Episcopal Church – Candle in a Cave

20 July 2025

Sermon: Proper 11 RCL C – “Home for the Holy Spirit”

A woman decided to have her portrait painted. She said to the artist, “Paint me with diamond rings, a diamond necklace, emerald bracelets, a ruby brooch, and a gold Rolex.”

“But you are not wearing any of those things,” the artist replied.

“I know,” she said. “It’s in case I should die before my husband. I’m sure he will remarry right away, and I want his new wife to go crazy looking for the jewelry.”

The Golden Jubilee Diamond is the world’s largest cut and faceted diamond. It weighs 545.67 carats and is roughly the size of a golf ball. Its market value ranges from $4 million to $12 million, depending on the market. However, due to its color and clarity, it is not the most expensive diamond. That honor belongs to the Pink Star Diamond, which weighs 59.6 carats and sold for $71.2 million. Both diamonds were cut to maximize their carat weight.

When it comes to cutting diamonds, the round brilliant cut offers the most sparkle, with 57 or 58 facets. 57 if the bottom tip remains pointed, and 58 if the point is cut away. These facets are added to help the stone reflect and refract light, creating, in diamond terms, scintillation.

Perhaps a lot of unnecessary detail, but the point is that our Gospel reading today—the story of Mary and Martha—appears only in Luke’s Gospel and, when studied, proves to be scintillating in all its facets. There are many ways to interpret it, most of which are true, while some are just silly.

One facet, and perhaps the most apparent one, is the difference between the busy and the prayerful life. Martha is rushing around, taking care of all the chores, while Mary sits at Jesus’ feet, listening to His words. Jesus says that Mary has chosen the better way, so we might say that a contemplative life is preferable to a busy one. It’s a good message, and I have preached it before. However, it does not capture the fullness of what is transpiring.

To start with, if we claim that life is all about the contemplative, then no work gets done. We end up sitting around all day singing Kum ba Yah, letting someone else handle everything. That was similar to what happened in the time of Paul. Do you know what he said? “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now, such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10-12) When Jesus says that Mary chose the better, he’s not saying that Martha chose the wrong. Something more is happening.

Another facet has us viewing this through a feminist lens, and I’m not being disrespectful when I say that. During the time of Jesus, within the Jewish home, there were only two places where men and women would mingle: outside or in the marital bedroom. The main public room—think of it as the living room—was the gathering place for visitors, but it was for men only. It was in this public room that Jesus was speaking. Yet, even though it was reserved for men, Mary was there, sitting with the men—the little hussy. She is not fulfilling her duty as a woman by cooking and cleaning. Not only that, she is also sitting in the place of a man. Yet, when Martha complains, Jesus says that Mary has chosen the better part. For some, this interpretation highlights how Jesus leveled the playing field for men and women. It can be viewed as a type of liberation for women, placing them on equal ground with men. Another good sermon, and one I’ve preached before, but even though it makes a good point, it doesn’t capture the bigger picture.

Another facet would be to take this same idea and apply it to how Jesus crossed all boundaries. By making the Gospel accessible to Mary and speaking to her so openly, it can go further to suggest that Jesus is willing to cross all boundaries—ethnic, social, political, cultural, and more—in order to bring the message of God’s love and redemption to everyone. An excellent point, and I’m sure at some point, I’ve preached it.

The ideas of elevating women or crossing boundaries are both valid understandings and teachings, but they are both lacking because they don’t address all aspects of what is happening.

One of the silly interpretations comes from some who suggest that Martha and Mary were deeply in love with Jesus, and that Martha’s jealousy stemmed from Mary’s physical closeness to Jesus. Just for the record, that is not a facet, I haven’t preached it, and I’m never going to.

As you examine these events, you’ll discover various other facets, but they are simply that, facets. So, this week, as I kept trying to grasp the message, I never felt truly satisfied with my understanding. I kept focusing on the individual characters—Mary, Martha, Jesus, the disciples—and realized I had been approaching it all wrong. Instead of seeking understanding through the facets, I needed to pull back and view the diamond as a whole.

I believe that this is what Luke was pointing to in the opening sentence: “As Jesus and his disciples went on their way, Jesus entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.” To understand, we don’t focus on the individual characters; instead, we consider the home and what is inside.

There is Jesus, our King and Redeemer. Like Mary, we are called to sit at His feet, learn from Him, and allow Him to guide our lives. At the same time, we are to be like Martha — tending to our individual callings, whether that means being a homemaker, a priest, a clerk, a nurse, or whatever else Jesus has assigned us. In doing so, we find balance. Too much work and we neglect time with Jesus. Although sitting with Jesus is the best choice, we can’t spend all our lives just sitting; we must also do the work. Does that mean we’ve abandoned Jesus? No. He is still in the house. He is still available to us. He is working alongside us.

In the Gospel of John, at the Last Supper, Jesus speaks to the disciples and says, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them…” (John 14:21). Clarification: What are Jesus’ commandments? He gave them to the disciples just a few minutes earlier: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)

So, “‘Whoever has my commandments and keeps them—that is, whoever loves—he is the one who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.’ Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, ‘Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world?’ Jesus answered him, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.’” (John 14:21-23)

The events that occur in Martha’s home are an embodiment of Jesus’ words in the Gospel of John.

Our bodies and our souls are a home. Within our home, we work, play, rest, and pray. We live. If we keep the commandment of Jesus to love one another, He and the Father, that is, the Holy Spirit, will come to us and become part of our home. There, guided by the very Spirit of God, we will live a life that is pleasing to Him.

Pitting Mary against Martha is the wrong approach when admiring this diamond. The former archbishop of Turin expressed it well: “In our house, there is room for Martha and room for Mary, and we must occupy both places. We must be Mary because we are welcoming the Word, and we must be Martha because we are receiving the Son of Man.” We need to be Mary to learn about God’s love, and we need to be Martha to express that love to others. It’s not Mary or Martha, but Mary in Martha (cf. Sanctify Your Daily Life by Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski, p.100), and vice versa, with the Holy Spirit working in both.

When inviting the Holy Spirit into your home, don’t just give it access to the “spiritual” aspects of your life, but instead, allow it to roam freely throughout every room, so you will have access to and benefit from this Gift from God.

Let us pray: Come, O Divine Spirit, fill our hearts with Your heavenly fruits: charity, joy, peace, patience, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, modesty, self-control, and chastity, so that we may never grow tired in serving God. Through continued faithful submission to Your inspiration, may we be found worthy to be united forever with You in the love of the Father and the Son. Amen.

18 July 2025

INTERVIEW: Tornado Alley Mystery Writers

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to interview with the Tornado Alley Mystery Writers and discuss writing and life. You can listen to the interview (about thirty minutes long) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Buzzsprout.

The book we discussed is the first in the Father Anthony Savel Mysteries series, titled The Golden Fistula. Click the image or link to view it on Amazon.

Other books available are:

I am currently working on the third Father Anthony Mystery: The Forty-Second Wife.

25 May 202525 May 2025

Travel: Japan – Tokyo (Day 2)

How do we begin to describe this day? Well, given that it is the Lord‘s day we went to church. Saint Albans Episcopal Anglican Church in Tokyo. It was about a 30 minute train ride and I made all my connections. Arrived early and was able to pray my rosary before the service began. A very small church in size but it seemed to be a vibrant congregation. I would say that half the members were African.

The service was straight out of the Book of Common Prayer. Very few deviations. I like that in a service. The sermon was good however following the sermon (the priest was a graduate of Nashotah House) the former priest to the church (also a graduate of Nashotah House) gave a small presentation on a gift that he had received and that he was now giving to the diocese. The gift was a FUMIE.

A fumi-e (踏み絵, fumi “stepping-on” + e “picture”) was a likeness of Jesus or Mary to which the religious authorities of Japan required suspected Christians to step, in order to demonstrate that they were not members of the outlawed Christian religion. If they refused, they were put to death and a most horrible way.

The priest who gifted the fumie to the diocese provided us with a detailed description of how they were put to death. I’m not going to go into that here. They were the Martyrs of Japan. It’s worth reading up on.

During the announcements, they invited the visitors to tell who they were and where they were from. Yours truly spoke up and gave a loud shout out for Enid, Oklahoma! Funny thing, that was not my only connection with Oklahoma for the day.

Following the service, the day turned into a bit of a tourist outing. As I turned the corner on the street that leads up to the church I saw the Tokyo Tower.

I said to myself, “Self, you’ve got to get up there!” Both self and I were of the opinion that we would not be climbing the stairs, but we took the elevator. What a ride. It goes up and up and up.

Standing 1,092 feet high in central Tokyo, Tokyo Tower (東京タワー) is the world’s tallest, self-supported steel tower and 10 feet taller than its model, the Eiffel Tower. A symbol of Japan’s post-war rebirth as a major economic power, Tokyo Tower was the country’s tallest structure from its completion in 1958 until 2012 when it was surpassed by the Tokyo Skytree. In addition to being a popular tourist spot, Tokyo Tower serves as a broadcast antenna.

820 feet up is the top observation deck. Yours truly wrote the elevator all the way there. I can honestly say I felt a bit woozy at times, but what a view.

What goes up must come down…

To get my feedback on the ground, I traveled to the Imperial Gardens. Most everything has bloomed except for the azaleas. The variations of green were fantastic though.

At this point, I had been on the go for about eight hours and I had not eaten since breakfast. I was hungry. I took two trains to get back to the general area of my hotel, and then found a sushi bar. I ate my weight in sushi. I also had four very tasty beers. I had the salmon, shrimp, eel, salmon roe, tuna, mackerel, shrimp… and when all that was done, I looked at the guy and said, “I’ve never had sea urchin before. I think I need to try that.” I did. Salty and earthy. I would eat it again, but it’s not on the top of the list. I topped all that off with a salmon skin roll garnished with salmon roe. Dang! Good eats for sure!

Now, when I ordered the sea urchin, I noticed the two girls at the end of this bar about three seats away from me. They were very friendly and we chatted a bit. But they watched me eat that sea urchin, and then we discussed it. Come to find out, they were from Stillwater, Oklahoma. They both work at OSU. We had a really good laugh about that. They have one more day here and then they’re on their way home. How strange is that? There are over 14 million people living in Tokyo and I happen to run into two people from Oklahoma. A very good day.

Tomorrow, I have absolutely no idea what’s on the agenda, but I do believe that I’m going to go and visit some more of the churches that are here. I don’t know what the architectural style is but I have not seen it before. More on that tomorrow.

I pray you all are well. My cat sitter extraordinaire sent a picture of The Queen. She seems to be doing well.

Silly photos…

Of course, Godzilla had to make an appearance!

Too cloudy to see it, but it’s in that general vicinity.

1 August 2021

Sermon: Proper 13 RCL B – “Bread of Heaven, Part I”

While visiting a big city, Betsy, who suspected her husband of cheating on her snuck off to visit a fortune teller of some local repute.

In a dark and hazy room, peering into a crystal ball, the mystic delivered grave news. “There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just be blunt: Prepare yourself to be a widow. Your husband will die a violent and horrible death this year.”

Visibly shaken, Betsy stared at the woman’s lined face, then at the single flickering candle, then down at her hands. She took a few deep breaths to compose herself. She simply had to know. She met the fortune teller’s gaze, steadied her voice, and asked her question. “Will I be acquitted?

When it came time to preach this sermon, I just couldn’t tell that joke: adultery, murder, divination… no. Not good sermon material.

Jesus had been teaching and performing miracles in Jerusalem at the Temple and from there he made his way north to the lands surrounding the sea of Galilee. If he went all the way up to Capernaum on the north shore, he would have travelled about eighty miles. After some time, he crossed over the sea and it is there that we have the feeding of the 5,000. Following this, the disciples—without Jesus—take a boat back to Capernaum, but on the way they encounter a storm and it is then they see Jesus walking on the water.

The following day, the people wake up and look for Jesus, thinking that he should still be nearby, but when they can’t find him, they also cross over to Capernaum where they do find him. This is where our Gospel reading begins today with the people saying to Jesus, “Umm… you were over there with no way of getting over here. How’d you do that?” Jesus doesn’t answer that question, but only tells them why it is they were looking for him: “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”

These words are the beginning of what is known as the Bread of Life Discourse, consisting of thirty-seven verses. It is such an important teaching, that we will hear from these verses for three more Sundays.

It begins with the people asking Jesus a series of questions: how did you get here? What is the work of God? What sign will you give us? What work are you performing? And then someone says, “Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” In saying this, they are throwing down the gauntlet on Jesus. If you want us to believe you, why don’t you pull this particular rabbit out of the hat. To that challenge, Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” And the people are like, “Yeah, yeah…give us that bread.”

The people are still thinking about their empty stomachs and Jesus could have given them what they wanted, but Jesus did not need a crystal ball to tell them what would happen if he did. He only needed to look at their history.

The Israelites had made the exodus out of Egypt and were wandering in the desert. They grew hungry and complained against God, so the Lord said, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you.” And he did. He gave them manna to eat.

Our Psalm today speaks of all of this and concluded with:

They ate and were well filled,
for he gave them what they craved.
(Psalm 78:29)

God gave them everything they craved, but they weren’t ever happy. They weren’t ever satisfied.

“The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!’” (Numbers 11:4-6)

Yes, Jesus says to those listening. Moses did feed them with the bread from heaven, but after awhile, they weren’t satisfied. So he gave them quail, but guess what? They eventually weren’t satisfied with that either. Moses could have gone on and given them cucumbers, melons, Kobe beef, and Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, but in the end they would still be grumbling and would always want more.

No. Jesus did not need a crystal ball to know how it would all play out. So, he says, instead of seeking after something that you will later be dissatisfied with, why not seek after that which will satisfy you now and for all eternity. Seek after the bread which will give you life eternal. And what is this bread? Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” Jesus said, I—God—am the one thing that will satisfy you completely. Follow me and believe in me.

Like the Israelites in the wilderness, God can give and fulfill our every craving, but like the Israelites, we will grow tired of it, because what we crave is not what we need. It is not what will sustain or fulfill us. If you think about it, you know it’s true. We may occasionally find some peace, but there is a restlessness within us. An itch. A craving. However you want to refer to it, and it is really never satisfied. What is the remedy for such cravings? In the first paragraph of his Confessions, St. Augustine of Hippo, speaking to God, wrote, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”

When he says that our heart is restless, I believe he is referring to both our physical and spiritual heart, our entire being which will remain restless until it rests in God alone. And it is a restlessness, a craving, that can only be satisfied and nourished with the true Bread of Heaven. Our response in hearing this can be the same response as those who were listening to Jesus: “Sir, give us this bread always.”

And Jesus does. “I am the bread of life.” We receive this bread of life physically in the Eucharist and spiritually through our faith. If we can truly receive this bread then we are truly free. Free from the empty cravings that draw us away from God.

I would like to tell you that I have reached such a level of perfection, but I think we all know that would be a lie. It is not easy and it is always a struggle. It is God’s grace alone that fills in the gap, but that does not mean that we don’t work to lessen that gap. Strive, body and soul, to be satisfied with God alone. Seek to find peace in him. Yes, Lord, give us this bread always that we might find rest in you.

Let us pray: Father in heaven, you have made us for yourself; our hearts are restless until they rest in you. Fulfill this longing through Jesus, the bread of life, so that we may witness to him who alone satisfies the hungers of the human family. By the power of your Spirit lead us to the heavenly table where we may feast on the vision of your glory for ever and ever. Amen.

13 July 2021

Novels: Shameless plug…

As the header states, this is a shameless plug for The Golden Fistula. The price has been lowered to $.99 for the eBook and will eventually go to free (just in case you’re holding out for the real bargain.) Trying to do one more sales run before the second book in the series, The Marble Finger, comes out, which will hopefully be by the end of the year. That said, click the image below to order your copy today!

11 July 2021

Journal: July 11, 2021

Friday night was the night at the ballpark and a visit from dad, Saturday was a writing day (added 3,500 words to The Marble Finger) and today was the preaching day (the sermon–you can find it here–seemed to work) followed by a nice nap. That, my friends, is a delightful weekend. Now, to ease into next week and get a few more items checked off the list, one of which is Contemporary Koinonia a.k.a. COKO.

COKO is a journal that a priesty friend and I are starting. We both got so tired of hearing all the bad / angry news out there about the Episcopal Church and we both knew that there were some remarkable stories to tell, so we are in the process of creating a resource for sharing them. It is not a local journal, although some stories will be, but we are working to bring the stories of the church into a tool that will allow congregations, clergy, and bishops to see and hear about the great and transformative work that is taking place in our church. More to come on this later, but the first issue–we hope–will be out in October. Don’t worry, you won’t need a subscription. Good news should always be free!

Hard change of gears (hear them grinding) and we’re off to the movies….

After watching Snatch, I’m wondering who does crazy better, Brad Pitt or Jack Nicholson. “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” And we all know Jack Torrance is about as crazy as they come! That said, Mickey O’Neil (Brad Pitt) is an excellent nut case and the movie is fun, but I have to wonder if Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson / The Shining) could take him. I’ll let you all weigh in on this one. Oh… it was a bit back we discussed Judi Dench’s laugh… brilliant, but I forgot about Brooke Adams in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1973). It’ll make you happy just to hear it (and the movies is one my favs.)

And now we begin a new week. What surprises will it bring… a friend unexpectedly pulling up in your driveway, a moment to see Jesus in the face of another, a few more words in the novel… who knows. Maybe all of the above. Hoping your week is filled with the unexpected… that reminds me of a sermon I preached years ago: there are no coincidences, there are only God-incidences–it was probably as goofy then as it sounds now, but you get the point.

What I learned today (at least for me): being disciplined requires a goal. To simply say I’m going to do something doesn’t generally motivate me to accomplish it. I need a carrot. Perhaps that’s OK, but wouldn’t it be nice… and perhaps even easier… if you could do something simply for the love of it? I think I need to work on this (although I do love my work and wouldn’t trade that for anything!)

Thought for the day: “Do not be afraid; our fate cannot be taken from us; it is a gift.” ― Dante Alighieri, Inferno It’s probably one of those that you print on a coffee cup and remember to read every now and then, but… that doesn’t make it any less true.

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