Thoughts Along the Journey

  John 20:19-31    Easter 2    April 24, 2022 St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, Williamsburg, Virginia                            On October 31, 2006, I nearly died.                Some sort of   mysterious pneumonia had filled my lungs, and I had been in the ICU at Norfolk General Hospital for days, sedated and on a ventilator, as the infectious disease doctors at the Eastern Virginia Medical School struggled to diagnose what was going on.   On October 31, 2006, the pulmonologist had my ventilator turned up to 100% oxygen, but my blood oxygen wouldn’t even get up into the 90s.             I didn’t die.   (You might have noticed.)   Just in time, the infectious disease docs diagnosed a fungus that had taken over my lungs: something called histoplasmosis.   Histoplasmosis can be treated effectively, once it’s diagnosed.   So, long story short: After 32 days in the hospital, and two months recovering at home, I was able to return to full activity.             But I’ll tell you what: F

  (Another short piece I was happy to contribute to the Lenten devotional booklet for St. Martin's Episcopal Church, Williamsburg, VA) I love the Psalms, because they teach us how to pray.   We don’t need to be polite towards God, or to hold anything back from God.   We can be as honest, and as accusing, and as insulting towards God as we please!   God can take it.   That’s what we see all through the Psalms. But what about when a Psalm makes us ask: Is that what God is like?   That’s true in many Psalms, including Psalm 53, which is appointed for today.   “Fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they commit abominable acts; there is no one who does good…. They have all fallen away, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one.” I can certainly understand the Psalm writer’s frustration, because I’ve felt that way, too!  Haven’t you?  "How can you be so stupid ?"    (We think that, right?  You don’t actually