Rainy Day and Fridays

We've been having a "heat wave" in Washington and though it's finally raining today (still not a flurry in sight, having all been diverted to Denver) it's still quite warm. The warmth lends itself to these unusual days - where we are just waiting for the blizzard that surely will come. Or will it?

Interesting read on the front page of The Washington Post yesterday. I have to admit, there were several places in the article where I laughed out loud while I read it in the "Quiet Car" of the train as I commuted to my office in DC from Virginia. "McLean Bible with candles," or "arrested in the Spirit" (that's a new one for me), and other interesting quotes I have to admit I found rather amusing. Truro and The Falls Church are fairly tame on the "charismatic meter" these days (want to have a good time - head across The Pond to Holy Trinity Brompton, but perhaps they are a bit tamer too these days). Martyn Minns is right that "we integrate it rather than focus on" the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The "blended worship" that we have at our churches is far more like the worship enjoyed throughout much of the Anglican Communion, but is not so common in The Episcopal Church. One of the early pioneers, besides Dennis Bennett or Terry Fullum, was Bishop Festo Kivengere of Uganda who visited Truro in the 1980s and had a profound impact on my life (click on the link to hear a fantastic sermon from Bishop Festo).

Too bad the Post didn't mention Bishop Festo or of Bishop Sandy Millar, former vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton in London and one of the founders of the global Alpha Course. If folks are interested in learning what Truro and The Falls Church are about, the Alpha Course is not a bad place to begin.

I remember when I attended my first Alpha Course. I was visiting my aunt in London and my uncle started telling me about the Alpha Course, which had made a big impact on him at Holy Trinity Brompton. I had heard about Alpha from Jenny Noyes (now at the ACN) and David Aikman (of Time Magazine) but the course had not yet come to the United States. So on a few Wednesday nights in September - October 1994 I went with my uncle to the Alpha Course at HTB and it blew me away. I made friendships there that continue to this day and two years later I would become an Alpha Regional Advisor as the Alpha Course was introduced into the United States.

I remember that when HTB looked to bring the course to the US, it seemed natural to turn to The Episcopal Church since HTB is Church of England. I am not sure they were quite prepared for what they found - on one hand, there were churches that had been in renewal since the 1970s and others that had moved on to a liturgical unitarianism. But all could benefit from the first talk of the Course, "Who is Jesus?" It didn't matter where we were on the theological scale, that first talk is a doozy. And of course, in many ways, that talk is what divides the Episcopal Church today. The rest means very little if the claims of Jesus are rejected or bypassed for a "new and improved" faith. And no one escapes the challenge of asking the question, "Who is Jesus?"

Here we are a new year and a New Day. But even with all that is going on, with articles on the front pages of The Washington Post and interesting letters from the bishop under the Christmas Tree, there is nothing like asking that question again - and again, in case we forget. Who is Jesus?

The ad below touches that yearning that perhaps we all have for something more, something real, something that is universal, and yet personal. Coke figures out that yearning and the sight of the whole world on a hillside is still compelling, though perhaps more nostalgic now then it was so hopeful then. But there is a real hope, the real thing, that is for the whole world and yet is so personal - and that is Jesus.

How do you say that to The Washington Post? How do you say that as you sit in a train headed east to the city, while others around you doze and contemplate the busyness of the day ahead? Even here, on this rainy day in Washington, here at Starbucks, there are people all around, who know they long for something more.

The real thing.

Why do churches like Truro and The Falls Church and others reach out beyond our borders and open wide the doors to welcome any one who has been baptized to the Table? Is there any other reason then we ask the question "Who is Jesus," and discover Him in the sacraments, in the scriptures, in worship, through ministry to the least, the last, and the lost, and in prayer.

"Who do you say that I am?" Jesus asks Peter (Matt. 16:15). He asks that question to us today - and the answer makes all the difference in the world.

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