From this weeks email

I am the sexiest man alive. Seriously, I am. When I was in college, attending my Sociology classes, I learned about this little phenomenon called a self fulfilling prophecy. As a joke, a couple of my friends and I decided to make our own outrageous self fulfilling prophecies. Mine was that I was the sexiest man alive. To this day, I look for opportunities to mention this fact to see what kind of reaction I get. Lately, I get responses that are very serious, usually short like, “No you’re not.”

One of the enduring concepts of the Episcopal Church is the idea, “What we pray, shapes what we believe.” The things we pray week in and week out, day in and day out, shape what we believe. I haven’t done any scientific studies about this, and I have been told by some important people that this idea is a bad idea, but I really like it. The tradition of the Episcopal Church is one of small “c” catholic tradition. A tradition that embraces a great deal of diversity, in fact our diversity in, thought, ethnicity, theology, is considered a strength and not a deficiency.

It is also something that is enduring and true. A self fulfilling prophecy changes a behavior about something that in reality may not be true, but in a persons mind makes something true. Like how I believe I am the sexiest man alive. I am the only person who believes that. What we pray, shapes what we believe is not based on whim or upon one person’s desire to alter reality. Rather it is rooted in a heritage that is ever evolving, prayerful and part of the work of our ancestors as well as those who will eventually live on this earth. That work being a discerning effort to discover constantly anew the glory of God in our lives.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Beautiful Impartiality. Easter Day Sermon

“Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him. If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.” So spoke Sojourner Truth in December 1851, just 5 years before this parish was founded, at a Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio. She began her brief and eloquent speech with the words, “Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter.” There has been a lot of racket in our world, in our Church in our lives. Something is out of kilter that is for sure. Each year during Holy Week, all the clergy in the Diocese are invited to attend a service of the reaffirmation of our ...
Read more

An interesting Observation

I was sitting on the pew out in front of the Church on 4th Avenue waiting for my lovely and beloved wife to pick me up. Our other car was in the shop and due to rushed-ness we had to just drop me off at Church today. Anyway, I was sitting out there for about 15 minutes waiting for Sara to come and pick me up and I noticed something very odd. I didn't keep a number tally in my head, but I bet half of the people walking toward me crossed the street, not in the crosswalk at the corner, but at some other point before arriving at where I was sitting. Now, I was wearing my collar and sitting in the pew reading a book. The pew has been used frequently I have noticed by many passersby, I even saw a young man take off one of the round parts of the pew, it had kind of fallen off, so no longer attached, but just stare at it and look it over as he walked on. So the pew has not been an intimidating thing, it was definitely me and my collar, and no, I didn't smell, because many others w...
Read more

Having Faith

Image
Today I want to talk a little bit about having faith, particularly the faith we will all need this summer, particularly the faith we will need from June 9th to July 9th... Faith is kind of like a little caterpillar, in the hands of a child who has never seen a caterpillar. I love this picutre of Eliot, and mostly needed an excuse to post it, but I also needed to tell folks about the faith that will be required this summer. After a couple of days off the United States Men's National Team will be leaving for Germany for the World Cup . The World Cup is the greatest sporting event in the world. Greater than the Super Bowl, greater than the World Series and definitely greater than the NBA Finals. It is one of the only sporting events that lives up to its name as a WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP! The US Men will be heading over to Germany to take on the world, literally, their first game, June 12th, is against the Czech Republic, second they take on mighty Italy on June 17th and finally they ...
Read more