St. Ed Said

Happenings Lead Article March 3, 2026 The Rev. Aron Kramer Many of my reading resources this week have been filled with the idea of Beauty. At first I was a little annoyed, because it is Lent, and I know I have been a little more uplifting this Lent than I have been in the past. Not that I have been down in Lent, I just tend to focus, I think, more on self discipline and the penitential nature of the Season. But then I came across this little gem from Rumi: “Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” At first I thought Rumi was comparing ideas. The idea of the beauty we love being the beauty we do was inspiring. But having hundreds of way to kneel and kiss the ground seemed to minimize or shrink the idea of beauty. But then I saw it a little differently, beauty in our world tends to be held by the few, the powerful and the elite. There is a standard and an expectation about what beauty is. You have to look a certain way, behave in a ...

The Rev. Aron Kramer 2 Lent Sunday, March 1, 2026 When I was growing up, the Stillwater High School Football coach, George Thole, showed up to Church every February for a month to do his duty as an usher. It was his moment to try and recruit me to be the field goal kicker for the high school team. In hindsight, I should have taken him up on the opportunity. Shortly after I was ordained I was invited to preach at Ascension, and it happened to be a Sunday in February. Having been ordained for a minute, I was testing my chops with some of the old guard at Ascension. I was walking up to George when one of the long time members, someone who had had a long history in the military, walked up next to me and said to George, “It’s good to see you today, George, but you my friend, need to belong more regularly to the army of the Lord!” My mouth kind of dropped at that approach, I had a different quip in mind, but George responded without missing a beat, “Bill, I already belong to the army of the ...