Censings

St. Paul's Pomona May 31, 2006 Feast of the Visitation OT: Genesis 18 1-18 Psalm: 113 Gospel: Luke 1:39-44 David Justin Lynch, Esquire + In the name of God, Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. I like entertaining visitors at my house, particularly dinner guests.  Part of that is my feeling of anticipation of their arrival as I get the food and the table ready and my wife tidies up the house.  As the hour for the arrival of my guests draws near, I get more anxious by the moment, every once in a while checking the street out front and even standing on the curb looking up and down street to see them get there.  And as I’m doing that, I’m asking myself what will my guests be wearing, what stories will they have to tell me, what pearls of wisdom will they impart to me?  As the phone rings I hope my guests are telling me their arrival is imminent and they’re not cancelling at the last moment. Not only do I like to entertain visitors, I like to go visiting ...

December 30, 2007 - First Sunday After Christmas St. John's Episcopal Church, Indio, CA RCL Propers: Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Psalm 147; John 1:1-18 + In the name of God, Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. AMEN. When I was growing up, I found the space program fascinating. As a nine-year old in 1961, which incidentally was the year I was confirmed, I thought that the cosmonauts would find God when they rocketed into space. After all, as a kid I was told “God is up in heaven.”  So when the first person in space, Russian Yuri Gargarin, said at a post-flight press conference that he had been into space and said there was no God up there, I was more than a little bit disappointed. As a young boy, I loved going to Church, serving at the altar, singing in the choir and all that fun stuff. What a shame it would be that all that fun stuff was all perhaps a waste of time.  In preparing for today, the first person I consulted was my wife. By the way, though I commonly refer to...

If someone asks me, “Why are you a Christian”, I answer one word: Easter. Arising and walking out of a tomb is an exciting concept. Who wants to die? Will those who have died someday get up and walk around? Will the dry bones come to life, as in Ezekiel 37:1-14, which we heard at Easter Vigil? Or will the bones disintegrate, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, as we were told on Ash Wednesday when we received our ashes? I was formerly an Episcopalian before I joined the Ecumenical Catholic Communion. The Episcopal 1979 Book of Common Prayer authorizes laypersons to preside at funerals in the absence of a priest or deacon, and I did so in 2008. The decedent was Frank Kotsiris, the father of my former law partner, Laura Diane Crowell, Esquire. Frank was Greek Orthodox, but at the last minute, his priest refused to conduct the funeral because he had been cremated. So on short notice, I had to compose, write, and publish a service, plus prepare a short sermon. This experience required me...

Twenty-First Century America features men and women as fellow professionals  everywhere.  Nowwhere is this more true than in my own profession, that of an attorney. My law firm features men and women serving with distinction as partners, associates, and support staff.  We’ve come a long way from the days when Ruth Bader Ginsberg, now on the United State Supreme Court, was told after passing the New York Bar Examination that a prominent New York Law firm that they would hire her only as a secretary, not as an attorney, because, “we don’t hire female lawyers.” Yet in a society which continues to eradicate gender discrimination, there is one place granting itself a gratuitous exemption: the choir rooms of some Christian churches. Men are not permitted to sing soprano or alto and women are not permitted to sing tenor or bass based on the artistic preferences of clergy, choir directors and congregations.  Is this truly discriminatory, or is this an instance where gen...

What is an “assumption?” An “assumption” occurs when God takes a person physically into heaven. When one is “assumed,” one encounters God and comes into God’s presence without death. On August 15, many Christians celebrate the Assumption of Our Lady in Glory. Yes, I know it’s not in the Bible as a historical event like the birth, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus.  But let’s leave aside that debate.  The real question for Christians is how the concept of “assumption” impacts our relationship with God.  The Bible contains two “assumptions,” both of which contain practical implications for Christians. Genesis 5 identifies Enoch as a direct descendant of Adam through his son, Seth. The family tree is: Adam – Seth – Enosh – Kenan – Mahalalel – Jared – Enoch.  In Genesis 5:24, we read, “Then Enoch walked with God, and he was no longer there, for God took him,” This happened because, according to Hebrews 11:5, “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should n...

FEAST OF ST. MARTIN OF TOURS St. Paul’s Episcopal Church November 11, 2006 Preaching: David Justin Lynch, Esquire OT:Micah 4:1-4         Psalm:122     Gospel:Matthew 25:34-40             + In the name of God, Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. AMEN .             In December 1995, in my first month after admission to the practice of law, a man came to me for legal advice. He was upper middle class and could afford to pay me.  Believe me, I really needed the money, as I had just opened the doors to my office and had lots of startup expenses but no income. The man told me he was in bad marriage and that he wanted a divorce. When I inquired as to the precise nature of the problem, he told me that his wife was infertile, that he wanted to have children, and that he had a girlfriend ready, willing and able to...

A song I sang as a boy chorister began, “What is this lovely fragrance wafting like to the scents of flowers in spring?” I recall neither the rest of it nor the author's intended meaning, but the words remind me of incense. The late Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey, in his book, The Gospel and the Catholic Church , recognized that the intellectual insights of evangelical Anglicans are a valuable contribution to the life of the church, not the least of which is their respect for scripture. Vows taken by clergy when they receive the sacrament of holy orders include affirmations that scripture is the word of God and that scripture contains everything necessary for salvation. Just as Jesus saw himself in the context of the Jewish scriptures, Christians should see incense in scriptural terms. When I see a recessional with clouds of incense, I think of Isaiah 6:1-6, where God chose a prophet in the midst of a temple full of incense and sent him into the world. A church f...

Mary’s earthly body has never been found. In the Third Century, Christians believed that because Mary was the Theotokos, that is “God Bearer” she would therefore be spared the death experience of ordinary mortals not so chosen. Instead, God raised her to heaven, just like God did Enoch and Elijah (according to the Bible). Hence, we have the feast of the Assumption most of the Western Church celebrates on August 15. (For Eastern Christians, it is the Dormition, or Falling Asleep of the Blessed Virgin). As with many aspects of Christian belief, not everyone is of one mind, reflecting that God gave us the capacity to think and did not design us to parrot our beliefs based on the charisma of preachers, the decrees of popes, or inspired authors. For example, some Christians believe that the woman in Revelations 12:1, described as a woman clothed with the sun, standing on the moon with a crown of twelve stars is Our Lady in Heaven, having gotten there is some manner not explicitly state...

Self-examination, repentance and forgiveness of our sins is not just for Lent. It should be an ongoing spiritual discipline for all times of the year.  Each of us deals with sin in our own way. Yes, I am a sinner, too, as we all are. I typically go to confession once a year, on Good Friday. For some, sin is a personal matter with God alone. For others, sin is a community matter. Many Christians, however, find private confession to a priest helpful in unburdening one’s conscience and renewing relationships between God and our fellow persons. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is not reserved only for those who commit serious sins, but for the remission of all sins. The grace that flows from confession possesses special powers of purification and support as we resolve to amend our lives to improve ourselves to better realize the potential with which God endowed us.  Although traditionally, confessions were heard in a confessional booth to provide anonymity and privacy, confe...

There is no one, proper way to pray. Since God made each of us uniquely, God does not expect us to all pray alike. Prayer, at bottom, expresses our feelings. Our prayers reflect our joys and sorrows, our pleas and our gratitude, our contrition and our forgiveness, and our aspirations and disappointments. Each of these are particular to each of us. Some prefer structured, liturgical prayer, while others find meaning in extemporaneous prayer arising out of particular moments when we feel the presence of God in a particular way the authors of prayer books cannot anticipate. Nor is there any proper   place   to pray. Prayer offered in an ecclesiastical edifice like a church, monastery or seminary  carries no greater efficacy with God than praying while bathing, cooking, or driving to Court. God listens to us wherever we are whenever we turn our thoughts to God. How, when and where we pray often arises from our faith traditions. Many of us first learned about God from our...

On the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, many Christians celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi, Latin for, “Body of Christ.” Unlike Maundy Thursday, which presents the Eucharist in the context of the Last Supper as a component of our Lord's passion, Corpus Christi focuses on the Eucharist itself. Corpus Christi begs the question, what do we believe about the Eucharist? What do we believe happens to the Bread and Wine during Mass? And what are the implications of what we believe for the mission of the Church?             What Christians believe about the nature of the Eucharist has been historically controversial. Not being a confessional Church like some evangelical denominations, and lacking the magisterium of the Roman Church, Anglicans tend to be ambiguous and ambivalent on  Eucharistic theology. Though most Anglicans will tell you they believe in “the Real Presence, as with many other issues, Anglicans tolerate a wide...