We celebrated Morning prayer. 

For Memorial Day remembrance and honor: 
O holy and blessed Trinity, whose very nature is the endless outpouring of self-giving love, we gather to remember all those who have given their lives in service and sacrifice for the welfare of their fellow citizens and the preservation of the ideals and principles which bind us together as a people.


We give thanks for all the men and women in uniform who have made the ultimate sacrifice in times of armed conflict; and we also pray for the victims of war in every land. In your mercy, wash away the stain of violence from every soul, enfold the departed in your loving embrace, and grant them eternal peace.


And we ask you to keep us ever mindful of the living veterans––many of them homeless––who continue to suffer the wounds of battle in body, mind and spirit.


In your merciful presence, we also remember with gratitude the ones who have lost their lives while standing up for justice and peace. May the example of their sacrifice remind us of our own duty to resist everything which demeans, oppresses or harms your precious and beloved children.


Grant us, we pray, wisdom in our national life, that we may never be eager for war, nor put our own interests above the greater good of the human family for which your Son Jesus Christ gave up his life. Teach us compassion, forgive us our pride, free us from fear, deliver us from evil.


And guide us toward that peaceable kingdom that dimly shines through all our hopes and prayers, when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the fierce will no more devour the small. May our weapons fall from our hands, our hearts find release from envy, and this warring world welcome at last your promised reign of peace.


O God of time and history, bring that day closer.  We pray this in the name of the Prince of Peace, Jesus your Son. Amen.



written by the Rev. Jim Friedrich.  Jim is an Episcopal priest, liturgical creative, filmmaker, writer, musician, teacher and retreat leader. His itinerant ministry is devoted to religious imagination and holy wonder. He lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington.  He blogs at the  Religious Imagineer
​episcopal.cafe/a-prayer-for-memorial-day/

Think about filling up a cup with water.
You can fill it only so far.

Once it has been filled to the brim:
And you try to add more water:
It overflows:
Spilling water all over.

The same is true of a sponge.
If you submerge it in water:
It becomes so saturated that it can’t absorb any more.
And then it begins to shed the water, and it drips off the sponge:
Spilling water all over.

Can we apply this truth to the human spirit?
Can we imagine someone becoming so filled up:
So saturated with something:
That he or she can’t take in any more:
And the excess spills all over?

I’ve felt this way before.
And I feel it so intensely with my work as the Director of a Church camp.

I ran the camp for seven years, and I remember one summer in particular.
midway through the season:
My heart was BURSTING with love for the kids at camp.
I almost couldn’t even stand it.
And I couldn’t even imagine my heart being able to hold any more.

It was before Louisa was born:
Before I had any of my own kids.

And I remember telling the bishops wife:
Who is also a dear friend of mine:
That I couldn’t imagine having a child of my own,
Because I couldn’t t fathom my hearts ability to hold even more love.

The bishops wife, a dear friend of mine: assured me not to worry.
(She had many children of her own. She knew.)

But I couldn’t conceive of it.

But that’s just the thing.
After Louisa was born:
I realized how right my dear friend was.
I realized that my heart isn’t meant to hold all of that love.
Instead, my heart is meant to burst open:

And overflow:
So that the excess spills all over.
So that it gets spread around on others.

When the cup of love overflows:
Or the sponge of love is over-saturated:
It’s not a mess:
Even though it spills all over.

It’s a GOOD THING.
Because the love overflows onto others:
And begins to fill them too.

And its infectious:
Kind of like laughter or a yawn.
When one person does it:
It spills all over!

God’s love can be kind of like that.
Imagine it.
Picture God’s love overflowing and spilling from the filled up one--
to the nearby one who benefits from the overflow.

In today’s Gospel:

That is exactly what Jesus is talking about.
We hear Jesus saying to his followers:
“Love one another. Just as I have loved you,
You also should love one another.”

For those who knew him best:
It was Jesus’ love that produced their love for others.
It was like water overflowing from the filled-up glass.
Jesus’ love filled them up:
And yet:
He kept on loving them:
Pouring more love into them:
So that his love could overflow onto more and more.

In the same way:
Jesus’ love fills us up so that we can let the continuing love that God pours onto
us, overflow onto others.
It’s kind of like that old blessing of Abraham:
You have been blessed to be a blessing:
In the same way:
You are loved:
To love others.

Or: As in my favorite bible verse,
From the book of first John:

We love because he first loved us.

Or as Jesus commands:
“love one another—just as I have loved you”

Jesus’ love is God’s love:
Gracefully and freely given:
With no strings attached.

God gave us Jesus:
Who IS that overflowing love:
So that we could SEE real love.

See it--
Not so much as a feeling, or excitement, or the longing of one person for another:
But rather SEE a love that is known by the life and teachings of the one who
shares the same humanity with each of us.

God’s love is in fact Jesus:
The person:
Love in action:
Love in life.

And this love in action:
This love in life that IS Jesus:

Isn’t stagnant.
It doesn’t just stay in our hearts:
It actively fills us and overflows from us.
Like a sponge that’s soaking wet,
Or a cup that’s overfilled.

It is the sacrificing love of the cross:
The care-giving love of the Good Shepherd:
The inclusive love that reaches out to the Good Samaritan, and under-served:
The difficult love that embraces our enemies:
The forgiving love of the prodigal son’s father.

And this love in action is Jesus’ commandment to us:
To love one another even as he had loved them.
To love even those who seem unloveable.

And not only that:
But this active, overflowing love is also the marker of who we are:
It’s a part of our identities:
Which is why Jesus also said:
“by this everyone will know that you are my disciples,
If you have love for one another.”

It’s kind of like that song:

“They’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

As we think about the quality of our lives--
As we step back to see how others might view us through our actions:
What will they see?

Will they see in us what Jesus commanded?
Will they see in us who we really are:
Ones who are overflowing with love:
Lavishing the overflow on others?

Most importantly:
Will they see Jesus?

Will they SEE Jesus overflowing from our hearts?

It’s important to note that Jesus gives this commandment to his disciples right
before he is arrested.
And he prefaces the commandment with this:
“Little Children, I am with you only a little longer.
You will look for me, and as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you:
Where I am going, you cannot come.”

Jesus knows that he will go away:
And that his followers:

Who he LOVES:
Must carry out his message and legacy:
That they:
And US:
Must let Jesus’ love overflow in our hearts:
And spill onto every one and everything else.

Because through this overflowing love:
Jesus will be seen in all the world:
In all of time.

“Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

Amen.

Have you ever noticed:
That important things happen in threes?
A genie grants three wishes.
There’s three little pigs:
And goldilocks and three bears.
The third times the charm!

The holy Trinity of father, son, and holy spirit:
The Devil tempts Jesus three times in the desert.
And on the third day Jesus rose again.

There’s tons more examples.
Three is a powerful number:
Not only in the Bible—suggesting significance in its imagery:
But also in the secular world:
In other stories that surround us.
Three has always been an important number for humans.

And its no different for us today.
Today’s readings might even suggest that three is a sort of “Easter Number.”
First of all: they provide us with three different appearances of the Risen Christ in
today’s readings.
And each of the three is quite unique.

In Acts:
Saul: who will be renamed Paul:
Begins his transformation and conversion after Jesus appears to him on the road.
But Jesus doesn’t appear in bodily form:
As the image of Jesus we might hold in our minds.

Instead, Jesus appears as a bright flashing light.
This bizarre appearance of Jesus is so bright:
That Paul is blind for THREE days afterwards.
Three days of blindness precede the completion of Paul’s transformation and
conversion.

The number three is important.

The second appearance in today’s readings is in the book of revelation:
John—the writer of the book—describes the risen Christ as a lamb enthroned as
King:
The lamb whom every creature on earth, under the earth, and in the sea sings
and worships for ever and ever.

And finally:
The third appearance of the day.
The one that at first seems the most normal:
Jesus in bodily form:
Appearing to the disciples and cooking them breakfast.

John:
The Gospel writer:
Even tells us that this breakfast on the beach was the THIRD time that Jesus
appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Important things happen in threes.

But that’s not even all.
After breakfast on the beach:
The risen Jesus will give Peter:
Silly, wacky, imperfect Peter:
Three opportunities to right his wrongs.

Before his arrest and crucifixion:
Jesus told Peter that he would deny him three times:
And sadly, the prediction came true.

Peter is accosted repeatedly by bystanders as he waits outside while Jesus is
being interviewed, and each time, he denies knowing Jesus.
Peter is absent at the crucifixion.
Peter is among the disciples who meet behind locked doors out of fear.
Peter is wackier, crazier and nuttier than ever in today’s story:
When he’s apparently naked in a boat:
And then hearing that Jesus is there, he puts on his clothes:
But then jumps in the water fully clothed.
It’s a silly detail in today’s story.

But it also reminds us that Peter is consistently a bit wackadoo.
He messes up.
He does things without thinking:
Out of both eagerness and shame.

Maybe Peter is a bit like us.

And yet:
Jesus STILL forgives him:
Jesus STILL gives him three opportunities to make things right:
Three positive parallels of his previous three denials.

After Breakfast, Jesus speaks to Peter directly saying:
“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”
Jesus asks him three times:
And THREE times:
Peter affirms his love for Jesus:
In an opportunity to undo his previous denial.

And Each time, Jesus says:
“Then feed my sheep.”

Important things happen in threes.
This is Peters moment of redemption.
This is when Peter gets to truly SEE what resurrection means:
That it means MUCH more than Jesus merely rising from the dead in bodily form.

Resurrection is also about forgiveness.
Even though the word “forgiveness” never appears in this story:
Forgiveness is certainly a large part of what is happening.

When Jesus asks Peter the same question three times:
And responds each time with “Feed my sheep,”
Jesus is extending Peter his forgiveness,
And also commissioning him to go further.
THREE times:
Peter is given the opportunity to face his risen lord and begin again.

It’s the real reason for resurrection:
The real reason for forgiveness.

There’s an old hymn, called
I come with joy to meet my Lord.”

“I come with joy to meet my lord:
Forgiven, loved, and free.”

That’s the reason for it all.
It’s what makes resurrection so important.
It’s true for Peter, and it’s true for us.
These are the deepest implications of the resurrection:
We are forgiven:
We are invited to start over.
We are completely loved.
And we have a job to do:
To tend and feed the sheep.

It isn’t just Peter’s story.
It’s our story, too.

When fear holds us back:
Love calls us forward.

When we’re naked, and exposed on the boat:
Bearing all of our shame and mistakes:
Jesus STILL comes to us.
Forgives us:
Loves us:
And invites us to Follow him in perfect freedom.

The resurrected Christ invites all of us:
To feed the sheep:
And to feed them as one who is completely forgiven:
Completely loved,
And completely freed.

Those are the three true implications of the resurrection.
That because of Christ:
We meet the risen lord
Forgiven,
Loved,
And freed.

Important things happen in threes.
And so if you remember anything:
Remember the three powerful things that resurrection has done for you:
Forgiven you.
Loved you.
And Freed you.

Amen.