Rev. Valerie's Reveille

In the poem Mending Wall, Robert Frost muses that, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,” yet one of the characters offers the refrain, “Good fences make good neighbors.” Usually the context of the wall offers more or less of a visceral reaction.  Before it fell, the Berlin Wall was a harsh testament to the repression of Communism, erected to keep out influences those in power deemed dangerous.  It felt like a victory of social progression when that wall came down, but now a similar wall is being constructed in Israel to separate the Jews and the Palestinians.  This new wall draws a stark line between those in political power, access to resources and the ability to live freely.  The Israelis believe this “fence” to make good neighbors, but the Palestinians do not. The Fourth Sunday of Easter is known as “Good Shepherd Sunday,” when we reflect on one of Jesus’ provocative metaphors to explain his mission and ministry to his followers.  Interestingly...

It is something we prefer not to think about, and often avoid the subject all together because it makes us uncomfortable, or there might be a better time to do it later, or . . . The TRUTH is we will all die one day.  It is what our mortal bodies are made to do. It is the natural end to life, yet it is still shrouded with mystery and sadness, which is why we are so good at avoiding the topic or distracting ourselves with life and all its activities. I can tell you from personal experience that when death happens, it interrupts all our regularly scheduled plans, even if the death is expected, even welcomed.   The reality that a loved one is gone changes life. But what makes that moment easier to deal with is KNOWING what arrangements our loved one wanted. As the Church begins our annual remembrance of Jesus’ passion and death during Holy Week, it is a good time to think about our own death and what arrangements we want.  This is not a morbid fascination with deat...

When the idea of expounding upon the fruit of the Spirit throughout Lent was taking shape, I immediately knew that I wanted to “save” the fruit of faithfulness for Holy Week. There is an organic connection between the dramatic emotional journey we engage in during this time and our desire for faithfulness in lives, especially during difficult and trying times. Although the triumphant “end” is in sight, we do ourselves a disservice if we neglect our spiritual development if we do not walk with Jesus from the celebratory entry into Jerusalem, to the Passover table, to the garden and to the cross. Our own faithfulness is inspired and bestowed upon us through Jesus’ sacrifice. All of the fruit of the Spirit are clearly present in Jesus’ life and actions.  He is the embodiment of what it looks like to live according to God’s will and how it allows us to be closer to God.  Yet the Gospels show us that it is not easy to follow God’s will, even when you are God incarnate.  A...

In the era of “Reality TV,” where bad behavior gets one elevated to celebrity status, even a modicum of self-control is ridiculed.   It has no sense of drama or angst associated with it, and so it fades into the background with other traits like honesty, wisdom and responsibility. The last mentioned fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5:23, self-control usually gets relegated to diet-related aspects of our behavior, “If I had more self-control, I wouldn’t eat this donut.”   But this is a superficial way of engaging in a crucial part of our spiritual lives. As St. Paul writes to the Romans, “I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” (Romans 7:18b-19) It seems to be part of human nature to work against our better selves, to work against God’s will in our lives, even when we know better.  Relying on the ideal of self-control as a something initiated from within the individual sets us up f...

As I have mentioned before, I am a recovering English teacher.  I have a fascination with words and their roots - their etymology - because it defines the core of a word, where it came from and its original meaning.  Usually such archaeology is helpful in understand a words meaning in a modern context, such as passion really means “suffering” and the prefix pur- of the word purpose means “fire.”  Uncovering origins is also helpful in other areas of our lives, as we seek to understand the causes of things in our lives, whether that is stress, fear, gratitude or hope.  We are blessed that our Gospel lesson for this week from John 9 also seeks to understand the cause of a man’s blindness; and (as luck would have it!) we will have our Lenten Healing Service on this Sunday as well.  A great confluence of events! The characters in the Gospel seek to know why a man is blind and offer the interpretation that it is a manifestation of God’s disfavor due to sin, eit...

In Charles Dicken’s classic tale Oliver Twist , the protagonist asks, “May I have some more, sir?” The responds is less than cordial, informing Oliver that he will need to earn his keep and he should be grateful for what he gets.  Unfortunately, many of us have this or similar experiences in life, when everything seems to be in short supply, especially money, time and energy.  It can greatly affect the way we look at life and live it – starting from a place of scarcity and needing to stockpile things in order to feel any sense of security. It may be helpful to think of the spiritual fruit of generosity as a balm for this approach to life.  We need to be healed from the fear and anger that comes with the disease of scarcity in order to acknowledge and feel the reality of God’s abundance.  There is always more from God, more than we can ask or imagine – and I know we have great imaginations.  It might not be what we think we need, like more money or security,...

Kindness – it can be a banal description of a person when someone doesn't know what else to say.  It is not a negative trait, but it lacks the punch of “vivacity” or “spunk”.  And yet kindness is a fruit of the Spirit, and as such, it deserves to be rescued from being thought of as trite and elevated as a virtue to which we should aspire. Our popular culture would have us believe that kindness should be relegated to “Sunday School”, with “reality shows” glutted with people acting terribly toward each other for the sake of entertainment.   Any kind act is held in suspicion of “what’s in it for her,” rather than a sincere expression of goodness and offering of self.  Wouldn't it be something if our society would rather teach our children (and adults as well!) the value of treating each other humanely with kindness? There are times, in fact, when being kind is difficult or seemingly impossible.   We've had a bad day, when nothing seems to have gone r...