 St Alban’s Episcopal Church Bolivar, Missouri Monday. February 28, 2022 Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Before Lent begins…the Alleluia bannerand the Transfiguration reality.  Hymn 137 This is an ancient and theologically wonderful hymn for the Transfiguration. We sang it yesterday. But maybe you will find itgood to remember today and throughout Lent – The Christian mystery is not simply salvation from sin, but restoration to the glory of humanity, a humanity re-created in the glorious image of God: O wondrous type! O vision fairof glory that the Church may share,when Christ upon the mountain shows, where brighter than the sun he glows! With Moses and Elijah nighthe incarnate Lord holds converse high; and from the cloud, the Holy Onebears record the the only Son. With shining face and bright array,Christ deigns to manifest today what glory shall be theirs abovewho joy in God with perfect love. And faithful hearts are raised on highby this great vision’s mystery; for which in joyful strains we raisethe voice of prayer, the hymn of praise. O Father, with the’eternal Son,and Holy Spirit, ever One, vouchsafe to bring us by thy grace to see thy glory face to face. (15th century Latin, translated by the Rev. John Mason Neale, in 1861 – at the beginning of the civil war in this country. Imagine what this “vision” suggests to an embattled and anxious people fighting a bitter war most of them didn’t want.)  So Deann Megonnell was at the hospital yesterday with her dad, Lowell Korber, during church. We had such a great time this morning – I have missed her so much! She said she almost drove up for Eucharist, but realized she needed to stay and talk to the cardiologist. But she missed you, too. She sends you all her love; today she drove her dad to his new home in Lincoln. Pray for him, and for Pam and Kris who will be overseeing his care.  To begin a war is criminal. But to simply surrender when attacked, acquiescing to evil, hoping for peace, does not lead to lasting peace, either. There is no heroism in sending others to die for one’s perverted ego, but there is something remarkable in seeing even old people willing to die to save a nation and their freedom, for their grandchildren. Pray for everyone on both sides. Nobody but Putin and the oligarchs want this war. “I No Longer Pray For Peace” by Ann Weems On the edge of war, one foot already in, I no longer pray for peace: I pray for miracles. I pray that stone hearts will turn to tenderheartednesss, and evil intentions will turnto mercifulness, and all soldiers already deployed will be snatched out of harm’s way, and the whole world will beastounded onto its knees. I pray that all the “God talk” will take bones, and stand up and shed its cloak of faithlessness, and walk again into its powerful truth. I pray that the whole world might sit down together and share its bread and wine. Some say there is no hope, but then I’ve always applauded the holy fools who never seem to give up on the scandalousness of our faith: that we are loved by God…that we can truly love one another. I no longer pray for peace: I pray for miracles.  Pope Francis – 2 day ago(translated from Italian) “Never was a pope charged with such a strong gesture.” But Francesco is Francesco and before noon, surprisingly, he arrived in his white Fiat 500L, in Via della Conciliazion, the entrance of the Russian diplomatic representation in the Vatican and met ambassador Alexander Avdeev. Forty minutes face to face: his great concern for the population, his appeal to care about the children, the sick and the suffering. Then in a tweet, just as unprecedented, in Russian, with a passage from the encyclical, “Brothers All” “Every war leaves the world worse than it found it. War is a failure of politics and humanity, a shameful surrender, a defeat against the forces of evil.”  |
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