A VISION OF KNOWING

THE WETLAND ACROSS FROM THE RECTORY THIS MORNING is shrouded by a spring mist. This wetland and I have been together for twenty years and I know its habitat and seasons as well as I know my living room. I see this wetland frequently in a special way, as when musing this morning in the growing light. At such times it becomes briefly a thin-veiled place of knowing beyond knowing, an altar mystery within the nature sanctuary. This wetland is for me a place of sacred encounter and I value it with the intensity of an Orthodox monk in the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem.

I lay in bed during this customary waking hour just before dawn, looking out over the hillside, through the leafless maples; not seeing the wetland because of the mist but knowing its Presence. I wonder is this what it’s like for people without faith, to always be looking yet never truly seeing except what’s only there before one’s eyes.

It takes the knowing eye to see into the wetland when misted over. I see clumps of tough grass, shallow spreads of water barely moving. I see geese moving on the nesting grounds, readying at the slightest provocation to honk angrily at each other - saints forfend that they should ever stop squawking loudly at each other over any and all actual or perceived offense. I see them glide out then abruptly flap furiously, lift off and fly away. With the knowing eye I see them. I see them return again from wherever they have gone and whatever they have done – flying over and then banking down into the hospitality of their watery home. All this in a morning muse before the light of day . . .

. . . I thrill at their sounding and delight in their movement. They are so full of themselves, so loud and present one moment and in the next, silently waiting out there, hidden under their wetland covers, bedded down for a rest from their labors. I cannot always actually see them, even in the daylight, yet they are there; as I know they are there in the mist of a spring day dawning; as I know they are there throughout the dark night. How they manage to sleep a wink with all those peepers, God alone knows! Soon the peepers will give up their racket and occupy themselves with whatever it is they do until winter stills their every action and they disappear altogether until spring returns and life cycles . . .

I wonder is this what it means to be a person of faith, to know confidently that like the geese and peepers out there - invisible in the light of day, yet apprehensible to the knowing eye in the mist and dark - so also with God? Is this what faith brings to the table in nature - the wisdom and knowledge that as these wetland friends go away in the fall, and return again and make themselves known in the spring, so also with God?

Why must we believers prove the presence of God, supernatural and unseen, to doubting, skeptical, thought-proud others? They cannot see in the mist what faith reveals. They see only visible nature. I see invisible God! Let them take comfort in nature’s way. I am truly happy for them. For I too love nature! I love nature's play and drama. Yet I love God more! And when this nature passes away, like the wetland mist at the burning of the sun, what then?

Will Nature still see me, touch me, love me, move me like God moves me when I’m ashes to ashes, dead and gone? The answer is a shout-out no, I don't think so and I don't care! for God, my God is mine and I am Thine forever!

The people of God have lived within the mist of human nature by the light of God's revelation for more than two millenniums. We have seen into the Mist for centuries. From the ancient Celtic fellowship of Lindisfarne, Holy Island at the borders of southeastern Scotland and northern England, from this ancient place of similar thin-veiled sanctuary and knowing eye, of kith and kin to this morning's muse -

"Though the sun rise cheerless o'er this Isle this day, I walk in a pathway of Light. I cannot for a moment fall out from Thine everlasting Arms. I know my greatness. I am in the Heart of God and I'm on my way to Glory."

A THANKSGIVING MEDITATION

FOOD SUSTAINS THE BODY AND INSPIRES THE SOUL, and should properly be respected and honored for its life-supporting, soul-inspiring capacity. So too the sources of food should be respected and valued. We should be ever mindful of the ranges and plains, fields and gardens, rivers and oceans and bays, the very earth and wind and water and heat that provide room and bed for the food we enjoy. We should remember also the creatures, great and small that make their living flesh part of our being, and treat them with dignity and compassion.

We should give thanks when the harvest is set down before us at table, however abundant and diverse or plain and scant it may be. It is the fruit of human labor, yet it comes from Hands beyond our human self. We did not create the order of being we enjoy, we only live and move within it. At every partaking, we owe therefore a bow of obeisance and a word of gratitude in humble acknowledgment to the Other without Whom we would be less than nothing.

From food properly received and properly prepared and properly presented, there is meaning and purpose in life. In such proper honoring is both thanksgiving and communion, the practice of universal religion. The food sacrifice in multitudinous customs and habits of celebration, according to diverse climates and peoples around the globe, in every time and place since the beginning of human consciousness, acknowledges the One from whom all blessings flow.

Since life is a great good there attends therefore a measure of sacredness in the planning, provision, preparation, presentation and partaking of food, wonderful food. In the sacred knowledge and understanding of food, how one eats is at least as compelling as that one eats. All eat to live and as life is sacred, so too is food. Better to go hungry for a day or two than to eat mindlessly without appreciation or even awareness of having eaten.

Food brings forth more than mere physical maintenance. Within its play upon the senses, food has the capacity to succor, palliate and pleasure and uplift the soul. Beyond nutritional values, beyond tastes and textures, color, balance and heat, there is spiritual meaning and purpose. A whole world of social order and divine principles is there either in potential or at risk on every plate of whatever one brings to the table! Nothing to be taken for granted or lightly therefore is food. Food, wonderful food, the sacrament and mystery all the more complex, complicated, chaotic, confusing and even contradictory for the flesh and fellowship and fine living within every fork and spoonful.

Feast daily therefore as a regular part of your being, however simply or refined, doing well with whatever and whomever you have before you. And remember this, food is for sharing. By its nature of production and distribution, by its very nature in creation, the food you have before you is itself a measure of prior sharing by another, and by the Other. You are under a bounden duty therefore to share as well and as generously, with others. This is the cycle of civilized life.

To do anything less, as for example keeping to one’s self all of whatever food is before you (or of any other good for this matter) is an unthinkable act of ingratitude, selfishness, sheer laziness or indulgence or proof of distrust that God will indeed ultimately provide what is needed.

And know that food is to be shared but not only in what generally is known as "good" company. No reading of the sacred scriptures in any translation conveys the encouragement to be with family only. Christ bids us to feed the hungry. "What is it if you only invite others knowing that they will respond by inviting you?" We are called to reach out to those who cannot return the favor. In them we meet Christ. The good Christ would have done makes the ancient sacrifice both present and living. " We are to meet one another in a mutual hospitality that embraces the stranger, this being different from our common fellowship which only celebrates family and friends. We are to meet in the company of the truly needy from whom nothing more is expected than that God’s good will is satisfied.

And in this latter regard, beware, for giving - even giving generously - without grace and gratitude is a sin and no less a sin than outright withholding. In both offenses the spirit of commonality and communion is diminished or degraded. Generosity and grace, well mixed, has the combined power to uplift and inspire another to live a better life, a life more worthy of the Great Provider, and this blessing redounds to the uplifter and inspirer as well as the uplifted and inspired. Bare mind of what the wisdom of the needy proclaims, "If you come only to be charitable, we don't want your charity; yet if you come to learn and share with us, we welcome you in good company."

And do not neglect humor in your food fellowship. There is great joy at the heavenly banquet table and even the slightest treat, however discreet and modest the provision may be, is to be celebrated with delight. All is a foretaste of the same heavenly banquet in any taking, blessing, breaking and giving of food at the earthly table. Be a model of companioned graciousness.

May your table spirit be large and welcoming, neither withholding nor begrudging of substance, or self. No crying over spilled milk (or wine for that matter). Have a pet nearby or better yet a child to remind you in both of the baser needs and instincts from which you have grown and the higher good to which you are called and should aspire.

RIGHTEOUSLY THINKING

THE MEETING MINUTES WERE SENT OUT TO PARTICIPANTS to review for accuracy. The minutes reported at length on an exploratory discussion about the proper conduct of stewardship in the business of the church. In one section, following an assertion of the need for a renewed praxis of property, there appeared an editorial phrase, actually two commonly used words that are the death to all Christian vision and mission. The words were"realistically however . . ."

Oprah tells her followers "When a person shows you who he really is, believe him!" Language in action has the power to reveal how a person truly views the world and therefore defines himself and others in relation to his personal world view. The language of religion is especially revealing in this regard if for no other reason than religion is all about ultimate meaning and purpose in life, the very stuff of a world view.

Imagine then sitting through a church meeting where others in the room are secretly thinking not in terms of what God wills but of what the traffic will bear in this world. It used to be asked, "When is a businessman not a businessman?" The Episcopalian humor answered, "When he is a vestryman!" This humor though is lost in the increasingly secular culture of today's church membership. Today in the church money is the secret prime mover and not the Holy Spirit, especially in decision-making that concerns the programs of the church. "What's the bottom-line here?" Results-oriented decision-making is all about the money, the "real" bottom-line, and not the process of the conversion of souls ("world views") and the transformation of lives.

It's maddening, these conversations about ministry and stewardship and the business of the church, how these conversations get turned away from a discernment of God's will and made instead a practicum in capitalism. How did we get into this spiritual mess? It's like the proverbial bull in a china shop. Any appeal in the instance to goodness, truth and beauty or transcendent glory as a motivation and justification for taking a path of action that is counter-intuitive is contextually nonsensical, incomprehensible to the contemporary church business mindset. Once the business bull’s let in, it’s all about the business plan, brand name, marketing, accountability, regulations, strategy, results, the bottom line, profit and as much of this as possible: as if what (who) makes money is real and what (who) doesn’t isn’t.

Such “realistically however” thinking is unfaithful to a greater ultimate realism, in a word Christian realism and the belief that God’s hand is at work in the world around us and not just in a fantasy of wishful-thinking. Such "realistically however" thinking is patronizing of Christians who for centuries have sacrificed time, talent and treasure into the vision of God’s kingdom without ever worrying about results or profitability according to the standards of this world, trusting instead that God will bless their faith and trust and confidence in God. These often very "unrealistic" sacrifices are what have made possible the very culture in which the extraordinary benefits and opportunities of capitalism now exist.

The term “realistically however” is revealing of a world view that is entirely on this side of things, as if the speaker has the only true and final knowledge of what is ultimate meaning and purpose in life, and this knowledge is all and only about this world. We must challenge this attitude for what it is, nothing other than the siren song of Judas. We must renounce the weight of such worldly wisdom as nothing more in substance than Judas’ bag of gold, and every bit as a dangerous and deadly to our soul.

The biblical tradition speaks about the sin of the love of money. Many would argue that they do not love money. Do not be deceived. They love instead the things that money can do. They have become masters in the manipulation of the principles of money, of the bottom line and of profit. They take for themselves what is not theirs to take and give out to others what is not theirs to sacrifice. They talk about reality as if they are the masters of reality, as if they alone know what's what, and there is nothing that matters to them other than the illusion of their own reality.

Again, whose "reality" are we talking about here, anyway? Look back at an instructive engagement in recent history between the reality of God's kingdom and the illusory "reality" of this world namely, the engagement of Gandhi's rule of God against Rule Britannia in the 1930s. Look at the lesson of that outcome: dynasties and empires come and go in this world, but God's kingdom is forever. Again, do not be deceived. There is only one reality for the soul who has the vision of the kingdom of God before all else. All we have is - and all I understand is - the one Body, one Spirit, one Hope, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all. Nowhere in this baptismal proclamation do I see a declaration that there is another greater determining reality.

To allow unchallenged the use of the term “realistically however . . .” in the context of our conversations means that we would be submitting to a model of church which sees the church as a firm, the structures of the church conceived only as in a marketplace, and all actions of the church based upon utility or said in words paraphrasing biblical language, in the image and likeness of capitalism. It is true there are churches today thriving in our culture precisely on these terms. Yet they are sacrificing their mission and vision on the altar of the capitalist marketplace, a lesser dominant altar in our time and not the true vision or dare I say reality of God's kingdom. Beware the success of a church that models the world.

Such "bottom line" thinking is what has gotten us into many of our messes - the "realistic" attitude of money determining what we will or will not undertake as Christians in our call to be the passionate presence of Christ for one another and the world we are called to serve. This attitude is what got Judas confused. This attitude led to his betrayal of Jesus. This attitude is what has made the church blind to the legacy of creation and supported results-oriented accountability above process-oriented faithfulness. It is what has left the rest of the world cold to Americans in our obsessive pragmatism and practicality, compromise and calculating plays of power. We are in the wake now of our own success in worldly wisdom and practices. The tide is turning around the world and we're about to be overcome by our own backwash!

The measure of faithlessness in our times is Christians speaking more as capitalists than as Christians: as if the conversion of money and capital assets to profit is more the matter of our faith than the conversion of our checkbooks to Christ’s kingdom. We cannot discern God's will, much less fulfill God's will until we step back and have a long talk with Jesus (you might start by reading the gospels and looking for every reference to money). We need to clear our heads and get a renewed focus and discipline on what it means to be a Christian steward and business person working for the Company of God.

Jesus wants us to return thanks to the Father in heaven. This return of thanks includes time, talent and treasure, for all are gifts from God. Jesus wants us to incorporate best business practices into our church ethos; it's a simple matter of good stewardship. We know Jesus admired a good return on investments (cf. Matthew 25). Indeed capitalism has a lot to offer that is good and productive or rather potentially productive of much that is good. Capitalism however and free market economics are not in and of themselves, the ultimate good. For Christians the highest determining good is the Kingdom of God.

In a word, do you "realistically" think Jesus intended his kingdom to be premised in the model of a contemporary multi-national corporation? Come on! Jesus exhorts Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Why not then say more commonly and faithfully this, namely - "righteously" thinking!

“RELAX, THE LITURGY WILL TAKE CARE OF ITSELF!” said the faithful elder at the end of the service.

Suddenly I realized the anxiety I had been feeling about church attendance, more specifically a precipitous drop in church attendance, had begun to affect my attitude and behavior in worship. As a worship leader, this change apparently had become palpable to members in the pew and had serious ramifications, not least of which could be the further alienation of the faithful remnant, not to mention the Holy Spirit. Yet it wasn’t as if my concerns weren’t well motivated. God knows, there has been cause enough to be concerned in both church and culture in our time.

Following the prophetic witness of the church in our nation-wide 2003 General Convention, attendance in my little parish around the corner in a small Central New York lakeside village declined, roughly 22 percent in the ensuring three years. By the time the lay leadership knew what was happening, the damage was done. Our base of parish support on the evangelical side of parish life had left and with them went other parishioners with faith perspectives formed from the right. Translated this means not only attendance dropped but financial support as well as membership.

Combining this culture-war battle in the national church with a bold and outright advocacy from the local pulpit on behalf of social justice for all members of Christ’s body, the church - in a congregation that demographically tended slightly to the conservative side of things - was risky to say the least. Compounding this dynamic for destruction with a long-term pastorate (by 2006 18 years in duration) that has not been a walk in the park for any number of reasons, left my rectorship especially vulnerable. Nothing like a good (bad) controversy and a few scores to settle to get the congregation riled up . . .

The last three years in a word, have been exacting in time, energy and faith. The fact that I’m still standing is a tribute either to German obstinancy or English sensibility (both gene sets at work in my personality), or to a goodly measure of common-sense and decency exercised by my lay leadership. Usually, the short-term satisfaction in any major church crisis, as in business, is to lob off the head of the leader rather than to address systemic issues. It's easier and appears decisive.

Our parish history throughout the twentieth century in fact is littered with unsuccessful ministries involving clergy and laity. When I arrived in the fall of 1988, respect for the clergy and the parish’s reputation in the eyes of outsiders were low and well-deserved. Our concept of parish health was to celebrate interims (you know, the supply clergy between pastorates, the ones with all the smiles and none of the guts for meaningful ministry). I would hope we’ve done something about this in my time, and it would seem we have, although slow developing to be sure but progress nonetheless.

These years later, I am deeply grateful and proud of a turnaround in the culture of the parish. We are addressing the real issues of our time, the ones that speak directly to our local situation. We even have a strategic plan in place, the first such document in our 164-year history. Our focus is increasingly on ministries and mission of compassion and care for others, and not so much as before on our "Episcopalian" pride of place in public square or our individual purposes in private prayer. The tacit motto of former generations - "Manners maketh the man" - has given way to a motto unanimously affirmed by the current leadership - "To grow in God's image, and to spread Christ's kingdom, through the power of the Holy Spirit."

An ironic and future positive outcome of the recent 2003 separating of ways owing to theological and cultural differences among the membership (alluded to earlier) has been that a certain, non-traditional element of the evangelical right, our perceived growth edge in recent years, has gone from us as well. Turns out they had every bit as much pride and self-righteousness in religion as "God's frozen chosen" ever did. As soon as the church affirmed social justice for faithful worshippers of alternative lifestyles, they screamed indignantly and quoted the Bible, chapter and verse, as if they had exclusive knowledge, understanding and wisdom in reading and interpreting God's will in the 21st century. Sometimes I wish I had their certainty of conviction, but then I used to wish I could walk on water, restore sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, ambulation to the lame, cast out demons and raise the dead. I toned down. I wish they would, too.

All of which leaves us here in the parish without extremes, neither the old Episcopalians so full of themselves for simply being themselves nor the mistakenly perceived new growth which turned out to be intent on remaking the Episcopal Church in the image of whatever Methodist or Baptist or non-denominational church of their childhoods. We centrists are left alone in the center of things as it probably should have been all along, a spiritual remnant at the still small center of heavenly things that is God’s life in this world.

What lies ahead in this current spirit of parish leadership is an adventure that promises good things, wholesome and holy things well worth our living out together. Such things are premised in a gracious knowing that one indeed should “relax, (for) the liturgy will take care itself.” A rather pleasant Anglican thought that, at least for those of us who have not lost our confidence and trust in the Mysterious Center that holds this rapidly turning world of ours together.

We cannot control or much affect what is happening elsewhere. Yet we can do this much in our own parish lives, namely be faithful and trust the liturgy to work its wonders of grace. This spirit of obedient centeredness, so counter to today's rebellious assertion of self above and beyond all things, may be the real way forward for the church. The words of our ancient faith would suggest as much. "The Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him!" "Be still and know that I am God!” Perhaps it's time to deliberately and intentionally rachet down the stress and noise of our several anxieties, the clamor to be seen and heard, and be at peace as the risen Lord bids His disciples in this Easter season.

SUCCESSFUL TRAVEL IS ALL ABOUT THE AHA MOMENT, the serendipitous and elusive moment of a soul's awaking to another reality that often (hopefully) leads to the breaking of self-image and a drawing closer to God. At least this is how I measure travel. Travel of this kind which I always intend in going off-campus suggests more a pilgrimage than a vacation or business trip. The three motivations are connected only in that the body physically moves from one place to another: and different for obvious reasons.

About vacationers little needs to be said other than that most travelers of this kind have more in common with their luggage than with spiritual awareness. Moving from the safe confines of surburbia to the scripted "serendipities" of packaged tours or resorts has about the same capacity for true adventure as the clothes in their suitcases. Vacation is literally all about being vacuous and nothing that interests me.

On the other hand, given the intense focus of modern corporate business people, the possibilities for the Aha moment are certainly there, indeed, they may well need such moments more than the average person, uniquely focused as they are on their corporate survival or that of their corporation, in the race for rank and sustaining profits. In this instance, the enlightened business traveler is a joy to behold.

I remember in this regard meeting a businessman in a Benedictine monastery while I was on retreat, just before Compline, the last office of the monastic day. He said, "Whenever I travel (and he apparently did so often) I try to stay at a monastery or convent; it ends my day in the Spirit and the money I would otherwise have spent at a hotel goes to support something I believe very strongly in." The words (the faith of the man) were powerful. I remember them clearly as if heard just yesterday, though they were spoken fifteen years ago. This is the power of an Aha moment which can happen anywhere and not always in such a casual and safe enclosure as a monastery.

Of course, travel today is anything but routine, whatever the motivation. Just recently, I got off a plane at LaGuardia and discovered we had to go outside the concourse, outside the building itself and walk several hundred yards to another building to catch our next flight, this without prior knowledge and late on a Friday night. Having dodged taxis and traffic personnel yelling at me to go this way, not that way, and scurrying along a dark sidewalk as best one can with luggage, I sensed a sudden movement in the shadows from beneath an overpass to my immediate right.

In the instance, I thought a mugging was about to take place (on my person!) and heard myself yelling ahead at my travel companions to move quickly. What we saw in looking back over our shoulders was not what I thought but rather two airport employees using a shift break to worship Allah. I had crossed in front of an Islamic prayer ritual.

My interior consciousness in rapid fire sequence went from tired anxiety in getting somewhere unknown to a fight-or-flight fear reaction, and then to an awkward recognition of what really was happening. A painful reflection on my own lack of calm ensued, closely attended by another having to do with a potential hidden prejudice toward the Muslims' religious observance.

The Aha moment though came later when I realized the Holy Spirit was speaking directly to me in this moment, demanding to know not what I thought or knew or cared about the two Muslim men or Islam in general or even about myself, but rather what am I doing for my God each day. Or said in different words, how am I walking with Jesus through the night of our time? Never mind what others are doing, how am I journeying with our God?

The result was a long meditation including even this moment of sharing with you, on the practice of our religion by common, ordinary everyday Christians like you and me -

• Where do we find the solitude necessary to be in the presence of Jesus?
• How do we make room in our daily busy-ness to be still and know that He is God?
• What do we do to create interior silence for the still small voice of God to speak to us?

Out of these reflections come other questions that demand personal ownership and accountability.

• When does each of us act in overt solidarity with other Christians, especially during our workday and not only Sunday?
• What suffering do we endure willing that others may know that He is Lord of all?
• What is the nature and purpose of our living sacrifice to help save and redeem the world for which He shed His Blood and died?

All this is simply offered as one example of a successful travel moment in my world, though nothing I planned.

I don't like traveling but I do it because it's good for me. I do it for vacation and for continuing education and for pilgrimage. By travel I mean getting in an airplane and flying someplace out of my region and comfort (or stress) zone, which would explain the reasons why I travel. For me it’s more travail than get away, more business than pleasure, this kind of traveling. I do it for my soul’s sake and for the sake of those around me; otherwise, I’m strictly a homebody fixed in local habits of the heart.

I used to think this home-centeredness was a virtue. Speaking with a friend who goes to the Antarctic a couple of months each year, leaving spouse and children behind to study the ongoing global effect of changes in the atmosphere, I said this very thing. “I couldn’t do what you do, travel as much as you do and be away as long as you are each year, I’m more of a homebody.” My friend’s response, gentle and well-intended as it was, pricked my social conscience as only truth spoken with kindness of heart can.

“I guess I have a larger sense of home than you have,” she said. The good news is that my world-mindedness is growing thanks to her and others who live daily in a room much larger than mine of habit and preference. I’m not ready to hug Al Gore but I do admit I’ve hugged a windmill across the valley from the rectory, and this is a positive step forward, don’t you agree?

I find as I get older I need this sort of experience more than ever before or perhaps I mean to say that I recognize the need for this sort of experience more than before, thanks to my adventuresome scientist friend. The irony is that I’m now less physically inclined to the effort of preparing and returning - never mind the actual going forth part of the journey - now that I admit it’s a good thing. Maybe this just comes with being more deliberate and intentional in what traveling I do. I still could not be on the road every month, much less every week or day as some do.

My father-in-law loved to travel. He was rector of his last parish for 17 years (I’m now 20 years here). Ward loved going places - to Jerusalem several times, Africa, Europe, England and Florida especially, and anywhere else anyone would suggest. He loved being with people. Wardie would go to three-day conferences and say, “If you come away with one or two good program ideas or activities to take back home with you, it’s worth all the nonsense that goes with it!”

This said in response to me sitting with him, stewing over things or more likely the people saying things – being a young priest with opinions on everything and everyone - while he the cardinal rector would be just waiting patiently for the one good idea to come along. Suddenly he’d say “Let’s go!” and we’d become tourists enjoying the city we were in. It was fun traveling to conferences with my father-in-law. Later, on the way home Ward would explain what it was we had learned . . .

Now I have to see with my own eyes and make sense of things for myself, and create my own learning spaces and be open to spiritual opportunities when they present themselves. I can if I must and do so with increasing skill learned at the side of my father-in-law. I practice contemplative seeing, that is actively waiting for the momentary Aha when things click into place and the door of my interior room opens, offering new insight or vantage on the worlds beyond me. It's nothing you can force. Yet you must be open to Ahas happening. You must allow the possibility of an interior journey within the actual travel of body and baggage from one place to another, as exampled in the aforementioned LaGuardia experience.

Traveling is a good thing if done with an open, alert and receptive mind, and especially for the purpose of drawing closer to others, to creation and to God. I confess to having been convicted in that recent vulnerable moment. I want to give witness to a faith strengthened and broadened by the spiritual message heard spoken from out of the darkness, from under the overpass.

I love the way the Spirit comes to God's people when we make ourselves, our souls available to His coming again. As with the disciples on the road to Emmaus it is often in the shuttling moments between our destinations that He appears and makes His presence known. Truly, God is great, and everywhere! For what it's worth though, I still don't like traveling.

TAKE YOUR INSIGHTS WHEN AND WHERE THEY ARE OFFERED especially when the alternative is to complain and whine about something that can't be changed. I turned to the in-flight publications having gone through my carry-on reading material while waiting over an hour on the tarmac for an already delayed flight - the third of the day! An article about a successful immigrant businessman caught my eye. What inspired further thought was nothing to do with the actual business product or service or how much money the man makes or what he now does with his riches but how this business owner emphasizes the importance of spiritual growth and human values and personal development among his employees especially for anyone who would move up in his company.

The man, the article maintained, holds himself to a higher standard than the dollar and demands no less of his associates. His approach to business (I wish I could remember the man's name) is counter-intuitive, different in practice from most American corporations today although many now use the language of his approach if only for marketing purposes. BP, the largest oil company in the world, for example can say all it wants about being "green" and socially responsible these days but until they stop leading the industry in preventable worksite accidents and deaths, BP will remain the ugly profiteer that it is.

This more uplifting business standard is comprised of three central concerns about employee wellness or said in different words, three concentrations of employee self-interest that if managed properly lead to employee wellness and social happiness and therefore continued business success for the company. The concentrations of interest - are your ready for this? - are spirituality, effective parenting and personal ambition. We get the last, but the first two?

An employee must be ready, willing and able to talk intimately and in detail during ongoing employee reviews about his or her spiritual life, the problems and opportunities of parenting, and lay out what one really wants to accomplish or achieve or acquire, and why. If the employee fails to convey a sincere desire to focus on these interests and to pursue them freely and enthusiastically, passionately if you will, the relationship at least on any promotion-track is abruptly ended. You can readily see what it was about the article that got my attention . . .

The thought of a business leader coming into a room full of employees and talking about the spiritual life, being an effective parent and personal ambition is so refreshing as to make me half reconsider my own choice of profession. Where once an employee was only a commodity or disposable good in the American corporate scheme, and any business relationship was in the corporate nature of things necessarily competitive and therefore all-consuming if one has any aspiration to succeed and advance in the corporate culture, one can almost imagine in this enlightened employment scenario a community of shared interests and mutual cooperation and common vision.

I work for the church as a paid professional because it is the only institution I could see at the time of my choosing that left sufficient room to accommodate my soul's needs. It still seems that way to me. The idea of a successful for-profit company premised in an employee's soul's needs and interests, and not exclusively on profit or client or customer is mind-boggling. If this is true and not simply another exercise in clever marketing, there is hope for the American enterprise system yet . . .

What further caused me to linger over this article while on my way to a vacation destination, and what will continue to hold my attention until I am able to see this thing through into the life of my parish, is the spot on focus of this businessman's vision. He sees the things we see as the people of God, specifically the importance of a relationship with some higher authority beyond the self, the importance of forming sustainable and supportive human relationships that will benefit society over time, and the importance nonetheless of bringing one's own self up to speed in doing the very best that we can and becoming who we are truly meant to be and become.

We of course have our own language in the church for these primary interests, namely the Summary of the Law, but the very fact that a successful contemporary for-profit business owner sees these things as we do is, well, inspiring of hope for the future of "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

I'm looking forward to working this man's standards of interest into the life of the parish, not that we don't already do these things in one way or another but rather because when done with deliberate and intentional purpose such things work out better than they might otherwise. I actually prefer his language insofar as it speaks more directly to identifiable secular needs. The church needs to address real secular needs. Ambition, family and God, perhaps even in that order would be for us coming at things from where common, ordinary everyday people are. It's all about having one's eye on the ball - where people are at - at a time when many in the church have lost this focus and our vision has clouded.

EASTER IS A GOOD TIME TO REFLECT on the nature and experience of the risen Lord, though I find it increasingly difficult to think about such things at the moment. I would rather go on a whole new trajectory. To soar uplifted on the wind currents of the Holy Spirit would be nice . . .

Right now though I'm spent and the spirit of Thomas weighs me down. Thomas crowds in when tired as I am at the end of a good Lenten run, especially after the holidays. Thomas pokes at us like an importuning child at the bedside - wanting this and that, to know and understand, to analyze and categorize, to name and control, to objectify the mystery of the risen Lord - precisely at the moment when we're least of a mind to respond! I wish Thomas would lighten up and let me rejoice and be glad in the mystery.

I’m reminded of the Black Dwarfs in C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. Black Dwarfs though confessed to be on the side of the Narnians were nonetheless drawn to the Witch. At every turn in the adventure they made things difficult for the Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve, the Talking Beasts and Walking Trees of the celebrated kingdom where all creatures were blessed with light and love and the joy of living happily together. Tough-minded Black Dwarfs - always looking out for themselves, withholding support and encouragement, always practical and pragmatic, always demanding, never seeing, unable to share in the light!

Such small thoughts and -behaviors and -attitudes have a way of getting under the spiritual skin, like a tropical parasite that then malingers and undermines the spirit. They crowd aside the reality of the risen Lord. This year the early occurrence of Easter Day certainly doesn't help! Spring in Central New York is still two weeks away. Or perhaps a simpler fact stands out, namely that I’ve delayed too long a post Easter break until I could take time away with my family. There's this added pressure - always striving to balance the needs of others, even the needs of those we love don't always fit well with what's happening to us already.

Or maybe this feeling of enough and too much already has to do with tax returns. Surely I'm not the only one in that slough of despond! Or the war, or the White House and the national election campaign, the housing market and recession economy, or the state of the church, this time of year in Central New York . . . yes, I think a vacation is indicated.

It is time for a bit of letting go and letting God. We must do this more often, taking time to be away, to refresh and restore. And when we return to steward again the blessings and burdens that are ours to have and to hold as they say, may we do so with a greater trust and patience and confidence than I feel at the moment. And please, Lord, help us to be more understanding and accepting of the Thomas sorts (akin to those Black Dwarfs) who would drive your saints to despair. They are your children too. Help us to love them better.

If only they would be as happily open and accepting and engaging as when I greet Maggie after a time away. She goes to puppy spa eagerly enough. But when I return to pick her up Maggie is ecstatic, out of her Chocolate Lab skin with joy of deliverance! Tired beyond belief, hoarse from endless barking, Maggie nonetheless literally jumps for joy at the sight of me. If only we could be this happy in the knowledge of the risen Lord . . .

Aslan, I could do with a sighting! Maybe in the "Ding" Darling Wildlife Refuge . . . or maybe just in returning, refreshed in mind and restored in body to know, love, live and serve the Lord among friends, at home again.