Rev. Valerie's Reveille

This Sunday we celebrate the Last Sunday after Epiphany, on which the Church always commemorates (regardless of when it occurs on the calendar) the Transfiguration of Jesus.  It is appropriate that this mystical event is remembered right before the start of the season of Lent as it gives us an image of the resurrected Christ to help sustain us through the days of penance and preparation.  This revelation to Peter, James and John on Mt. Tabor in the Galilee (northern Israel) was intended to help them preserve through the persecution awaiting them in Jerusalem (southern Israel).  This year we are thinking about the Transfiguration through the fruit of the Spirit of patience .  It is interesting that in the midst of the revelation, Peter wants to build booths for Jesus, Moses and Elijah, a Jewish custom of “Sukkot” that signifies the end of the wandering in the dessert with a joyous festival of harvest.  The problem with this is that Peter is trying to overcome ...

As part of our Lenten journey this year, we will be talking about the fruits of the Spirit, as mentioned in Galatians 5:22 (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). There are, however, only six Sundays in Lent, plus Easter is seven, but there are 9 fruits, so I will start this Sunday using a fruit of the Spirit as the theme for each week.  I will not be going in order, but I will be starting with love, which is appropriate both for the Gospel reading this week as well as for the occasion of baptism. We continue with Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in chapter 5 in Matthew’s Gospel where he is expanding the understanding of God’s law, going a bit further than what is expected.  Yes, we should love our neighbors, but we should also love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.  What?  That seems to be asking a bit much! Yes, in fact it is, because this is not human love but God’s love.  This is not an ex...

I am sad to admit that I do not know much about international situations or politics, other than what seeps in from New York Times updates and headlines on news websites.  Only recently have I become more aware of the desperate situation in South Sudan.  In July 2011, a referendum called for the African country of Sudan to become two nations - Sudan and South Sudan. Since that time, many residents of South Sudan have experienced violence and suffered inhumane treatment. The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, and the Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian General Assembly and the Reformed Church in America, the Rev. Gradye Parsons, has called for a Day of Prayer for South Sudan on Sunday, February 16 th . "The world is increasingly concerned over the rampant violence in South Sudan," the Presiding Bishop said. "The recent increase in armed conflict, murder, and mayhem has been fomented in part by inaccurate reports of tribal pa...

The Winter Olympics start this Saturday in Socchi, Russia.  I have always loved the Olympics and part of the reason why is because it offers us a glimpse of international liturgy.  Yes, liturgy.  In the truest sense of the work, liturgy means “the work of the people,” and while we usually think about it in context of a religious ceremony, it is essentially any act humans engage in to make meaning of an event.  In our tradition, liturgy is influenced by Scripture, tradition and reason.  If we expand that a bit, we can see the rules of competition as the scripture of this event, years of a consistent pattern of events as tradition, and what makes sense in that particular context invoking reason. The Olympics offers a forum for countries to put aside their difference (for the most part) and allowed the international community to come together and celebrate our common humanity and desire to seek excellence in athletic pursuits.  Without romanticizing it too ...