An immediate aftermath of 9/11 was the government order that every plane in the air seek the nearest airport and land. Any plane in the sky was liable to be shot down. Some will remember the eeriness of those days when the skies over America were silent and still. It was a difference in sensory versus physical transition, when phasing was not just a realization, but real. Like a vacuum marking everything changing. Nonchalance to terror. More to fear than fear itself. Peace to war and no return, no going back to Monday, 9/10.  June 25, 1950, I remember where I was.  April 12, 1945, I remember where I was. November 23, 1963. I remember where I was. December 7, 1941. Shock followed by physical phasing, automobile manufacturing plants from cars to tanks.  August 6, 1945. If you are there and survive the flash, realization is as real as reality.  Holy Saturday. Is the phasing done? Instead of dead silence, nothing moving, cars are stopping and going on...

Hazy this morning, windy and whitecaps on StAndrewsBay. 79°F, wind SSE 19 mph. Members of our Adult Sunday School class tune in and turn on to what is going on with the Revised Common Lectionary that we use in The Episcopal Church; lectionary, the list of readings that comprise our "Propers" (Bible lessons appointed for us to read in worship each Sunday of the church year), Propers of the Mass as opposed to the Ordinary of the Mass (what is always read and sung and doesn't vary; eg, Sanctus, Agnus Dei). Class members know the lectionary gives us orderly progression through bits of Scripture. For example, in Easter of current Year A, we are reading through 1 Peter. Year B has us read through 1 John, and Year C through Revelation. The lectionary takes us on an exciting journey of things to enjoy reading and discussing, and things to look forward to.  For next Sunday, our second reading is 1 Peter 2:19-25. But for Shelter in Place, we would be gathering in the ...

You know what? This linking of my daily blog on our parish website is turning out to be a really good thing for my soul. Maybe even salvific. With an audience beyond myself, I'm tempering my language, and also having second thoughts on what I write about: no whining,  for example; otherwise today I might write about the Parking Stasi. Agents of the GGHV, the Garage Gestapo of Harbour Village who, weighty with position and authority, and perhaps running out of useful engagement for their Time during Shelter in Place, have officiously taken to "ticketing" cars in our underground garage here at Harbour Village!! Each condo unit has been issued one yellow parking permit so you may park a car in the south half of the underground garage while the contractors are using the north half of the garage for materials storage. So everyone parks one car and there's still plenty of extra, leftover parking space: residents had quietly taken to bringing our second car int...

The fourth Sunday of Easter is called "Good Shepherd Sunday," rightly because of our Propers for that day, Collect and Gospel, as you will see below. It's noteworthy that Jesus here uses the I AM sayings that are a memorable feature of the Gospel according to John, "I AM the gate for the sheep", again, "I AM the gate". He is picking up God's own name for himself as God speaks it to Moses at the Burning Bush in Exodus 3, I AM. I AM that I AM. When the Israelites ask who sent you to them, tell them I AM sent you. This is my name forever.  Speaking the name of God was forbidden. Seeing the holy name in the Hebrew text, a Jew would pronounce it Adonai, or haShem, depending on the circumstance and context. That Jesus relates himself personally to the unspeakable Name of God is damnable blasphemy to those who heard him say it. But it is part of Gospel John's high christology that Jesus thus identifies himself, deliberately, in some sense ev...

Welcome, happy morning! This (scroll down) is our second lesson for today, Easter 3A. In the Episcopal Church, most preaching relates to the gospel reading for the day, not always but generally, so this is not likely to be preached on this happy morning. Really a great text for Sunday School though. The 1 Peter (70-100 AD?) text plays right into the mind and hand of Anselm of Canterbury with his doctrine of blood atonement to explain why Good Friday was necessary, well, both the Incarnation and Good Friday - - to repeat because I wrote about it recently, that under the feudal property like unto slavery system of Anselm's era (1033-1109) in world history, the ages-old, incalculably great human sin debt to a just God could not be paid by any blood sacrifice of mere humans, but in no other way than  the bloody sacrificial death of God's own self, payment sufficient  to ransom us from the capital punishment of death; and that not only was that sacrifice s...

The Boulder County Fairgrounds Osprey nest has two cams, one on the ground looking up, and one right above the nest looking down. https://www.bouldercounty.org/open-space/management/osprey-camera/ The chat group that keeps watch and tabs on the nest and keeps us up to the minute, said the cam sometimes moves and focuses on a goose nest nearby, and the goose parents and goslings; and mentions squabbling sounds from time to time, apparently including raccoons in the area, and the ospreys chasing away intruders, an eagle last night. It’s a fascinating world to look in on.  Yes, there are others, including our ospreys that are ever-present and fishing here, sometimes perching on the scaffolding just out of reach, and on roof peaks just above us. I could watch other osprey cams or eagles or others, but I watch the Boulder County Fairgrounds osprey nest because of friendship and a sense of personal connection for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes it tugs at the heartstrings. N...