On a quiet Saturday afternoon, a time for reflecti...

2006-03-11T14:35:00.000-08:00

On a quiet Saturday afternoon, a time for reflection, I found great inspiration from reading these sermons. Most I had heard, and re-reading them gave a perspective missed the first time around. Having these sermons to refer to is fantastic and a true gift from the Holy Spirit.

As to the "He Touched Me" sermon,
I experienced this past Thursday night such a presence of the Holy Spirit in the "ordinary," that it became the key to start to unlock multiple weeks of "dryness" in my recent discernment-walk for me.

This experience of the ordinary, referred to in the "He Touched Me" sermon is the subject of an article I just wrote for the April "New Johanian," our parish newsletter. You can read it when the newsletter is published at the beginning of April, and which will be posted on our St. John's web site. What Father Morley states here is indeed so true.

Part of my discernment is how do we do our ministry with "richness?" Some of the answer came in what I wrote for the "New Johanian," derived from my experience of the ordinary this past Thursday. It is derived in part from a sense of approaching God with honesty and being balanced in our stewardship of God's resources. More of the answer comes from reading this sermon, the "Faith with Chutzpah" sermon and the "He Touched Me" sermon, (the latter two I had missed, by the way, by an absence from Church those weeks.)

This seems to tell me that "richness" of the spirit is derived from "Faith with Chutzpah." God will provide; it will come from the "ordinary," and will be amplified through our corporate faith. As part of our mutual ministry team I have been "thirsting" for the "pyrotechnics," the "perfect" curriculum, and many of the "bells and whistles" derived perhaps in seminary or more probably as part of a figment of my imagination.

After reading this I see that our ministry will come from within; while indeed some "curriculum," may come from "on high" in the diocese, much we will be teaching to each other. It is from us ourselves, from the ordinary, we will derive our ministry, just as it was with Jesus and his disciples.

As far as the "urgency" issue addressed in this sermon, I have found that in my life God works similar to a modern business invetory procurement practice some companies are using today. Inventory supplies are purchased "just in time," to avoid expensive stocking and storage fees. It is called "just in time inventory." This is nothing new, I now see. God has been doing this all along, coming to us "just in time," if we keep ourselves open to him, in His time! This sets me very much at ease and in peace.

Having these sermons all in one grouping, where they can be read or re-read, especially during "quiet time," is truly a blessing and an obvious aid in discernment for me. I hope others are getting a similar discernment experience through this blog site. Don Goldbloom

Comments on The Episcopal Church in Frostburg: Urgent: Moving with Purpose

On a quiet Saturday afternoon, a time for reflecti...