reverendjaneausten

                                                                    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...

  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....

                                          Homily: Last Sunday in Epiphany February 27, 2022 ECOOS + How does it feel to come face to face with God?   All three of our lessons try to explain it to us today, but they all somehow feel like those great stories people tell . . .you know the ones . .   .they always finish with, “I guess you had to be there?” This is the third time in my priesthood that I have attended a Bishop’s Consecration on a Saturday, traveling a good distance to get there and back, and have still found myself obligated to write a homily for the next Sunday morning.   It has never failed that life has been at its busiest, and that writing might have been undeniably easier had I not had to step away to be present as participant and witness.   But it has also never failed that being there was worth every minute.   A lot of you streamed ...

                                     Homily for the Celebration of the Life   of Anna McClure Russell February 21, 2022 + “Lord of all hopefulness, Lord of all joy, whose trust ever childlike no cares could destroy . . .” So begins Anna’s favorite hymn.   Starting with hopefulness and joy, however,   does not mean that our world is free of all sadness. It means that we are meant to trust in ways that put that sadness into perspective.   I can see Anna lifting her chin, her eyes sparkling as she joyfully challenges me.   “You tell them, Janey!”                 I will try.   When words fail me, this beloved hymn (a favorite for my own family as well,) always inspires me.   The words were written by English poet and humorist, Jan Struther. Just as Anna did, she loved words, jokes and poems.   We can not know ...

  Homily for Epiphany 7C February 20, 2022 ECOOS + We can feel Lent around the corner.   We still have a bit of ‘star-gazing- Epiphany’ left, but the Lectionary has begun to shine its own light on the road ahead. “O Lord, you have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing.”   As recently as last weekend, Shannon has convincingly argued that almost every homily I preach comes back to this message.   Perhaps, today’s lectionary readings are my defense: God said it first!   These readings are thematic. Jesus is teaching, "I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”   Psalm 37 is convincing in the argument that God will take care of the wicked.   Revenge and hatred are not to be our food. But it is the first reading today that really gets us.   There is nothing startling here. Rather it is the sad reminder that family dynamics and jealo...

  AFC Champions!   Our eldest, Erik, was 5 the last time we watched the Cincinnati Bengals do this.  Gosh, I have lots of memories from watching my  former  (he was too old by then for such a moniker,) Baby Tiger cheer on that team.  We were living with my Mom, and as luck would have it, the family room carpet was orange.   This was 1988, but anyone who ever had orange carpet knows that they were impervious to carpet-replacing damage.  (https://flashbak.com/a-clockwork-carpet-when-floor-coverings-went-orange-374501/)    Besides, with a 2 year old (also happily cheering on “the Bengoes”) and a 5 year old— and a puppy, what was the point of choosing something new? We have lots of happy memories of heading toward the Super Bowl. Erik’s birthday was always close to the date of the Big Game, and in our Kentucky years, that meant tacos or chili or some other fun meal with our dear friends Kit and Gerald.   (They were colleagues, Graf...

 I am talking to you about flexibility. Not Yoga....that's a lifetime goal too, and it is not pretty in my case.   But I am thinking of the way in which other people's actions impact our responses.  this happens a lot to me on the liturgical plane-- and this is not a complaint.  People have learned at different times under different rectors, or they have been away from it for a while or--the tough one: Covid has changed protocols.  We need each other, and adapting to make everyone look good is a team sport.  If you had asked me before Covid, I would have assured you that I was flexible.  And I really was, by pre-pandemic measures. But these months have changed all of us, catapulting us through change, and sometimes making us turn on a dime, We are on repeat,  frequently having to learn something new at the same time we are making it happen.  I had hoped that we would move away from this pattern of anxiety, but we are not there yet. ...