Third Person Singular

This Sunday our associate rector (who has a wry sense of humor) announced that we had added day to the church calendar, the "Annual Ingathering of Pledges for the Legal Defense Fund."

We were encouraged to contribute not only to defend our property against the revisionist national church, but to stand as an encouragement to other congregations who might be bullied into might otherwise be coerced by legal threats into might otherwise be intimidated into accepting the novel gospel the national church advocates. We filed up to place our pledges into the same ballot box that we used when voting to separate. Some of us who were putting in one-time contributions included checks.

The next part of the was the recitation of the Nicene Creed, and our associate rector said that the traditional order of things had been reversed. We were now enjoined to "put our mouth where our money was."

I saw this article referenced on epiSope. The word-bites that caught my eye were

God has no gender. And the Lord? There's not much Lord in this church service.

"A lot of people are turned off by traditional liturgy because it sounds like they have to literally believe these credal statements. I don't think that's necessarily true. Faith is very personal."

This is symtomatic of how the liberal Episcopal Church is turning it's back on the historic faith. The first creed was "Jesus is Lord." The earliest liturgy included the phrase kyrie eleison, ("Lord have Mercy").

Yeah, there's "not much Lord" in the Episcopal church these days.

I tend to write little cryptic notes. For example at the start of the Epistle of Paul to the Philippians, I wrote a comment about Paul's greeting:

"Prophets, Moses, David, Joshua -- servents of God."

And in Chapter 2,

"2:5-11 probably an early Christian Hymn included in Phillippians."

I guess that it was because I first got this Bible when I was in graduate school, and I was more intellectual in my approach to the faith. Nothing wrong with that, but I am more rounded, now.

One of my friends asked my opinion about the immigration controversy in the United States. I said, "we are all 'aliens and strangers on earth' and will be until we reach the heavenly city."

Sunday evening I went out with friends to worship at the Washington Life Christian Center. I love the way these people worship. They had a worship leader, a couple of backup singers and a small choir. Guitar, bass, drums, heavily amped, song lyrics projected onto a screen. The worshipers clap, and raise their hands. They move! In this church I feel completely free to pour my heart out before the Lord in worship.

The service was focused on empowering members of the congregation for ministry. Their model is that everyone will ultimately be part of ministry, and the church was 2/3 as full as it is on a Sunday morning, and over half of the people present went up to the front to be prayed over.

I haven't received any of the charismatic gifts, but I believe that they are valid, and appropriate for today. At the end we got together in small groups of 6 or 7 to pray. Folks were praying in tongues, but tt was astounding the passion of the prayers in English.

Friday Evening, 19 January, I went out with friends to hear Marie Miller perform at The Daily Grind Coffee House & Cafe, in Gainesville, VA (zip code 20156). Marie was accomanied by her father, and by the music teacher for Manassas High School on drums. They played two sets, starting with secular favorites, and then going to some of the songs that Marie wrote, and Christian songs. The acoustics in the coffee shop were remarkably good, they had high quality amps for their acoustic and electronic instruments.

Marie has a huge, perfect voice. It was like listening to a studio-produced album, her performance was so perfect. She's tall, and her makup was a little heavy, so we were asking, "how old is she? 24? 26?" She is only 17!! Just amazing.

Marie is good on the guitar, but she is astounding on the mandolin. They performed a variety of music. One was a song that Linda Ronstadt made popular, and Marie did sound a little like the young Ronstadt. They performed a couple of Celtic songs, and a couple of songs that had a distinct bluegrass influence.

I've been getting about 6 and a half hours of sleep each night. I go to bed at 10:30 PM and get up at 5AM. I can tell that isn't enough, 'cause I run out of energy before I run out of hours in the day. I could easily go to bed right now. When my head hits the pillow, it takes less than five minutes for me to slide into slumber.

I've been having dreams. I wish I could remember them. I wake up in the dark, listening to the naughty cat scratching the carpet, hoping to get me to chase him downstairs to his food bowl, and I have a vague memory of shadowy men in a dark room with concrete walls, sitting around a dark wooden table. One says something portentous to another, and I just can't quite hear it.

My life is so sweet and placid. I almost miss the icy flash of fear coursing through my veins. Or anger. My life is so easy, all day, every day. And every now and then there is a thrill of pure joy.

But then there are these dark dreams.