Skip to main content

Joy Comes in the Morning!

Last night, Saturday to Sunday, November 19, 2017 was a stormy night. The trees were crashing in the wind; the leaves blown into sopping wet drifts speckled with litter; and any light was overwhelmed by rain so that the darkness penetrated the soul. Yet, we know that joy cometh in the morning.
As the light began to penetrate the darkness and seemingly push the storm to the unsuspecting east, I could feel the warm and wet tropical air and was reminded immediately of Psalm 30.
5For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. Psalm 30:5
The United States is the most affluent nation in the world and while we may find ourselves behind the many of the developed nations in individual statistics, such as education systems, where we are 14th, behind Poland, Finland, and Ireland.  We lead all the rest in defense spending, which is not a statistic that I am particularly proud of; we also lead in numbers of nuclear weapons, which is equally disturbing. We have more homelessness than all but 9 countries, and more than any other developed country, again, I’m not proud. I do not know where we fit in the list of most folks addicted to drugs, but we have somewhere north of 19 million addicts in the United States, but they are dying so rapidly, that it makes my head spin. In Puerto Rico, US Citizens are unable to hold their heads up because of the weight of the storms is still overpowering us.
This morning, it was easy for me to see that the storm had passed: the winds had died down, the streets had been washed clean, and people were beginning to move about in southeastern Pennsylvania; it was warm, and the storms were gone. Oh, that it was so easy to wash away the dual scourges of lack of education and addiction; oh, that the weeping that lingered at night could be so easily washed away with the coming sunlight. With wealth comes tremendous responsibility; a responsibility to put the God given talents to work to make the earth a better place for all humankind so that we can make sure that joy comes in the morning.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Jon's Smoked Pork Recipe

This is not a carefully guarded secret. I use a 30" upright electric smoker set to 210 degrees Fahrenheit and hickory for pork. The flavors blend incredibly well. Hickory is also a flavor from the Ozark Mountains that I so love. Go to favorite meat market and buy as many pork shoulder as will fit with space on your grills and you need to serve, considering space for the smoke to circulate. Preheat smoker, again to 210. Allow Pork to achieve room temperature. Remove skin. Coat in mustard, a light dusting of ground cumin, and hot sauce. Place the pork in the smoker, adding the hickory shavings. Leave alone. I mean really, leave it alone, and wait 9-12 hours as the smoke blends with the flavors of the gradually heating pork. I check the smoker temperature several times, but I do not open the smoker. I replenish hickory shavings three times during the first 2 hours, but then not until I am pretty close to taking the pork off. When I take the pork off, I put it in t...

On Gun Violence Awareness Sunday

Episcopal Churches here and there will declare Sunday an awareness day to educate attendees on gun violence. The clergy will sport new or died old orange vestments. No one actually looks good in orange so it won't be a fashionable affair. St. Mark's Church, Frankford is in the lowest portion of what might be called the lower northeast; we butt up against North Philadelphia and Kensington and the formerly sleepy little neighborhood, Junieta Park. Frankford has several nice quiet neighborhoods, but in the area that I serve most often that is not the case. Our neighborhood is anything but quiet. If the el is not rushing by, there is a hoopty barreling down Frankford Avenue, with occasionally incomprehensible, but generally fully articulated, music blaring. Why we are not wearing orange at St. Mark’s Church, Frankford on Gun Violence Awareness Sunday. There are several reasons for this and the first and maybe most obvious is that we, as a congregation, are intimately aware of gun...

And Christ Will Come Again..........

Advent is a season of preparation; we prepare for the Second Coming of Christ. In this third week of Advent, I think it would be beneficial for all of us to think about the truth that Jesus was born; he performed miracles; modeled what it was to see God in our midst; taught with true understanding; threatened authority; served all of humankind; gave up his life for many; and then ascended to sit at the right hand of God. He will, we know, come again. But how will he come? Will he come as he came? Will he be born of a marginalized young woman in a way that astounds all?  Will he be raised on the periphery of society, steeped in spiritual tradition, and yet, clearly not in the inner circle of respectability?  At Bethlehem there is a large Cathedral over the place where Jesus was remembered to have been born.  It seems improbable that the Second Coming of Christ will be in a Cathedral or the seat of religious hierarchy.  It seems much more likely that the Christ, at...