January 20 Post

 

Many of you may be familiar with Isaak Dinesen's story, Babette's Feast.  It possesses one of my favorite scenes in all of literature.  General Lowenhielm stands and addresses the small Danish community gathered together for a sumptuous feast that has been prepared by the guest they had taken in, Babette.  Unbeknownst to the villagers, Babette is a famous French chef.  Furthermore, they cannot understand why someone would throw them a feast--a feast fit for a king no less--and sit in fear during the first part of the meal afraid that something terrible is bound to happen.  (Talk about Scandanvian low self-esteem!)  Lowenhielm, however, is a man of the world.  He has traveled and experienced a great deal in life, and he recognizes how amazing the dinner spread before them       all is.  He says,

    Mercy and truth have met together. Righteousness and bliss shall kiss one another.  Man, in his weakness and shortsightedness, believe he must make choices in this life.

    He trembles at the risks he takes. We do know fear. But no. Our choice is of no importance. There comes a time when your eyes are opened. And we come to realize that mercy

    is infinite. We need only await it with confidence, and receive it with gratitude.  Mercy imposes no conditions. And, lo! Everything we have chosen has been granted to us, and everything we have rejected has also been granted. Yes, we even get back what we rejected. For mercy and truth are met together; and righteousness and

    bliss shall kiss one another.

Dinesen's words emanating from the mouthpiece of the general are fairly profound, esoteric, and almost mystical.  How is it, you might ask, that everything we have chosen has been granted, and everything we have rejected has also been granted?  I cannot fully answer the question, and I think to do so means that we have entered a realm that we are not fully equipped to occupy. 

Yet, what the general expresses is what we confess God has done for us in Christ. 

Mercy and truth are met together; and righteousness and bliss shall kiss one another.  The psalmists words find fulfillment in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, and this reality radically changes the way that we understand God and by extension all of life and our lives.  We begin, continue, and end (and perhaps move beyond the end to a new beginning?) in grace.  God's grace.  God's love.  God's mercy.  All fully expressed to and for us in Jesus Christ.  That is our message and the promise that we repeat again and again and again.  And this promise is what shapes us as individuals in faith and a faith community.

I believe that this sense of God's initiative on our behalf transcending any and all actions that we might engage in to appease or please the divine is the very heart of what energizes and equips us to do what we do at St. Francis.  This is the profound reorientation of life to act because we recognize the gift given to us and activity bubbles out of that blessedness, rather than acting because we have to or else! 

And there is a great deal that is done at St. Francis.  You will receive the Annual Report for 2010 tomorrow, and as you look over the  pages and reports,  you will see that it truly is amazing what this small parish is capable of doing and what God is doing through each and everyone here.  My report for the Annual Report is simply the statement of how much of a blessing it is to be with you in this ministry, and the blessings that you are in this life together.  I pray for each and every one of you, and hope that you also recognize, with General Lowenhielm, how mercy and truth are met together; and righteousness and bliss shall kiss one another.  As we hold up the many ways this was lived out in 2010, may we live more fully into this reality--the reality of God's grace and love for each of us and the whole of creation-- in 2011.

God bless you all!

Blessings,
 

Mark