Rev. Valerie's Reveille

20/20 Hindsight – a phenomenon of something in the past making complete sense due to current experiences, or wishing you knew then what you know now. This is exactly what happens in our Gospel reading this coming Sunday when we revisit the events of the Last Supper, which we commemorated on Maundy Thursday four weeks ago.  While for us, unlike the apostles, all of these events are well in the past and we understand them through the lens of centuries of theology and liturgical interpretation, think about how our perspective has changed during the last four weeks.  We are in the festival season of Easter and have reclaimed our “Alleluia!”  Spring has actually sprung and the temperatures (sometimes) are beginning to feel much warmer.  We have born witness to terrible natural and human-made tragedies in Iran (earthquake), Texas and Boston.  How do we hear the words, “Love one another as I have loved you” differently in light of these current realities?  ...

Once again we are reminded of just how fragile our lives are when a premier event in our American narrative becomes the backdrop to the reality of evil in our midst. While our hearts and prayers are lifted up for those who died, were injured or traumatized from being in Boston yesterday, we stand with our resurrected Lord and proclaim the Good News, especially in the chaos. Our Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Shori offered this prayer from a peace conference she is attending in Japan: Gracious God, you walk with us through the valley of the shadow of death. We pray that the suffering and terrorized be surrounded by the incarnate presence of the crucified and risen one. May every human being be reminded of the precious gift of life you entered to share with us. May our hearts be pierced with compassion for those who suffer, and for those who have inflicted this violence, for your love is the only healing balm we know. May the dead be received into your enfolding arms, and may ...

We begin our celebration of Holy Week with Palm Sunday in 4 days.   Between my trip to Jerusalem last summer and our Lenten Study of “The Last Week,” my understanding of the significance of this event has deepened greatly.   There were two processions into Jerusalem on that day – the Roman one, bringing Pontius Pilate, from the West, and Jesus and his followers from the East.   The first was a display of military power and presence, the second one the culmination of the journey of a prophet, who goes to Jerusalem to die.   The ruling aristocracy of the Jews attending the Roman procession, while “the least of these” welcomed Jesus and prepared his way with branches from olive trees (there were no palm tree in Jerusalem at that time!) and their own cloaks. The Romans probably paid no attention to the other procession, if they were even aware of it, yet Jesus and his disciples were keenly aware of the other because of the Jews complicit acceptance of Roman rule, ...

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...