Welcoming God. Welcoming Community. Welcoming You.
Join Bishop Curry each week to cultivate a ‘habit of grace.’ A new meditation will be posted on Mondays through May. These meditations can be watched at any time by clicking here.
April 25, 2020
My Holy Week journey was out of sync. In order to prepare our videotaped Easter Day celebration at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, my Easter sermon had to be written and delivered fully 10 days ahead. I centered my mind and heart in the astonishing revelation of the Empty Tomb. Then, with that taping accomplished, I re-entered the narrative of our communal journey, just heading into Palm Sunday. Easter gladness was suddenly a memory, as the sorrows of the Passion once more took center stage. It was a strangely disjointed experience – from Lenten solemnity to Easter exaltation to Passiontide sorrow to Good Friday desolation and back to Easter gladness. There was nothing linear about this journey.
Our calendar this year is out of sync. With the pandemic crisis surrounding us, we are in a continuing state of anxiety and sadness. Though the liturgical calendar says we have made the transition from Lent into Easter season, the reality around us suggests otherwise. Living in the northern hemisphere, we are accustomed to an alignment between the message of resurrection and the bursting forth of spring. But this year neither the world’s vernal renewal from grey to green, nor the church’s liturgical transition from purple to white, is aligned with the continued global struggle with isolation and fear. There is nothing linear about this journey.
Our lives are perpetually out of sync. In fact, this year’s powerful experience of disjunction between season and sensibility is always present to some degree. Things never really progress neatly from challenge to resolution, from pain to pleasure, from sorrow to celebration. A man’s sister dies on the day his daughter gives birth. A priest moves from a celebratory confirmation in the morning to a graveside funeral in the afternoon. A son celebrates college commencement in one state while his grandfather undergoes bypass surgery in another. A marriage is joyfully but quietly solemnized in the midst of pandemic isolation. Neat, predictable cycles are not the way of things. There is nothing linear about this journey.
The apostle Thomas was out of sync. Thomas was not with the other disciples when Jesus appeared to them, huddled behind locked doors. Jesus had renewed their spirits with his spirit and brought them peace. Thomas wanted to see for himself. And so it happened, a week later. “Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt, but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” [John 20:26-29] Of course, even this happy ending is still not the end. Still the disciples will recognize the Risen Christ at some moments, and fail to recognize him at other moments. Still the disciples will endure Jesus’ second departure. Still they will have trials and martyrdom to face. There was nothing linear about their journey.
But having once known the Resurrection, the victorious power of love would now be the object of the apostles’ faith, and the bedrock of their life. Life was still, often enough, full of hardship and sorrow. But now they knew: it was not yet the end. In fact, in so many ways, it was just the beginning – the start of a journey which would never be linear, but which would always be traversed in the knowledge of Christ’s risen presence and with the promise of renewed life and joy.
In Christianity it is called “inaugurated eschatology.” That is Jesus’ message that resurrection is available to us not just in an afterlife, but even now. The grief-stricken find comfort and begin again. The addicted find sobriety. The rejected find love. The frightened find courage. The dispirited find hope. This resurrection we see with our own eyes. And another resurrection is yet to come. This we see only with the eyes of faith – “through a glass, darkly” – entrusting the victims of this dreadful pandemic, and our own loved ones, and ourselves, and this whole sad, broken world of ours – entrusting all of these to the eternal love of God. The resurrection already; the resurrection yet to come. Christ is risen!
Easter is not Easter because the calendar says it is. Easter is not Easter because our springtime world displays it. Easter is not Easter because our lives consistently manifest it. Easter is not holiday good cheer; it is not the stuff of championship parades. Easter is Easter precisely because in the midst of lives which are not linear and experiences which are out of sync, we – like the apostles – journey in the knowledge of Christ’s risen presence and with the promise of renewed life and joy. Our Easter season may feel like an extended Lent this year – but that is precisely when we need it most.
Hear again last Sunday’s word from Saint Paul: “God has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. … In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials. … Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy.” [I Peter 1:3,6,8]
Blessings of these Great Fifty Days to you.
Faithfully and fondly,
+Alan
The Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates
The Boston was to have happened on Monday. It did not. And yes, this quarantine is like a marathon and we have come to the part that in Boston we call Heartbreak Hill —or is it Heart Brake Hill?
No museums are open, nor any playgrounds where out-of-school children can play. No theaters, restaurants or other entertainments are available to us.
For me, the most difficult thing is I can’t walk the beaches on brisk spring days when flowers are in bloom and summer is just ahead.
So, here we are, running through an unwanted, least expected time of stress. This feels a lot like a marathon, and we are reaching the end of tolerance.
Who would have thought a year ago that schools and workplaces would be closed for months or that 25 million Americans would be filing for unemployment? We could not have imagined sheltering at home to stop the spread of a deadly disease. But that is what we are facing, and it is a heart break.
Some of us are fed up and asking why? Some of us are asking, what can I do? So here is some help with that.
Try taking a “heart brake.”
Take this time to do for yourself things you have never had time for or dared to do:
It is a time for us to look outward and to become the bearers of God’s good news through our actions.
I have no doubt that God is with us in this pandemic, asking us to rethink what is and who are important to us. We might face our limitations and maybe even dare to do something we have never done before. Paint a picture. Cook a gourmet meal. Give to someone in need. Take stock of those we have harmed or disliked. Re-assess the issues.
Pray, think, sing! Dance like no one is watching. As I sit here in my dining room, I can hear the someone singing on my street, “When the Saints go marching in!”
Be joyful my friends. We are living in history. What we do today is a measure of our substance. And yes, God is there cheering us on.
Be well, this “heartbreak” can be fixed, and this ‘brake’ is ours for the making of a blessing.
God Bless you all,
The Rev. Joyce Caggiano
Habits of Grace, April 20, 2020: An invitation for you, from Presiding Bishop Curry
Join Bishop Curry each week to cultivate a ‘habit of grace.’ A new meditation will be posted on Mondays through May. These meditations can be watched at any time by clicking here.
I’m writing this because as Christians and citizens it is important that we recognize that the “new normal” everyone is talking about is real. We are facing a subtle but real change in our lives as social beings.
We live in a new volatile world at this moment in time. It reminds me of the fears that must have been experienced during WWII. The Japanese Americans were put in camps out of fear that they were our enemy. Men who were rejected by the Armed Services were ostracized. People who had access to desired resources became special. Befriending the right people might get you the things you needed or wanted.
Today we are living in a different world than any of us have ever known. For example, I am home schooling my grandchildren. The first week was frustrating. Not enough bandwidth on the internet. The second week was better. The third week was miserable. The fourth week we have settled in to OUR new normal.
Many people, including myself, are making masks so that people can protect themselves from an invisible enemy that seems to be winning this war. I am also sewing medical gowns for my daughter’s nursing home staff. Why? Because there is a scarcity and inadequacy of vitally necessary equipment. Something none of us could have imagined only months ago.
A few days ago, I went to my favorite local discount fabric store to buy fabric for the medical gowns. The owner of the store (whom I’d never met before) gave me 50 yards of nylon waterproof fabric for $2 per yard. That made 25 gowns. Yesterday I went back to purchase the last of his supply.
But this time the owner wasn’t there. When I placed my bolt of fabric on the counter, I asked if I could receive the discounted price. (Full price was $2.99 per yard). The clerk looked at me suspiciously and refused to give me the discount. She told me I could wait for the owner if I wanted. I couldn’t. Then she looked at me with a subtle kind of fear and told me to step back away from her. There was a very large counter between us at least five feet wide. I stepped back and paid the full price for the same fabric. I left feeling sadness and frustration.
Are we afraid of one another now more than before? Have you noticed that people who are carefully “social distancing” are sometimes actually unfriendly? Are we more suspicious of one another? Is this the new social order? When we are hoarding, it means taking more than we need and the result is that others don’t have enough. Is this what we WANT?
Living as a community is more important than ever. As a parish community this pandemic makes our work critical to the health of our world. The only way through this pandemic is to hold tight to the things that matter. Not physical things but the things that make our lives rich with joy and peace and generosity. Our faith in a God that loves us through the most difficult circumstances. A God that never leaves us. Emmanuel Church is like many Christian communities today, struggling to make our way back to normal. But normal today is new and different. The “different” needs to shape us into better people, the way that Jesus taught us. The WAY that makes us children of the light, bearers of love and compassion. The WAY of the Lord, the one who will carry us into life again and again and again.
I miss you all and pray for you. Be well, be safe, be generous, patient and compassionate. Our faithfulness will bring us into the “new normal” full of the glories of God.
Peace to you, my friends,
The Rev. Joyce Caggiano
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LITURGIES OF THE HEART April 8, 2020
Well, here we are in the strangest Holy Week ever experienced. Some of us found solace in the quiet, sometimes sad, contemplative liturgies of Holy Thursday, and Good Friday.
For many Lutherans the Good Friday Passion is the highlight of the liturgical year. In Germany that is very evident. Perhaps those of you who come from that tradition feel that. When I was a girl, my friends and I would go out to buy new hats, the Easter Bonnet. Then, perhaps even a whole outfit for Easter. It was a chance to be extravagant and elegant, sometimes even with white gloves. My brothers would laugh at us and say that we were wearing ‘lamp shades’ on our heads.
So, this morning I was experimenting with the masks I am making, perhaps adding feathers or lace to them! How funny they looked. I was going to send a picture to you all but then I saw myself in the mirror and thought…. hmmmm, NO. Maybe my brothers were right!
The shopping and dressing up was all part of the preparation and the buildup for the big day – Easter – the celebration of the Resurrection. Being ‘shut in’ by the virus raging around us gives us pause to hold on to what is most valuable, to appreciate one another and the gift of our church. We won’t be able to see one another. No hats or masks of any kind will be viewed or commented on, no listening to blessed music, smelling candles burning, feeling the silence and comfort of just being in that beautiful loved and lovely space.
Alas, Jesus gets the final word even on this. I imagine him saying, “find it in yourselves”. The true Resurrection is there. It comes from the finest of God’s gifts, Grace. And you can’t buy that in any store. It is in the storeroom of your heart. Sit still, call upon the Lord, recognize God’s presence, open yourself to the love so abundantly shared and be at peace this Holy Week and Easter. In the meantime, there is talk of a huge celebration after we are cleared for socializing! A feast of extraordinary proportions!
That resurrection will surely light a fire in our hearts. In the meantime, stay close to one another in the distances we are permitted and remember that Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper, celebrated on Maundy Thursday and that the death of Jesus on Friday was GOOD – because life begins when all is lost and we are brought to our knees in adoration of the greatest gift of all, God’s son, Jesus.
With love,
The Rev. Joyce Caggiano
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Unexpected Aspects of a Forced Retreat
The other day I was unexpectedly surprised to notice silence in the middle of the day!
Yes, silence. It may not seem like much, but I live very close to Mattapan Square. Although my house is on a secluded side street, the noise of buzzing motorcycles, trucks, buses and emergency vehicles is so common that the absence of them struck me as strange.
So, I began to ponder the wonders of this strange time of staying inside away from friends and family. It is a kind of “retreat” and I suppose we can take it as a religious retreat if we choose to see it that way. Of course, for some of us, healthcare workers and essential workers this is NOT a retreat at all. We must fervently pray for those who are keeping the world together. Pray that a sense of peace and meaning can be found amidst the noise and tumult of this time.
I was planning a religious retreat only a few weeks ago. It was to take place last weekend. It was cancelled, of course. The funny thing is that the content of that retreat I was planning – was going to help us find methods of discovering our inner voice. The inner voice where so often God resides. It was supposed to encourage silence and focus for our inward lives. No one could have known that the Coronavirus would hit us in this powerful way, leaving everyone in an odd state mentally, physically and emotionally. Separating us from the hustle of everyday life, alone and away… like a retreat.
This is an opportunity to open our hearts and minds and our senses…. to the wonderful blessings we have been given. Today I can hear the birds singing. I get to spend many hours with my grandchildren Nino and Eli. I am teaching them. What a great and wonderful experience. Their joy and laughter shiver through me like a balm. I watch as they sparkle when a new concept is grasped.
Each of us today has an opportunity to focus on what is important and who is important to us. I pray that we do not squander this time but bring it into our consciousness so as to enhance our lives and bring us to a new understanding of God at work in the world.
We have a chance to FaceTime with people we may never thought we would and to listen to each other. To talk on the phone.
Most of all, though we are all kept inside, we now have an opportunity to ponder the gifts we have been given. Gifts that are not earned but are simply there. Grace. God’s Grace will bring us through this time of challenge. While in it, we are called to BE PRESENT to the experience. Feel the immeasurable love that God has for us and to give in ways we never thought possible. To Love one another through this incredible time of need.
My heart goes out to you all. It is a heart full of peace and joy (most of the time) at being able to see and hear all of you in a different way.
God Bless you.
The Rev. Joyce Caggiano
