Miscellanies, etc.
a health update, some self-reflection, an announcement, and a brief meditation on the gospel according to Hebrews
I met with my neurologist, Dr Dean, this morning, and he confirmed good news: my strokes and my migraines were caused by spikes in blood pressure, which is a very fixable problem, and one that can be resolved relatively easily, relatively quickly.
I expected him to say as much because in the month since he put me on the new meds, I’ve not had a single stroke-like episode or even so much as a headache. My insurance company had declined to cover my new migraine prescription, but thanks to Julie’s tenacity, the company (Qulipta) agreed to enroll me in a program to receive the pills for free. All to say, I’m hopeful that I’ve finally turned the corner.
But don’t think that means you can quit praying about my health. Thanks to how much better I have been feeling, I started playing basketball again, and (as I’m sure you can already guess) about a month or so ago I destroyed my back. The insurance declined to cover the MRI, so I waited to see if the issue, whatever it is, would clear up on its own. Thankfully, just this week, I’m starting to feel some relief, able to walk without too much pain or too severe a limp. I have to preach again this Sunday at Sanctuary, and I’m hoping that this time +Ed won’t have to help me up and down from the stage.
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This past Sunday, after Julie and I helped Zoë move in to her dorm at Syracuse (she’ll be attending Newhouse College), I spent the weekend with Bill+ and his family in Beacon. On Tuesday, he took me to the DIA gallery, and I was delighted to find out that they have some of Serra’s torqued ellipses.
Unbeknownst to me, Bill+ snapped a few pics,. and when he sent me these, I seized on this one, which shows me looking—well, let ‘s say absorbed.
Seeing myself all agape reminded me that once, when I was no more than 9 or 10, I heard the speaker at our Holiness youth camp refer to “the Green boy with his mouth hanging open.” Everyone laughed. It took a moment for me to register what he had said as a joke at my expense. I was embarrassed, of course, but I did not feel mocked, because I knew, somehow, that it was good for me to be so engrossed—even if it made me look more than a little silly. And this picture reminds me that I want to remain open to wonder, unguardedly impressionable. I want to grow down into my childlikeness.
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ANNOUNCEMENT: Starting next week, Wednesday, Sept 7th, our OTC study of the Book of Hebrews begins. I’ll be one of the weekly panelists (along with Fr John Behr, Cherith Nordling, Kenneth Tanner, Brad Jersak, and John MacMurray), and we’ll be meeting every Wednesday for 23 weeks. You can find out more about the conference and sign up here.
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Speaking of Hebrews, I’ve been musing on the text for last Sunday, Heb. 13.1-8, 15-16. It’s an astonishing passage, one which casts the hope of the Gospel in a new light. Here’s what I’m learning in these reflections:
The goal that God is and has made for us and for all things is the “mutual love” that is his own life; we are, in other words, meant for complete and unhindered equality with God and in God with one another.
That mutuality is always already alive in us because the life of God resides in and rests upon us. But we “let mutual love continue” as we show quick, generous hospitality, especially to strangers, living in deep solidarity with the suffering, remembering that we are one with them in their sorrows just as they are one with us in our joys, and remain devoted to one another with sincerity and affection.
But if we do not keep ourselves from “the love of money,” which arises from the fear of what we cannot control (that is, from the fear of death), we will frustrate, if never fully stymie, the flow of the Spirit that assures our mutuality, delight, and intimacy, hindering our own growth and wounding the spirits of others—especially those most dependent on our care: our children.
As we live freed from that fear, and the corrupted loves that it generates, we will find ourselves filled and overflowing with confidence, boasting with the already-glorified saints, that great cloud of witnesses: “The Lord, crucified and risen, is mine—and I am his. What can anyone do to me?"
The good news is that we don’t have to save ourselves from the love of control or the fear that gives birth to it. We are not individuals, remember; we belong to one another in Christ; and he has died in such a way that the power of the Enemy is forever broken, liberating us once-for-all from the slavery that forced us into the service of false gods (Heb. 2.14-15). Now, therefore, we can join him in that liberating work, freeing others in the freedom intended for them from before the foundations of the worlds.
We do that freeing work by offering the sacrifices that actually please God: the giving of thanks for all the good shared with us and the sharing of those goods with any and all who are in need.
In Hebrews, sacrifices and cities (including the temples at their center) are means of control. The faithful are called to be people of altars and tents, however, going to Christ “outside the camp” (Heb. 13.13), looking for a kingdom we could not make for ourselves (Heb. 11.10). In the end, then, we must refuse even to try to handle those things that are not ours to control, entrusting ourselves instead to the disgraced, suffering Lord who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Struck down, his blood does what neither Cain’s nor Abel’s sacrifices could do, establishing an eternal, unbreakable peace, and bringing all things into the grace from which and for which they first came into being.
I can’t wait for this class to start! Join us if you can.
Are you sure you have a health insurance policy? They don't seems to be covering anything.
DIA Beacon is definitely a place for wonder. I will continue to pray for your complete recovery as I know others are. And I'm grateful for the discussions and writings on the texts. They continue to educate me as to how to approach the study of scripture. Thank you.