Frontpage, March 17, 2019

Honoring Cleo Coleman. “In our midst today is Cleo Coleman, who is well-known in these parts for her amazing portrayal of Harriet Tubman, lest we forget Tubman and her witness to the importance of standing firm and pressing on where God is calling us to go.

“Cleo has remembered, and she helps us to remember, the saints who have gone before us. By her presence among us, Cleo helps us on a regular basis to restore our sometimes faltering belief in the fact that we are all saints, called to stand firm in the Lord and to press on and make God’s reign visible on this earth, both as individuals and as the Church. So Cleo, during the announcements, we have a gift for you.”

March 17, 2019 – Second Lent

March 17, 2019 – Photos

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The Week Ahead…

March 18 – 12pm-1:30pm – Hymnody with Susan Onderdonk

March 20 – 10:00-12pm – Ecumenical Bible Study

March 20 – 3pm-5pm – Village Harvest

March 22 – 6pm-8pm – Estudio Biblico Spanish Bible study

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March 24 – 10am – Children’s Education Living the Good News

March 24 – 10am – Adult Education – 1st Corinthians

March 24 – 11am – Holy Eucharist, Third Sunday in Lent

Sunday, March 24 Readings and Servers

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Lenten Links

We have a dedicated Lenten part of the website – Lent at St. Peter’s 2019  which a number of resources.

Just the Lenten Calendar

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Christian Ed during Lent

Sundays in Lent, 10am

Creating a Scene in Corinth:A Simulation explores 1st Corinthians through a book by Reta Halteman Finger which provides an introduction to the Greco-Roman setting of Corinth and a chapter-by-chapter survey of Paul’s letter and in turn leads to a simulation of a church.

Paul wrote this letter to correct what he saw as erroneous views in the Corinthian church. Several sources informed Paul of conflicts within the church at Corinth: Apollos (Acts 19:1), a letter from the Corinthians, the “household of Chloe”, and finally Stephanas and his two friends who had visited Paul (1:11; 16:17).

The participants divide into four factions – those favoring Paul, Apollos, Peter, and the Christ group (1 Corinthians 1:12). A brief description of the background and nature of the groups gives the participants a sense of their role in the recreation. The characters represent a cross-section of Corinthian society: they include slaves and freeborn, widows and singles, and a number who have suffered deprivation and sexual abuse – much like typical society in that day. The authors encourage the readers/actors to respond to the oral text of 1 Corinthians as if the church hadn’t yet solidified its authority as God’s revelation (as the original listeners did).

In many ways, the church at Corinth was a mess. partisanship, with the Corinthians factionalizing behind rival leaders (1:10–4:21; 16:10–18); incest (5:1–13); prostitution (6:12–21); celibacy within marriage (7:1–7); Christians married to one another asking about divorce (7:8–11, 39); Christians married to pagans asking about divorce (7:12–16); questions surrounding marriage and remarriage (7:25–40); lawsuits (6:1–11).

There were worship issues, including idolatry (8:1–11:1); concerns about women praying and prophesying in immodest ways (11:2–16); chaos in worship, with speaking in tongues and competing voices (chapter 14); inequality in the communal meal (11:17–34); denials of the bodily resurrection of Jesus and of Christians (15:1–58)

Corinthian Links

Introduction

1 Corinthians

A Visit to Ancient Corinth

Corinth video used March 10, 2019

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Fridays in Lent, 6pm-8pm

This class is an experiment in outreach to our Spanish brothers and sisters.

St Peter’s is one of six churches around the country that will be participating in an experimental Latino ministry for Lent. TryTank is providing all material for a Spanish Bible study (Estudio Biblico) and the Bible Study will be offered at St Peter’s on Friday nights in Lent from 6-8PM, beginning on Friday, March 15th. Claudia Villa, a fluent Spanish speaker, will be helping Catherine with this experimental project.

We need help organizing this class and promoting. Email Catherine with your ideas.

First week with the class.

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Way of Love – Last Wed of each month, 8am-10am

During Lent, everyone at St Peter’s will have the opportunity to learn more about a way of life called The Way of Love. This rule of life sums up the way we Christians are already trying to live. People all over The Episcopal Church have joined together to intentionally adopt this way of life in community, and individually. The Way of Love includes the following seven actions—turning, learning, praying, worshiping, blessing, going, and resting. Most of us already do all seven of these things but being intentional and also accountable to a group of people who have also chosen to be intentional will make The Way of Love a powerful spiritual vaccine that can keep us well, and able to walk in love with God and with one another

The 27th will be a breakfast. Way of Love ends just before Bible Study at 10am.

The Way of Love

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St. Patrick, March 17, 2019

St. Patrick, apostle of Ireland, was born in England, circa 386. Surprisingly, he was not raised with a strong emphasis on religion.  

When St. Patrick was 16 years old, he was captured by Irish pirates and brought to Ireland where he was sold into slavery. His job was to tend sheep. He came to view his enslavement of six years as God’s test of his faith, during which he became deeply devoted to Christianity through constant prayer. In a vision, he saw the children of Pagan Ireland reaching out their hands to him, which only increased his determination to free the Irish from Druidism by converting them to Christianity. 

The idea of escaping enslavement came to St. Patrick in a dream, where a voice promised him he would find his way home to England. Eager to see the dream materialize, St. Patrick convinced some sailors to let him board their ship. After three days of sailing, he and the crew abandoned the ship in France and wandered, lost, for 28 days—covering 200 miles of territory in the process. At last, St. Patrick was reunited with his family in England. 

Read more…

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Lectionary, March 24, 2019

I. Theme – We are called into faithful obedience

 “Parable of the Barren Fig Tree" -Alexander Master (1430)

"Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’"

The lectionary readings are here  or individually: 

Old Testament – Exodus 3:1-15
Psalm – Psalm 63:1-8
Epistle – 1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Gospel – Luke 13:1-9     

Today’s readings call us to faithful obedience. In the first reading, God’s promise to rescue the faithful summons us to a new relationship. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul looks at the experiences of God’s people in the past to show his readers how to live in obedience now. In the gospel, Jesus advises us to respond to calamities with a spirit of personal repentance.

Much of the text deals with the challenges of the wilderness, the hot desert in the Old Testament and Psalm and the need for new relationships . We who are given much squander our resources.

In any season, the garden is an organic model for a spirituality that is alive and growing. Each garden comes to maturity in its own time, producing its unique crop: figs or artichokes, pansies or sunflowers. Within each person lies this secret, sacred space. One person’s inner terrain cannot be compared to another’s; most people know intuitively which ground is barren, which is fruitful. Ultimately, like the fig tree, we are spared for our potential, not for anything we have done.

And if we are fortunate, kind gardeners sometimes intervene on our behalf. Friends “hear us into speech.” Coworkers make allowances. Someone takes us seriously; someone laughs with us; someone squeezes our hand in a tight spot. Family members forgive our all-too-obvious warts. Each gesture of respect and camaraderie stays the hatchet another degree, hoes the ground and manures it. With God’s grace fragrant as rain, we can come gradually to fruition. Sometimes, we can even become the compassionate gardener for another person.

The other bit of good news contained in this reading is Jesus’ interpretation of swift, violent death. While his hearers might be quick to read it as punishment for sin, Jesus knows that death will apply to himself as well. He who is sinless will also die a brutish death at the hands of Pilate.

We who hear about a disasters the moment after they happen can learn from Jesus that these events are not punishment for sin, but impetus for reform. 

Read more..

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