John McCain

John McCain

“But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,

and no torment will ever touch them.

In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died,

and their departure was thought to be a disaster,

and their going from us to be their destruction;

but they are at peace.

For though in the sight of others they were punished,

their hope is full of immortality.

Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good,

because God tested them and found them worthy of himself.

Those who trust in him will understand truth,

and the faithful will abide with him in love,

because grace and mercy are upon his holy ones,

and he watches over his elect.” Wisdom 3:1-5, 9.

WBUR. Meghan McCain at National Cathedral

Like many Americans I have spent the last several days watching memorials to Senator John McCain. In particular, I watched the service at the National Cathedral all Saturday morning. I became awed with that Cathedral  almost thirty years ago when our friends Joanne and Allan Meadors introduced us to it through the National Cathedral Association, and we were hooked. For twenty years we visited it at least twice a year, often staying at the College of Preachers on its grounds. I am still reeling from this memorable service on Saturday morning at such a familiar sacred space. 

Former Senator Kelly Ayotte read these favorite words from holy scripture recommended for the burial office from the Book of Wisdom.

 What a tribute that a man can so inspire us so much in his death by how he lived and even how he planned his burial service.  I can barely talk about it, much less write about it.  I  like most of you stayed in tears at most of Meghan McCain’s  tribute to her father. This is a real sign of greatness when a man so involved in politics can be so cared for and loved by  his children. 

The entire service was inspiring, a remembrance of an icon of someone who made mistakes and owned up to them, who dared to cross the aisle at the senate to listen to others of another party, who learned to speak his own truth and face the consequences.  Many believe that he was molded by his five years of captivity.  Most of us cannot imagine what that was like. McCain is a role model for us of someone who turned his trials into gold.

I see many lives in captivity, not the way McCain was, but caught in the captivity of an addiction. I also see daily ordinary men and women who have learned from and come out of that life into what Christians would call a life of resurrection, a new life beyond anything they dreamed. Many who knew them in the past can no longer recognize them physically, mentally, or spiritually.

John McCain’s service was a service of resurrection, a reminder for all of us that there is another way to live and we can begin that journey before death.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

Baptism

Baptism

“This dying and rising, this crossing over from death to life which happens at baptism, is not a one-off thing – but it is to be our daily vesture as Christians.” Br. Geoffrey Tristram, Society of Saint John the Evangelist, SSJE.org, Brother Give us a word, daily email. August 29, 2018

If we were baptized in a river or by full immersion,  we might better understand this well-known theological concept of baptism as a dying and rebirth and compare it to our life in the world. There is something memorable about going totally under water in the arms of someone else, totally surrendering and wondering for a brief second if we will come back up. When we do have our heads above water, we cannot help but look around, shake our  head of dripping hair and give thanks for being alive, a new beginning, a new start, a new you. For some reason we see the world a little clearer. Some of the fog is gone.

Each day a little of us certainly dies physically. Each day we try to learn a little more about surrender. My prayer is that each day a little of my character defects die or are chipped away. When that happens, I do indeed know resurrection, a new life, a life of peace and love and joy. But as so often happens, pieces of those character defects or sins seem to come right back like magnets to places in our mind and body and spirit where they so comfortably lived at one time. Sometimes they come back like some fiery ugly dragon from some place inside of us that we never knew existed, and we end up making more amends than we did in the past.

Baptism in our tradition is a onetime thing, but dying and resurrection are a daily, sometimes hourly event. The concept that at  baptism we see dying and resurrection is still important. I love Br. Geoffrey’s use of the word, vesture, meaning a  garment that covers us, like a vestment. He is offering to us the opportunity to try to imagine wearing our baptism like a vestment throughout the day. An amazing concept!

  As we watch infants, toddlers, youth, and adults being baptized, we might imagine their putting on a vestment to cover them throughout eternal life as a promise that they are marked as  God’s own forever, and God is always with them in each dying and each resurrection in their lives.  We hold on to this sacrament as an outward and visible both sign and symbol of our life in and with Christ in the world.

There are parts of us that are dying, but there are parts of us that need dying, and God offers  resurrection to us daily at each death on both sides of the veil. 

Joanna.  Joannaseibert.com

Spiritual Experiences

Religious Experience

“It may be possible to find explanations of spiritual experiences such as ours, but I have often tried to explain my own and have succeeded only in giving the story of it. I know the feeling it gave me and the results it has brought, but I realize I may never fully understand its deeper why and how.” Bill Wilson, As Bill Sees It, p. 313, Alcoholic Anonymous.1967.

Bill Wilson was not the only one to have a spiritual experience.  I daily meet with people who gradually, reluctantly, and sometimes embarrassingly tell me stories about their spiritual experiences.  We are still under the influence of the age of enlightenment and reason. We only know what we can explain.

We fear sharing anything that comes from mystery. For many people, these spiritual experiences occur outside in Nature. Suddenly we feel arms holding us up. We feel a presence beside us.  Some have the experience in a house of worship. A flickering candle produces what looks like holy smoke.  Some have an awareness at the Eucharist. They leave the rail at peace with what is going on in their lives. Many remember a religious experience at the birth of a child or seeing a newborn for the first time. Birds often can be part of an experience. I remember the Sunday after the death of a dear friend, Jane Murray.  I saw a wild goose fly closely by the window in our church sanctuary. I had never seen that before or since. The wild goose is the Celtic symbol for the Holy Spirit.  

Candles can often to be part of an experience. I was recently meeting and talking with a friend who saw the reflected light of the burning candle beside us through a window that appeared to be on a tree outside our window. He spoke up, “I see a burning bush!”

These are all burning bush experiences and we should take our shoes off when we encounter them.

Joanna   joannaseibert.com