FOR THE LOVE OF MIKE Volume 65 Number 3
MARCH 2015
The Episcopal Church of Saint Michael Pacific View Drive at Marguerite
Corona del Mar
California 92625
& All Angels
949.644.0463
www.stmikescdm.org
...From the Desk of the Rector
BELOVEDS IN CHRIST “You haul your ashes, and I’ll haul mine . . . ” “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
T
he first quote was originally used by “Sleepy” John Estes and initially recorded by “Kokomo” Arnold. I take it as a “I’ll live my way, you live yours!” statement, and it makes me smile. The second is from Genesis 3:19, and has appeared in its current context since medieval times in our liturgy for the first day in Lent, Ash Wednesday. As always, saying it many times on February 18th shook my soul. Usually my ministry is: to give the sign of God’s blessing of forgiveness and favor; to place into hands the spiritual food of everlasting life; to anoint with oil and pronounce a prayer of healing. To place on friends’ foreheads the mark of their mortality, the taste of ashes, and the memento mori that is dust, to put ashes on flesh-and-blood that will return to dust sooner than I wish, annually occasions a “Who am I to do this?” moment for me. In early Lent this year I have been reminded that the “dust” of which our liturgy speaks is the very “earth” out of which the Genesis story tells us we were first made. The Hebrew word is adamah, from which the word for “human,” for “adam,” is taken; and it literally means something like “red soil,” that rich loamy kind of earth out of which things grow. The dust we come from and to which we return is the “rich earth” that sustains all life. Dirt, soil, earth may not seem very impressive; but consider what biologist Edward O. Wilson, nicknamed “father of socio-biology” and “bard of biodiversity,” says: “Think of scooping up a handful of soil and leaf litter and placing it on a white cloth.This unprepossessing lump contains more order, and richness of structure, and particularity of history than the entire surface of all lifeless planets. It is a miniature wilderness... the product of millions of years of history having evolved under the most harsh conditions of competition and survival.”
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LENTEN PROGRAM 2015 Choral Evensong -3/1 at 4pm “Vocation & Calling” The Rev’d Lisa Rotchford- 3/4 Stephen Caldwell - 3/11 The Rev’d Brad Karelius - 3/18 The Rev’d Lynn Jay - 3/25 The Evening’s Program Evening Prayer - 5:30pm Sponsored Soup Supper - 6pm followed by program Compline - 7:30pm On March 4, join us for “Evening Prayer with Remembrances” For those we love but see no longer
IN THE FORWARD MOVEMENT DISPLAY RACK ON THE WALL IN MICHAEL'S ROOM you will find “Observing Lent.” This pamphlet offers a wonderful guide to your journey through the weeks of Lent. “I invite you... to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and selfdenial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word” (“The Book of Common Prayer”, p. 265) The Rev'd Canon Christine McSpadden comments on the meaning of each of the above disciplines, suggests an appropriate Biblical passage for reflection, and a "Try This" idea. Her advice for "Selfexamination, for example: Read Lamentations 3:40. "In the middle of your day, review the day so far. What has happened? What emotions came up? Choose an incident from this day so far and pray from your thoughts and feelings."
BUILDING OUR F AITH: L OVING CHRIST AND SER VING OUR COMMUNITY FAITH: LO SERVING