The Great Fifty Days of Easter

In the Episcopal tradition we celebrate Easter from early in the morning on Easter Day until the Day of Pentecost, which this year falls on May 31. This is the "Great Fifty Days of Easter" and is divided into two parts. The first forty days celebrate the time that Jesus was seen by his followers on earth until the day he ascended into heaven. Ascension Day this year falls on May 21. It is always a Thursday. I love to lead a worship service on that day because I can preach about how the disciples had to "hurry up and wait" for ten more days until the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This wonderful story is related by St. Luke in The Acts of the Apostles, chapters 1 and 2.

During this Great Fifty Days of Easter we get to sing hymns that contain a lot of "Alleluias." Each week we hear: Alleluia! Christ is risen! and the response: The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Please come and worship the Risen Lord with us -- 10:00 a.m. on Sundays.


In peace,
Linda+
The Rev. Linda McCloud
Vicar, Holy Cross Church Episcopal
Billings, MT
406-208-7314
http://www.holycrosschurchbillings.org/
photo: taken at Zoo Montana
on Pentecost, 2008

A Letter from the Bishops

The Episcopal Bishop of Montana, the Right Reverend C. Franklin Brookhart (right in photo) recently attended the Spring Retreat of the House of Bishops for the Episcopal Church U.S.A. He asked that we share the following Pastoral Letter from the Bishops to the Churches.

A Pastoral Letter from the Bishops of the Episcopal Church meeting in Hendersonville, North Carolina, March 13-18, 2009 to the Church and our partners in mission throughout the world.

I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. - Philippians 4:11b - 13

As the House of Bishops gather at the Kanuga Camp and Conference Center for our annual Spring Retreat, we are mindful of the worsening financial crisis around us. We recognize there are no easy solutions for the problems we now face. In the United States there is a 30% reduction of overall wealth, a 26% reduction in home values and a budget deficit of unprecedented proportions. Unemployment currently hovers at over 8% and is estimated to top 10% by the end of the year. There are over 8 million homes in America that are in foreclosure. Consumer confidence is at a 50 year low.

Unparalleled corporate greed and irresponsibility, predatory lending practices, and rampant consumerism have amplified domestic and global economic injustice. The global impact is difficult to calculate, except that the poor will become poorer and our commitment to continue our work toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 is at great risk. A specter of fear creeps not only across the United States, but also across the world, sometimes causing us as a people to ignore the Gospel imperative of self-sacrifice and generosity, as we scramble for self-preservation in a culture of scarcity.

The crisis is both economic and environmental. The drought that grips Texas, parts of the American South, California, Africa and Australia, the force of hurricanes that have wreaked so much havoc in the Caribbean, Central America and the Gulf Coast, the ice storm in Kentucky—these and other natural disasters related to climate change—result in massive joblessness, driving agricultural production costs up, and worsening global hunger. The wars nations wage over diminishing natural resources kill and debilitate not only those who fight in them, but also civilians, weakening families, and destroying the land. We as a people have failed to see this connection, compartmentalizing concerns so as to minimize them and continue to live without regard to the care of God’s creation and the stewardship of the earth’s resources that usher in a more just and peaceful world.

In this season of Lent, God calls us to repentance. We have too often been preoccupied as a Church with internal affairs and a narrow focus that has absorbed both our energy and interest and that of our Communion – to the exclusion of concern for the crisis of suffering both at home and abroad. We have often failed to speak a compelling word of commitment to economic justice. We have often failed to speak truth to power, to name the greed and consumerism that has pervaded our culture, and we have too often allowed the culture to define us instead of being formed by Gospel values.

While our commitment to the eradication of extreme poverty through the eight Millennium Development Goals moves us toward the standard of Christ’s teaching, we have nevertheless often fallen short of the transformation to which Christ calls us in our own lives in order to live more fully into the Gospel paradigm of God’s abundance for all.

Everyone is affected by the shrinking of the global economy. For some, this is a time of great loss—loss of employment, of homes, of a way of life. And for the most vulnerable, this “downturn” represents an emergency of catastrophic proportions. Like the Prodigal who comes to his senses and returns home, we as the people of God seek a new life. We recognize in this crisis an invitation into a deeper simplicity, a tightening of the belt, an expanded Lenten fast, and a broader generosity. God’s abundant mercy and forgiveness meet and embrace us, waiting to empower us through the Holy Spirit to face the coming days.

In a time of anxiety and fear the Holy Spirit invites us to hope. Anxiety, when voiced in community can be heard, blessed and transformed into energy and hope, but if ignored, swallowed or hidden, fear and anxiety can be corrosive and lead to despair. We Christians claim that joy and hope emerge for those who have the courage to endure suffering. In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul goes so far as to boast of his suffering, because “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Our current crisis presents us with opportunities to learn from our brothers and sisters of faith in other parts of the world who have long been bearers of hope in the midst of even greater economic calamity.

We can also learn from our spiritual ancestors, who found themselves in an economic and existential crisis that endured for forty years – on their journey from Egypt to Israel. While they groaned in Egypt, they murmured at Sinai – at least at first. And then after their groaning, complaining and reverting to old comforts of idol worship, they were given Grace to learn and understand what the Lord wanted to teach them.

They learned that they needed the wilderness in order to recover their nerve and put their full trust in God--and to discover their God-given uniqueness, which had been rubbed away during their captivity in Egypt. They adopted some basic rules that enabled them to live in a community of free people rather than as captives or slaves – the God given Ten Commandments. And perhaps most importantly, our spiritual ancestors discovered that the wilderness is a unique place of God’s abundance and miracle, where water gushed out of a rock and manna appeared on the desert floor – food and drink miraculously provided by God.

As we go through our own wilderness, these spiritual ancestors also point the way to a deep and abiding hope. We can rediscover our uniqueness – which emerges from the conviction that our wealth is determined by what we give rather than what we own. We can re-discover manna – God’s extraordinary expression of abundance. Week by week – in congregations and communities around the world, our common manna is placed before us in the Eucharist. Ordinary gifts of bread and wine are placed on the altar, and become for us the Body and Blood of Christ, which, when we receive them, draw us ever more deeply into the Paschal mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection.

As our risen Lord broke through the isolation of the disciples huddled in fear for their lives following his suffering and death, so too are we, the Body of Christ called to break through the loneliness and anxiety of this time, drawing people from their fears and isolation into the comforting embrace of God’s gathered community of hope. As disciples of the risen Christ we are given gifts for showing forth God’s gracious generosity and for finding blessing and abundance in what is hard and difficult. In this time the Holy Spirit is moving among us, sharing with us the vision of what is real and valued in God’s world. In a time such as this, Christ draws us deeper into our faith revealing to us that generosity breaks through distrust, paralysis and misinformation. Like our risen Lord, we, as his disciples are called to listen to the world’s pain and offer comfort and peace.

As we continue our Lenten journey together we place our hearts in the power of the Trinity. The God who created us is creating still and will not abandon us. The Incarnate Word, our Savior Jesus Christ, who in suffering, dying and rising for our sake, stands in solidarity with us, has promised to be with us to the end of the age. God the Holy Spirit, the very breath of God for us and in us, is our comforter, companion, inspiration and guide. In this is our hope, our joy and our peace.



In peace,
Linda+
The Rev. Linda McCloud
Vicar, Holy Cross Church Episcopal
Billings, Montana
406-208-7314
www.holycrosschurchbillings.org

Sermon for February 22

“Yes, I know. Keep Silent.”

We live in a really noisy world. It seems that everyone is competing for our attention. Everyone from television news personalities to radio talk show hosts to pop musicians – they all want us to listen to them and to be influenced by what they have to say. Even billboards shout at us – “Hey, look at me. I want to sell you the latest item on the market. You didn’t even know you needed it until you saw this ad.”

God also wants our attention, but often God gets our attention with a “still small voice.” To hear that voice, we need to find times to keep silent. I remember once reporting to my Bishop that I was going on retreat, and that I was taking such and such books with me. He wrote back to me and said something like, “Linda, when you are on retreat, books are noise.” Like Elisha in our Old Testament lesson [2 Kings 2:1-12], he could have said, “Yes, I know. Keep silent.”

Today is the last Sunday after the Epiphany, which was celebrated on January 6th as the visit of the Wise Men to the infant Jesus. During this Season of Epiphany, our scriptures have focused on God’s love being spread abroad to the nations – his salvation spreading to the ends of the earth.

On this last Sunday of the Epiphany, what it is that our scriptures are all about? I think they are all about our ultimate epiphany. They are about our ultimate “aha” moment. The ultimate light that can go on over our heads is to realize that we, too, are the beloved. When Jesus was on the mountaintop meeting with Moses and Elijah [Mark 9:2-9
], God broke through the cloud cover and declared that Jesus was/is God’s beloved Son. This was the second time God had said this out loud so that all could hear. The first time was at the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. We who are baptized into Christ share in his divine life. We too share in the beloved-ness of Jesus Christ. God loves us unconditionally.

God’s unconditional love for us does not mean that God approves of all our actions. On the contrary, God’s love calls us to repentance and a better way of life. The upcoming Season of Lent gives us a chance to be intentional about that. This better way of life would include opening ourselves up to God’s love in such a way that we know and accept ourselves. In this way we will be more apt to love and accept others. We can pass that beloved-ness on to others and try to bring out the best in them. It only takes a minute to lift someone’s spirits to the skies. On the other hand, if we say harsh words to others, it might take a lifetime to erase the hurt. Knowing that we are beloved of God and that others are beloved of God is a good place to start.

Mark’s Gospel doesn’t say what Jesus, Moses and Elijah were talking about, but Luke’s account of this story says that they were speaking of Jesus’ exodus from this world – his departure – his death. And God broke onto the scene and called Jesus his Beloved. On the mountain, Peter, James and John saw Jesus for who he really is. When Jesus was “transfigured” his true identity became transparent. They caught a quick glimpse of the glorified Jesus – maybe what he would look like after his resurrection. The disciples, especially Peter, never got over this. Although Jesus was the only one who was transfigured, the disciples were forever changed.

On this mountain (was it Mount Tabor; Mount Hermon?), when Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus, Jesus’ inner circle of disciples -- Peter, James, and John -- also had another epiphany. They realized that the law and the prophets had been pointing to Jesus all along. Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s promises all throughout their scriptures.

How do we reach the conclusion that we, too, are beloved of God? If we make prayer a habit of the heart, chances are it will occur to us that we are beloved. This can be hard for some people to accept. Self-esteem issues can cloud our vision of who we are before God. Some people think they have to get good enough on their own for God to love them, when in truth, God holds us all as his dearly beloved. Here is a prayer we might want to learn by heart:

“O God of peace, who has taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength: By the might of your Spirit lift us, we pray you, to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer, 832)

Henri Nouwen, the late priest, writer, and spiritual director, said that knowing who we are – knowing that we are the beloved, keeps us out of all kinds of trouble in this world. It protects us from getting too puffed up if people speak well of us. Knowing that we are the beloved protects us from getting down in the mouth if other people speak ill of us. So, even though the world around us is shouting at us, we can have peace and quiet in the deepest part of our hearts. Nouwen says that out of this storehouse of grace and love, we can affirm God’s presence in others.

As we enter into Lent, maybe we can carve out some time to keep silent. We can listen for the Voice of God and know within ourselves that we, too, are the beloved. As we claim and grow into our beloved-ness, we are claiming for ourselves the truth that Jesus preached. That’s because our relation to Jesus is our ultimate Epiphany. Jesus is the Morning Star that rises in our hearts.

“Beloved of God” is who you really are. Don’t let anything or anyone cloud your vision of that. Amen.


In peace,
Linda+
The Rev. Linda McCloud
Vicar, Holy Cross Church Episcopal
Billings, Montana
406-208-7314
www.holycrosschurchbillings.org

Getting ready for Lent

Here is the "Faith & Values" article I wrote for the Billings Gazette. It was published today.


It has been called “the new reality.” The seismic shift in our economy has affected all of us and has brought us to this watershed time. Was greed a factor? It’s part of the human condition.

We now find ourselves retooling, retraining, and repositioning for survival and success. Long-standing practices of consumerism have shifted. We are learning to live leaner and greener.

Meanwhile in the world of sports, star players have behaved in a manner unbecoming of their status. Michael Phelps has ‘fessed up. And (say it isn’t so!) Alex Rodriguez has admitted that he “did take a banned substance” because he wanted to be one of the best all-time players. Apparently both are truly sorry and humbly repent.

Coming clean is healthful as it allows the fresh breezes of forgiveness to blow through our lives. Such confession need not be a once-in-a-lifetime event. In the Christian tradition, Lent is that perfect time when God offers us space for such reflection. It’s coming up soon.

Next Wednesday, February 25, is Ash Wednesday in the Church calendar. Ash Wednesday kicks off the Lenten Season, followed by Holy Week and Easter, which falls this year on April 12. This is the time to be intentional about cleaning out the cluttered places of our lives. Lent is the time to consider our own mortality. In particular we think about sin, forgiveness, and ongoing repentance, both individually and corporately. The forty days of Lent allow us to form new habits of the heart for which we might not otherwise make time.

From historical documents we know that Lent was not always forty days. In the earliest times of Christianity, Lent was apparently much shorter. Somewhere in the Seventh Century – in the Dark Ages -- Lent took on its present form. The Church loved this form so much that it became permanent. Forty days matches Jesus’ time in the wilderness after his baptism in the Jordan River. Matthew’s Gospel says that Jesus fasted during that time.

If we are taking on a Lenten discipline – if we are fasting in any way, we should ask ourselves what we would have to change to make more room for God in our lives. Will giving up chocolate do that for us?

The Church corporately has its own ways of fasting. In the Episcopal tradition, the Church does not provide wedding ceremonies during Lent except in extreme circumstances. We refrain from such festivities. We don’t even get to say “Hallelujah.” This in itself is a fast.

The new reality turns out to be the old reality revisited. It is the human struggle with greed and its results. It affects us all. Lent is a good time to tackle this struggle head on. We can do it, with God’s help. Let’s go.

I wish you peace and a holy Lent.


In peace,
Linda+
The Rev. Linda McCloud
Vicar, Holy Cross Church Episcopal
Billings, Montana
406-208-7314
www.holycrosschurchbillings.org

Sermon for Sunday, February 15

What Pushes Your Buttons?

In Jesus’ day there were strict laws governing lepers. If they got well, they had to go and show themselves to the priests in Jerusalem and offer certain sacrifices. In the meantime, they could not live in their communities. They had to stay at a distance from polite society and yell “unclean” when anyone else got too near. Consider the Leper in our Gospel reading for today (Mark 1:40-45). He broke all the rules. He broke through his fear, walked right up to Jesus and spoke with him. This was an emotional moment for Jesus. He was moved with pity. Jesus broke the rules, too, by reaching out and touching a Leper. Once again Jesus identifies with the outcasts of society.

Consider also Naaman, the Leper in our Old Testament reading (2 Kings 5:1-14). He was not an outcast from society – at least not yet. He was probably in the first stages of the disease when he received the healing he needed.

Naaman was an army commander in Aram, which is modern-day Syria. Our scripture passage illustrates that worship of the True and Living God was making inroads into other cultures.

In those days, one way that cultures crossed paths was by making war on each other. Some things never change. The stronger nations would test the resistance of weaker nations by conducting short raids. They would go into another country at harvest time and steal the harvest, or burn it. There was probably a lot of prior harassment before there was all-out war. On one of these raids, a young girl had been taken captive. She served as a slave of Naaman’s wife. There could not have been any bigger contrast in the power of these two individuals – a slave girl and an army commander. But, like our Lord Jesus, the young girl had compassion on the Leper. She was moved with pity.

For a moment, put yourself in her place. If you had been taken as a slave, what would be your reaction? Would you have been fearful? Would you have been angry? She could have withheld the information about the Prophet in her country. But this would have been vengeance. It would not have been compassion. So, she took a chance on recommending that Naaman go back into the country he had been raiding. She told him to go back into enemy territory! Although he would be going there in peace, he was taking a chance on his life.

We are not sure what the protocol was in those days, but apparently kings talked to kings and the information trickled down from there. When Naaman went back to Israel, emotions erupted in every direction. First, he took a letter from his king to the king of Israel, asking him to heal Naaman. This made the king of Israel very angry. Why was he so angry? Was it because he was afraid? I think the king was really afraid of Naaman, who was known as a warrior. It was natural for the king to become angry because Naaman was a perceived threat. It must have been terrifying for the king of Israel to have Naaman walk in and demand healing. Little did he know that God was about to do something amazing. But at first, Naaman really pushed his buttons.

Do you know what pushes your buttons? What is it that you feel so strongly about, that if it was threatened you would be angry? Knowing who we are and what upsets us contributes greatly to the way we handle our anger. When I first began thinking about becoming a priest, I was told that the discernment process was not for the faint of heart. Though this process, I would “learn what pushes my buttons.” In other words, I would know myself so well that I would know what would make me angry. I would know my sources of anger and perhaps become able to develop constructive responses to them – or at least uses for them.

So I check in with myself every now and then and ask, “What pushes my buttons?” Are the issues the same as they were five years ago, or have I mellowed out, so to speak. We can decide what is worth getting angry about. We can decide which “ditch to die in.”

We ask ourselves as Christians how we can get by with any anger, since it is considered one of the Seven Deadly Sins. Anger ranks right up there with pride, covetousness, lust, envy, gluttony and sloth. And yet, as we read scripture, we hear plenty about the Wrath of God. How can we reconcile the two? How can God have the emotion of anger? Maybe it’s because God loves us so much, and we humans have done things to threaten God’s love.

I want to suggest that anger itself is natural to us, who are created in the image of God. However, we are responsible for the use of our anger. We are not to let anger control us. St. Paul advises us to be angry, but not to sin – and not to let the sun go down on our wrath. Don’t stew.

Anger is a part of our physiology. It’s a part of our normal, God-given self-defense mechanism, which, combined with fear, might save our lives. These emotions let us know when it’s time to make a run for it. I suggest that anger in itself is not a sin. Our misdirecting and mishandling our anger can lead to sin. We are responsible for our behaviors as a result of our anger. Maybe anger can even be a step along the way to full understanding of our life situations. I am very fond of C. S. Lewis’ definition of anger: “Anger is the fluid that love bleeds when you cut it.”

There is a lot of anger in our world right now – anger gone haywire. We do what we can to control it with the use of language. We try to be politically correct so as not to offend.

But I digress. Let’s go back to our story of the King, the Prophet, and Naaman. The king was afraid, so he became angry. When Naaman thought he had been snubbed by Elisha, he became angry and almost missed the point of the whole trip. He was pouting to the point of rage. He had a desire to control, and when he could not do that, his anger exploded. Naaman was probably already angry when he arrived on the scene because he was threatened. His physical survival was threatened. He was humiliated. His identity and place in society were threatened. His emotional response to his fear was anger. When he finally listened to reason, he agreed to go dip in the Jordan River seven times. The results of his obedience were miraculous.

Anger can control us or we can control it. Anger doesn’t have to become the leprosy in our lives. It doesn’t have to eat us up. We can learn to channel it into constructive behaviors that exhibit the love of God. The Good News is that we can choose to control what pushes our buttons. In this way, we will not be so vulnerable to events that cause us to react improperly.

Be assured that our Lord Jesus is moved with pity for us as human beings. When we come to this altar, we can be like the Leper who came to Jesus – breaking through whatever would hold us back. We can stretch out our hands to God and receive his mysterious love. All this Love comes from the One who chooses to make us clean and able to stand before him. Amen.


In peace,
Linda+
The Rev. Linda McCloud
Vicar, Holy Cross Church Episcopal
Billings, Montana
406-208-7314
www.holycrosschurchbillings.org

Happy Valentine's Day

How does true love behave?

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

(excerpted from 1 Corinthians, chapter 13)



In peace,
Linda+
The Rev. Linda McCloud
Vicar, Holy Cross Church Episcopal
Billings, Montana
406-208-7314
http://www.holycrosschurchbillings.org/
photo: bleeding hearts in a garden
Wrangell, Alaska, June 2008

Happy Birthday, Abe

There is a wonderful story - possibly apocryphal - about Hodgenville, Kentucky, the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln:

It was a fine spring day in Hodgenville, and two farmers were at the general store catching up on the winter's news. One said, "Back in February Tom Lincoln's wife Nancy gave birth to a baby boy. Named him Abe. Nothing much ever happens in Hodgenville."



In peace,
Linda+

The Rev. Linda McCloud
Vicar, Holy Cross Church Episcopal
Billings, Montana
406-208-7314
http://www.holycrosschurchbillings.org/