Are We There Yet?

Dear Friends,

At long last, I'm finally updating my blogsite. No promises that this will become a regular thing, though. I'm afraid I'm terrible at journaling, too.

Anyway, I've posted a sermon at my podcast site. The permanent link direct to the new posting is http://frjonathanlandon.podbean.com/2010/11/14/are-we-there-yet/

I'd love to post sermons more often... but that would require PREACHING more often, which is something that hasn't happened a lot, lately. For one thing, I'm not the senior pastor of the congregation where I'm serving (the Liturgical Protestant service at Ft. Carson, Colorado). For another, I've had a lot of travel this summer and fall which has made me unavailable to preach. I've had to turn down two requests.

Anyway, I'd be glad to receive your comments on my sermon, especially if it ministered to you.

In Christ,
Fr. Jonathan Landon +

Home Again, Home Again, Lickety-Split

Well, I have returned!

The US Army Central Command Chaplain authorized me to depart Kuwait on 15 May. The US Army Central liaison at the Gateway (the airfield administrative area) said that due to the volcano erupting in Iceland, the weather in Kuwait and/or the rush of people going on rest and recreation leave (R&R) there was a backlog of people who had higher travel priority than I and I could not count on getting out of Kuwait until 22 May.

There's a policy in US Army Central that when you have been stuck in Kuwait awaiting a military flight for three days, you can request a commercial ticket; there's no guarantee you'll GET one, but you can't ask for it until you've been stuck three days. However the personnel office has the ability to look at the availability of seats on the military flights a few days in advance.

If I could get a memo from them that there would be no seats available for three days, then I thought perhaps I could get my commercial ticket authorized without going to hang out at the Gateway with no work to do for three days. Even if I did have to wait three days, better to wait three days in my OFFICE, where there's always productive work for me to do. So on the 15th, I went to the personnel office and asked the warrant officer who does such things to check on the availability of seats.

"Oh, we're not booked up," she says, "In fact, there's a flight leaving today at 2130 with plenty of available seats." (That's 9:30 pm, for you civilians.)

"What's show-time for that flight?" says I, meaning, "What time to I have to sign in at the airfield in order to be able to get on that flight?"

"12:00," says she.

I looked at my watch and and got an adrenaline rush as I noticed that the time was 9:30 am. The trip from Camp Arifjan to the airfield takes an hour and a half. That meant I had an hour to get my chaplain assistants back to the office, get my luggage loaded into the SUV and depart for the airfield. Fortunately, I had already packed - except for a few items that needed to be stashed in various corners of my luggage - and had my room inspected and completed all the administrative out-processing required.

My assistants grasped my sense of urgency, and drove with enthusiasm and focus. I won't say that we were speeding... but I won't say that we weren't either. So we made it to the airfield at about 11:25. I signed in and the sergeant at the liaison desk gave me a memo authorizing me to get a space-available seat on the flight, and told me to be in the departure briefing tent by 11:45!

From there, things went relatively smoothly - for me. Not so much for the staff at the Gateway, as we lost power in the briefing and administration tent twice, which created significant challenges for the staff, as well as making the travelers and staff alike very hot and cranky as we sat in the dark with no air conditioning while the tent rapidly approached the outdoor temperature of about 106 degrees Fahrenheit.

However, by about 3:15 pm we were through Customs. By the way, that involves unpacking EVERY bag and having EVERY item visually and manually inspected to ensure we're not smuggling anything dangerous onto the plane, or anything illegal into the US. Since I was not merely going on leave, but actually going home, I had two large duffel bags and a rucksack as checked luggage, and a day-pack and a laptop case to carry on the flight.

To keep the customs process more manageable, I had already mailed a footlocker and two boxes home. That stuff gets inspected at the Post Office before mailing, and reduces the amount of luggage you have to lug around the airfield and unpack and re-pack at Customs. There was a bit of an admin mixup, as the Customs inspector inadvertently gave me the customs form belonging to the Soldier to my right, and gave him mine, but that was resolved with a minimum of fuss and inconvenience. He discovered the problem and reclaimed his form from me, but somehow mine was mislaid and I had to fill out a new one.

Anyway, we made it through customs with time to relax for a little while. I phoned home to tell Becky that I did make it onto a flight on the 15th after all, but I did not know what time I would arrive in Atlanta. We ended up having to manually generate a passenger manifest, because of the power problems in the administrative tent, but other than that, everything went pretty smoothly. The flight was pretty uneventful, except for a philosophical discussion with the young agnostic who sat beside me on the aircraft.

After the plane landed in Atlanta on Sunday morning, we had to go through Immigration, Baggage Claim and Customs, then those of us whose final destination was Atlanta had to plop our bags BACK on a conveyor belt on which they traveled to the baggage claim at the terminal. I meant to phone my wife as soon as I got off the plane, thinking that in the time it took for her to get to the airport, I'd get through to the final baggage claim and have only a short wait for her to pick me up.

Strangely, I passed NO pay phones anywhere between the concourse where I deplaned, and the final baggage claim. I could have borrowed another Soldier's cell phone as soon as we got off the plane, but I didn't, because I thought I'd see a pay phone any minute and I didn't want to impose. Ironically, when I finally did get to the final baggage claim, and found a pay phone, I could not make my prepaid calling card work, and ended up borrowing a cell phone from a co-worker of mine - a Major who works in the Aviation section at US Army Central - who came in on the same flight from Kuwait... so if I were going to borrow a phone, I'd have been better off to just do so as soon as I got off the plane.

Anyway, put my luggage on a cart and went to hang out at the USO until the family came. Instead of going home, we went straight to church - with me still in the uniform I had been wearing for over 24 hours and smelling something less than daisy-fresh. We arrived about half an hour late for the start of the second service, walking in just as the children were blessed and sent out to Children's Church and the praise music began that immediately precedes the sermon.

Anyway, enough for now. The main thing is, I'm home, safe and sound, with my beloved family. I'll be on leave for a month, then go back to work briefly before signing out on travel leave, to move to a new assignment at Ft. Carson, Colorado.

Thanks for all of you who prayed for me and for my family while I was away. There is no doubt in my mind that your prayers brought me the spiritual help I needed to handle the challenges of separation from my family and the high pace of wartime military operations.

Little Things

Here is a devotional message that I delivered a while ago at the morning update brief at HQs, US Army Central Command in Kuwait. I don't usually do the morning "Word for the Day" but my boss called me that morning saying he had a severe headache and wanted to know whether I could cover for him.

“I had a commander, once, who used to say that ‘Superior organizations do routine things routinely well.” Doing great things, amazing things or tremendously difficult things and succeeding makes for great stories, medals and evaluation reports. The capacity to do those great things, however, comes from the commitment to routinely attend to details of readiness and sustainment, and the ability to maintain that commitment over time.
“The same is true in matters of faith. Taking regular times for prayer and meditation, for Scripture reading and for worship doesn’t bring public recognition or professional advancement, but it gives us the moral and spiritual fortitude – the readiness – to face and overcome the challenges of our lives.
“As Mother Theresa of Calcutta said, “Be faithful in the little things, because it is in them that your strength lies.”

The Long Silence & The Big Project

Hello, all. I'm afraid that I've been quite remiss in writing as I should. Now I'm past the half-way point of my six-month deployment and I find I've only written a very few Tales from the Sandbox issues.

The truth is that I arrived here with a greatly mistaken impression of what my job would be like. My predecessor advised me honestly about the amount of work he had while he was hear and the amount of free time he had, and I thought I'd have a pretty reasonable amount of free time. Instead, I arrived here and was presented with a new job description that's different from the one my supervisors applied to the chaplain I replaced. I've been VERY busy. Most weeks I've worked six days a week and a few hours in the office on Sunday afternoons as well.

I'm not complaining. The work is not a waste of time - or not much of it. There's always a LITTLE bit of that in any military assignment. I'm making important contributions and my supervisors here and in Atlanta tell me they're very happy with my work. But it is definitely rather more strenuous than I was expecting.

And on top of that, I've taken on a mission project that I feel is very important and it takes quite a bit of time and energy - both emotional and mental energy - invested in developing a fund to provide scholarships for young men and women in Africa who might never have much hope of attending college without help from outside their communities. I am a firm believer that education is second only to knowledge of Jesus Christ in improving the lives of individuals, families and communities. In addition to coordination and fundraising, I spend a LOT of time providing long-distance pastoral counsel.

For now it appears we lack only a one thousand dollar lump sum to meet the initial tuition, books and start-up supplies, in order to be able to launch the student career of our first beneficiary with a full-ride scholarship. Please check out the article, "New IDA Mission Project". If the link doesn't work for you, the URL is http://www.cechome.com/?p=1225.

Well, enough for now. Probably part of the reason I blog so infrequently is that I have SO much to say, I don't think I can write it all so I don't even start. A perfect example of self-fulfilling prophesy. I need to get my laundry from the dryer and go to bed. I'll try to write more and less - more often and less in length.

God's grace and love be with each of you.
Jonathan +

Chaplain's Corner Article

I wrote the Chaplain’s Corner article, reproduced below, to be published in The Desert Voice, January 15, 2010 edition. The Desert Voice is an official publication of US Army Central Command (historically known as Third US Army and commanded during World War II by Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.).

“The People Walking in Darkness Have Seen a Great Light.”

Actress and talk-show host Oprah Winfrey is very fond of speaking about the “Aha! moment.” That’s the moment when you suddenly understand a complex or vexing problem that has given you difficulties. …Or maybe it’s the moment when you finally see a solution that you have been looking for and had a hard time finding. Scientists have even found that the Aha! moment is connected to a measurable, physical phenomenon. Studies at Northwestern University, show such moments “light up the brain” with a burst of electrical activity that may show us making connections among facts and possibilities that we didn’t connect before. The studies also show that—if we're open to change and maybe even looking for some kind of change—an Aha! moment is more likely to happen.

Very early in Christian history, Christians began to observe a feast on the sixth of January, in remembrance of a special Aha! moment, when the wise men from the East came to honor the young child, Jesus. Eastern Christians call that observance the “Theophany.” Western Christians use the term “Epiphany.” Both terms come from the Greek and mean “the appearance or manifestation of a god.” Epiphany has also come to mean a sudden, intuitive insight, a burst of understanding or enlightenment.

Many mistaken impressions about this event have entered Western tradition. We don’t know how many wise men there were–only that there are three kinds of gifts mentioned: gold, frankincense and myrrh. We don’t know that they came to the stable on the night when Jesus was born—in fact he was certainly over week old and may have been as much as two years old when they arrived. Tradition has assigned names to them—the most common being Caspar, Balthazar and Melchior—but those names are nowhere in Scripture, nor in any record before the Sixth Century. They are often called “the three kings,” but in fact they probably were not kings.

However, from history and from Scriptures we do know something of the effect they had when they arrived. First, they most likely came from the Parthian Empire, representing enemies that Herod had driven out of Judea on behalf of the Romans, to seize the kingdom over which Rome had appointed Herod to rule. We can scarcely think Herod welcomed them cheerfully. Second, the throne of the Parthian Empire was unoccupied at the time, and the wise men of Parthia—also called “magi”—constituted a sort of Senate, which appointed the Emperor from among the eligible candidates. Herod certainly knew this and it would have added much tension to the idea that they were seeking a King. Third, they came looking for someone who was “born to be King of the Jews”. More than anything else, Herod feared and hated anyone who might be a threat to his crown. He even murdered his own children when he thought—with little apparent justification—that they were plotting to overthrow him.

What an amazing contrast. The wise men were driven by an event they saw as so important and powerful and joyful that they went far from their home, on a dangerous journey of at least two years, to a land ruled by an enemy. They brought gifts that were precious and rare, to bow down before an infant (or maybe a toddler) who they believed would bring wonderful and amazing changes to the world. They expected to find the child in a royal palace, but when they found him in very different circumstances they still welcomed and honored him. When they had worshipped him and given their gifts, “they departed for their own country by another way.”

On the other hand, Herod hated and feared this child, whom he had never met but whose birth he should have welcomed. Herod knew the prophecies of an eternal King from the House of David, and presumably—as a convert to Judaism—he should have welcomed the signs of this King’s coming. Instead, to save himself from the changes the child would bring—changes that threatened Herod’s sense of security and power—Herod ordered the murder of all the children in Bethlehem two years old or younger. Later, his conduct became even more bizarre, grandiose and paranoid. Eventually, he was struck down by a disease, which the Bible links to his pride and his arrogance.

We each have a mental and emotional image of what it means for us to encounter God in our lives, with expectations about how we will recognize this encounter and how it will shape our lives. Our expectations have been shaped by the religious beliefs we hold, by our family relationships, by the customs of our ethnic or cultural heritage, and by joyful, painful or traumatic life experiences. Whatever our expectations, history shows us some important things about encountering God.

First, encounters with God happen at times and places and in ways that we do not expect, no matter how much we think we know about God. We have to be open-minded and have some humility about what we think we know, or we are likely to fail to recognize those encounters. We’ll go to the wrong place, look for the wrong signs, and miss the wonderful and amazing changes and growth we might have received with joy.

Second, we have a choice about how we will respond. If we value the status quo, safety, security and stability more than we value God himself, we might respond with anxiety or anger, hostility and even destructiveness. On the other hand, if we value God for his own sake, and want to know him as he is—instead of as we think he should be—we have an opportunity to receive a joyful and transformative enlightenment that will bring new meaning and understanding to every part of our lives.

Third, having experienced an encounter with God, we can allow it to change our future paths and attitude—like the wise men who went home “by another way”, or we can continue the way we were going without God—like Herod who grew worse and worse to his own eventual destruction.

The encounter with God, the burst of insight, the Epiphany, happens in God’s own way, in God’s own time. However, whether we recognize it…what we make of it…what our lives become afterward, these things are largely up to us.

Chaplain Jonathan Landon is the USARCENT (US Army Central Command) Operations Chaplain (Forward). He is a priest in the Charismatic Episcopal Church. He represents the third consecutive generation of his family to serve in the Army, and has served for twenty-four years, in both Active and Reserve components, both enlisted and commissioned, in five military occupational specialties.

Note to the blog audience: I also provided the list of religious holidays below, in case the magazine needs a sidebar to fill some extra space.

RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES IN JANUARY 2010
Jan 1 - Mary, Mother of God - Catholic Christian
Jan 5 - Twelfth Night - Christian
Jan 6 - Epiphany/Theophany/Three Kings Day- Christian
Jan 7 - Nativity of Christ - Orthodox Christian
Jan 10 - Baptism of the Lord Jesus - Christian
Jan 20 - Vasant Panchami ** - Hindu
Jan 24 - Triodion begins - Orthodox Christian
Jan 25 - Conversion of St. Paul - Christian
Jan 30 - February 1 Mahayana New Year ** - Buddhist
Jan 30 - Tu B'shvat * - Jewish

Note for the blog audience... this is not a complete list of religious holidays in January, just the ones that represent major, world religions. If you're interested in more detail, check out the Interfaith Calendar

My latest craft project completion.

Becky and I made a stole for our friend, the recently-ordained Reverend Deacon Jim Gardiner. The embroidered design is one of my own - a modified Christus Rex, which Dcn Jim requested because the cathedral where he serves is the Cathedral of Christ the King.

It's "modified" in that--unlike the traditional Christus Rex in Catholic art, it doesn't have a crown or maniple. That's because it's made to match the cross over the altar in the cathedral, which also does not have those items.

Below are some pictures of Dcn Jim, serving at the Christmas Eve Mass at the cathedral and a scan of a test-sew of the design.

This is not a commercial, by the way. :-) It's just that I've been rather busy lately and have neglected to write, so this is one interesting thing from my recent history to write about. I actually finished the editing of the design here in Kuwait and had to email it to Becky for test-sewing. She made the stole all by herself, back at home, and it has received LOTS of compliments, from what Dcn Jim says. KUDOS, BECKY!