Prairie Musings

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not defeated it.” John 1:5 You might think that the most-repeated command in the Bible is “Do not sin….” Actually, “Do not fear,” and its sibling command to have hope, appear many more times than anything about sin—I count at least 103 times the Bible says, “Do not fear!” In the end, I’m sure that the opposite of faith is not unbelief, but fear. Fear paralyzes us, fear causes us to be blinded to the humanity of others, and, most importantly, fear destroys hope. Christian hope is not optimism—not a childish wish-fulfillment dream that we’ll get a magic wand and, poof, everything will be pink and blue flowers. Christian hope is a life lived in the certain knowledge that although there is darkness, the Light of God will never be put out, and eventually the earth will be filled with the light and glory of God as the waters cover the sea. Think about the best “children’s” literature and movies—The Lion King…Harry Potter…The Lord of th...

Having a hard time deciding on your Lenten discipline this year? Look no further--I have one based on teachings from the Letter of James:  Burning palms for Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. For human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness (1:19b-20)...If someone thinks he is religious yet does not bridle his tongue, and so deceives his heart, his religion is futile (1:26-27)...The tongue is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse people made in God’s image. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. These things should not be so, my brothers and sisters (3:8b-10)...But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, accommodating, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and not hypocritical. And the fruit that consists of righteousness is planted in peace among those who make peace (3:17-18). As Christians, we are commanded to lead ...

You will notice something different about our bulletins starting this week--we're not including the full text of the service, just the outline with page number references to the Book of Common Prayer that you'll find in your pews. (This was, of course, the way it was everywhere until just a few years ago when larger parishes were able to purchase business-class photocopy machines.) We're doing this for several reasons: Now that we are into a full in-person program year (yeah!), we need to refocus the time that was spent creating a full bulletin each week and re-formatting it for on-line downloading. It is also our responsibility to do all that we can to conserve and protect our natural resources--and it takes a lot of paper each week for us to print everything-paper that all ends up in the recycling bin the same day it is used. Finally, it also takes a lot of money to print all those one-time-use bulletins each week. But, for me, the most important reason is that using and ...

The Biblical narrative could not be more clear. Nearly one hundred and fifty times in the Prophets, the Psalms, the Epistles, and the Gospels our duty to care for the least among us, to care for the stranger, to love our neighbor as we do ourselves, is proclaimed as one of the most important aspects of our covenant and grace-filled gift to participate in the righteousness and justice of God. There are so many verses to quote—here's one I have not used before, from Philippians 2:4: Let each of you look not only to their own interests, but also to the interests of others. But this is not the perspective of Fr. Keith the priest—if your ears are stopped and your heart is hardened and you are still unable to "have sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind" (1 Peter 3:8), know that you are in my daily prayers—and still continue reading. This is the perspective of Fr. Keith, the hospital chaplain who for 18 months has been holding people's hands in the midd...

Like many of you, I’m sure, I held my breath this past week when reports of a shooting at Westroads started coming across my social media, remembering that traumatic and tragic December day in 2007, praying this was not a repeat. Just a few days earlier, I held my breath as we awaited details on the shooting at the FedEx facility in my home town, Indianapolis, since I have friends and friends’ children who work there. This week, like many of you, I held my breath and waited with anxiety and sadness for the verdict from the jury in Minneapolis deciding the case of Derek Chauvin. We are a nation obsessed with, infected with, violence. Surely we need to find new and viable ways to address the racism that is still so obviously and painfully present throughout our society, the hopelessness and voicelessness that so many feel. And, just as surely our police and first responders have a difficult and dangerous job—we send them running in where we ourselves choose to run away. But perhaps tha...

A moment filled with conflicting emotions today as I get the COVID-19 vaccination at NEMed...Gratitude for all those who made it happen and for my fellow front-line workers...Hope for the future and widely available vaccine for everyone and an end to this...Horror for all the pain and sorrow and death I and all of us have witnessed...Grief for all the patients and families we have offered comfort to when comfort is not to be found...Frustration and disbelief as I see that there have been 1.5 million new cases and 18,500 deaths in the past seven days and still there are so many denying all this tragedy...Anger as I see so many still not doing the simple act of caring for neighbor and stranger and wearing masks... So many feelings, going in so many directions...I find today that the unanticipated, biggest side effect of getting the vaccine is not tenderness in my arm, but the flow of tears.

Dr. Laura Scow and I have had great fun creating our Favorite Advent & Christmas Hymn Podcast series--you can find the first five episodes (we have three more to go) on the Music @AllSaints YouTube playlist . More than any other holiday, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without its music. But silence, too, is an important part of our preparation for the celebration of the Feast of the Incarnation...silence in Advent prayer, silence away from the bustle of the world. (Perhaps one of the unexpected things you've found, as I have, about this pandemic Christmas is that it is easier to stay disconnected from the distraction and noise of our typical consumer-focused secular holiday season?) I'm reminded of one of the letters from the demon Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood in C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters, in which he describes how much he hates both music and silence: Music and silence-how I detest them both! How thankful we should be that ever since our Father...

The holidays are wonderful, joyous times—that can also be difficult and lonely. This year, especially, might be more challenging than in the past. Here are some ideas and resources to help us all share, reach out, and connect even when we can’t be together in the same place. As I think about what celebrating Thanksgiving and  Christmas will look like this year, and some of the changes and sacrifices we’ll have to make, I am reminded of our ancestors. I think about the simple family celebrations Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about in her “Little House” books, and I wonder if this year gives us—forces us perhaps—to have a simpler holiday too. We’ve been saying to each other for a long time now that Christmas has become too commercialized and too busy—maybe we can all take a lesson from our prairie forebears! Read a book together out loud, taking turns or having grandparents read. If you haven’t read A Christmas Carol in a long time, I recommend it. It is a beautiful story was actual...

You might think this is a strange post for a priest to write, but I think it is very important in this time of so much vitriolic rhetoric that Christians make a strong stand. The Book of James in the Bible has quite a lot to say about the power of our speech and the need for taming the tongue: If someone thinks he is religious yet does not bridle his tongue, and so deceives his heart, his religion is futile (1:26). The tongue is a small part of the body, yet it has great pretensions. Think how small a flame sets a huge forest ablaze. And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. It pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence – and is set on fire by hell...It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse people made in God’s image. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. These things should not be so, my brothers and sisters (3:5-6, ...

In the Epistle this week, we heard: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). The theme of darkness and light, which is most often part of the narratives of Advent and Lent, is still much in my thoughts in these days. At the same time there are so many images and stories of heroism and deep compassion, there seems to be an equal number of incomprehensible images and stories of violence, selfish arrogance, and lack of compassion. Sometimes I feel like my psyche is roiling up and down in an ocean storm, from high to low. One thing in all this stands out for me with simple clarity: we need each other. I cannot care for the sick; I cannot research a vaccine; I cannot stock my grocery shelves; I cannot ranch, transport, and slaughter cattle; I cannot harvest wheat and grind flour. It is clear in this time of isolati...

This will be the tenth year I have been providing Ashes-on-the-Go in Elmwood Park near the entrance to UNO. I thought it would be a right and good thing to share my thoughts on this practice with my All Saints Church family. Fr. Keith and Archdeacon Betsy First, a note on what Ashes-on-the-Go is not—it is not an attempt to replace the regular Ash Wednesday liturgy and Eucharist that we have at church. We offer four services throughout the day, 7 AM, 12:10, 5 and 7 PM. Committed church-goers should be attending one of those, worshipping in community and supporting each other. As Scott Gunn, director of Forward Movement , says, Ashes -on-the-Go “is for seekers and, perhaps, wayward Christians. It’s really an invitation…to realize that all that glitters is not our salvation…[It] doesn't short-circuit the practice of committed Christians, but rather expands the circle to include borderline practitioners and seekers.” I can tell you stories of encounters over the years: The fr...