July 29, 2018 Pentecost 10, Proper 11
Pictures and text from this Sunday, July 29
The Week Ahead…
August 1, Village Dinner, 5pm-6:30pm. Serving Barbecue, Baked Beans, Corn on the Cobb, Cole slaw , Kahlua ice cream and cake
August 4 – 6 Virginia Sales Tax Holiday
Buy School supplies for the Village Harvest, Aug 15
Some of the items needed for school—paper, pencils, crayons, glue sticks, index cards, hand sanitizer, Kleenex, composition books, blunt tipped scissors, folders, and erasers. Complete list is here
August 5 – 11:00am, Holy Eucharist, Rite II
August 5 – 12pm Pot luck Coffee Hour
After church, join Shiloh Baptist Church for Friends and Family Day—food, games for children and adults, and fellowship.
August 5 Readings and Servers
Bishop Curry in Washington state
A wonderful series of pictures, text and videos of Presiding Bishop Curry’s trek through Washington state, June 14-17. The Diocese of Olympia in the western part of the state created an amazing presentation.
We extend our prayers to the Bishop this week as he undergoes prostrate surgery.
"I’m an optimist. I see a hunger and desire to be more than what we’ve been. I’m feeling a sense in the church that there’s a desire to be more than we’ve been. This church isn’t done yet. We’re at a blessed moment. We’ve got a window. We’ve got time. That’s what I’m seeing, even in dioceses where it’s really tough." – Bishop Curry
Lectionary, Pentecost 11, Proper 13 Year B
I. Theme – Living for God includes living for the welfare of others
"The Bread of Life" – Hermel Alejandre
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15
Psalm – Psalm 78:23-29
Epistle –Ephesians 4:1-16
Gospel – John 6:24-35
Today’s readings portray God as our ultimate provider and sustainer of both our physical and spiritual lives. In Exodus God feeds the people of Israel with quail and manna. Paul reminds his community that they must put away their old way of life and be renewed in Christ. In anticipation of his eucharistic gift of himself, Jesus declares that he is the bread of life.
We’ve interrupted our Liturgical Year B trek through Mark’s gospel for a five-week sojourn in the gospel of John, Chapter 6, the extended teaching about Jesus as the Bread of Life. In today’s gospel passage, John 6:24-35, Jesus cites the people’s history, an incident in which Moses gave their ancestors "bread from heaven to eat." As you would expect, Jesus will reinterpret that event and show (or hint) how God’s gift to the world in Jesus himself excels what God gave through Moses.
A unifying theme in today’s passages is the reminder that living for God includes living for the welfare of others, and not putting our own desires first, for our own desires lead to giving into temptations and lead us away from God. And our response to those in need must be to meet the needs first, not to judge or complain. We are called to help and heal, not blame and condemn. We are called to live out the life of Christ in our own lives, to seek to be last and servant of all rather than first and right. We are called to put aside our own desire to be right to do what is right.
Read more about the lectionary…
Voices, Pentecost 11
The Gathering of Manna, Bernardino Luini, c 1520, Detail
"One early, cloudy morning when I was forty-six, I walked into a church, ate a piece of bread, took a sip of wine. … This was my first communion. It changed everything.
"Eating Jesus, as I did that day to my great astonishment, led me against all my expectations to a faith I’d scorned and work I’d never imagined. The mysterious sacrament turned out to be not a symbolic wafer at all but actual food – indeed, the bread of life. In that shocking moment of communion, filled with a deep desire to reach for and become part of a body, I realized that what I’d been doing with my life all along was what I was meant to do: feed people."
-Sara Miles, Take This Bread
The God of Surprises
"This, you see, is the sacraments. Communion and baptism are God’s external and objective words of love and forgiveness, given in a form which we can receive, for, as we said last week, the sacraments are God’s physical, visible words for God’s physical, visible people…
"But God, you see, our God rarely does what God is supposed to do. For our God is a God of surprises, of upheavals, of reversals. And so rather than do what God is supposed to do, God does the unexpected: instead of pronouncing judgment in the face of our sin and selfishness, God offers mercy; instead of justice, love; instead of condemnation, forgiveness; instead of coming in power, God came in weakness; and instead of giving us a miracle, God gives us God’s own self. For as Martin Luther would remind us, the whole of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are summed up both succinctly and eloquently in the two words we hear when coming to the Table: “for you.” This is Christ’s body, given for you. This is Christ’s blood, shed for you."
– David Lose. President of Luther Seminary
"What is manna? Is it a Hebrew pun on mah hu, or as Everett Fox suggests, “Whaddayacallit”: What is this stuff? Is manna mountains of sweet insect excrement, as proposed by some scholars, or the stuff of legend, of a tale told over the generations about how, in some mysterious way, God gives us life? The New Testament’s version of this question is “Who is he?” – and Christians have told one another, over the generations, that in some mysterious way he is the life that God gives. Our manna is Christ."
–Gail Ramshaw, Christian Century, July 28, 2009
At the table
"Blessed are you Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made. It will become for us the bread of life."
– from the Roman Eucharistic Liturgy
"Whatever gets you through the Night"…Prayers at the close of day
From the New Zealand Prayer Book:
"Holiness; make us pure in heart to see you; make us merciful to receive your kindness and to share our love with all your human family; then will your name be hallowed on earth as in heaven.
It is night after a long day. What has been done has been done; what has not been done has not been done; let it be.
"Support us, Lord, all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, the busy world is hushed, the fever of life is over, and our work done; then Lord, in your mercy, give us safe lodging, a holy rest and peace at the last. God our judge and our companion, we thank you for the good we did this day and for all that has given us joy. Everything we offer as our humble service. Bless those with whom we have worked, and those who are our concern. Amen"
From the Book of Common Prayer (1979)
"O God, your unfailing providence sustains the world we live in and the life we live: Watch over those, both night and day, who work while others sleep, and grant that we may never forget that our common life depends upon each other’s toil; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
"Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love’s sake. Amen."
Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping; that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.
Lord, you now have set your servant free to go in peace as you have promised; for these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, whom you have prepared for all the world to see: a Light to enlighten the nations and the glory of your people Israel. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping; that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.
From Scripture:
|
2. Contact the Rev Catherine Hicks, Rector 4. August, 2018 Server Schedule 5. Latest Newsletter-the Parish Post (August, 2018) 6. Calendar 8. What’s new on the website 10. Latest Sunday Bulletin (July 29, 2018 11:00am), and Sermon (July 8, 2018) |
Block Print by Mike Newman
Projects
| Green | Ordinary Time | Jun 3-Oct 31 | |
3-Minute Retreats invite you to take a short prayer break right at your computer. Spend some quiet time reflecting on a Scripture passage.
Knowing that not everyone prays at the same pace, you have control over the pace of the retreat. After each screen, a Continue button will appear. Click it when you are ready to move on. If you are new to online prayer, the basic timing of the screens will guide you through the experience.
Daily meditations in words and music.
Your daily prayer online, since 1999
"We invite you to make a ‘Sacred Space’ in your day, praying here and now, as you visit our website, with the help of scripture chosen every day and on-screen guidance."
Saints of the Week, July 29 – August 5
|
29
|
Mary, Martha, [and Lazarus] of Bethany; also [First Ordination of Women to the Priesthood in The Episcopal Church, 1974] |
|
30
|
William Wilberforce, 1833, [and Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord Shaftesbury, 1885, Prophetic Witnesses] |
|
31
|
Ignatius of Loyola, Priest and Monastic, 1556 |
|
1
|
Joseph of Arimathaea |
|
2
|
[Samuel Ferguson, Bishop for West Africa, 1916] |
|
3
|
[George Freeman Bragg, Jr., Priest, 1940]; also [William Edward Burghardt DuBois, Sociologist, 1963] |
|
4
|
|
|
5
|
[Albrecht Dürer, 1528, Matthias Grünewald, 1529, and Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1553, Artists] |