July 8, 2018 Pentecost 7, Proper 9
From Left to Right: Bishop Curry leads the Austin revival service on July 7 an ecumenical gathering, the pigeon that mysteriously floated around during the House of Deputies meetings, BCP revision passed House of Deputies and onto the Bishops, Liturgy of Listening session on July 4 how the church had failed individuals, First of 3 in depth conversations – this one on racial reconciliation, July 6. See the Bishop’s "Way of Love" text, below
Pictures and text from this Sunday, July 8
The Week Ahead…
July 9 – 11:30am, Lunch to the trailer court
July 9 – 4:00pm, Vestry
July 10- Maymount Trip
July 11 – 10:00am, Ecumenical Bible Study
July 13 – 7:30am, ECM at Horne’s
July 15 – 11:00am, Pentecost 8, Holy Eucharist, Rite II
Sunday, July 15 Readings and Servers
Sabbatical Information
Catherine will be on sabbatical from Sunday, July 15 through Monday, August 20th. She will return to St Peter’s on Wednesday, August 22nd. Check out the details.
Lunch for the Trailer Court, July 9
Children journey to Maymont, Tues. July 10, 2018
Story, photos and a video are here. 14 youth and adults enjoyed their day there in Richmond.
They concentrated on the animal and nature exhibits. Maymont is home to hundreds of animals including mighty black bears, iconic American bald eagles, playful river otters and friendly goats.
Maymont is a 100 acre Victorian estate in Richmond developed by James and Sallie Dooley, who lived there from 1893 through 1925. The place remains much as they left it since it was donated to the City of Richmond at James Dooley’s death.
Keeping up with General Convention
The 79th General Convention of the Episcopal Church is going on Austin, Texas from July 5-July 13, 2018
1. Watch it online – Media Hub
2. Bunch of links
Here is our complete "keeping up" article
Way of Love, Spiritual Practices for the Episcopal Church (full size gallery)
A July 5 sermon by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry to General Convention meeting in Austin, Tx introduced the "Way of Love", spiritual practices to "help our church to go deeper as the Jesus Movement, not just in word, but not just in deed, either, but for real. How do we help our folk to throw themselves into the arms of Jesus."
There are 7 practices – Turn, Learn, Pray, Worship, Bless, Go, Rest.
Lectionary, Pentecost 8, Proper 10 Year B
I. Theme – Participation in Christ’s Ministry and Mission
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Amos 7:7-15
Psalm – Psalm 85:8-13 Page 709, BCP
Epistle –Ephesians 1:3-14
Gospel – Mark 6:14-29
Today’s readings invite us to reflect on our participation in Christ’s mission and ministry. A unifying theme in today’s scriptures is that when we try to be people-pleasers, when we say what others want to hear, we are denying the fullness of God’s intention for us. Rather, when we give ourselves over to God–when we authentically praise God with our words, our actions, our very lives–we find our own fulfillment and satisfaction in participating in God’s reign on earth. However, if we are like Herod, wanting to hear the word of God but wanting to please others, we end up doing things contrary to the Gospel. We talk the talk but don’t walk the walk, so to speak. God’s desire for us is the fullness of life, and in order to achieve that we must give ourselves fully to God’s ways of justice, love and peace.
Sometimes, like Amos, following God’s call is very difficult, even life-threatening. Amos defends his prophetic calling in the face of opposition from Israel’s rulers. In 2 Samuel, David brings the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem with song and dancing. The author of Ephesians reminds us that God has chosen us from the beginning to share in the redemptive work of Christ. Jesus instructs and sends out twelve disciples to share in his ministry.
We might expect a drum roll, or at least a lightning flash, when God chooses human beings to participate in God’s work. Yet in today’s readings we see a more human, humble face of the choice described so beautifully to the Ephesians. God “chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.”
Amos is an example of the lord’s stamp of destiny on responsive people, whom God may call from any modest quarter, fill with the Holy Spirit, and commission to speak God’s word. Amos had no credentials as a prophet, and sounds rather bewildered that he was called away from his sheep and sycamores. Nevertheless, he had no doubt that he had been divinely called to speak God’s word.
Like the people in Nazareth who turned a deaf ear to Jesus, so Amos’s listeners rejected his unpopular message. In less than fifty years, however, his prediction came true.
When Jesus sent out twelve disciples, they were ill-equipped by our standards—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, no extra clothes. Only sandals on their feet—to carry them to the receptive and away from the unreceptive; and a staff—a support for walking and perhaps a symbol of the shepherd’s profession. Neither were they prepared for their mission by understanding fully what it was all about. Jesus sent them out with a message that had made him offensive even to his own family. Yet something about him must have impelled them to go forth with the same message.
How then do we follow their model? Perhaps they show us that we needn’t have our own houses perfectly in order before we minister to others. Nor do we need to spruce up our credentials: apparently none of the disciples took theology courses in the seminary. Jesus calls them in their ordinary clothes, pursuing their usual routines. To do his work, it seems more important to have a companion than a new wardrobe.
Their willingness enables them to drive out demons and cure the sick. They discover powers they didn’t know they had. And people knew there had been followers of Jesus among them. These disciples had been chosen for an astonishing destiny.
Read more about the lectionary…
David Lose on Mark’s Death of John the Baptist story
David Lose is the president of Luther Seminary in Philadelphia
"Close reader’s of Mark’s story have noticed several things about this scene over the years that make it stand out: it’s one of the longest sustained narrative scenes in the Gospel, Jesus does not appear in it at all, it seems to interrupt the flow of the rest of the story, and it’s told in flashback, the only time that Mark employs such a device. Because of these features, the scene is not only as suspenseful and ultimately grisly as anything on television, but it is unlike anything else in Mark’s account and seems almost out of place, even misplaced as a story looking for another narrative home.
" Which has occasioned the question over the years as to why Mark reports it at all. Later evangelists must have asked the same question, as Matthew shortens it markedly and Luke omits it altogether. The majority opinion is that it serves two key purposes in Mark: it foreshadows Jesus’ own grisly death and it serves as an interlude between Jesus’ sending of the disciples and their return some unknown number of days or weeks later.
" But while these are undoubtedly plausible explanations, I think there’s another reason altogether, and that’s simply to draw a contrast between the two kinds of kingdoms available to Jesus disciples, both then and ever since. Consider: Mark, tells this story as a flashback, out of its narrative sequence, which means he could have put this scene anywhere. But he puts it here, not simply between the sending and receiving of the disciples but, more specifically, just after Jesus has commissioned his disciples to take up the work of the kingdom of God and when he then joins them in making that kingdom three-dimensional, tangible, and in these ways seriously imaginable.
"Herod’s Kingdom – the kingdom of the world and, for that matter, Game of Thrones and all the other dramas we watch because they mirror and amplify the values of our world – is dominated by the will to power, the will to gain influence over others. This is the world where competition, fear and envy are the coins of the realm, the world of not just late night dramas and reality television but also the evening news, where we have paraded before us the triumphs and tragedies of the day as if they are simply givens, as if there is no other way of being in the world and relating to each other.
Amos or Amaziah?
By Dan Clendenin for Journey with Jesus
Amos, Cologne Cathedral, 12th century
"It’s hard to read Mark 6 about the beheading of John the Baptist and not think about the grotesque images of ISIS. Whatever else ISIS is doing, it’s pimping religion for a political cause.
"And that’s exactly what this week’s reading from Amos is about.
"Amos wrote 2,800 years ago, but his prophecy reads like today’s newspaper. He lived under king Jeroboam II, who reigned for forty-one years (786–746 BC). Jeroboam’s kingdom was characterized by territorial expansion, aggressive militarism, and unprecedented economic prosperity.
"Times were good. Or so people thought.
"The people of the day interpreted their good fortune as God’s favor. Amos says that the people were intensely and sincerely religious.
"But theirs was a privatized religion of personal benefit. They ignored the poor, the widow, the alien, and the orphan. Their form of religion degraded faith to culturally acceptable rituals.
"Making things worse, Israel’s religious leaders sanctioned the political and economic status quo. They pimped their religion for Jeroboam’s empire.
"Enter Amos. Amos preached from the pessimistic and unpatriotic fringe. He was blue collar rather than blue blooded. He admits that he was neither a prophet nor even the son of a prophet in the professional sense of the term.
"Amos was a shepherd, a farmer, and a tender of fig trees. He was a small town boy who grew up in Tekoa, about twelve miles southeast of Jerusalem and five miles south of Bethlehem. The cultured elites despised him as a redneck.
"Furthermore, he was an unwelcome outsider. Born in the southern kingdom of Judah, God called him to thunder a prophetic word to the northern kingdom of Israel.
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2. Contact the Rev Catherine Hicks, Rector 5. Latest Newsletter-the Parish Post (July, 2018) 6. Calendar 8. What’s new on the website 10. Latest Sunday Bulletin (July 15, 2018 11:00am), and Sermon (July 8, 2018) |
Block Print by Mike Newman
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Saints of the Week, July 8 – July 15
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8
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9
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10
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11
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Benedict of Nursia, Abbot of Monte Casino, c. 540 |
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12
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[Nathan Söderblom, Archbishop of Uppsala and Ecumenist, 1931] |
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13
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[Conrad Weiser, Witness to Peace and Reconciliation, 1760] |
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14
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[Samson Occum, Witness to the Faith in New England, 1792] |
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15
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