The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

Shepherd

Long before God, through His son Jesus, taught us to call him “Father” and long before we were called to an intimate knowledge of Him, human to human, through Jesus, God revealed himself as a shepherd to us. Throughout the Psalms, God tells us that He is our God and we the people he shepherds. The only name we were given by him for us to call him was “I am” but we could understand his nature by thinking of him as being a shepherd.

While we all relate and are comforted to God as a shepherd, much of what it means to be a shepherd is no longer part of our modern understanding. In the US, the numbers of sheep being raised has plummeted many fold over the last 50 years. While we still see flocks of sheep as we drive through the country side or walk through the stalls at a fair, the common language of the shepherd has been lost. Flocks, diminished in numbers, are still tended but the work is done by men and women who go out to the field to tend the sheep but then return a home that is not out in the fields or pastures with the sheep.

When I was very young there were still great flocks of sheep throughout the west and in my home country of Beaverhead and Madison counties. My great uncle kept both sheep and cattle, something that was not common until the 50’s and 60’s years. Most of the large sheep ranchers hired shepherds to accompany the flocks during the spring, summer and early fall months while the sheep were in distant pastures and ranges. I have only the slightest memory of a shepherd who must have worked for my uncle and his brother-in- law who owned a neighboring ranch.

As a caution, I cannot be certain if the memories are real or if what I remember is really just a blending of images and learned knowledge piled up in my head over the years. If what I share is not the truth, literally, I hope to share a truth we can all grasp.

My uncle’s shepherd was a Basque man who seemed old and very mysterious. He wore dark clothing very different than the denim and button up shirts we all wore and his hat looked like a stretched out Irish flat cap similar to hats worn by many of the Irish in Butte and Anaconda instead of broad brimmed western hat associated with ranch life. I don’t recall his name, if I ever knew it, so I will just call him “Artzain” which, according to Google is the Basque word meaning shepherd. He was the only person I have ever known whose vocation was to be shepherd.

Artzain arrived in mid spring when lambing season was getting started and he lived in the bunk house behind the barn through the spring until lambs were weaned and it was time to move the sheep out to the summer range. Artzain drove a WWII vintage Dodge Powerwagon pickup equipped with an old style shepherd’s wagon modified to fit in the bed of the pickup. The wagon was originally an old buckboard with a modified Conestoga type design. Inside was a bunk, a small wood stove and some pots to cook with and limited basics to serve as food stuff.

From the time the sheep reached the summer range until the first frosts signaled it was time to move the flocks back to the winter pasture, Artzain remained with the sheep 24 hours a day except for one or two days a month when he drove back to the range to collect his pay from the my uncle. Artzain would take a few dollars from the envelope and head into Dillon for a day or two before heading back to the range. My uncle would then put the rest of the pay back in his big desk until the end of the season. 

There were rumors what Artzain would do while in Dillon. Some of the stories involved big dinners at the Lion’s Den. Others involved lots of drinking at a bar frequented by other ranch hands and shepherds which sometimes involved in some fisticuffs between shepherds and cowboys. The only thing I can really remember was that Artzain said he went to Dillon so he could go to mass at St. Rose of Lima. Coming from a protestant family, the concept of a Catholic Mass was the biggest mystery of all. He spoke in very heavily accented and broken language and seemed communicate best through facial expressions and hand gestures. I was never exactly sure what he was saying but given the frequent laughter that marked their exchanges, my uncle and he understood each other well enough.

At the end of the season, Artzain would take a few dollars from the pay envelope but then have my Aunt mail the rest somewhere. After the business was done, Artzain drove away to where I don’t know but would guess it would be the join the other Basques living in Idaho or Utah. I don’t know to who or where the money was sent but it was clear Artzain did not trust himself with the cash. At some point the story ended. I don’t recall when exactly but as my uncle and aunt prepared for retirement, much of the ranch was sold at the same time the demand for sheep great diminished. My father finished college and we moved further away so we spent considerably less time at the ranch. Artzain and the rest of his kind faded first from the landscape and then from memory.

This story is not so much about who Artzain was but what he did and how his vocation could be associated with God and we who are his flock.

So what does a shepherd really do? We think of a shepherd as being in charge, being a master, if you will, of his flock. This seems to fit in well with the social construct of the ancient near east in which culture as defined by a master/servant relationship. Everyone had a place either as a master or servant in any particular setting and from the very top of a community to the very bottom. A master would tell the servant where to go, what to do, when to do it and so on. The servant would comply or be punished. The rules were very simple.

It is easy to see God as shepherd who masters throughout the Old and New Testaments. Our entire history as a people of God is that of a people called to respond to the will of God. God called us out of Egypt, he told us what to do to feed ourselves in the desert during the Exodus and gave us a law to follow to seek his favor. Truly, if the shepherd says “Go”, the sheep must to go where directed or risk consequences.

There is more, however. Artzain remained with the sheep day in and day out. Whether the sun was gently and warm or blasting hot, whether wind was a comforting breeze or a freezing gale, whether rain was gentle or poured down, whether the moon rose up to brighten the darkened night sky or clouds obscured its journey, the shepherd remained. What the sheep encountered, he encountered as well. If a coyote edged in at night, the shepherd would keep watch to drive him away. If an eagle circled over a young lamb, the shepherd would stand guard. The shepherd suffered with the sheep, he tended their wounds, searched out the lost sheep and kept watch to be sure they ate well but did not overgraze a pasture. He was not just their master, he served them as well.

To understand God as shepherd is not to see him as just a master but in the person of Jesus, we see him as our servant. He brings us what we lack, he knows what we want.

Want

We pray in the Psalm we shall not know want. What does it mean to not know want? This Psalm is familiar to me from all the way back to first grade when we were taught to recite the Psalm by memory. To a 6 year old, to not know want is to have all of the basic needs provided. Clothing, food, shelter, toys and so on. Beyond those things, to not know want was to feel loved, cherished, cared for and to note be alone. At 60, I have come to believe to not know want is more than having physical needs met. We all experience illness, thirst, hunger, grief and poverty even if don’t know any of them in great measure. We have witnessed those who have been struck by those things in great measure remain faithful to God despite their hardships. The lesson from them is to not know want is to embrace Christ and to seek food and drink only he can offer us which brings purpose and value to our human lives and find consolation and compassion which will bring comfort from affliction.

The shepherd cannot hide from the blazing sun or dry up the snows and rains which threaten life. The shepherd cannot stop the wind or prevent all danger from finding the flock. The good shepherd remains with the flock and shares and understands their joys and sorrows. He celebrates their success and comforts them when they are injured. The shepherd knows everything that happens to his flock and he shares in their lives. In return the flock knows the shepherd and they rely on him for everything. The lesson for us to be like the flock and know God and to rely on him for every need and we will be freed from want.

The psalm concludes with the answer to the riddle of what it means to not know want. It is to know that through green or parched fields, through still or raging waters, through the very moment of death, we will know goodness and mercy all the days of our lives. Mercy, to know mercy regardless of all else is to always to be from want.

Mercy is the gift of the Shepherd to his flock that surpasses all other things. 

Committal Service - Carey Ann Hert

Fort Harrison Cemetery- Helena, MT

November 12, 2015

I suspect most if not all of you feel like what has happened over the past few days is unreal. The fact we have gathered here today to say goodbye to Carey must feel very, very strange. These feelings are normal and they almost always happen when death visits someone close to us.

During the time we have gathered together, I hope we can experience a good goodbye and share time that is filled with laughter and with tears.

I spent some time with Carey’s great friends Kelly and Michele to learn about Carey so I could make this time personal for you. One thing we learned is that both Carey and I love Celtic Spirituality. That shared appreciation allows me to weave some thoughts and feelings from Celtic spirituality into this service.

Over the past few years I have spent considerable time studying the work of the late John O’Donohue who was a Catholic Priest and theologian but was also a native Irish speaking philosopher and poet. I even spent time in Ireland last year pursuing my study. I have found his insight into human nature extraordinarily comforting and encouraging and he speaks to me not only as a Catholic but as someone who has also searched for those things of ultimate concern that bind all of us together regardless of faith. I hope you also find his teaching comforting. Let us begin with these thoughts on death.

WHEN DEATH VISITS . . .

Death is a lonely visitor. After it visits your home, nothing is ever the same again. There is an empty place at the table; there is an absence in the house. Having someone close to you die is an incredibly strange and desolate experience. Something breaks within you then that will never come together again. Gone is the person whom you loved, whose face and hands and body you knew so well. This body, for the first time, is completely empty. This is very frightening and strange. After the death many questions come into your mind concerning where the person has gone, what they see and feel now. The death of a loved one is bitterly lonely. When you really love someone, you would be willing to die in their place. Yet no one can take another’s place when that time comes. Each one of us has to go alone. It is so strange that when someone dies, they literally disappear. Human experience includes all kinds of continuity and discontinuity, closeness and distance. In death, experience reaches the ultimate frontier. The deceased literally falls out of the visible world of form and presence. At birth you appear out of nowhere, at death you disappear to nowhere. . . . The terrible moment of loneliness in grief comes when you realize that you will never see the deceased again. The absence of their life, the absence of their voice, face, and presence become something that, as Sylvia Plath says, begins to grow beside you like a tree.

We all know that to have a loved one die is to know true sadness and to experience profound grief. For all of you there is sadness and grief that Carey is gone, sadness and grief because she had to suffer from a terrible illness and to die so young. The sadness and grief are real and to deny them would be to wound yourself in way that healing will never come. It is ok to be sad and to grieve but the sadness and grief should be for we who have remained behind but not for Carey. Let’s hear what John O’Donohue has to say about grief:

We do not need to grieve for the dead. Why should we grieve for them? They are now in a place where there is no more shadows, darkness, loneliness, isolation, or pain. They are home.

Here are some facts about Carey.

Carey Ann Hert was born December 9, 1969 in Helena, Montana and died on October 25, 2015 in Kirkland, Washington. She was the wife of Carey Hert, the mother of Justin, Colin and Brittin and the step-mother of Tyler, Ryan and Ashlee. She was the sister of Charleen, Harley and Trampus and the Granddaughter of Charlene. Of course she was also a cousin, niece and aunt and, to an even larger number, a great friend.

These things, though, are just facts which cannot describe who she was or the impact she had on all of you over the years of your lives together. In an obituary we read a person was born on a certain day and died on certain day.

On most gravestones, the date of birth and the date of death are separated by dash. The day we are born and the day we day are really transition dates, they don’t really describe our lives. We live our lives in the dash. Let’s talk about the dash that was Carey’s life.

The dash for Carey represents the joy she knew when each of you, her children, were born. The dash marks when you and she met, fell in love and married, Carey. The dash are days she spent you in Cabo. The dash is when she convinced you, Carey, to buy a Harley so she could look so beautiful riding behind you with her arms around your waist. The dash is about her love for fast cars with big engines. The dash was marked by Carey’s love of shooting and hunting. The dash, of course, is when Mackey wormed his way into her heart.

There is more - the dash is when Cary’s anger at you would boil up like a summer storm but then fade away to be replaced by the sweetness of forgiveness which would grow up and join you together again. For Carey, more than anything, the dash was a time of passion, a passion for each of you and for all people. There is something about passion that became very clear to me as I visited with Michele and Kelly and later when I looked at pictures of Carey. Her passion was indomitable.

Through your tears and laughter I promise you this. Her passion will keep her close to you. The mark her passion made on each of you is indelible and will keep you company on your own journeys. I believe this with all my heart.

Why is there suffering and death?

A question each of us has today is why Carey had to suffer and die. Every day we hear about miracles of people with terrible diagnoses being healed and who get to go on with life. It would be normal for you to ask how a loving God could let something like this happen not only to Carey but to anyone who knows pain and suffering. The simple answer is not an easy answer but it is a true answer. It is because God created us to be free and freedom has to have choices and consequences or it is not really freedom.

In the bible when we read about miracles performed by Jesus, he does not say to those healed, “Go, your faith has healed you.” Instead, he says, “Go, your faith saved you.” Healing is about the here and now and it is temporary. Even if we are healed today, inevitably our lives will come to an end and we will encounter death. Being saved is about the hereafter. The real promise God makes us is that he is with us always through all the days of our life and he will offer us a place in eternity with him.

I do not believe it was God’s will that Carey should contract cancer and die but I believe that what has happened is part of God’s plan for us. Life is the time when our souls inhabits a body. Eternal life begins when our soul is freed from our body. Carey is now free. The Celts believe this, “The human journey is a continuous act of transfiguration.”

Because of her human death Carey has transfigured from a body with a soul to a soul in the presence of God.

From Celtic spirituality we also learn this: If you live in this world with kindness, if you don't add to other people's burdens, but if you try to serve love, when the time comes for you to make the journey, you will receive a serenity, peace and a welcoming freedom that will enable you to go to the other world with great elegance, grace and acceptance.

This happened for Carey.

I also believe in the infinite mercy of God. I know He has looked deep into Carey’s heart and he will grant her his peace, a peace we will be able sense but not touch. I also believe God will help us with our own sorrow if we look to him for help. The reason I am here with you is that I believe with all my heart and soul that if we believe in God and seek his mercy, we will never die but will live with him forever.

Passion

Before we say goodbye, there are just a few more things I would like share. From Celtic spirituality we also learn the way we look at things is the most powerful force in shaping our life. That means a person of great passion inspires passion in those people fortunate enough to journey with her. Here a just a couple of things which prove the point.

Michele Wigert wrote this:

Beyond personal possession, the greatest gift Carey gave us was a moment, or a lifetime of her and presence in our lives; that, in itself is priceless.

Shauna ask me to share this:

She was a bright spot in my life and now when I look up at the twinkling of stars, I will think of Carey’s twinkling eyes and her incredible laugh!

Becky wanted to say this:

She was her husband’s love of her life. They had a too short but wonderful love story. Her strength, beauty, sassiness and charm endeared her to many people.

Goodbye

Here is a question. Where is Carey now? This is what the Celt’s tell us.

When the soul leaves the body, it is no longer under the burden and control of space and time. The soul is free; distance and separation hinder it no more. The dead are our nearest neighbors; they are all around us. A great theologian was once asked, “Where does the soul of a person go when the person dies?” He said, “no place.” Where else would the soul be going? Where else is the eternal world? It can be nowhere other than here.

This what my faith enables me to believe. Those close to us are not far away. They are as close to us as our next thought, our next memory. When we remember Carey, she will be right there with you. Her passion for each of you did not end with her death. Our faith allows us to believe that. The tree that grows in us that I talked about early on is the tree of life that is covered with leaves of memory. As time goes by, the memories will soften and sweeten and you won’t remember just what happened during her illness and passing. You will remember the sound of her voice when she answered the phone. You will remember the times when she told you she loved you and you will remember when you told her the same thing. I promise you heaven is right here in front of us. You will know it too if you allow the kindness of memories to show you what you cannot see today.

Blessing

It is time to say our final goodbyes to our sister Carey. Allow me to offer this blessing of her ashes before we place her to rest.

Carey, may perpetual light shine upon your face and the faces of all who rest here with you.

May the life you and all these others lived unfold further in spirit with God and all who have gone before you.

May the remembering earth hold on to every memory you brought.

May the rains from the heavens fall gently upon this place.

May the wildflowers and grasses whisper their wishes into the light and delight you.

May we reverence the presence of you and those who rest with you in the stillness of this silent field.

May God bless you and keep you close to you, may he let his grace settle upon you and may he keep you in his peace.

As for us, bless us and keep us, keep your face turned toward us, and grant us healing and peace.

Amen

A Wedding

Richard and Michaela 

August 8, 2015

So while it may have taken too long, we have finally arrived here today to celebrate a wedding.

If you wish, please bow your heads and join me in a prayer of collection to begin the ceremony.

Opening prayer

Heavenly Father, we invite you to be present with us today as witness the marriage of Richard and Michaela. Thank you for the safe travel of all who have come from afar to join this celebration and we also give you thanks for this grand and beautiful day and this grand and beautiful place. Bless us all with your presence and your love, not just for this day but for all days. Amen

On behalf of Richard and Michaela, I would like to welcome of you have made the effort to travel here to be a part of this celebration. The presence of each and every one of you is deeply appreciated. We would like to pay particular thanks to some very special guests who very appropriately here to witness the joining of Richard and Michaela in marriage.

First, I would like to acknowledge Michaela’s grandmother and this lady here, my mother, Richard’s grandmother Lois. Thank you for all that you have always done for us. From you, through us, to them the line will remain unbroken.

Next I would like to acknowledge Richard’s Aunt and Uncle, Dale and Renie Ludwig who have traveled from Alaska to be here. 13 years ago, Lori and I privileged to fly to Anchorage to witness the wedding of their daughter Anna. Thank you for being here to return the favor with your presence.

There are 2 other couples I would like to call special attention to now because if they had not been part of the lives of Lori and me 3 decades ago we would not be here today.

Kathy and Sandy and Paul and Scott.

So why are we are here today? Of course the answer is we are here to witness you two exchange vows and become husband and wife. It is you two who are going to be doing the important work. We are just here to watch and cheer you on.

The next question is, why should you marry each other?

Michaela, look at Richard. Do you see that look he has right now? Lori and I never saw that look on his face before he met you and we see on it him whenever you are around.

Richard, look at Michaela. Do you see that look? Lori and I never see that look her face unless you are around. I bet if I ask John and Jody they would agree that Michaela never looked like this before she met you.

The love, the commitment, the desire, the devotion and passion that look represents is why you are here today. You should plan to spend the rest of your life with the person who puts that look on your face. The Irish have an understanding of what this means. The term they use to describe what you are for each other is Anam Cara – soul friend.

The late Irish priest, spiritualist and poet John O’Donohue says this about Anam Cara

“In everyone's life, there is great need for an anam cara, a soul friend. In this love, you are understood as you are without mask or pretension. The superficial and functional lies and half-truths of social acquaintance fall away, you can be as you really are. Love allows understanding to dawn, and understanding is precious. Where you are understood, you are at home. Understanding nourishes belonging. When you really feel understood, you feel free to release yourself into the trust and shelter of the other person's soul. This recognition is described in a beautiful line from Pablo Neruda: "You are like nobody since I love you." This art of love discloses the special and sacred identity of the other person. Love is the only light that can truly read the secret signature of the other person's individuality and soul. Love alone is literate in the world of origin; it can decipher identity and destiny.”

So what is marriage? Why should any couple choose to get married? You have already proven you can establish a mutually beneficial, committed and genuine union outside marriage. You have experienced the ups and down, the goods and bads, time of sorrow and times of joy. So what possible difference can it make just to sign a piece of paper and make it legal?

The truth is we are not here because you need to get your marriage license signed. A wedding is more than just a legal event. Your license is really just a contract but marriage is more than a contract, it is a covenant.

I have to be aware of the fact there are a number of lawyers in the family so I am going to have to pick my next words carefully otherwise the judge just might have to stand up and correct me as I talk about the difference between a contract and a covenant.

A contract is very simple. It requires the completion of a promise and consideration. Without either element, there is no contract. If either party fails to hold up their end of the agreement, the contract is broken and ceases to exist.

A covenant is very different. In a covenant, you make a very different kind of agreement in which each of you promise to fulfill your part regardless of whether or not the other one keeps their part. A convent can endure forever as long as one of you keeps to the bargain. Believe me there are times in every marriage there can be times one of you will have to keep to the bargain until the other one is ready to do their part again. The commitment which defines the covenant will sustain you during the down times and bring you joy in the up times.

Anyone who has been married more than seconds will swear to the truth of this observation:

Every friendship travels at some time through the black valley of despair. This tests every aspect of your affection. You lose the attraction and the magic. Your sense of each other darkens and your presence is sore. If you can come through this time, it can purify with your love, and falsity and need will fall away. It will bring you onto new ground where affection can grow again.

So there is yet another reason to be get married. The vows you exchange today will bind you together in front of all of us and what is witnessed is made strong through the commitment of the witnesses. We are here for you. We believe in your relationship and we are committed to helping you make your marriage a success. Let the example of the strong marriages enjoyed by your friends and family encourage you and give you examples of sustain your relationship from this day on.

You are bringing the power of community into your relationship and we have a stake in your marriage. What does that mean? It is very simple. When a couple is married, they join and become part of the foundation of our society. The fact that you two are getting married means something very instinctual.

With your marriage comes a promise for the future. It means that we as a people have a chance to go on, to continue to the next generation. In a way, your marriage completes us and that is why we are here, to become part of the completion.






Vows

This business about making vows is a very serious business. Throughout human history, exchanging vows has been the foundation of our society. If we can’t make a promise and then keep the promise, everything will fall apart.

Over time some elaborate rituals evolved around exchanging vows, or to put it another way, swearing an oath of commitment.

From Irish culture comes a very beautiful understanding of what it means to swear an oath.

They believed if you swore your oath into water, the water would hear but then water would flow away and your words would be lost. If you swore your oath into the sand, the sand would hear but then over time the sand would wash away and, again, your words would be lost. If you swear your oath into the air, the air would hear but then your words would be blown away with the wind. Your words, of course, would be lost.

There is hope, another way of making your vows. If you swear to each other with a stone as your witness, the stone will hear and remember your words not just for today but for period of time longer than the measure of your lives so long as you protect the stone from harm through your devotion to each other.

Here is what is called an oathing stone. It is made of granite that is older than a million generation of humans. In every way that we can understand such things, this stone is eternal and it will remember what you say to each other today forever. What happens here today will never be undone because what the stone hears will never be forgotten.

^^^ Vows.






Post vow sharing

Every parent hopes that if their children should marry that they would find someone worthy of them. When I say that, some old stereotypes come to mind, right? I am sure John and Jody were concerned that Michaela would find someone to marry who was tall, handsome, kind, intelligent and treated her like a princess. In short they were looking for someone good enough for her.

Of course, Lori and I wanted Richard to find someone who was beautiful, smart, devoted to him and worshipped the ground he walked him. Like John and Jody, we wanted to someone good enough for him.

I am not talking about those kind of things, however, I talking about a very different measurement of what it means to be worthy of each other. True worth that will nourish a lifelong relationship is not measured by what each of you have but by what you are willing to give away. It is really a very simple concept but it takes a lifetime of practice to get right.

If you make the commitment to always put the other person first in every significant way every day, your marriage will grow into something that will be worthy of the admiration of others. Make a habit of doing little things that can point to a bigger truth. When you set the table, set the other ones place first. When you cook a meal, invite the other to fill their plate first. Whoever is first should hold the door open for the other. That way it comes time to talk about big decisions like buying a another house or having children you will already be used to considering how what one of you might do might impact the other.

Being worthy has little to do with physical or tangible things but it has everything to with who you are on the inside.

John O’Donohue says this.

“One of the tasks of true friendship is to listen compassionately and creatively to the hidden silences. Often secrets are not revealed in words, they lie concealed in the silence between the words or in the depth of what is unsayable between two people.”

To be worthy of one another means you have the ability to know the heart of the other. Know this. Love is not a feeling or state of mind. Love is an action, it requires commitment, and to love is to do something for the benefit of another and not yourself.

There is a benefit. Love allows understanding to dawn, and understanding is precious. Where you are understood, you are at home. Understanding nourishes belonging. When you really feel understood, you feel free to release yourself into the trust and shelter of the other person's soul.

This kind of love requires a constant commitment, a daily effort to feed the understanding which nourishes our belonging together. This is the true measure of worth. We all together ask this of you, be worthy of another.






The blessing:

May love awaken in your life and be in the night of your heart;

May love always be like the dawn breaking within you;

May there no longer be anonymity between, but may you enjoy always intimacy;

May where before there was fear, now there only be courage;

May where once your life there was awkwardness, now there will be a rhythm of grace and gracefulness;

May where before you used to be jagged, now you are elegant and in rhythm with yourself;

May when love awakens in your life, it is like a rebirth, a new beginning, and may this happen every day;

May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder;

May all that is unlived in you blossom into a future graced with love;

May you each always be a friend who is a loved one who awakens your life in order to free the wild possibilities within each of you;

And may, at the end of your days, you be able to say to one another, “I am glad we did and not I wish we had.”






Closing Prayer

Richard, you already know this prayer. Your mother and I prayed it with you and Brian most every night of your childhoods. It seems fitting to pray it again today as your mother and I witness you begin a new chapter of your life as a husband to Michaela.



Lord, you taught us to share this blessing with one another and we ask you permission to share it again today.

We pray,

The LORD bless you and keep you!

The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you!

The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!



Father, we ask you to also:

Bless us and keep us!

Let your face shine upon us and be gracious to us.

Look upon us kindly and give us your peace.



Amen

Genesis 16
Manna from Heaven

In today’s Old Testament reading, we find the Hebrews, in spite of all that God had done for them, complaining about their food situation. They spoke with nostalgia of the “fleshpots” of Egypt and the abundance of food they had when they lived there. Apparently, all the hardships from which they were so anxious to escape, were now all forgotten. And, once again, they laid all the blame on Moses for bringing them to a place where they could only die of starvation.

A patient God heard their complaint and told Moses of his plan to rain down ‘bread’ from heaven on them every day. As a gift from God, the manna was said to come from the sky. It may, in fact, have been something similar to a natural substance still found in small quantities on the Sinai peninsula, but here it is, at least in part, clearly miraculous.

However, there were some rules to test their obedience to God’s law. Each day they were to pick just what they needed and no more; and, on the day before the Sabbath, they were to pick a double portion. Clearly, there was to be no gathering of manna on the Sabbath.

This message was passed on by Moses to Aaron who announced it to the people. The message was clearly understood by the Israelites and intended to put a stop to their grumbling.

Moses was told to tell the people that, from now on, in the evening they would have their fill of meat and in the morning their fill of ‘bread’. Sure enough, that evening a flock of quails came and covered the camp and, in the morning, they saw what looked like hoarfrost all over the ground. When they first saw it, they asked: “What is that?” and were told by Moses, “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.” ‘What is that?’ is represented in Hebrew as man hu and is taken to be the origin of the word ‘manna’.

God said this was to be a test for the people. How was it to be a test? The instructions were clear and unambiguous. Gather only as much as could be consumed in one day but on the 6th day enough for 2 days was to be gathered. Pretty simple. What could wrong? Well, for one thing, it did not take long for some smart person to suggest that if they picked enough Manna to last for several days, they could sleep in the next few days and have more time for dominos or just laying around in the shade.

Of course, they screwed it up. God, in response, made sure whatever food was left over at the end of day would became “wormy and stank” overnight except on the day enough was to be gathered to be consumed on the Sabbath. It was not “legal” of course to “work” on the Sabbath by collecting Manna.

What lesson is there for us to learn? God wanted the Hebrews to rely on his blessings every day. He would not permit them to turn their back on him by drifting away if they had plenty of food so he made sure they had to work for their daily bread every day. We should also realize that we need to rely on God’s blessing every day. It is not enough to worship and honor him on the Sabbath or on Tuesdays and alternating Thursdays. We need to renew our commitment to him every day because every day we don’t we drift further away from him and, before we know it happened, we become separated. This separation is where the sin of prideful self-reliance takes root. We don’t need manna every day to physically live but we do need God’s blessing every day to live spirituality.

Like the ancient Hebrews, we can fall prey to our grievances and to forget the wonderful blessings we have received in life, blessings which are showered down us every day.

Let us count our blessings today and say a big Thank You to our God and Lord.

The Conversation.

On Friday, since the day was nice and the breezes gentle, I went up to sit under a covered deck on the third floor of the building where I work to take a few minutes to engage in prayer and take a break from writing year end evaluations.

I had only been seated a few moments when I began to hear bits and pieces of a woman shouting in anger from the street below. I stood, looked over the balcony and saw a young woman I work with, angrily yelling through a rolled down window at a man seated in the driver’s seat of a car parked in one of the angled parking places near the entrance of our building.

Her back was mostly turned toward me so I could only see her face part but I could see enough to know this was not just a disagreement I was observing but a full on confrontation. She is actually very lovely and while I did not know her well, she had always been very sweet and kind. As an IT support person, her job was to trouble shoot workstations issues and I had never seen her be anything but patient and helpful. Yesterday, however, her features were twisted with anger, her face red and she gestured and pointed wildly at the man in the car.

Because of distance, I could only hear snippets of what she was screaming. Things like, “I can’t believe you would do something like this” and “After all of our time together to have you suddenly change your mind” and “There is no going back now.” She suddenly turned and stormed away through the front door of the building. The man continued to sit in the car and I could see him shaking his head back and forth and pounding the steering wheel with one hand. It was only then I observed there was a third person there, a woman sitting in the passenger seat of the car who was also waving her hand in a way which clearly demonstrated she want the man to drive them away. After only a few more moments, he backed out of the parking spot and sped away with his tires spinning as he accelerated.

I sat back down so I could re-engage my breviary but just then the young lady burst through the doors and out onto the deck. She looked over and saw me sitting there. She locked eyes with me, her features drawn and pinched. Realizing I must have overhead the encounter with the man in the car in the street, she burst into tears and kept repeating, “I am sorry, I am sorry, I am sorry,” shaking her head back and forth.

I got up, went over to her, and putting one hand on each shoulder, guided her into a chair. I sat next to her and just waited. She quickly regained her composure and wiped the tears away as best she could. Without looking at me she began to talk. Slowly at first, spilling out parts of sentences which did not make much sense. Then seeming to gain momentum, she told me the story. It is a quite simple story, really, and one that is all too common.

She had been married for a couple of years to a man she been in a relationship with for over 8 years before the wedding. They had traveled through Europe and worked on fishing boats in Alaska together. She worked as an IT support person and as waitress to support the man while he finished his degree and became a CPA. It was time, she thought, for children. It was time, he thought, to fall in love with someone else and leave.

When the story was done she finally looked at me with a face which had given up anger but had fallen into sorrow. I told her I would pray for her because that is what I do best. Finally smiling, even if it was just slight, sly smile and said she had heard I was a monk or something like that. I smiled back and told her, yes, I am something like that and invited her to seek me out again if she wanted to just talk. She said she would consider it but we both knew it is unlikely another meeting will take place. For her sake, I hope we don’t if it is because she has to once again talk herself back from the abyss of anger.

There is one more thing. Now I can ask you all to pray for her as well. Pray she will be blessed in ways only God knows best for her.

For Rozanne

And so we gather again as a family to celebrate the life of Rozanne Davenport Koterba. Some of us have traveled from just down the road from here a piece but also from one coast to another and across continents to come to this place.

This is not the first time we have come to this green meadow grown wild with a riot of summer flowers and green grass. We were here 5 summers ago to say goodbye and it is for that reason we gather here again.

There is another whose presence we should invite to be present with us, one who is always with us, our Heavenly Father. Please join me in a prayer of invocation.

Jesus, we ask you to remember the sorrow felt because of the death of Lazarus. You know what is to grieve and feel loss. Send forth your healing spirit to console us today and to remind us there is also joy to embrace even through our broken hearts. Be with us, guide, support us, laugh with us this day and help our tears to dry. Be with us not just this day but always. We pray all this in your holy name. Amen

When we last came together in February, our hurt was fresh but now we have some time to heal, to reflect and to remember. We have learned life will continue on for us and while there is loss there is also a fullness which is given to us through the strength of memories and shared family bonds. Each day love grows to fill the emptiness many of you have felt every day.

The late poet, priest and spiritualist John O’Donohue had some profound wisdom to share with us before his own untimely passing. I would like to share some of the things he had to say because they remind me so much of Rozanne and our family.

Thinking back to those dark days in February, this comes to mind, “Sometimes people are very worried about dying. There is no need to be afraid. When the moment of your dying comes, you will be given everything that you need to make that journey in a graceful, elegant, and trusting way.”

Surely that describes her passing. There was no fear but there was grace and trust.

And there is this, “If you live in this world with kindness, if you don’t add to other people’s burdens, but if you try to serve love, when the time comes for you to make the journey, you will receive a serenity, peace and a welcoming freedom that will enable you to go to the other world with great elegance, grace and acceptance.”

Surely this all describes Rozanne, especially the kindness. She was always unfailingly kind and for that she now knows welcoming freedom.

Today is not just about Rozanne but also about Donny. The life they shared together in this world was interrupted by his death but now they are together again in the next world where they will never be separated again. In the gospel of Mark we are told that in heaven we will become like angels, creatures who exist only to love and serve each other and God. They will not know anger or jealousy or sorrow but will become completely fulfilled by God.

Let us now get to why we have come here today.

When we gathered before on another beautiful sun struck day and we shared together Psalm 121 which is called the Psalm of Ascents.

A song of ascents.

I raise my eyes toward the mountains.

From whence shall come my help? My help comes from the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; or your guardian to sleep.

Behold, the guardian of Israel never slumbers nor sleeps.

The LORD is your guardian; the LORD is your shade at your right hand. By day the sun will not strike you, nor the moon by night. The LORD will guard you from all evil; he will guard your soul. The LORD will guard your coming and going both now and forever.

John O’Donohue also had this to say, ““At death, this physical separation is broken. The soul is released from its particular and exclusive location in this body. The soul then comes in to a free and fluent universe of spiritual belonging.”


It is time for the releasing.

We come from dust, our physical beings formed by things of this world and we walk upon dirt of the earth all of our days. Upon death, our physical presence is returned to dust and so we return to from where we first came. Our spirit is set free reach out to touch the face of God. We are set free. Knowing the freedom that awaits us should bring us all great consolation.

Now I ask that we each reach out and take the hand of whoever is standing nearby, and raise up our joined hands to heaven as we all together recite the Lord’s Prayer.

It is time to take leave of this place but we should take with us the memory of this day and our time together sure in the knowledge of God’s love for us and our love for each other.

Final Blessing

May the grace, peace and mercy of Christ Jesus the savior, God the Father and the Holy Spirit be with us this day and always through all of our comings and goings. Amen

I’ve been asking God a lot this year to help me find my purpose. The reality of it though, is that He has shown me what it is, but I’m struggling to accept that this is the road I must walk. What about what I want?! Doesn’t that count?

I have enjoyed my nice predictable schedule the past few years.  I have considerable control over when I do something and I live my life in a pretty tidy, orderly fashion. After years having been on call, I no longer flinch when my phone rings. So why am I am I being called to wade into the chaos to serve him?

And even as I speak it, I realize how strange it must all sound to Him. I ask Him to show me the way and when He does, instead of being grateful, I say ‘But wait, no, I don’t really like how this sounds. What about me, what about what I want? Doesn’t what I want matter?’

Today we encounter John I find myself feeling sheepish. I might have to hit the pause button and resume watching a program if I am called to serve. John was a little more committed. A lot more committed. As we say today, he was all in.

John the Baptist’s life isn’t one we would consider a ‘success’ if we measured it against the yardstick of conventional human achievement. He lived a hermetic life on the fringes of civilization. He wore wild clothes, foraged for his food. And though he inspired a following with his message of baptism and repentance, his ministry was eventually eclipsed by Jesus’. In the end, he died a gruesome death, at the hands of a foolish king and his vain daughter. Yet here was a man at whose birth, the angels declared, “… many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord”. This isn’t ‘greatness’ as we would know it, is it? Not in the conventional sense of the word at least.

When we ask God to show us His purpose for us, very often the answer surprises us and not always in a positive way. When that happens, it is important to remember that God doesn’t judge a purposeful life the same way we do. Not for Him the accolades and awards of achievement. Instead, He wants a contrite and humble heart, a heart willing to be led even into the desert, to the fringes of humanity. A heart that says ‘I do, despite my reservations because I trust you, Lord’. And our reward? Life everlasting with Him. Maybe what I should be praying for instead, is the courage and humility to say, ‘Let Thy will be done’ – and the endurance that is needed to follow through on it.

Prayer: We pray for those who are searching for their vocation and their purpose. We pray for the Holy Spirit to quieten their internal turmoil so that they may hear His quiet voice deep within.

Thanksgiving: We give thanks that God loves us despite all of the bad decisions we have made.