Nathan R. Hale

Non conformari

  • Early morning, an Easter poem

    Alleluia!

    The Resurrection of God-come-to-as-us-one-of-us–

    Jesus!–

    can only be

    the Declaration:
    no one else has to die–
    not
    one–
    to right the world,
    humanity is healed,
    true Light will always
    scatter the darkness,

    the Proclamation:
    self-preservation is wholly unnecessary because the Holy One
    never saw corruption,
    entrusting instead of defending,

    the Announcement:
    there is no King but Christ,
    making many nations one
    multi-lingual people of Redemption, answering to no State
    but Love,
    in Word, Spirit, Divinity,

    the Hope:
    humanity destined
    for divination,
    Creation-cosmos, restored at last!

    Angels sing with
    Sons of Adam
    and Daughters of Eve,

    –as we weep from relief,
    falling into the eternal rest
    of mercy and grace–

    Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God!

    To know you and
    to be known
    by you
    is to find you
    All in All,

    forever and without end.

    Alleluia!

    Photo by Jordan Wozniak

  • The profound goodness of God on display in the mystery of Holy Week is too deep to articulate with words. I can only direct my heart God in all the gratitude I have, and ask God in his grace to grant me more. Thank you, Lord, for the unending depths of your love.

  • In my experience, it seems the default position of many Christians towards their siblings in Christ is one of distrust.

    Often, there are good reasons for this.

    Other times, it’s really about a lack of faith in the power and provision of God in Christ–by the Spirit–to see us through relational risk and disagreement.

    Either way, God calls his people toward a kind of Spirit-powered love that results in well-founded mutual confidence over and against underlying, anxious suspicion.

    It is not so much about simply trusting people more per se, but rather a deeper entrusting of ourselves and our Christian family to Christ, so that confidence is built on the demonstrated desire for one another to have–above all–greater communion with Christ, in the non-violent, non-coercive, truthful-yet-graceful way of Christ.

    Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

  • All anyone truly has is the love of God in Jesus Christ and that love is everything, more than enough.

  • New vehicle. Hover-1 Alpha.

  • Why discuss potentially controversial topics in church?

    Why discuss potentially controversial topics in church?

    4 reasons:

    📖1) To educate the Church in light of the Gospel – in other words, to examine real-life, important issues in light of the teachings of Jesus, and together ask what then we can do with the Spirit’s help. Anything less is to undermine the total Lordship of Christ in our lives, and put an arbitrary limit on our discipleship.

    🤝2) To encourage the faithful – there will always be pressure to conform to the world’s ways of thinking, doing, being in regards to controversial topics. Speaking about them openly with Christ at the center allows us to encourage one another to be conformed to Christ.

    🌐3) To engage the world – our witness and worship is public. Speaking truth and bringing the Gospel to bear on controversial and important topics is an important way to proclaim Christ’s engagement with and sovereignty over all things.

    🕊4) To entrust ourselves to the Holy Spirit – when confront controversy openly together, in a spirit of truth, charity, and clarity, we are acting in faith that the Holy Spirit will indeed guide us into all truth and keep the Church of Christ together—not because we agree about everything, but because we are united in the love of Christ.

  • When we are found in Christ, his light becomes our light. His Spirit becomes our Spirit. We partake of the exact same divine nature as we are filled with the fullness of God the Holy Spirit.

  • Smoking a clay pipe

    A clay pipe can very inexpensively obtained from Pipes & Cigars. I got this one as a Christmas present this year. It offers a great, pure-flavored smoke, with some caveats:

    First, the bowl gets super hot, so be careful if–as I do–you have a habit of holding the bowl. You will have to adjust to grasping the stem in order to keep from burning your fingers.

    Second, since the entire thing is made out of clay, I found clenching as I am doing in photo to initially be not very pleasant due to the chalky texture of the material. I will say after some practice I’ve gotten pretty used to it. I don’t think it’s ever going to be as comfortable as other materials, but you figure it out, and if you’re not a big clencher it’s even less of a deal.

    There’s something very pure, unassuming, and honest about a clay pipe; the simplicity coupled with a quality, consistent smoke is what I find attractive.

    Fr. Nathan smoking a clay pipe

  • Replaced battery in my aging laptop… Been a loooooong time since I’ve done anything like this. Very cool that it was overall very easy. Are Dells still built like this? If so I’ll stick with them for my next laptop…

  • In last Sunday’s sermon, I tried to work out the distinction between capability (raw power) and credibility (real authority), and to communicate the transforming power and authenticity of Jesus’ divine love.

    The point is: while we can’t always trust every earthly authority and power has a corrupting effect on fallen humanity, the Good News is that God in Christ is always trustworthy.

    You can trust his love for you and for the world.