In 2004 I was working as Coordinator of the HIV Services Department in UMDNJ’s Federally Qualified Health Center in New Brunswick New Jersey. The staff consisted, in addition to myself, of two physicians, three Registered Nurses, three Clinical Case Managers and a handful of support staff. And it’s interesting that I started this job at a time when Ryan White funding – the funding that puts dollars directly into the hands of those who need it in local communities – it was a time when The Ryan White CARE Act was undergoing a great deal of change, due in large part to advancements in pharmaceutical therapies and a federal administration that de-prioritized health care for the neediest.

“We are what we eat!” Some of us have the luxury of choice in what, and how much, we eat. We have so much choice about food in our society that we rarely think about scarcity, and most of us have no concept of what it means to go to bed hungry. The US Department of Agriculture estimates that 40 million Americans struggle daily to get enough to eat. Half of those are children, and many are elderly. Yet in the US alone we throw away about 263 million pounds of food EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Wisdom is, decidedly, not knowledge. Knowledge may be power in worldly terms, but it’s not wisdom. And today’s gospel lesson highlights that truth in Jesus’ inimitable style. You see, we’re in the midst of one of those discussions that appear with some frequency in John’s gospel – think of Nicodemus and the question of being re-born, or the Woman at the Well and the notion of living water, or any number of encounters with the disciples…

Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

In today’s world, in terms of religion and meaning, it’s probably safe to say that two basic questions stand out: “How does God view the world?” (The basic theological question); and “How does God ask you to view the world?” (The basic ethical question). The significance these questions bear varies, of course, according to individuals and circumstances. Right out of the gate, it appears…

According to the Los Angeles Times, Ascension parishioner, composer and performer Eve Beglarian “is a humane, idealistic rebel and a musical sensualist.” She was awarded the 2015 Robert Rauschenberg Prize from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts for her “innovation, risk-taking, and experimentation.” Eve’s current projects include Descent, an immersive music-theater piece about a downed female aviator; the long-term undertaking A Book of Days, text/music/visuals, one for each day of the year; and Brim, the ensemble and repertoire she has created in response to her 2009 journey down the Mississippi River by kayak and bicycle.

Despite the suggestion that the tension between Jesus and his family or hometown may have been an on-going sub-plot of Mark’s story, Jesus rises above this first depiction of that tension, and provides himself an alternative. He gives himself a new name. By referring to himself as a “prophet”…