Tuesday of Holy Week - Saint James Episcopal Church - Cottonwood Heights, UT - April 15th, 2014

         What a great return to Saint James Episcopal Church...the last time I was here was during Ash Wednesday for a noon service. This time I got to talk to the priest at the beginning of the service as well as another member of the congregation.

    The church was draped with the colors of Holy week...Red. Red for the suffering and blood, the action of the Christian story.

      The service began at the Baptismal font, where there was the confession of sin before Kyrie within the service and the readings. I love the High Church service, it seems designed to create as much reflectiveness as possible outside of a Buddhist meditation.

    The readings dealt with the idea of the Trinity and the first reading was God becoming the Son of Man and later Paul's letter to the Corinthians where he says the priests and ritual and the non-believers and wisdom. It perfectly expresses my hangups surrounding the supernatural and faith. To those who belief what happened is apparent, but if not...than you aren't going to get it. This goes for any great claims for me that involve some sort of supernatural premise.

   This was contrasted with the reading of Jesus knowing about his death and saying he will be bringing all people too him...which is a pretty universalist Jesus, which is a contrast of no one knowing the Father except through him...it really showed why there are so many interpretations of who Jesus was.

    The sermon focused on Jesus and how he used the Bible to inspire his action. I liked how the priest related to us using it to live like Jesus did...to live as he did. This struck me as practical and how the good can be taken out of the Bible and how it can inspire right action (just as it can inspire bad), but how following the actions of Jesus's action...caring for the poor, calling out hypocrisy...these are things that do make a difference and how I am inspired by the story of Jesus Christ.