AdventWord #Love November 28, 2016

#Love the smiles!  "God is love and where true love is, God himself is there!"
#AdventWord #Anglican #Episcopal #mission

#AdventWord November 27, 2016

Love is light, let it #shine forth brightly! #AdventWord #Anglican #Episcopal #SSJE
(photo from Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, Mtskheta, Georgia, 2015.)

Advent I, 2016 sermon by Dr Julia Gatta

Advent I, 2016 sermon by Dr  Julia Gatta
Recorded and distributed with permission!

Link to recording: HERE (audio only)

Advent I (Year A): November 27, 2016                                  

All Saints’ Chapel, Sewanee

In the northern hemisphere, Advent falls during the darkest weeks of the year.  And for us this year, the darkness of Advent is intensified by our post-election situation, a season of deep spiritual and moral darkness.  Last week Chaplain Macfie noted the hundreds of reported incidents of racial, ethnic, and gender-based harassment that have exploded around the country in the aftermath of the election.  Graduates of the School of Theology have sent us photos of their churches, whose walls or property have been desecrated by spray-painted swastikas and slogans such as “Heil Trump,”  “Trump Nation,” “Whites Only,” and “Fag Church.”   At least 200 churches have been similarly vandalized.  Revolting and horrible as these things are, that is not the worst of it.  The worst part of our post-election situation is that we are now on course to make this planet unlivable. 

Addressing us in this grave situation are the lessons we hear on this First Sunday of Advent where Jesus speaks to us of his return—or advent—at the end of time.  I find their ominous tone and apocalyptic imagery bracing and strangely comforting: the gospel finds us where we are.  Faith doesn’t fool around; it’s about reality, including God’s surprising reality, and how we respond to it. 

Today’s gospel begins with Jesus situated on the Mount of Olives, the very place where devout Jews expected the Messiah to come.  There Jesus tells his disciples that even he does not know when he would return; the timing of his “second Advent” is a secret known only to the Father.  In speaking of that momentous coming, Jesus drew upon the apocalyptic imagery of the Old Testament, as did St. Paul in his letters.  In this scenario, our Lord’s triumphant return would be accompanied by cosmic catastrophe: the sun darkened, the moon failing to give light, stars falling from heaven.  On earth, the birth pangs of the new age would be felt in the terror of earthquakes or the horrendous suffering of war.  Most Episcopalians, along with many other mainline Christians, tend to find these passages in Scripture troubling, if not downright embarrassing.  We are so repelled by hearing them interpreted with flat-footed literalism that we have rendered ourselves incapable of responding to their riveting poetry.  We are so disturbed at seeing these Scriptures twisted into weapons to use against others or by ingenious attempts to put the end of the world on a timetable that we no longer hear their urgent message for ourselves.  These passages are disturbing, it is true, but they are nonetheless crucial for a mature faith.  And we especially need to hear them now.

Jesus frames his words about the end time in their largest imaginable social and environmental context: the story of the narrow survival of the human race and all other animal species.  By alluding to the story of Noah and the Great Flood, Jesus drew from his religious tradition a tale of ecological catastrophe and of an entire people caught unawares. Noah’s contemporaries simply got on with their everyday lives as if things would just continue as they always had: “For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.  For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man.”  The days before the flood were just business as usual; but then, like a thief in the night, the flood came and the world they knew was destroyed.

Our situation is different, for unlike the populace in this primordial myth, we have been warned.  Since the 1970s scientists have been telling us that the earth can no longer sustain the demands we have placed on her.  Like Old Testament prophets they repeatedly urged us to change our ways before it was too late.  We didn’t heed their warnings because we didn’t want to believe them, not because the data they brought forward was insufficient to substantiate their case. We wanted business as usual.  In the Bible, such an attitude of willed blindness is called “hardness of heart.” “For in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage . . . and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away.”    

One of the glories of the Anglican tradition, in my view, is its openness to truth from any and every quarter.  St. Augustine once said that no matter where the Christian finds truth, the Christian knows that it is his Lord’s.  This has been the characteristic Anglican approach as well, appreciative of both science and the liberal arts as ways of discovering the depth and breadth of God’s truth and wisdom.  It makes a university like this, Episcopal in its foundation and character, a congenial place for seeking to integrate science, history, economics, literature, and the arts within a unified theological vision.  It is also the mission of education to stretch our imaginations in all sorts of ways; to see that things may be true even if they seem remote and don’t immediately affect us. 

Now we are facing some very disturbing truths.  According to the World Meteorological Organization, 2016 is very likely to become the hottest year on record, surpassing 2015, the previous record-holder.  In fact, of the hottest 17 years on record, 16 of them have occurred in this century.  In September, you may have read that atmospheric concentration of CO2 permanently passed the 400 parts per million threshold—a number way ahead of where we thought we’d be some years back, when scientists were telling us that we could only avoid catastrophic climate change beneath the 350 ppm threshold.  And that’s only what’s happening now.  Because of a feed-back loop, climate change will continue to accelerate, even if we drastically curtail our emissions today.  So the need for conversion of heart, for accepting limitation, for scaling back our greed and worship of convenience, and yes, for using our imaginations, has never been more urgent.  God gave us this beautiful planet to tend and cherish.  When we love and respect Mother Earth she, in turn, feeds and cares for us and all other creatures.  Can you imagine a greater act of ingratitude towards our Creator or a greater crime against our children and grandchildren and the six billion people who share this earth with us than to wreak havoc with the natural cycles that have been in place for the last 12,000 years?

“You know what time it is,” writes St. Paul, “how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep.” Rest is good when needed, but there is a spiritual sloth that is sheer escapism or despair.  It is time to wake up, our lessons are telling us, in order to live fully alert to our situation—our personal situation and the world’s. Part of our awakening, Paul advises, consists in setting aside those habits that drug or dull our minds or dissipate our energies.  In these dark days of Advent, many of us feel truly in the dark. We can acknowledge being bewildered, scarcely knowing what to do, without shame, for the journey of faith often navigates periods of intense darkness.  Advent, like all the other liturgical seasons, simply underscores a dimension of the mystery of faith that is true year round. The watchword of Advent has always been vigilance: “Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”

We are waiting for the Lord to come, for his Advent.  Is there any doubt that we need a savior?  And as we wait, what might be some signs of his coming?  Today’s gospel speaks the apocalyptic language of cosmic catastrophe, but we do well to remember that the word “apocalypse,” contrary to popular notions, simply means “unveiling.”  It refers to something becoming manifest that was previously hidden.  That is why the final book of the Bible is sometimes called the “Apocalypse of St. John” and at other times the “Revelation of St. John.”  In other words, apocalypse is about truth at last revealed.  Having been polluted for so long by an avalanche of lies, even an “inconvenient truth” is welcome and cleansing.  So when Christ comes, even now, he comes as truth.  “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” he said. 

Notice, too, how Christ comes to us in this Eucharist.  He comes among us from the far side of death.  He brings with him his own resurrected life.  He irradiates our present with the future we share with him, filling us even now in these dark days with his life, and joy, and hope.  He speaks to us through words of Scripture, and his holy presence fills humble things of earth: bread and wine, the products of soil combined with human labor and skill.  And he transfigures them, transforms them.  Bread and wine are brought to the table; we receive them back as Jesus our Lord.  Even in the darkness, we have this light.

The day after the election, Dean Alexander charged all of us at the seminary to burrow into St. Paul’s 12^th chapter of Romans.  I pass on that sound advice to you.  Some of Paul’s words have been lifelines for me.  For instance, “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”  Or my personal favorite: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

#AdventWord 2016 Participation!

Hey y'all! I'm going to be participating in #AdventWord again daily this year on FB, Twitter, and Instagram for myself, for St. Paul's Episcopal NOLA, and I'll also be helping w/ Sewanee Seminary's posts, Yay! Expect photos, music, prayer, poetry, etc. in the posts. You are welcomed follow at any of the accounts listed below AND you too can participate: by praying, reading, pondering and/or by doing! Here's the list of words and the website is below that. Remember to include the following tag: #AdventWord and you might want to add your own. I always try add #Episcopal #Advent and #SSJE
Accounts:
-My Twitter & Instagram: @Conductor222
-My blog: theparsoncarson.blogspot.com
-St. Paul's Episcopal Twitter & IG = @stpaulsnola
-St. Paul's Facebook: St. Paul's Episcopal Church in New Orleans
-Sewanee's twitter: @SewaneeSeminary and the FB page is School of Theology at The University of the South (feel free to like that page!)
Things like this help me enjoy the expectancy and radiance of the meaningful Advent season. These posts help center my thoughts and focus. They help me to find depth in words and contemplation. Working on them daily is also a challenge I love to accept. :-)
I hope you will enjoy these posts and find something that resonates with you!
#Episcopal #SSJE #Anglican #Advent
WEBSITE
http://adventword.org/

Happy Five-year LAUNCHIVERSARY to Mars Curiosity!

Five years ago today I got to attend the launch of the Mars Curiosity rover! It solidified my enthusiasm for work in social media and gave me the confidence that also led to applying and becoming a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador! I'm sure all of us #spacetweeps that went still feel like it's OUR rover! :-) Here are some of my photos from that experience!
1. LINK-one
2. LINK-two
It was an amazing week. I met so many people from all walks of life who had my same space interests and excitement. We met scientists and engineers who worked in the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and on Curiosity! We also got to meet several astronauts and members of NASA administration including Charles Bolden. Even though I had lived much of my life along the I-95 corridor, I'd never been to Kennedy Space Center or seen Cape Canaveral.
NASA basically treated us like rockstars and was INCREDIBLY wonderful. Our job for all the lectures we attended, scientists from the MSL team that we met, visiting the launchpad, and watching the launch from reserved seats - was to get out on social media platforms what we were learning and be the voice of the public for NASA and the space program. In addition, many of us took back educational resources to our schools and communities. Eyes on the Solar System is one such fabulous example.
PLUS, Mars is amazing and I believe that we should all support space programs!

#space #Mars #JourneyToMars

Delicious Chocolate Honey Walnut Phyllo Log

I made a Bulgarian banitsa for Thanksgiving yesterday. Today, I made some super simple phyllo dough pastries with saffron-scrambled eggs, two cheeses, and pine nuts! I will post both recipes soon. This afternoon, my project was to use the remaining 12 phyllo sheets and a half bag of walnuts because their expiration date seemed eminent... My idea was to make some sort of walnut honey phyllo triangles, but I ended up making cinnamon walnut honey phyllo logs with chocolate and marshmallows in one half and nutmeg in the other (just in case adding either ingredient made it taste terrible!) It turned out rather well and seems very tasty! Here is what it looks like all finished!

Ingredients

- 2 cups finely-chopped walnuts (*optional to chop them while watching Ancient Aliens)

- 1 cup honey

- 1/2 tsp of cinnamon (and some more sprinkling of it too)

- 1/4 tsp salt (seemed like a good idea)

- nutmeg to sprinkle

- egg wash (one egg w/ splash of milk)

- melted butter 

                      

Here's what I did...

- Added honey, walnuts, cinnamon, and salt into a small saucepan and cooked for a few minutes on medium heat until it was a nice mixture. I ended up sprinkling some more cinnamon in the pot twice...

- Made egg wash and melted butter

- Buttered cookie sheet and placed one phyllo layer upon it

- Drizzled some butter over it and added another sheet

- Drizzled egg wash over this one

- Added 12 sheets, alternating between butter and egg wash. On top of sheets 5 and 9, I added a stripe of chocolate, some marshmallows (just on one side and just because it seemed interesting. At sheet 10, I added a healthy dusting of nutmeg and a drizzle of honey.

- Finally, I spread the walnut/honey mix from left to right across the middle of the sheets

- Next, I rolled it up into a log and drizzled egg wash and then some butter over the top.

- I added a glop of walnut mix on the top and a stripe of chocolate on one side.

- BAKE at 325 for 30 minutes (* possibly taking it out a few minutes early to add marshmallows so they can toast on the top, if you like that sort of thing...) The temp and time were averages of what I found via the internetz for honey walnut triangles or walnut rolls...

- End result = DELICIOUS and now I have a treat for the whole weekend!