Episcopal Ramblings from North Idaho

What's in a Name?

God names us, names truths about us and the world around us, calls us to our fuller purpose, and does all this as part of building and strengthening relationship with us. God's naming may come as surprising, at times jarring truth about ourselves. But it is always truth spoken in love. How can we do the same for others?

Christ's Dazzling Warmth and Light

Christ Jesus loves and leads with a dazzling brightness of warmth and light that burns within him, at the very core of his being. Can we open ourselves to God's life-giving fire and light within us, to shine brightly for the world around us? Can we open our eyes and hearts to seek and serve Christ in every person, and to see and welcome the brightness of God illuminating each and every person?

Let Us Go to the Neighboring Towns

What is a calling?

Let There Be Light

Our cry, "Let there be Light," in such troubling times as these, is also the first declaration and invitation God speaks in the Bible -- God's first words at creation. 

We give ourselves to God. We follow Jesus. Come down into the waters with Jesus and be raised up, made new, and ready to hear God speak.

Into the darkness, Christ the Light has come!

Lift up your hearts, friends. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. 2020 has brought a lot of darkness. But Christ the Light shines even in this gloom. Let us celebrate and claim and follow Jesus Christ the Light. Merry Christmas!

Yearning, Keeping Awake, and Tearing Open Corners of Heaven

Advent is not a time for the faint of spirit. It is a time to bring all of our yearning for God and for good, all our readiness and willingness to the adventure of living, and all our attentiveness to God's invitation to dare to open windows to heaven for others. "Oh that you would tear open the heavens and come down!" cries the prophet Isaiah. The Holy Spirit answers each one of us, "How might you tear open a corner of heaven for others so that they can glimpse the love of Christ the Lord?"

 

When nations are judged by Christ the King

Children of Light shine!

Voting -- a privilege and responsibility, not a "personal constitution"

It was 2002 when Afghanistan held its first free elections following decades of Soviet and Islamic jihadist rule. People had to dip their thumbs or forefingers in purple dye to mark themselves as voters. It was intended as a prevention of voter fraud. But it also became a badge of honor.

In the U.S., we vote. This year, in 2020, we voted like no other year in recent history -- with high turnout in mail and in person for both presidential candidates. We take it as a privilege and responsibility. But we cannot take it as a weapon or a declaration of some "personal constitution."

Voting is not just my voice -- it is my voice added and then yielded to the total voice of the whole. 

Listen, and mark how you will seek conversation, understanding, and compromise, and how you will respect others who think and believe differently.