Frontpage July 7, 2013

 Block Print by Mike Newman

Projects 

1. St. Peter’s as "Theatre of Action" in 1835 

Jim Patton’s St. Peter’s files reveals an interesting incident at the Church before the 1836 consecration at the time the church was actually complete in December, 1835

Patton’s research into the Bernard family of "Gay Mont" revealed the following:

Eliza Skipwith, who lived at "Gay Mont" with her aunt, Mrs. John H. Bernard, wrote to her uncle in Richmond, under date of Dec. 14, 1835 –

"Since writing you last, instead of the ballroom & beaux, our new Church has been the Theatre of action. ‘Twas opened for the first time on Friday when we had a 3 days meeting, and several delightful preachers. Sarah Ann and I were most zealous in our attendance, indeed, I do not think they could have gotten along at all without us, at least in the singing line for we let our voices out most melodiously much to Mr. Hord’s apparent edification. I actually thought Sunday when Mr. Bowers gave us such a lecture about dancing with ‘frantic mirth and most ungodly glee’, that I would never be caught at such bad practices again, but we cooled off considerably on our way home, and John met us with a letter from the University saying several students were to be with us, so that I very much fear if they give me a chance, I shall break, through all my good resolutions, and caper away to the best of my abilities." 

 2. Enter our animal kingdom!

 Don’t see your pet ? Upload a picture

3. Prayer requests – Add a name to the prayer list here.

 Week ending Sunday, July 7, 2013  (full size gallery)

July 14- 11:00am-Holy Eucharist, Rite II 

Calendar

Sunday’s Readings   

July 4 Links from last week

Slideshow July 4 on St. Peters

"We Do – Life at St Peter’s" slides

"Visitor Brochure, updated July 4, 2013

"Historic Brochure, updated July 4, 2013

Adult Ed Survey

The Vestry is hoping that everyone will take a few minutes and complete this brief survey to help with planning for Adult Christian Education next year.

You can complete the survey online. You can also print one off here.

This Week – Focus on the "Good Samaritan"

Compassion without Boundaries -Background of the "Good Samaritan" in Luke

Some background of the Gospel of Luke provides insight of why this story appears in this gospel and no others. Luke wrote in the 80’sAD after both Matthew and Mark (and before John). Jesus resurrection was 50 years earlier.  He wrote it in Antioch in Turkey at a time when Christianity was expanding to the Gentiles all throughout the Mediterranean. How was Christianity to unite these peoples ?   

The issues are taken up in The Hidden Power of the Gospels: Four Questions, Four Paths, One Journey by Alexander Shaia. (We used this book as the basis for a Christian Ed class early in 2011).  Here is what he wrote:

“Nero had executed the Jewish Christus followers of Rome twenty years earlier, although persecution had not extended to Christus believers throughout the rest of the empire at that time. Then in 70 CE, Vespasian leveled the Great Temple of Jerusalem and massacred all its priests, throwing Judaism into total disarray. In the steps that religion took to survive, a process began that still resonates in the lives of Christians and Jews.

“The slaughter resulted in a complete lack of religious authority. The Pharisees, educated teachers of Jewish religious law but not officially con­nected to the Temple, stepped into the vacuum. By the mid-80s CE, the time of Luke’s gospel, their role had significantly increased. In many Jewish communities, their voices rose to roles of clear leadership. In others, they represented merely one of many voices struggling to advise how best to move forward in the face of great loss. Eventually, the Pharisees became the primary voice of the Jewish community, reunifying the people in the ab­sence of the Temple and its priests—but not before  Luke began to write.”

And as part of their ascension “The Pharisees advocated for the removal from Judaism of all variant sects who believed that the Messiah had already come. Chief among these were the "Followers of the Way"’ (the Christus sect), who maintained that the Messiah had arrived for the salvation of all people, not just Jew

“They carried pain, and some of them likely had a touch of ar­rogance attached to their lingering resentments. They had also migrated all over the Mediterranean basin, which presented them with persecution from another quarter. The Roman government was more than nervous about the Christus followers—it was terror-stricken.

"The fear of this message led to its oppression of the Christus communities—and the persecution increased steadily.

Read more….

The Good Samaritan – ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’

"Good Samaritan" – Van Gogh (1890)

This is one of the most practical Bible lessons.  

“Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? This is a basic, universal question that is asked by almost all human beings, even today. In Mark and Matthew, the question is more of a Jewish question. That is, “What is the greatest/first commandment of the law?” Mark and Matthew were asking a fundamental Jewish question; Luke was asking a fundamental universal question.

Luke was written to a larger world which he knew as a follower of Paul. This was the first time the idea of Dt 6:5 (“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” being combined with Levticus 19:18 (“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.”)

Jesus is challenged by a lawyer. The lawyer’s presence and public questioning of Jesus shows the degree of importance his detractors are placing on finding a flaw they can use. He is trying to see if there was a distinction between friends and enemies. Luke in the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:20 “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”) had eliminated the distinction and the lawyer was trying to introduce it again.  As Jesus’ influence with the crowds continues to grow, the alarm of the religious establishment grows as well.

His first question is “what must I do to inherit eternal life.” Jesus answers “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself. The lawyer follows up with a second question, also a very good one. If doing this, i.e., loving God and loving neighbor as oneself, is a matter of eternal life, then defining "neighbor" is important in this context. The lawyer is self-centered, concerned only for himself.

Jesus shifts the question from the one the lawyer asks — who is my neighbor?–to ask what a righteous neighbor does. The neighbor is the one we least expect to be a neighbor. The neighbor is the "other," the one most despised or feared or not like us. It is much broader than the person who lives next to you. A first century audience, Jesus’ or Luke’s, would have known the Samaritan represented a despised "other."

Of the four characters in this story (besides the robbers and the victim) – the lawyer, levite, priest and Samaritan – the first three were known in Jewish society. The Samaritan is the outsider.

Read more….