“So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new” (2 Cor. 5)!

Joshua 5:9-12

 Psalm 32            

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32   

“God is faithful, and… will not let you be tested beyond your strength” (1 Cor. 10).   

Grace Cathedral, San Francisco 2C10

3 Lent (Year C) 11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Eucharist

Sunday 20 March 2022

Exodus 3:1-15

Psalm 63:1-8

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Luke 13:1-9

1. “Psilocybin Can Occasion Mystical-Type Experiences Having Substantial Personal Meaning and Spiritual Significance.” This is the full title of a peer-reviewed scientific paper published in the journal of Psychopharmacology (2006). It concludes that one can safely and reliably provoke a mystical experience (which the authors define as the dissolution of one’s ego followed by a sense of merging with the universe).

Study participants regard these psychedelic encounters as profoundly meaningful. Two thirds of them ranked it as one of the top five most spiritually significant experiences of their lives. One third called it the most significant one.

Griffiths, R. R., W.A Richards, U. McCann, and R. Jesse, “Psilocybin Can Occasion Mystical-Type Experiences Having Substantial and Sustained Personal Meaning and Spiritual Significance,” Psychopharmacology 187, no. 3 (2006): 268-83.

The Hebrew prophets read and interpreted signs and their mission was to help the people of God course correct — to prompt cultural, social, religious, moral change. Christians claim Jesus as prophet, priest and king, and in the Gospel according to Luke, the prophetic dimension of Jesus has a leading edge. So when we are gathered as brood, gathered into Christ's body, baptized into his life, ministry, death and resurrection, we are also baptized into Jesus' prophetic spirit. We are charged with change. The house that is left to us is not left to preserve as a museum, but to continually reform in the direction of right actions, right relationships, equity and justice in the world.

Lent 2C: Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 • Psalm 27 • Philippians 3:17-4:1 • Luke 13:31-35

While prayer, fasting and almsgiving are traditional Lenten practices, today the book of Deuteronomy suggests something really positive and wonderful.

Malcolm Clemens Young                                             Joel 2:1-2,12-17 Grace Cathedral, San Francisco 2C8 (Q6)                Psalm 103:8-14 Ash Wednesday (Year C) 6:00 p.m.                 Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 Wednesday 2 March 2022

Burning Out

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mt. 6).

In front of my high school there was a twenty-foot square of asphalt with a few concrete benches that was reserved as the smoking section. Kids there wore black rock and roll concert t-shirts, the boys had long hair and the girls wore shorter skirts with leather jackets. Kids called the students who hung out there burnouts. For many people, the whole identity of this group was simply reduced to their reputation for using drugs.

The kids called burnouts didn’t seem to care very much about grades or college or sports or clubs or being popular or pretty much anything else that mattered to other people. Perhaps this is part of what made them so attractive to me.

My burnout friends were also more sensitive to other people’s feelings. Oddly enough they seemed less self-absorbed. I knew that some of them had pretty hard lives at home, others had a difficult time academically. Because of this they knew what it felt like to suffer and to be misunderstood. This gave them a greater insight into other people’s feelings and shortcomings.

“[P]ut out into the deep water and let down your nets” (Lk. 5). I want to be perfectly clear before I start that I am speaking directly to you, to your heart… from my heart. This week you will hear so many words that do not matter. But this brief time is set aside for us to encounter God. I also hope to talk about the Cathedral mission statement, “Reimagining church with courage, joy and wonder.” The Very Rev. Malcolm Clemens Young, ThD Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, CA 2C5 5 Epiphany (Year C) 11:00 a.m. Sunday 6 February 2022 Isaiah 6:1-8 Psalm 138 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 Luke 5:1-11