<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">
<br><div><br><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>From: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Peter Michaelson <<a href="mailto:Peter.Michaelson@ecunet.org">Peter.Michaelson@ecunet.org</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Date: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">February 19, 2009 12:29:12 PM EST</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>To: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><a href="mailto:SERMONSHOP_2009_02_25.topic@ecunet.org">SERMONSHOP_2009_02_25.topic@ecunet.org</a>, Propertalk <<a href="mailto:Propertalk@stsams.org">Propertalk@stsams.org</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Subject: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><b>Mark 9:2-9</b></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div> Not much traffic on these channels these days, more's the pity.<div><br></div><div>As Joe Parrish has noted in his forwards from the Episcopal News Service, this Sunday is World Mission Sunday. The Episcopal Church has not always observed WM Sunday and I am glad we are this year. FWIW there are worship bulletin inserts at <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 34, 226); "><u><a href="http://www.episcopalchurch.org/95270_ENG_HTM.htm">http://www.episcopalchurch.org/95270_ENG_HTM.htm</a></u></span></div><div><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>anyone can download and use.</div><div><br></div><div>I really like Ed Marquart's stories of Bunny Hopewell and also Mr. Hopewell, at <a href="http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_a_mountains_valleys_and_plains.htm">http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_a_mountains_valleys_and_plains.htm</a> as pointed out by Jenee Woodard, on her Textweek page, always a tremendous help. There are some great mountaintop stories listed there too but the Hopewell cycle of Pr. Marquart shows how the glory of God is all around us and I don't want to get the images too confused.</div><div><br></div><div>I think I want to go from the bunny/seeker story to the instances when the glory of God breaks through the haze of our business and the veils of our distractions. Some of those are contained in the Hopewell story - the glory of spring, the glory of a newborn, the glory of worship, etc.</div><div><br></div><div>What Pr. M seems uncharacteristically to leave out is what to do about the glory of God once it lights you up.</div><div><br></div><div>I can't seem to find it on the Diocese of RI's current web page but our motto for a number of years has been "live in Christ Jesus - transform the world." It fits right in here. Once we have become part of God's transfiguration all surrounding us, our mission is to draw more people into that marvelous light. We do that with healing prayer, healing medicine, judiciously applied reconciliations, all our normal ministry activities.</div><div><br></div><div>Of course it all goes for little if God's glory is not there with us. In fact the glory fades fast if the dynamic of sharing and celebration is forgotten. However if we take the mission seriously, our very membership in the glory becomes another channel through which it transforms others - the world.</div><div><br></div><div>We have all probably been guilty of "spiritual tourism," doing our best to go from one transfiguring experience to the next. This is to take the wrong path. The right one is to go from glory to the other creatures, and the glory goes with us.</div><div><br></div><div>The Rev. Dr. Peter Michaelson</div><div>St. Mark's Church, Warwick, RI</div><div><a href="mailto:peter.michaelson@ecunet.org">peter.michaelson@ecunet.org</a>.</div></div></span> </div><br></div></blockquote></div><br></body></html>