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Notes from the Rector on Spiritual Development
From the weekly e-mail letter to the parish
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Click here or scroll down for a list of articles archived on this site
May 9, 2008
Touching Evil
Evil has touched our community. A teenager was, according to newspaper reports, murdered. Murder is horrifying. The thought that such evil may reach deeper into the community is more horrifying still.
"Touching Evil" was the name of a British television detective show from a decade or so ago starring Robson Green. I never quite got the title. The villains were always extremely nasty, so maybe the point was that every one who came into contact with one of those grossly evil characters was contaminated—including the detective hero. Like the folk story about the tar baby, if you touch it, you can't shake it off.
I think evil really is like that. Just touching it singes you. Grab it and you get burned. One family has been terribly burned. Our community feels singed, and worried about a spreading deep burn.
Theologians put natural evil—tsunamis, cyclones, cancer, birth defects—into one category. Death, which the Book of Revelation calls "the last enemy," perhaps stands for the whole lot—the "thousand mortal shocks that flesh is heir to," as Hamlet says.
Evil that human beings cause is in another category, because human beings have free will—that terrible power to choose to do wrong, or to allow wrong to be done to us, or to inflict wrong upon ourselves.
It isn't all that hard to recognize evil. Our initiation rite, the baptism service in the Book of Common Prayer, demands that we "renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God." When human choices corrupt and destroy human beings, evil shows itself.
Often, evil disguises itself as good, or more typically, promises a good outcome while asking us to ignore the destructive effects of getting there. But the destruction will appear, sure as night following day.
To become an adolescent is to become aware of both kinds of evil, the natural and the intentional, and to learn from harsh experience the true appeal of trying to remedy natural evils like disease and storm damage, as well as the false appeal of intentional evil that always results in suffering.
Those of us who are older, if perchance we have also become wiser, have become so by learning from the cause and effect sequence. If it is bad, someone will suffer. And it has proved life-giving to make decisions that reduce the amount of suffering in
the world.
I am willing to assert that no one has ever decided to reduce suffering by rejecting the appeal of intentional wrong-doing without first having learned from experience that touching evil means you or some other creature of God gets burned.
Our prayer as parents and grandparents is that those who are growing into adulthood can learn from a light touch only.
-Rev. Ben Brockman
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your e-mail address to subscribe@stpaulsfairfield.org
A letter to the St Paul’s Fairfield family about the 2006 General Convention of the Episcopal Church (USA) (click here for PDF of this letter)
Rector's Writings Archived on this site in PDF:
January Weekly E-mails:
Family Album, 1/5/07
We are All Italians, 1/31/07 |
August Weekly E-mails:
Our Parish Vision in Action, 8/17/06
Blameworthy, 8/30/06 |
February Weekly E-mails:
Where to Start--Feb. 6, 2007 |
September Weekly E-mails:
Unwelcome Gift, 9/6/06
Little Miracles, 9/16/06
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March Weekly E-mails:
Finding God when God is the Last
Thing on Your Mind 3/9/06
Waiting 3/15/06
The Provision of Strawberries 3/22/06
When Words Fail 3/28/06
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October Weekly E-mails:
The Point of Belief, 10/4/06
Returning--Labyrinth, 10/11/06
Losing Your Faith, 10/19/06 |
April Weekly E-mails:
Lighthouses and Ferry Boats, 4/3/06
Farewells, 4/12/06
Resurrection Appearances, 4/19/06
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November Weekly E-mails:
For all the Saints, 11/1/06
Wine, Worship, and Song, 11/9/06
Deciding on Hope, 11/16/06
A Car that Runs, 11/30/06 |
May Weekly E-mails:
The Core Identity of a Church, 5/3/06
Plots and Narratives, 5/10/06
Praying, 5/17/06
Communion and the Gated Community, 5/24/06
The Attitude of Gratitude, 5/31/06 |
December Weekly E-mails:
In a Pear Tree, 12/8/06
Good Intentions, 12/14/06 |
June Weekly E-mails:
Mission Otherwise Routine, June 7, 2006
Touching the Holy, June 14, 2006
Acceptable Risk, June 28, 2006 |
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Sermons Relating to the General Convention of 2003
From time to time people ask me about my views on the controversial action of the General Convention of 2003. The most efficient way for me to respond is to refer the inquirer to a series of sermons I preached at that time. They follow in this archive.
The sermons present my stance on the issue that divided the Convention, as well as my perception of the path for the future for this parish and for the Episcopal Church. -- Rev. Ben Brockman, Rector
Questions for the Clergy
For a time our St. Paul's Web site had a "Questions for the Clergy" feature. A few are retained here as being of possible continuing interest to readers. -- Rev. Ben Brockman, Rector
The Role of the Virgin Mary in the Episcopal Church
The Executioner as Murderer
Reports from the Rector
Report on Sabbatic Leave, March 7- April 18, 2005
© 2003 St.
Paul’s Episcopal Church, All Rights Reserved.
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