1. This morning, although it was bitterly cold, I was confident the drive to Coeur d'Alene would be safe, so I revved up the Sube and blasted over the dry roads of I-90 and the 4th of July Pass, parked on snowbound 6th and Wallace, and attended the 10:30 service at St. Luke's Episcopal Church.
I had sorely missed the liturgy and as the vicar intoned the familiar Invitatory and the Collect for Purity ("Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit"), my insides shook and my chin quivered. I could feel the liturgy enfolding me in its poetry and beauty.
Today the Epiphany season came to an end with our denomination's commemoration of the transfiguration of Jesus. The Epiphany season begins with the revelation of God incarnate in Jesus Christ and the visitation of the Magi. As the season moves forward, Episcopalians experience the baptism of Jesus by John, the young Jesus' announcement of his ministry at the synagogue, the turning of water into wine at the Wedding of Cana, and continues to experience other manifestations of Jesus' divinity through selected Gospel readings.
I loved how this morning's Scripture readings paralleled each other. We heard about Moses descending from Mt. Sinai, his skin shining, in the book of Exodus, and how, from then on, he veiled his face after being with God; we sang Psalms 99, a proclamation of the greatness of the Lord; in 2 Corinthians, St. Paul explores how in Christ, the veil is dropped and and we are transformed. Lastly, we heard from the Gospel of Luke and the story of Jesus going up on the mountain to pray. Peter, John, and James witness Jesus' face shine and his clothes becoming dazzling white. They see Moses and Elijah talking to him. Then, as a climax of the story and of the Epiphany season, they hear God's voice coming from a cloud that said, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!"
I experience being alive on a continuum of emptiness and fullness and countless points in between.
From time to time, I feel fully alive, as if I am most completely myself. I feel transformed. I wonder if my face shines, if I radiate. From within myself, it feels like I do. Almost without exception, when I experience this fullness of being it happens when I'm with family, whether it's the family I was born into or the family I married into. It also happens when I am with good friends, whether my lifelong friends from Kellogg, my longtime friends in Eugene, having reunion with my Whitworth friends, working with a cast to produce a play, or in fellowship with people I worship with.
I also experienced this fullness of being often when I was a classroom instructor; my awareness, consciousness, intelligence, passion, and feeling for the welfare of others functioned at its highest level in those days.
In these times of fullness of being and deep connection with others, I experience something akin to Supreme Being, the two words that best describe my experience with God.
2. Often after I worship at St. Luke's, I go somewhere in Coeur d'Alene for a bite to eat or do some shopping.
Not today. I sat in silence and contemplation in the sanctuary with a few other people and listened to St. Luke's organist play an extended postlude, Robert Below's Scherzo: Dance with Alleluia.
I could continue this time of silence in the Sube and, rather than interrupt it with a stop somewhere, I drove straight to Kellogg.
Once home, I fixed myself a scrambled eggs, mushroom, and grated cheese dish and put the Maryland/Michigan men's basketball game on my tablet and the Oregon/Arizona State women's game on the television.
Every time I've watched the Ducks, they have excited me and did so again this afternoon. Arizona State is a tough defensive team and held the Ducks well below their usual scoring average. As the fourth quarter got underway, the Ducks fell five points behind with eight minutes to go. For most of the rest of the quarter, Coach Graves played the Ducks' best defensive players. Satou Sallaby and the strong-willed Sabrina Ionescu took over the offense and the Ducks clawed their way back into the lead, thanks in large part to Sallaby's elegant and powerful drive to the tin, with 1:49 left, when she scored, but was charged with an offensive foul. Upon video review, the referees determined that Sallaby's defender's foot was inside the restricted area and reversed their call. Sallaby's hoop counted, Ionescu later scored a couple of gutsy baskets, and the Ducks triumphed, 66-59. The win clinched the conference championship for the Ducks. Next up: the Pac-12 Conference Tournament.
I switched the television over to the game from College Park, MD and was disappointed that Michigan outplayed Maryland and beat them, 69-62.
3. Tonight we met at Carol and Paul's for family dinner. Carol served us a lovely martini in a glass lined with Irish whiskey. A little later, we sat down to a mouth watering dinner of walnut green salad, Chuck steak and carrots and mushrooms braised in Guiness stout, horseradish infused mashed cauliflower, and Keto soda bread. Conversation centered a lot on local people and local history -- I was having trouble keeping up -- I think I needed a roster. At some point, Paul handed me a copy of the play, Freud's Last Session, an imagined confrontation and conversation about faith, science, sex, and other topics between C. S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud. Paul has ideas about putting on this play and asked me to read it and see what I think.
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