Today I wrote an article about two Saints who did not act very saintly before their conversions.  St Olga was a mass murderer and destroyed an entire town in revenge for her husband's murder.  Olga's grandson, St Vladimir, had his brother murdered and put his sister-in-law in his harem. 
http://larry-putt.suite101.com/murderous-saints-st-olga-and-st-vladimr-a399782

Happy Reading!

My sermon, given at Trinity Episcopal Church, 12/4/2011

O Lord Open My Lips, and My Mouth Will Declare Your Praise (Psalm 51:15)

Today in our Gospel and Old Testament readings we heard the prophecy of Isaiah; A voice of one calling in the desert prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the wilderness a highway for God.

Four hundred years before John, the prophet Malachi (4) said, “See, I will send the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.  He will turn the hearts of the Fathers to their children and the hearts of their children to their fathers.”  Many thought this to mean that John the Baptist was Elijah.   Malachi (3) also said, “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare a way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in; behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts.

John the Baptist was born six months before Jesus.   The Gospel of Luke says that John was the son of Zachariah, a priest in the temple of Jerusalem, and Elizabeth, who had been barren.  The angel, Gabriel announced to Zachariah that Elizabeth would bear him a son.

Like the early childhood of Jesus, next to nothing is known of John’s youth.  The first we really hear of John is that he is out in the desert preaching baptism of water for the forgiveness of sins.  The Apostles Andrew and John were followers of John, giving evidence that those two were actively seeking a closer relationship with God.

John preached that the one who would baptize, not with water, but with the Holy Spirit would follow him.   The day that Jesus appeared in the desert to and asked John to baptize him John demurred and said, it is I who should be baptized by you.”   None-the-less John performed the Baptism of Jesus and at that moment, God spoke from above, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus.  Thus began the ministry of Jesus.

Although John denied being Elijah when questioned by the religious authorities, Jesus later proclaimed that John was indeed Elijah.

John continued to preach, although two of his disciples, John and Andrew, left to follow Jesus.  John also continued to annoy King Herod and the King grew tired of John’s criticism of his morality and of his growing political influence.  In the end Herod’s lack of morality cost John the Baptist his head.  There just never seems to be a good ending when one is a Jewish Prophet. 

In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells Nicodemus that to enter the Kingdom of Heaven one must be reborn with a birth of water and Spirit.  Before his ascension, Jesus tells his followers, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”

Holy Baptism incorporates us into the mystical body of Christ. The effect of Baptism is threefold:

1.       It remits all sin, original and actual.

2.      It bestows sanctifying grace, and gives our souls the heavenly virtues of Faith, hope, and charity.

3.      It makes the recipient a member of Christ, the Child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.

By making our baptismal vows we agree to three basic principles:

1.      We renounce Satan and all his evil works.

2.      We affirm our belief in God.

3.      We agree to serve him.

Jesus realizes that by our very nature, we are weak creatures.  We cannot hope to persevere against evil by ourselves.  During the baptismal ceremony, when we make our vows, we say, “I will with God’s help.”

That I think is the major difference between John’s baptism and the Baptism of Jesus.  John’s baptism was one of repentance of sin and asking for forgiveness.  The baptism of Jesus is more powerful, for with his sacrifice, our sins are forgiven and he sent the Holy Spirit to be our comforter.

This morning I came across a writing by Henri Nouwen that is pertinent to this sermon.  Henri said,” The knowledge that Jesus came to dress our mortal bodies with immortality must help us develop an inner desire to be born to a new eternal life with him and encourage us to find ways to prepare for it.

It is important to nurture constantly the life of the Spirit of Jesus - which is the eternal life - that is already in us. Baptism gave us this life, the Eucharist maintains it, and our many spiritual practices - such as prayer, meditation, spiritual reading, and spiritual guidance - can help us to deepen and solidify it. The sacramental life and life with the Word of God gradually make us ready to let go of our mortal bodies and receive the mantle of immortality. Thus death is not the enemy who puts an end to everything but the friend who takes us by the hand and leads us into the Kingdom of eternal love.”

God loves us, he sent his only son to save us, and all he asks in return is that we obey his commandments:

Love God with all your heart, and mind, and soul, and strength.

Love one another as he loves us.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
Amen.

Today I wrote an article about St. John of God.  The idea came from a book I am reading, Saints Behaving Badly, by Thomas Craughwell.  Like most saints, John wasn't a very nice fellow in his youth.  Obviously things changed though and in the end he became a saint.

The point being, that many of us can overcome the same bad behaviors and turn our lives around.

A reading from the Book of Wisdom in the Apocrypha:

The beginning of Wisdom is the true desire to receive teaching,

and a longing to be taught comes from a love of her;

The one who loves her will keep her laws.

Observing the laws of wisdom assures immortality,

and immortality brings one nearer still to God:

So the desire for wisdom leads to the authority of the one who rules.

Solomon’s canticle on the desire for wisdom is a beautiful song.  The desire to seek wisdom requires a self-awareness that we humans do not know enough to even begin to comprehend mystery of God.  In order to become nearer to God, we must gain wisdom.  That means never being satisfied that we found the final truth.  Seek and you shall find.  Keep seeking, and asking, and learning, ever learning. God reveals his presence in different ways to different people.   When you think you have found God, that is when your true journey begins.

Seems I have come full circle in my life.   In 1977, I signed up for a hitch in the Navy and ended up staying in eight years.  The first five years I detested the service and then, after advancing through the ranks, grew to like it more each year.  Then I hurt my knee and out to the civilian world I emerged, forever changed by my experience.

Now, after twenty-six years, I find myself working for the Navy again, albeit as a civilian.  I used to think of Naval Reactors as the bad guys while I was in the service.  They always seemed to cause us consternation and stress.  Now I am one of them, although so far down on the food chain as to be almost invisible.  I started my career in the Navy and I hope to end my career supporting the Navy.

Of course, the journey has not been without a few interesting twists and turns.   After my discharge from the Navy, I helped clean up the mess at Three Mile Island; twenty-five years later, I was cleaning up the mess at Hanford.  In between, I fathered a beautiful daughter, worked in two nuclear power plants, garnered two college degrees, and became a writer.  Somehow, this entity called the Holy Spirit called me, guided me, and comforted me the entire time.  No matter how bad thought things were, the Holy Spirit prevailed against the temptations and tribulations thrown my way.  Not every time mind you, but enough to win the war, despite losing a few battles along the way.  Now, I realize that not every lost battle is a defeat; no, it is a learning experience, and makes us stronger for the future.  The best is yet to come!  

And then I hear the price of peanut butter is going to skyrocket!  Must be Jimmy Carter's revenge.

The following is a sermon I preached at Trinity Episcopal Church today.

O Lord Open My Lips, and My Mouth Will Declare Your Praise

(Psalm 51:15)

In the Gospel reading today, the Pharisees try to trick Jesus with a question about paying taxes.  Jesus responded with the famous render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God things that are God’s.  (Matthew 22:21)

Although this seems a simple premise, what does it mean to give unto God the things that are his?  God’s currency is not money, nor does he collect a tax.  What then does God demand of us?

Jesus tells us there are only two commandments we need obey.  In Mark 12:30, Jesus tells us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second is to love your neighbor as yourself.”

The old practice of sacrificing animals was no more.  In the past, the sacrifice of animals and of the harvest was an honor that God had required. However, with the arrival of the Son of God that requirement changed.  Jesus sacrificed himself for all of mankind.  He did not sacrifice a ram or a goat or a portion of his food … no, he sacrificed himself.  No greater love does a man have than to sacrifice himself to save his friends.

Therefore, if we owe our taxes to the government of man, what do we owe God?  The answer is simple and in the words of Jesus.  “Love God!”  Nothing less is accepted and nothing more is required. 

Seems like a simple answer does it not?  Nevertheless, as every person sitting in this church knows, it is not that simple.  We have a hard time showing love for our neighbors and some of us cannot love others as we love ourselves because we do not love our self.   And if we cannot love our neighbor how can we love God?

Thus, such a simple concept of love becomes such an ominous burden that we seem incapable of ever fulfilling the commandments of Christ.

God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten child to sacrifice himself for us.  Yet we find it burdensome to love him back.

First, we must look inside and realize that God in an act of love created us.  God loves us and wants us to love him back.  We are his children and he sent Jesus to show us the way, to teach us how to love him.  When we realize that God created us in love it is easier to love ourselves, despite our flaws and our sins.  We are each unique and yet we are each the same.

You cannot love a government for if you try the love is unrequited.  The love of God is not unrequited, it is real, it is sustainable, and it is eternal.  Governments rise and fall, the face on the coin changes every so often.  However, God does not change, he just is!

Once we love ourselves, it becomes easier to recognize our spiritual gifts.  These are gifts given by God to help us help others in the journey on this rock we call Earth.

In Corinthians 12:8, Paul talks about the Spiritual Gifts that the Holy Spirit has distributed among the believers of God.  There are numerous gifts that the Spirit has given, the power of persuasion, writing, counseling, prophecy, even the gift of getting in front of a group and speaking about the Lord … that is a gift which can be frightening, but with the help of the spirit the fear disappears and the love of God shows forth.

Henri Nouwen talks about the gifts that God bestows upon on at our Baptism; God gives us the Holy Spirit as our Counsellor, Helper and Comforter. God’s gifts to us at our baptism are:

• Love
• Joy
• Peace
• Hope

But for us to fully enjoy these gifts, we have to accept the fruits of the Holy Spirit [which are “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23 NJB)] into our hearts. How do we do that? We have to chew, mull, reflect and understand these fruits and let them sink into our hearts so that they become ours. Every morning we should then pray for the Holy Spirit to help us to do His will and not our will. We must spend time to ask for God’s help and to consistently concentrate on nurturing these fruits and, whenever the occasion arises, choose to:

· Be gentle

· Be patient

· Be kind

· Be good

· Be faithful

· Have self-control

As we focus on the Holy Spirit to generate these spiritual gifts in us, we will in time find that our lives will be more loving, joyous, peaceful and hopeful

So if God has given each of us a gift, how do we repay him?  Do we hide the gift?  If you give your spouse, a special gift and they throw it in the back of the closest how does that make you feel.  If we ignore the gifts, delivered by the Holy Spirit how do you think God feels?  Do you think he feels loved?

In order to use your gift to please God, you must first love yourself, for only with love can you gift be manifest.  I was raised a Baptist and I heard the fire and brimstone speeches when I was very young.  I had a nightmare of hell on Earth.  In retrospect, I think that preacher did me a favor, because when I later heard the message of love that Jesus preached it was if a flower bloomed in my soul.  I realized I did not need to be afraid of evil, nor the Devil, nor of going to hell.  And all because I believed in Jesus and his message and I felt his love.

When I was thirteen, I thought I would grow up to be a preacher.  The Holy Spirit had other plans for me though, and for a while, a long while, I stumbled in the dark and I hid my talents, and wallowed in sin.  My spirit though bound in darkness, yearned to be free and to find Jesus again.  The journey was long, there was a time that I knocked on the proverbial door, and a voice said, “Not yet, you are not ready.”

So I stumbled on, blinded by sin, corrupted by the world, yet longing to be one with God.  The journey has not been easy, for the longest time I did not love myself, nor could I love others.  Despair gripped my soul and depression set in. Oh how insidious the power of the Devil.  Through our despair, he makes us loathe ourselves, and that loathing becomes hate for ourselves and for the world. 

Love does set us free.  Love sets us free in so many ways.  Once we let Jesus into our heart, the Holy Spirit into our Soul, and God into our Mind, then we find the strength to love the Three-In-One with all our being.

Once I found love, once I opened my heart, and my mind, and my soul, I found the door opened for me.  I know my final destination even though I  do not know how long the journey will last.  Once I discovered the love of Jesus, I found the strength to use my spiritual gifts.  My gifts are still evolving and the strength of my soul has become a fortress for God.  The Devil still attacks, and sometimes with a vengeance, for he does not like to lose, but there is truth in the statement that Love Conquers ALL.

God gave us free will.  I believe this planet we live on is a test.  We can choose love or we can choose hate.  For most of mankind’s existence, it seems hate has won.  When we die, we do not take anything physical with us.  The body remains here, where it was created.  Our spirit goes on and it is love or hate that determines the direction we go.

Tomorrow morning when you wake up, look in the mirror, and ask yourself this simple question, “Do I choose love?”   

AMEN

I write bad things about Glenn Beck and the next thing I know he has an ad for gold on my blog. Oh well!


After all the trials and tribulations of the last two years, I finally have settled in at my new job. I feel like I have come full circle as I am working for the Navy again. I’m not directly working for the Navy, but I work with Bechtel and we are a contractor for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. I’m testing valves for the submarine force and it really is a nice job. The Navy tells us what to do and comes and inspects us on occasion.

On the writing front, I now am a Topic Editor for the Historical Biographies section of Suite101.com. I like the editing part of the job and it is making me a better writer.

I’m rereading the Day Before Yesterday by Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. I’ve become enamored with Theodore Roosevelt Jr. and even made a Facebook page for him. I’m making it a central hub with link to articles and videos and other websites.

Life goes on, almost 54 and time for another heart checkup.

Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne

Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne

I think yesterday was one of the worst days my wife has had in a long time and a very expensive date to boot. My day started out with a wake-up call from my wife. She had locked herself out of the house and needed a number for a locksmith. After paying him a few bucks to let her in the next adventure began.


On her way to work, she did a 360 in the snow and a police officer stopped her and asked her why she was driving recklessly. What a hoot, considering people were having wrecks and slide-offs everywhere. Fearing for her life, she went to the tire store and purchased two rear tires. Problem solved and off she went to work.

Later that evening she returned home to a cold house. The furnace was broke and when the technician finally showed up, ten o’clock on a Friday night, he decided we needed a new blower. Cha-ching!

All told, it was a very expensive day. On the other hand, I went to the library and spent no money. However, I did answer the phone about ten times during the day and each time it was another disaster. Today she is snowed in and hopefully that will not cost us a cent.

Every weekday morning, about 6:00 A.M., I get into my car and turn on Glenn Beck. Cruising the Richland bypass on my way to the Hanford site, I sometimes listen to ten minutes more or less of Beck. I say more or less, because sometimes he acts like a two year old and makes no sense whatsoever.


One minute he is a rational, thoughtful man, espousing what is right with America and the next he is the biggest Chicken Little the nation has ever seen. If you believe the right wing pundits then the Democrats want to destroy the nation. By providing the poor and the hungry with food, shelter, and health care, we are conceivably ruining the nation formed by our ancestors.

Now little mention is made of the fact that many of our forefathers employed indentured servants and owned slaves. Health care was essentially a thing only the rich could afford and even then bleeding by leeches was not exactly cutting edge technology. The forefathers made little mention of real equality, the doctrine of all men are created equal pales when the aforementioned servitude is realized. They created a Republic and not a Democracy for the good of the rich, who could not stomach the thought of a poor uneducated person voting for something they could not understand.

Both of our political parties are mean spirited, corrupt, and blind. Neither party has the best interest of the people at heart. What they care about are the corporations, the lobbyists, and the rich who fill their coffers with money.

In the same vein, the talk show hosts are beholding to the same corporations and rich. Would Bill O’Reilly exist without the Fox Network? Would Rush Limbaugh survive if he were not beholding to the rich conservatives? Glen Beck touts the benefits of owning gold. How many Americans can invest the kind of money it takes to acquire gold? By hawking the merits of gold, Beck has pushed up the price, thereby insuring his holdings increase in value as do the stocks of the companies who support him.

Make no mistake, the politicians and talk show hosts only care about feathering their beds and lining their pockets. This is nothing new; it has been this way since at least the aftermath of the civil war. Our politicians and corporations have succumbed to greed and pilfered our manufacturing jobs, sending them to foreign countries and they will not come back. In my mind, they have committed treason for the worst of reasons. Treason for ideological beliefs is a reason I can understand, even if I do not believe it is the way to change. Treason for money is an affront to God. When the worship of money supersedes the needs of your countrymen and you prosper off the misery of the masses, then you are evil, through and through.

However, some would have us believe that the rich earned their money the good old-fashioned American way, by screwing the other guy and getting ahead and they should be worshiped. Punish every corporate CEO that moved a viable, functioning, profitable company, to another country, for their own financial gain. Strip them of their riches and deported to the countries that they seem to like better than us.

That will never happen though, the rich own the legal system, they own the politicians, they own the talk show hosts. The downfall of this nation that Glen Beck assures us is near, started a long time ago. It began with the notion that money, not God, not good, not honor, not family; money was the end all that has to be gained at all costs. Jesus had it right when he said it is easier for a rich man to go through the eye of a needle then it is for him to get to heaven. He did not say it was impossible, just very improbable.

I vow to write more often in my blog, at least once a week. For some odd reason I have forgone writing in the blog and devoted much of my free time to writing articles for suite101. While my insular Tahiti does not provide me with any income, it does provide me with a mental break from writing for profit.


Although if the profit be a mere twelve dollars then perhaps the writing for comfort is just as worthwhile as writing for a mere pittance. Therefore, in the interest of mental health I have decided to spend more time writing about whatever pops into my head.

A few nights ago saw the departure of a seesaw year in my life. I started 2009 in Florida, in a job I loved, with a second rate company, in a state that is too hot to live in. I ended 2010 in Washington, as a subcontractor, close to the mountains, and working with a bunch of people who I consider the best group I have ever worked with in thirty-three years of my adult working life. How was that for a nice run-on sentence?

The pitfalls of working two thousand miles away from my home are numerous. I have seen my wife twice in the last four months. I have not seen anyone else in my family in those four months. I miss my daughter more than words can say. This Christmas was the first time in her life, and mine, that I did not spend with her since she was born. I miss my extended family at church, I miss my neighborhood, and I miss my friends.

Money is the root of all evil, but there are no jobs at home, and I must work all these miles away from my beloved ones to pay for the mistakes I have made career wise. I believed the silver-tongued boss from my last job and in doing so; I lost thousands of dollars, and gave up a lucrative job. I sought riches and found despair. In the end, I used the skills I acquired in the Navy to find a job. I believe that I am a better person, at least experience wise, than I was before. I lost my job, but found myself in the process. I am not the great deceiver of a salesman that can persuade a client to part with their money for empty promises.

I hark back to the principles that I find hold the most value in my life. Gale Sayers put it best in his book aptly titled I Am Third. God is number one, my family in number two, and I am number three. If I must sacrifice for the comfort and welfare of my family then I will do so. I argue with my wife about God. I desire to pursue and closer relationship with the almighty. God has opened a door and I see the door open and I know what is on the other side, yet it is not time to enter. Why, maybe because it would mean the end of my current existence and I mean in the spiritual sense and not physical.

This year looks to be interesting as the old Chinese curse portends. I shall endeavor to find employment at home, I shall continue to work here at Hanford as long as the Obama money holds out, and I shall hone the talent that God gave me. Finally, I pray that the coming year brings me closer to my family and farther away from the pull of the almighty dollar.