Last week my cousin Emily died. It was a tragedy. Emily was only forty-two and left behind three children between the ages of ten and fourteen.
 
Because Emily was ten years younger than I and a quiet member of a large and rambunctious family, I didn’t know her all that well, even though we were first cousins. Her funeral was a great help. The Church was packed, testimony to how deeply she was loved. The pastor spoke movingly of her faith and courage. But the best part was the eulogies by her friends and her husband. They were funny and powerful and loving.
 
I learned that quiet Emily had a wonderful sense of humor, a deep love for her family and friends, and an abiding faith in Jesus Christ. I mentioned the story that impressed me the most in my sermon yesterday. In the weeks before she died, Emily wept with a friend. Her friend thought Emily was grieving. In fact, Emily was weeping with gratitude for the beauty of her life.
 
Emily was the first of my generation of Hills to die, and I am the oldest. Her death has forced me to face my own mortality. I hope that when my time comes, I can approach death with some bit of Emily’s grace. In the meantime, she reminds me that I should focus on what really matters, not on the busy work that is a big part of most of my days. I should spend time with those I love, and make sure they know how much I love them.
 
I, too, am grateful for Emily’s life. May she rest in peace and rise in glory. Amen.

Next Sunday is Saint David’s annual meeting, and, believe it or not, I look forward to it. For lots of reasons.
 
First, it is prayerful. Normally we end our service with a formal dismissal sending us out into the world. Next week, we won’t say the dismissal until after the annual meeting, which makes the meeting a kind of continuation of our worship. During the meeting itself, we’ll pray, including for people who have died in the last year. At the end, we’ll say another prayer, sing a song, and then hear the dismissal. Setting the meeting in the context of worship gives it a good feeling.
 
Second, it includes food! Our coffee hour crew always outdo themselves, so we gather with hot beverages, a little something sweet, and a little something savory.
 
Third, we get to review the various reports. I see a lot of what happens at Saint David’s, but not everything. More to the point, I tend to miss the cumulative impact of what people do. It’s like watching a child grow. A parent doesn’t notice it because the parent is with the child every day. But when the child goes to the doctor and gets measured, it turns out a lot has changed. The annual meeting is a little like that. A lot happens over the course of the year, but I only really appreciate just how much when we pause to take stock at the annual meeting.
 
Fourth, things are generally good. I can imagine that annual meetings are not fun when Churches have to deal with divisive issues or serious problems. Thankfully, that is not us!
 
Most of all, I value the opportunity to pause and reflect together on what God is calling us to do now. The possibilities are exciting, if only we can get on board with God’s mission. And the annual meeting is a time to do that.
 
All this is to say, I look forward to my seventh annual meeting as the priest at Saint David’s!!

Today our nation celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior. King is one of my heroes, and I find him inspiring for all kinds of reasons and in all kinds of ways.
 
What makes King a particularly appropriate person to commemorate with a national holiday is his powerful summons to our country to live up to its own ideals. King dedicated his life to the ideals of liberty, equality, and justice. He found those ideals in our founding documents, especially the Declaration of Independence.
 
But King was also keenly aware of the many ways the United States failed to live up to the promise of those ideals. King could have ignored our national failure. Or, King could have given up on our nation. Instead, King believed in America enough to fight for our collective soul, and his faith in America’s potential has made us all a little better. Truly King was a great citizen and patriot.
 
Like our nation, the Episcopal Church commemorates King. This, too, strikes me right and good, but for quite different reasons. We commemorate King for his Christian witness. The Declaration of Independence was not the only, or even the primary, source for King’s ideals. King’s witness for justice was rooted in the message of the Old Testament prophets. King was sustained through the hard times by a powerful sense of God’s nurturing presence and a powerful faith in the good news of Jesus Christ. Truly King was a model Christian.
 
King was able to combine his Christian faith and his public, political witness. Indeed it was that combination that made him so effective. I wrestle in my own way to apply the Christian gospel as I understand it to the challenges our nation faces today. My considerably lower profile struggles for Christian justice make me even more grateful for what Dr. Martin Luther King Junior was able to accomplish in his short lifetime.
 
My hope and my prayer is that this day will inspire all of us to follow the example of Dr. King, a great Christian citizen and patriot.

When I left for Church yesterday morning, the thermometer in my car said it was seven degrees below zero outside. When I reached Saint David’s, it was a comparatively balmy two degrees, but getting there I passed through one spot that was apparently ten below.
 
I felt pretty sorry for myself in that bitter cold. The two seconds from my front door to my car hurt. My car didn’t drive well and never really warmed up. Others apparently felt the same: our attendance was down about 40%. I assume people decided it was just too cold to go outside, and I certainly don’t blame them. I was tempted myself!
 
Over these last few days, I have been thinking a lot about folks who don’t have a warm place where they can wait until it warms up. I know a couple from our Church without walls service who moved back into a tent at the beginning of December. I hope and pray they were able to get into a shelter on the worst nights.
 
Today, as I walked through downtown Northampton, I missed the usual panhandlers. I hope that means they had a warm place to be instead of standing on the sidewalk. But then I wonder what they do for money when they can’t be around to receive a little help from people wandering by.
 
Thankfully, things seem likely to warm up a bit this week. But the last few weeks have made me very grateful for the blessings of a warm home, a steady income, and a car to get me where I need to go. And I pray for those who do not enjoy the same blessings. May God protect them through this winter!

Yesterday (12/31) we were travelling home from a family vacation. Our plan was to arrive home about 8:00, settle in, and enjoy New Year’s Eve. It was not to be.
 
First, our connecting flight in Chicago was delayed more than two hours, which put me in a foul humor. Thank God for my children. They decided the delay was at least partly a blessing since it meant they could watch the Falcons game. Better still, the Falcon won! All was not lost.
 
But our ordeal was not over. The flight did finally take off, and we arrived at the Hartford Airport a little after 11:00. Not surprisingly, the airport was not fully staffed, with the result that our bags took a LONG time to come out. Carrie had gone to get our car, while my sons and I waited for the bags. Both of them wanted to go to parties. I wanted to go to bed. And the minutes ticked on by. A little before midnight, Carrie called from the car to wish me a happy New Years. I commented sulkily that it wasn’t starting well.  
 
At that point, people from two flights were waiting for our bags. I know all the people on my flight were already significantly delayed. But people began a countdown. THREE. TWO. ONE. Happy New Year!!!!
 
I was touched by the resilience of the human spirit. These people had the same reasons to sulk that I did. But when midnight struck, they celebrated. I even joined in. And they reminded me that there is always something to celebrate and some way to celebrate it, even in what seems like bleak circumstances. It wasn’t such a bad way to start the New Year after all!