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June 22Grateful for Community We have many communities: parish, neighborhood, town we live in, even Facebook, and others. Human beings seem to naturally create communities. We knew from prehistoric times that we can accomplish bigger tasks by working together. And when we accomplish these tasks, we can gather together and celebrate. The obvious community is our parish. Our common goal is the spread of the gospel. We do this by showing God’s love in the bigger community of the Placerville area (Upper Room, SHARE, HELP, Food Closet, and others) and the wider human community (Episcopal Relief and Development and Compassion) and by worshipping together, sharing God’s Word. We are nourished by sharing a sacred meal on Sundays, Wednesdays, and on other occasions, followed by sumptuous coffee hours. We celebrate with the Epiphany service and dinner, Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper, the parish picnic, Oktoberfest, A Dinner and a Movie, meals in member homes, and other events. We are a community. We love each other. We fight each other. We break bread together in many settings. We work together. But most importantly we love each other. Jesus said that that is how outsiders will know that we are Christians, when we love each other. Love is the glue that holds us together. Love is the badge we wear for non-Christians to identify us. Technorati Tags: community,outreach 10:48 AM GMT | Read comments(0)May 11The California Proposition ProcessWe, in California, are blessed, or cursed, with two of the propositions on the June ballot sponsored by corporations. First of all, let me say that I don’t like the initiative system in California. This system was born as an antidote to powerful (translated railroad) interests controlling the state. It gave the “people” a chance to level the playing field from the powerful. That was over 100 years ago. Today, the initiative system is used to promote all sorts of special interests. And once in a while, something for the public good shows up on the ballot. If anyone gathers enough signatures anything can be on the ballot, provided a lawsuit doesn’t cause it to be rejected. This results in many propositions on every ballot. I got so disgusted, I vowed to vote no on all propositions, because I was tired of seeing a bunch of them every time I voted. I never did that (except maybe once) because there was at least one worth voting for. So all sorts of things have either become law or as amendments to the constitution. The famous Proposition 13 is one. (Remember, there have been so many propositions that the numbering needs to start over again from “1.”) Prop 13 rolled back property taxes and put in restrictions on tax increases. It also required a 2/3 vote on the state budget. Granted property tax reform was greatly needed, but Prop 13 was not the answer. It has helped contribute to the mess California is in now. Then there was the proposition that was the famous “Three Strikes Law.” People getting caught shoplifting received life sentences to prison. Like many propositions, which seem like great ideas on paper, turn out to be failures in execution (no pun intended). The justice of getting a life term for a minor infraction aside, the voters had no idea that the state prisons would burst at the seems, draining money out of the state budget. It was a logical consequence, but the hard decisions were left to the legislature. This, too, helped put California in the fiscal mess it is in now . Propositions are very poor ways of legislating. Instead of thoughtful conversations of the pros and cons, we get misleading ads on TV and radio. (That is nice way of saying we are lied to.) There is no provision for amendments to fix flaws in a proposition. So, the voters blindly vote for things that end up biting them later. And California gets harder and harder to govern. Now take Propositions 16 and 17 on this year’s June ballot. The former is written and sponsored (largely) by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), the latter by Mercury Insurance. Prop 16 is the voter’s rights act. Bull. It makes it harder for municipal utilities to be formed, offering lower electricity rates for people, which take customers from PG&E. PG&E doesn’t like competition. Prop 17 was written by Mercury Insurance so that they can charge big rate increases to poor people and, yes, to dead-beats. It amends Prop 103, which prevents Mercury from raising rates for someone whose policy had lapsed. The sad thing is is that people will vote for both of these propositions. We live in a republic, not a democracy. We elect people to make reasonable, informed decisions for us. We don’t directly do this, except for propositions. If we don’t like what our elected leaders decide on our behalf, then we vote them out of office. That is how our republic works. But in California, we get saddled with misinformed, uninformed laws passed in the ballot box. Woe to us. Technorati Tags: Prop 16,Prop 17,Proposition 16,Proposition 17,California Proposition 3:29 PM GMT | Read comments(1)May 20The Holy Spirit and the ChurchMay 23 is Pentecost. This is the day when the church celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit on the church. An important link is often overlooked. This link is between the church and the Holy Spirit. When we recite the creeds, we express our belief in the church under the category of the Holy Spirit. This is because the church does not exist without the Holy Spirit. Pentecost marks this event. The disciples are still huddled together, fearing arrest. The shock of Jesus’ crucifixion is still with them. Even after seeing Jesus after the resurrection, they still live in fear. When Jesus ascended into heaven, he tells them to hang around. He reassures them that they will not be abandoned – that soon the Holy Spirit will come. At the Jewish Feast of the Weeks (Pentecost), the Holy Spirit not only paid the disciples a visit, but dramatically entered their room and entered each of them. This produced a dramatic change in the disciples. Instead of cowering in a room, they burst open to talk to all the Jews gathered in Jerusalem for the feast. And they told all these people about Jesus, each in their own languages. To recreate that, we have people read the reading from Acts that tells us about this event in different foreign languages. From that day forward, the disciples carried the story of Jesus from Jerusalem to the entire world. It took generations to do this and it still goes on. The power, the engine, behind this is the Holy Spirit. The church cannot exist without the Holy Spirit. The church cannot exist without communities of people all infused with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowers the church to continue Jesus’ ministry. Jesus did ascend into heaven, but he did not leave us orphans. He gave us the Holy Spirit. God is in us. When we act through the Holy Spirit, we act as Jesus acted in the world. But no one of us can do what Jesus did. The Holy Spirit gives us gifts for ministry. Every single one of us is given gifts for ministry. No one retires from ministry. The Holy Spirit never retires. It takes all of us together to continue Jesus’ ministry. Through all of us together, with the Holy Spirit, we will change the world. Technorati Tags: Holy Spirit,Pentecost,Church 11:04 AM GMT | Read comments(1)May 05In pursuit of energyWe have become very dependent on energy sources to live our modern lives. Automobiles, fueled principally by gasoline, made suburban living possible. Jet fuel gets us from one part of the country to another in less than a day (hopefully). It also can get us to other parts of the world in less than a day. We burn oil, natural gas, or other fossil fuels to heat our homes in the winter. We cool them using electricity generated from a variety resources, but usually from natural gas or coal. This is supplemented by hydro, nuclear, and to a very small degree by solar and wind generators. When this pursuit of energy to live our lives in the way we want to live them goes wrong, oftentimes the result is calamitous. We recently mourned with the people of West Virginia the deaths of coal miners. There are charges that safety at that mine was compromised for the sake of profit. Government officials may have been bribed to look the other way. Just recently, off-shore oil workers were killed when the rig exploded, burned, and disappeared into the Gulf of Mexico. The growing disaster on the Gulf Coast may be worse than the Exxon Valdez disaster. Also in the past, we cannot forget the Chernobyl reactor disaster. The ground at that site is still unsafe. Dependence on foreign oil threatens our national security. We produce a lot of oil. We import a whole lot more. Much of our imports are from countries hostile to us. If they decided to turn off the spigots, we would be in deep trouble. We need a rapid conversion away from oil, but that will never happen. We are addicted. Then there is the environmental costs of our pursuit of energy. Burning coal is choking the air and everything that breaths the air. Burning fossil fuels increases the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere contributing to our current climate change. Nuclear technology seems much safer these days and does not pollute. France and other countries rely on nuclear power and have very good safety records. Solar and wind farms are increasing, but will only provide a very small fraction of our electricity needs. Nuclear power is the best alternative to our energy needs. It is relatively safe, but we need to realistically address the spent fuel storage issues. It does not pollute (except for the spent material issues). They can replace our coal and natural gas fired power plants. They can provide power for our automobiles and other vehicles. Airplanes are going to be stuck with oil for a while. The navy has proved that small nuclear plants can power ships. God gave us this planet to take care of it. It is our moral responsibility to leave the earth the way we found it for future generations. Taking what we need without thought to the long-term, with no regard to safety, with denial of the climate effects, with an attitude of “I got mine and you don’t count,” is immoral. The Earth is not ours. It is God’s. How will we account to God for our care of the planet? How will God judge us? Technorati Tags: environmnet,climate change,nuclear power,energy disaster,oil dependence 11:25 AM GMT | Read comments(0)March 16A Perfect WorldDoing what needs to be done in “a perfect world” is a laudable goal. In a perfect world, everyone would do for others as they would wish to be treated. In a perfect world, the homeless would be housed and fed and given the support they need to help them stay off the streets, alley ways, parks, canyons, and vacant buildings. In a perfect world there would be no racism; everyone would be color blind. In a perfect world, no nation would impose its will over another. In a perfect world, all organizations and people, including nations and corporations would share resources and information. In a perfect world, organizations would not profit off of human misery. In a perfect world, all people would receive the best possible health care. In a perfect world, no one would go to bed hungry. In a perfect world, we would not need law enforcement or armies. In a perfect world, there is peace. In a perfect world, we love and respect each other. In a perfect world, we practice radical forgiveness. In a perfect world, there is little need to forgive anything. In a perfect world, there is no divorce. In a perfect world, children are raised in healthy, loving families. In a perfect world, everyone’s gifts and talents are respected and honored. In a perfect world, the planet is cared for so that it can be enjoyed by the generations that follow us. But we don’t live in a perfect world. We often fail to do what is necessary to bring about “a perfect world.” And when we fail, there is not always forgiveness. We may then feel like failures and unwanted. Our self-esteem is lowered and we give up trying anymore. A downward spiral begins that keeps us from working for “a perfect world.” We want our way as individuals and groups. Everyone who disagrees with us is wrong (because we can’t ever be wrong, can we?) We associate with people who think and act like us. This keeps our thinking uniform without all those troubling ideas that others have that might make us think of possibilities that might not have otherwise occurred to us. We try hard to keep our minds free from ideas that might force to think we are not always right. Besides, it’s hard work to evaluate other ideas. It’s hard to compare the strengths and weaknesses of other ideas, let alone our own ideas. Only in “a perfect world” are ideas, perfect. When another group meets with like minded people, their opponents picket outside rather than being invited in for a dialogue. People who disagreed talked to each other once upon a time. Now people stay with their own ideological clan. Ridicule of another’s ideas has replaced dialogue. Is this progress? The biblical plan for us is “a perfect world.” Genesis calls this Eden. Jesus called this the kingdom of God. The prophets of old called God’s people to work for this. But it was easier to stay insulated from outsiders, avoiding their contamination. We pray in the Lord’s Prayer that God’s kingdom come, but we forget to do anything about it. Jesus didn’t say it was going to magically happen. Jesus commissioned us to get this work done. We need to pray and work. Technorati Tags: forgiveness,cooperation,dialogue,perfection,kingdom of God,perfect world,Eden 11:32 AM GMT | Read comments(1)
We have many communities: parish, neighborhood, town we live in, even Facebook, and others. Human beings seem to naturally create communities. We knew from prehistoric times that we can accomplish bigger tasks by working together. And when we accomplish these tasks, we can gather together and celebrate.
The obvious community is our parish. Our common goal is the spread of the gospel. We do this by showing God’s love in the bigger community of the Placerville area (Upper Room, SHARE, HELP, Food Closet, and others) and the wider human community (Episcopal Relief and Development and Compassion) and by worshipping together, sharing God’s Word.
We are nourished by sharing a sacred meal on Sundays, Wednesdays, and on other occasions, followed by sumptuous coffee hours. We celebrate with the Epiphany service and dinner, Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper, the parish picnic, Oktoberfest, A Dinner and a Movie, meals in member homes, and other events.
We are a community. We love each other. We fight each other. We break bread together in many settings. We work together. But most importantly we love each other. Jesus said that that is how outsiders will know that we are Christians, when we love each other. Love is the glue that holds us together. Love is the badge we wear for non-Christians to identify us.
We, in California, are blessed, or cursed, with two of the propositions on the June ballot sponsored by corporations. First of all, let me say that I don’t like the initiative system in California. This system was born as an antidote to powerful (translated railroad) interests controlling the state. It gave the “people” a chance to level the playing field from the powerful. That was over 100 years ago.
Today, the initiative system is used to promote all sorts of special interests. And once in a while, something for the public good shows up on the ballot. If anyone gathers enough signatures anything can be on the ballot, provided a lawsuit doesn’t cause it to be rejected. This results in many propositions on every ballot. I got so disgusted, I vowed to vote no on all propositions, because I was tired of seeing a bunch of them every time I voted. I never did that (except maybe once) because there was at least one worth voting for.
So all sorts of things have either become law or as amendments to the constitution. The famous Proposition 13 is one. (Remember, there have been so many propositions that the numbering needs to start over again from “1.”) Prop 13 rolled back property taxes and put in restrictions on tax increases. It also required a 2/3 vote on the state budget. Granted property tax reform was greatly needed, but Prop 13 was not the answer. It has helped contribute to the mess California is in now. Then there was the proposition that was the famous “Three Strikes Law.” People getting caught shoplifting received life sentences to prison. Like many propositions, which seem like great ideas on paper, turn out to be failures in execution (no pun intended). The justice of getting a life term for a minor infraction aside, the voters had no idea that the state prisons would burst at the seems, draining money out of the state budget. It was a logical consequence, but the hard decisions were left to the legislature. This, too, helped put California in the fiscal mess it is in now .
Propositions are very poor ways of legislating. Instead of thoughtful conversations of the pros and cons, we get misleading ads on TV and radio. (That is nice way of saying we are lied to.) There is no provision for amendments to fix flaws in a proposition. So, the voters blindly vote for things that end up biting them later. And California gets harder and harder to govern.
Now take Propositions 16 and 17 on this year’s June ballot. The former is written and sponsored (largely) by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), the latter by Mercury Insurance. Prop 16 is the voter’s rights act. Bull. It makes it harder for municipal utilities to be formed, offering lower electricity rates for people, which take customers from PG&E. PG&E doesn’t like competition. Prop 17 was written by Mercury Insurance so that they can charge big rate increases to poor people and, yes, to dead-beats. It amends Prop 103, which prevents Mercury from raising rates for someone whose policy had lapsed.
The sad thing is is that people will vote for both of these propositions. We live in a republic, not a democracy. We elect people to make reasonable, informed decisions for us. We don’t directly do this, except for propositions. If we don’t like what our elected leaders decide on our behalf, then we vote them out of office. That is how our republic works. But in California, we get saddled with misinformed, uninformed laws passed in the ballot box. Woe to us.
May 23 is Pentecost. This is the day when the church celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit on the church.
An important link is often overlooked. This link is between the church and the Holy Spirit. When we recite the creeds, we express our belief in the church under the category of the Holy Spirit. This is because the church does not exist without the Holy Spirit.
Pentecost marks this event. The disciples are still huddled together, fearing arrest. The shock of Jesus’ crucifixion is still with them. Even after seeing Jesus after the resurrection, they still live in fear. When Jesus ascended into heaven, he tells them to hang around. He reassures them that they will not be abandoned – that soon the Holy Spirit will come.
At the Jewish Feast of the Weeks (Pentecost), the Holy Spirit not only paid the disciples a visit, but dramatically entered their room and entered each of them. This produced a dramatic change in the disciples. Instead of cowering in a room, they burst open to talk to all the Jews gathered in Jerusalem for the feast. And they told all these people about Jesus, each in their own languages. To recreate that, we have people read the reading from Acts that tells us about this event in different foreign languages.
From that day forward, the disciples carried the story of Jesus from Jerusalem to the entire world. It took generations to do this and it still goes on. The power, the engine, behind this is the Holy Spirit. The church cannot exist without the Holy Spirit. The church cannot exist without communities of people all infused with the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit empowers the church to continue Jesus’ ministry. Jesus did ascend into heaven, but he did not leave us orphans. He gave us the Holy Spirit. God is in us. When we act through the Holy Spirit, we act as Jesus acted in the world.
But no one of us can do what Jesus did. The Holy Spirit gives us gifts for ministry. Every single one of us is given gifts for ministry. No one retires from ministry. The Holy Spirit never retires. It takes all of us together to continue Jesus’ ministry. Through all of us together, with the Holy Spirit, we will change the world.
We have become very dependent on energy sources to live our modern lives. Automobiles, fueled principally by gasoline, made suburban living possible. Jet fuel gets us from one part of the country to another in less than a day (hopefully). It also can get us to other parts of the world in less than a day. We burn oil, natural gas, or other fossil fuels to heat our homes in the winter. We cool them using electricity generated from a variety resources, but usually from natural gas or coal. This is supplemented by hydro, nuclear, and to a very small degree by solar and wind generators.
When this pursuit of energy to live our lives in the way we want to live them goes wrong, oftentimes the result is calamitous. We recently mourned with the people of West Virginia the deaths of coal miners. There are charges that safety at that mine was compromised for the sake of profit. Government officials may have been bribed to look the other way. Just recently, off-shore oil workers were killed when the rig exploded, burned, and disappeared into the Gulf of Mexico. The growing disaster on the Gulf Coast may be worse than the Exxon Valdez disaster. Also in the past, we cannot forget the Chernobyl reactor disaster. The ground at that site is still unsafe.
Dependence on foreign oil threatens our national security. We produce a lot of oil. We import a whole lot more. Much of our imports are from countries hostile to us. If they decided to turn off the spigots, we would be in deep trouble. We need a rapid conversion away from oil, but that will never happen. We are addicted.
Then there is the environmental costs of our pursuit of energy. Burning coal is choking the air and everything that breaths the air. Burning fossil fuels increases the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere contributing to our current climate change. Nuclear technology seems much safer these days and does not pollute. France and other countries rely on nuclear power and have very good safety records. Solar and wind farms are increasing, but will only provide a very small fraction of our electricity needs.
Nuclear power is the best alternative to our energy needs. It is relatively safe, but we need to realistically address the spent fuel storage issues. It does not pollute (except for the spent material issues). They can replace our coal and natural gas fired power plants. They can provide power for our automobiles and other vehicles. Airplanes are going to be stuck with oil for a while. The navy has proved that small nuclear plants can power ships.
God gave us this planet to take care of it. It is our moral responsibility to leave the earth the way we found it for future generations. Taking what we need without thought to the long-term, with no regard to safety, with denial of the climate effects, with an attitude of “I got mine and you don’t count,” is immoral. The Earth is not ours. It is God’s. How will we account to God for our care of the planet? How will God judge us?
Doing what needs to be done in “a perfect world” is a laudable goal. In a perfect world, everyone would do for others as they would wish to be treated. In a perfect world, the homeless would be housed and fed and given the support they need to help them stay off the streets, alley ways, parks, canyons, and vacant buildings. In a perfect world there would be no racism; everyone would be color blind. In a perfect world, no nation would impose its will over another. In a perfect world, all organizations and people, including nations and corporations would share resources and information. In a perfect world, organizations would not profit off of human misery. In a perfect world, all people would receive the best possible health care. In a perfect world, no one would go to bed hungry. In a perfect world, we would not need law enforcement or armies. In a perfect world, there is peace. In a perfect world, we love and respect each other. In a perfect world, we practice radical forgiveness. In a perfect world, there is little need to forgive anything. In a perfect world, there is no divorce. In a perfect world, children are raised in healthy, loving families. In a perfect world, everyone’s gifts and talents are respected and honored. In a perfect world, the planet is cared for so that it can be enjoyed by the generations that follow us.
But we don’t live in a perfect world. We often fail to do what is necessary to bring about “a perfect world.” And when we fail, there is not always forgiveness. We may then feel like failures and unwanted. Our self-esteem is lowered and we give up trying anymore. A downward spiral begins that keeps us from working for “a perfect world.”
We want our way as individuals and groups. Everyone who disagrees with us is wrong (because we can’t ever be wrong, can we?) We associate with people who think and act like us. This keeps our thinking uniform without all those troubling ideas that others have that might make us think of possibilities that might not have otherwise occurred to us. We try hard to keep our minds free from ideas that might force to think we are not always right. Besides, it’s hard work to evaluate other ideas. It’s hard to compare the strengths and weaknesses of other ideas, let alone our own ideas. Only in “a perfect world” are ideas, perfect. When another group meets with like minded people, their opponents picket outside rather than being invited in for a dialogue.
People who disagreed talked to each other once upon a time. Now people stay with their own ideological clan. Ridicule of another’s ideas has replaced dialogue. Is this progress?
The biblical plan for us is “a perfect world.” Genesis calls this Eden. Jesus called this the kingdom of God. The prophets of old called God’s people to work for this. But it was easier to stay insulated from outsiders, avoiding their contamination. We pray in the Lord’s Prayer that God’s kingdom come, but we forget to do anything about it. Jesus didn’t say it was going to magically happen. Jesus commissioned us to get this work done. We need to pray and work.