Some years ago, there was a story making the rounds about a man named Robert Liebowitz. A 60 -year-old single father of five, he had been struggling with kidney disease since he was 10 years old. Eventually he was told that he would need dialysis three times a week to survive, and a transplant to live. Because of his blood type (“O”), and the fact that some of his children were also contending with kidney disease, none of them could donate one of their kidneys to their father….
God wants us to be inwardly genuine and penitent in our worship.
Just as Jesus cleansed the temple we have to take an internal inventory of where we stand. As we know, taking an internal inventory of our own lives is not comfortable is it?
We all know that we have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.
We do not like taking those kinds of inventories because we might not always like what we find within ourselves….
Today, Friday, September 29, is the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels. It might be a particularly auspicious day to be open to how angels are present in our own lives. Here is John O’Donohue’s A Blessing of Angels, which might help us to experience angels in a new way…
The picture below is a rendering of Exodus 15:20-21. The Israelites have just crossed through the Red Sea, and the Egyptian army has drowned in the water rushing back to its normal depth. In the awe and wonder that follows, the text tells us “Then the prophet Miriam,...
The CHA Vestry meets monthly, from September through June. Like most Vestries of most Episcopal churches, we do not gather in the summer months of July and August. During the height of the pandemic our Vestry met over Zoom, and as virus numbers have ebbed and flowed, we have continued this practice with only a few exceptions.
One of those exceptions occurred this past month. We found ourselves feeling comfortable about meeting (and eating!) in person, and we all agreed that time together live would be a lovely way to mark the end of the “program year.” The agenda was finalized, the reminders were sent out, the pizza was ordered and at the appointed time we sat around the rectangular tables on the first floor of the Mission House to talk through the business of our common life….
At Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen, volunteers are truly a part of everything we do. Our work is supported by individual volunteers who join us once a week or once a month, and corporate groups, our Good Corporate Citizens, who join us for Days of Service. One of those...
On Friday, March 11, former NBA All-Star Charles Oakley joined us at Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen for a day of delicious food and fellowship with our community. In partnership with The Charles Oakley Foundation and Entain Foundation, Oakley supplied food, fun, and...
As has been announced in various ways, Holy Apostles is in the preliminary stages of a multi-faceted capital project. One of our first steps has been to hire a consulting firm to assist us in creating a case for supporting the work. This process includes interviews with various “stakeholders”: staff, guests, volunteers and donors. Once the consultants hear from a wide swath of interested parties, they will weave together aspects of engagement in our common life and build materials that help us articulate the important benefits of the project.
During my interview the questions were far reaching and wide ranging. We discussed details of CHA and HASK as well as hopes and dreams for the future. At one point, my interviewer asked me about using terms like “vulnerability” and “need” when referring to our HASK guests. The point of the question was clear: such terms, even when accurate, help maintain distance between groups of people. Those designated as “in need” must be different from those who are responding to those needs—and not in a good way….
Daily we make decisions as to what to do in our life’s journey, but before we ask, what will the people think about our decision, let’s ask, “What will God think about our decisions?”
If we are in a group we all know the pressure to just say nothing, to try to keep them “liking us.” I know I have felt that pressure as I have fallen into it at times. It takes work to learn how to do it and it’s sometimes a risk to step out and say something. That’s just the moment when we can learn what is really of highest importance to us. If pleasing God is number one, then we’ll speak up for God’s standards. If pleasing people is number one, then we’ll bite our tongues and say nothing.
Jesus had moments when He got wonderful feedback from the people he served. Why, because He was listening to the Father in making decisions. Then there were those other days.
Pharisees disrupted his teaching sessions with heckling questions. When He healed the sick and fed them, everybody wanted in. When he talked about the cost of discipleship, most of them just walked away. They abandoned Him….
In a recent article for the New York Times titled Dear People of 2022: What Would You Ask Your Future Self?, author Matthew Thompson wrote about the work of doctor and public speaker Hans Rosling. During his life, Dr. Rosling gave a series of TED talks in which he...