What’s New? — St. Anne’s in-the-Fields Episcopal Church

Lent 1 (2/21/21) – Garrett Yates

Lent 1 (2/21/21) – Garrett Yates

““At once the Spirit drove him into the wilderness.”

I wonder: does this Holy Spirit drive us out into the wilderness? That might seem like a difficult question to consider, and anytime I come across a verse that is difficult in the English I take a peek at the Greek just to check if it can clarify or contextualize anything for me. The Greek, this morning, actually makes it worse. The word in Greek is ekballo– literally to throw something out; eject; cast out. It is the word that is used when Jesus exorcises demons. He throws them out. Well, before he can do any throwing out, he must first be thrown out.

Does the Spirit throw us out into the wilderness? It is a difficult question, not least because of how much our society can romanticize the wilderness. We give the wilderness names. We create bookshops on its edges. And we offer guided tours along paths. We load up with insect repellant, sunblock, water, and we go for hikes to get in touch with nature. And yet in every wilderness encounter, the most essential thing is to not forget your car keys. The wilderness is exciting as long as you can leave. And we mostly can. It’s hard to imagine the Holy Spirit driving us out into the wilderness; in fact, it’s just the reverse. We often drive ourselves out there.”

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Ash Wednesday (2/17/21) – Kyra Cook

Ash Wednesday (2/17/21) – Kyra Cook

“I come to this season deep in my feelings. My appetite for a weekly examination and contemplation of my wretchedness is nonexistent. Frankly, I have significantly less appetite for watching otherwise comfortable people perform their wretchedness out loud because it’s the fashion of the season. The energy of the next few weeks holds so little appeal, I probably shouldn’t be the person in the pulpit today.

Today is the beginning of Lent and that means we’ve come back ‘round, full circle. A year of living in a transitioning world. We started Lent together as a congregation and ended it on Zoom. We went through the rest of the church calendar sometimes together and most of the time apart, and now here we are again, right back where we started: it’s Lent, this is Zoom, COVID is still here, the world is still broken and still wretched.”

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Last Epiphany (2/14/21) – Garrett Yates

Last Epiphany (2/14/21) – Garrett Yates

““What world are you living in? Have you ever just wanted to blurt that question out to someone? Say when someone is just blind to those around them, say when you are watching the news – maybe even this past week? What world are you living in? I wanted to say it yesterday – I was in line at Donelan’s and the lady in front of me was on her cell phone, talking pretty loud, and even worse she was laughing loudly, like really loud…. “ma’am, we don’t laugh in public; not at a grocery store; it’s COVID. What world are you living in?”

I think the Transfiguration is that moment for Peter, when he and James and John have to reckon with the world they are living in.”

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Epiphany 5 (2/7/21) – Garrett Yates

Epiphany 5 (2/7/21) – Garrett Yates

“Imagine a world where every room you step into everyone there knows your name. You show up, and people you’ve never met greet you, as if events couldn’t get started until you got there: “Hey Al,” “Hey Carol,” how’s it going? It’s a strange phenomenon, to be recognized so immediately, so personally – every room, be it 4 people, or 40. Your stock has gone public. Everyone has seen a picture of you; knows your name. Of course, I’m not talking about you becoming rich and famous, I’m simply referring to life in Zoom meeting rooms.

It’s weird to show up in a meeting for the first time, and before you’ve introduced yourself, everyone already knows you – your name is out there. “Oh look, okay Garrett’s here. Let’s get started.” “Yeah, hi everyone, I’m Garrett.” Here we are, all having tiny tastes of stardom, every day.

‘Do you not know? Have you not heard? It is the LORD who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name.’”

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Epiphany 4 (1/31/21) – Garrett Yates

Epiphany 4 (1/31/21) – Garrett Yates

““He taught them as one having authority…”

A friend’s father is a university professor who begins each term in a special way. On the first day of school he wears 2 buttons one on each lapel of his blazer. The button on the left says, “I’m in charge.” The button on the right, “Always question authority.” I love the image, and I would have loved to have Professor Barker. What a healthy sense of authority. Well, I’m not sure Jesus had two buttons on his tunic the morning he stepped into the synagogue, but the people there were impressed by his authority. What we know is that his authority was unlike the scribes; what we are left to wonder and explore is what his authority was actually like.”

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Epiphany 3 (1/24/21) -- Dr. David Urion

“For the present form of this world is passing away.”

We are now into the eleventh month of COVID-19 lockdown, and while there are some early signs of better days in a distant future, we know that this present way of being, this distanced Eucharist, this not sitting together and worshiping together in the same space, this separation from the ones we love and long to hold and embrace, these shuttered stores and postponed events, all this will continue on for the foreseeable future. In Fauci I trust, and he has told us that until such time as three quarters or more of the citizens of the Republic are vaccinated, accept being vaccinated, we cannot expect an end to this way of being. By the time I am next in this pulpit, after today, we can fully expect that more than a half million of our fellow citizens will have died as a result of this pandemic.

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Epiphany 2 – Garrett Yates (1/17/20)

Epiphany 2 – Garrett Yates (1/17/20)

“Speak, Lord, your servant is listening. May I speak in the name of One God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Imagine staring down at a city on a clear day from atop a mountain, the highest point within 60 miles. You can see far into the horizon but only hear the sounds nearby, perhaps a chirping bird or a gust of wind. In the deep sea, the rules are reversed. Standing on a ridge several thousand feet underwater, peering out to the ocean’s abyssal plain, you would see almost nothing. But if you listened through a hydrophone, you could detect sounds from hundreds of miles away: echolocating whales, chattering fish, even the occasional energy pulse from seismic surveys for oil and gas.

I read an article back in November in the Times called, “Could listening to the deep sea help save it?” (The subtitle was what really hooked me: “in the abyss everyone can hear you scream.”)”

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Epiphany 1 – Garrett Yates (1/10/20)

Epiphany 1 – Garrett Yates (1/10/20)

“It was a strange and disorienting week. One full of grief, and bewilderment, and anger, and fear….legitimate fear. The capital was stormed; lives were lost; there was mayhem and sedition, and the leader of our country was worse than silent. We thought we were leaving the craziness behind in 2020, but the first days of 2021 haven’t been very sane.

One of the beauties of gathering each week, in God’s company, is that our weeks are always brought into another context. Today, with our gospel reading, we are brought to the sandy banks of the Jordan River. Mark makes it a point to say that there were a lot of people there: “And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him.” It’s Mark’s way of saying, everyone was there. Everyone you know, your whole neighborhood, your whole street….they are there. We are there, too.”

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Christmas 2 – Garrett Yates (1/3/21)

Christmas 2 – Garrett Yates (1/3/21)

“Startle us, O God, with your truth and open our hearts and our minds to your wondrous love. Speak your word to us; silence in us any voice but your own and be with us now as we turn our attention, our minds and our hearts, to you, in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Today is the Feast of the Holy Name. And thinking back on my childhood, one thing I never doubted was that the Lord’s name was holy. Worse than saying “crud,” or “crap”, or calling my sister a “jerk,” worse than all these was saying the name of Jesus in a fit of emotion. Because I knew it was off limits, I’d say it, and then when I’d get in trouble, I’d become my own defense attorney and argue that I said “Geezes,” or “Geez it.” In my childhood, we observed the feast of the Holy Name every day.”

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Christmas 1 – CJ Coppersmith (12/27/20)

Christmas 1 – CJ Coppersmith (12/27/20)

“Did you ever try to describe what God is like? Or to describe what the life of Jesus meant? How do you do that? Do you state some facts? Do you state history? Do you make an argument? Or do what John did, and simply sing? That is how the Gospel of John opens, with an ancient hymn. I once heard the great Presbyterian preacher Robert Cleveland Holland, at whose church I was a singer, compare this sort of scripture to Robert Frost’s poem that describes the fog coming in on little cat feet. That description says nothing about fog coming from dew points and relative humidity, but everything about what the experience of fog is like. The poetry of this gospel’s hymn is emotional more than definitional, but it conveys that humanity and eternity have encountered something immense. That feeling is like stopping to look at a star. it is a “Will you look at that!” moment in scripture.”

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Christmas Eve – Garrett Yates (12/24/20)

Christmas Eve – Garrett Yates (12/24/20)

Startle us, O God, with your truth, that we may behold, adore, and be drawn into mystery of the Word Made Flesh.

You may have noticed that the Christmas story in Matthew and Luke feels a lot different than the Christmas story in John. Earlier this afternoon we enjoyed the annual and much beloved Christmas pageant – 20 or so of our children took their role as magi and shepherds, angels and the holy family, enacting the story as told by Matthew and Luke. This passage from Johns gospel, on the other hand, is almost impossible visualize, much less for our little ones to act out for us. Could you imagine a Christmas pageant with John 1 as the script? Where are we in this story?

As I have been reflecting on this day I can’t help but think back to Christmas morning when I was a little guy.

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Advent 3 – Garrett Yates (12/13/20)

Advent 3 – Garrett Yates (12/13/20)

“Among you stands one you do not know.

Those were John the Baptist’s words as recorded in John 1:26. Of course, at that time it was literally true that a quiet carpenter’s son from the backwaters of the Roman Empire was rubbing shoulders with lots of people—including the crowds that jostled together at the banks of the Jordan River—but no one had a clue that this unimpressive-looking man was The One, The Word of God, The Logos by whom all things were created, and now made flesh. Sometimes I think that Jesus had a big halo, or a big spotlight on him, or a green arrow pointing down saying “Here is the Messiah.” There wasn’t.”

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Advent 2 – Garrett Yates (12/6/20)

Advent 2 – Garrett Yates (12/6/20)

“The sermon for this morning emerged while I was sitting in a waiting room. And the inspiration for the idea came from the thought: waiting rooms are kind of awkward, and there isn’t a whole to do. There are, I counted, 7 things you can do.

You can consider picking up one of those old celebrity magazines on the coffee table. You can decide to count how many flowers are in the arrangement on the receptionist’s desk…”

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Advent 1 — Kyra Cook (11/29/20)

Advent 1 — Kyra Cook (11/29/20)

““But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come.”

Startle us, O God, with your truth, and open our hearts and minds to your word. As we begin again this Advent journey of waiting and expecting and hoping, be with us. Speak your word of hope to us. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

This passage as the first gospel reading of the Advent season burns me. My family took no vacations this summer. We did not go home to Maryland for crabs and much-needed time with far-away family. We won’t be going home for Christmas. I have consoled crestfallen relatives. I have had to look into the eyes of my boys and disappoint them after repeating over and over during the summer that “we aren’t going home now in the hopes we might be able to go home when it matters most.” I have had to pull myself together in my own lonely, homesick moments.”

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Christ the King — Garrett Yates (11/22/20)

Christ the King — Garrett Yates (11/22/20)

“Startle us, O God, with your truth and open our hearts and our minds to your wondrous love. Speak your word to us; silence in us any voice but your own and be with us now as we turn our attention, our minds, and our hearts, to you, in Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.

Julian of Norwich lay dying in bed in her early 30s when she was graced with a set of divine showings – mystical encounters with God. If there is one word to describe Julian’s visions it’s that she discovered the eternal God to be kind. Remember Brother Curtis’ reflections from a few weeks ago on this word kind. Its related to our word kin, or kindred. God has chosen in Jesus to become our kin, and in the kinship of incarnation, God is supremely kind. Julian lived at the height of Medieval Christianity that was very concerned with the last judgment: that moment depicted in today’s Gospel when the scroll of history is rolled up, and we stand before the Judgment Seat.”

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Pentecost 24 — Garrett Yates (11/15/20)

Pentecost 24 — Garrett Yates (11/15/20)

“If you’re having a bad day, reading the poetry of Emily Dickinson may not be the best idea. The Belle of Amherst lived a lot of her life in isolation and was believed to suffer from severe anxiety. Her poetry is not an ode to joy but more like an ode to truth, to the way life really is sometimes. At one point, she wrote, “I lived on dread.” At another time, she said, “Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me.” For Dickinson, life isn’t really about upholding morality, but it is about mortality, death and life, life and death. This is so much a part of her psyche that she says something I would have never imagined. She says, “I felt a funeral, in my brain.” Wasn’t I right that this is not early morning reading? She’s so mortal and understands our human limitations; that’s why I’m attracted to her work.”

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