The Arrow's Path

Does anyone understand the thinking behind the track 1/track 2 Old Testament readings in the new Revised Common Lectionary? As I understand it, at least as far as the Old Testament readings in ordinary time go, track 1 is more sequential, just reading through the OT in series, regardless or whether or not the story has anything to do with the other 2 readings; Track 2 I understand follows the "theme of the day" pattern where the OT goes with the theme of the Epistle and Gospel reading (in theory). I don't understand why there is that option. A Choose-your-own-adventure seems to be antithetical to the idea of having a lectionary that everyone reads in common. That just does not make any sense to me, especially when you start having option choices for the epistle.

Apparently the Elves over at Titus One Nine (a rather influential Anglican blog) got wind of my little musings on What's Your Blog's Reading Level . I have never gotten a full entry on T19 before, so that's sort of amusing and an honor. I think Kendall Harmon runs a good blog. He's conservative to be sure, but he tries to moderate comments and have constructive discussion of issues vexing the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. I know that is no easy task with some of the commenters that hover around his blog. Whether you agree with him or not, if we had more people in the Episcopal Church (and the Anglican Blogosphere) with his level of humility, I think the Church would be a better place. Not that I do this blog gig to bring in huge readers, but it is good to know that someone (other than my circle of friends) out there reads my blog.

"Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the touch of freedom for nations then unborn, Grant, we bessech thee, that we and all the people if this land may have grace to maintain these liberties in righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ oir Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen" -Collect for Independence Day, BCP pg. 190 Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forece at home and abroad. Dedend them day by day with your heavenly grace, strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them, and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen -Prayer for those in the Armed Forces of our Country, BCP pg 823

First thing when I walked in the door: "Father, I can't find the regular coffee for coffee hour." Uh oh...guess we will have to go with DeCaf and put up with grumpy parishioners. No reader for the 10:30. Hmmm...well I guess my wife can do that if I can sweet talk her into it. "Didn't you get the e-mail? The Deacon is on vacation." Uh...no. But that's okay, we have enough priests to cover it. "No chalice bearer for the 10:30, she's sick" OK, well, Attendence should be down as its Memorial Day weekend. Guess we will wing it. Yeah, its one of those Sundays...

I was watching a little TV the other day and ESPN was airing some interview with Nolan Ryan, the former Major League Baseball pitcher and Hall of Famer. I believe, if I recall correctly, it was shortly after the Red Sox no hit the Kansas City Royals about a year or so ago. They were interviewing Ryan because Ryan still leads the all time No Hitter list with 7 no-no's in his career. I came upon the interview about half way through it, so I was not exactly sure to whom they were speaking immediately. When it finally dawned on that it was Nolan Ryan, I literally exclaimed, "Good lord! He's an old man!" I guess that interview stuck in my brain because I always liked Ryan, probably because his last name was my first name. I didn't know any other Ryans until I was well into high school. I suppose that is just one of those funny things that appeal to impressionable young kids if a star shares his name or his birthday or something of the like. I am not exactly sure why t...

Thanks, Steve , for cluing me in on how clueless my blog is... I was interested, so I randomly put in some of the blogs that I read on a regular basis to see how they ranked. Here is the results: Raisin -well, we won't go there. CaptainSacrament - Elementary School (this really surprised me) AKMA -High School John One Five -High School ChicagoMonk - College Grad Kendall Harmon -Genius I got really interested, and started looking up regular web addresses. I was quite amused at these pairings: CNN News - Elementary School Foxnews -High School BBC World News -Genius CNNSI -High School ESPN -Junior High School And in what I can only call a shocker: The Website of the Episcopal Church USA : College undergrad. The Episcopal Church's national website is worthless. And just for fun: Democratic National Committee : -Genius Republican National Committee : -College Undergrad Official Obama Website : -elementary school Official Hillary Website : -junior high school Official McCain We...

It is hard for people of Scotch-Irish or other penny pinching like-minded heritage which prides itself on being skin-flint tightwads frugal with one's hard earned moolah money to pony up and buy crap we don't need something that we already have in one form, even if the form we currently own is perfectly good so why bother buying a new one #@*$&^!?!?! inefficient. Such was the case with my God's gift to Christian liturgy Book of Common Prayer. I had inherited a common pew edition BCP before I went off to seminary. It was perfectly fine, just a little ratty broken in good. Everyone while I was in seminary kept trying to talk me into buying one of those new fangled BCP/Hymnal combinations. I always put off buying one because I had assumed that for at least one my ordinations (deacon or priest), someone would buy me one as an ordination present. "So," I asked, "Why buy something someone is going to get me anyway?" In any event, I cringed at the i...

This article reminded me of a weird happening that occurred in my yard the day of my ordination. I have been meaning to blog about it, but kept forgetting about it. Last fall, my then-fiancee was remodeling her bathroom. The old bathtub apparently was one of the old cast iron tubs that came over on the ark. Her father and I had the dubious task of trying to get the thing out of the bathroom so as a new one could be installed. It took us most of the morning and several whacks with the sledge hammer, but we finally managed to break it into two pieces. It was about all we could do to manage to get each half out of the house. I am not sure how we managed it, but we finagled the two halfs out into the back yard where they sat all winter. This was not exactly prime cast iron, largely rusted and jagged. I had been debating how exactly I was going to get rid of the monsters all winter. But, apparently, God saw fit to send me an ordination present in the form of backyard robbery. I went out the...

Make sure homilist has had his cup of coffee* before sermon. While coffee may not be for everyone, ask your doctor is coffee is right for you and your preacher. *while individual results may vary, side effects can include but are not limited to drowsiness, attention wane, incoherence, snoring (from self or parishioner), blatter irratability, and lightning bolts falling from ceiling.

Today's Argyle Sweater (from the cartooning desk of my friend, Scott) also works well for us transplanted Southerners who don't do winters well...

A Sermon by the Rev. Deacon Ryan Hall at St. Mark's on the Campus 5th Sunday of Easter, RCL Year A “A Simple Waiter” Acts 7:55-60 Psalm 31: 1-5, 15-16 1 Peter 2:2-10 John 14: 1-14 Anyone who has been on a family vacation or around groups of children for more than 5 seconds has probably been in the situation where a squabble breaks out, often between siblings. When queried by parents tired of traveling for several hours and hearing the children fuss, one of the children snaps, “Well, they started it!” Unfortunately, this sort of behavior is not confined to just children. I hear adults more and more these days behaving in such childish ways. In fact, it is one of the great ironies of life in modern America that on the one hand, we prize individuality (or rugged individualism as it is some times called) as highly as anything for nothing in our culture it sometimes seems is more important than the individual. Respect for the individual is not a bad thing, but the ironic other side of t...

Darth Vader gets suspended sentence in attack on Jedi church. Um...Yeah .

I was sitting in my home office on the computer the other day and heard a crack and then a thump. The thump was rather loud; so, I opened the blind and looked out the window. I did not see anything amiss in the front yard other than a branch that had apparently fallen out of the tree. The branch was not large, nor did it appear to have hit anything in the yard other than the grass; I left the blind open and continued finishing my e-mail and other important facebook 'work.' As I was sitting there, a person walked by on the front walk. He appeared to stop and look at the branch that had fallen and then moved along. I could not imagine was was so interesting about a stick, but I went back to my blogging. A few minutes later a pair of young kids from up the street came along and were also intently staring at the branch. They had those looks that only mischievous 5th grade boys can pull off. I still could not imagine what was so amusing, but I knew when one 5th grade boy turns to th...

The Collect for Pentecost Sunday: Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. My parish have a slate of interesting things coming this Sunday on Pentecost. We are reading the gospel is several languages, which is usually a pretty neat liturgical effect. Granted, it is sort of a gimmick, but kind of fun. I think we have at least 10 languages getting represented. I suppose that is a perk of being near a major university, lots of linguistically gifted people. Also, perhaps more exciting than that is the fact that we have 4 baptisms. A man and his son as well as an ecumenical baptism of two little girls who are from ...

For pictures of my ordination, check on facebook or click here to go to my album on flickr.

The ordination buzz and all is finally waning a bit. I thought I should write down a few thoughts about saying my first mass before I forgot. 10. The sunlight from the window that shines down on the presider's prayer desk is pretty bright. 9. You can really throw your organist for a loop when he asks what notes to play to give you the pitch for the sursum corda: Archer: "I don't need any." Organist: "Ummm...[awkward pause] okay...[awkward pause] If you say so, Father." 8. Most chasubles are made for short people. (Luckily, my wife made mine.) 7. The Anglo-catholic custom of having roses on the altar for your first mass that parishioners can take home afterward is a big hit with the old ladies in the parish. 6. Folding your hands together during the beginning of the canon of the mass keeps them from shaking. 5. Get a BCP/Hymnal Combination. I never got one for my ordination and always assumed I would, so I was juggling books during the liturgy. Nothing bad h...

The day came and went, and it was probably one of the most powerful experiences of my life. I am now an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church. My field education supervisor from Chicago was in town to be the preacher, and he preached perhaps one of the best sermons I have ever heard. I will see if I can get a copy of it and put it here on my blog. Our diocesan camera guuy apparently flaked out and did not show up, but luckily one of my lodge brothers whom I had invited showed up with his camera. He dabbles in professional photography on the side, so he did the photo shoot. I will have more on my thoughts about the even later when it all sinks in. I guess I should give my first official blog blessing to all my readers: May the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be upon you and remain with you now and forever. + Amen -Father Archer

There is an old war movie or Twilight Zone episode (or something like that) that takes place in a battle of a war. If I recall correctly, it was World War II era, but it has been many, many years since I have seen this film, and I can no longer remember what the name of the film was or what it was about. Obviously, it was not all that great a production. There is this one scene, however, that has always stuck in my mind, not because it was that particularly well produced nor mind blowing cinematography. It seems to be one of those odd childhood moments the mind etches into memory like a photo negative. The scene was just a rather typical battle scene where the main character was shot and died on the spot. All the action of the battle fades into the background and the character dies in the field. The camera pans around to a now ethereal, almost transcendent, view of the chaos. The viewer suddenly realizes that outside the battle, it is a beautiful, sunny day with blue sky and a bird sin...