How helpful for Pope Benedict XVI to tell us whether we are in a church or not! This actually happened in a statement he released a couple of weeks ago, reasserting the universal primacy of the Roman Catholic Church.

It turns out, according to the Pope, that Orthodox churches are indeed “churches” because they have apostolic succession and that they enjoyed “many elements of sanctification and of truth.” But, according to the Pope’s statement, since they do not recognize the primacy of the pope, they suffer from a defect, or a “wound” that harms them.

(I’m not making any of this up.)

According to the statement, Protestant and other Christian denominations are not true churches but merely ecclesial communities and therefore do not have the “means of salvation.”

We’re even worse than defective!!

Actually, there is nothing new in this recent statement. It restates key sections of a 2000 document called “Dominus Iesus,” that the pope wrote back when he was Cardinal Ratzinger. The question (even among many Roman Catholic theologians) is why the Pope felt it necessary to reiterate such a harsh statement at this point. My guess is it’s because he just returned from his trip to South America and saw for himself how many Roman Catholics are leaving the church for Pentecostal denominations. He’s decided to respond with retrenchment.

Ironically, as it turns out, the Bible I’ve been using lately for my daily reading is the New American Bible, which is the translation officially-sanctioned by the “true church.” On one of the front pages of my edition, this is printed: "A partial indulgence is granted to the faithful who use Sacred Scripture for spiritual reading with the veneration due the word of God. A plenary indulgence is granted if the reading continues for at least one half hour."

“Hot dog!” I think to myself, “I read the Bible a whole lot! If I earn enough plenary indulgences, maybe it’ll get me back in God’s good graces -- even though I’m not a member of a church, but only an ecclesial community!”

Do you hear Luther turning over in his grave?

I have to take my anti-fungal medication on an empty stomach, and afterwards, to wait at least two hours before eating. So, 4:00 PM is a good time to take it in the afternoon (finishing lunch by 1:00 and not eating dinner untill 6:00). But I am to take two doses of the medication, 12 hours apart -- so that means taking the morning dose as close to 4:00 AM as possible!

I've been taking the medication for nearly eight months now, and it's remarkable how my subconscious has gotten into a rhythm of waking close to 4:00 AM.

In the dark, quietly padding through the silent house, I think of the monks who are at that moment gathered in the church at Mepkin Abbey for their first prayer service of the day: Vigils. Monks are called to pray for the health and salvation of the world. I am conforted by that, and feel connected to their prayer, in my dark kitchen, taking the medication necessary to maintain my health.

Last night Patty and saw the extraordinary movie, “Away From Her.” The big stars are Julie Christie and Olympia Dukakis. We saw the movie at the Kimball Theater, which means it will soon be out on DVD, if it isn’t already! (The movie is based on the equally extraordinary short story by Alice Munro, “The Bear Came Over The Mountain.” It’s in her 2001 collection, Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage.)

The story is about a husband and wife coping with the wife’s advancing Alzheimer’s disease. They have been married for 44 years, and there are references to their marriage which has had its rocky periods, but which has endured and is enduring. Based on my nearly three decades of experience as a pastor, I can say that the movie tells the truth in a deep and profound way.

On our way back to the car, Patty said, “What a sad movie!” And it certainly was. But it evoked many other thoughts in us. We’ve been married for 31 years, and the years have just flashed past. And, of course, I nearly did not make it to 31 years, with my health crisis of this past fall. And who knows how many more years we will be given?

This is not to be morbid or fatalistic. It is to remember, once again, that each day of health is a precious gift from God. We must not take a single day for granted. Instead, as a spiritual practice, rise each morning giving thanks to God for the gift of this day.

Riding my bicycle to the church building this morning, I was pedaling slowly on Jamestown Road, up the hill from Lake Matoaka, and I saw on the sidewalk, walking in an unhurried and nonchalant way -- A BEAVER!! On the sidewalk!!

I'm really glad I wasn't driving a car. I'm sure I would have missed this!

As Yogi Berra once (purportedly) said, "You can observe a lot just by looking." Especially while riding on a bicycle, at 10 or 12 miles per hour.

Yesterday I made my first hospital call at the Portsmouth Naval Hospital since moving back to Virginia. When I served a congregation in Virginia Beach, in the 1980s, I visited in that hospital a lot. Yesterday I experienced again the ego boost that I remember from those years!

The hospital is a naval installation, and so it is a world where people are used to uniforms and treating each other according to the rank that is indicated on the uniforms. Yesterday, wearing my clerical collar meant that I was wearing my uniform -- and my rank was high! Nearly everyone, enlisted and officer, met my eye and said, "How do you do, sir?" and "How are you, sir?"

I'll tell you one thing: Too much of this would erode my sense of humble servanthood!

I go out on my screened porch to read, but that's a difficult thing to do! There is such distraction! There is the blue bird, flying from a tree branch to the ground, and then to a gutter on the house, and then back to the ground, and then to another tree branch. What a beautiful, bright, primary-color blue he is! And there is the cardinal who lands on the butterfly bush, only 10 feet from where I am sitting! What bright, primary-color red! And there are the gold finches, dive bombing to land at the bird bath. What bright, primary-color yellow!

What is the more important gift: the reading, or the distraction? Certainly, it is the distraction that reminds me of God’s presence. (It’s like the old joke: how many burning bushes did Moses walk past before he finally noticed one?!)

It makes me think of an experiment that the Washington Post video taped. On a Friday morning this past January, a violinist, dressed in a sweat shirt and jeans and a baseball cap, laid his violin case open on the floor next to him and began to play during rush hour in the L'Enfant Plaza Metro station. In the next 43 minutes, as the violinist performed six classical pieces, 1,097 people passed by, many talking on their cell phones. Twenty-seven people dropped money in the case (a grand total of $32); nearly all of them were on the run. No one stopped to applaud any of the music. It was not until six minutes into the performance that the first person stopped. He looked at the time on his cell phone, and must have figured he had three minutes, because that's how long he stayed before leaving. Later, a small child insistently pulled on his mother's hand, wanting to stop to watch and listen, but the mother dragged him away in her hurry. Directly across from the violinist was a newspaper kiosk where people lined up, sometimes five or six people at a time. Not a single one of them turned around to pay attention to the musician.

Who was playing in the subway station? It was Joshua Bell, who is probably the greatest violinist alive, playing Bach and Schubert on his $3.5 million Stradivarius!

I wonder what you and I have missed lately, because we have not allowed ourselves to be distracted?

It is often in the distractions that we have the best chance of noticing God's presence.

Required reading: How Doctors Think, by Jerome Groopman, who is a medical doctor, teacher and writer. It's a book about how physicians come to diagnoses -- and how they miss diagnoses. Groopman does a wonderful job of reflecting on his own experience, and interviews many other docs, revealing the ways of thinking that lead to correct diagnoses, and how the thinking process can be cut short, causing errors to be made. Groopman also often suggests how patients can share information that is helpful to doctors in their thinking. Patients often don't do that!

A book for doctors and patients. I think that's all of us.