Grace Cathedral

Grace Cathedral

Genesis 28:10-17; Psalm 103; Revelation 12:7-12; John 1:47-51

On his anxious flight into exile, Jacob’s dream of angels moving up and down on a ladder from earth to heaven reassures him of his ancestral covenant with God. In John’s Gospel, as Nathanael presses ahead in his spiritual search, he encounters Jesus himself, who tells him he will see something entirely new: angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.

In both cases, the medium is the realm of angels. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote “there is neither a this-world or an other-world, but only the great unity, in which the angels, those beings who surpass us, are at home.” We might think of angelic messages as manifesting in our intuition — especially in its deepest sense, the intuition of God’s presence in us — inspiring us to communion, ministry and stewardship. Nathanael accepts Jesus as the Son of God, not because Jesus is demonstrating anything conventionally Messianic, but because Nathanael’s intuition has recognized him.  

The good news Jesus brings is that all of us, collectively, as the Body of Christ, are not only recipients of the angels’ messages of grace — but, in and through him — we are their bearers and sustainers and transmitters as well. The great unity that is life in Christ is where we also are at home..

This reflection was written by Peter Grace, a congregation member for the past eight years and a 2014 graduate of the Education for Ministry program.  He is a facilitator of the Thursday morning Bible study group and a member of our healing prayer ministry.

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27; Psalm 130; 2 Corinthians 8:7-15; Mark 5:21-43


Today’s readings give us vivid images of the God who casts down the mighty from their thrones and lifts up the lowly. As the earthly glory of Saul and Jonathan is brought down, so are two anonymous and humble women lifted up and made whole in body and spirit.  

I am always especially drawn to the woman suffering from twelve years of hemorrhages. The beauty of this story, to me, is that the answer to her prayer comes from Jesus without volition. No words are spoken; the woman feels the effect before Jesus does. The generous divine love he incarnates meets and answers the woman’s need, but his mind is not aware of it until he feels the energy flowing out of him. He says to the woman, “Daughter, your faith has made you well.”

This woman, with her weariness and afflictions and longing for relief, exists inside all of us. But also inside of us there dwells, planted as a seed at our baptism, the healing power of God’s love. As Paul reminds the Corinthians, our love in Christ is made manifest in how we emulate him in our generosity. We have no idea what the ultimate effect of any of our actions may be, but we ask God to help us nurture that holy seed of spontaneous love we carry within us. Let Christ’s truth live in us through every act of unpremeditated kindness. 

This reflection was written by Peter Grace, a congregation member for the past eight years and a 2014 graduate of the Education for Ministry program. He is a facilitator of the Thursday morning Bible study group and a member of our healing prayer ministry.

Isaiah 45:1-7; Psalm 96:1-9; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10; Matthew 22:15-22

Today’s readings encompass two very different emperors: Cyrus, God’s instrument in liberating and repatriating the exiled Jews, and Tiberius, whose image is inscribed on the coinage of the occupied and brutally taxed Jerusalem six centuries later, when the Pharisees try to entrap Jesus.

In Matthew’s story, Jesus grants the emperor his denarius, just as he tells us to give to God what is God’s. But while the former is concrete — the return of the coin to the one whose image it bears — what exactly does the latter involve? What does God say through Isaiah to Cyrus, whom he calls his anointed?

He says, “I will give you the treasures of darkness and riches hidden in secret places, so that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.” We have all received those treasures and secret riches; we receive them every day, with every breath, from every direction, from the God who calls us by our name and anoints us as his own in baptism. And what he calls us to do with those riches is what he called Cyrus to do with his imperial power: use it in God’s name to benefit God’s people, “so that they may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is no one besides me.”

Let us be imitators of the Thessalonians who “received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit,” and in that joy, may we continually find new ways to offer ourselves, our treasures and our secret riches joyfully to the one who forms light and creates darkness, in whose image and likeness we ourselves are made.

This reflection is written by Peter Grace, a member of the cathedral congregation since 2010 and a 2014 graduate of the Education for Ministry program. He is currently a co-facilitator of the Thursday Bible study and 4:30 Sunday book study group.

At last week’s Interfaith Gathering for Peace, the Rev. Mary Carter Greene, congregants and visitors wrote messages of peace on rocks and spread them throughout the city.

Jeremiah 15:15-21; Psalm 26:1-8; Romans 12:9-21; Matthew 16:21-28

Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart. So does the prophet and poet Jeremiah sing of his calling.

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus tells his disciples that if they want to become his followers, they must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow him. On the surface these words do not seem to promise joy and delight of heart, then or now. But what does denying ourselves and taking up our cross actually mean? What exactly is our cross?

Bearing our cross is not necessarily the hard and dramatic ascent of Calvary; most often it happens in the ordinary details of our lives: we pick up and carry the cross whenever we put aside our own selfish impulses and choose instead to share God’s love with others. We cannot follow Jesus until we turn the swords of hate and greed and fear into the plowshares of kindness and blessing.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul tells us exactly how to cultivate the spirit of self-denial that Jesus requires of us: love one another … persevere in prayer … extend hospitality … live in harmony … bless those who persecute you … overcome evil with good. Reread the passage during the week, and see where in your life you can pause, stop and pick up your cross.

Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart. 

This reflection was written by Peter Grace, a member of the cathedral congregation since 2010 and a 2014 graduate of Education for Ministry. He is a co-facilitator of the Thursday Bible study and 4:30 Sunday book study group.

 

Zechariah 9:9-12; Psalm 145:8-15; Romans 7:15-25a; Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Thinking of God, we are faced with the difficulty of trying to understand timeless reality with the language of time. This is a paradox in itself, comprehensible only in the language of paradox, which is the language that binds together our readings for today.

With the children in the marketplace in Matthew’s gospel, we lament that God does not seem to be saying what we want to hear. We know what Paul means when he agonizes over his mind pointing him in one direction while his body walks the other way. And the way out? Zechariah’s conquering God is humble and gentle, prefiguring Jesus, a welcoming Savior powerful enough to give us rest yet gentle and humble in heart, who gives us the yoke of ease and the burden of lightness.

Paradox upon paradox — even love, our greatest metaphor for God. All the saints and sages of our tradition would agree with Violetta in Verdi’s “La Traviata” when she sings of love as croce e delizia: cross and delight. And Christ-denying Peter is the gatekeeper of Paradise.

May we have the grace and lightness of heart to take these seeming contradictions for what they are, guideposts rather than stumbling blocks. Where are your stumbling blocks? Try turning them into guideposts, and let the easy yoke of Christ lighten your load.

Peter Grace is a member of the cathedral congregation since 2010 and a 2014 graduate of the Education for Ministry program. He is currently a co-facilitator of the Thursday Bible study and Sunday 4:30 p.m. book study groups.

The featured image is of St. Paul’s Church, San Rafael from “Looking Forward/Looking Back: Thirty Churches of the Episcopal Diocese of California” by Bill Van Loo.