Short-tails

A lot of good stuff has been going on out here, as usual. I just got back from Sunday bowling night. I haven't bowled since I was here a couple of years ago. We also had beach volleyball on Friday night, which I also hadn't done since I was last here. About 80% of the people are still the same, so it's almost like I never left.
I forgot to tell you some big Midway news last week. We have a short-tailed albatross nest on Eastern Island. That's big news because there haven't been any recorded nests of this endangered species outside of Japan. I've shown you pictures of these two birds a couple of years ago, and they've now got an egg that should hatch within the next week or two. We've got a camera on Eastern Island to keep track of them. It seems like our decoys actually worked.
I'll give you a few pictures that I should have shown you the last few weeks.

This is the female Short-tailed albatross on the nest (she's sitting by the bunch grass). She still doesn't have her full adult plumage yet (she's only about 8). They've been swapping out about every 2 weeks so far, but the male just showed up today (at only 11 days after his last shift).

This is the male. He's sleeping or has his head tucked most of the time so it's tough to get a good picture of him, . Plus, we keep about 150 ft away, so we don't disturb them. He's over 20 years old so he's got his adult coloring.

Here's a picture of the moon during the lunar eclipse on Dec 20. If you look at my old posts, I have a similar one from 2007. I would have put up a nice series, but I forgot to go outside until the moon was already orange.

We had a white elephant gift exchange on Christmas at the All Hands Club. The glass floats were popular and got stolen from people quite a bit. I ended up with a boxed wine. I can't compain about that. I just noticed something, the elves look a lot like our 3 volunteers and I never did see Santa and Darlene at the same time.....hmmmm???

We had a bingo night at Capt. Brooks on New Year's Eve. Yes, those are 4th of July decoration hanging from the ceiling.

Just an another albatross flying around at sunset. I hope I don't burn out my camera sensor by taking these pictures!

A Black-footed albatross is coming home, probably after a couple weeks of fine dining on caviar (flying fish eggs).

Baptism: The Springing Forth of New Things

The new year is a time for fresh beginnings: for evaluating the past twelve months; for arranging priorities and setting goals. Americans traditionally use the occasion for making resolutions which are commitments, hopefully, to change and improve. Yet, if we're honest, yearly resolution-making amounts largely to a game for a lot of folks. We even joke good-naturedly each year about our broken resolutions. In the post-holiday scatteredness, we may accomplish something for the short term, but eventually we find ourselves failing.

As believing persons, individually or as a community of faith, we can ill afford to renew our resolutions only yearly. We should, in fact, be keeping our commitments year-round. The root of our frequent failure might be because we disallow ourselves to become truly convinced of God's Word to us. As a result, we find our lives unfocused and ourselves spiritually off-center.

In today's reading from Isaiah (42:1-9) God assures us: "I am the Lord. I have called you in righteousness. I have taken you by the hand and kept you...I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other..." Paul Tillich writes: "...within the name, that which bears the name is present." There was an ancient idea that you could hold in your power a being whose hidden name you knew. If we scrutinize our faltering efforts to pray and to keep our other commitments, might we not admit that we often invoke or try to make claims on God's name in order to harness God's powre for our own purposes? God's name isn't empty; it bears power and Presence. That's why we dare not take it in vain, for though it surely has power to heal us and make us whole, it can also be our undoing if we try to manipulate it.

There's a way that you and I, individually or corporately, can take God's name in vain. It's when we become so comfortable, so self-assured that we think that we can explain or interpret God to others, or even to ourselves.When we become that proud and independent that God, we find ourselves actually pushing God aside and away from us. We find ourselves surprised and astounded at our lukewarmness, at our lack of anything but a superficial dedication as a "good Christian",  at the felt "absence" of God's presence. Perhaps that's God's way of helping us to realize our utter helplessness, and of giving us a chance to recognize anew that God is the center and the sole reason for our being who we are, individually or corporately.

When we, individually or corporately, become humble enough to learn how to speak God's name in what Tillich calls "the embarrassment of awe", and to respond by letting God take us by the hand and keep us, then, as Isaiah says, "new things...spring forth". Our baptismal covenant is a sign of such "new things" and of the power of God's name among us.

What all this implies, in this new year which begins with the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, and in this season of Epiphany, the manifestation of Jesus, is that we have a tremendous responsibility to continue allowing the name of Jesus, that is, himself, be at the center of our lives. The Letter to the Hebrews begins with an astounding statement, one which can keep us reflecting for the rest of this Epiphany season and in the lead-up to Lent. "Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word..."

You and I are called, by our Baptism, to let this Jesus be manifest, to be seen, in us. At the threshold of this new year the Lord of all asks us for more than a few nominal resolutions which will go by the wayside. He invites us to a firm commitment to examine our hearts and to make some radical inner changes: by letting ourselves be called "in righteousness"; by allowing ourselves to be led and kept by him; by being signs to one another of his Covenant; by bringing others, locked in their inner and outer dungeons and darkness, into the light of his Presence; and by living to the full each day the new life which he brings forth in us.

Therapeutic Massage with Lisa in Champaign Urbana, Central Illinois at Beads N Botanicals

Therapeutic Massage with licensed massage therapist Alisa Crouch. At Beads N Botanicals we had been searching for a great massage therapist since we opened two years ago. We've finally found her! We think she's wonderful and hope you will, too.

Looking to relax and let go of holiday stress?

Make an appointment to experience Alisa's healing and relaxing touch.
Cost: Regular massage: $65 per hour; $35 per half hour. 

Hot Stone Massage: $90 per hour.

 Alisa performs :Myofascial Release, Deep Tissue, Energy work, Hot stone,

 Pre-Natal & Infant Massage,

(Pet Massage and Corporate Chair Massage on location)

By appointment. Walk-ins when available.

Call 217-365-9355 to schedule an appointment.

Thursdays: Jan 6^th, Jan 13^th,  Jan 20^th  and Jan 27^th ,  2pm to 6pm. Feb. 3^rd, Feb. 10^th,  Feb. 17^th, Feb. 24^th

Epiphany: Living in the Saving Light

The word Epiphany, derived from the Greek epi + phaino [to shine out, become manifest], may conjure up in some minds the image of some kind of exotic pastry!

Isaiah (60:1-6 & 9) assures the returnees to Jerusalem from exile that their "light" has come. The poet speaks as if to bid someone slumped over in dejection and without hope or purpose to "Arise; shine!" Isaiah insists that God's saving light and glory has come to all the nations and peoples, even as they have come into the light. Things are changing for them. Their hearts, he says, will thrill and rejoice because of the abundance which God is about to pour forth on them. References to Midian, Ephah, and Sheba imply that all of Abraham's descendants are included in the promise fulfilled. They, just as the other nations, share in the saving light of God's glory.

St. Paul in a passage from his letter to the Ephesians (3:1-12) carries the same theme forward by speaking of the mystery, "made known" and "revealed". What God makes known is that the light of God's salvation, in the person of Jesus, has come for all. Jews and Gentiles aren't to discriminate, whether in the society or in the Church. That's a truth revealed by the Holy Spirit "to apostles and prophets", and holds true regardless of how the Ephesians or any others happen to interpret it. In this life we determine who our heirs will be; but when it comes to the inheriting of the Good News and all that it implies, only God has that privilege. The basic Gospel truth of the oneness of all, Jew and Gentile, can't become a reality automatically. You and I, as the Church, must not only preach it, but live as though we believe it. That means discovering ways, as individuals and as a community of faith, to share the Light with literally everyone we can.

In Matthew's Gospel (2:1-12) this theme takes the form of story theology. God, in Jesus, has come to save all. Matthew's whole narrative, generally as well as in this particular story, presents Jesus as the One who fulfills prophecy, and the One who upsets people's preconceived expectations. An heir of Abraham, Jesus is like another Moses and another David. Like Moses, he comes out of Egypt. Like David, he's born in Bethlehem. Yet, he's not simply the One to be "born king of the Jews". He's emphatically a child. Centuries before, Isaiah had said: "...a little child shall lead them". Those Jews who had an exclusively kingly, "adult" image in mind for the Messiah didn't take this very seriously. Small children are unlikely messiahs.

Yet, it's this Child of Bethlehem, with several non-Jewish forebears in his genealogy, who is recognized and honored as Messiah by foreigners, not by the Jewish leaders. In the Epiphany story Matthew prepares us for the two principal reactions of people to Jesus later on: homage, or rejection.

Matthew talks about strangers, Magi, sages from the East. The biblical text, by the way, doesn't say that they were "kings", nor all male, nor only three, nor that one was black, nor that they were named Caspar/Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. Possibly Matthew was thinking of Babylonian astrologers who studied the stars. About all they seem to have learned was that a king had been born in Israel. The Hebrew Scriptures were their guide in determining where he was born.

In speaking of the "star", Matthew may have been recalling the coming together, around 7 BCE, of the planets, Jupiter and Saturn, in the constellation Pisces, thus causing a bring light, an occurrence which happens every 794 years. In ancient thinking, Jupiter was the royal star belonging to the ruler of the gods and humans. Saturn represented the star of Israel. Or, perhaps, Matthew was thinking of a nova, a short-lived, but brilliant, light caused by an explosion of a white dwarf star. Such a nova seems to have appeared in the eastern sky around 5 BCE, according to Chinese records.

Nevertheless, the sages' message of Jesus' coming upset not only Herod the King, prince of duplicity and evil, but all of Jerusalem. Jesus' Epiphany was and is and should be deeply "disturbing". Cities, then as now, are symbols of power. The implication in Matthew's story is that age-old Jerusalem, the "city of peace", will never be the same. God's saving purpose is now unequivocally extended beyond the Holy City, beyond the people it represents, to all nations, and, indeed, to all people on the earth. Jesus, He saves, Son of the Most High, is Savior of all.

Once again this year, you and I have awaited and celebrated Jesus' manifestation throughout the Christmas/Epiphany feasts. But how are we to receive the Saving Light into our day-to-day lives again this new year, as well as to anticipate his coming as the fulfillment of all things?

The late Bishop Kenneth Untener (1937-2004), former Roman Catholic bishop of Saginaw, MI, once related a story about his family who lived on an island. On Saturdays his parents would often travel to the farmer's market in downtown Detroit to buy food. Before leaving, they'd assign their children Saturday chores, which were to have been completed by the time the parents returned. As soon as their parents left, the youngsters would have a great time playing baseball or whatever. When they figured it was about time for their parents to reappear, someone was posted on the shore with a pair of binoculars. The lookout's job was to watch the distant bridge in order to spot the family car heading home. It took about ten minutes from the bridge to get to the house. As soon as the lookout signalled, the youngsters would swing into action and work as hard as possible during that final ten minutes. Of course, they were never finished when their folks arrived, but they made a good show of making it look as if their labors had taken several hours!

That's one way to prepare for an arrival: scramble to get things ready when you figure that it's about time. But that's not a very appropriate way to prepare for the coming of Jesus, the Saving Light. How do you and I, the Church, prepare for the Lord's coming? The disciples thought the best way was to know exactly when it would happen. "Tell us," they said to Jesus, "when will all this occur? What will be the sign of your coming and the end of the world?" Jesus told them that no one knows the exact day or hour. There aren't any binoculars to spot it from a distance, despite occasional claims by fundamentalists and others to the contrary. [In fact, as of this writing, I heard recently of the latest "prediction" of the end-time: May 21, 2011. It happens to coincide with the birthday of my dear friend, Fr. Leo Joseph, OSF, who has terminal cancer. He jokingly told me that, of course, he'd planned this "grand exit" on his birthday and for us all to join him!] After squelching that idea, Jesus taught the disciples the only way to prepare: to simply make sure, every single day, that others -- the poor, the suffering, the homeless -- are the center of one's concern, bearing in mind, of course, that poverty, suffering and loneliness can take many different forms.

That wasn't just a casual remark by Jesus. It really was the bottom line of all his teaching in the Gospel of Matthew: "When the Son of Man comes in glory...all the nations will be assembled before him." We know the rest of that passage, which depicts God addressing two groups of people, telling them that the whole thing is based on how they've treated the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the ill, and the imprisoned. This was no parable or allegory. It was the real deal! If you haven't served these folks, then you haven't served God, because God is in them.

Scholars have long pointed to the text, "He who hears you hears me..." to demonstrate how Jesus identified himself with the Church's leadership. The stunning truth is that Jesus identified himself even more closely with the poor and suffering. "As often as you did it for one of them, you did it for me." Such works aren't reckoned as if they're done to him. They are done to him. The way that you and I, the Church, live our calling and prepare for the Light's coming into our lives daily is by responding, day in and day out, to his coming to us in the person of others: to anyone who is near and needing us most.

Christ: Center & Holy Wisdom of Creation

Over the past few months I've been reading about sophiology, the study of Wisdom. Two books, particularly, have given me much to think and pray about regarding the relationship between Christ and Wisdom, and the relationship of Christ/Holy Wisdom and creation, especially human beings: Sophia: The Hidden Christ of Thomas Merton, by Christopher Pramuk, and Sophia: The Wisdom of God, by Sergei Bulgakov. Pramuk's is an exciting appeal for the long-overdue recognition of Wisdom's centrality to contemporary theology and ecclesiology, and Bulgakov's is one of the finest explanations I've ever read of the relation between Scriptural accounts of Wisdom and each Person of the Holy Trinity. A warning: this isn't lectio divina for the fainthearted! It's intense and heavy. I don't claim to comprehend even half of it, but I think it's extremely relevant to our situation as Church today. I read recently a criticism of someone who is an avowed conservative regarding the way "liberals" present their take on contemporary theology.  The criticism was that you don't see much explicit mention of Jesus. Without engaging in a side-discussion of that statement, which could go on endlessly, it's a point, I believe, well taken.

That's why I was eager to share just the following few ideas, during this Christmastide/Epiphany cycle, from another great theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar, taken from The Glory of the Lord, Vol I: Theological Aesthetics, published back in the early '80's:

"The Incarnation of the Word means the most extreme manifestness within the deepest concealment...What is most familiar to us [humanity itself] is suddenly turned for us into a word and a teaching about God...

...The insignificant must be the appearance of what is most significant. We could understand it better if the hiddenness of this 'flesh' were supposed to represent the silence of the Word, God's pure concealment. But no: precisely this hiddenness is to be the speech in which God desires to make himself known definitely and insurpassably, beyond misunderstanding or confusion with any other human word...in Christ, humanity is disclosed along with God...God takes on human nature as his own and expresses himself from within it through the expressive structures of that nature's essence...God is able, therefore, to reveal in Christ, at once God and humanity...

...Christ...is the form [of revelation] because he is the content...If for a single moment we were to look away from him and attempt to consider and understand the Church as an autonomous form, the Church would not have the slightest plausibility...The plausibility of Christianity stands and falls with Christ's...

...The fact that Christ 'says nothing to me' in no way prejudices the fact that, in and of himself, Christ says everything to everyone. What is at stake here is the correspondence of human existence as a whole to the form of Christ...

...The gospel presents Christ's form in such a way that 'flesh' and 'spirit', Incarnation to the point of suffering and death, and resurrected life are all interrelated down to the smallest details..."

Well, that ought to give us all plenty to chew on until Easter!   

Back At Midway

I'm back at Midway after a couple of year break at Tern Island at French Frigate Shoals (not technically a break, but you know what I mean). Managing Tern Island was a wonderful experience, but it's also great to get back to Midway. I'll be the Wildlife Biologist out here now, and once again, I'm not writing this as an official USFWS blog, I'm just writing about some of the stuff that I see out here.

I've been really busy catching up on things here and I'll try to do a weekly blog, instead of the daily blog that I used to do. That was way too much work!!!

A lot has happened since I've been here, but a lot is the same. We have 16 people out here to count every albatross nest at Midway, so that's a big project, considering that there's probably over 400,000 of them. I've got the volunteers doing a lot of albatross banding in the plots where we look at survivorship of adults. We're keeping busy with Laysan Duck surveys every week. And the place looks great with all the work Greg and the Thai crew have been doing on invasive plants. I'm not going to put a lot of pictures up today, but you'll be seeing them each post.

This was my ride back out to Midway this time. Our usual plane was having some problems and the Coast Guard happened to be coming to Midway to Medevac a commercial fisherman who was dropped off on Midway. It was a good ride so thanks USCG!

There are still a lot of familiar faces out here, including Herbie the Hybrid, who I recognize from a few years ago.

The Laysan ducks are doing great. They are everywhere. When it rains, they take over every puddle in the road.

It's nice to see the orchard is still here for fresh oranges, grapefruits, lemons, and limes.

This ulua was a little too friendly. It was actually bumping into one of our visitors. It was a lot bigger than it looks in this picture.

Jesus: The Holy Name

St. Luke, in Chapter 2:15-21 of his Gospel narrative, gives us his understanding of the meaning of the Christmas event through words spoken to common sheep-tenders. The good news told them was: "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ [i.e., Anointed One of] the Lord." The child we've come to know as Jesus historically bore the Hebrew name Yeshua/Yeshua bar Joseph. The name derives from yasha = to be open, wide, free; to save. Jesus means He [God] saves.

In Jewish society, the name stood for the person and indicated something about his/her history, purpose and mission in life. Jesus' name was a fairly common one (e.g., the Hebrew Scriptures' equivalent: Joshua). There had been many "saviors". But in God's plan this Jesus, son of Mary and Joseph, was to be the Savior, the Anointed One of God.

You've no doubt heard, as I have, the oft-asked question: "Are you saved?" What that usually implies is something like: "Can you name a specific time/date of a religious experience or conversion??" Or, it implies that some common ground may exist in our conversation, i.e., "Are you part of the 'club'?? If so, then we can associate. If not, then you're suspect and my defenses are up." Sometimes the question is asked, meaning: "Are you a charismatic, or born-again, or evangelical Christian??" For many others, "Are you saved?" carries with it a negative connotation: "Are you saved, in the sense that you're not one of those 'worldly' people who smoke, drink, dance, etc."

When I hear that question, "Are you saved?", I'm reminded of the comments made by my son's school principal in a 1981 PTA newsletter:
"The greatest problem facing our world today is tat of man's relationship to his fellow man. How we resolve this problem will, in a large part, determine whether this nation, and even the world will survive. The human ability to accept others is the brightest light in the darkness of this world. Many of the world's religions point to this human ability as the quality by which man can prevent potential misery and even annihilation.

I am convinced that the answers to this problem lie within each of us. The light is there for us to use as individuals, as a community of persons, as a community of nations. Yet we continue to withhold ourselves from others -- we cut them off -- we don't believe in them -- we don't accept them as being one of us because of a difference in age, sex, color, viewpoint or speech. Darkness is nothing -- as soon as we turn the light on, it disappears. By providing even a little light, some of the darkness disappears.

At this time of year, just think what benefit we can provide for those who inhabit our small corner of the world and even for ourselves, if we turn on the light of affection, concern, sympathy, understanding and love for our fellowman. It is this giving of ourselves that this holiday season represents.

It is not so difficult to give of ourselves -- to open the gates of our attitudes -- so that we can share ourselves with those who may have differing viewpoints. Let this holiday season be one in which we exercise these gifts. It is our potential to give freely and lavishly of them."

Parenthetically, I hadn't read that for some years, until now, and I'm rather astounded at both the passionate simplicity of that man's message, and also the spot-on relevance which it has these 30 years later! On the face of it, there's nothing world-shaking in that statement; it's a simple, direct, practical message.

The simple meaning of "Are you saved?" or of "He saved us." or of "Jesus saves!" is that Jesus wouldn't withhold himself from any one of us. Jesus accepts us. He accepts us despite what we have been in the past and often are in the present. St. Paul describes our condition in his letter to Titus (3:1-3): "At one time, we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy..." This is how we are, and Jesus accepts us.

In his story about Jesus' birth, Luke speaks about light surrounding the shepherds: a symbol of wisdom and recognition that in Jesus we're saved, that he hasn't withheld himself from any of us. This giving and sharing is what the world is crying out for as it stands today at the threshold of this new year, 2011. The non-believers of the world don't generally criticize us Christians so much because of the fact that we believe, or because of our outward religious observances. But the one thing they do call us on is that we don't take our belief seriously enough to actually live it and practice it daily, without prompting from the priest or minister, or from the Church, or from organized religion. We Christians often seem not to understand or to take seriously the truth of the fact that "He saved us".

How can you and I live such that we do convey the reality of "He saves" to others? How do we live the Christmas event throughout the new year? My then 11 year old daughter, Nicole, unknowingly expressed something of an answer to this on Christmas Eve, 1981, when she left a note for Santa which said: "I hope you will bring me the things I put on my list. But most of all, I hope you will bring to all my family and relatives the things they really want..." Exercising the human ability to accepts others, not withholding oneself from them: that's how you and I enable Jesus to save us and others. It's really very simple. There are so many saving gifts which you and I can give to one another all year long: a smile; washing the dishes for someone else; forgiving an old grudge; passing on some good news, rather than a complaint or gossip; saying "Please" and "Thank you"; trying to understand another person's viewpoint, rather than dismissing them.

It's almost a national annual ritual to set about making resolutions at the beginning of the new year. Walter Scott suggests the following possibilities. Perhaps one or two may strike a responsive chord in you and give you a year's worth of motivation this year:

 No one will ever get out of this world alive.

Resolve, therefore, in the year to come to maintain a sense of values.

Take care of yourself. Good health is everyone's major source of wealth.

Without it, happiness is almost impossible.

Resolve to be cheerful and helpful. People will repay you in kind.

Avoid angry, abrasive persons. They are generally vengeful.

Avoid zealots. They are generally humorless.

Resolve to listen more and to talk less. No one ever learns anything by talking.

Be chary of giving advice. Wise men don't need it, and fools won't heed it.

Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged,

sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the wrong.

Sometime in life you will have been all of these.

Do not equate money with success. There are many successful money-makers

who are miserable failures as human beings. What counts most 

about success is how a man achieves it.

Resolve to love next year someone you didn't love this year.

Love is the most enriching ingredient of life.