Homily for Holy Thursday 2014

Everything is powered by something. Our bodies are powered by the food we consume. Our cars and much of our civil infrastructure is fueled by oil, coal, and natural gas. The ecosystem of our planet is, at its root level, powered by the sun. Everything that exists derives its root energies from something.

The same thing is true in the mysteries we celebrate today. Something empowers us and the mysteries of our faith. That something is sacrifice.

Without sacrifice, there is no sacrament.

Without sacrifice, there is no salvation.

Without sacrifice, there is no love.

For us as believers, it is the power of sacrifice, of Christ’s sacrifice, that empowers us, and all that we do. Or, at least, it should be.

It is Jesus’ sacrifice that gives meaning to the servant act of washing feet. Without his sacrifice, Jesus is being a kind host, one who goes outside of what is socially required to welcome his guests… but when touched by the power of his sacrifice, this servant act becomes one of great transformation – one which is able to melt through the pride that was building in the heart of a man who had, in the last several years, witnessed countless acts of selfless service.

It is Jesus’ sacrifice that gives meaning to the emblem of bread. Without his sacrifice, Jesus is eating a meal – certainly one of great significance – but still a meal… but when touched by the power of his sacrifice, this loaf of bread becomes the means by which the cosmos is restored and renewed to fellowship with its Creator, the broken body of the incarnate Word.

It is Jesus’ sacrifice that gives meaning to the element of wine. Without his sacrifice, Jesus is slaking an earthly thirst in the context of a time-honored ritual… but when touched by the power of his sacrifice, the contents of the cup become the blood outpoured, by which the lentils to the door of our hearts are marked. Our restoration is rooted in this Blood ‘shed… for the forgiveness of sins’.

It is a heart, mind, and spirit attuned to sacrifice that transforms common elements, religious ritual, and printed word into a life-giving connection with the Eternal God who so deeply desires a new birth for his creation.

What does the power of sacrifice do to, for, or in you? How does Christ’s eternal sacrifice actually affect your life? Is this something you have stopped to consider lately? Is it something that enters into your daily consideration of how you live your life? Is it vital to your understanding of yourself and your place in the world? It should be, for without sacrifice, you and I truly have no life.

When, in our lives, we respond to God and reach out to others in faith, we do so by the prompting of the Spirit, who applies the power of Jesus’ eternal sacrifice to our lives… to humble us, to renew us, and to restore us to full fellowship with him and with one another.

On this day, which is different from every other day, we hear again of the establishment of the New Covenant, a covenant which is sealed through blood of sacrifice shed on the cross. May this sacrifice be the sacrifice which empowers us today, impelling us both to an ever-increasing faith, as well as to service to God, and to one another.

The preceding Homily was preached in the Naphtali Isaac Eskenazi Sanctuary at Eskenazi Health on Thursday, April 17, 2014.

Homily for Ash Wednesday 2014

You may not recognize it from the snow and ice over the weekend, but spring is here. Oh, I know that the equinox isn’t for a few weeks yet, but forecasters talk about meteorological seasons. Meteorological spring begins on March 1 by their logic, and so if you permit me, I am going to take the liberty of declaring today to be the first day of Ecclesiastical spring.

Along with entering into spring comes the impetus to engage in some cleaning. Trust me, in a few weeks, when the weather actually catches up with what the forecasters are calling this time, you’ll see plenty of ads for big box retailers promoting their spring cleaning lines. They’ll become as ubiquitous as the ads for Filet ‘o Fish sandwiches are today. Mops and brooms and organizing solutions will go flying off the shelves as bachelors and housewives, dads and retirees all seek to make good on the promise of a sense of accomplishment, a clean house, and perhaps some organization in their lives.

What you may be unaware of is that spring cleaning has among its roots a deeply religious reason – the requirement of purging all leaven from ones’ home during the feast of Pesach, what we know today as the Jewish Passover. This means that every trace of yeast, all leavened products… everything that is not classified as Passover Kosher – yes, there are two kinds of kosher! – have to be purged. For the serious Jewish family, spring cleaning is a religious act. The fridge and stove are pulled out, crevice tools reach into areas so finite that it seems impossible for a bread crumb to have gotten there… but it’s cleaned nonetheless! Special pots and pans are brought out. Passover-only dinnerware is used. Some families even go so far as to have a Passover-only stove, oven, and fridge! Even the kids, on the night before Passover, get to go hunting for the last bit of leaven. All that, because they don’t want to run even the remotest risk of having any leaven in their homes for the Passover and the subsequent Feast of Unleavened Bread.

But why?

Biblically, leaven is used repeatedly as an illustration for sin. In the Old Testament leaven is consistently used to represent sin, falsehood, and evil…In the New Testament, leaven was used by Jesus himself to represent the false teachings of the Pharisees and the lack of faith on the part of the Sadducees Saint Paul boldly challenges the Corinthian Church to celebrate the feast, ‘not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.’

I am not suggesting to you that you need to go home this afternoon and purge out your loaves of Wonder Bread or toss your yeast packets into the garbage… but I am suggesting that you take today as the chance to embark on a journey towards Eastertide in which you will go into those crevices, the places perhaps you don’t think to examine for sin, and to challenge yourself to allow Christ into those areas in your life.

We need to take time to reflect on our sinfulness because, to be honest, sometimes our sins have become either so completely hidden in the cracks, or have blended so surreptitiously  into our lives, that we no longer take notice of them.

I grew up with my grandmother. Until the day she had a stroke and went into the hospital for the last time, she smoked… and for most of the years I lived with her, you couldn’t tell the difference between her and the 6:15 bound for Topeka. After she died, when I decided to sell the trailer she had left me, I went to go clean it up. There was plenty of stuff that was in obvious need of removal… her old clothes, kitchen supplies, Kleenexes under furniture… the obvious things. But I hadn’t been in the house for a while, and something just didn’t smell right. So I decided to wipe down the walls, thinking that, perhaps, some mold or something had grown. What came off the walls was truly disgusting. Decades of smoke had clung to the walls, subtly discoloring EVERYTHING. I grew up in the house. I moved in on the day she closed on the house… I lived there for fourteen years before I left for work and school… I came back and lived there for three more years as her health declined… and I had become so completely accustomed to the discoloration of the walls, the curtains – the white curtains that I always thought were yellow! – that I was shocked… simply shocked.

My brothers and sisters, there are things in our lives that we know we need to clean up. There are many sins we take to the Lord, fully realizing our need for his mercy and grace in them. And yet, how often do we go deeper? Do we allow ourselves to settle for mediocrity in our efforts to clean up our lives? If we do, I can promise you, with absolute certainty, that the things we refuse to examine, the crevices we refuse to clean, will eventually begin to quietly erode at our life of faith.

In this Lenten season, therefore, as we gather today to receive the sign of ashes and to be nourished in Word and Sacrament, I invite each of you to observe this time with great devotion and attention to your spiritual needs. I invite you to seek out the counsel of a wise and loving pastor if you find yourself struggling – with sins that are great, or sins that are small. Above all, I invite you to reinvigorate your relationship with the only one who can possibly make anything out of what we do here today, Jesus the Christ, who died for our justification; the one who sends the Spirit into our midst to convict us, to apply mercy, and to draw us ever closer to himself.

To God be glory, now and forever. Amen!

UES Constellation Complete

A new 1:1000 project

Well, I decided to take my old 1:1000 refit that I had experimented with last year and do some work on her. She isn't named at the moment, but she is a TOS/TMP hybrid.

This is a very ROUGH stage... revision.

Plastic Surgery on a Starship

Some photos of my recent starship plastic surgery.

The short of it - the starboard pylon was sagging and the nacelle was canted inboard. I used sheet styrene and Plastistruct to brace it up and fill in the gaps.

 

Unfortunately, one of my kids seems to have gotten a hold of the camera, and several images are missing.

Introducing the UES Constellation

Behold... she still needs fitting out, but she's been launched from the builder's yards.

TOS Shuttlecraft - With a Twist

Those of you following my modeling work know I have been working in an alternate universe of late. Here is the Clare, #1 shuttlecraft of the UES Constellation in my United Earth Interstellar Confederation universe. The model is the AMT original series shuttlecraft (25th Anniversary pop of the kit) and the decals (except for the windows, impulse engines, and door button which are kit originals) are custom to my specification by JDecals.

The upper hull is Testors silver, the lower hull is Tamiya IJN gray (Sasebo Arsenal). Nacelle forward caps were painted white and then dipped in Tamiya clear orange. Nacelle aft caps were brushed with Tamiya metallic gray. Highlights on the nacelles and underside are in Tamiya copper and bronze.

The final clear coat is drying now, and tomorrow it will get hung up in my daughter's room. More pics will follow at that time.

New Model Project - Star Fleet Cutter

Well, I have two new modeling projects on the bench. The first is the following cutter spacecraft. She's entirely scratchbuilt... can you guess what supplies I used?

Detail of the United Earth Interstellar Confederation Logo from the Kongo Build

Because I figure folks might be curious, here is the artwork that JDecals reproduced for me for the side of the Kongo build. The center part of the emblem is taken from the spacesuit patch in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The graphic manipulation was done by Masao Okazaki.

Modeling Project - UES KONGO

This is the Polar Lights 1:1000 Constitution class kit. I had originally intended to paint her in Motion Picture era colours, but my test was a disaster and I shot her with Testors gloss silver instead. The bussard collectors are Tamiya clear orange with a hint of clear red mized in. Most of the dark gray decals are Tamiya metallic gray.

Decal-wise, the windows (which I admittedly went a bit crazy with on the lower saucer) are from the kit, as are several of the greeblie detail decals.

The energized warp coils, is from the JTGraphics kitbashers set, and the impulse engine is a combo of one of his decals and one from the kit. The gangway hatches also came from his sheet, as did the subspace antennae (triangles on the bottom saucer) and the pylon vents.

JDecals provided the custom pennants, registry numbers, and name, as well as the United Earth Interstellar Confederation 'meatball' logo just aft of the bridge dome.

Now, just to be a jerk... I didn't use a single drop of decal set... most all of the decals, and most especially JDecals' custom ones, went down utterly smooth as silk.

She still needs two more shots of clear coat and then she'll be done.

Enjoy the pics...