Block Print by Mike Newman
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Link to the reports from Jan 15 Annual Meeting
Daily meditations in words and music.
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Saints of the Week, Feb. 5 – Feb. 12
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5
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[Roger Williams, 1683, and Anne Hutchinson, 1643, Prophetic Witnesses] |
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6
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The Martyrs of Japan, 1597 (new date) |
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7
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Cornelius the Centurion (new date) |
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8
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9
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10
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11
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[Frances Jane (Fanny) Van Alstyne Crosby, Hymnwriter, 1915] |
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12
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[Charles Freer Andrews, Priest and “Friend of the Poor” in India, 1940] |
Feb. 5 -Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
From Last week…
Sunday, February 5, Epiphany 5
Sunday Collage – Cooks at First Sunday Social, a one year old birthday, Souper Bowl collection, a play for the sermon on abundant life.
The Week Ahead…
Feb. 8 – 10:00, Ecumenical Bible Study
Feb. 10 – 7:30am, ECM at Horne’s
Feb. 12 – 10:00am, Christian Ed – Godly Play (preschool through 2nd grade)
Feb. 12 – 10:00am, Christian Ed – "God’s Kids" (3rd grade and up)
Feb. 12 – 11:00am, Holy Eucharist, Rite II
Sunday, Feb. 12 Readings and Servers
For the Village Harvest, Feb. 15
We’re collecting ingredients for chili, so please bring cans of kidney beans, or other type of beans, (you can also bring dried beans) and cans of tomatoes—diced, crushed.
Last Village Harvest distribution – Jan. 18. How are we doing ?
Sign up now for our Lenten study – "Five Marks of Love"
Our Lenten study for 2017 is jointly prepared by the brothers at St. John the Evangelist (SSJE) and Virginia Theological Seminary. This is the same partnership that brought us “Growing the Rule of Life” last Lent.
We will use this on Sundays as an intergenerational study over 6 weeks. It worked well last year for all age groups to add to the study and reflect on the comments of others. However, even if you don’t come to Christian Ed, you can follow along at home through daily messages from SSJE’s website with a short video.
“In this six-week series we will be examining and reflecting on the ways in which God’s Life and God’s Mission express themselves in and through us. Inspired by the Anglican “Marks of Mission,” we will look for signs of God’s presence and activity in our lives, in our communities, and in the world around us. Each week we will explore one of the “Marks,” using short daily videos, thought-provoking questions and activities, and prayerful discussions to reflect on what God is doing in our lives and in our world
You can sign up for the daily messages here. It is free. Do this now because Lent begins quickly March 1 with Ash Wednesday.
Read the text, watch the video, and reflect. You can share your thoughts , using #5marksoflove on your preferred social media. You can download the workbook if you wish as it is free but we will have copies on hand on Sunday.
Hymn of the Week — "Praise My Soul, the King of Heaven", Feb. 16
"Praise My Soul, the King of Heaven" was written by two 19th century Englishmen. Most notably, this hymn was sung at the wedding of the future Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, in Westminster Abbey, London, 1947.
The music was composed by John Goss who composed mostly church music. He was organist at St. Paul’s from 1838 onward in London. Queen Victoria knighted him in 1872. In 1876, Cambridge University awarded him a Doctor of Music degree. He also held the post of Professor of Harmony at the Royal Academy of Music for almost half a century.
Goss composed the melody entitled LAUDA ANIMA (Latin for the opening words of Psalm 103) for this text in 1868. He also contributed his original harmonizations, intended to interpret the different stanzas.
Henry F. Lyte wrote the words for this piece originally as Spirit of the Psalms, 1834. Lyte was a priest and excellent flute player. He is known for his ministry educating children and seamen for whom other schooling was virtually impossible while in Brixham, a fishing village. Each year Lyte organized an Annual Treat for the 800-1000 Sunday school children, which included a short religious service followed by tea and sports in the field. Lyte was also able to identify with his parish of fishermen, visiting them at their homes and on board their ships in harbor, supplying every vessel with a Bible, and compiling songs and a manual of devotions for use at sea.
You can hear this hymn sung in St. Paul’s in London where Goss was organist.
Lectionary, Feb. 12, 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…