Tuesday, 31 May 2011. Verse for today.  “The big final rule for the comma is one that you won’t find in any books by grammarians. It is quite easy to remember, however. The rule is: don’t use commas like a stupid person.”   Today’s Daily Office Lectionary lessons from Deuteronomy and Psalms are about rules and what happens to those who do not keep the commandments of God. It is not a pretty picture. But here at my writing place is my calendar for the day, which has a more appealing rule.  In my Navy office exactly fifty years ago was a well-meaning and enthusiastic chief petty officer whose job as my office manager included drafting official letters for my signature, or for the signature of the commander who was my boss, or for the captain who was commanding officer of the naval station. Chief Cook was a good soul in most respects. However, his every letter draft was an English professor’s nightmare: not lightly peppered with commas, but heavily Tabasco-ed with the littl...

The cold, drizzly evening of the day Bob Crosby died, Linda, Tass and I were in Washington, DC, stopping on our way from Harrisburg to Apalachicola. Instead of our usual beeline route home we were in the capital because I had insisted on visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The Wall. Over the years since childhood, having been to Washington any number of times, lived there through two Navy tours years apart, and been in every memorial and monument over and over again, all were a tribute to our national history; but none had ever had anything to do with me personally. Until now, this. The Vietnam Wall was getting a lot of press and publicity. And it was mine, I had to go. Other than personal events with Linda and my children, that evening, that brief stopover, was the most stunning and moving moment of my life. Was, is. If the Wall belongs to you personally, if the memories are yours, you cannot stroll by. You stop, freeze, stare, overwhelmed. Stunned. Face stony, jaw tight, teeth c...

1 Peter 3:13-22 13  Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? 14 But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, * and do not be intimidated, 15 but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you; 16 yet do it with gentleness and reverence. * Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil. 18 For Christ also suffered * for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you * to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, 20 who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of No...

In everything, you, Lord, magnified and glorified your people, and you did not neglect them, but stood by them at every time and place. (Wisdom 19:22, appointed for today) The verse from the Apocryphal book of Wisdom brings to mind two excellent dvd movies, The King’s Speech and the Masterpiece Theatre production Bertie & Elizabeth. Both are about beloved King George VI of England and his wife Queen Elizabeth, later titled Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The two movies present a good and loyal, heroic man who knew what was right and did it, stuck faithfully with duty to God and Country through England’s most difficult period in modern times. Bertie (George VI) stood in sharp contrast to his brother David (Edward VIII) whom history says chose personal preferences over duty and country in a time of mounting crisis. The Book of Wisdom praises God, or a king, perhaps Solomon, and for Christians, Jesus. However, looking in one’s own lifetime, one could see the character of George VI p...

A problem giving up coffee and tea those months was not only the coffee or tea but missing the mugs. For years children and family have honored me with gifts of coffee mugs and teacups -- Christmases, birthdays, Fathers Days, travel mementoes, all for love’s sake ... From a dozen years ago there’s a mug with a photo of Kristen and Ray. Brought to me from a trip to the beach.  For my 60th birthday half a generation back a mug that says “ If you tease me about my age, I’ll beat you with my cane .” “ I’m tired and I want a cookie ” says another. Mugs with Caroline and Charlotte's handprints. “ Fr Tom ” mug made by a friend at St. Thomas “ MIND THE GAP ” brought back from England by the summer 2009 travelers. It has a map of the London Underground. Another with pictures of Westminster Abbey , same trip. A tempered glass tea mug Tass & Jeremy brought me from England years ago. Linda and I looked after their house and cats in Tallahassee while they were away. A black mug with a d...

Folk singer Pete Seeger is 92. Honored on Sunday night TV, always a character,1950s and Era America 1965... Bring ‘EM Home Guantanamera How Can I Keep From Singing If I Had A Hammer Jesu, Joy Of Man’s Desiring King Henry Land Of A Thousand Songs Last Train To Nuremberg My Father’s Mansion’s Many Rooms Old Hundred Pete’s Song Turn, Turn, Turn Wasn’t That A Time Where Have All The Flowers Gone Words, Words, Words  Many, many more. Got a favorite? Favorite to hate? Favorite to love? Controversial beloved besmirched, McCarthy Era victim, tormented, celebrated, pilloried by HUAC, musical poetical religious political, a year in jail for contempt of Congress (!!!!!!), character with a cause, man with a banjo. Pete Seeger. America has come a long way Pete was left when I was right. Pete was right when I was wrong. Happy birthday, Pete. And many more. TW

The Areopagus Rock is a low rocky hill located just below the Acropolis. In Ancient Greece, the Council of Nobles and the Judicial Court met on the hill. Many years later, St Paul preached from this sacred location.  Areopagus Rock is also called Mars Hill or Aries Hill. Acts 17:22-31 (Lesson for Easter 6: Sunday, May 29, 2011) 22-23 So Paul took his stand in the open space at the Areopagus and laid it out for them. "It is plain to see that you Athenians take your religion seriously. When I arrived here the other day, I was fascinated with all the shrines I came across. And then I found one inscribed, to the god nobody knows. I'm here to introduce you to this God so you can worship intelligently, know who you're dealing with. 24-29 "The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land, doesn't live in custom-made shrines or need the human race to run errands for him, as if he couldn't take care of himself. He makes the creatures; the ...

Font of choice today: Zapf Dingbats. Carroll O’Connor, Jean Stapleton and “All In The Family.” Boy our old LaSalle ran great. Harold Camping and October 21, 2011, his new date for the Apocalypse. NYT quotes Rev. Harold this morning, “We don’t need to talk about this anymore.”  Search for a reasonable & realistic 1934 DeSoto Airflow diecast Deuteronomy 21:18-21 Enormous old house for two. How about a highrise condo overlooking Sydney harbor  Codger whose car list and age are the same XnRt 3 decades sermons cluttering my space RVN Thinking to rid azaleas of potato vine Liturgical fetishes Home swimming pool Ai and Achen 7 decades car trivia cluttering my mind Loving an antique school building WMD Mile wide tornadoes Doting parent grandparent Tuesday morning nonsense Tom

οι κοιμηθεντες εν χριστω A dear old friend is dying and living into it graciously. Recently she phoned for a long conversation to bring me up to date on her family and to ask if I would officiate her funeral, in a church we both love, where our families once worshiped and served and feasted and were baptized and married, died and were buried, and celebrated together. Would I officiate her funeral and then lay her to rest by the husband we buried years ago. Death is on her mind. As indeed it was on my mind a few months back. Every dying is different. But death itself seems to be the same for all of us: we are dead. What is death like? We wonder. In time we find out. Not in chronos but in kairos we find out what death is like. We like to believe -- and lex orandi lex credendi our liturgy that is our theology encourages this -- that when we die we pass immediately from this life into the next life. From earth to heaven. That doesn’t seem to be what St. Paul believes. Paul in 1st Cori...

Chasing Daylight Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Inordinate time and effort went into my three careers, Navy, business, and ministry. Through all twenty Navy years my conviction was the Navy slogan “The Navy Comes First” including before family and loved ones; and my priority was doing the best job, getting the best fitness report, moving toward promotion to the next rank. Eight years in my own defense related business had me away from home 75% of every year, driving forty-thousand miles a year between Harrisburg and wherever, in the air enroute to California, Australia, Canada; Linda at home with the children. The years of full-time parish ministry, though far better because the rectory was adjacent to ch...

R apture this Evening? Tribulation Tomorrow? For those who are on the right side The Revelation to John is an assuring not scary apocalyptic written by someone named John on the Isle of Patmos at the end of the first century or early second century. With resistance from some, it seems to have been included in the New Testament canon late in the Fourth Century because, seeing the name John (Rev. 1:1, 4), early fathers of the Church attributed it either to John ben Zebedee the disciple and apostle, one of the Twelve; and/or to the Evangelist who wrote the Fourth Gospel called John, (see John 20:2 and 21:24) whom tradition holds to be the “beloved disciple.” Some scholars say all the Johns are one and the same; some scholars say that John ben Zebedee, Gospel John, and Patmos John were three different people.  The book is classical apocalyptic, written in a time of extreme trouble or anticipated trouble for its intended audience, or perhaps even reflecting back on that trouble. ...

This MacBook has innumerable font choices, making it interesting to leave Helvetica and try a different font from time to time. CaringBridge rejected it but if Blogger picks it up this morning’s font of choice is Plantagenet Cherokee. Never heard of it but it’s a serif type. Who knows whence these odd font names come? Jeremy knows. Jeremy also can distinguish between a good font and an evil font. Yesterday was my four month checkup at Bay Cardiology. Amiodarone had been prescribed because of the ventricular fibrillation episode in Cleveland. Because of that episode no caffeine. Because of the med no red wine. At the checkup the amiodarone was dropped and both red wine and decaf coffee (which has trace amounts of caffeine) went back on the approved list. One chairside companion this early hour is a cup of coffee for the first time since January, four months, which is twice long enough to try selling oneself on a glass of orange juice as a satisfactory substitute for that first cup of c...