St Philip, Deacon and Evangelist

He 

Surely it is God who saves me, I will trust in him and not be afraid 

Ecce, Deus

This is the biblical Philip who baptized the Ethiopian eunuch in charge of the treasury of Candace, Queen of Ethiopia. (Acts 8:26-40)  A “wilderness road” may not have been Philip’s obvious choice, but he listened to “the little voice”  and went that way and so he had the encounter which resulted in the  Ethiopian’s instruction in the faith and his baptism. Then, instead of being able to enjoy the man’s hospitality and the comfort of his chariot, and to further instruct him. Philip was “snatched away” by the Spirit” and the Ethiopian “saw him no more.” Bill Mahedy once said in a sermon that all we get in this life is a taste and a sip.  Our ideas of what we need are not always  (read: seldom!) God’s ideas. The man had had a life changing experience and we have to assume that he was one of those thousands of men and women who, touched and changed by the Good News, went out “and turned the whole world upside down” as the hymn says.  

One of the innumerable host of heaven, I long to hear his story: “what happened then?!”  We don’t even know man’s name - only his ethnicity and his disability. He is forever ”the Ethiopian eunuch”  The same is true in the Gospel story for today (Luke 8:26-39) of the “Gerasene demoniac,” the man who tells Jesus that his name is “Legion.” Jesus sends the demons away and heals him and the people find him ”sitting at Jesus feet, clothed and in his right mind.”  This has got to be one of my all time favorite quotes from Scripture - one that I have often used of myself and others to describe in a phrase what would otherwise take forever to explain.  The “demoniac,” who we should note is no longer a demoniac, but it's his story: "what we were like, what  happened, and what we are like now." He begs Jesus to let him go with him, but Jesus’ reply is unequivocal, even harsh, I have always felt, “ “Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.” 

There is much work to do, and we seem to be sent out only half formed.  But the work is done by those who , like us, know they are broken and only redeemed by a love which has rescued them and will not let them go - dry sticks and erstwhile demoniacs, prostitutes, tax collectors.  People often say to members of AA, “you shouldn't still call yourself an alcoholic. It’s so negative! “ when in fact it is the most precious identity that we have! We know who we are, we know who has saved us, and here we are, unaccountably clothed and in our right minds.  And there is work to do. 

“Holy God, no one is excluded from your love, and your truth transforms the minds of all who seek you (or are sought by you!) ... give us all the grace to be heralds of the Gospel” wherever we may find ourselves, “proclaiming your love...  now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for Philip) 

Here's my monk after all!

may your grace always precede and follow us


Collect for today 

The 20th Sunday after Pentecost (I don't know where the year has gone but there are only 6 more! )

God has told you, O mortal, what is good: 

and what does the Lord require 
of you but to do justice 
and to love kindness 
and to walk humbly with your God?          
Micah 6:8

I’m always a little  nervous when I get through all the psalms for the morning and don’t get a verse....  Have I not been paying attention? Maybe I won’t get one and I’ll have to make it up, to choose for myself? But I read on and todays verse appeared in the Old Testament reading.  I began to sit with it without getting an image, which is rare, and then this one came to me - this lovely, serene picture that I have on the side of my refrigerator. I  fought against it a little - how could it be this grand place!? How does this go with walking humbly and doing kindness and loving justice?  Then I thought of a lovely picture that is also part of my current refrigerator collage, of a monk walking in a cloister. Surely that was the one to use! But what I clearly got was “No, this one.”  In the course of my meditation I began to see why. I had looked on the back of the post card and found that it is the interior of the National Cathedral. What better place to remember the words of Micah than where the powerful come together, where the nation gathers in times of tragedy?  When we are walking in the cloister it is easy to remember the words of Micah and to do them.  But what about when we are involved in our day to day lives - when we are ticked off or bone tired or frightened or bereaved: to love kindness when we are treated with contempt, to love justice and when we are maligned to walk humbly with our God? It’s the perfect picture. Did the individual who finagled money out of the state budget fiasco for a new Charger stadium while education and in-home health services are  slashed do justice?  Is allowing the building of Jewish settlements that threatens the peace  process in the Middle East between the Jews and the Palestinians walking humbly with their God?  This is not a Christian mandate but words spoken by the Jewish prophet Micah to the Jewish nation. People, you know what God requires of you, you know what is good. It’s always been  harder, whether in our personal lives or in our lives as a nation. to do than to quote. (You may see this as a Saints and Seasons one day! ) 

Happy 10-10-10! Today may we truly do justice and love kindness and walk humbly with our God.

We're trying out the Feast of Wilfred Thomeson Grenfell, Medical Missionary d. 19949

         Glorify  the Lord, O nights  and days  O shining light and enfolding dark, praise him and highly exalt him for ever. 

Benedicite, omnia opera Domini

Friday evening

Let my prayer be set forth in your sight as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice 

Psalm 141:2

Friday

The sea is his for he made it and his hands have molded the dry land                      The Venite

Thursday

In you we live and move and have our being