Frontpage, February 9, 2020

February 9, 2020

“…let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” – Matthew 5:16

---

The Week Ahead…

Feb. 9, 4:00pm – Vestry.

Feb. 12, 10:00-12:00pm – Ecumenical Bible Study.

Feb. 12, 5:00-6:30pm – Village Dinner.

Feb. 14, 7:00am – ECM at Horne’s.

---

Feb. 16, 10am, Christian Ed – Genesis

Feb. 16, 11am, Holy Eucharist, Rite II – Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany.

Feb. 16 – Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany Readings and Servers

---

Epiphany Christian Ed on Genesis continues on Feb. 16, 10am

Genesis is foundational to the whole Bible, and to every human life. Genesis tells us who God is, who we are, how things went wrong, and the plan that God has put in place to return the earth to the way it was meant to be.

In Genesis, God’s purposes for the heavens and earth are distorted by sin spreading through all the earth. We saw this on Jan 19 with the deception of the snake and explusion of Adam and Eve from the garden. Here are the notes.

Even after Adam and Eve sin and are punished, the promise is given that the offspring of the woman will defeat the serpent and restore the earth. The focus is on one man: Abraham. Through him and his family God would bring blessing to all nations.

This promise is traced throughout the book in its genealogies, which provide the backbone of the entire book. Key divisions are traced by “These are the generations of,” tracing out the stories of key figures, starting with “the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 2:4–4:26), and going on to Adam (Gen. 5:1–6:8), Noah (Gen. 6:9–9:29), the sons of Noah (Gen. 10:1–11:19), Shem (Gen. 11:10–26), Terah (Gen. 11:27–25:11), Ishmael (Gen. 25:12–18), Isaac (Gen. 25:19–35:29), Esau (Gen. 36:1–37:1), and Jacob (Gen. 37:2–50:26). An amazing story, it is the longest book in the Bible.

Join us at 10am in the Parish House during Sundays in Epiphany as this pivotal book. Next week on Feb. 16 is The Courtship of Rebekah: Genesis 24:10-67

---

 What’s Happening with the Nursery ?

In 1965, Rector Fall reconstructed the old outdoor kitchen behind the Rectory and converted it into a one-room structure with wood-stove piped into the chimney. This became the art studio of Mrs. Fall and is now our nursery building. Originally there was a shed there.

The first of upgrades – a new roof during the week of Dec. 16, 2019. The work on the roof was donated. It was expected that the outside would be renovated. However, the outside was in worse shape than expected.

On February 5, 2020 the walls of the building had to be torn down due to old termite damage that had dangerously weakened the wooden walls. The back wall had completely rotted away.

The new roof has been saved and the Vestry will determine next steps in the repair.

See the story with slides and a video.

---

 Absalom Jones, Feb. 13

“Greater love has no man…” John 15:13

Religious denominations often accept members from other denominations that have been affected with adversities through policy decisions, change of beliefs or disagreements in relationships. Imagine coming to a new church after achieving success another denomination.

That’s what happened to Absalom Jones (b 1746), whose day we celebrate on Feb. 13, the day he died in 1818. Jones became not only the first trained black minister in any denomination but the first black minister ordained into the Episcopal Church and the first to create a Black religious organization in Philadelphia

Absalom Jones was born enslaved to Abraham Wynkoop a wealthy Anglican planter in 1746 in Delaware. He was working in the fields when Abraham recognized that he was an intelligent child and ordered that he be trained to work in the house.

He wrote later. .” I was small, when my master took me from the field to wait and attend on him in the house; and being very fond of learning, I was careful to save the pennies that were given to me by the ladies and gentlemen from time to time. I soon bought myself a primer, and begged to be taught by any body that I found able and willing to give me the least instruction. Soon after this, I was able to purchase a spelling book; for as my money increased, I supplied myself with books, among others, a Testament. For, fondness for books, gave me little or no time for the amusements that took up the leisure hours of my companions.By this course I became singular, and escaped many evils, and also saved my money.”

Read more about Absalom Jones

---

St. Peter’s Lent Page

St. Peter’s Lent page

The background of Lent, Lent online calendar, Christian Ed on Sundays and also online, lectionary, Holy Week and beyond

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday on Feb. 26.

---

 Lectionary, Feb. 16, Epiphany 6

I.Theme –   The joy and blessings of obedience Also, is the idea of building a new community through new behaviors (culminating in Matt 5: 37)

 

The lectionary readings are here  or individually: 

1A. Old Testament 1 Ecclesiasticus 15:15-20

1B. Old Testament 2 Deuteronomy 30:15-20

2.  Psalm– Psalm 119:1-8 Page 763, BCP

3.  Epistle – 1 1 Corinthians 3:1-9

4.  Gospel – Matthew 5:21-37  

The Old Testament and Gospel readings are linked around the older community in Deuteronomy (The setting is the plains of Moab, as the Israelites prepare to cross the Jordan into the Promised Land) and the new community in Matthew (Jesus at the Sermon on the Mount).  How do we get along in community ? The focus is the calling and teaching of disciples of Jesus. (Paul in Corinthians is centered on a related idea – being or becoming healthy as the body of Christ.)

Deuteronomy

In the four verses immediately preceding 30:15–20, Moses assures the people that the commandments of the LORD are neither too hard nor too remote. 
 
 Just prior to our text, Moses announces wonderful blessings for an obedient Israel and blood-curdling curses for an apostate Israel (chapter 28). These benedictions and maledictions are followed by a prediction of eventual exile (29:18–29) and return (30:1–10) . 

Having assured the people that what God commands they can do, Moses launches into his final call for a decision.

The choice is stark. "If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today…then you shall live and become numerous
But if your heart turns away and you do not hear… I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess."  Moses use of the word "today" is the hope for a new beginning.    

Like Matthew there is the emphasis on the creation of a new community. There is the need for a break with the past. However,  in the following chapter, it becomes very clear that both Moses and God know that the people will fail miserably. 

Psalm

The first section of the ‘long Psalm’ is an acrostic based on alpeh, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Like the other 21 sections of the Psalm, it consists of eight double lines. The longest acrostic Psalm, it is therefore constructed with great skill, which no translation can really convey. The choice of vocabulary is also rich, expressing different terms for what we very flatly call ‘law’. Although the Jewish celebration of ‘rejoicing in the law (simchat torah) was a later development in Judaism, the psalm expresses similar sentiments. As a Psalm extolling the torah, it has similarities to Psalms 1 and 19:7-11. These eight verses are a suitable general introduction to the rest of the Psalm.

1 Corinthians 3: 1-9 

Following on from the situation reported to him by ‘Chloe’s people’ (1:11), after a  passage dealing with ‘the message of the cross (1:18-2:16), Paul returns to the theme of factions in the church at Corinth. The intervening section emphasizes the cross as God’s wisdom. This stands in sharp contrast to the rivalry exhibited by the groups in the church. The metaphor of ‘growth’ is developed both in the imagery of the ‘child’, and also of the ‘field’. Paul’s favorite dichotomy of flesh and spirit is also brought to the fore. Nevertheless, the Corinthian believers are still Paul’s ‘brothers and sisters’, and fellow workers. Despite their shortcomings, although he does reprimand them he does not disown them. The fact that only Paul and Apollos are mentioned here (and not Cephas nor Christ, as in 1:12) probably reflects the history of the congregation’s founding and leadership by these two apostles. Paul might have taken some of the glory for this, but he refuses to do so. 

Matthew 5: 21-37 

The first four of the six ‘antitheses’ of the Sermon on the Mount are included in this reading (the final two are in next week’s reading). The quotations from ‘those of ancient times’ include aspects of both torah and tradition (halakah). The time-honored description of this section as ‘antitheses’ may be misleading, for although in part Jesus cuts across the interpretation of the law, he does not contradict or discard torah itself. Jesus’ own interpretation intensifies and internalises the force of the commands. 

Jesus also broadens the impact of torah/halakah, i.e. murder becomes an issue of anger and unforgiveness; adultery is broadened to include lust and stumbling-blocks in general; divorce and adultery are linked; and the making of vows is illustrated by specific examples and by the simplicity of Jesus’ teaching. 

The explanatory expansion of these commands by Jesus may also be understood as the root cause of the specific sin, eg anger or unforgiveness in the heart can lead to physical murder. 

Read more about this week’s lectionary…

---