My sermon today is taken from Philippians 4:4-7. It is a letter from jail to God’s people and it is saturated with joy. What helps me as I contemplate Paul’s advice to “rejoice always” is remembering that he writes his letter from prison, while awaiting trial and anticipating death.   It requires that we hold onto two realities at once: the reality of the world’s brokenness in one hand, and the reality of God’s love in the other.   Joy.  It is growing in the attachment love of God for us, shifting our awareness to Christ in prayerful silence and words, and living in the peace and guarding of God.   With God, there is always joy. You always belong. You are always loved. You are deeply accepted by God. God will never leave you.   The guarding of the God of Life, Be on you, The guarding of the loving Christ be, On you, The guarding of the Holy Spirit, Be on you, To aid and uphold you each day, And night of your life. The guarding of God, The guarding of Christ, The guarding of the Holy Spirit, Be upon you.   With you on the Joyful Journey,    Rob+    

This past All Saints Sunday I had the gift of preaching on the meaning and healing power of the Communion of Saints, an article of the Christian Faith in The Apostles Creed.    Yet, it is much more than a doctrine or theological commitment. It is a reality we can encounter, experience, and grow toward with greater confidence and assurance.    We have lost loved ones in recent weeks in this community. It is hard, it brings sorrow. I offer this simple podcast to friends and family.   The following words from the gifted Celtic Poet and Priest, John O’ Donohue  and have touched me deeply this All Saints remembrance. They express the reality of The Communion of Saints and ongoing fellowship with those who have died.   You can also hear me read them in the audio below.    John O’ Donohue, Beauty, The Invisible Embrace   “The dead are not distant or absent. They are alongside us. When we lose someone to death, we lose their physical image and presence, they slip out of visible form into invisible presence.   This alteration of form is the reason we cannot see the dead. But because we cannot see them does not mean that they are not there. Transfigured into eternal form, the dead cannot reverse the journey and even for one second re-enter their old form to linger with us a while. Though they cannot reappear, they continue to be near us and part of the healing of grief is the refinement of our hearts whereby we come to sense their loving nearness.   When we ourselves enter the eternal world and come to see our lives on earth in full view, we may be surprised at the immense assistance and support with which our departed loved ones have accompanied every moment of our lives. In their new, transfigured presence their compassion, understanding and love take on a divine depth, enabling them to become secret angels guiding and sheltering the unfolding of our destiny.”   With you on The Journey,   Fr. Rob+      

I’m after a deep, authentic, and healthy Christian spirituality and life. It is my deepest longing. Spiritual formation and growth are my hearts desire. It has been my true north in parish ministry and my earthly pilgrimage. It still is.    Over the years, pastors have become many other things: visionaries, entrepreneurs, community organizers, social activists, social media experts—not all bad.  Leadership today requires these kinds of skills.    Yet there is something  more ancient, timeless: curer animarum, “the Physician of Souls.”     This is the heart and core of my Ordination Vows, to be a spiritual guide, to awaken the souls desire and longing, and to induct others into the spiritual life. This is the central role of the life of a priest.  The Gospel story of the Rich Young Ruler, Mark 10: 17-31, reveals our deepest longing as human beings made in the Image of God.  My sermon approached it with three dynamics:    1. DAWNING AWARENESS SOMETHING IS MISSING: THE GIFT OF LONGING 2. THE SACRED GAZE OF GOD: JESUS LOOKED AT HIM AND LOVED HIM. 3. ULTIMATE CONCERN – FOLLOW ME   As C.S.Lewis wrote in his magisterial book, Mere Christianity: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”   May you come to accept your longing as divine urgency. May you know the urgency with which God longs for you.   – John O’Donohue   With you on the Journey,    Rob+ 

This is one of the most challenging of Jesus’s words to his apprentices on his way of crucified love. It is challenging because Jesus is insisting that his disciples take themselves seriously. Not literally, but really, really seriously. And he’s inviting you to take yourself seriously, too.   * To realize that what you say matters * To realize that what you do can have consequences greater even than what you might imagine. Our lives matter. Our words matter. As followers of the Way, we have unrealized power either to bless and build up, or to become a stumbling block, an impediment to others causing them to lose hope, faith, and trust in the goodness and reality God. It is then that we need to hear Jesus say to us: “It would be better for you…”     Sometimes we need the “shock therapy” of Jesus to awaken us to the Great Inversion of God’s dream for humanity, which he revealed as The Kingdom of God. Our words and actions truly matter.    With you on The Journey,    Rob+    

In 1984, my twin brother and fellow priest, Rick Lord, recorded a contemporary worship album titled: “Bread for The Wilderness – Wine for The Journey.” It is collection of worship songs, light rock in style, from that era in the early 1980’s. These songs attempt to capture an awakened joy in Christian faith during the early days of ministry. I was on staff with Rick at Church of the Apostles in Fairfax, Virginia. Rick invited me to be the drummer for the Album. It was a great time to use our musical gifts from our “Rock and Roll” days! We even formed a band called “The Priest Band!!!”  I mentioned this song in my homily today at Emmanuel Episcopal Church. The lyrics speak to our deepest hungers and longings, finding sufficiency in The Eucharist, in Jesus, who is The Bread of Life. Brings back wonderful memories of the spiritual renewal moving through the Church in those days. Love Ricks composing, vocals, and guitar work. Hope you enjoy it. You can also listen to the full album on Spotify. Look up artist Rick Lord. Its also available on his website for purchase: http://www.ricklord.org/ With you on The Journey,  Rob+

It is very important to remember and to always keep before your mind this fact: You are an unceasing spiritual being, created for an intimate and transforming friendship with the creative Community that is the Trinity. On the Sixth Sunday of Easter we hear these remarkable words of Jesus: “I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.”  John 15:15 What is God’s passionate desire? What does God deeply want? For us?    We are here because God wants us here. We have been desired into life. Our very existence embodies God’s passionate longing for our friendship.    Jesus calls us to follow him, to make our home in his love: “Just as the Father has loved me – there! – That is how much I have loved you.” Being a Christ follower is to be his cooperative friend.   I concluded my sermon by referring to a very moving Icon: The Icon of Christ and His Friend (see above).   Nowhere is this image of God drawing close to us more profoundly demonstrated than in this, the oldest known Coptic icon, written in the 8th century in Egypt and depicting Christ and Abba (Abbot) Mena (285-309 A.D.) currently hanging in the Louvre in Paris.   In the icon we notice the unusual position of Christ with his arm around ‘the friend’. This embrace can be seen as demonstrating the change of status we have with Christ. He no longer calls us servants but rather friends.    Christianity is more than forgiveness of sins. It is at its core, a Transforming Friendship.   Thanks to Trevor Hudson and William A. Barry, SJ for their writings on the subject of God’s desire for a transforming friendship, a friendship like no other!    With you on The Journey,    Rob+   – Ambient music by Rob Lord+    

It has been a mere seven days after we shouted together, “Alleluia!” and sang, “Christ the Lord is Risen Today!” John invites us to face our doubts, speak our fears, and yearn for more — more intimacy, more encounter, more experience of the living, breathing Christ.   In John’s Gospel we see Jesus having deep and personal encounters. It is Jesus who pursues them and finds them. While Jesus meets Mary Magdalene in her tears and sorrow, he meets Thomas in his doubt and skepticism.    What is doubt? Doubt is that moment in life when we put down everybody else’s answers and begin to find our own. We look at everything we’ve been told is holy, is true, and we test it.   Basic to everything in this story (John 20: 19-31) is the idea that Christian belief is really about knowing who and what to trust. Our society is suffering from a crisis of trust. What can I truly count on?    Jesus is no longer in the world as he had been and yet he is here and available to us, by the Spirit and his present risenness. And in today’s gospel we hear him saying to Thomas,  and to us, if you would see me, trust.   Although it seems Thomas was looking for empirical evidence, he needed more. It’s the encounter that finally makes the difference for Thomas, and for us. He does not need to touch. He only needed to see, to behold Jesus of the scars.   Jesus says, in effect: first trust, if you would encounter me.  Faith is daily courageous trust in who God is and what God has done for us in Jesus Christ!   With you on the Journey,    Rob+

It was a joy to be Celebrant and Preacher on Easter Day as the Interim Rector of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Orlando Florida. Here is my homily based on John 20:1-18.  May you always find the courage each day to say “yes” to the Present Risenness of Jesus, welcoming him each day with joy. Here is a prayer I say every morning from Celtic Daily Prayer. The Opening Door “Enter, Lord Christ— I have joy in Your coming. You have given me life; and I welcome Your coming. I turn now to face You, I lift up my eyes. Be blessing my face, Lord; be blessing my eyes. May all my eye looks on be blessed and be bright, my neighbors, my loved ones be blessed in Your sight. You have given me life and I welcome Your coming. Be with me, Lord, I have joy, I have joy.”  (From Northumbria Community, Celtic Daily Prayer) Blessed Easter my friends,  Rob+  

Are you ready? The readiness is all.  If there’s anything we should all be preparing for, it’s eternity. Forming our eternal lives begins now and lasts forever. This is your one and only life. Are you the person you want to be?   The parable of the Ten Bridesmaids teaches all would-be followers of Jesus the importance of vigilance, “living an attentive life” in an uncertain time and illustrates how one is able to “endure to the end. ‘ To live an attentive life, we need to pay careful attention to where our inner and outer selves disconnect and where they need to come together in a beautiful pattern that reflects Jesus, whose inner life with his Father and outer life of ministering to others were very much one.     Transforming friendship with Jesus now prepares us for being in God’s presence.    My Sermon outline:      1. THE INVITATION TO ENTER.  The attentive life is a way of daily entering into the availability of the kingdom of God.  It is seeking to be awake and alive to the Presence of God.   2. THE INVITATION TO REVEAL THE DEEPEST PART OF US. The attentive life is a way of revealing what is in our hearts.  Where is your treasure? That is where your heart will be.    To the foolish bridesmaids who had no oil for their lamps, Jesus said: “I never knew you.” No oil. That is a revelation of the heart. They had no loving knowledge or confidence of his love and goodness. A total misunderstanding in the attitude of the heart in the absence of the Bridegroom. They did not know him.   3. THE INVITATION TO PRACTICE STAYING AWAKE. The attentive life is a way of practice: paying attention to presence of God. This is the readiness that Jesus calls us to living an attentive life. “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” Matt 25:13   “Beyond living and dreaming there is something more important: waking up.” – Antonio Machdo.   May you find encouragement from the God whose steadfast love will carry you, now and evermore.  With you on the Journey,   Rob+    

I am deeply grateful for the invitation to preach and celebrate the Holy Eucharist today at St. James Episcopal Church, in Ormond Beach, Florida. Fr. Roy Allison, their wonderful Rector gave me this gift and opportunity to take his Sunday Service for him.  It was a true joy to share my heart within the beautiful sanctuary of St. James. It is a real treasure in the Diocese of Central Florida. Even with a smaller congregation during this Covid 19 time of life, the people were gracious, welcoming, and grateful to have me with them.  My sermon focused on the invitations of Philippians  2: 1-13. The Apostle Paul calls us to:  “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.”   The most important thing about us is our minds and what they are focused on. We are called to what I call, “The Christ Focus.” I have come to see that the central issue of the gospel of Jesus involves the gracious opportunity to become a new kind of person and to enter into a new way of life. Available to anyone who responds wholeheartedly to the invitations of Jesus, his gospel embraces both the forgiveness of our sins and the recovery of abundant life, another kind of life. The Christ Focus is the invitation to focus on the way of humility and serving the good of others. It is also the invitation to participate  and live into our salvation which is more than the forgiveness of our sins. Salvation is entering into another kind of life, life in the Kingdom of God.  I hope this brings you joy.  With you on the Journey, Rob+