Author Archives: Rodger Patience

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About Rodger Patience

I am an Episcopal priest, and I am a person in recovery. My aim is to build hope in everything I do.

Our violence cannot save us

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Weeping may spend the night,
but joy comes in the morning.

While I felt secure, I said,
“I shall never be disturbed.
You, Lord, with your favor, made me as strong as the mountains.”

Then you hid your face,
and I was filled with fear. (Psalm 30:6-7)

The world that Jesus was born into was characterized by violence.

His mother and father, poor and simple peasants, lived under the yoke of Roman imperial power. That power infected even the Jewish ruler, Herod, whose paranoia about the prophecy of another “king” caused him to have the children of Bethlehem slaughtered.

Violence infected the crowd that demanded Jesus be killed. “We can’t do it ourselves,” they said, so they handed him over to the Romans. Jesus died in agony, publicly executed as a criminal.

Two thousand years later, the infection has only spread. We no longer recognize violence, because it is so casual, so pervasive, ever-present on TV and in our “games.” We even call violence “security” and believe that being better-armed or striking first will make us safe.

Our violence cannot save us. It has never saved us. It will never save us.

Lord Jesus, quickly come! Our souls are full of heaviness and we are brought up short by our powerlessness.

Come again in your disarming vulnerability, your self-offering love, your peace that passes all understanding. Strengthen us to meet violence with love and to face the world unafraid.

Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heaven to earth come down;
Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
All thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
Pure unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation;
Enter every trembling heart.

Finish, then, Thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see Thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in Thee;
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heaven we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before Thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise.

Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens

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The Milky Way, from the bright star Sirius in the upper right corner all the way down to Eta Carina, the red nebula visible on the horizon, as seen from the Florida Keys. Image Credit: Tony Hallas/Science Fiction/Getty Images

“We might understand at some level that those tiny points of light in the night sky are similar to our sun, made of atoms identical to those in our bodies, and that the cavern of outer space extends from our galaxy of stars to other galaxies of stars, to distances that would take light billions of years to traverse. We might understand these discoveries in intellectual terms, but they are baffling abstractions, even disturbing, like the notion that each of us once was the size of a dot, without mind or thought. Science has vastly expanded the scale of our cosmos, but our emotional reality is still limited by what we can touch with our bodies in the time span of our lives.”

-Alan Lightman, Our Place in the Universe | Harper’s Magazine.

When I think about the Incarnation, the mystery toward which the season of Advent is leading us, I most often think of swimming in the lake at Interlochen arts camp in Michigan the summer after my junior year in college, one night around midnight.

The night sky was pitch-black, just like the water. I couldn’t tell where the warm water ended and the warm night air began. As I floated on my back in that womblike state, the Milky Way arched overhead from one end of the sky to the other.

All of that vast immensity is God’s creation. All of that creative power, filling “distances that would take light billions of years to traverse,” came to dwell in a child born to Mary. That child’s life and example transformed the people around him and continues to influence the world. That creative power could not be contained by death.

Lightman writes in this month’s Harper’s Magazine that “our emotional reality is still limited to what we can touch with our bodies in the time span of our lives.”

That’s why I think the Incarnation matters so much. That’s why many Christians (especially Anglicans) bow at the words “he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man” in the Nicene Creed. We bow at the billions of burning stars contained in 11 short words.

“No one has ever seen God,” John writes in the prologue to his Gospel. “It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known” (John 1:18).

I hope that as you look on the baby in the manger this Christmas, your eyes will fill with stars and your heart with gratitude for God’s love, which “reaches to the heavens.”

All my hope on God is founded

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Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help!
Whose hope is in the Lord their God.
Who made heaven and earth, the seas and all that is in them;
Who keeps his promise for ever. (Psalm 146:4-5)

On this First Sunday of Advent, we begin a new Church Year.

As you prepare to say the Daily Office, move your bookmark all the way back to the beginning of the lectionary for Year One (BCP 936). You may choose to begin Morning Prayer a little differently, perhaps by using the opening sentences for Advent and the Confession of Sin, and by saying the Jubilate instead of the Venite as the Invitatory Psalm (BCP 82).

Advent is the beginning of the year, and in this season we sound the note of hope which rings through every day, every hour of our lives in Christ.

But God’s power, hour by hour,
Is my temple and my tower.

Peter describes in his second letter the sense of expectation we feel as we wait for the Lord to fulfill his promises, and he encourages us not to lose heart. “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

We respond to the Lord’s patience with thanksgiving:

We bless you for our creation, preservation,
and all the blessings of this life;
but above all for your immeasurable love
in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ;
for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory (BCP 101).

May your practice of the Daily Office this Advent nourish your hope and strengthen your trust in God’s goodness.

Come and See

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Proclaim with me the greatness of the LORD; *
let us exalt his Name together. (Psalm 34:3)

Today is the feast of St. Andrew, who with his brother Simon (St. Peter) was first called to follow Jesus.

The synoptic Gospels — Matthew, Mark, and Luke — place their calling together. The Gospel of John, as usual, tells a slightly different story.

The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, ‘Look, here is the Lamb of God!’ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, ‘What are you looking for?’ They said to him, ‘Rabbi’ (which translated means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’ He said to them, ‘Come and see.’ They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas’ (which is translated Peter). (John 1:35-42)

After Jesus’ invitation to “come and see,” Andrew turns and extends the same invitation to his brother Simon.

As we begin a new church year this coming Sunday, who will you invite to “come and see” Jesus and to join you in praising God, not only with your lips but in your life?

We who teach

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Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. (James 3:1-3)

A colleague once remarked that he had listened to me present an hourlong webinar and didn’t once hear me say “uh.” He asked how I did it, and I answered that I did it on purpose. I practice my presentation skills constantly.

We who teach aim “to make no mistakes in teaching,” even though we know all too well our own failings. We know we are not always able to “keep the whole body in check.”

Because we who teach practice how to present ourselves and our subjects, we may create a picture of ourselves in our hearers’ minds that is more polished, more poised than our true self.

James reminds us essentially not to believe our own press releases or our own Facebook statuses.

We who teach will be judged with greater strictness because the distance between our facade and our failings is so much greater.

Though I do not like being judged or corrected, I realize that it is a necessary part of becoming the best teacher I can be, a man who is at one with his subject and at peace with himself.

I am thankful for those around me whose judgment, correction, and insight provides me with the rigor and strictness I need in my life as a teacher.

Larger life is a banquet!

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Then Jesus said to him, “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’ Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’ Another said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the slave returned and reported this to his master.” (Luke 14:16-21)

Seeking wisdom openly in prayer

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Pursue love and strive for the spiritual gifts, and especially that you may prophesy. For those who speak in a tongue do not speak to other people but to God; for nobody understands them, since they are speaking mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, those who prophesy speak to other people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. Those who speak in a tongue build up themselves, but those who prophesy build up the church … So with yourselves; since you are eager for spiritual gifts, strive to excel in them for building up the church. (1 Cor. 14:1-2, 12)

We’ve been reading for just over three weeks now from the book of Ecclesiasticus, or “The Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach.”

As he finishes his writing, he says “While I was young, before I went on my travels I sought wisdom openly in my prayer. Before the temple I asked for her, and I will search for her until the end” (Sirach 51:13).

Sirach and Paul emphasize two paired attitudes — striving and sharing — in their teaching about spiritual gifts, and they both stress that prophecy and wisdom are not to be kept to oneself but to be used for the building up of the faithful.

“Pursue love and strive for the spiritual gifts,” says Paul. “My heart was stirred to seek her; therefore I have gained a prize possession,” says Sirach.

Sirach didn’t keep his learning to himself; he invited fellow seekers to “lodge in the house of instruction” (51:23) and learn from him about wisdom. Paul directed the Corinthians not just to speak in tongues but to prophesy with interpretation, so that the whole church would profit from each person’s gift.

What wisdom have you found in your seeking after God? What has your practice of prayer taught you? How might you share what you have learned with others in order to build them up, encourage them, or console them?

I shall always wait in patience

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But I shall always wait in patience,
and shall praise you more and more. (Psalm 71:14)

Waiting in Patience

Aside from the obvious pun, this verse struck me because we are so eager to rush to judgment these days.

This new thing is amazing, appalling, the best ever, the worst imaginable. We are not good at taking a longer view, waiting to see what happens, digesting before we plunge in.

Several members of my church are in Jerusalem for a class at St. George’s College on “The Palestine of Jesus.” In their first lecture they were reminded that God is already in the places we go, and if we rush through them too quickly we may miss the signs of his presence.

They write:

This is very important for Pilgrims who come to Jerusalem and want to “rush rush rush” to see everything right away.  Many who come go right to the High Holy places without taking time to “stand in the gates of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122).  When we don’t take the time to rest in God’s presence and instead want to press forward because “God has called me to do all this work” we do not understand the Way of God.

Praising God More and More

Yesterday morning the reading from Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) ended on this note:

We could say more, but could never say enough; let the final word be: “He is the all.” Where can we find the strength to praise him? For he is greater than all his works. (Sirach 43:27-28)

Our daily pattern of prayer and reading of Scripture helps reinforce this understanding.

Whatever concerns we bring with us, God is already there. However large our problems loom, God is greater. No matter how urgent or drastic or final the circumstances appear, “God is the all.”

But I shall always wait in patience,
and shall praise you more and more.

Run without stumbling

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Grant that we may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP 235)

To run without stumbling … what a beautiful picture. It’s a lovely vision that doesn’t bear too much resemblance to reality, though. Our prayer book life is built around a different picture of what progress in the spiritual life looks like.

The story goes that a visitor approached the abbot one day and asked, “What do you monks do in the monastery?”

“We fall down,” he said. “And we get up again.”

Falling down and getting up is the monastic rhythm, and in our prayer book we can feel that same pulse beating. The Daily Office is built around the monastic hours of prayer and the ancient habit of Christians to begin and end the day in prayer.

Morning and evening we rise to pray, and we fall on our knees to confess our failings. Our voices rise in praise and in song, and our hearts sink when we recognize how we fall short again and again.

If it were up to us, we probably wouldn’t run at all — but it’s not up to us.

This week’s collect begins with the words “Almighty and merciful God, it is only by your gift that your faithful people offer you true and laudable service.”

God’s gift, God’s mercy, is to lift me from the frustration of my stumbling efforts and “set me upon the rock that is higher than I” (Psalm 61:2).

That Rock is Christ, and in him we are able to “run with perseverance the race that is set before us” and, as Paul says, to “lift your dropping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed” (Hebrews 12:1, 12-13).

As another wise sage has put it,

Don’t lose your confidence if you slip
Be grateful for a pleasant trip
And pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again