News for today's 2018

<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Evangelicals rely on Scripture alone.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Secularists rely on Reason alone.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Episcopalians pay attention to both, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         and we also have a third leg on the stool – Tradition.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Our Old Testament story is about tradition.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Elijah had had one heckuva life.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He’d done some pretty dramatic stuff.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But now his earthly race was run, so he said to his disciple, Elisha, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“So long buddy, I’m off to Bethel.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But Elisha hung on to his teacher and went with him to Bethel.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Elijah then said, “Adios, Elisha. It was nice knowing you.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         I’m going over Jordan.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But Elisha said “Not so fast I’m going with you.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Finally Elijah said, “Goodbye Elisha I’m off to heaven.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         Anything I can do for you before I go?”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Elisha answered, “Give me the power to keep on doing <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         what you’ve been doing -- only more of it.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Elijah said, “Only if you can follow me into heaven with your eyes.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When the chariot swung low comin’ for to carry Elijah home,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         Elisha watched him until he was out of sight.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Then Elisha tore off his own clothes and put on Elijah’s mantle.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For those who have seen the 1982 film classic Barbarossa,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         it’s the same thing Gary Busey does to become Willie Nelson.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If you haven’t seen Barbarossa, just skip this sermon and watch it. Point made.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">With that mantle came prophetic power.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Earlier in the story, on their way to Elijah’s point of departure,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         they had to cross the Jordan River.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Elijah had struck the water with his mantle<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         and it parted for him as the Red Sea parted for Moses,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">and as this very Jordan River had parted for Joshua        <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">when he took over the leadership of Israel.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">With Elijah gone, Elisha headed back the way they came.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When he got to the Jordan, he did the same thing.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He struck the water with his mantle, and the waters parted <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">as they had done for Elijah, Joshua, and Moses before him.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Elisha was carrying on a tradition stretching back over the centuries,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">from his teacher Elijah all the way to Joshua and Moses.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Elisha had followed his teacher as far as he could go.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When his teacher was gone, Elisha tore up his own clothes,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         his own identity, and put on the mantle of Elijah and continued his work.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That’s tradition.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Americans are not so fond of Tradition. Take Thomas Jefferson.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He was all about Reason but he had no use for Tradition. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He insisted the world belongs to the present generation. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">No law, no constitution, no form of government should last over 20 years.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Jefferson worshiped at the Church of What’s Happening Now.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He tore up the mantle of his ancestors to put on his own clothes.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Jefferson and Elisha represent two opposite attitudes.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Native cultures are our best example we have of Elijah’s way.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Native Americans honor their traditions.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They hold their ancestors in reverence.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They respect the elders of the tribe.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Anglo-Americans treat our elders as burdens to be warehoused.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We are certain that the wisdom of today<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         is to be preferred over the benighted ways of our forbears.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We don’t want to be burdened by yesterday. “Yesterday’s done.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We do not expect future generations to pay any attention to us.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Church of What’s Happening now<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         acknowledges no debt to the people who got us here<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         and no duties to those who will come after us.<br />“Imagine all the people living for today.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We want to wear our own clothes, the ones in fashion this year <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">–<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">      </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">not some dusty mantle from an old guy like Elijah.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s popular these days, even among some Episcopal leaders,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         to junk the Tradition.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sell the churches, meet in bowling alleys, and make up a ritual<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         if we feel so inclined at the moment.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The ritual we make up will express<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         what we think, what we feel – something we like –<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         nothing that might make us uncomfortable.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There was a time I’d have said “sign me up” for that.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But there came a point when I was not so sure of myself anymore.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I wasn’t positive that my opinions were better than the teachings <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">of ancient spiritual masters,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         or that my feelings were nobler than those of the saints.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And I had children to think of.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When I began to feel a responsibility for the next generation<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         I simultaneously felt a responsibility to the past generations.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That’s when I became an Episcopalian.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That’s when I began to tear up my own clothes<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         and put on the mantle of Elijah.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I didn’t shut down my mind.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Reason is still one of our sources of authority. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We still think. We still feel.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But if there is a conflict between my opinions <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">and the teachings of the Church,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         I seriously consider the remote possibility <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">that I might be wrong. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Sometimes I love the Tradition. Sometimes I hate it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But it’s always there for me to learn from,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         sometimes by arguing with it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For example, I have never been comfortable with the Nicene Creed. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But I keep saying it and that makes me look hard at what it means.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One year, a particular line offends me to the core.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The next year, I have found a new meaning for that line<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         and I love it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But by then, another line bothers me. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I don’t say the Creed because I’m comfortable with it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I say it because I’m uncomfortable with it. It makes me think.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sacred Tradition is essential to our spirituality,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         right along with Reason and the Holy Scriptures.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This chasuble we wear represents Elijah’s mantle. It is a symbol of Tradition.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Apostolic Succession, having bishops made by bishops in a chain <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         of inheritance going back to the apostles <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">                  is a symbol of Tradition.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But it takes some caution. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We all know that Scriptures can be used for good or ill.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Our Reason can be used or misused.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s the same with Tradition.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It can guide us into the future or it can trap us in the past.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The key is to recognize the difference between Sacred Tradition<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         and a stodgy lack of imagination. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sacred Tradition is about our core values – the stuff that makes us who we are.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It isn’t about singing one style of music instead of another;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         or whether we use an organ or guitars.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It isn’t about whether we use the 1928 Prayer Book or the 1979 Prayer Book.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s about having a Book of Common Prayer,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         so that we pray in the way of the church <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">         instead of what each of us makes up to suit ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Sacred Tradition connects us to our power source.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Elijah passed onto Elisha a mantle of prophetic power.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Jesus passed on to the disciples the power to heal <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">and proclaim good news.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Tradition is a power source.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It has sustaining power to get us through the day.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">When life hits us in the face and we have no words f<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">or how we feel or what we want, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">         the Tradition has prayers for us,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“Surely it is God who saves me.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I will trust in him and not be afraid.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Tradition has transforming power to open up a new future.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It gives us this prayer,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">         “Let the whole world see and know that<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">         things which were cast down are being raised up,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">         and that things which had grown old are being made new,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">         and that all things are being brought to their perfection. . . .” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Tradition isn’t stodgy or nostalgic.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It’s dynamic, unfolding, challenging us <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">to become more than we are.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Our Tradition is written in poems and prayers.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It is recorded as stories of the saints.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">We act it out in ancient rituals. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The poems, the prayers, the stories, the rituals<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">         have all been sanctified by holy lives of Christians.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">By that sanctity the Tradition is charged with power<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">                  like Elijah’s mantle.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>

ELISHA vs THOMAS JEFFERSON

Evangelicals rely on Scripture alone. Secularists rely on Reason alone. Episcopalians pay attention to both, and we al...

ELISHA vs THOMAS JEFFERSON

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