Fr. Ron Culmer's blog

The Death of Christendom

Frankly, I’m tired of the moaning and sadness (“sadly young adults are missing from our worship service”). Its tedious and has led to numerous half-hearted yet desperate attempts (the “decade of evangelism,” Vision:20/20) to restore something I believe is lost forever. We are mourning the death of Christendom—the death of the happy 1950’s suburban church, when every parish’s Sunday School rolls had 400 children, we had so many teenaged acolytes that we had to process the flag in order for everyone to have something to do and every church could afford a rector and a vicar…But lately I’ve begun to think—Hallelujah!—Christendom is dead…We now have the opportunity to make an inspiring critique of the cultural values that surround us—just as Jesus did regarding the cultural values of Rome. “The Kingdom of God is at hand” is good news, [and] suddenly this cry makes sense again: our values as Christians are different than the often death-dealing values of the powers of this world. –James Cox on Episcopal Café.

The Answer-by R.S. Thomas

 

Not darkness but twilight 

In which even the best
of minds must make its way
now. And slowly the questions
occur, vague but formidable
for all that. We pass our hands
over their surface like blind
men feeling for the mechanism
that will swing them aside. They
yield, but only to re-form
as new problems; and one
does not even do that
but towers immovable
before us.
 
Is there no way
of other thought of answering
its challenge? There is an anticipation
of it to the point of
dying. There have been times
when, after long on my knees
in a cold chancel, a stone has rolled
from my mind, and I have looked
in and seen the old questions lie
folded and in a place
by themselves, like the piled
graveclothes of love’s risen body.

Only in God

I love so very much the following:

One of the books that influenced me as a student was by a grand old Scottish theologian David Cairns. Its title was The Faith That Rebels. Cairns was protesting against an interpretation of the gospel that turned it into an invitation to submit; he saw it as an invitation to rebel. He pointed out that there is no case in the Gospels of a man or woman being brought to Jesus for healing, and Jesus saying: "Accept your suffering; it will purify your soul." There is no such case. In every case that is recorded, Jesus immediately responds by action to heal the sick, to cast out the evil spirit. His ministry was a ministry of active challenge to all the powers of the devil, whether in the disease that racks the body, the evil spirit that torments the soul, or the corruption and hypocrisy that poisons the body of society. It was a faith that rebelled. And yet, at the very end, there is submission: "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit"; and - immediately following - the great shout of victory: "It is finished." This, it seems to me, brings us to the very heart of mission in Christ's way. There is an active and uncompromising challenge to all the powers of evil, yet it is also a totally vulnerable challenge so that (and here is the profound mystery) the final victory is God's and not ours. In what seems like defeat, the victory of God is actually won. There is new life, one that does not end in death but begins from death. It is therefore a life that death cannot touch."
--Lesslie Newbigin, Mission in Christ's Way (Geneva: WCC Publications, 1987), 25-26.

Love of Neighbor

The love of our neighbor is the only door out of the dungeon of self, where we mope and mow, striking sparks, and rubbing phosphorescence out of the walls, and blowing our own breath in our own nostrils, instead of issuing to the fair sunlight of God, the sweet winds of the universe.

— George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons (Bibliobazaar, 2006), 105-06.

How to Gain Weight Over the Holidays

 

I'm fairly certain that my rants on food, weight loss and exercise drive some of you crazy. Really, it's all aboutt tying in my spiritual life with the other aspects of my life and I enjoy sharing what I'm learning.

To that effect, I share this rant on "How ot Gain Weight Over the Holidays." We all find this time of year to be a challenge and with all the partys (As of the writing of this post I'm off to my fourth party this month) the "battle of the bulge" is on. By Janaury, we'll all have new years resolutions centering on weight loss, maintance, and health. I find these sobbering points helpful as we journey through the season.   My thanks to Lynne for the information! Here we go!

Here are 15 ways to guarantee that you, too, will gain weight over the holidays:

1. Eat when you feel like it, not just when it's time to eat.
2. Make excuses: "It won't matter, I'm stressed by the holidays, it's only a little bit, I deserve another treat, I only get to eat this food at holiday time."
3. Stop exercising.
4. Wear closthes that doen't have fitted waistbands.
5. Eat quickly.
6. Eat on the run.
7. Try not to notice how much you're eating.
8. Eat when you're upset.
9. Don't count the extra food you're eating.
10. Drink more alchohol or other caloric beverages.
11. Agree to try whatever goodies others offer you.
12. Don't make time in your schedule to make sure you have the food you need at hand.
13. Stop planning what you're going to eat.
14. Pretend that the extra food will not affect your weight.
15. Eat (and drink) exactly like your (over-indulging) non-dieting friends and family.

Instead...

• Plan in advance to eat a little more at holiday gatherings but not at other times.
• Enjoy every bite of the food you planned to eat and accept the fact that you can't eat whatever you want and maintain your weight. It just can't be done.
• Focus on the non-food parts of the holidays: being off work, decorating or admiring others' decorations, enjoying the holiday spirit.
• De-stress yourself. Figure out what you need to do to take care of yourself. When probalems arise, ask yourself whether you'll even remember the problem five years from now.
• De-emphasize eating and connect with your spiritual side.
• Get nourishment from being with family and friends.
• Volunteer to help those who are less fortunate than you.
• Get in touch wiht your deeper values and live by them during the holiday season.

Yours for the reign of God,

Ron

Citation: The Beck Diet Solution.

The Prayer of Archbishop Oscar Romero

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent ent enterprise that is God's work.

Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying the Kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection.

No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No program accomplishes the Church's mission.

No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.

We plant seeds that one day will grow.

We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.

Citation: From Xaverian Mission Newsletter

Sick and Crazy

Being sick is one thing. Being sick and crazy is another. Here's California columnist Michael Ventura's take on a "sick and crazy" culture:

"The statistics are overwhelming: We're sick. It's not just that we have the most overweight population in the West, nor that we have the highest infant mortality rate of any industrial- ized country in the world. It's not that heart disease is the worst epidemic since the Plague, not that one in three Americans will get cancer, not that it's been documented beyond quibbling that most of this pain could be prevented by more naturally grown food, fewer chemicals in the environment, less rat-racing and more exer- cise. It's not even that our young people, in addition to being the most ignorant, are also the fattest, the wheeziest, the least physically active and the most neglected (13 million latchkey children under the age of 14) of any developed country on Earth. No, the sickest thing about us is:

"That we hear these facts over and over again (the data are undeniable and have been broadcast for years), yet as a people, we do nothing. And we tolerate elected representatives who do worse than nothing, who collaborate in causing these conditions. Their reelection coffers bulge with dollars contributed by the same corporations that, in effect, sell ill health in pretty packages.

"So we're not just sick - we're crazy. Because it's crazy to have had the information for years and to have done next to nothing."
--Michael Ventura, Letters at 3 AM: Reports on Endarkenment (Dallas: Spring Publications, 1994), 102-103.

A Place In This World

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting---

over and over announcing your place

in the family of all things.

From Dream Work by Mary Oliver

Published by Atlantic Monthly Press

Copyright Mary Oliver

The Celtic Way of Prayer

I will kindle my fire this morning

In the presence of the holy angels of heaven,

In the presence of Ariel of the loveliest form,

In the presence of Uriel of the myriad charms,

Without malice, without jealousy, without envy,

Without fear, without terror of any one under the sun,

But the Holy Son of God to shield me.

Without malice, without jealousy, without envy,

Without fear, without terror of anyone under the sun,

But the Holy Son of God to shield me.

 

God, kindle Thou in my heart within

A flame of love to my neighbor,

To my foe, to my friend, to my kindred all,

To the brave, to the knave, to the thrall,

O Son of the lovieliest Mary,

From the lowliest thing that liveth,

To the Name that is hightest of all.

From Carmina Gadelica in The Celtic Way of Prayer: The Recovery of Religious Imagination by Esther De Waal

Dreaming of God’s Church

Let me be perfecty honest: I'm a damn fool when it comes to reign of God. I believe in the core of my bones that this world is not the way God intended it...and the way God intended it is considered "bad news" for the powerful and the mighty.  Fool or not that's where I plant myself.  While working on this Sunday's sermon (Looking over Luke's 6:20-31 Blessings and Woes) I found myself dreaming about the church...not just my beloved congregation of St. Clare's, but the church in general.  What would the reign of God look like in our congregations?  The following is my list. But remember, they are the words of a foolish man!

The following are things I dream of when I think of St. Clare's Episcopal Church:

 

• I dream of a healthy church.  A church grounded in a relationship with God that allows blessings to flow through it.  A church that is an organic incarnation of the body of Christ, rather than just an organization.
• I dream of a church that is filled with faith, hope and love.  A place filled with God’s purpose, presence, and power.
• I dream of a church that embraces the sacred in deep and abiding ways and serves God in its own unique vocation. A church that seeks not to imitate, but be authentic through the power of the Holy Spirit.
• I dream of a church that is more concerned about ends than means; who longs to unleash upon the world mature Christians whose countenance reflect the citizenship of heaven more than the citizenship of Earth. It is a church that looks for the face of Jesus in everyone it meets and everyone it meets sees the face of Jesus in them.
• I dream of a church that is ready to wage peace, hope, and love, not because it is fashionable, not because it is socially acceptable, and not because it is a conservative or liberal agenda, but because God desires nothing less, and because the world can wait no longer for the “good people” of the world to do nothing.
• I dream of a church whose first language is love, whose accent is hope and forgiveness, and whose homeland is compassion.
• I dream of a church that is not content with “fear mongering,” “hate mongering,” but rather speaks and lives out a peace, joy, and hope that transcends logic or understanding.

Yours for the reign of God,

 

Ron