Getting Ready for Mother's Day

Mother's Day is coming up soon, and I hope that brings up for you happy memories and joyous expectations.

If instead the thoughts of Mother's Day and later on Father's Day fill you with dread, perhaps this Forgiveness Prayer would prove helpful to you. I do not know the source of this prayer, as it was handed to me typed out on a piece of paper.

A Forgiveness Prayer

Lord, I don't know how to make forgiveness happen.
I can't cleanse my heart or change my feelings.

I don't know how to trust,

and I'm afraid to hold my heart open.

But today I'm making a choice to forgive.

I know I'll have to choose again and again

until you make forgiveness real and complete in me.

Please God, give me the willingness and strength

to persevere in choosing until forgiveness

is accomplished in me by Your power.

I choose to forgive my father for . . .

I choose to forgive my mother for . . .

I choose to forgive ________ for . . .

Forgive me for all my sinful responses.

O God, I let go of all resentments and bitterness

stored up in my heart.

Wash me clean.

Forgive me for all the condemning judgments I have made.

Give me a new and right spirit that will help enable me

to look with Your compasson and love upon sinners,

including myself.

Heal the wounded heart of the child within me.

Pour Your love in.

Bless those who wounded me.

Forgive me, Lord, for projecting childish pictures

of my parents onto You, and onto others,

especially those I love.

Bring those pictures to death.

Bring my childish ways and expectations to death.

Let Your light shine

into all the hidden places of my heart.

Enlighten the eyes of my heart, Lord,

to see You and love You as You really are,

and to walk in Your ways.

In Jesus Name, Amen.

I hope this will help you in your relationships with all those close to you.

In peace,

Linda +

The Rev. Linda McCloud

Founding Pastor

The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek

www.oursaviorhoneycreek.org

http://oursaviorhoneycreek.blogspot.com

Thankful for the rain

Storm clouds over the marsh

May 9, 2007

"Ask rain from the Lord in the season of the spring rain,
from the Lord who makes the storm clouds,
who gives showers of rain to you,
the vegetation in the field to everyone."
Zechariah 10:1

To all who have been praying for rain for southeast Georgia -- Thank you very much. We have gratefully received some rain.

To all who are concerned about Subtropical Storm Andrea -- Thank you very much. From the looks of things on the NOAA website, a sweep of rain could come our way to help put out the forest fires and to give the farmers a break from irrigating their fields. We only pray that no one will suffer injury or loss in the process.

Rain puddles at Honey Creek
May 9, 2007

"Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
make music to our God upon the harp.
He covers the heavens with clouds
and prepares rain for the earth.
He makes grass to grow upon the mountains

and green plants to serve mankind."

(Psalm 147:7-9)

In peace,

Linda +

The Rev. Linda McCloud

Founding Pastor

The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek

www.oursaviorhoneycreek.org

http://oursaviorhoneycreek.blogspot.com

Do you love to forgive?

It was during Evening Prayer on Monday at a typical gathering of priests that I heard it. Someone was reading the Gospel and I was aimlessly trying to filter the events of the day through those words. I was sort of listening to what was actually being read. Then I heard it. I heard something in a fresh way. It was these lines from Luke 7:47:

"Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many,

have been forgiven;

hence she has shown great love.

But the one to whom little is forgiven,

loves little."

Do you want to be capable of more love? Get forgiveness. These are the words of Jesus as he comments on the actions of the woman who bathed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. In addition to this, she did an even more amazing thing right in front of everyone. She "continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment" from the alabaster jar. This is pretty intimate behavior, yet Jesus allowed it, and it happened at a dinner party, for goodness sake! (Luke 7:36-50)

On Monday, a truth of this story became more real for me. That is, forgiveness makes room for love. Conversely, unforgiveness shuts out love. Maybe this is why Isaiah the Prophet says that our sins have separated between us and God.

If we seek God's forgiveness and the forgiveness of the people we have hurt, this frees us up to love more. If we forgive other people the wrongs they have dealt us, we make room for love to have the right of way in our lives. This is so liberating that we will wonder why we had not been more thorough in giving and receiving forgiveness. Is this a good trade, or what?

So -- do you love to forgive, or do you forgive to love? I hope the answer is yes to both questions.

In peace,

Linda +
The Rev. Linda McCloud
Founding Pastor
The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek
www.oursaviorhoneycreek.org
http://oursaviorhoneycreek.blogspot.com

Love, Human and Divine

Zoey, my great-niece

whom I get to baptize in July

-- photo by her dad

Since Sunday Evening I have been at the Spring Priests' Conference at which I am getting to see a lot of my priest friends and to find out what is happening in their corners of the world. This is more than a meet and greet time. Our Bishop always brings in an engaging speaker who offers thought-provoking lectures or other presentations. At this conference we are privileged to have the Rev. Dr. William Danaher, an Episcopal priest and seminary professor with whom I studied at Sewanee.

Professor Danaher reminded us that in his classroom teaching he still uses Edward Collins Vacek's book Love, Human and Divine: The Heart of Christian Ethics. Here are a couple of quotes from that book:

"Because God is and always will remain incomprehensible, at some point in our relation with God we must leave off trying to know God and simply let ourselves be in love with God."

"God's identity is not wholly bound up with promoting our well-being. God's promise is that God will be with us, loving us, but not loving only us. God's promise is also to be with us as we struggle with the evils that are not from God's hand. Even if we are defeated in this struggle God is still with us, and that is more than enough."

These are lessons that Zoey will be learning as she goes through life. We'll get her off to a good start with her baptism. Isn't she the most beautiful baby in the universe?


In Peace,

Linda +

The Rev. Linda McCloud

Founding Pastor

The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek

www.oursaviorhoneycreek.org

http://oursaviorhoneycreek.blogspot.com

Morning Persons

Another spectacular sunrise

at Honey Creek

Photo by Linda McCloud+

"God made the two great lights -- the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night -- and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day." (Genesis 1:16-19)

Are you a morning person? Is God a morning person? According to the first chapter of Genesis, evening came before morning. Poet Vassar Miller suggests that God is a morning person. What do you think about that?

Morning Person

Vassar Miller

God, best at making in the morning, tossed

stars and planets, singing and dancing, rolled

Saturn's rings spinning and humming, twirled the earth

so heard it coughed and spat the moon up, brilliant

bubble floating around it for good, stretched holy

hands till birds in nervous sparks flew forth from

them and beasts -- lizards, big and little, apes,

lions, elephants, dogs and cats cavorting,

tumbling over themselves, dizzy with joy when

God made us in the morning too, both man

and woman, leaving Adam no time for

sleep so nimbly was Eve bouncing out of

his side till as night came everything and

everybody, growing tired, declined, sat

down in one soft descended Hallelujah.

In Peace,

Linda+

The Rev. Linda McCloud

Founding Pastor

The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek

www.oursaviorhoneycreek.org

http://oursaviorhoneycreek.blogspot.com

Going out on a limb

Cormorants in a dead tree

Honey Creek

Photo by Linda McCloud+

Think about this really hard. If you had to come up with a list of persons in the category of "I would go out on a limb for these people," who would be on it?

OK. Now that you've completed that list, here comes another question that might thin down the list a bit. For whom would you be willing to lay down your life? If I were pressed to answer that question, I confess that my list is quite short.

Now hear this portion of today's Gospel reading:

"I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you,
you also should love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another."

-- Jesus Christ on the night
he was handed over
to suffering and death,
as recorded in John 13:34-35.

Jesus asks us to love one another, but not in the way we might expect. Of course Christians should love one another because we are brothers and sisters and fellow members in Christ's body the Church. As Episcopalians we take baptismal vows to "seek and serve Christ in all persons" and to "respect the dignity of every human being."

Jesus commands us to love one another "as he has loved us." Jesus laid down his life for his friends. He said there is no greater love. St. Paul says that "Christ loved the church, and gave himself up for her." Awesome, isn't it? Now, where is my list? I need to work on it some more.

In peace,

Linda +

The Rev. Linda McCloud
Founding Pastor
The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek
www.oursaviorhoneycreek.org
http://oursaviorhoneycreek.blogspot.com

And They're Off

"In the spring a young man's fancy

lightly turns to thoughts of love"

-- a line from "Locksley Hall"

a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Also in the Spring, on the first Saturday in May, a native Kentuckian's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of Churchill Downs and the fastest two minutes in sports. I'm speaking of course of the 133rd Kentucky Derby, the first leg in Triple-Crown Racing. This year I'm rooting for Storm in May, a one-eyed colt who has already earned ten times the price his owners paid for him. Last year Barbero won. I was sad when he pulled up lame.

Even though I lived in Louisville for almost five years, I have never been at the Churchill Downs on Derby Day for two good reasons: 1) the stands are packed-out and you practically have to inherit a ticket unless you desire to camp in the infield; and 2) at a Derby party with friends you can watch the race on TV and actually know what is happening.

I have been at Churchill Downs on occasions other than Derby Day. Once I was with a group standing near the fence. We were positioned at a point just beyond the backstretch. By some blessed happenstance the track officials brought the starting gate around the track and put it right in front of us. We watched as they loaded the horses into the gate and locked them in. Then there was a very loud bell and the track announcer's voice: "And they're off."

Did you ever see horses come out of the starting gate? They leap several feet and land in the soft dirt of the track, literally "hitting the ground running." I thought when they landed that I had felt a minor earthquake. Those powerful, beautiful creatures were giving the race all they had. It's too bad that only one horse comes out of the race a winner. In my estimation, the very fact that those horses got into the race makes them all winners.

Although we are not horses, the Christian race has a few similarities to the Derby. We are being observed and maybe watched closely by a crowd of people. But unlike the Derby, we all win just for running the race. I like to think that the communion of saints in heaven are in some sort of grandstand, watching and cheering us onward. In light of that thought, I offer these verses from Hebrews 12:1-2:

Therefore, since we are surrounded

by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us also lay aside every weight

and the sin that clings so closely,

and let us run with perseverance

the race that is set before us,

looking to Jesus the pioneer

and perfecter of our faith,

who for the sake of the joy

that was set before him endured the cross,

disregarding its shame,

and has taken his seat at the

right hand of the throne of God.

When it comes time to begin weekly worship services as The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek, I hope we can all get into the starting gate and hit the ground running. Love is all around, and the world is watching. No pressure.

Peace,

Linda +

The Rev. Linda McCloud

Founding Pastor

The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek

www.oursaviorhoneycreek.org

http://oursaviorhoneycreek.blogspot.com