Friday, March 11: Beth Zobel

"Come and see." - John 1:35-42

After 15 years of widowhood, my mother went back to her maiden name. There were no regrets for living 35 years with her husband’s name, but she claims that as soon as the legal change was made she realized, “This has always been my true identity!”

Jesus calls each of us by our true name. It may feel different; like a new identity, but I propose that it is actually who we’ve been all along; from beginningless time. In fact, all that we are looking for is right here, inviting us to “come and see.”

— Beth Zobel

Thursday, March 10: Bishop Greg Rickel

"For a bishop, as God’s steward, must be blameless." - Titus 1:1-16

Any bishop would read Titus 1:1-16, especially verse 7, with some pause. “For a Bishop, as God’s steward, must be blameless.” I looked up “blameless,” and it is most often is defined as “free of guilt; not subject to blame”; “has lived a blameless life”; “of irreproachable character”; “an unimpeachable reputation.” Some light there, but still pretty daunting stuff. I read this much as I hear, and I think we
misunderstand, John Wesley’s famous phrase, still used in United Methodist ordinations, “moving on toward perfection.” We don’t like that word “perfection” any more than we like the word “blameless.”

But, I am not sure our 21st century Western ears hear it right. For me, it is the difference between the life and ministry we seek, and publicly proclaim, versus the one we live. It is the ability to put these two into the same conversation, and have the vulnerability, and the love for others, and the Body of Christ, the Church, as the foremost and primary role in your life, so that you remain willing to be open about your faults, seek reconciliation when it is needed, and continue to note yourself, rightfully and truthfully so, a sinner. It is the ability to not allow your position to blind you from challenge by others. Being blameless, as a Christian, is to know you are among all to be blamed, and so, thereby, to be in the need of reconciliation and God’s grace and to publicly acknowledge it. If it were to mean what we think of so often as blameless, or perfect, then bishops would be more difficult to live with than we already are, and we would be of no earthly good to anyone. As one commentator on this idea said, “The perfection to which we are called is a maturity, or “rightness,” at each point in our journey with the final, true perfection coming on that day when everything shakable has been shaken out.”

I have to see it this way. I am praised on a daily basis, but blamed just as often. Blamed for saying the wrong thing to the wrong people, for speaking out on this or that, for not being where someone thought I should be. This should strike any bishop right between the eyes, because if you are awake at all, you know you are not blameless, but you are saved, and loved, as are we all, by our God of grace, and in the end, this is what we are to be an example of: a sinner, redeemed. — The Rt Rev Greg Rickel

"Let no one be scandalized if I frequent those who are considered unworthy or sinful. Who is not a sinner? Let no one be alarmed if I am seen with compromised or dangerous people, on the left or the right. Let no one bind me to a group. My door, my heart, must be open to everyone, absolutely everyone." —Dom Helder Camara

Mardi Gras festivities!

We sure cut loose last night at St. Thomas, with Charles, the Blundells and company providing fabulous music for dancing; mask-making and face-painting; a host of volunteers cooking pancakes and sausage; and well over 100 St. Thomas parishioners and friends in attendance.

But perhaps the most surprising moment of the night came when Father Lex shouted, "Throw me something, Mister!" and received ... this.

We caught a shot of the mischief-making member of the youth group whose name was drawn out of a hat and who was thus tapped to throw the pie. But he was wearing a mask ... so we're not sure who he is!

Wednesday, March 9: Ash Wednesday

Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy Name.

In this Lenten Season, we are called to reflect on what Christ’s death on the Cross means to us. He died to save us from our sins, and all we need to do is accept His saving grace. This Psalm exults in His love, and we are asked to bless the Lord numerous times, to not forget all His benefits. He forgives all, heals all, redeems all, offers vindication for our sins, and offers love to all who fear him, keep his covenants, and remember his commandments.

In sum, acceptance of Christ means that we have an all-encompassing acceptance into God’s kingdom. In His death, there is life for all of us who accept him. We are but lilies in the field, who bloom briefly, and then pass away. Our stay is temporary, but eternal life comes through an acceptance that we have remission of all our sins through acceptance of God, and the sacrifice of his son’s death. The Psalm is a very positive affirmation of the blessings which come through acceptance of the benefits of Christ’s death on the cross. Bless the Lord, O my soul.

—Paul Birkeland

A Daily Devotional for Lent, courtesy of the parishioners of St. Thomas

Introduction

For Christians, Lent is a time set apart. Forty full and rich and long days to reflect and to pray, to look within, to seek out the things in our lives that create distance between God and ourselves. Lent is a time to discern how God may be calling us. What might we take on, or let go of, in order to more freely love God, our neighbors and ourselves?

We offer you the St Thomas Lenten Devotional and invite you to spend some time each day reflecting on Holy Scripture with our St Thomas community. These reflections have been written with great care and attention by the people of our community, and they offer us an opportunity to move more deeply into our relationships with God, with one another and with ourselves.

My heartfelt thanks to all who prayed and pondered and wrote so beautifully from the riches of their own lives to make this booklet happen. This little devotional is a great gift to us all, and it has been my privilege to have had a hand in bringing it to you. I invite you to use it to pray with, to come closer into community by coming to know a bit more of the people who have written these reflections. May this Lent be an especially rich and holy season for us all.

Faithfully, Karen†

Youth retreat to Whidbey Island, make new friends

The numbers couldn't have worked out more perfectly: ten youth from St. Thomas, ten from St. Mark's Cathedral. We set out through rain and traffic Friday evening and even got separated onto two different ferries. But eventually, we all made it to Camp Casey on Whidbey Island.

The St. Mark's youth, under the able leadership of Children & Youth Director Cindy Spencer, do this retreat every single year. This is the third time St. Thomas youth have joined them to make a special effort at building new friendships. We had a young bunch this year: one sophomore, two freshmen, and a host of middle schoolers.

This particular retreat is not meant to be intense. It's time away, time for recharging and refreshing. More than once I heard a youth say, "I'm bored!" I think this really means, "I'm slowing down for the first time since Christmas, and I don't know how to handle it!" I get that way too. A little boredom is sometimes necessary before we can get used to the fact that we are human beings, not "human doings."

That's not to say we did nothing, of course! We cooked our own meals and cleaned up after ourselves. We walked on the beach in the rain and chose rocks with which to build an altar. We played lots of board games, card games, and basketball games, we did the Limbo, and we watched a movie or two.


But perhaps the highlight for most of us was our time playing at Fort Casey. This fort was built to be used in the event of a foreign invasion from the East that, of course, never occurred. It was decommissioned decades ago, and the military barracks that make up Camp Casey are now owned and operated by Seattle Pacific University. Fort Casey has everything you'd expect: giant stone structures built into the grounds, battlements, and dark rooms that are great for playing Sardines, or The Hunter and the Hunted.

On Sunday morning, we shared Morning Prayer. We sang songs together and heard the Gospel account of Jesus' Transfiguration on the mountaintop. Instead of a sermon, we each drew our own "transfigured selves," and then we worked together to design a "Transfigured Person." We came away Sunday afternoon having learned that God wants us to keep becoming more like ourselves ... the people we are when we feel truly alive. May God be with us all as we come down from the mountaintop of Camp Casey, back into the world we know so well.

My special thanks go out to Cindy and Heath Spencer, Sunni Bannon, and my wife Christy and daughter Sarah, who shared the weekend with us.

- Josh Hosler

Jesus is ___________.

If you live in the Seattle area, you can hardly have missed the bumper stickers everywhere that say, simply, “Jesus Is ______.” You fill in the blank. But what does it mean?

The bumper stickers are a product of The City Church, an evangelical mega-church in Bellevue. A quick look at their Beliefs page tells us they’re very different from Episcopalians. They believe that Holy Scripture informs us on matters of science, so clearly they’re not down with Darwin. They believe in “the literal existence of Adam and Eve” and “the worldwide cataclysmic deluge” (read: Noah’s flood). They stand very firmly against same-sex unions.

So I’m a little puzzled that a fundamentalist church would create not only the “Jesus Is ______” bumper stickers, but also create a Web site that allows you to fill in the blank yourself! When I visited the site today, a number of different submissions were flashing by on the screen, including the following:

Jesus is gay.
Jesus is the only way!!!
Jesus is bigotry.
Jesus is our beacon of strength.
Jesus is not powerful. Unfortunately his homophobic fan club is.
Jesus is glad that I’m an atheist.
Jesus is not a fairy tale.
Jesus is a popular name in Mexico.
Jesus is my savior.
Jesus is risk.
Jesus is the giver of courage.
Jesus is an unwanted baby that Mary and Joseph really didn’t want, so they blamed God.
Jesus is you.

You can add your own, too. Go ahead … try it! But ... why would a fundamentalist church create such a thing at all? Normally I think of fundamentalist churches as working hard to shut down all conversation. This site not only opens conversation … it makes no effort at all to rein it in.

So why did they do it?

And why didn’t we think of it first?