Woman needs our help

A woman has just moved in close to our parish is starting life again from scratch. She needs the following items:

A bed and linens
A kitchen table and chairs
Kitchen Utensils
A futon-like sofa
A small rug or piece of carpet
Toaster Oven and/or microwave
A TV

If you have any of these items to share/give please let Fr. Smith or Alicia know. Arrangements can be made for pick-up. Thanks!!

Resolutions for the New Year that will probably work: Fr. Smith's Sermon for Second Sunday after Christmas

When I was called to serve in this diocese in 1987 my first assignment was St. Michael’s in Coolidge and Christ Church in Florence. On my days off, Kathleen, the kids, and me would sometimes come to Tucson to shop. I remember going down Wilmot in those days and seeing the Sign in front of the parish: It’s a sin to build a nuclear bomb! Almost eight years later, when I came to this parish, the Sign had been changed to: Jesus was a refugee. The idyllic scene of the Christmas story and crèche didn’t last very long. The picture on the prophetic sign was of the Holy Family, Joseph leading Mary and the child Jesus on a donkey as they fled to Egypt. And they stayed in Egypt around six or seven years before God-inspired dreams guided Joseph to bring his family to settle down in Nazareth.
All of this divine guidance and moving around was due to Herod’s slaughter of innocent children two years old or younger. Just ten days from the Christmas celebration we are given a stark reminder that the plan of our redemption always involves suffering and death. As T.S.Elliot wrote. In his end was his beginning. Remember the question to Jesus: Are you a king? Herod orders the death sentence of innocent children to end the threat to his earthly kingship. Then, as in our own day, the ones who suffer most in this world are innocent children, gassed at Auschwitz, napalmed in Vietnam, starved to death in Africa, always at the hands of fear, greed, and power. The ancient story repeats itself over and over again, “wailing and loud lamentation are heard in Ramah, Rachel is weeping for her children.”
The question that we wrestle with: Where is God when innocents suffer? This is the scandalous question which plagues us and yet is answered during the season of the Incarnation we are celebrating. The answer is that God is never far off at all. God is so close to us, in fact, that God has become one of us in Jesus, a human being born into poverty, rejected by respectable people, and executed as a criminal. In Jesus, God meets us at the very core of our suffering. Any pain that the world can manufacture will ultimately be swallowed up in God’s compassionate and gracious love.
In the Gospel today there are no less than three occasions where God’s presence in a dream resulted in deliverance from harm for Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. God is still at work today, acting for our good if we, like Joseph, prayerfully listen to our dreams, act on them, and go with the flow of God’s love in communion with the Church, God’s word, and Sacraments. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.” We might find ourselves in an “Egypt experience” as Joseph did, at first glance awful, until we realize God is with us in that place, there’s a shortage of skilled wood-workers, and we can obtain food and every basic need by his skill as a carpenter.
The Good News is God is with us. And God will bring us back. Jeremiah saw his nation conquered and his people marched into exile in Babylon. But in faith, Jeremiah knew this was not the end. There would be a return. “For thus says the Lord: Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, ‘Save, O Lord, your people, the remnant of Israel.’ See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here . . . I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow, I will give the priests their fill of fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my bounty, says the Lord.”
So God brought Israel back. He brought the Christ child and his parents back. Has he ever brought you back? Once, twice, many times? Amen? Just as Jesus’ life was spared so that the way was cleared for his ministry, so to we are spared, brought back, given every spiritual blessing, so the way can be cleared for our ministry as baptized members of his body. We are spared, brought back, healed, forgiven, for a purpose. To witness that God is with us and can do great things through us if we are awake and attentive. Today’s Gospel teaches us to listen to God’s voice in all circumstances, even in dreams and intuition, as God uses all these means to prepare us for service.
The other day, Annie, my daughter, turned to me and asked: Dad, have you made a resolution for the New Year? I confessed that I hadn’t made one. But maybe this could be a resolution for me and for you: that we really try to listen to God this year, realize God is with us, and is leading us back, not to live for ourselves alone, but for ministry in his church. Let’s back up this resolution appropriating Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, a community of the church not much different than we are. “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe.” So, four gifts for the New Year: wisdom and revelation, hope, riches of a glorious inheritance, and power. Believe and it happens!

Announcing our New Parish Web Site!!!!! Click link on left sidebar!

All are welcome to keep Christmas at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church at the following services ~

December 24th--Christmas Eve
5 PM Family Mass with Christmas Story for Children and Setting Up of the Creche
10 PM Concert and Christmas Carols
10:45 PM Solemn Procession and High Mass with music for Christmas Eve by Haydn for choir, soloists, organ, and string ensemble

December 25--Christmas Day
8 AM Mass
10 AM High Mass and Procession

See and experience the Episcopal Church at it's best in one of Arizona's loveliest religious settings.

Fr. Smith's Sermon, Sunday, November 16

These next four weeks, two as we end the church year and the first two Sundays of Advent, we deal with the end of the world and the second coming of Christ. Today readings introduce the coming of Christ at the end climatic time of the Great Tribulation. Now we can think about all this as years, or even hundreds of years away- not in our lifetime at all. But isn’t it the truth that some people are experiencing great tribulation in their lives right this very minute? I’m talking about people who have suffered massively from fire and natural disasters, warfare, murders, famine, floods, refugee migration, and sometimes losing everything. When these things happen to you and the people that you love it is great tribulation and it is the end of the world as you know it.
Jesus isn’t trying to play a guessing game with his disciples: who can guess when the end will come? Then, in his day, all along the history of the world, and in our own time, Jesus knew there will be times of great tribulation and distress. And when the great tribulation that effects your life or mine hits-- the big question is whether we will be awake or asleep? Are we prepared with a knowledge of God’s love and care for us that gives us the hope and endurance we need or have we in subtle or not-so-subtle ways postponed knowing God? Are we people of faith in name only or people of commitment and deep trust in God’s providence over our lives? These relevant questions are being forced on us these days--even if “tribulation” seems to have bypassed us.
The scriptures for today are a type of literature called “apocalyptic”. It’s the loud unexpected knock on the door or the telephone ringing in the middle of the night causing your heart to skip a beat. It’s the jumping out of bed and your feet touching the cold floor. It being forced to leave your warm bed and covers. Apocalyptic is a call to wake up to spiritual reality which when it comes down to it is the most real of all. What we call Reality TV is a joke compared to what apocalyptic is all about.
All of us experienced “apocalyptic” on September 11. The world as we knew it was changed in a matter of minutes. An acquaintance of mine wrote about her apocalyptic experience of that fateful day.
“Since September 11, we’re all insecure, frightened, and fearful. If it happened once, it could happen again, at any time. Since then, we’re all struggling to define ourselves and our culture in new ways, taking into account what used to be unthinkable.
The scriptural images of the end of the world used to seem alien. Apocalyptic visions seemed to apply to something long ago and far away. Now, our global village smaller, with so much news from the Middle East, the images from Scripture seem somehow to be coming very close to our lives with wars and rumors of wars in places with biblical names seeming right next door!
Holy wars in the Holy Land aren’t just long ago and far away, and now colonial occupation of biblical places has me smack-dab in the middle of apocalyptic events--even if I don’t choose or didn’t choose to be there. What used to be “there” is here, wherever I live.”
Whew! I said to myself when I read what she wrote a couple of weeks ago. This is how I’m feeling too. Maybe you feel the same way. What are we going to do about it?
First off, it is a perfect time to make a solid act of faith. When things look bleakest in the world around us, when there is no hope for a purely human solution: do everything possible to live in faith.
When we finally realize what scripture has been trying to tell us all along: That the present age is under the dominion of Satan, the world is up to its neck with unrighteousness, that the righteous, even twenty Mother Teresas, are powerless to redeem the situation we find ourselves in and there is no prospect for improvement. The only way out--the only hope we have for salvation the way things are going-- is for the Holy God to intervene. Do you have that “apocalyptic” feeling?
For me, this feeling engenders not more fear, but hope. Satan is not the opposite of God. God has no opposite. The opposite of Satan is Michael, the Archangel, our patron. Appearances to the contrary, notwithstanding, God is in control, God reigns!
The Day of the Lord is coming when all the plans and architecture of this present age will be supplanted by the rule of God. Nothing in our human dimension is permanent. Not our country, not the Constitution. Not the Supreme Court. Not the National Cathedral or this church, a symbol of God’s presence in our midst. None of these things have survival value. Everything we take for granted as center-pieces of our culture and community, in education, government, religion, and economics, will pass away. Only one thing has survival value in this world and the next: love.
So instead of hiding our heads in virtual sand, or giving up all responsibility for this world and just sit around and wait for Jesus to return-- we are called to stay awake and pay attention to everything happening around us with love. Now I was hoping that this Sunday’s readings would lead to a consideration of stewardship at this time of year when we make our commitment for the coming year. If the call is to wake up, then Stewardship, taking responsibility before God for how we use our time, talents, and money keeps us awake like nothing else can and effectively helps us to pay attention in love to what God is doing in our lives, community, and the world.
This week I came across some research by Esther Harding, a personologist and author of a book entitled The I and the Not I. It contains a scientific study about the consciousness of animals. The scientists discovered that an animal sees and hears only what concerns itself and is insensitive to all else. Every animal, in other words, lives in a world of its own.
The study examines the life of a little creature called a wood-tick, which, at certain times in its life cycle, needs the blood of warm-blooded animals in order to reproduce. The wood-tick attaches itself to the bark of trees and waits for a host animal to pass by. With many ticks in the woods and far fewer warm-blooded animals to walk by, the wait for some wood-ticks has been as long as 17 years! During this time there is nothing else that meets the need of the tick, and nothing else to which it responds.
Hardy, who takes this study and applies it to her work as a personologist, says that even though humans have a higher consciousness than “lower animals,” this enclosed world view persists in the human day to day environment as well. We tend to see only what concerns us or meets our needs. And we tend to turn off, or ignore, those things which we deem irrelevant to our situation. All of this speaks to our own consciousness of the “end times” and the wisdom of living awake and sober as good stewards of all God has put into our hands. We might like to stay warm in bed under the covers of unconsciousness, or sit in a piece of bark waiting for life to come to us, but then along comes this Gospel wake-up call to come alive to the world, the living God who created it all, and the church which he called into being, and whatever happens, we are never to despair.
I know what some of you might be thinking. Smith’s sermon can be summarized in one sentence: Stewardship leads to the end of the world! Cute, I agree, but what if its true? Just think of who is coming at the end of the world- being a good steward makes a lot of sense!

A reflection on the Gospel, Sunday, October 26th by Fr. Smith

Sometimes if we really want to "see" or understand something we have take the most radical and trusting step of faith first. Bartimaeus, a blind begger, is squating, begging for alms, and hoping that the pilgrims heading for the Passover celebration in Jerusalem will throw a coin or two into his cloakfolded over his legs. He knows all the best places to beg, and though blind, has survived relatively well over the years.

Bartimaeus' blindness has heightened his sense of hearing. He doesn't miss much of what is going on around him. He has heard that one Jesus or Nazareth is soon to pass by, and when he does he cries out: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. The crown around him tells him to b quiet, but he continues to cry out to Jesus. And Jesus stops! Jesus calls for Bartimaeus to come to him. Bartimaeus jumps up and runs to Jesus leaving behind his cloak!. This is a very significant detail in the story. The cloak kept Bartimaeus warm at night and was the collecting point for the alms he received. It was probably one of his few possessions and leaving it behind as a blind person he would never find it again in the confusion of the great crowd heading for Jerusalem. Seeing his faith and perceiving that Bartimaeus was ready, Jesus asks him the question he asked others: What do you want me to do for you? Bartimaeus had left everything- he could have asked for monetary help, but instead he asks that he might regain his sight. Jesus instantly gives him back his sight. The story concludes with Bartimaeus following Jesus "on the way" as the newest disciple!

All Saints celebration November 2nd- a reflection by Fr. Smith

St. Michael and All Angels church and school celebrates a "full" liturgical calendar remembering each Saint and Anglican hero as their day comes along. But at All Saints we remember the "rank and file" folk "just like you and me" who are baptized in the faith and whose deeds of love and mercy over the years are largely unheralded. There are no natural-born christians. There is no such thing as christian DNA. Surely loved by God from the moment of our conception, each of us still has to be introduced to Jesus Christ the Lord of life. The everyday "saints" our the ones who have done this for us and it is these we celebrate on the Feast of All Saints!

The "saints" we're giving thanks for today have dents in their halos for sure. They merit the name saint not because they are free from imperfection, but because they tried to imitate Jesus in their lives. St. Paul refers to "saints" in all his letters to the churches and chides those same people at times for their wilfulness, quarelsome, self-serving ways, as well as their sexual irresponsibility. But they are still "saints". Even St. Paul, after his conversion confesses "I don't understand my own actions. The very things I do not want to do, I do. And the things I do want to do I don't do."

The children we baptized on All Saints are "canonized" into the joyful following of the Lord. They will need their families, friends, and the witness all of us to come to know Jesus Christ and the happiness this relationship brings. And when life brings sorrow, as it surely does at times, Jesus will be the One who will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Fr. Smith's Sermon Sunday October 19th

“The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Heb.4:12)

I’m happy to announce to you that we have a new bishop in the Diocese of Arizona. Canon Kirk Smith was elected and I believe that this person will be a excellent chief shepherd for us and lead us through the difficult times in which we live and help us all to minister faithfully in Jesus’ name. The election of the bishop brought back to mind a question that a wise Monsignor once posed to a group of newly ordained priests: You have to make a decision--do you want to be a bishop or a priest?--and that decision will affect the rest of your life. Now, the old Monsignor wasn’t trying to be critical of all bishops, for obviously there are many fine ones--hopefully the one we just elected. What he was getting at is that a priest has to decide whether he or she is going to be a careerist or a servant of the least and that decision will influence the rest of life and what kind of priest the person will be. Hopefully, Kirk Smith, who we just elected, decided years ago he wanted to be a servant priest and was totally surprised by the Holy Spirit in this election!

And we can’t just pose the Monsignor’s question only to priests and bishops only, for we live in a time when the ministry of each baptized person is valued as essential for the mission of the church. If it is the case that some who begin as fine servant priests gradually get drawn to an upward, hierarchical career track, the same can be true for some lay persons for fall into the same error of clericalism, trading their servant role in for their own needs for importance and power in the church. When this happens it becomes hard to find out what anybody believes in: God? Their Role? Or Power?

Both our election of Bishop and today’s gospel bring this discussion of servant hood to the forefront. In the Gospel, James and John boldly approach Jesus, within earshot of the other disciples, and ask Jesus to do something for them. “What do you want me to do for you?“ Jesus asks. “Give us the highest places in your future Kingdom” they reply. When all the other apostles hear this they are upset and start arguing among themselves. Now the Apostles are portrayed in the Gospels as basically good people, nevertheless, we see them as ambitious, concerned with power, and their own backside. Jesus takes this encounter as a chance to teach them about true greatness. True greatness is found only in service and the high places in Kingdom will be given to the one who serves the needs of all especially those considered the least. Jesus explains that He has come not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for sinners. Jesus is the righteous Servant Isaiah foretold who would make many righteous and bear the iniquities of many and make intercession for transgressors.

Last week Fr. Daniel spoke of the “stuff” that can keep us from serving God and at the same time cut us off from our brothers and sisters. This week the teaching from the gospel is about power. The desire for power can have the same negative effect. When service is the motivation of our lives it will bring us into close personal contact with many of our brothers and sisters in the human family. But when power is the motivation for our lives we will find ourselves distanced from one another and the needs of our brothers and sisters. A life devoted to power disconnects us from both God and other people.

As Jesus watched the power struggles of his own chosen apostles, I think he is watching the struggle that is going on in our denomination today especially around the election of the first “openly gay” cleric to be elected in the Apostolic order. The division is great between some good and faithful people on both sides of the issue. While the main disagreement is claimed to around “faithfulness to scripture”, what if at root it is a question of power in the church? Faithful and committed Episcopalians elected Fr. Robinson bishop. Why? Some think it was just because he was Gay and in a committed relationship for a number of years. I really don’t think this is the case. I think rather that our brothers and sisters in New Hampshire and at convention saw in this man a “servant first” mentality and a servant leader who never in a million years thought he would ever be elected to serve as bishop. He has been such a Good Shepherd to those he has served over the years in “small” daily differences that it was this ministry that made the “big” difference of his election and confirmation. And this “Good Shepherd” quality of his life, acknowledged by those closest to him, adheres Gene Robinson to the “scriptural norm” of righteousness.

Let us be at peace about this matter and see what come of this. Remember the story of Gamaliel in the Acts of the Apostles? The disciples were preaching and teaching in Jesus’ name and get thrown into jail. In the middle of the night an Angel comes and lets them out. The next morning they are preaching and teaching again non-stop. They are arrested for a second time and brought before the Council of the Jews where they are ordered to stop. They respond: “We must obey God rather than any human authority.” The Council wanted to have them all put to death, but a wise member of the Council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel stood up and had the followers of Jesus put out of the chamber for a short time. He then told the council something that I think applies to Gene Robinson’s election and the disturbing movement it portends for some in the church. Gamaliel reminded the Council about a certain Theudas and his 400 hundred men who rose up, aspiring to be somebody. However, Theudas was killed and his whole movement died with him. And the same thing happened with another Judas of Galilee and his followers. Gamaliel made his point: So in the present case, I tell you . . . Let them alone; because if this plan or this understanding is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them--in that case you may even be found fighting against God! (Acts 5:38-39) The wisdom of Gamaliel prevailed, at least for the Jews.

So we can lift up our hearts. God reigns and is in control. And God’s purposes will be accomplished if we let go of petty struggles for power and become servants of one another and this means servants of Christ whose image we bear. “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink? Or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with? The disciples answer “We are able.” But they don’t really understand what Jesus is asking: Are you ready to be a servant? To lay down your life in a million different ways so that my Kingdom of love will prevail in this world? Jesus asks the same question of us this morning. And two thousand years later, it’s hard for us to say we don’t understand. Our answer may come slower than those first disciples, but hopefully the answer will be: we will serve, we will give our lives, we will be the slave of all, and in doing all this we will help God’s Kingdom come.