Frontpage, May 2, 2021

Easter 5 – “Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches.”

May 2, 2021 – Easter 5

May 2 – 11:00am, Holy Eucharist,
In person in the church or on Zoom. – Join here at 10:45am for gathering – service starts at 11am Meeting ID: 869 9926 3545 Passcode: 889278

May 2 – 7:00pm, Compline on Zoom – Join here at 6:30am for gathering – service starts at 7pm Meeting ID: 878 7167 9302 Passcode: 729195

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May 3 – 6:30am – Be Still Meditation group in a 20 minute time of prayer Meeting ID: 879 8071 6417 Passcode: 790929

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May 5 – 10:00am – Ecumenical Bible Study through Zoom

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May 9 – 11:00am, Sixth Sunday in Easter, Holy Eucharist

May 9 – 7:00pm, Compline on Zoom – Join here at 6:30am for gathering – service starts at 7pm Meeting ID 834 7356 6532 Password 748475

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Follow Tucker in the World!

Follow Tucker’s travels through his Instagram site, main_adventure_life. The link is here

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Projects in May

3 projects for you to support – one local in the Caroline County, one in the Episcopal Church and finally one which is international but which ties back to local roots. Most end in May thought one on Jamaica extends through much of June. Support one or more or all!

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Four Sundays of May commemorating  agriculture, the Ascension, Pentecost and Trinity Sunday – are four feasts of great importance in the life of the Church.  They are distinctively “named” Sundays.

Rogation Sunday on May 9 (Easter 6) goes back to prayer and fasting in early Christian times for protection for crops from disease. It was also a reflection of the Roman holiday of Robigalia at which a dog was sacrificed to propitiate Robigus, the god of agricultural disease. In England they were associated with the blessing of the fields at planting. The vicar “beat the bounds” of the parish, processing around the fields reciting psalms and the litany. In Christian years it involved fasting and abstinence in preparation for celebrating the Ascension. Traditionally, Rogation days are the three days before Ascension Day on which the litany is sung (or recited) in procession as an act of intercession.

The Ascension (May 13, celebrated May 16) is usually described as marking the completion of Jesus’ ministry on earth as he returned to Heaven. But it is far more than that. It marks the exact moment when Jesus, Son of God, commissioned his disciples to begin the gigantic task of converting the whole world. As recorded in St Mark’s Gospel, Jesus said: “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned.”

Luke tells us that Pentecost (May 23) occurred a short time after the Ascension, and marked the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise, at his Ascension, to send the Holy Spirit on the disciples.

The gift of the Holy Spirit electrified these fearful followers – who only weeks before had run away when Jesus was arrested, and were still hiding for fear of those who had been responsible for their Lord’s death – and transformed them into men and women willing to lay down their lives for their faith, as many of them did.

The feast of Holy Trinity (celebrated May 30), though logically linked with the other two, was established much later. Although its existence was clearly stated in the New Testament, and early recognized as a doctrine of the faith, it was only when the Arian heresy – which denied Jesus was God – was spreading in the fourth century, that the church Fathers prepared an Office with canticles, responses, a preface, and hymns, to be recited at Mass. From these, the feast we now celebrate as Trinity Sunday gradually evolved.

Together, these latter three great feasts mark the promise which Jesus gave to his disciples, and its fulfilment in the Church on earth. As recorded by Matthew, the very last words Jesus said to his Apostles before going up to Heaven, were: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of time.”

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Rogation Sunday, May 9, 2021

Rogation Sunday, a time of celebration and prayer, is a time set aside to appreciate and recognize our dependence upon the land for our food and most importantly upon our dependence of God for the miracles of sprouting seeds, growing plants, and maturing harvest. 

The Rogation Days, the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Ascension Day, originated in Vienne, Francein 470 after a series of natural disasters had caused much suffering among the people.  Originally, the Christian observance of Rogation was taken over from Graeco-Roman  religion, where an annual procession invoked divine favour to protect crops against mildew.   Archbishop Mamertus proclaimed a fast and ordered that special litanies and prayers be said as the population processed around their fields, asking God’s protection and blessing on the crops that were just beginning to sprout.  

The Latin word rogare means "to ask", thus these were "rogation" processions.  The tradition grew of using processional litanies, often around the parish boundaries, for the blessing of the land. These processions concluded with a mass. The Rogation procession was suppressed at the Reformation, but it was restored in 1559. The poet George Herbert interpreted the procession as a means of asking for God’s blessing on the land, of preserving boundaries, of encouraging fellowship between neighbours with the reconciling of differences, and of charitable giving to the poor. The tradition of ‘beating the bounds’ has been preserved in some communities. In the latter   a group of old and young members of the community would walk the boundaries of the parish, usually led by the parish priest and church officials, to share the knowledge of where they lay, and to pray for protection and blessings for the lands. Others maintain the traditional use of the Litany within worship. In more recent times, the scope of Rogation has been widened to include petition for the world of work and for accountable stewardship, and prayer for local communities, whether rural or urban.

The Sunday before the Rogation Days came to be considered a part of Rogationtide (or "Rogantide") and was known as Rogation Sunday. The Gospel formerly appointed for that day was from John 16, where Jesus tells his disciples to ask, and ye shall receive. 

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 Lectionary, May 9, Easter 6

I.Theme –   A Community characterized by love

"The Endless Road"  –   Margret Hofheinz-Doring (1971)

The lectionary readings are here  or individually:

First Reading – Acts 10:44-48
Psalm – Psalm 98 Page 727, BCP
Epistle –1 John 5:1-6
Gospel – John 15:9-17 

Today’s readings urge believers to come together in a community characterized by love. In his sermon, Peter tells Cornelius of God’s work in Jesus Christ, thus opening the doors of the Church to Gentiles. The author of 1 John describes Jesus as God’s love for us, and calls us to embrace one another in that love. In the gospel, Jesus tells his disciples that they have been chosen to love one another; in this they will find perfect joy.

The great commandment, love God and your neighbor, transforms everything we do.  While we cannot describe the specifics of love, because love is always highly situational and concrete, a commitment to loving actions and attitudes is at the heart of our relationship with God and all creation.   Love embeds us in the fabric of relatedness, opening us to the creative energy of the universe and enabling us to become channels to others of the divine energy we have received. 

Acts 10:44-48 This missionary speech in today’s reading marks an important turning point in the outreach of the early Church. Many Jewish Christians feared and resisted the possible inclusion of Gentiles, but Luke makes clear that Peter himself (even before Paul) began the mission to the Gentiles under the direction of the Holy Spirit. 

Cornelius was a “God-fearing” Roman, one who worshiped God but had not adopted all of the Jewish religious practices. Cornelius receives the sacrament of baptism, but not before he and his gathered household receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This event marks a new Pentecost. The circle of Christian faith has now broadened to include the inhabitants of “the ends of the earth” (1:8). The Spirit first came to Jews (2:1-4), then to the despised Samaritans (8:14-17), and now to the Gentiles. 

Psalm 98 This psalm is closely related to Psalm 96. Its original setting may have been the enthronement festival of Yahweh, celebrated each year at the New Year’s feast of Tabernacles. In later times the psalm was interpreted to herald the lord’s final coming. It presents the lord, in faithfulness to the covenant, acting in history for the salvation of God’s people.

1 John 5:1-6 The writing of 1 John seems to have been occasioned by a schism in the community due to heresy, specifically the denial of Jesus’ humanity. The central theme of 1 John is that “God is love” (4:8). The significance of this statement is explored through repeated meditation that interweaves theology and ethics. Those who make the early baptismal confession, “Jesus is the Christ,” have assented to a pattern for their behavior. As God’s children, Christians are to love God and one another and to obey the commandments. Through trust in Jesus, the Christian may overcome the world.

John 15:9-17 Believers are to love one another with a love characterized by self-sacrifice. Thus while Christians are still "servants" (v. 15, literally “slaves”) of Christ in terms of ministry (see 12:26; 13:14-16), they are "friends" (v. 15) of Christ in terms of intimacy with God. In and through this relationship Christians are appointed to "bear fruit" (v. 16).

Read more…

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