Frontpage, Aug. 1, 2021

The Way We Were, July 25, 2021

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Pentecost 10 – Aug. 1, 2021

Aug. 1 – 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

From the 11am service – Flower arrangement during the service, impressionist view of inside the church, Rev. Bambi Willis was our supply priest with sermon on the Bread of Life, 3 church members who installed our new bell by the Parish house from the Volland family, Andrea explains the upcoming Jamaican mission trip to Bambi.

• Bulletin
• Pentecost 10 Sunday readings
• Lectionary discussion
• Sermon

 

• Videos, Aug. 1
• Photos, Aug. 1
• Description, Aug. 1

Aug. 1 – 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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Aug. 2 – 6:30am – Be Still Meditation group in a 20 minute time of prayer Meeting ID: 879 8071 6417 Passcode: 790929

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Bible Study on Wednesday 10am-12pm!

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Aug. 8 – 11:00am, Holy Eucharist

Aug. 8 – 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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Lectionary, Aug. 8, 11th Sunday after Pentecost, Year B
 

I. Theme –   Nurture and Community

"The Breadline" – Grigori Grigorjewitsch Mjassojedow (1872)

The lectionary readings are here  or individually: 

Old Testament – 1 Kings 19:4-8
Psalm – Psalm 34:1-8
Epistle –Ephesians 4:25-5:2
Gospel – John 6:35, 41-51  

Today’s readings constellate around the themes of nurture and community.  

We learn from David’s story (Tract 1, not in our readings) that violence breeds violence, that injustice must be brought to light. We know this is not easy

In 1 Kings  God nourishes Elijah for a journey that takes forty days and forty nights and he is constantly on the brink of not continuing it.  Poor Elijah was ready to die as he ran into hiding to escape persecution, violence and injustice.    In Psalm 34, the righteous also cry for help, for they are afflicted, broken-hearted and crushed in spirit. 

When the author of Ephesians says, “Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us,” he reminds us of God’s providence. Christ’s extraordinary sacrifice on our behalf manifested God’s love and power once again and gave us safe passage into a new life with God. These acts demand a response from us. We are challenged as much by God’s gifts as we are by the lack of them. Our conduct toward each other must reflect God’s outpouring of love toward us.   The author encourages Christians to be as loving as Christ to one another. 

The Gospel emphasizes God’s sustenance through Jesus who gives himself for us.  Jesus promises that he will save all who come to him.    But God will renew our strength, will give us courage and will continue to encourage us. Jesus calls us into this new life, in which we must stand against injustice but in nonviolent ways. We are called to lead by example, to love and forgive, to use our anger at injustice to bring about justice through peaceful means. We are called into this new life.

Jesus points out that the Israelites ate manna in the wilderness and they died. He is reminding the people that people do not live by bread alone—true life comes from the word of God. Jesus identifies himself with God. Those “taught by God” will come to Jesus to be fed the living bread for eternal life in that long-promised land where there will never be scarcity. Anyone who tastes this bread will never die. 

We need spiritual soul food not superficial fast food. We need the bread of heaven, embodied in earthly relationships; not spiritual quick fixes and easy answers. We feast on the Spirit when we see God in all things and all things in God.  We come to the unsearchable mystery of the eucharist with a joyful hush of thanksgiving in our hearts. Jesus sustains our souls with his life now and forever.

Consider: How can I imitate Jesus example of total, selfless giving?

Read more about the lectionary…

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The Ugly Duckling and John’s Gospel 

By Rev Anne S Paton, Minister of East Kilbride

Do you remember the Hans Christian Andersen story The Ugly Duckling ? Here is the outline:

"When the tale begins, a mother duck’s eggs hatch. One of the little birds is perceived by the other birds and animals on the farm as a homely little creature and suffers much verbal and physical abuse from them. He wanders sadly from the barnyard and lives with wild ducks and geese until hunters slaughter the flocks. He finds a home with an old woman but her cat and hen tease him mercilessly and again he sets off on his own. He sees a flock of migrating wild swans; he is delighted and excited but he cannot join them for he is too young and cannot fly. Winter arrives. A farmer finds and carries the freezing little bird home, but the foundling is frightened by the farmer’s noisy children and flees the house. He spends a miserable winter alone in the outdoors, mostly hiding in a cave on the lake that partly freezes over. When spring arrives a flock of swans descends on the now thawing lake. The ugly duckling, now having fully grown and matured, unable to endure a life of solitude and hardship anymore and decides to throw himself at the flock of swans deciding that it is better to be killed by such beautiful birds than to live a life of ugliness and misery. He is shocked when the swans welcome and accept him, only to realise by looking at his reflection in the water that he has grown into one of them. The flock takes to the air and the ugly duckling spreads his beautiful large wings and takes flight with the rest of his new family.

"The important bit that ties in with today’s reading is in the paragraph where the ugly duck realises who he really is. "He saw below him his own image, but he was no longer a clumsy dark grey bird, ugly and ungainly, he was himself a swan! It does not matter in the least having been born in a duck yard, if only you come out of a swan’s egg!" Jesus was explaining to the gathered people that it was the same with them. It does not matter in the least having been from Nazareth and born in Bethlehem, if only you are born of God."

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Thoughts by C.S.Lewis, Watchman of his generation

Psalm 130 – "My soul waits for the Lord, more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning."

Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1965), commonly referred to as C. S. was a British novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist.According to his memoir Surprised by Joy, Lewis had been baptised in the Church of Ireland at birth, but fell away from his faith during his adolescence. Owing to the influence of friend J. R. Tolkien and others, at the age of 32 Lewis returned to Christianity, becoming "a very ordinary layman of the Church of England". His conversion had a profound effect on his work, and his wartime radio broadcasts on the subject of Christianity brought him wide acclaim. Biography

“Love, in the Christian sense, does not mean an emotion. It is a state not of the feelings but of the will…The rule for all of us is perfectly simple. Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love your neighbor; act as if you did."

– C. S. Lewis

"Look for yourself & you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, & decay… …look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in

– C. S. Lewis Mere Christianity  

“Remember He is the artist and you are only the picture. You can’t see it. So quietly submit to be painted"

– C. S. Lewis

“There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him & bad when it turns from Him.”

– C. S. Lewis The Great Divorce

 "We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito  

– C. S. Lewis

 "Don’t let your happiness depend on something you may lose." 

– C. S. Lewis

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."

– C. S. Lewis

“Nothing you have not given away will ever really be yours.”

– C. S. Lewis Mere Christianity  

Read more thoughts

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