Yes, it’s him. No, it’s not a joke or a flashback from some bad 60’s acid.

h/t again to Rod Dreher

heroes today for the little guy by standing up for an audit, finally, of the Federal Reserve. Will it pass through Congress? Who knows? But it’s the first hammer against our own Berlin Wall, the wall that protects elite financial and political institutions that shape our lives in ways we can’t imagine from public scrutiny. Viva democracy!

H/T to Rod Dreher (see link on this page)

about being on Facebook is you really do find out how many people you know and how you’re connected with others. I enjoy the chat feature where I can say a quick hello to folks far away. It doesn’t beat a face to face, of course, but it will do in the short term.

for Resa Ellison now in the hospital in Minneapolis, MN with grave complications from H1N1 and pnuemonia. Yesterday the doctors had run out of treatment options and told her family she may not make it through the day. As of now she is still with us but we need a miracle. Pass this on.

Sunday, November 21, 2009
Homily

These beautiful days in November are a gift to us. In the normal course of things we would expect grey days, cold rain, snow, and ground frozen hard like stone. But such has not been the case for most of this month. The air is cool but the sun is bright and we’ve been given a reprieve from the inevitable if only for a week or two.

We know from years of living in this area that weather can change in a heartbeat and so people are using these days, this break in the normal climate, to get things done, to complete tasks that normally would be impossible now. Leaves are raked, painting is done, roofs are repaired, roads are being cared for, and the harvest is being brought it. The clock is ticking. One day in the near future we’ll look out our windows and see the snow flying and with it the understanding that everything will have to wait until spring.

It’s wise to be prepared, to have good tires on your car, a furnace that works, food tucked away, money in the bank, and everything in good repair. This would seem to be common sense but in our culture where we live from day to day, paycheck to paycheck, and party to party we often forget this only to learn painful lessons when times get lean.

Yet as wise as it is to be prepared for the ups and downs of life, to live frugally and wisely so we are not caught unaware and vulnerable in the ebbs and flows of time, to rake the leaves and make sure everything is ready before the snow flies, there is a greater preparation, greater but often ignored.

How are we preparing our soul?

The Gospel for this day reminds us that the preparation of things and possessions is without value if not accompanied by an equal or greater desire to store up virtue, faith, and all the needs of the soul. The Gospels tell us that we can possess everything and still lose our soul. We can build bigger barns and still leave life empty of that which matters most. We can have false confidence in what we can acquire and in so doing find ourselves spiritually poor even in the presence of worldly abundance.

Imagine what the world would be like if the Christians inhabiting it would place as much of their lives into their faith as they did their 401k’s. How would things be different if we prepared our souls with the same care we use for our house or car? Could we fathom a culture where people dedicated themselves to holiness with the same passion as their career path? What if we loved God as much as we love our television sets?

I stand convicted of being careful about things earthly and careless with things heavenly. I’m guilty of taking so many parts of my life seriously and leaving God the scraps to work with. I often wonder how I would be different if I prepared to stand before Christ with the same effort I’ve used for my retirement. It’s almost certain that I’ve not taken a fraction of the time I use to practice for an audience as a musician to prepare to one day stand before Christ.

Some day everything I’ve done will be meaningless and everything I’ve acquired will be sold or given to someone else. Only a soul carefully tended with prayer and holy things will remain and yet I feel so unready. In truth many of us are as well.

Yet the mercy of God is beyond our comprehension. One flickering candle of piety in our hearts is met with pure and holy light, one act of virtue with a flood of grace, one moment of repentance with an eternal mercy.

We, you and I, can recall what matters most in the end and change our path, redirect our existence towards that which truly matters, and find the peace we desire here and the salvation we crave for eternity. Seize this day with a holy urgency and be saved.

several weeks in November with warm for here days and light streaming in through the windows in the morning. Even as winter is on its way there is a reprieve, a pardon, in it all, a sense that inevitability is delayed in the depth of the season’s cold hand being stayed.

I wish I had a window in my office but I take every opportunity to walk between the buildings on my campus and get a taste of these days. Seconds are stored up for withdrawal later when the snow flies and cold winds keep us all indoors like plants in a terrarium. Soon these days, a disaster if they happened south of here, will seem balmy. In other places crops would die and people would shiver in the dark but here in Minnesota 40 degrees and sun is relief.

People always say that life is best lived day by day but we rarely do it. Mostly we plan and scheme and live always for the next day or some aspiration yet to be revealed. Time slips by and we grow too soon old and too late wise. But a sunny day in November is a treasure in and of itself, a reminder to slow down and enjoy the gift. Pity the poor person driving home through the hordes oblivious to the sun on their face.

fans at a recent football game.

I did this once when I was a little kid (I didn’t know what it meant just that it was something bad you did to people who made you mad) and I got my mouth washed out with soap.

Guess it’s inflation.

A man, down on his luck, went into a church which catered to the “uppity”. Spotting the man’s dirty clothes a deacon, worried about the churches image, went to the man and asked him if he needed help. The man said, “I was praying and the Lord told me to come to this church.”

The deacon suggested that the man go pray some more and possibly he might get a different answer. The next Sunday the man returned. The deacon asked, “Did you get a different answer?”

The man replied, “Yes I did. I told the Lord that they don’t want me in that church and the Lord said, ‘Don’t worry about it son; I’ve been trying to get into that church for years and haven’t made it yet.”

last night and so I took the time to do a little fix up work on the blog.The search for a header reminded me that I do like church buildings wherever I find them. At times, even to this day, I’ll be driving though a town and take a detour when I see a steeple, trying to guess who the church belongs to before I arrive.

There’s an aesthetic part about it. I just think churches are interesting. I like the sight of them, the smell of them (Orthodox churches smell best), and the sense by their presence that everything is stable in the world, even when its not and may not even be within the church. Even the word down ones are beautiful in their own way and sometimes a simple one out in the country carries as much magnificence as the edifice on the big city corner.

Now when I see them I think, too, about just having a place to be. I’ve been on the road for going on five years now and little St. Elias has made big strides. I’m so proud of them. We put in a sink this past week in the sanctuary, not a big thing for most parishes but it was the first time that we’ve ever, since the early 1900’s mind you, had hot and cold running water on the main floor. We have some money in the bank now and we’ve made major improvements throughout. These are good people and everyday it seems like one more step and we’ll cross over to the next level.

Yet time and the economy have taken their toll. It’s hard for a small parish to fund a full time priest and in these times its harder still. Jobs, especially for khourias, are essential and in smaller towns the right one is harder to find. It’s like a hand is holding things back even as God’s hand is in all of it.

And so a steeple here and there reminds me of a settled life yet to come, a town, a parish, the simple blessing of stability and the sense of belonging. Oh well, not yet.