Message From Stephen 8-12-22

My Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,

From one end of the Bible to the other, gardens symbolize sanctuaries of God's love for humanity. The whole story starts in the Garden of Eden and finishes in the garden of the resurrection. Along the way, vineyards and gardens nourish God's people, even in this Sunday's readings. Over and over in the Gospels, Jesus retreated from his disciples and the crowds who followed him to pray in the solace of gardens and wild places. This affinity for verdant life came naturally to desert dwellers who scraped out meager harvests from arid, rocky soil.

This weekend much of Christ Church is retreating to our own garden, The Bishop's Ranch, for our annual parish retreat. Our theme is: Come Rest in the Grace of the World, and Be Free. Like our spiritual forebears, we're seeking solace from the weariness of modern life by heading to a garden. Not all of us will be able to make the trip up to Sonoma County for the weekend, but we can all take the lesson from our faith about setting time aside to slow down, notice the beauty around us, and nourish our own souls. Whether you make time for a weekend away, or just a few minutes of in a local park, I encourage you to make space in your full life to find some stillness and beauty, and to give thanks to God for the blessings all around you.

May God bless you as you wander down your garden path.

Peace,
Stephen

Message From Stephen 8-7-22

My Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,

For the last few weeks I've been in the United Kingdom, playing tourist with my wife and kids, and attending my cousin's wedding. See the photograph of Holly and I dressed up in our English country finery! She looks like she's ready for Pentecost and I might be the Madhatter. For so many reasons, we had a delightful time: Holly and the kids and I reconnected and bonded; we spent a lot of time with my brother's family exploring London; not only was the wedding great fun with wild dancing, but we got to visit with family from across the world and meet my cousin's wife's wonderful people; we went to castles! and I got to walk and walk and walk. On my own I had two fabulous church experiences: For my birthday I took a solo audio-tour of Westminster Abbey, where I mostly admired the Gothic architecture and graves of everybody who's anybody in English history. I also snuck out for evensong at little Brecon Cathedral in Wales. A spectacular choir was visiting from Oxford and the service was sublime.

This trip reminded me just how much I love adventures: culturally, spiritually, socially and in wilderness. I had also forgotten just how much I enjoy dancing with my wife -we had so much fun together out on the floor! All of this travel reminded me just how much I appreciate my home and my people. Despite the time change, it's been wonderful to come home and find the rhythm of life at Christ Church, to walk my own neighborhood with my kids and dog, and to remember how much I love this community. I'm grateful for the chance to get away, but I feel even more blessed to come home to California and Christ Church. I look forward to sharing more stories with all of you. May God bless you.

Peace,

Stephen

Message From Stephen 7-22-22

Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,

Recently I read an article in the New York Times entitled, Is the World Really Falling Apart, or Does it Just Feel That Way? In the last few weeks I've written about my emotions that things do, indeed, feel unprecedented. But the Times article points out that war is less common than in previous eras, while life expectancy, literacy and standards of living are rising. Hunger, child mortality and extreme poverty have been steadily declining for a long time. Diseases that killed many of our ancestors are vanquished. "There is an argument," says Max Fisher, "albeit one that would only comfort an economist, that today’s crises are both rarer and less severe than those of even the recent past." But we don't notice generational historical trends because they impact developing nations more than ours, and because humans tend to compare themselves to their peers, not their forebears. Further, the Internet seems to magnify far-flung horrors in our psyches. But there is one metric that is steadily declining, which has been raising everybody's anxiety: Democracy. While democracy expanded in the second half of the 20th Century, it began to decline globally about twenty years ago, and in the United States since 2016.

To me, all of this information is a roundabout way of reminding myself that, yes, things feel rough right now. The feeling is very real. But that feeling falls within a bigger story. It's helpful for me to remember that there's always a bigger story than just my experience. That's basic to Christiantiy. We're part of a much bigger story than we can possibly see. We're characters in the great story of the exodus from bondage towards freedom that dominates the Old Testament. We have a role in Jesus's Gospel, helping make this Earth a place where God's will is done. Life can feel really hard, especially these days, but somehow, all of it unfolds within the wider story of God's love.

Stay safe out there, and may God bless you.

Peace,

Stephen

Message From Stephen 7-15-22

Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,

This week Christ Church reached a tentative agreement with Alameda Head Start to expand care for low-income babies. The availability of child care has reached a crisis in our community, so this will make a huge difference to some struggling families. This plan will require compromise on space use at the church, but it comes with the substantial benefit of additional rent. I'd be grateful for your feedback as we sketch out further details of the plan. Here is a summary:

• Head Start's new five-year lease will begin on September 1 at an annual rate of $59,940 (up $28,000 from last year), which will rise by four percent each year to $70,121 in 2026.

• Christ Church and Head Start will share the Guild Room. During daytime hours, Monday through Friday, Head Start will run an infant care program in that space. On evenings and weekends Christ Church will use the space. To make the Guild Room fully convertible, Head Start will keep supplies to a minimum. They'll store items on mobile credenzas that will be painted to match the trim of the room, which can be turned around every evening to serve as credenzas against the wall. Sleeping mats and furniture will be removed from the Guild Room each night.

• Head Start will also lease the restroom on the first floor of the Parish Hall during business hours. We're still negotiating whether or not it can be available to parishioners with mobility challenges.

• Head Start will lease Will Scott's current office for use as an office and meeting room. Will is going to move into the small chapel next to my office. For years the chapel has functioned as a storage room. Head Start will pay to completely refurbish the space for Will's use.

• Head Start's new program will not begin until January, 2023, or possibly later, because the licensing process is very slow.

This is a substantial change for Christ Church, and change is always hard for a church. We'll have to be more intentional about space we've been able to take for granted. Recently the vestry weighed the pros and cons of this arrangement and, after a lengthy conversation, concluded that the expanded service to low-income families and the increased rent outweighed the inconvenience, but we realize that not everyone will agree. If you have feedback, please feel free to speak to me or to any vestry member.

In other rental news, Christ Church will welcome new tenants in our rectory on August 1. They are two teachers and one tech worker, and they will pay $4,500 per month/$54,000 per year in rent.

Here's one further update that concerns property at Christ Church. The City of Alameda has let us know that it is unlikely to provide future funding for the Homeless Warming Shelter which we've hosted for the past few years. The City is diverting that money to transitional housing. Our Social Justice Ministry is meeting soon to discuss how we can best use our creativity, energy and volunteer base to continue supporting our marginalized neighbors. We're currently talking to the

City about funding to expand our shower program into the middle of the week.

In response to all of this, I'm going on vacation! On Sunday night my family and I fly to England for my cousin's wedding. Our Associate Rector, Will Scott, our Parish Administrator, Ashley Jackson and our Vestry, led by Janet Kornegay and Harrison Hamill, have these issues well in hand. Feel free to reach out to any of them about these developments until I return on August 3. Until then, stay safe and may God bless you.

Peace,
Stephen

Message From Stephen 7-10-22

Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,

This Sunday in church we'll hear the parable of The Good Samaritan, one of Jesus' most familiar stories. Jesus tells the tale in response to a lawyer who asked: "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus told the lawyer to love God and love his neighbor, and defined neighbor via the parable. But today I'm interested in the framing of the lawyer's question: "...what must I do to inherit eternal life?" It turns out that the word "eternal" is loaded. We 21st century Christians assume the lawyer was asking about heaven. But Judaism wasn't much interested in heaven as we tend to imagine it, and neither was Jesus. So why ask about it? At the risk of getting very nerdy with you all, eternal isn't a very good translation of the concept which the lawyer and Jesus were debating. The Greek word is aeon. It does not mean linear time stacked up from now until forever. It seems to mean a different quality of time altogether. Aeon means a time and place -a world or a realm or a kingdom- in which life is very different. Life is more full of life, love, kindness and fairness. In aeon, God's will is done, because earth becomes like heaven and heaven comes to earth. How do I inherit that? asked the lawyer. We sometimes think of heaven as a prize to be earned, but Jesus seems to say aeon is a world that we create by living as if it was already here. Thus, the parable of The Good Samaritan. The Samaritan man is already starting to live in aeon, because he treats people as God would treat them, with mercy and love and action. We can start living in aeon now by treating people as if they are participants in God's world, God's kingdom, God's love. To paraphrase Gandhi, we create aeon by being the change God wants in the world. This version of heaven doesn't have pearly gates, streets paved with gold and rivers flowing with wine, which may be a letdown for some of us. But it is more useful.

As we make our way deeper into the summertime, may you live a life here and now that draws you closer to God, and draws God closer to the world. May you live now as amidst God's will and love, inviting others to join you.

Peace,

Stephen

Message From Stephen 6-24-22

Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,

I had planned to write a cheery summertime message for my note today, but the headlines have clouded my heart. During the week we observed Juneteenth as a national holiday for the first time, the Supreme Court made it a lot easier to carry guns and stripped many women of agency over their own bodies. As I lay in bed I thought of Trevor Noah's comment from 2016: "I knew this country was racist. I just didn't know it was so sexist." I know that reasonable people can disagree, but reasonable people also talk with each other, rather than shouting through bullhorns at each other. Amidst this shouting we lose the chance to hear women's experiences. We miss the conversation about sexism, women's health, economic inequality, support for single moms, childcare, services for children, and on and on. We lack that conversational nuance with guns and race, too.

I have no advice nor credibility to fix this. My only thought is to turn to the ancient Jews, who were well-acquainted with heartbreak. In the Psalms they turned to God, not so much to ask for help as to express their grief: "How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long?" (Ps 13:1-2)

On this bright summer day, take care of yourself. Be gentle with the people you love. And if your heart is broken, lament, and let God know.

Peace,

Stephen

Message From Stephen 6-17-22

Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,

This coming Sunday is Juneteenth, which the Episcopal Church will recognize as a feast day for the first time this year, while the United States will recognize it as a Federal Holiday for the first time. Juneteenth commemorates the communication of freedom to some of the last people to hear it after the Civil War: enslaved people in Galveston, TX. More generally, Juneteenth became a sort of Black independence day and a celebration of Black culture in America generally. Juneteenth poses a challenge for the Episcopal Church because Episcopalians have historically been among the ruling class, including slave-owners. This holiday is, in part, a celebration of freedom from people like Episcopalians. Commemorating it as a feast of a church that is only six percent black is tricky, because we risk appropriating the traditions, music and stories of another culture. Amidst this dynamic, what is the goal of celebrating Juneteenth at a place like Christ Church Alameda? 

There's no single answer, but I think two good reasons for celebrating Juneteenth at a mostly white church are: 1) To recognize the struggles and culture of some of our siblings in God's family. 2) To cultivate some self-awareness among those of us who come from the dominant culture about our own role in the caste system of the United States. So while we may sing hymns that come from the Black church, we need to do it with some nuance, knowing those songs were written by people whose experience may be very different from our own.

Fortunately, we have some practice with this. Our Bible was not written for us. The Old Testament is the story of enslaved, endangered people seeking freedom. The New Testament is the story of God coming to people on the margins of an overlapping empire and religious institution. The Bible was not written for us. It was written to liberate the poor, mourners, the meek, the hungry, the merciful, peacemakers and the persecuted, as Jesus put it in the Beatitudes. By looking from the bottom up, the Bible challenges us to change our own world. By celebrating the experience of Black Folk, Juneteenth challenges us to consider our own role, and fraught history, in God's great drama of setting people free.

Peace,

Stephen

A Message From Stephen 6-10-22

Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,

I've been in rural Maryland all week at an Episcopal summer camp surrounded by cornfields and scrub forest. The Monocacy River, a lazy, brown stew, meanders around the camp. It's beautiful, and so different from what I'm accustomed to in California, especially the Biblical rainstorm that poured down on us last night.

As a trainer, they have me working from 8:30 AM to 9:00 PM every night. It's a lot of work, but it's really helpful to remember techniques that help churches function well. And it's interesting to hear the stories about life and the movement of the Spirit in other churches. My favorite part of these gatherings, though, is the sense I get of the wider Church. Participants have come here from eight dioceses and dozens of churches. They're all trying to figure out how to become more and more the communities God is calling them to be. This helps me to remember that we're not alone in the work we do at Christ Church.

I fly home late on Friday, just in time for my daughter Priscilla's big ballet show with Dance Arts Project. I'm in church with you all for Trinity Sunday, then I'm around for a couple of days before I head off to the twice-Covid-delayed McHale family reunion in Wisconsin. My schedule feels kind of bonkers these days, as so many of the things delayed by Covid land back on my schedule, but I'm plowing through.

I miss all of you good people! God bless you all.

Peace,

Stephen

A Message From Stephen 5-27-22

My Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,

On Tuesday I was at Disneyland, "the happiest place on earth," with my family. It was joyful and totally exhausting. As we waited in line to ride The Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, my favorite ride in the park, many of the adults began murmuring and showing their phone screens to each other. News of the mass-murder of school children in Texas had just rippled across the Internet. I was speechless. I felt ashamed for enjoying an amusement park while our nation wretched with grief yet again. I pulled my kids in close but said nothing to them because I just couldn't bear telling them about the shooting. Holly and I squeezed hands.

I prayed for the murder victims, of course, as did millions and millions of people. But the phrase "thoughts and prayers" which so many politicians utter after each shooting rings hollow. It reminds me of Michael Curry's statement which I quoted in my sermon last week: “You cannot love the God who you cannot see if you do not love your brother or sister who you can see.” Our prayers aren't enough if we don't make common-sense gun control a priority for the brother, sister and child we can see.

I want to do something about this, personally and as a church, but I admit I feel helpless. Psalm 79 rings in my ears: "How long will you be angry with your people's prayers? You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in full measure. You make us the scorn of our neighbors; our enemies laugh among themselves." Let's pray, let's write more letters, let's vote, let's weep.

Hang in there and God bless you.

-Stephen

A Message From Stephen 5-20-22

My Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,

This week I feel like the universe is subjecting me to the same discipline I used on my dog when he got excited as a puppy and tried to steal food from the counter. I'd squirt him with a mixture of water and vinegar. He would sneeze and blink and try to figure out what just happened. I feel this way because I've been excited about Covid easing, about more sunshine, and especially because of a family trip to Disneyland next week. These things are like food on the countertop for my inner dog. But the recent racially-motivated mass shooting in Buffalo, the leak from the Supreme Court, and ongoing horror in Ukraine have got me down, like a squirt of vinegar in the face. I realize this is a crude comparison, but it captures some of the sting and surprise I feel. So this week I've been thinking about where I can find hope in the face of tragedies before which I feel helpless. Where do we look for sweetness when the world seems so full of vinegar? I have two thoughts.

A little dramatically, I like the theology of Psalm 23: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me..." I find comfort and realism in the idea that when we walk through the shadowy places of life, God is present to us. Frustratingly, God doesn't fix the pain, but God does accompany us through it.

But that seems pretty theoretical, so the other place I turn is the community of people I have. Despite the fact that they can't fix the world either, I find comfort in talking about how I feel, lamenting together, and finding things to laugh about, despite the vinegar. Life is just better with people I love.

While Psalm 23 feels academic when I read it, I sense that I can find that elusive God in the people with whom I share this life. The people who listen to me, who call me on my stuff, they embody the God who walks along side me, "art with me," and comforts me.

Stay safe out there, keep the faith, lean in to hope, and take care of each other. And may God be with you.

Peace,
Stephen

A Message From Stephen 5-13-22

Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,

As we continue to emerge from the pandemic I've made two observations about Christ Church. First, we've come through Covid-19 in remarkably good shape. We've added ministries for the homeless, expanded pastoral care, learned how to use new technology, kept a huge number of people connected, and kept our finances stable. Christ Church is a resilient community with committed members. Throughout the pandemic we've worked hard at loving our neighbors, as Jesus challenges us to do. 

Second, everybody is tired! The pandemic clearly took a toll on all of us. We spent so much energy staying safe, taking care of each other, schooling our children, and managing bottomless anxiety, that our fuel tanks are pretty low. This means that many of the volunteer activities we took for granted before the pandemic aren't bouncing back on their own. When I talk with priest colleagues they tell me that they're having a harder time than they expected restarting things like coffee hour, Sunday school, greeters and that sort of thing. Christ Church is not immune to this dynamic. We'll need to rethink and rebuild some of our shared activities, and we'll need to let some go. 

This is an opportunity for discernment, to ask ourselves how we should best spend our limited volunteer energy to support our values and goals, and to drop some things that may no longer make sense. As we head towards summer things will naturally slow down for our church, giving us an opportunity to discern how we want to restart things in the autumn. So, over the next few months I charge you to think about what activities give you joy at church, and which feel like burdens. Together, we should plan to increase things that give us joy and put down some of the burdens. I'd love to hear your ideas about all of this, to hear what brings you joy at church. 

Hang in there and God bless you.

A Message From Stephen 5-6-22

My Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,

Did you know that it's still Easter? In much of Christianity, Easter lasts for fifty days, longer even than Lent. Our celebration of new life, of renewed creation, goes deep into springtime. Right now my backyard is a riot of overgrown green. It feels like Easter, run amok. I love this season, when life bursts from all of creation. Right now our church feels a bit like my yard. There's new life all around, but we should probably get the mower and some hedge clippers to give it more shape.

As we come out of the pandemic we're seeing lots of visitors to the church, and lots of desire for new ministry. There's new life around here. But, we're out of the habit of tending our garden. Many of the things we took for granted before the pandemic aren't falling into place on their own. This is understandable because the pandemic, and the ongoing newscycle, is pretty exhausting. We're tired, and sometimes volunteering at the church can feel like one more thing hanging over us. So, as we make our way further into spring, I'll be working with the leadership of our church to think about how we can do better at encouraging and nurturing volunteers, looking for places where we might prune back things we no longer need, and trying to bring more structure and predictability to our shared projects. We've thrived during the pandemic on adrenaline and hope, and now it's time to make things a little more sustainable. As we go forward this season, I'd love to hear from you about what's working at Christ Church and what can be changed to make it more sustainable.

May God bless you, and may you continue looking for Jesus in the garden this Easter season.

Peace,
Stephen

A Message From Stephen 4-22-22

My Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,

Happy Easter! Still! Did you know that Easter lasts for 50 days? Lent, the gloomy part, only gets 40. But Easter, the party part, gets 50. After 50 days of this I expect each of your fine people to have the various resurrection stories in the New Testament committed to memory. Actually, it would probably be more useful to give thanks to all the people who made Easter happen at Christ Church. Besides God, Jesus, Mary Magdalene and the disciples, we should thank the following good people:

• Christ Church's Altar Guild, who decorated the sanctuary so beautifully so many times.

• Our choir, who carried us through with beautiful music.

• The greeters and the readers and the Eucharistic ministers.

• Buildings and Grounds, who make our campus so beautiful.

• Acolytes and coffee hour people.

• Sunday school teachers, vestry and wardens.

• Our wonderful staff, including Ashley Jackson, Michael Moran and Will Scott.

I've heard it said that you can't be a Christian by yourself. Well you certainly can't be a church without a community. Together, we're making this whole thing work, helping shards of the Kingdom of God break into this world.

Thank you. God bless you. And Hallelujah!
Happy Easter.
-Stephen

A Message from Stephen 4-15-22

Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,

Happy Easter! May God bless you as together we say Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! We're celebrating the great mystery at the heart of Christianity: Death does not get the last word. Life persists! Hate does not define us. Love wins! At Easter we let go of what we may think as certainties, and embrace the mystery of God's presence. And we do it with music, stories, community, chocolate and even a bouncy house.

Happy Easter! May you feel God's love and presence, and may you pass it on to your brothers and sisters around you.

Peace,
Stephen

A Message From Stephen 4-8-22

Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,

Here we are on the threshold of Holy Week, the great drama that animates Christianity. There's celebration and hope (Palm Sunday), service, community, desertion, betrayal (Maundy Thursday), despair, pain, and death (Good Friday), the great story of God's very surprising faithfulness (the Vigil) and new life (Easter). During Holy Week we look for ourselves in all of these stories. We may find our experiences reflected in the Bible, but the cycle of life and death and rebirth is too great for any single interpretation. We also see the pattern in the seasons of the year, the cycle of a day, the arc of a romance, the trees and flowers of our yards and parks, the light on Monet's haystacks, and the curious mystery of our relationships with God. I invite you to gather together throughout this Holy Week at Christ Church to find your place in this great story. Come and share in God's great story.

Peace,
Stephen

Life and death and resurrection.
Autumn, Winter and Spring.
Day and night and morning.
Creation, demise, re-creation.
Birth, life, illness, death, mystery.
Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter.

A Message From Stephen 3-25-22

Dear Sisters and Brothers,
We residents of Northern California have a pretty good life. The housing is pricey, sure, but that's because so many people want to live here. People want to live here for access to the Pacific Ocean, the Sierras, the Oakland Hills, Wine Country, Big Sur and so many other beautiful places. The weather is amazing and pretty much anything will grow in our gardens. If I had to guess a location for the mythical Garden of Eden, I'd plot it somewhere on the border of Sonoma and Napa Counties. I feel drawn to church on Sundays to praise God for all of these blessings. But sometimes the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer go on and on about sin, suffering, evil and vulnerability. How can I reconcile the bucolic life around me with the fragility of life in the Bible?
My first thought is that if sin, suffering and evil seem irrelevant, you're pretty lucky. Rather than dismissing the concepts as old-fashioned, we should thank God that we haven't experienced them too often. So many of us here in the Bay Area are blessed. Rather than dismissing sin, suffering and evil, we might share our blessings with people who know these things more directly.
My second thought about sin, suffering and evil is that you don't actually have to look very hard to find them. Vladimir Putin may well be the face of evil on earth right now, commanding his armies into corporate sin, and provoking unbelievable suffering in Ukraine. Closer to home, there's rising racism, growing economic inequality, metastasizing homelessness, and just the general meanness in America right now. We may not think we bear responsibility for these things personally but we are enmeshed in a world that enables them.
During this season of Lent we have an invitation to face the challenging parts of human nature, to learn some humility from our individual and collective sins. During Lent 2022, we have a chance to ponder the words of John Bradford: "There, but for the Grace of God, go I."

Peace,
Stephen

A Message From Stephen 3-18-22

My Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,

Every Lent I marvel at the contrast between the lengthening days, warming weather, and budding greenery in my backyard, with the call to ashes and atonement during this season. I feel like Mother Nature herself is conspiring to upset my piety. To make Lent more meaningful I have to be intentional about my spiritual practices. As always, I continue to read the Bible on a daily basis -just a couple of chapters. Right now I'm deep into the Book of Job, which feels appropriate for this season. 

Adding to that, for Lent Holly and I are trying to be more intentional about how much alcohol we drink. Like so many people during the long nights of the pandemic, we fell into the habit of drinking more than we had before. Beer for me, something ridiculous and fruity for Holly. Now that we're into an easier chapter of the pandemic, the gym is open, Lent is upon us, and I can get out on my bicycle more, I'm trying to treat my body more respectfully. Neither Holly nor I are good at extremes, so we're simply trying to be moderate. That means drinking alcohol only on social occasions, rather than bored-while-stuck-at-home occasions. So, we've committed to only drinking alcohol when we're out at an event, or when we have folks over, and we're limiting ourselves to just two servings. We're doing this until Easter, but I hope the habit sticks beyond that. With some luck and prayer, we'll learn this Lent to treat our own bodies more compassionately, and work on being more present to each other and to our children. This doesn't equal Jesus' 40 days in the desert struggling with evil personified, but it's a step in the right direction in my relationship with my family and our God.

As we travel together through this Lenten valley of shadows, I hope that you too, find a way to challenge yourself spiritually. God bless you.

A Message From Stephen 3-11-22

My Dear Sisters and Brothers and Christ Church,

This weekend the McHale family will argue about Daylight Savings Time. On account of 19th century farm labor practices, we will lose one hour of sleep in the middle of the night, which means that Holly and I will wake up at the functional equivalent of 5:00 AM in order to tend to our early church services. While I'm not a morning person, I love Daylight Savings Time because it creates the illusion of longer days, with more light, more time to spend outside bicycling or walking or playing. It reminds me that there's more light in the Universe. As someone with a disposition towards depression, I crave light. I love light! I feel so much better when natural light is streaming through my window panes or reflecting off of my sunglasses. This is part of the reason I chose to make California my home, rather than Washington. I just feel so much better in sunlight. I used to think this sounded superficial, but I don't care anymore. As the light returns I feel more connected to the earth, to my moving body and to God. During these dark days of pandemic, war, high gas prices and the dustiness of Lent, I greet the lengthening light like a kiss from my mother, waking up her youngest child from a nap.

But Holly really resents the loss of sleep and uses it as an excuse to show up late to things for a week and a half.

As we make our way through Lent, may light penetrate the darkness of our collective hearts. May peace penetrate the horror of Ukraine, and may God's love shine on you like spring sunlight. God bless you all, my dear sisters and brothers.
-Stephen

A Message From Stephen 3-4-22

My Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,

Back in 2005, before Holly and I had been married a year, we celebrated Lent in an unusual way. We drove our little hatchback from Seattle to Moab, Utah, where we boarded a jetboat on the Colorado River. The boat whisked us downstream for about 100 miles, dropping us off on a shelf of riverbank called Spanish Bottom. We watched the boat motor away, leaving us in total solitude until it returned eight days later. From Spanish Bottom we hiked up a trail that zigzagged impossibly into the remotest part of Canyonlands National Park, called The Maze. The Maze has few trails, little water, vertical cliffs everywhere, a dazzling labyrinth of canyons, and remarkable native pictographs that date back centuries. The scenery was spectacular, though navigating by compass and map was difficult. Three times I had to pull out a rope and harness to secure us on sheer cliffs. This was not the most romantic trip for newlyweds. At times we were freezing cold, sunburned, thirsty, spooked, exhausted and delighted. This trip may have been the closest thing I've experienced to Jesus' 40 days wandering the wilderness, or Moses' 40 years in the wilderness. All alone in a truly rugged wilderness with no way to contact the outside world, Holly and I could only count on each other and on God's grace. We were reduced to our barest selves, carrying only what we needed to survive, carrying it only as far as our legs would go. I'd like to think that on this Lenten journey we gave up all the things that distracted us from each other and from the route we followed. Holly remembers the trip with a little more discomfort, by my gosh, I appreciated the way we clung to each other in that fierce place.

During this season of Lent, may you take (appropriate) risks as you let go of some of the things that burden you, and which separate you from caring for the people around you. May God bless you during this season in the wilderness.

Peace,
Stephen

A Message From Stephen 2-18-22

Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,

This Sunday the Gospel offers a difficult and timely challenge: "But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you." (Luke 6:27-28)

In the last few years our country has gotten meaner. We see this in unruly passengers on airplanes, increased pedestrian traffic accidents, fights over masks & vaccines, and our self-sorting into blue and red regions, among many things. Social media does not help. All this reflects growing tribalism. More and more we use language that is performative for the people on our side, rather than trying to reach out to people who see things differently. Tribalism and tribal virtue-signalling seems to be part of human nature. So, loving our enemies, doing good to the haters, blessing the cursers and praying for abusers runs contrary to our very nature. How can we do something so hard? I'm pretty sure we have to rely on God's grace. And that we have to let go of some of our identity. And that we need encouragement from each other to counter the culture in which we live. Is that enough? I don't know. So, please, reach out to me with your ideas about how we as a community can be kinder to each other in our day-to-day interactions, and how we can live more gracefully with people who see the world differently than we do.

God bless you.

-Stephen