A Prayer for the Day(s) After Epiphany 2021

Sovereign Lord, as you prevail upon our nation’s leaders’ deliberations today, may the reign of your Spirit’s conviction preside and precipitate due and timely proper awareness of any complicity to rain down upon those among us especially in deep and dire need of repentance, both individually and corporately.

May “We the People of the United States, in Order to [continue to] form a more perfect Union, [re]establish Justice, [re]insure domestic Tranquility, provide [anew] for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,” over and over, once again this day reaffirm here and now the ordained establishment of “this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Let it be so by your grace, O Holy One, for such a time as this unto the glory of our Creator who has endowed us “with certain unalienable Rights”, among which of “these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

We make such “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for everyone” in our country and particularly on this present day at this prescient moment in time for “all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.” (1 Timothy 2:1-2)

In your holy name and redeeming mercy,
Amen

OPEN LETTER TO VICE PRESIDENT PENCE, MEMBERS OF CONGRESS, AND THE CABINET CALLING FOR THE REMOVAL OF PRESIDENT TRUMP FROM OFFICE

“We grieve for our country at this difficult time and continue to pray for the safety and security, and ultimately the healing of our nation. Holding those who have abused their power and participated in these immoral and tragic actions accountable, in particular the President of the United States, is one step toward healing.” (National Council of Churches, USA)
— Read on nationalcouncilofchurches.us/open-letter-to-vice-president-pence-members-of-congress-and-the-cabinet-calling-for-the-removal-of-president-trump-from-office/

The Aftermath of Epiphany 2021

Among a multitude of lines crossed by the federal executive branch of government in office at present, of which many took note much earlier leading up to this past Wednesday, it appears to have been the Day of Epiphany in more ways than one, particularly for those in the current outgoing administration.

The week’s egregious event(s) of grave concern on that day apparently provided for the timely tipping point at which the threshold has finally been breached, though not necessarily for some still staunch supporters as lingering holdouts albeit amidst diminishing returns.

It is disconcertingly even more so a suddenly saddening sordid sight. Now added to shameful memory in our nation’s consciousness as a disruptively grievous sobering site on which the incitement of unruly harmful forces was unduly sanctioned by a sitting commander-in-chief. No wonder the scrambling being witnessed in the defecation storm’s aftermath.

God help us all in the midst of our utter utmost brokenness as we the people seek again to be the people for one another whose government is meant to be of, for and by the people of these supposedly United States. America, may God shed God’s grace anew upon thee in the new year, hopefully redeeming the years the locusts have stolen. Lord, in your mercy….

On This Day Different From Other Days

“Instead, they were longing for a better country….”
—‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭11:16‬a (NIV‬‬) [after Epiphany]

Today, “in the desecrated chambers of democracy”, facing the aftermath of mob insurrectionists’ inundating the U.S. Capitol, the duly elected people’s representatives upon their duty and renewed vow to uphold and defend the Constitution of these United States are charged and blessed anew with the mandate and honor of rebuilding and reuniting our democratic republic toward a more perfect union.

O, U.S. of A., how deeply divided a nation of extremist polarizing factions are we in this present day…

As one nation under God, among fellow citizens of the undiscovered country, indivisibly called to prayerful intercession on behalf of one another with liberty and justice for every person, let us reject, renounce and refrain from inciting any and all seditionist tendencies and conspiratorial theorists’ efforts among us. May we instead engender, encourage and empower the best of us and the better angels of our nature for the greater good and common welfare of our shared humanity.

This is my heart in prayer, on this day different among other days, unto the holy One who intercedes for us before the throne of grace. O Lord, by your sovereign hand of redemption and reconciliation, let the healing of this our nation among all nations begin again, herewith in and under your mercy

Waiting While Wanting in the Wake of Wonder

The beginning of this month signals the end of Daylight Saving as we anticipate the annum turning of ecclesial seasons from All Saints’ Day through the Reign of Christ Sunday into Advent. I have just recently, once again, as if for the first time, rediscovered a reason why I am, at times, drawn to watch news reports and read articles in the paper and periodicals. Suddenly reacquainted with a keen awareness of what keeps driving me to keep abreast of issues and becoming more deeply prescient upon the recent and ongoing plights of our society today, still I endeavor to remain in hope. 

The sordid significant streams of self-disquietingly thoughtful reflection serendipitously sought by stewardship that, eventually, seemingly inundate, satiate and suffuse one’s inner life, apparently help reconnect me further with a continual desire to remember my father’s love and loves of life, family and friends along the journey of journeys unto eternity.^[1]

I miss my Dad. I yearn for whatever semblance of insightful paternal wisdom and fatherly advice he would generously, keenly and timely provide throughout life lived together with loved ones. 

I remember watching Dad in his retirement, intently viewing television for hours on end with focused concentration and undistracted attention toward various items in a variety of news broadcasts. There would be several sections of journalistically reputable newspapers strewn about after his reading them each day throughout the week and especially the Sunday edition of prominent publications hot off the press along with a diverse plethora of weekly and monthly magazines from subscriptions and sometimes nearby newsstands in town. This would inevitably well inform his contributions to stimulating dialogue in the casual course of engaging conversations with others. 

By his example, Dad inculcated in me a cultivating, captivating curiosity for currency in national and world affairs that would have untold repercussions on my developing certain principled views on civics and international issues. A lawyer, labor and business leader in his decades long career following higher education and training, subsequent to service in the Philippines under U.S. General Wainwright’s command during WWII, my veteran father’s acute and heightened sense of duty, righteousness and responsibility concerning liberty and justice for all was a poignant influence on his son’s worldview. It would later serve to strengthen my vocation in ministry upon encountering the theological approach of holding the bible in one hand and the published news in the other while praying through daily devotions with the offering of intercessions unto the One able to accomplish that which would address our concerns for the day. 

I am continuously seeking, searching for such tethered feeling of ancestral embrace with my father, imagined as though face to face. I constantly aspire toward that experience of parental approval uniquely obtained from the relationship key to a sense of identity as a man’s man can only derive from that one filial connection. It speaks to a familial interconnectedness. One realizes, albeit posthumously, that such transcendent inheritance is more pertinent and important to a farther extent than they had even already been aware of before. The reality of a parent’s impartation of prosperity in perspectives prior to their passing is wrought with similarity of sentiment on to one’s own progeny for posterity in perpetuity. 

We made a visit to his grave today on Veterans Day, Mom and I, plus a few among my younger daughters along with my son-in-law. They, their “Lola”/my mother, and I marked the time together in loving remembrance on 11/11 eleven years and two months after his departure from this earth, now over nineteen years since our nation’s terrible experience of world events on 9/11. We are left upon the aftermath in the wake of unspeakable grief and loss continuing on amidst times of global uncertainty amongst hundreds of thousands more afflicted and multiple millions affected through the present pandemic. I am bereft of sensibilities it seems at this point potentially desensitized to the dearth of dread for deathly disease plaguing the nation’s most vulnerable among us. I wonder what Dad would say today. 

With Gratitude for the Gift of Grace and Peace to Count it All Joy at Thanksgiving,     

—The Rev. M. Rex Espiritu 

---

^[1] “Now unto the [One] Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the Only Wise—be honor and glory forever and ever, Amen.”

At the Time of an Election

“Under your law we live, great God,

and by your will we govern ourselves.

Help us as good citizens

to respect neighbors whose views differ from ours,

so that without partisan anger,

we may work out issues that divide us,

and elect candidates to serve the common welfare;

through Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.”

— Book of Common Worship by Presbyterian Church

https://a.co/fJcP71h

the world, myself, on the sea-shore, the great ocean, undiscovered

…. on a new way of looking at the New Testament ….

“At a General Assembly luncheon in Birmingham, Alabama, in 2006, the then executive presbyter of Shenango Presbytery, David Dawson, introduced Kenneth E. Bailey as “the most important New Testament scholar in our generation.” ….five years before [Bailey’s memorial service was in California last May (2016),] Jim Walther, a New Testament scholar at Pittsburgh [Theological] Seminary [said,] “Ken’s work will be discovered and become widely influential fifty years from now.” (Pittsburgh, PA)
—Presbyterian Outlook

“In the introduction to the revised edition, Bailey laments the near invisibility of Arab Christians in the West today. Though “there are more Arabic-speaking Christians in the Middle East than Jews in the entire world,” he explains, most Westerners continue to think that all Arabs are Muslims. This is a tragedy for Western scholars of the Bible as the traditional languages of their Middle Eastern counterparts (Syriac, Coptic and Arabic) are generally unknown in the West. Though Western biblical scholars learn Hebrew and Greek, for 1,500 years they have been cut off from Eastern scholars who, Bailey writes, “are inheritors of the traditional culture of the Middle East and thereby the culture of the Bible.””

“In “The Cross & the Prodigal” and in all the books that followed, Bailey attempted to fill this lacuna in biblical scholarship by analyzing the stories of the Bible in terms of Middle Eastern culture as he learned and experienced it over the course of his long career. He also shared these stories with Middle Easterners in classrooms and villages in order to test his ideas and gain new insights. In addition, he studied medieval translations of the Bible in Syriac, Coptic and Arabic; examined Hebrew sources such as the Babylonian Talmud and the Midrash Rabbah; and consulted Arabic Christian scholars (both medieval writers such as Ibn al-Tayyib and modern writers such as Matta al-Miskin) to tap into their cultural observations as well.”

“Bailey’s most important book may be “Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels,” published in 2008. [He] gives prominence to those aspects of the Gospel story that have been misunderstood or overlooked because of Western ignorance of Middle Eastern culture.”

Kenneth Bailey: A scholar with a new way of looking at the New Testament

Kenneth E. Bailey’s first and
perhaps most well-known book

Wanting in the Wake of Wonder

I have just, once again, as if for the first time, discovered a reason why it is that I am, at times, drawn to watch news reports and read articles on current events of note through our present times, suddenly reacquainted with an awareness of what drives me to keep on keeping on being and becoming ever more abreast of issues with insightful perspectives to bear witness and to hopefully be deeply prescient upon the recent and ongoing plights of our society today. 

The sordid significant streams of self-disquietingly thoughtful reflection serendipitously sought that, eventually, seemingly inundate, satiate and suffuse one’s inner life, apparently help reconnect me further with a continual desire to remember my father’s love and loves of life, family and friends along the journey of journeys unto eternity.^[1]

I miss my Dad. I yearn for whatever semblance of paternal wisdom and fatherly advice he would generously, keenly and timely provide throughout life lived together with loved ones. 

I remember watching Dad in his retirement, intently viewing television for hours on end with focused concentration and undistracted attention toward various items in a variety of news broadcasts. There would be several sections of journalistically reputable newspapers strewn about after his reading them each day throughout the week and especially the Sunday edition of prominent publications hot off the press along with a diverse plethora of weekly and monthly magazines from subscriptions and sometimes nearby newsstands in town. This would inevitably well inform his contributions to stimulating dialogue in the casual course of engaging conversations with others. 

By his example, Dad inculcated in me a cultivating, captivating curiosity for currency in national and world affairs that would have untold repercussions on my developing certain principled views on civics and international issues. A lawyer, labor and business leader in his decades long career following higher education and training, after service in the Philippines under U.S. General Wainwright’s command during WWII, my veteran father’s acute and heightened sense of duty, righteousness and responsibility concerning liberty and justice for all was a poignant influence on his son’s worldview. It would later serve to strengthen my vocation in ministry upon encountering the theological approach of holding the bible in one hand and the published news of current events in the other while praying through daily devotions with the offering of intercessions unto the One able to accomplish that which would address our concerns for the day. 

I am continuously seeking, searching for such tethered feeling of ancestral embrace with my father, imagined as though face to face. I constantly aspire toward that experience of parental approval uniquely obtained from the relationship key to a sense of identity as a man’s man can only derive from that one filial connection. It speaks to a familial interconnectedness. One realizes, albeit posthumously, that such transcendent inheritance is more pertinent and important to a farther extent than they had even already been aware of before. The reality of a parent’s impartation of prosperity in perspectives prior to their passing is wrought with similarity of sentiment on to one’s own progeny for posterity in perpetuity. 

We visited his grave on Friday, Mom and I and three among my younger of six daughters. They, their “Lola”/my mother, and I marked the time together in loving remembrance on 9/11 eleven years after his departure from this earth, now nineteen years since our nation’s terrible experience of world events on September 11. 

By my father’s gravesite at midday on 9/11 with loving memory of songs and family in 2020

We are left upon the aftermath in the wake of unspeakable grief and loss continuing on amidst times of global uncertainty amongst hundreds of thousands more afflicted and multiple millions affected through the present pandemic. I am bereft of sensibilities it seems at this point potentially desensitized to the dearth of dread for deathly disease plaguing the nation’s most vulnerable among us. I wonder what Dad would say today. 

---

^[1] “Now unto the [One] Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the Only Wise—be honor and glory forever and ever, Amen.”

A Tale of War

Tuesday, November 10, 2009				A TALE OF WAR: Family members tell New Castle man’s World War II story		Tuesday, November 10, 2009 MARIANO AND NATIVIDAD ESPIRITU visit a World War II memorial on a return trip to the Philippines many years after the war. (Photo provided) By JOHN HODGE jhodge@thecouriertimes.com Bataan and Corregidor. MacArthur and Wainwright. Philippine guerrilla forces. The Death March. For most Americans those words are the stuff of history books or old movies about World War II. But for family members of the late Mariano [G.] Espiritu they are vivid, captivating tales they have heard many times. Espiritu, a New Castle resident, died on Sept. 11, 2009, at the age of 88. His obituary would bring goose bumps to any student of World War II, and certainly to any veteran of it. His wife, Natividad Espiritu, did not meet Mariano until after the war. But she, their children and their grandchildren know the stories. They’ve heard them over and over, and can repeat them in detail. Natividad and her son, the Rev. Rex Espiritu of New Castle, recently sat down for an interview about Mariano’s wartime experiences. Served Under General Wainwright The people of the Philippine Islands were looking forward to independence after 40 years as a U.S. territory and, before that, four centuries as a Spanish colony. But before independence was realized, they had to deal with an occupier: Japan. The Japanese occupied the islands in December 1941, just a few days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Mariano Espiritu was there, on the island of Luzon. He joined the army but fudged on his age to do so. “He was supposed to be 21, but wasn’t yet,” Mrs. Espiritu said with a laugh. “He lied about his age – just by a few months.” Early in 1942 President Franklin Roosevelt ordered General Douglas MacArthur to leave the Philippines to go to Australia and begin organizing the Allied counterattack. MacArthur left General Jonathan Wainwright in charge of the Philippines. It was Wainwright under whom Espiritu served. “There was an American officer going around looking for ‘bright young men,’” Mrs. Espiritu said. “He went to Mariano’s room and saw a lot of books.” The officer was impressed with how well-read the young man was. Mariano was immediate[ly] assigned to Wainwright. Narrowly escaped the Death March In the spring of 1942 the Japanese completed their conquest of the Philippines. The last two bloody engagements were the battles of Bataan Peninsula and the nearby tiny island of Corregidor – where Wainwright was holed up. “He (Mariano) talked about it in bits and pieces,” Mrs. Espiritu said. “He was taken prisoner.” Through quick thinking, Mariano escaped the infamous Bataan Death March, during which many American and Filipino prisoners died. “There were two groups of prisoners – the civilians and the soldiers,” Mrs. Espiritu said. “Mariano got into some civilian clothes and pretended to be the husband of a civilian woman with two children. During one of the moments when the Japanese were not looking, he jumped into the river and breathed through bamboo reeds.” Rex Espiritu expressed surprise at his mother’s recollection. “This is the first time I ever heard those details,” he said. But Mrs. Espiritu quickly pointed out how Mariano protected the woman he momentarily befriended. “She was afraid she was going to be raped by the Japanese. When the soldiers came toward her, my husband shouted ‘Malaria! Malaria!’ So they did not come close to that woman. They thought she had the disease.” Fought with guerrilla forces Mariano fled into the mountains and lived among the natives for a while. He eventually joined the Philippine guerrilla forces, which operated behind the scenes to harass and impede the Japanese occupation army. This led to further dangers for the young Philippine soldier. On one occasion his horse fell to bullets intended for Mariano. “The Japanese shot at him and missed, but hit his horse,” Mrs. Espiritu said. “Both he and the horse fell into a ravine. He hurt his elbow when he fell on the ground. He could not get medical treatment until after the war and his elbow was damaged until his death.” Most importantly, Mariano eluded capture again. He remained in hiding until MacArthur’s army landed in the Philippines in the fall of 1944 and began liberation of the islands. “Luzon was the last island to be liberated,” Mrs. Espiritu said. Hundreds of American and Filipino prisoners were set free, including General Wainwright himself. Espiritu was eventually reunited with his unit. Husband, attorney, labor peacemaker By virtue of the Tydings-McDuffee Act of Congress the Philippines became an independent nation on July 4, 1946, a year after World War II ended. Like thousands of his comrades, Mariano Espiritu took advantage of the G.I. Bill of Rights and went to college. He graduated from Far Eastern University in Manila and became an attorney. Much of his career was spent as a lawyer for the Mobil Oil Company in the Philippines. “I was still a high school student,” she said. “We worshiped at the United Church of Christ. That’s where we met. But I didn’t see much of him for a while because I entered the school of nursing at [the] University [of the Philippines (UP) — Philippine General Hospital (PGH)]. While I was there, I needed a partner for the junior-senior prom. I did not have a boyfriend at the time, so I asked Mariano to be my partner.” Throughout his career with Mobil, Espiritu worked to resolve conflicts between the labor union and corporate management. The Espiritus immigrated to the U.S. in 1972. They came to New Castle in [summer of] 200[5] to be closer to their son. The Rev. Rex has lived in New Castle since [January] 2005. In addition to Rex, Mariano and Natividad also had a daughter, Marina Espiritu Lutz, who now resides in Delaware. There are [seven] grandchildren. “God brought my father to deep lows and raised him to great heights,” the Rev. Espiritu said. In the meantime he met and married Natividad.
Content © 2010 the Courier-Times
Software © 1998-2010 1up! Software, All Rights Reserved

Inserted from <http://thecouriertimes.com/print.asp?ArticleID=242702&SectionID=23&SubSectionID=40>