Rev. Valerie's Reveille

Since hearing about the tragic events in Newtown, CT last Friday, I have had a lump in my stomach and an ache in my heart.   Our souls cry out at the lose of the innocent and brave. We grieve for people we have never met, for a community where we have never lived.   The bond of our humanity is enough to be touched by such pain.   And we wish we could make it go away. I think that is the reason why I heard that some neighbors of those who lost a loved one thought it was the right thing to take down their Christmas decorations.   They felt that it was "wrong" to be joyful in the midst of such aguish.   While I can understand that line of thinking, I would adamantly recommend against it because taking down the decorations because it won't undo the events and it invites the darkness to over come us.    The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, The Most Rev. Katharine Jeffert Shori, wrote a wonderful op ed for The Huffington Post in respons...

I had a couple of people ask me if the Church of England’s decision last week to not allow women to be elected as bishops has any impact on The Episcopal Church.   The short answer is no.   The Episcopal Church is completely independent from the Church of England in our polity (political structure).   We make decisions for our Church at the General Convention held every 3 years.   The Church of England makes decisions for their Church at their General Council held every 3 years.   While both groups claim fidelity to the Anglican Communion, their General Council’s decisions do not impact any of the independent churches that share a common ancestry with the Anglican Church. A bit of history – The Episcopal Church’s General Convention voted to allow for the ordination of women at the 1976 General Convention.   At that time, a long theological debate about whether or not to limit the ordination of women to only deacons or priests had taken place. ...

In Sunday's Gospel reading from Mark 9:38-48, our beloved Lord uses that horrifying 4-letter word "hell" over and over again. By talking about cutting off body parts and being thrown into an "unquenchable fire," our minds are full of every terrifying horror movie ever produced mixed in with our own nightmares of whatever "hell" is. The problem is that Jesus NEVER used the "hell." The word that gets translated as "hell" is "Gehenna," which was literally the garbage dump in Jerusalem. Guess what they did with their garbage in Jesus' time - they BURNED it. With a never ending source of fuel, Gehenna was constantly on fire (and probably smelled awful too!). Our concept of "hell" - fire, devils and pitchforks - is from Milton's epic Paradise Lost, not the Bible. Our own understanding of the biblical text is co-opted because of the connotations the word "hell" has for us. As a result, the po...

As I am writing at my desk in Monmouth Junction, NJ, looking out at an absolutely gorgeous day – bright blue sky, a pleasant 72 degrees and low humidity – my thoughts and prayers are with those on the Gulf Coast as they endure yet another natural disaster. It is poetic irony that on the 7 th Anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Isaac comes ashore and reminds all of us that nature will take its course, for good or ill.   We must remember, however, that weather is weather and not a judgment by God.   There really isn’t “good weather” and “bad weather.” That is a conclusion made by our expectations of what we want and how it effects us.   Rain on a wedding day may be considered “bad” by a bride and “good” by a farmer.   We think of hurricanes as “bad” because they disrupt our lives in extreme ways, but they are not a punishments meted out by an angry God. Weather is part of the mystery and wonder of creation in which humans are an integral...

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world (outside of Israel) the Olympics are being held, Syria is a mess, people continue to struggle with their finances, family members die.   As amazing as my pilgrimage to the Holy Land was (and trust me, you will be hearing about it for years to come), the reality is we don’t live in Jerusalem 2000 years ago, and neither does Jesus.   He is alive today in you, me, our church, our community and our world.   Coming back to St. Barnabas only reaffirmed my belief in our need for Christ in our lives and commitment to sharing his love even more than before.     Reflecting on the past helps us understand how it shapes our present and what that can do to our future.   Can we willingly be like those olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane and be graphed onto old roots to sprout a new future?   I think we have already begun to do this at St. Barnabas, and there is more we can do, with God’s help.   Nothing is more powerfu...

Thursday evening, our pilgrimage (which consists of 27 people, including the Bishop) was invited to meet with The Rt. Rev. Suheil Dawani, the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem. Due to an emergency in Ramallah, we met at 9:30 at night (no rest for a Bishop!). Bishop Dawani was very gracious as he told us about his Diocese, which covers 5 (yes, 5!) countries. At this point only about 1% of those living in the Holy Land are Christian. They need our prayers and support. Bishop Dawani mentioned that he is the 4th indigenous bishop, and his people trace their Christian roots back to Pentecost. These people are the first Christians and we need to keep Christianity in the Holy Land. They refer to their ministry in the Diocese as "The Living Stones," and from what. we have experienced here, they certainly are. One Friday we began our final sessions together with a reenactment of the Palm Sunday walk. We started in Beth-fa-ge (the correct pronunciation of Bethpage). We couldn't g...

We got up early on Tuesday morning to begin our journey back to Jerusalem with a stop at Mt. Tabor, where many believe is the site of the Transfiguration (Matt 17; Mark 9) - where Jesus is raised up in front of Peter, James and John in clothes of dazzling white and Moses and Elijah appear with him. (We celebrate this event on the last Sunday of Epiphany, right before Ash Wednesday). There is a magnificent Roman Catholic Church dedicated to that event on the top of the mountain. We had to take vans up a switchback road to get to the top (Bishop George said he experienced it for the first time in a small Mercedes going about 110 mph - not something he missed this time!) Once again, because of Iyad's, our guide, insistence on an early start, we were the first ones there that morning. It was beautiful - though a bit windy and foggy. We saw several groups, including Youth Groups, that were making the trek up or down the mountain on foot - that would take awhile! It is a rather ...