Sunday, November 16, 2014 (full size gallery)
A mixed cloudy and sunny day. It has been much colder this week with highs in the 40’s. Attendance was excellent at 48. What was noticeable about the church was the removal of the paint from the pediment of the church and the continual removal on the doors and other features of the front. There have been thoughts of staining parts of the doors to emphasize the details.
Fall has progressed. Church yard covered. Trees along Market Street are particularly beautiful.
Andrea had her aunt (Myrtle’s sister) visiting from Florida and the Dukes had Carolyn’s mother. A big day of birthdays – 3 Longs – Alexander IV, Alexander V and Owen Long all born this coming week. A good turnout with most of the children from Godly Play. Michael was Gospel Bearer and took up the pledges at the offertory.
Bill Wick provided more details of the men’s Thanksgiving and Christmas – 2 families in each Thanksgiving and Christmas. One of the Christmas families has 3 young children. Since this is the church’s Christmas outreach, they need contributions outside of the Men’s group, the ECM
This was the first Sunday for the Samaritan’s Purse shoeboxes. 7 came in.
The Advent schedule gets under way next week even though first Advent does not start until Nov. 30. We have a 4 part Christian education, "Singing Mary’s Song" studying Mary’s role at the time and through the year. It will start 10am Nov. 23 and extend through 3rd Advent or Dec. 14.
This is the week of the Village Harvest distribution on Wed, Nov. 19, 3:30pm to 5pm. We have sweet pototaoes, onion, collards, soup, kleenix and recipes to provide. Thanks for the donations through October and Johnny Davis for gathering the fresh produce.
Last week Reading the Narnia Chronicles went well. It continues this week, Wed, at 5pm
The sermon continued the series on judgement. The sermon emphasized the more positive aspects of this week’s Gospel. Last week Catherine left off asking for the fuel for the lamps at the wedding banquet. This week it was answered – your life and what you do with it.
The Parable of the Talents shows two slaves doubling their master’s money but the third one intent on simply preserving what he had. The wealth of the third is given to the one with the most money.
Talents are given to us by God and we offer back to God what we can do with them. The sermon explored this with two examples – the creator of Costco, Bob Craves and the example of a soldier in Afghanistan. The sermon is here with the bulletin and the readings
After the service there was huge leaf fight among the children in the yard followed by a birthday for Owen Long.
Lectionary commentary by Canon Lance Ousley of the Diocese of Olympia:
Stewardship is a holistic endeavor of our lives expressing the integration of practice and belief. The poignant Parable of the Talents gives us a multifaceted look at elements of our lives that are part of the life of a faithful steward. The other readings this week obliquely point to this reality and can be drawn into this theme with skillful care.
Both reading options from Judges and Zephaniah reference the oppressive result of living a life disintegrated from faithful purpose. While these texts assign this "oppression" to God’s wrath the truth is there is underlying agony of disintegration of stated belief and practice resulting from a void of purpose. Israel, though they were chosen to be a vessel of God’s blessing for the world, had become self-centered in their lifestyle living in contrast to their created purpose. The text from Judges gives us a picture of repentance from evil ways through a cry for help to God and a message of deliverance from their oppressors. But the text from Zephaniah continues to drive home the point that dissolute self-centered living leads to destruction, really self-destruction, and that "silver and gold" cannot offer true salvation, no matter what the cultural claims are of riches.
The First letter to the Thessalonians encourages them (and us) to live into the call of holistic faith with constancy in our lives. The reality of the unknown nature of the Lord’s appearing sets us to be vigilant and clear headed at all times. This constant holistic approach to life makes us attentive to God’s moving in and out among us in our daily lives. Without this readiness in all aspects of our lives we are bound to miss God’s appearing at one time or another. Practicing our faith with the integrity of our whole lives in loving service gives us a vision to see God in our midst. And salvation is not something for the future, but rather it is for the continuous present lived and experienced in faith and love through all that we are and all that we have.
Jesus’ Parable of the Talents is layered with meaning that has huge implications on the holistic nature of stewardship and faith. A talent represents about 15-20 years of a common laborer’s wages and was the largest denomination in Jewish currency weighing about 75 pounds. Therefore, a talent easily could represent one’s life work. It also is important for us to keep in mind that this is the common laborer’s life’s work, speaking to the universality of the parable to all persons, not just the rich. Likewise, the responsibility of all people in faith, no matter their financial position or their giftedness, is to steward their lives and resources in such a way that upholds God’s kingdom coming to fruition in the world. In this way, God is calling us into partnership to be the Body of Christ doing Christ’s work in the world. The more we steward our lives in this way the more we will be blessed with the grace of ministry and joy of perfect freedom in Christ’s service. The term "slave" used in this text should not be avoided. It sets up the contrast between the oppressive slavery to fear and disintegrated faith and the joyous slavery to God’s kingdom life.
Jesus also addresses the safety of risking for God’s purposes in the world in this parable. While burying one’s "talent" was considered the safest form of "investment" for an agent of the rightful owner, Jesus encourages a more involved approach of truly investing in the purposes for which the talents are intended. Not to invest our talents for God’s intended purpose is to squander them and be poor stewards of these gifts. But Jesus exposes other implications on this failure of stewardship, too. Taking the safe way out is often motivated by fear and anxiety. These are oppressive forces and can cause great distress. Likewise, burying our talents is contrary to our created nature both as a human being and as a uniquely created individual that can be replaced by no other. The Parable of the Talents is not simply about financial stewardship but stewardship of the whole of our lives with all that we are and all that we have.
What Talents has God entrusted into your care and how are you investing them for their rightful Owner’s intended purpose?