Soundings
By
Father David Fisher
Want to learn more from different perspectives about our lessons? Soundings is a an opportunity for our Clergy to provide different insights into our readings and scripture. You may not always agree with the Clergy's interpretations. But that is why Soundings was created. To invite thoughtful discussion. You are welcome to email the author of each article to provide your comments. Welcome to Soundings!
By Father David Fisher
What are we to make of in person church going after having been connected on Zoom? I don’t mean how to navigate the various protocols required by church and state in response to Covid-19. I mean, rather - having been told again and again that church is not a building but a living community - how ought we to reimagine church going in relationship to being church?
As we prepare to reenter our worship space I commend poems by two very different poets looking at sacred space from the outside, as it were: Phillip Larkin (who called himself an “Anglican agnostic”) and Emily Dickinson, whose faith resists parsing.
Read more: Reimagining Church
By Father David Fisher
And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. Mark 1:14
In “Desert Places” Robert Frost sees wilderness as a place of isolation, aloneness, and fear:
Read more: Desert Places
By Father David Fisher
“Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons. (Mark 1: 38-39)
From the perspective of those suffering from various afflictions – physical, psychological or spiritual - the most important thing to know about Jesus was His ability to heal.
But for Mark, demonic possession was different from sickness/illness, and exorcism was different from healing.
Read more: Casting Out Demons
By Father David Fisher
THE CURE OF TROY
Human beings suffer
They torture one another,
They get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured.
The innocent in gaols
Beat on their bars together.
A hunger-striker’s father
Stands in the graveyard dumb.
The police widow in veils
Faints at the funeral home.
Read more: The Cure of Troy; For a New Beginning
