Featuring Aaron’s sermon from Sunday, a new recording from the Parish Choir, some suggested reading from our community, Go and Do!, and links to several of our content clearinghouses for all your SJC content needs!
Featuring Rob’s sermon from Sunday, an anthem from the Parish Choir, Diocesan News, Go and Do!, and links to all our content!
Featuring Anne’s sermon from Sunday, and a piece of original artwork on the theme.
Featuring Aaron’s sermon from Sunday, as well as links to several of our content clearinghouses for all your SJC content needs!
Many of the things on my grateful list repeat, such as my family, but there are certainly more whimsical things that pop up from time to time…dark chocolate, silly seagulls that Olive chases on the beach, shows that make me laugh like Ted Lasso and Schitts Creek, Christmas lights, Café Kilim baristas. What’s on your list?
When I received Rob’s email asking me to write a Daily Reflection on gratitude, I was filled with, well, a deep sense of gratitude! I have been inspired and encouraged by the essays written by members of the St. John’s family during this trying and troubling year and am grateful to have the opportunity to contribute to the cause.
When I was seven years old, I am told, I started sitting down at that organ - picking out notes and attempting to teach myself to read music (with the Lowrey color-coded music left in the organ’s bench). I quickly found myself taking organ lessons with a graduate student in the University of Iowa’s Organ Department.
To be clear, Joanne was not perfect. She struggled to be a good human just like you and I do. Yet, it was her clarity about her own imperfection that drew people in and allowed them to simply be who they were. At her memorial service in Thaxter Hall last early December the cast of characters was like the Kingdom of Heaven. Devout 8 o’clockers who hadn’t missed a Sunday in decades and people who told me they hadn’t ever been in a church in their life. That was Joanne’s gift. Her light attracted light and drew people in.
Via media, is not about compromise, but about achieving a better path through consideration of different, valid points of view. Importantly, we are not doing this on our own. Remaining Christ centered and Spirit led can both give us the solace to navigate the day to day, but more importantly, find where God is calling us to make a difference to help find the middle way.
What if we intentionally share in the middle, rather that discount others from the poles? I can practice tolerance and acknowledge that everyone has something good to contribute. Clarity can emerge from the complexity of multiple realities, when we take time to ask questions, get to know one another’s life experiences, values, and ideas about problems and solutions. Conversations can integrate the needs and wants of many and release the joyful energy of collaboration. We can blend the past, present and future into constructive and hopeful ways for individuals, communities, country and world. We can do it once and many times!
Julian marveled at the tenuousness and fragility of life – of all that was created. But rather than fear, it brought up for her the love of God, that creating and sustaining love that holds all things, both in this life and eternally. In that hazelnut she found a sense of peace – a reassurance of God’s presence in her life.
