Because Another Advocate Abides in You

      This morning, we join Jesus and the Disciples at the Last Supper, during which, for five full chapters of John’s Gospel, Jesus is preparing and reassuring His friends for His imminent departure and death. In the midst of what must have been an anxious time for the Disciples, Jesus makes a mystifying promise to them… that He will not leave them, but will give them “another Advocate” who will be with them forever. And… whoever this “another Advocate” is, He will actually come to live in them… forever! Even 2,000 years on, we strain to fathom the wonder of all Jesus promised them (and us) on that evening before His death.

         

          So, especially on this Sunday when little Oliver Joseph is baptized and receives his own Gift of the Holy Spirit “Advocate”, Jesus gives us an ideal moment to reflect upon who God’s “another Advocate” is. Today is Olive’s new-birth day, and he will be “sealed and marked as Christ’s own forever” …  and everything will change for him.

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Rev. Joanie Brawley
Seeing the Father

Meg and I were on vacation out of the country last week. Before boarding our flight home, they checked our passports six times before we boarded our plane for the flight home. Six times, and three of those included scanning them electronically.

We had no problem with that. We appreciate the security assuring our safety and well-being. But six seemed a lot, and all of that to ensure that she was her and I was me, that we belonged on this flight and were cleared for international travel. And that we pose no threats to others’ safety.

I’ve been vetted way more deeply than that along the way to ordination and for each position I’ve held in the church, including being your rector. You need to have confidence that I didn’t just show up and take this job without education, training, experience, background checks and character references and on and on. Our identity matters.

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The Rev. Tim Nunez
Recognizing the Right Voice

Laura and I have always enjoyed watching nature at the lake where we live. We see alligators, otters, fish, ospreys, hawks, and Bald Eagles. We enjoy them all, however, our favorites are the ducks. Wood ducks especially. We even put cracked corn on the beach every day to entice them to come near. We have 5 wood duck boxes which are occupied at this time of year. While I’m pretty-much sure that it is pure luck, we occasionally catch the baby ducks plopping down from the box immediately after hatching.  Momma duck is down on the beach under the box encouraging the babies. Shortly after, we see the mother with her brood of babies in the shallow water at the edge of the weeds. While sitting on the screen porch on our upper deck last Sunday evening we saw 2 groups of 10 to 15 baby ducks with their mothers. One group on the neighbor’s beach and one on our beach. Before long they all came together, all mixed up together. Laura was concerned that they would get lost with the wrong mother. As we watched, each mother moved away into the water, each began calling and within seconds, the mixed-up bunch became two separate groups just like before. Each mother moved her babies away to a different weed patch.

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Rev. John Motis