Prairie Musings

Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. (1 Cor. 8:1 NRS) Did you notice in today’s reading from Paul, it almost sounds like the Corinthians communicate via Twitter? It’s as if Paul’s letter to them is full of echoes of their own tweets: “all of us possess knowledge,” “no idol in the world really exists,” “there is no God but one,” “food will not bring us close to God.” The disciples in Corinth are trying to justify their actions with little sound bites. What actions exactly are they justifying? It was a common pagan practice at that time to sacrifice an animal to some deity or another, burn a bit of it in offering on the altar, and either sell the rest of the animal in the marketplace or use the meat at a festival or social event. Because of this, Corinthian Christians who ate meat could be eating food that was sacrificed to an idol. There were many disciples in Corinth who were not going to let that stop them from enjoying a nice steak or cause them to turn down an invitation t...

How many of you have already started preparing—or at least planning—your Christmas feast? You all know I’m the chef at our house, and my preparation is well under way. I went to Costco yesterday and bought what my daughter Maggie called a “log of beef” – so big it could be the one delivered to the Flintstone’s car, if you remember the opening sequence of that cartoon, and it’s already encrusted with salt and pepper in my fridge. As someone who loves to cook, I know that sharing a meal is about sharing ourselves—and I also know it takes a lot of preparation beforehand so that I can be fully present during the meal and not running around the kitchen. This Fourth Sunday of Advent is our last chance to prepare for the Christmas Eucharistic feast–our annual celebration of Christ’s incarnation, of God’s presence on earth as one of us. As part of our Advent preparation here, we’ve been reading and watching C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe,” and there’s a banquet scene in ...

Beloved, we are God’s children now. 1 John 3:2a ... They loved their Lord so dear, so dear, and God’s love made them strong; and they followed the right, for Jesus’ sake, the whole of their good lives long. And one was a soldier, and one was a priest, and one was slain by a fierce wild beast: and there’s not any reason, no, not the least, why I shouldn’t be one too. They lived not only in ages past; there are hundreds of thousands still; the world is bright with the joyous saints who love to do Jesus’ will. You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea, in church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea; for the saints of God are just folk like me, and I mean to be one too. When I first became an Episcopalian, I had the great blessing to be a member at the church where Canon Fred P. Williams was a priest. Canon Williams was an instrumental part of the creation of the Hymnal 1982; you can see his name listed in the front of it. His knowled...

Icon from the Kano Healing Chapel at Church of our Savior, North Platte, written by Jane Tan Creti of Omaha Psalm 28:8-11 The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I have been helped; Therefore my heart dances for joy, and in my song will I praise him. The LORD is the strength of his people, a safe refuge for his anointed. Save your people and bless your inheritance; shepherd them and carry them for ever. Today is the commemoration of Fr. Hiram Kano, Nebraska priest and saint, who was arrested by the FBI in 1941 on the steps of his parish, Church of Our Sa vior, North Platte, just after celebrating Eucharist. When imprisoned in a Japanese Internment Camp, he rejoiced in his "special" calling to minister to the other imprisoned Japanese immigrants and American AWOL soldiers there, also teaching English and agriculture. Forty years later, when the US Government acknowledge the imprisonment to be false and offered money in reparations, Fr. Kano ...

I know almost everyone here is old enough to remember a series of commercials for E.F. Hutton that went like this: Some young professional is talking with a friend at a loud, public event, one, for example, was a boisterous dinner party.  The speaker remarks that his stock broker is E.F. Hutton, and immediately the party is silenced—all conversation stops, and everyone leans in to hear what he has to say. This is the scene I imagine in today’s Gospel. For weeks now, the Pharisees have been trying to lay a trap for Jesus, to trick him into saying something that will incriminate him with the Roman authorities or alienate him from the crowds that support him. Today’s attempt at trickery is especially pernicious. In asking Jesus about paying taxes to the Emperor, they use the specific word for the individual, personal “head-tax” that was particularly degrading to Jesus’ Jewish listeners, because it was the standard day’s wage, specifically the day’s wage specified for the Roman sold...

Have you ever just started out on the wrong foot in some situation, or in some new relationship? I had that happen recently when I started my chaplain internship at the hospital: It was about two weeks in, and my first night working with a particular chaplain I had not yet met in person. When I got into the office, she was out in the hospital somewhere, and so I picked up the phone on a desk and called her to let her know I was reporting in for duty. “WHY ARE YOU CALLING FROM MY PHONE? WHO WOULD CALL ME FROM MY OWN PHONE?” she said, in a voice just like that…Let’s just say it went downhill from there; it took a lot of time and effort to fix this relationship that started off all wrong. Very sadly, I think that’s what our relationship with the Ten Commandments is like. From the beginning, because we call them “Commandments” and because we have childhood memories of Sunday School material with those two tablets of stone that start off with either “You shall…” or “You shall not…” we’ve...