of the green that God has made?
Some of us in our congregation are housebound. For others, sticking your head under a bush is not an option. However, we have windows. From our windows, we can see beauty in God’s creation anywhere we look. Etty Hillesum had such a window.
Etty was a young Jewish woman in Nazi transit camp prior to being sent to her death in Auschwitz. While looking out her window, she wrote this entry to God: “The jasmine behind my house has been completely ruined by the rains and storms of the last few days, its white blossoms are gloating about in muddy black pools on the low garage roof. But somewhere inside me the jasmine continues to blossom undisturbed, just as profusely and delicately as it ever did. You can see, I look after You, I bring You not only my tears and my forebodings on the stormy, grey Sunday morning, but I even bring you scented jasmine. And I shall bring You all the flowers I shall meet on my way, and truly there are many of those. I shall try to make you at home always. Even if I should be locked up in a narrow cell and a cloud should drift past my small barred window, then I shall bring You that cloud, oh God, where is still the strength in me to do so. I cannot promise You anything for tomorrow but my intensions are good. You can see.”
When we are in the color green, we are calmer and less reactive and more responsive to God. Like Etty, our hearts and minds are filled with thanksgivings, and we can make an offering of our worries to God and feel them melt away. I hope that your week may be filled with God’s green.
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Benjamin Hanson
Bell Tower Reflection for 4/17/20
By Benjamin Hanson
Before the closures caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the All Saints Choir was preparing music for Easter Sunday. We were planning to present excerpts from Vivaldi’s musical setting of the ancient prayer, Gloria in excelsis Deo, or “Glory to God on high.” Now that Easter has come and gone, I find myself reflecting on this piece and how it can serve us even in isolation.
Vivaldi’s setting takes the text of the Gloria and “zooms in” to it, expanding the short prayer into a thirty-minute long song of praise by repeating lines of the text, ornamenting each word with different sounds and musical textures, and approaching each line from a different perspective. By “zooming in” to the text and working to find beauty beneath the surface of the prayer, the composer reveals hidden facets of praise in the text of the Gloria that range from joy and love, to awe and penitence. In a way, the composer has looked past the earthly prayer to search for the inspiration behind it. The composer looks past the Gloria to look for God.
The process of exploring a text in this way is a familiar one for choir singers. Choirs spend weeks or months rehearsing a piece of music before they perform it. This process allows time for each member of the ensemble to live with the words of the song, meditate on their many meanings, and explore every dimension of the poetry or scripture before finally presenting their interpretation of the lyrics through performance. The choir takes time to zoom in on every piece they perform, looking to understand it from every possible angle, and to find hidden beauty in doing so. By living with these texts for so long, the choir has the opportunity to sense the beauty of God’s creation and inspiration in every piece they sing.
In this time of isolation, I find exercising this practice in all areas of life to be more important than ever. While confined to our homes we have no choice but to linger in familiar places and patterns in our lives. In this time we have the opportunity to zoom in our daily routines and on the relationships we share with our loved ones, and to consider these everyday things from a new perspective. In doing so we can look for God in the mundane moments of our lives, knowing that God is always there. There is no greater comfort in times of crisis.
I’ll leave you with the text of the Gloria as it appears in the BCP. In reading it, perhaps you can zoom in to the text to look for beauty of God between the lines, as well. If you care to listen to Vivaldi’s setting of the text I discussed above, you can find a quality performance here.
Glory be to God on high,
and on earth peace, good will towards men.
We praise thee, we bless thee,
we worship thee,
we glorify thee,
we give thanks to thee for thy great glory,
O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty.
O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ;
O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,
that takest away the sins of the world,
have mercy upon us.
Thou that takest away the sins of the world,
receive our prayer.
Thou that sittest at the right hand of God the Father,
have mercy upon us.
For thou only art holy;
thou only art the Lord;
thou only, O Christ,
with the Holy Ghost,
art most high in the glory of God the Father. Amen.
-David Boyd
Perhaps you have heard it said, “This is the Lentiest of Lents I’ve ever Lented.” That being the case, how much truer that this will be the Holiest of Holy Weeks we’ve ever Holied! The parades of palms have been cancelled. The plans we made months ago are undergoing changes of drastic proportions. Easter feasts with extended family are delayed. What does this mean for Holy Week and Easter, the holiest time of our Christian year?
This pandemic has called us to rethink church, not only how we do church, but what it means to be church. In this time of social distancing and stay-at-home orders, we recall that church is more than a building, but a body. Yet, what does it mean when that body is distanced?
This shift in perspective brings us back to how the church got started in the first place. In secret, behind closed doors, in family homes, Christians gathered for centuries in perilous places to proclaim the crucified and risen Christ. The risk of being discovered was death for these early Christians. In some corners of our world, it still is. We must remember that God’s church has survived much— much more than even this.
This Holy Week and Easter, I invite you to join our early Christian siblings, our present-day persecuted siblings, and Christians around the globe in observing the holiest Holy Week and Easter at home. We will provide you with a lovely Home Triduum Liturgy for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil. These services are set around your dinner table or hearth, as you remember the stories that save us. The Home Easter Vigil service even ends with an invitation to have a party, complete with Easter music playlists! We will provide links to these service bulletins and music playlists on Monday.
At Noon on Good Friday, I will offer a Zoom Stations of the Cross service. I invite you all to join and pray at the hour our Lord hung upon the cross for the sake of the world’s salvation. A link to Zoom Stations of the Cross will be provided in our Good Friday Invitation to Prayer email.
Easter Sunday we will worship together through our Virtual Sunday Service. We will sing Easter hymns, pray for ourselves and for the world, and proclaim the saving power of the Resurrected Christ! I invite you to have a bell on hand to ring whenever we say or sing the “A” word. While you eat your Easter meal, play one of the Easter playlists, pop some champagne or sparkling cider, and celebrate the Feast of Victory for our God!
Holy Week and Easter are still the holiest of days for us. At the core of our identity as Christians is Jesus— God with us— who lived, and died, and rose again. The Risen Christ comes among us even now, especially in our isolation at home. I invite you to experience Holy Week and Easter anew, from the safety of your home, gathered in Spirit with Christians praying at home around the world.
Proclaim the victory of Christ’s death and resurrection, for the sake of your salvation, and for the sake of our broken and suffering world.
In Resurrection hope,
Rev. Aimée
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
We want you to know that All Saints is navigating this challenging time very well, all things considered. We have systems in place to safely carry out bill paying, payroll, and other essential functions. The Vestry is involved in reaching out across the parish to see that we are all connected and well cared for, and we will be having our regular monthly meeting via a Zoom teleconference in a few days. The Facilities Committee remains in charge of the Sanctuary Preservation and Readiness Project (SPRP), with meetings by phone. Our financial reserves continue to be managed by West Coast Financial in an agreed to and recently reviewed mix of stocks and bonds, and the SPRP funds are all invested in money market accounts.
We are now meeting with Rev. Aimée once a week by phone, so that we three can support each other and also quickly deal with any issues that arise. Aimée has done a terrific job of providing worship and spiritual resources for us, including virtual worship each Sunday, several opportunities for online connection and prayer each week, and a host of other resources you can find on our website. Rev. Vicki is coordinating the match-up of folks that need some help with folks able to help, and Fr. Paul (along with Aimée and Vicki) continues to look after our pastoral needs. Our dedicated lay staff is working away as usual, mostly remotely.
There really is not much else for us to do, other than stay safe and centered, be kind to each other, and await the end of this trying time.
One thing that is important relates to those who support All Saints financially through weekly offerings (envelopes or other). Please do keep those offerings flowing. You can send us checks by mail, or you can make donations by credit card on the website (lower right-hand corner of the main page, “Donate Now” button). Even better, you can contact our staff accountant Cynthia Breen, to arrange a regular, automatic payment; this can be an automated debit to your bank account (ACH) or a regular credit card payment. She is working remotely, so please initiate contact by email and then set up a time to talk as needed.
Blessings,
George Ittner
Tom Mack
Rev. Vicki Mouradian
Bell Tower Reflection for 3/20/20
by Rev. Vicki
This morning, as usual, I awoke in the dark. As a morning person, I love to greet the day and experience the beauty of gradual daylight. As I took the dogs for a walk, I noticed a small golden light shining through tree branches, and I realized it was a crescent moon hanging low in the sky. It stirred in me a sense of well being and gratitude for the beauty of creation. It engaged me in a moment of Celtic spirituality, a type of Christian devotion. I’ve always likened this spirituality to time spent under a waterfall washing away that which is heavy on my heart and refreshing it with joy.
The natural world was the only world the ancient Celts knew. They lived with and prayed to and worshiped a God who surrounded them as truly as the fresh air of their green world did. Their intense and natural devotion suggests that the closer we are to nature, the more apt we are to pray and the more fervent our prayers will become. It seems that God so filled the pre-Christian Celtic spirit with the love of creation that when they met Christ, that love naturally spilled over into their Christian worship. Everywhere they looked, they saw the creative love and almighty nature of the holy Trinity. They believed that their prayers would endure forever. They would live in the air and they would move others like the breeze of Pentecost.
During this time of Coronavirus, a time of uncertainty when we are asked to go against the grain of our normal daily life, let us seek refreshing ways to draw closer to our Triune God so we can embrace a new normal. Let us find comfort in the small things, see beauty in what we once thought dull, realize our blessings to dispel our fears, and give compassion to our neighbor through prayer and other means. Let us be aware that the knowledge we gain during this time of trial may be a source of blessing in the future.
In the beginning, O God,
your Spirit swept over the chaotic deep like a wild wind
and creation was born.
In the turbulence of my own life
and the unsettled waters of the world today
let there be new birthings of your Spirit.
In the currents of my own heart
and the upheavals of the world today
let there be new birthings of your mighty Spirit.
–J. Philip Newell
Eventide Reflection – March 20, 2019
Good eventide.
Today’s reading is from Jeremiah 18:1-
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him.
Then the word of the LORD came to me: Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the LORD. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings. “
We have probably all heard the metaphor of being clay, sculpted and perfected and changed by God. When my daughter was a student at Westmont college, they had the mission called Potter’s Clay, where they partner with Ensenada…changing both the lives of the people they serve, as well as the students.
I have been thinking lately about the changes we still need to make in regards to the gender and power gaps, that the Me Too movement is shedding some light on today. From Harvey Weinstein to Les Moonves to the Catholic church to campus sexual assault, to politicians, accounts of sexual misconduct have made violence against primarily women and children one of the most pressing moral issues confronting us. Unfortunately, these are not just random cases in farflung media, but in our own community as well, including complicit bystanders who do not speak up. One privilege of patriarchy is that it is invisible to those who are privileged by it—invisible benefits, a priceless thing. It would never occur to most men to worry about walking down the street, for fear of comments that strangers might make about their bodies. A man on the street never, ever has to worry about being assaulted if he takes off his shirt. And the racial counterpart is, a white person doesn’t have to worry about police when they have done nothing wrong. The main problem is an abuse of power that leads someone to use another for human being for self gratification and silence them. In patriarchy, being female is considered deficient, which is why infanticide of girl babies continues in the 21st century on this planet. A considerable amount of men choose to use their power to abuse and exploit women. Lurking in this patriarchal framework, Misogyny goes even further, where women are hated, silenced and punished.
Do you think sexual harassment is a women’s issue? Funny how those who dominate the public discourse (men) have managed to erase themselves from this story. A real man is not the one with the most notches on his belt; but rather, the one who treats women as equals, who stands up for them with their dignity and humanity are under assault or disrespect. Men are often judged and portrayed in our media as a marketed machismo of ballfields, bedrooms and billfolds (athletic prowess, sexual conquest and financial success). It is our time to teach our boys as well as girls to defend anyone on the receiving end of power’s unholy play, so the next generation of boys/men will be proud of their ability to form honest and respectful relationships, and defend the bodily integrity of women, men, girls, and those of gender differences as well. We could just call them all children of God. Even in Christian tradition, we don’t have a lot of tales about the power of women; and many religions still put women as just support for the male positions of ministry. Compare that to the old testament, wherein Exodus and Numbers, we see that Moses’s sister and wife have more influence on Moses then Aasron does; they were respected consultants, not vocational appendages.
Much of this problem comes to an imbalance of power. The wife who knows her husband is abusing their daughters, but has no financial or emotional power to leave…the supervisor who cannot leave her job, even though her boss threatens her loss of position if she reports sexual blackmail. The patriarchy of our society is the main problem we need to address. Even conservative Christians who preach that the man runs the home and controls the wife as an unequal…seemingly forgetting both men and women were created in God’s own image.
Within our Christian tradition, the moral value of “no sex until marriage” is even a sexual ethic that I believe needs to be questioned; first of all because it has been proven to be ineffective; and primarily, it focuses on one sexual behavior, with no guidance on relationship or the power to make your own decisions; someone else’s rule is not empowering. Yes we ascribe to the values of the 10 commandments; but girls need to have the power to make their own rules about their bodies.
So what can we do? We can enable the conversations of those whose minds have not been fully shaped and imprisoned by 20th century notions of gender differences. We can demand respect for all. Going further, we need to honor diverse ways of being; and though we don’t need to amend every psalm to include all 31 genders recognized by the city of New York, we do need to honor diverse ways of gender identification and live the words of Marty Haugen’s hymn “All are welcome.” The inclusivity and elasticity of the “All” welcomes a transgender person, (one of the most bullied societal sectors today), an immigrant, a homeless person, someone transitioning gender and truly All. I think AS does a fabulous job of walking the talk of welcoming all; sadly, not all churches do this. We need to speak up as Christians, as this is not only a legal issue, it is a moral issue; it is not only a women’s issue, it is a human issue, and affects us all. And if the use of the voice in praise of God is one of the continuities that bind us all, then the practice of worship might actually be inclusive beyond gender, and beyond the imbalance of power many women live with. I believe this would form and sculpt us more into the clay God would be proud of…vessels of love… which would be good news indeed.
Learn MoreEventide Reflection – Feb. 5, 2019
February, the month of Valentine’s, brought us to our first Eventide supper in the Parish House. It was so cozy, with a warm fire burning, the attached words on love by Barbra Mousouris, a delicious green salad by David & Alyce Boyd, vegetarian ginger soup for supper, and yummy dessert treats from Robert Brown. We hope you will join us for this wonderful time of peace, reflection, music and companionship Wednesday evenings in the Parish House! Dinners will be monthly for now.
Good eventide.
The new testament reading for this fourth week after Epiphany is 1 Corinthians 13, which I am guessing is very familiar to most of you. I often quote it in weddings:
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
We spiritual beings who attend church are truly surrounded by the teaching of Love…as well as the people who are actually walking the talk of love. For many, the All Saints community is family. And family hopefully loves one another unconditionally. We share a deep heart common bond as faithful Christians, and much of this dedication is the understanding and agreement that Love is paramount to our walking the talk of Christ. And so this word that we use so much, but still never seems trite or overused… Love.
So what IS love? It is not just an emotional feeling. Rather, it is a deep commitment to the happiness of others. In the case of a couple, your partner. Marriage is a most generous act of giving up your freedom for your partner’s needs and happiness. Marriage is a lifelong commitment to give love, care and support your partner. Marriage is a strong bond of love and compassion, not to be broken by any challenges that may occur during the entire lifetime. Your partner is the best and most immediate person to whom you give unconditional love, listen from your heart to his or her needs, concerns and feelings, and with whom you communicate deeply, honestly and clearly.
To love is not to possess, to own or imprison, not to lose one’s self in another. Love is to join and separate, to walk alone and together, to find a laughing freedom that lonely isolation does not permit. It is finally to be able to be who we really are, no longer clinging in dependency, nor living separate lives in silence, but to be perfectly one’s true self, and perfectly joined in permanent commitment to another—and to one’s inner self. Love only endures when it moves like waves, receding and returning gently or passionately. Moving lovingly like the tide in the moon’s own predictable harmony…in your heart, Where true and lasting love can abide.”
That is romantic love. What other kinds of love are there? The Bible tells us GOD IS LOVE, and Jesus Christ taught us to love one another.
Four unique forms of love are found in the Bible. They are communicated through four Greek words: Eros, or sensual romantic love, in the Bible predicated on marriage; Storge (“storjay”), or family love, the affectionate bond that develops naturally between parents and children, and brothers and sisters. Many examples of family love are found in Scripture, such as the mutual protection among Noah and his wife, the love of Jacob for his sons, and the strong love the sisters Martha and Mary had for their brother Lazarus. An interesting compound word using storge, “philostorgos,” is found in Romans 12:10, which commands believers to “be devoted” to one another with brotherly affection.
Philia (Pronounced: FILL-ee-uh) is the type of love in the Bible that most Christians practice toward each other. This Greek term describes the powerful emotional bond seen in deep friendships. Philia is the most general type of love in Scripture, encompassing love for fellow humans, care, respect, and compassion for people in need. The concept of brotherly love that unites believers is unique to Christianity. Jesus said philia would be an identifier of his followers: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” (John 13:35, NIV)
Agape (Pronounced: Uh-GAH-pay) is the highest of the four types of love in the Bible. This term defines God’s immeasurable, incomparable love for humankind. It is the divine love that comes from God. Agape love is perfect, unconditional, sacrificial, and pure. Jesus Christ demonstrated this kind of divine love to his Father and to all humanity in the way he lived and died. Following his resurrection, Jesus asked the apostle Peter if he loved him (agape). Peter replied three times that he did, but the word he used was phileo or brotherly love. Peter had not yet received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; he was incapable of agape love. But after Pentecost, Peter was so full of God’s love that he spoke from his heart and 3,000 people were converted.
All of us want to love like Jesus. We want to be generous, forgiving, and compassionate enough to love people unconditionally. But no matter how hard we try, somehow we fall short. Our humanness gets in the way. We can love, but we can’t do it perfectly. Learn the secret to loving like Jesus by abiding in him.
And in closing I would love to share one of my favorite poems on love by Roy Croft:
Love by Roy Croft
I love you
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.
I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what You are making of me.
I love you For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can’t help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find
I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple.
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.
I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good.
And more than any fate
Could have done
To make me happy.
You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself.
…And so I wonder, when is a time you have truly felt embraced by Love? Thank you for sharing your heart!
Learn MoreBy Robert Brown
Shared at Eventide, April 26th, 2017
Read John 17: 20-26
In this passage from the Gospel of John is a continuation of Jesus’ petition to his God, our God, on behalf of his disciples. This intercession follows the lengthy discourse he presents to his disciples at the last supper in the upper room.
If we go back a few chapters in John’s gospel, and read through to today’s passage, we find a number of quotes wherein Jesus explicates what’s going on in the present moment, what is to come in the next few days, what things will be like after his death and resurrection, and what all this means for them, and for the world.
It’s really quite a bit of concentrated and rich personal, social, spiritual and theological information. It’s interesting for me to wonder how the disciples may have heard these foundational points, as I continue to evolve and grow in my own understanding of them.
Starting at the beginning of chapter 13, here are a few highlights leading up to today’s passage:
Peter’s objection to Jesus washing his feet, and the resulting commandment: “For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”
Jesus refutes Peter’s claim: “I will lay down my life for you.” Peter’s 3 denials follow.
Jesus responds to Thomas’ claim to not know where Jesus is going. “I am the way,and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Jesus assures the disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever.”
And: “ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”
From Chapter 15: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
And from just a few verses before today’s passage: Speaking to God of his disciples: “They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”
The gospel according to John is seen by Biblical scholars as fundamentally different than the other three synoptic gospels. This gospel contains a full compliment of theological assertions, principles and explanations, which theologians and scholars have been working with since Jesus’ time. It’s likely that scholars, theologians and all of humanity will continue to attempt to fully understand, in a systematic and coherent way, not just the gospel of John, but all of Holy Scripture.
All Christians, believers who walk the faith journey, have their relationship with both Scripture and with God, and this journey is one of evolving understandings of meanings and beliefs. In this sense you and I are all theologians, because of our interest in understanding God, the nature of human nature, and the relationship between God, humanity, and all of Creation.
So the gospel passage will be read again. This time see what stands out for you, what you see as having special meaning for you. All reflections are welcome shared or silent.
Read John 17: 20-26
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