on the feast day of st. francis...

I found myself blessed to be back in public worship with my loved ones this morning for the first time since the Feast of Pentecost today. I kept thinking of the blues tune that ol'Taj Mahal put so well: You don't miss your water till your well runs dry!
The bulletin at St. Paul's/Trinity Church in Manhattan read: the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost. That's an absence of three months and a week during which time I have communed with the Lord with the first word of God - creation - over and again in our garden and engaged in a study/prayer discipline re: the wisdom tradition for the past six weeks but missing the breaking of bread and sharing the cup of blessing in community. It was somehow fitting that we chose to return to public worship today as it was the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi. A quote from today's worship bulletin included this form a Zen Buddhist Monastic Apothegm:

A student asked Suzuki Roshi why the Japanese make their teacups so thin and delicate that they break easily. "It's not that they are too delicate," he answered the, "but that you don't know how to handle them. You must adjust yourself to the environment and not vice versa."

For 48 hours we had the privilege of hanging with our Brooklyn family: to celebrate Louie's sixth birthday, to share gifts and prayers with the whole family, to join with friends and loved ones in a kite flying celebration, and to sit and talk with cherished family in the quite of the the night. It was a grand time away and my heart is full to overflowing with gratitude. We have been able to be a part of each of Louie's - and Anna's - birthdays, a tradition I pray we might maintain until I am unable to drive. And then I'll take a train to get there if at all possible. There is something restorative and holy about the love we share that I must never take for granted.

The word for this morning's worship was faith: our faith, the faith we share with God, God's faith in us, the faith we hold with our loved ones, as well as the faith we share with our community and the world. I confess that I had never really thought much about God's faith in us, but that rings true. God has created us to live as co-creators. And what an enormous gift of faith is present in this trust! I felt some of it this morning as little children danced and sang throughout the liturgy - and no one tried to hush them up. Or when Louie rested his head on the altar during the Eucharistic Prayer. Or when some of the children gave the preacher a high five after his homily. Or when the worship presider introduced herself as Mother Elizabeth. It felt like a place striving to live by faith in a world that is so untrusting.


We all headed for a mezze lunch down at Industry City where one of the oldest Middle Eastern importers, Sahadi's, has opened a huge store. (Check it out @ 
https://sahadis.com) The courtyard was filled with pumpkins and gourds. Our hearts were filled with gratitude and love. And our bodies were filled with fresh pita bread, hummus, chicken zatar and babagaoush. Three and a half hours later we were back in Massachusetts safe and sound. We'll regroup over All Saints Day weekend in November and give thanks to all that is holy for those who have gone home to the Lord. Until then, I have six whole weeks to be at home with no travel. There are gardens with soil to prepare for the winter. There is new music to share throughout the region - and new tunes to practice. And a whole lot of time to go deeper into prayer and the wisdom school class that has opened my heart in a new way. The Collect of the Day got it right when we prayed together:

Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we are to pray, and to give more that we either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of when our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which dare not worthy to ask, except through the blessings of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.