Taking Pictures

I have missed our past two chapels together as my husband and I have been celebrating our anniversary in Italy. It was a wonderful trip, which we faithfully documented with several cameras of all shapes and sizes. One of my friends used to joke that with her husband if he didn't take a picture of something to him "it was as if it never happened". I was thinking of that this morning as I put my camera into my box.

The first part of our trip was in Rome. It is a fascinating city and we loved getting to walk around the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. It was awe inspiring to think about how many people had once lived in that spot, and see the ruins of structures I had learned about in school. Paul lived in Rome for two years, preaching the gospel of Christ, spreading the message of God's love to the Gentiles. We took lots of pictures.We then visited St. Peter's Basilica, where there has been a church since the 4th century as St. Peter's tomb is supposed to be deep below the altar and when we were allowed, we took pictures.

We are so obsessed with snapping pictures of everything these days, our activities, children, pets, even our food, that it seems strange that we have no pictures of Jesus. No instagrams of he and the disciples healing the sick. No portraits of Jesus with Mary and Martha for them to proudly display on the mantle. No travel album from Paul to accompany his many letters. We have no way to see anyone who existed at the same time as Christ. I reminded the children today that faith is believing in what we can't see, or as Jesus said to Thomas, "Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen me but have still believed". (John 20:29)

When we were down in the crypt at St. Peter's our guide told us a story. She said like many things in Rome, the current crypt was built over the foundation of an older church and that church was built over the location of several ancient graves and had been guarded by Christians for centuries as the place where the apostle Peter was buried. And while church after church was built on this site, there was no way to really prove that the story was true. That is until modern times when further excavation and dating were done on several of the bodies found there and one was identified as very likely belonging to St. Peter. It is a wonderful story. And if I had been allowed to explore that ancient area below the crypt and take pictures I am sure I would have. However my faith depends not on the proof of the existence of the bones of an ancient apostle, but on the belief in the life of a living Christ.

Blessing of the Backpacks

This past Sunday was had the Blessing of the Backpacks as part of our 10am service. Children of all ages brought their backpacks to church and up to the altar at the story stick time, in order to have them blessed for the beginning of the school year. It is always fun to see the wide variety of sizes, colors, and designs that come forward. After being blessed we walk to the chapel and there the real fun began, for the backpacks were stuffed full of paper, notebooks, markers, crayons and other school supplies. We emptied them into a basket at the front of the alter, and then piled the supplies as neatly as we could. They filled the basket I brought, and kept coming. Soon the floor in front of the alter was littered with glue bottles and sissors, pencils and pads. These school supplies will be delivered to children who need them so that they to can have a blessed year.

I love how excited our children get about the start of school! And even more I love how excited they are about donating school supplies to others. For the past several years we have given our children a tag to attach to their packpack with a Bible verse on it. This year the verse was one we loved from Vacation Bible School. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, don't rely on your own intelligence." Proverbs 3:5. My back to school wish for all of us it to trust in the Lord, to receive God's blessings with unfettered excitement and to share our blessings with others with overflowing joy.

Sneaking in the Back Door

A few weeks ago I arrived home, daughter in tow, and walked through the back door of the house to find a large garter snake apparently enjoying the warmth of our laundry room. Sarah Frances had not yet seen it and so without really thinking I quickly grabbed it with the plan of taking it back outside. A few steps into the garage the poor snake did what garter snakes do best, it wrapped its dangling self around my arm. And it was at this point, I'm a little embarrassed to admit, that I screamed, and dropped it. We both looked at each other for a bit, and I did snap a picture, but before I could get up the nerve to grab it again our visitor slithered into some wood stacked in the corner of the garage and I decided he, or she could just stay there. This story was shared excitedly to everyone by my daughter and ever since one of her friends has been begging me to put a snake in my box. So today I did.

Sometimes, despite our best intentions, something we would rather not have in our house comes slithering in the back door. God knew that being human, we would always have sin sneaking into our lives one way or another. The snake first appeared in the garden and has been with us every since. Once it is in the house, whether from sneaking in the back door or coming boldly in through the front, it can be difficult to get it out again. It takes courage to examine our heart and admit what shouldn't be there. And the hardest sins to be rid of often wrap around us trying to stay put. But take them outside we must. For we have be given the gift of Christ to help us clean even the most vile pests from our homes and hearts. All we have to do is ask.

Dark Glasses

A few years ago I embarrassed myself in the airport. I spent the weekend visiting friends in Nashville. Sunday afternoon I arrived at the airport tired and ready to be home, my mind whirring with schedules and activities for the coming week. When I got to the gate after a cursory glance around I quickly opened a book to avoid making eye contact. I boarded early and watched others file past without really looking at who was on the plane. After we landed as I was walking quickly through the lobby I was grabbed by a close friend. Apparently I had not only not seen him standing near me, I didn't notice that his daughter had been on the plane with me, sitting just a few rows back. I was so wrapped up in my world, I had failed to notice the world around me. It was almost as if I had been wearing dark glasses. 

I think that most of us have had the experience of not recognizing someone. Sometimes it is someone we haven't seen in a long time. It might me the result of a change in hair color, or length. And sometimes we miss seeing someone because he or she is somewhere we don't expect him or her to be. I'm not sure what the reason was for Cleopas and an unnamed disciple walking along the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. They walked and they talked and yet only that evening when the stranger they invited to dinner took the bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to them did they recognize the risen Lord. "With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him but he vanished from their sight". (Luke 24: 30-31)

So what happened? What allowed the disciples to see Christ standing before them? I think it is because the resurrected Lord, unlike the human Jesus, requires eyes of faith to be seen. And by taking off the dark glasses that obscure our view of the world, and instead using eyes of faith we too can see the resurrected Jesus in all types of people, and in all manner of places. We simply have to look. 

Stones in the Path

My children have always liked to collect rocks. The rocks don't have to be special, or beautiful, they simply have to be available. We have collected stones from creeks as well as gravel from driveways. Once one of my children once found a huge rock that he had to have. Unfortunately he found it as we were climbing up a mountain in North Carolina. Stubbornly he carried that rock up to the top and back down again, and for years it lived in an aquarium in our house. Typically my car and my purse have rocks in them, along with countless shoeboxes in our house and a small basket in my office. I chose a few of these rocks to put in my box today.

After Jesus was crucified he was taken down from the cross, placed in the tomb and a huge stone was rolled in front of it.When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. As they walked in sadness a very practical thought came to them. It was the stone. The stone was clearly too large for them to move on their own. And without being able to move the stone they would have no way to get to their Lord. Even the smallest children in chapel seemed to know the next part of the story. When the women reached their destination they found that the stone had been rolled away, leaving a clear way for them to enter. No obstacles blocked their discovery that Christ had risen.

As we walk though life we may find many stones in our path. Some will be small, and some will seem to big for us to move, but the path to the risen Lord will always be cleared for us.

Build a Bear

Today was a very special day in chapel because we had a guest chapel leader, second grader Brian Sheridan. Brian not only helped lead chapel, he also helped to select our songs for the day and picked our what would be in my box. Brian spent a lot of time thinking about this over the past few weeks. Yesterday his father showed up in my office with a much loved stuffed dog, Timmy. Timmy appears to be a border collie, is dressed in a military uniform, and carries in his mouth a puppy, Little Timmy. Brian was very proud to tell me he paid for Timmy with his own money and picked out everything about him at Build a Bear.

I loved having Timmy in my box. My own children have loved going to Build a Bear where they were able to be creative and design a stuffed animal all their own. The idea of carefully selecting a specific bear, or dog, or cat, or dinosaur, filling it up on the inside, adding a heart, and caring for it afterwards is a wonderful way to view God's love for us. In Jeremiah 1:5 the Lord says "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you". Our God calls the stars by name, (Psalm 147:4), we can rest easy in the assurance that before we were born he knew the color of our eyes, the curliness of our hair, and the number of freckles on our  nose. And yet, more than all there is to us on the outside, we are formed in God's image, which means we are created with a heart that can be filled with God's love which we are called to share with others.

Timmy's final example to us of God's care for us, is that he can carry little Timmy in his mouth. The Lord loves us just as much after we are born as he did before we were created. No matter what we do, what choices we make, through good times and in bad, God is always there to carry us through.

Thank you, Brian.

Children and Tragedy

I have a had several conversations about the tragedy at Episcopal School of Jacksonville and how we should handle this as parents, especially those of us that are parents of young children. I have a few thoughts that are mine, but I also urge you to speak to any of the priests here at St. Mark's if you need more guidance.


First, I think we have to talk about tragedies like this as a family. I think we sometimes assume younger children are oblivious to the world around them, but children with older siblings will hear things, as will any child who is exposed, as most are, to any news broadcast. The extent of the conversation will depend on the age of your children, but I tend to think answering questions honestly with simple facts is better than trying to pretend nothing happened. Encourage your children to ask questions. When I was a young child, a close friend of my parents with a daughter my age was held hostage and then killed by someone he had fired. I remember being incredibly curious about things like where he was shot, not because of some morbid curiosity, but because at that age I didn't understand death or what caused it. By allowing me to ask questions and talk about what happened my parents helped me process the event at my own speed in my own way.

We need to pray at all times, but especially at times like these. Our children need to see us calling upon the Holy Spirit to be with us and all those involved. It is alright to express our frustrations in prayer, look at many of the Psalms. Our Lord can handle it. It is important to take the time to pray together and to explain that God doesn't cause bad things to happen, but in all the brokenness of this world, in the violence, natural disasters, disease, that God is with us and mourns with us. Tragedy offers us a way to share our faith with the world.

Recognize that there is both evil and forgiveness in this world. Part of the baptismal covenant we make on behalf of our children is that we renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, the evil powers of this world that corrupt and destroy the creatures of God, and the sinful desires which draw us from the love of God. Our children know that there is good and there is bad. Remind them that God calls us to be a light in this world and to renounce what is bad, and yet whenever we fall into sin he will be waiting with open arms for us to repent and ask forgiveness. As Christians we are called upon to pray for those who have been harmed by evil, and for those who have caused the harm. We are called to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. AS the old hymn says, "they will know we are Christians by our love".

I am going to close with one of the prayers we used last night at our prayer service at St. Mark's. The whole service may be found on our website and I encourage you to check it out.

Gracious Lord, the hardest part about being your children is that we don’t get to see the big picture.  You see everything.  You know how it all turns out in the end.  You see the completed puzzle while we sit here with one small piece in our hands and cry.  Give us the faith to believe that you have it all under control.  Give us the strength to get up and move in the morning.  Give us the love to support each other.  We want to run into your arms and have you hold us like children.  Tell us it’s going to be okay.  Hold us, God.  It’s lonely down here right now. Amen.