Frontpage, May 5, 2019

May 5, 2019 – Easter 3

Pictures and text from this Sunday, May 5, 2019

Videos from Sunday, May 5, 2019

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The Week Ahead…

May 8 – 10:00am-12pm – Ecumenical Bible Study

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May 12 – 10am – Children’s Education Living the Good News

May 12 – 10am – Adult Education – 1st Corinthians

May 12 – 11:00am – Holy Eucharist, Rite II

Sunday, May 12, Easter 4 Readings and Servers

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 First Corinthians schedule for May

We are continuing to read Corinthians through typical people of the time including slaves and freeborn, widows and singles, and a number who have suffered deprivation and sexual abuse – much like typical society in that day. The book shows that Christianity was a subversive force in the brutal Roman Empire. Here is the May schedule:

5/5 Body image (1 Cor 12:12-13:13)

5/12 Competitive Spirituality (1 Cor 12, 14)

5/19 What Gives us hope? (1 Cor 15)

No class on May 26—Catherine will be away.

The class will conclude on June 16 with an agape meal with Bishop Ihloff.

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Mother’s Day and Frances Perkins

Frances Perkins listened  sympathetically as a stalwart member of the New York state legislature confessed a political misdeed. Because she barely knew him, she asked why he had confided in her. ‘Well, Miss Perkins,” he said, “all men have mothers.” The young lobbyist for workers’ welfare realized her tricorne hat and sober manner of dress reminded him of his mother.

As the chief advocate and architect of the Social Security Act as Secretary of Labor under Franklin Roosevelt, Perkins succeeded in lifting half the nation’s elderly out of poverty shortly after it became law in 1935. Through it, she also provided unemployment  insurance and workers’ compensation to millions of others and stipends  through age 18 to millions of children who lost a wage-earning parent.

A lifelong associate of All Saints Sisters of the Poor, she spent one day a month in silent retreat at their Maryland convent throughout her 12 years in the New Deal cabinet. Perkins was also ahead of her time in fighting human trafficking in Philadelphia.

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Coming up – Shred-it Sat. May 18

Shred-It is scheduled on May 18, 2019 11am-1pm. This is the 8th year and the first to be scheduled on a weekend. We are hoping to attract many more people. Your donations make this event possible.

Last May we collected $325 or approximately 65 boxes in May, 2018. After paying Shred-it $225 for the truck we made $100 for St. Peter’s Outreach ministries.

Why should you support it ?

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Bake a cake for St. Peter’s 183rd, May 15!

Cake bakers needed for Wednesday, May 15, is St Peter’s 183rd birthday, which is also the day of the food distribution. Let’s have slices of birthday cake available for anyone who comes by St Peter’s that day, including those who come to the food distribution.

Let Catherine know if you can bake a cake, any kind of cake, for that day to help celebrate.

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Thy Kingdom Come, May 30-June 9, Prayers from Ascension to Pentecost

Thy Kingdom Come began as an invitation from the Most Rev. Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to the Church of England in 2016. It has since become global and ecumenical; last year, Christians from 65 denominations in 114 countries prayed together for the whole world to come to know Jesus Christ. This year it starts on May 30.

Host a prayer service at your house or the Parish House during the Thy Kingdom Come prayer initiative beginning on Thursday May 30th. until Pentecost, June 9

Join Christians all over the world in prayer during these days. You can also host an hour of prayer and use the Parish House as the location. Sign up by calling Catherine.

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 We are in Eastertide until Pentecost, June 9

Eastertide is the period of fifty days, seven Sundays from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday. Easter is not a day but a season and it is one to examine the Resurrection, more broadly and deeply.  There are a number of questions.

Is Resurrection just about death has been swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54-56) ? Is Resurrection of Jesus is a precursor to your own resurrection (1 Corinthians 15) ? Does it say something about our own ability to expect to see Jesus (Luke 24) ? How does the new Christian community begin to function making Christ the central part of daily life ? (Acts 2)  

Jesus physically appears in Easter 2 and 3 making the Resurection tangible. The shepherding part of his ministry is explored in Easter 4. From Easter 5-7, Jesus must prepare the disciples for his departure. He is going to leave them. Jesus prepares his disciples for continuing his ministry without his physical presence.  Themes explored include the holy spirit, the Prayer of Jesus and God’s glory through His Son and the church.

Christ ascends on the 40th day with his disciples watching (Thursday, May 5th). The weekdays after the Ascension until the Saturday before Pentecost inclusive are a preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit.This fifty days comes to an end on Pentecost Sunday, which commemorates the giving of the Holy Spirit to the apostles, the beginnings of the Church and its mission to all  peoples and nation.  Note that the Old Testament lessons are replaced by selections from the Book of Acts, recognizing the important of the growth of the church.  

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Lectionary Easter 4, Year C

I.Theme –   Jesus as the Good Shepherd

 "The Good Shepherd" – Daniel Bonnell)

The lectionary readings are here  or individually:

Old Testament – Acts 9:36-43
Psalm – Psalm 23 
 Epistle – Revelation 7:9-17
Gospel – John 10:22-30 

Today’s readings explore the image of God as a caring Shepherd. Scripture frequently uses the metaphor of shepherd and sheep to describe the relationship between the faithful and God. Easter 4 is often referred to as “Good Shepherd Sunday,”

In Acts, the apostles’ preaching and miracles bring many Gentiles to believe and follow. The familiar words of Psalm 23 illustrate our understanding of the relationship between the Good Shepherd and his sheep.

The Revelation to John gives us another image of the shepherd. As the seer looks around him, he sees a great multitude that no one can count. They come from all tribes, nations, and languages as they stand before the throne of the Lamb, wearing white robes and waving palm branches. The wrote robes signify their deliverance from tribulation, and the palms their victory over trials. Freed from hunger and thirst, those who were persecuted are now forever in the presence of God, able to worship God day and night in the temple.

In today’s gospel, Jesus pictures his relationship to the faithful as that of a shepherd who works for the life of the sheep. Jesus as a shepherd caring for his own flock provides more than green pasture and still waters. Jesus as a shepherd caring for his own flock provides more than green pasture and still waters – Jesus offers eternal life.

Our Good Shepherd guides us through the heights and depths of life, even during the most difficult times when we feel we are alone and abandoned, even when we feel the absence of God.

The sheep trust the shepherd. We who follow Jesus trust Jesus. We trust his voice, and we believe because we trust. It’s less a question of doubts verses faith as it is a question of trust verses mistrust. We may have doubts and questions about faith, but if we trust in Jesus, we still have faith. It is when we do not trust that we have lost. Trust leads to faith, and what Jesus calls us to do is to know his voice.

Read more from the lectionary 

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From Ministry Matters – "What Changed after the Resurrection"?

"….We can pile on all the theological implications we want to the resurrection, but they don’t change the fact that even as Jesus was walking out of the empty tomb people in his own country were still dying, still suffering under the oppression of the Roman empire, still being taken advantage of by their neighbors, still suffering and causing others to suffer. It’s continued that way for some 2,000 years now as if nothing happened that holy morning.

"When you think about it that way or when you simply turn on the nightly news, it becomes hard not to ask if anything actually did change after the resurrection and, at least in my case, just as difficult to find the energy to get excited about Easter when the promises of Easter seem like they’re still going unfulfilled.

"But hope is not lost. As challenging as my academic predecessor’s question appears and indeed is, it’s not the question we should be asking.

"Because the Church doesn’t believe something changed after the resurrection. We believe something is changing.

"It’s a subtle difference, but a profoundly important one. As Christians, we are not naïve enough to believe that Jesus walked out of the tomb that first Easter morning and in an instant everything changed, all things were made new and suffering and death were no more. As Christians, we believe that when Jesus walked out of the tomb that first Easter morning everythingbegan to change, all things began to be made new and the reign of suffering and death was finally beginning to come to an end. But in believing thusly, we also profess that the kingdom of God is a present but not yet fully realized reality, and it won’t be fully realized until our Lord returns again."

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Richard Rohr’s sermon preached All Saint’s in Pasadena follows readings from Acts 5:27-32 and John 20:19-31 and pushes us to broaden our visions of the risen Christ as the passage above. "The Resurrection is not a one-time miracle but the revelation of how reality works: that nothing truly dies." Here is the link.

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