"Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."

By The Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, Rector

From the Gospel of Matthew we heard these words: Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Today we observe the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi. Francis died on October 3, 1226 -- some 784 years ago. He is remembered principally for his gentleness, poverty, and devotion to all of God's creation. There are wonderful stories of him seeking alms for people even poorer than himself, restoring dilapidated churches, preaching to anyone who would listen, and even preaching to birds and animals. His love of animals inspired churches to bless animals on his feast day. It's a tradition we gladly continue, and each year marvel at the good behavior of so diverse a congregation of all creatures great and small. Perhaps they've heard of Francis too and pay homage to his memory as well!

One of the remarkable things about Francis is that he came from a wealthy family and ended up renouncing his place in that family and his inheritance so that he could embrace poverty and the spiritual riches he found in it. It was a big change from a young man who was known to enjoy himself lavishly and party with the all the other young nobles in grand style. Between war, personal illness and contact with the poor and lepers, a change overcame him, a conversion to a different way of life and a reordering of his values and priorities.

He started an order of monks equally devoted to prayer, poverty and good works. There were many other monastic orders in the 13th century, but they had become wealthy and Francis believed corrupted by that wealth. Poverty for him was a way of keeping the focus on God and not protecting their assets.

To say the least, he was controversial for the point of view of his family and the larger church who didn't appreciate his criticism or the popular support he received from common folk who wondered if the wealth had indeed corrupted the church. Though we know the date of his death, the date of his birth is believed to be approximately 1181, making him about 45 year old at the time of his death.

St. Francis let go or the very things that most people spend their lives trying to attain -- materially and in security. In letting go, he put his trust in God fully. I believe he is honored for that courage and faith. Most of us cannot do what he did. But perhaps there is a corner in us that admires the ability to let go, and secretly harbors things that we wish to let go of also. Through our smiles and often seemingly worry free lives, there is something we want to let go of -- fears, anger, suspicions, memories, insecurities; something. We want a spiritual freedom that Francis personifies, but letting go is not easy.

Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." When Francis ran up against his family and church officials who actually expelled him from the town, he was able to do so firmly in the knowledge that he was loved by God, even if it appeared that no one else did and that was enough for him. He felt so connect to that love that he was able to let go of everything else.

Part of the modern problem of letting go of the spiritual burdens we so often carry is that we're not as sure of the love of God that Francis was. Echoes of the images of a vengeful, angry, and punishing God make us really question that loving God. God may love others, but can God love me? That fundamental question cuts to the heart of so much spiritual angst. The answer is a thousand times yes. If we would just believe it.

I fell compelled to talk about the suicides that made the news this week. There were five young men -- teenagers -- who killed themselves this past week because they were gay and were harassed, bullied or humiliated to a degree that they couldn't handle it and felt their only way out was suicide.

Justin Aaberg, age 15 in Minnesota; Asher Brown, age 13 in Houston Texas; Billy Lucas, aged 15 in Indiana; Seth Walsh, aged 13 in California and Tyler Clementi aged 18 in New Brunswick, NJ, at Rutgers University. These deaths represent only a few of the epidemic of teen age suicide in this country alone. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among those aged 15 -- 24 years old behind accident and homicide. The primary reason cited is depression, and that is caused by a variety of circumstances such as divorce, rejection at school, lack of success at school, death of someone close to them, feelings of unworthiness or substance abuse.

The role of a gay identity in this equation is receiving a lot more attention, especially in light of these cases that get such national publicity. Suicides are heart breaking for the survivors and the helplessness of wondering what could have been done to prevent it is matched by the rage of appalling actions that prompted it on the part of bullies, uncaring or insensitive family members or the intolerance of houses of faith, most notably churches.

The simple message of Jesus' love is too often obscured by a horrific message of death and destruction in the guise of Christianity that is judgmental, cruel and simply wrong. I know what it's like to be a gay teenager terrified of discovery and rejection. Watching my every move as young person, what I say, how I say it, in case I might give myself away. Between friends and family, the stakes are very high for people so young and before the internet, there was no one to talk to and so like some of you I carried the burden alone for years and it twisted inside me not knowing how to find an escape.

The internet seems like a mixed blessing in that regard. It allows the youth to know that they are not alone, but also gives a false sense of safety and acceptance that is not universal. For all our progress, young people are still vulnerable to the viciousness of intolerant judgment and possible physical injury.

I often make humor of the fact that I don't like football. I don't like what it stands for or the acceptability of fatality and injury in the name of entertainment. Never the less I played the game in high school all four years and received honorable mention in the state's standings in my senior year. I did not like the game, but it was a place for me to hide because it didn't fit the image of a gay teen.

What made things easier for me was my church. I never felt condemned or judged there. Only love. Now, I didn't want to test it, by telling anyone there I was gay, but at least I didn't hear any anti gay rhetoric from the pulpit. Prayer became my solace and refuge and I took serious the quote we read today from Matthew. "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." Jesus did that for me, still does. I needed it then and I often need it still.

We have a responsibility to ourselves and our children and youth to counteract the message of hate and negativity that is so often heard from some segments of the Christian church. We have to assure everyone who will listen that God's love and acceptance is real, even when the culture's may not be. My heart aches for those young people who took their lives because they never really heard that message. I fear the wave of intolerance that seems to be growing in this country threatening freedom all the while promising it. Being gay is part of a wide spectrum of human sexuality that is a gift of God. It is not a sin and youth who are discovering their sexuality need to know that and love and accept themselves as God does.

The healing ministry here is very important. It's always been important to me because I've always felt a need for it in one way or another. It begins with prayer and knowledge of the love of God. It helps to hear that from a pulpit, it helps to hear it from the lips of a fellow parishioner and it helps to read it in the Bible. But once you hear it and accept it, you have to share it. You never know whose life you might save. Their spiritual life, their emotional life, or perhaps even their physical life.

Bullying is wrong and cannot be tolerated at any level, whether it's in the school yard or in the state house or the US Congress. Abuse cannot be tolerated whether in the church, or the home or the school.

Today I focused on the gay issue because of the recent news items. But even here it's only an example of the kinds of burdens that secrets can be. There are so many other burdens that people carry related to other parts of their lives. Addictions, affairs, debt, self esteem -- so many.

We have so much that needs to be healed and it's fear of judgment from others that keeps it inside us. Even fear in a deeper sense that God will condemn. I believe that's why Jesus said, the truth shall set you free. Some of our truths we embrace and share proudly. Others we hide in fear or shame. But the truth ultimately will set us free. But until that happens, the truths that we hold in fear are extremely burdensome. Begin telling your truth in prayer and eventually with another person. Seek healing, find it and offer healing in the love of God.

Francis learned that a long time ago and still teaches us in his word of love and praise to God who created us and loves us and through Jesus said, "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." Amen.

©2010 St. George's Episcopal Church, Maplewood, NJ

The World Is Changed

By The Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, Rector

Once upon a time, in a Kingdom far away there lived a princess. She was very beautiful and wherever she walked the birds would sing and bright flowers would open up. She liked to go for walks in the forest around the castle and call to the deer and rabbits to walk along with her. Then one day she strayed farther than usual into the woods and realized that no one was around. She replaced her princess dress with her party clothes and tore out of the woods in her royal Ferrari leaving the deer and rabbits in a cloud of dust on her way to the disco.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one.

I’d get this far before my very young nieces and nephews would scream in a chorus of "No!!!’s" That’s not how to tell a fairy tale, they’d complain through their giggles. I’d try again, but they didn’t want to hear about Cinderella in the Industrial Waste Dump either. (I didn’t get many invitations to baby sit. My sister had no sense of humor.)

Well, I’d ask, how do you tell a fairy tale? And I’d get the same old conventional Grimm Brother’s garden variety story. The real message was, "Don’t mess with our fairy tales. Either tell them right or don’t tell them at all."

That’s not unlike the message Jesus got when he told the parable or the Vineyard. He took a perfectly good old favorite story and put it on it’s head. The story of the Vineyard was an old favorite first told by the Prophet Isaiah centuries before. Everyone knew it and when Jesus began his version of it, like my nieces and nephews they no doubt began to relax with the familiar cadences until he changed it. In the fifth chapter of Isaiah the story starts, "Let me sing for my beloved a love song concerning his Vineyard." Now that’s how you start a story! It’s the Old Testament version of "Once upon a time." It continues, "My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill, He digged it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the mist of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it... and he looked to it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes." It too was a parable of Israel’s disobedience and unfaithfulness to God, but Jesus turned it on it’s head and gave it a Martin Scorsese ending with a lot of violence. In Jesus’ version the tenants in the Vineyard got greedy and wanted all the income for themselves and thought to kill the landlord’s son in order to get it.

The scribes and Pharisees listening to the story may not yet have understood the flow of it, but the generation later that read the Gospel certainly made the connections with the Christ figure of the son being killed and the greedy tenants being the religious leaders. The rejection of evil people and replacement of a new people in the vineyard must have given the average listener hope.

The addition of the verse about the rejected stone becoming the cornerstone added another dimension to the lesson. Though Jesus was rejected and crucified, he became the cornerstone after all for their beliefs and lives. Jesus really knew how to take a story and run with it.

But people still don’t like their stories being tampered with. The financial crisis that hit the world has tampered with an American story begun in the post world war II era. A story about an America strong and independent who could lead and not need any other country. This latest crisis has in fact shown that America is not isolated and invulnerable, but linked to a world economy that must be considered partners not servants or unequals.

There are important lessons to be learned about how to conduct business that include responsibility and accountability. Greed and fear have threatened the strength of our systems. The bedrock of integrity seems to have been rejected by too many in leadership roles leading up to the crisis. That same integrity and moral sense of responsibility for people in this country and around the world has got to become the chief cornerstone. The first lesson from Exodus recounts the giving of the ten commandments and connected with this Gospel lesson serve as a wonderful reminder of exactly what that cornerstone is made up of. The very decency of humanity as encapsulated in the ten commandments and lived in the life of Jesus and given through the commandments of his teaching provide us with the compass to lead us.

One of the comments I heard about this crisis was that it might have changed the world as we know it. There is no "might" about it. The world is changed. It is not how we’ve known it. Some look back in nostalgia to the 1950's as the glory days of America and wouldn’t it be wonderful to go back to that time. For some yes, but for others, no. That decade was a tale of two cities (or two countries) in which we hear one story at the exclusion of the other.

Regardless, we cannot look back at stories trying to recapture an illusion. We have to look toward the uncertainty of the future, not in fear, but in faith. We’re programmed to fear the unknown rather than embrace the opportunities that the future has to offer. If integrity replaces greed and faith replaces fear we’ll be on our way.

We have a lot of four legged guests today to remind us of a man we commemorate today. St. Francis certainly gave a model to the world of faithful compassion. His love of God and the created world is the subject of much spiritual writing and song. His personal story inspired countless others to live simpler lives and find their joy in God’s creation. It touches us six hundred years later because deep down, and maybe not so deep down we still hope and believe that a simpler love can restore the chaotic consequences of materialistic greed and even beyond that, ambitious power to dominate people, lands and markets.

The unconditional love experienced by pet owners from their beloved pets is further witness of the possibility of a perfect world. We need to slow down and take seriously the spiritual laws handed down to us by people we honor. Moses, Jesus, Francis, and many others are honored for what they have to share and teach us. These teachings can and have to be the cornerstone of our lives if we are to make it to another generation. The world has become too small to think only of ourselves and lives too precious to be thrown away or ground down by inhuman labor practices and abusive expectation.

Our story as a people has yet to be written. Old stories can keep us grounded and it’s important to know where we’ve come from but it’s a mistake to think we can ever go back again. Like the stories of the Israelites in the desert we’ve been reading these past weeks, there is no going back and even the uncertainties of the future cannot scare us into trying. We have to go forward and rather than fear it, we have to go bravely and lovingly into it.

It’s a beautiful vineyard that God has given us, full of life and possibility. We are tenants on this fragile earth and we can be good ones. We’ve seen what the bad tenants can do, let’s show them what the good tenants can do. Amen.

© 2008 St. George's Episcopal Church, Maplewood, NJ

Increase Our Faith

By The Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, Rector

In the Gospel passage we just read, the Apostles said to Jesus, "Increase our faith." This passage comes in the midst of a series of seemingly unrelated sayings, which happens from time to time in the Gospels. Jesus' response was that if they had faith the size of a mustard seed they could uproot a tree and replant it in the sea. That would be quite a trick! It's an interesting choice of seeds, however. In another parable, Jesus told them that the mustard seed is the smallest of seeds which grows into the largest of bushes or trees, depending on which Gospel lesson you read.

While the botanical accuracy of the parables is debatable, the point is entering into it as it was intended. If we had faith the size of a mustard seed, the smallest of the small -- we could accomplish the greatest of the greatest deeds. Faith is a truly amazing gift in each of us. How much do we have? How do we acquire more? Where will it take us and what will we do along the way? The Apostles had these questions answered in their lives in very powerful ways. We too, have these questions and to the degree we wrestle with them, we will find the answers for ourselves.

This lesson caps a series of difficult lessons. Again I find myself wanting to skip over the tough ones, but they stick out like sore thumbs and need attention. The lesson from Lamentations is heartbreaking. Often attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, this book of sadness chronicles the fall of the kingdom of Israel in narrative and poetic styles. Once a prospering and bustling kingdom, it boasted of thriving cities and grand buildings not the least of which was the temple in Jerusalem. They had a long heritage and legacy of great Kings like David and Solomon. But when they were conquered by the Babylonians all that was lost. Everything great about them was destroyed, their buildings, cities, their beloved temple, their way of life and even their people dragged away from their homeland and resettled hundreds of miles away in a foreign country where it was expected they would assimilate and over the generations forget there was even a country called Israel.

Jeremiah's laments were written and have lasted through the ages and express the grief of people in the midst of their suffering. The psalm complements this reading beautifully. It was believed to be written by someone who had been taken from Israel and resettled so far away. It begins with a melancholic tone and rises in anger to a pitch of rage that calls for the destruction of the babies of their enemies. It's a rage we are unaccustomed to and yet when we open our eyes and ears to comments today we can hear echoes of this shocking request. We hear it from the anguished lips of mothers and fathers who bury their children fallen in war on either side of any conflict. The rage captures not only the grief but confusion of the cruelty of others, the futility of war and the impotence of their own rage in the face of forces greater than they are. One of the more chilling moments in the new movie "The Kingdom" comes when people on both sides of the conflict in a terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia console the American and Saudi families of fallen soldiers by pledging to "kill them all." Our connection to this psalm is as deep as it is disturbing.

I've always been grateful that the Bible includes such raw emotion, even when it's negative. Simply because it's real and we can't gloss over it. We need to recognize it and confront it and with God's help overcome it. Like the Apostles who asked Jesus to increase their faith, ours too must increase to where we can take these foolish notions of war and greed and uproot them and throw them away.

In Paul's second letter to Timothy, he continues his mentoring of the young man and encourages his steadfast faith. He appeals to Timothy's spirit and reminds him of the spirit that Paul himself had bestowed upon him by the laying on of his hands -- an image from which we get our own ordination practices today. This spirit is not one of cowardice, but power, love and self discipline. These tools will see Timothy through his difficulties and these come through grace and grace is a gift of God. "Increase our faith." the apostles said. And God does, for them and us.

Today we celebrate the life of a beloved saint in the church's history -- St. Francis. We remember his kindness and poetry. His abiding faith and love of animals. We honor his sacrifices and devotion to the poor. He inspires us in our care for them, for the environment and for all of creation.

I became excited by the connection I saw in these readings today and the life of St. Francis. Believe me, it's not really a big stretch! In his early life, he was the son of a wealthy merchant and enjoyed the games and sport of spoiled rich young men of his time with out much concern for the future. When a local war broke out among neighboring kingdoms he thought it would be fun to go and do some fighting. His soft life did not prepare him for the brutality of the war he experienced. He sustained wounds that almost killed him and he was brought back to his parents' home where he recuperated.

Like the book of Lamentations, he saw his old life shattered by the realities of what he experienced. The false importance he placed on his earlier play cut him as deeply as his battle wounds and as he recovered he found a new purpose in living to help others and in that way find a richness in his life he had never known.

He was encouraged in his ministry, as Paul had encouraged Timothy and he found the power, love and self discipline to continue his work. And as his faith increased, he accomplished great deeds lasting into the present.

It is here that I want to find the good news today. There's not a person here, I suspect, who hasn't know some lament or rage for something in the past. There's not a person who hasn't felt somehow wronged by another and felt those horrible, deep feelings of sadness that come to victims and rage at the consequences they've had to pay for someone else's aggression, greed or thoughtlessness. It's how we're wired, it's natural and all too common.

What is not as easy, and yet ever so much more needed is the encouragement to move from being a victim to a victor. We can use the very hurts in our lives to make us stronger in our own spirits and more empathetic to others in their times of need. Like Paul to Timothy I have received encouragement in my own challenges, and I encourage you in yours to find the spirit of power, love and self discipline that God's grace provides us with. If we don't we stay in a hopeless spiral of rage and revenge. But we can move beyond that place to a stronger place where the increase of faith can bring out of us incredible accomplishments -- the most important perhaps will be to break the cycle of rage that plagues humanity. I've watched landscapers and observed that while it's sometimes difficult, replanting trees is fairly commonplace. What is truly a miracle to me is teaching a child how to get beyond anger to find healing and constructive response. It's a miracle and lesson we can only teach if we have found the way ourselves. And we can.

We live side by side with people from all over the world who live out their love or their rage in the actions of their lives. And the potential for this same love or rage lives side by side in each of us. We can choose how those raw emotions get acted out. We can make pledges to those around us to let the negative in our lives produce positive growth. And we can only succeed by grace and God's love.

Let us pray, Lord increase in us the faith to find the power, love and self discipline to conquer the anger and rage that is formed in us. Find in us the seeds of faith, whether small or large and bring them growth to accomplish in us that which we could never imagine. Inspire us with prophets and saints, encourage us with teachers and friends, be our guide and source of faith and allow us to be channels of your peace. Through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

© 2007 St. George's Episcopal Church, Maplewood, NJ

Blessing of the Animals

By The Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, Rector

The blessing of animals is one of the more beloved of our traditions here at St. Georges. What a menagerie of pets we have, living and stuffed, each named and precious in the sight and lives of children and adults. Blessing our pets and other animals is a tradition linked to the feast of St. Francis of Assisi because of the legend of that humble saint preaching to the birds. Other legends have him saving a village from the terror of a wolf simply by preaching to it and converting it through love.

Francis also wrote canticles of praise to God whose love extends even to the lowliest of animals. These canticles echo Jesus' words in the parable of Lilies of the Field and the Birds of the air. Jesus said God has numbered each and knows each one's name. And if God takes the care of these smallest of creatures, how much more will God care for us. Even today Francis is venerated and depicted in portraits and statues with a bird and often a deer in testimony to his love of animals. So we bless animals and especially those who fill our lives with love and who inspire love in us. Many of you know that I own a dog. He's a bad dog. Not mean, just spoiled. Whe he was a puppy I took him to obedience school and the teachers took one look at him and said "We can’t train him, he’s too cute." I was confused at first and we went through the classes, and by the way it was me they trained, not him. Training a dog requires consistency and firmness, neither of which are skills I possess.

I discovered what they meant when said he was too cute to train, since even to this day, ten years later when he does something bad like jumping where he shouldn't jump, taking something from the table or trash can that wasn't meant for him, or barks angrily for attention when I'm on the phone, I just look at him and laugh, because he's too cute.

He's as smart as he is bad. The wheels in that head are always turning and his goal is inevitably how to get food. But he is also observant and understands things. For example, when getting dressed in the morning he knows that if I put on blue jeans he's going for a walk and gets very excited. If I put on a suit or a shirt with a collar he knows I'm leaving, and he's not. Then when I leave home I call out to him to be good, an admonition that both of us know will go unobserved, but at least I feel better going through the motions. And just as each time I leave he slinks over to the couch and looks at me like I'm cruel and abandoning him, he's always there when I arrive home thrilled to see me and all is well again.

Animals teach us about love, unconditional love and acceptance -- even when a treat is not being offered. Cats love in a way I don't understand since I'm a dog owner, but they do love in their own mysterious way. Lizards and snakes, I'm not so sure about! I'll speak about dogs then, since I know them best. They delight in making friends on the street and care nothing for their appearance or demeanor, how they're dressed or any of the other indicators that humans will use to make judgements. The simplicity of their love is a wonder and can serve as a reminder that God loves us as unconditionally and fully, regardless of the what others might find objectionable. So we bless our animals who have brought so many blessings to us.

The disciples of Jesus reported to him that they spotted someone casting out demons in his name. They objected to this since that person was not part of their group, was not following Jesus and had no right to use Jesus' name. The disciples were looking for praise and were no doubt satisfied with themselves for doing the right thing.

But Jesus said not to stop him. If he was doing good, leave him alone. "Whoever is not against us is for us." he said. It's so easy to forget that anyone who does good in Jesus' name IS following him, regardless of their member or party affiliation.

Jesus cautions the disciples from putting stumbling blocks in the way of others, especially little ones. In harsh poetic language he said, "If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. If your hand offends you, cut it off. If your eye offends you pluck it out."

Sometimes language has to be extreme get our attention and make us listen. This cannot be a literal saying since the hand, foot and eye have no thoughts independent of the mind and soul. But in a deeper sense it means that if anything or anyone who is close to us causes us to betray our values or inspire us to do something we know to be wrong, we have to detatch, disengage, leave, and possibly denounce it or them.

We teach our children not to listen to their friends at school who might tempt them to steal, smoke, take drugs, have sex too early, or cheat. Stay away from them, we say, which is almost the same as cutting off a hand, foot or eye. And if we tell our children to do this, should we not do the same for ourselves? If there is something or someone in our lives, no matter how dear, who leads us down a path we know is wrong, mustn't we cut them off before we lose our esteem, our integrity, our freedom or possibly our lives? The older we get, the higher the stakes and the more important the decisions, and often the harder the resolve to detach, cut off, or cast into the fire of our decisive action that which leads us to stumble. The harsh poetry of the gospel mirrors the harshness of real choices.

Following Jesus isn't always along an easy road, in fact it's usually very difficult. We may nod at the wisdom of these words, and in our hearts know they are true, but how difficult it is to live into them. What are the stumbling blocks we face? What are the things or the people that are dear to us who put our safety or integrity in jepardy? What secrets do we harbor knowing they damage our souls and peace of spirit, what remedies do we imagine taking and yet don't find the courage or strength to take? We can begin to understand why the Gospel language is so strong -- it has to be. It figuratively cuts us, just as it admonishes us to do so linguistically.

Yesterday was the funeral of a very special woman in the life of the Episcopal Church, indeed in the life of the wider church as well. Many will know the name of Verna Dozier, who died Monday at the age of 88. Verna was an English teacher whose love of children and the Bible inspired her one year to accept the challenge to teach Sunday School in her Maryland Episcopal church several decades ago. Not content with the curriculum, she set about to teach the Bible in a way that enlivened it for her students and ultimately led to a career as a writer, speaker and advocate for lay minstry. Often invited to conventions and workshops, her gentle strength and conviction inspired generations, not only to read the Bible, but delve into it, love it, refresh themselves in it and proclaim its good news. He life was a gift to her students and her classroom extended around the world.

She was asked some years ago to preach at the consecration of Jane Dixon, who had been elected Suffragan Bishop of Washington DC. During her sermon she challenged Bishop Dixon to look deep within herself and find that which is in her that needs to be loved by everyone, and let it die. Like the Gospel lesson the sharpness of it stings at first before the healing quality takes hold. Standing up for something will earn the acclaim of some and the enmity of others. The desire to please all, waters down a message to a blandness and ineffectiveness that accomplishes nothing. And yet how many of us want to be loved, or at least liked by everyone to where the expression of displeasure makes us change and contort trying to please?

Ms. Dozier's challenge, like the Gospel's calls our discipleship to a deeper level. Each of us hears that call in our own way and must follow it in our own way. The ways of one will differ from the ways of another, and yet if we are true to the Gospel and ourselves we will bring healing to this broken world. Like the disciples some may try to stop us or we may try to stop others because they don't follow our way, nor we follow their way. But the proof is in the healing. Jesus saw that clearly, he tried to show the disciples and it's a lesson we can well observe and learn from. Healing begins with love. God's love for us and our love for others. As disciples of Jesus we find ways to live out that life of unconditional love in a complicated world where the answers for each of us are unique and not always clear, but worth looking for and living into. In the process we heal others and are healed ourselves from the soul pain and isolation that often plagues us. And if along the way we forget how to love, if the words and examples of the people around us fail or confuse us, we can look to our pets. They always love us no matter what. So smile, God loves you too, no matter what. Amen.

© 2006 St. George's Episcopal Church, Maplewood, NJ