reverendjaneausten

                                    Homily for Laetare   The Fourth Sunday in Lent The Episcopal Church of Our Saviour March 26, 2022 + Welcome to the S.S. Laetare.   We think we are cruising on smooth seas now, and while we know that Palm Sunday and Holy Week lie just ahead, we believe that we really might make it.   We even had a foretaste of what is to come this past Friday, when our hangings, and silver vessels, and that “A” word we could say then— but not today!— were shining brightly as we released one of our own back to God.   This fourth Sunday in Lent is supposed to be just a bit more joyful, with rose vestments (if available,) and a hopeful sense of the brightness to come. ‘What could possibly stand in our way?’ we think.   Well. . . we could.   It is pathetically easy to stand in our own way.   There is much work to be done, and it is right here in front of us, like a boulder in the road.   Today’s lessons remind us that we were invited into a holy Lent to reconcile wi

  From the Treehouse 3.20.2022 An angelic visitation?   God knowing that such a moment would make an incredible difference? Just plain love? It had been a tough week, for reasons I could not really file and jettison.   On top of the usual fractious schedule, I was feeling a low level malaise and thick, exhausted fog was creeping in around all of the edges. Tension was having a dance party on my neck and back, just to add another layer.   I knew it was temporary.   Surely rest would help! “I have given myself today to turn this ship around,” I told a dear friend.   The truth is that it is very atypical to find myself feeling like Eeyore, and I really do not like it when I do.   My seminary nickname was Pollyanna, for heaven’s sake!   The other truth is that we are all just trying to figure out what the Pandemic has asked us to carry through this time, and how we will come out on the other side.   (This is assuming BA2 is not the threat here in the States that some fear.)   But on Friday

                                          Homily for the Third Sunday in Lent The Episcopal Church of Our Saviour March 20, 2022 + We never really know, do we, when we might encounter God.   Sometimes we feel quite certain that we have been with the Almighty, but other times we doubt if it even happened.   Just like Moses, it can catch us totally by surprise. Bob Deffinbaugh says, “Little did [Moses] know that here he was going to come face to face with God. I think of him tending his sheep here as something like Peter going fishing ( John 21:2 ff.), thinking that the past was over and that life had settled into a routine.” ( https://bible.org/seriespage/3-burning-bush-exodus-31-15      Moses, if you will remember, had worked hard to understand who he was. Just as we do, he had reconciled his past and present, and was working toward the future.   He had left a profitable and comfortable existence as an elite Egyptian, choosing to embrace his Judaic heritage.   On this day, Scriptu

                                        Homily for the Second Sunday in Lent March 13, 2022 ECOOS + My Beloved Sisters and Brothers:   It is beyond time for us to get this straight. We want to control, but then we fail.   We try to trust, and things get better. We believe that they are better because we are just that good.   Then, we want to control, and once again, we fail.   Are you seeing the cycle?   I know that I am. The readings for this Second Sunday in Lent, invite us once again to trust, and maybe even to stay there.   These are covenant promises that God has made, to Abram and to us.   While we have plenty of examples to discourage us from continuing this cycle, we also have plenty of evidence that Jesus will continue to reach for us.   We have all of the negative—and positive—reinforcement needed to change.   And, Lent in 2022 is a great time to try.   Janelle Hiroshige puts it this way: “These days, there is no shortage of material when it comes to difficult news. Ne

                                                                    Homily Lent I   March 6,2022 ECOOS + The Great Litany reminds us of who we are as sinners.   But it also reminds us that we are God’s own. I will always commend you for praying through it.   After all, in a culture that celebrates efficiency and compressed expression, this can seem to go on for quite a while. Sarah Parsons reminds us that, “We tend, especially in western society, to separate ourselves from discomfort or chaos, [but Lent] encourages us to sit in the chaotic, uncomfortable place, possibly for a long time.” (Parsons, Sarah A Clearing Season: Reflections for Lent Nashville TN: Upper Room Books, 2006.) Still, there must be something to it.   We enter into The Litany today as participants in a tradition that goes back for centuries, and its relevance is well documented. According to the TEC website, The Great Litany “was used as early as the fifth century in Rome. . .and The Litany was the first Englis

  Homily for Ash Wednesday March 2, 2022 ECOOS + We are overwhelmed by the world.  Life is just difficult.   As we say to God in Prayer C, “. . . we turned against you, and betrayed your trust; and we turned against one another. Have mercy, Lord, for we are sinners in your sight.”  The noise is relentless: ‘Buy this, fix that.’ The noise humanity makes is so loud that we can barely think: transportation, electronics, self righteous assertion, and greed clamor at us incessantly.  It’s a right fair mess.  So what can we do?  What options might we have to prepare for a Holy Lent? Well, we could be more aggressive. We might walk faster to get the last cart at the grocery store before someone else. We could deeply resent the person we did not see, but who now occupies “our” place in the line. We can tell ourselves that it has been a hard day, and we absolutely deserve that pastry, piece of cake or 6th cup of coffee with all the trimmings.  We might drive as though we are more