Top – Composting the manure we have identified in our lives; Getting the list from the congregation before the service; After the service celebrating a 10th birthday ; Alexander Master’s 1430 illustration of the Gospel Parable of the Barren Fig Tree; Campbell Magnolia in bloom; Picture-perfect day at St. Peter’s
Pictures and text from this Sunday, March 24, 2019
The Week Ahead…
March 27 – 8:00am-10am – Way of Love Breakfast
March 27 – 10:00am-12pm – Ecumenical Bible Study
March 30 – 8:00am – Cleanup Day
March 31 – 10am – Children’s Education Living the Good News
March 31 – 10am – Adult Education – 1st Corinthians
March 31 – 11am – Holy Eucharist, Fourth Sunday in Lent
Sunday, March 31 Readings and Servers
Saturday, March 23 was a busy day around St Peter’s. Robert Bryan put together the new composter. Travis cut the grass. Eunice and Roger Key removed a truckload of plastic bags from the basement of the parish house to deliver to Trex for the bench that Trex will be making for us.
Elizabeth and Jim Heimbach and Catherine Hicks held a cooking class for a few children in the parish house kitchen. Anya, Amya, 8 year old twins, and their brother. Dae’Vionn, age 11, sliced vegetables and prepared a small salad with the help of Elizabeth.
Catherine helped the children make brownies and crescent rolls. Jim showed each child how to crack eggs open and helped each person prepare his or her own omelet. Raoul and Claudia Villa also joined in on the cooking adventure. After cooking all of the food, everyone ate. And then, we all cleaned up the dishes and the kitchen.
Read more and see all the pictures…
We held our Village Harvest food distribution March 20 (3rd Wed). Looking back this quarter, we are pleased to report clients enjoyed the highest distribution of pounds per person during quarter 1 in 2019 considering the last 4 years. The value per shopper is high – over $90 for the last two years based on $6 per pound.
We had a moderate turnout at 100 but a wide variety of foods at over 2,100 pounds characterized March’s Village Harvest. We served assorted meats, onions, mixed spaghetti noodles and pasta, yogurt crackers, carrots, coffee, assorted juices plus lots of canned items: sweet potatoes green beans collards spaghetti sauce, chili. Grocery products were 71% of the total, meat 10%, produce 9% and drink and dairy 10%.
We had more food in March, 2019 to distribute than at any time since May, 2018. Total pounds were 2,111 in March. For the quarter we distributed 4,890 pounds. While under 2018’s 5,474 pounds, it was well above 2017 (3,404 pounds) and 2016 (2,490 pounds).
Read more…and see all the pictures
Lenten Links
We have a dedicated Lenten part of the website – Lent at St. Peter’s 2019 which a number of resources.
Christian Ed during Lent
Way of Love and the Breakfast, 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.
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
Youtube video on Ancient Corinth
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.
So How’s Your Lent Going ?
We are halfway through Lent with Lent 4, 5 and Palm Sunday to go before getting to Holy Week.
So what are you doing for Lent and how it is going? What should you be doing? Lent is a journey – part of it is looking inside, removing things and taking on new things – building up. The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby suggested the following in 2015- "At the individual level it draws us to see what we have been saved from, and what we are being saved for."
"A good Lent makes space for hope by leading us afresh into encounter with the holiness of God." A good Lent starts with us.
"A good Lent begins with paying attention, with beginning to make straight the way of the Lord by listening… We cannot listen while we fill our ears with our own self-confidence and our own self-worth.
"So, how do we listen? Read Luke’s gospel, taking a small chunk each day, and ask yourself as you read it three simple questions: What does it say? What does it mean? What am I going to do about it? Very simple.
"And what do I do about it? Ask yourself: “How do I make my life more open to Christ because of what this is saying to me?”
"For myself, such reading is part of my own daily discipline of prayer, which includes a lot of other things as well. Time is spent and at the end of jotting down whatever banal or very occasionally less banal thoughts I have, I always put in a couple of lines of what I can do about it.
"Sometimes it is very practical writing to someone or speaking to someone who I may have offended. It may be very simple, merely saying a prayer of sorry, or thank you, or petition for something of which I need reminding.
"A good Lent must overflow in generosity. How do we live a good Lent with those whom we live with? The bumps in the road we need to smooth out for the Lord to come? Relationships that have been neglected and therefore are full of clutter that needs removing?
"They can be very difficult: broken relationships may be easily mendable, little irritations – or it may be that we need, in a good Lent, to take the first step to clearing away a major landslide.
"How do you do it in practice? Openness, transparency, and also go back and use the same approach to scripture as I suggested a few moments ago. One has to treat each person and situation different
"Let me suggest one other. As individuals, even short periods of complete silence during Lent, fasting from noise and conversation and distraction, will be of great value. How little we do of it.
"I’ve had to learn, and I’m still very much learning, that I do not need to do anything in that time. I need only to be willing to listen. It is a time of meditation and reflection, of discovering the God who – all the time – is saying: “Here I am.”
"The discipline of a good Lent is to find again how we welcome the stranger, how we practice hospitality, how we listen.
"A good Lent starts within us. It moves through those most closely around us. It comes into the church and it must be so generously experienced that it overflows into society. We will not really have a Good Lent until that chain is complete, and for that, we pray, may your Kingdom come."
Lectionary, March 31, 2019
I. Theme – Our individual and collective reconciliation with God
“Return of the Prodigal Son" – Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1667-1670)
"He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’"
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Joshua 5:9-12
Psalm – Psalm 32
Epistle – 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Gospel – Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
Today’s readings invite us into the welcoming, forgiving arms of our loving God. In Joshua, the people of Israel celebrate their home-coming in the promised land, eating, for the first time, of the produce of Canaan. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul describes our reconciliation to God in and through Christ. The gospel story tells of a father’s prodigal love for his lost sons.
Although the focus shifts just a little bit, to themes of forgiveness and reconciliation. . This week’s readings, however, bring together the individual and the communal. Our reconciliation with God leads us into the “ministry of reconciliation.” Our forgiveness brings wholeness, not just to ourselves, but to others through us. This connection between the “me” and the “we” is such an important theme of the Gospel, and a good place to linger in this week’s worship, while also looking at the implications of the practice of forgiveness for justice in our world.
The theme this week stands out very clearly in these readings – God removes disgrace; God forgives and restores; the prodigal is welcomed home and reconciled to his family; God reconciles us to God’s Self, and to each other, and we are called to do the same. Forgiveness flows from God’s infinite and unconditional grace, and is received through honest confession and repentance. But reconciliation with God, as much as it brings personal healing and restoration, is not only personal. It is also social, drawing us back into reconciliation with others, and into passing on to others the healing and grace we have received
Focusing in on Luke’s Prodigal Son parable (Lent 4)
Watch the Skitguys dramatize this parable.
Luke 15 , the Gospel reading for March 6, starts out with 3 parables, the Prodigal son the third.
First, he imagines a shepherd who leaves his flock in order to find one errant sheep ("Lost Sheep"). Second, he describes a woman who loses a coin ("Lost Coin"). These parables are about being lost and now found. The first two have three common threads running through each. 1) Something or someone is lost. 2) The lost is sought for. 3) Great joy is shared at the recovery of the thing (person) found. The third parable, the Prodigal son, is slightly different. In it, the one who is lost returns to where he came from.
The prodigal son is Luke’s best known parable and also the longest. It is one with an ending that seems not fair. The word "prodigal" basic meaning is "wasteful"–particularly with regard to money.
There are many levels of the story. It is a story of the consequences of sin both in terms of what happens to us but also the promise of the return from separation from God. It is a story of welcome and reconciliation. This story is found only in the Gospel of Luke
We see a progression through the three parables from the relationship of one in a hundred (Luke 15:1-7), to one in ten (Luke 15:8-10), to one in one (Luke 15:11-32), demonstrating God’s love for each individual and his personal attentiveness towards all humanity.
The parable is Jesus response to the Pharisees and Scribes since they believe his behavior is an affront to the community. Jesus is associating with the’ wrong people." He is welcoming those who have been cast out; and honoring those who have been shamed by sharing a meal . To invite a person to a meal was an honor that implied acceptance, trust and peace. Jesus response is not to rebuke the Pharisees and scribes but to teach through parables.
The parable has 3 scenes with the first part focusing on the younger son and the last two parts on the father
(1) the negotiations of the younger son with his father and his subsequent departure to a foreign country where he is wasteful and becomes impoverished (15:11-19);
(2) the homecoming of that son and the welcome by his father (15:20-24); and
(3) the interchange between the father and his older son (15:25-32).
The Prodigal Son in Art- Rembrandt
One of the most famous depictions of the Prodigal son was by Rembrandt toward the end of his life.
Rembrandt’s painting was done in 1669 and features his characteristic dark with light shining on the main characters of the father and prodical son. It is a striking painting that brings the emotional return of the son’s return to life
From a site on Rembrandt’s painting-
2. Contact the Rev Catherine Hicks, Rector 4. March, 2019 Server Schedule 5. Latest Newsletter-the Parish Post (March, 2019) 6. Calendar 9. Latest Sunday Bulletin (March 31, 2019 11:00am), and Sermon (March 24, 2019) 10. Recent Services: |
Block Print by Mike Newman
Projects
| Colors | Season | Dates | |
|---|---|---|---|
| White | Gold | Christmas | Dec 25-Jan 5 |
| White | Gold | Epiphany | Jan 6 |
| Green | After Epiphany | Jan 7-March 2 | |
| White | Gold | Transfiguration | Mar 3-5 |
| Purple | Ash Wednesday | Mar 6-9 | |
| Purple | Lent | Mar 6-Apr 20 | |
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, March 24 – March 31
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24
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Oscar Romero, Archbishop & Martyr, 1980, and the Martyrs of El Salvador |
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25
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The Annunciation of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Blessed Virgin Mary |
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26 |
Harriet Monsell, Monastic, 1883 Richard Allen, Bishop, 1831 |
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27
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28
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James Solomon Russell, Priest, 1935 |
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29
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John Keble, Priest, 1866 |
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30
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John Climacus, Monastic & Theologian, 649 Innocent of Alaska, Bishop, 1879 |
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31
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John Donne, Priest, 1631 |