Rev. Valerie's Reveille

The older I get (and I know I am not that old), the more speedily time seems to move.  This Friday, February 2 nd , marks 40 days after Christmas, which seems like it was less than a week ago.  And this year, due to the timing of Easter, the season of Lent starts in just 2 weeks.  It feels too soon!  I want more time to celebrate the light, more time to enjoy the reality of Jesus’s incarnation. I don’t want to think about his death just yet – he was just born! Indeed, there is never a good time to think about unpleasant truths nor to escape the reality that time goes on at the same pace it always had; our awareness just changes.  The impatience of childhood gives way to the responsibilities of adulthood, which can feel overly burdensome if we let it. We can give into the model of scarcity – that there is never enough of anything – or we can seek another way. Thank God there is another way! We can receive the present as a present.   That is, we...

One of the tenets that builds the foundational freedoms in the United States is the separation of Church and State: The Church cannot dictate what the government does and the State cannot interfere with the function and beliefs of the Church.  It is a beneficial relationship as it separates foci of power, but sometimes the separation is not as clear as we might believe. In fact, the Protestant Episcopal Church is referred to in the Statues of the State of New Jersey (Title 16:12-26). Mostly these statues are about how to legally establish a church and who is in charge, as well as making the congregation an incorporated entity in the State and as such setting the time for an annual meeting of the Corporation. St. Barnabas follows these statutes in our By-Laws (as well as the Canons of the Protestant Episcopal Church and the Diocese of New Jersey).  As such, our Annual Meeting is usually held on the last Sunday of January, which is this Sunday, January 28 th .  All...

I am one of those annoying people who love snow.  There is a Sunday Peanuts cartoon (i.e. full-color!) on my refrigerator showing Snoopy doing his happy dance and exclaiming “It’s snowing!”  That is an outward expression of my inward joy when it snows.  Granted, I don’t have to shovel it – save for cleaning off my car – and usually I am observing it from the comfort of my warm living room (sometimes even with a cup of hot chocolate), so my experience is skewed, but I still claim my love of snow. Part of this can be attributed to the fact that we (and by that, I mean the immediate community) has to slow down, even stop, because of something we have no control over.  The regular hustle and bustle just stops for reasons of safety.  During last week’s snow storm, I received numerous text updates from the local police saying that if you didn’t need to drive, don’t!  I didn’t, so I got to observe and enjoy. I did offer prayers for all those who did have ...