Frontpage, June 16, 2019

June 16, 2019 – Trinity Sunday

Caption – Bishop reception Morgan Key, Bishop Ihloff during his sermon on the Gospel of John, Bishop reception of John Hess, Agape Meal, Duet on “Holy Ground”

Photos and Text from Trinity Sunday

Videos from Trinity Sunday

Text and Videos – Agape Meal

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The Week Ahead…

June 19 – 10:00am-12pm – Ecumenical Bible Study

June 19 – 3:00pm-5pm – Village Harvest food distribution

Help needed: 9:30ish, help needed to unload the truck. Many hands make light work. 1PM, help needed to set up. 3-5PM help needed for the distribution itself. Help the shoppers gather what they need. You can still bring cleaning supplies on the day since these are not available at the Food Bank. Thank you for your contributions of both food and time. Everyone can share in making this important St Peter’s ministry happen.

June 21 – 6:00pm – Friends of Jesus – Spanish Bible Study

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June 23 – 10am – Children’s Education Living the Good News

June 23 – 11:00am – Holy Eucharist, Rite II

Sunday, June 23, Readings and Servers

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June 21, 6pm – Spanish Bible Study returns as “Friends of Jesus”

The people who participated in the Lenten TryTank Estudio Espanol plan to continue meeting as a group. This group will meet once a month through the summer. The dates of the meetings are Friday, June 21; Friday, July 26; and Friday, August 23rd. We’ll share a simple supper at 6pm and have a Bible study in Spanish. Come practice your Spanish! All are welcome.

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World Refugee Day is June 20

World Refugee Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000 to honor the contributions of refugees throughout the world and to raise awareness about the growing refugee crisis in places like Syria and Central Africa,

Based on 2018 data, an unprecedented 68.5 million people around the world have been forced from home because of persecution, conflicts or human rights violations.

These people can divided into 3 groups

1. Internally displace people 40 million have not crossed a border to find safety. Unlike refugees, they are on the run at home. The numbers have increased by 50% since 2007
2. Refugees 25.4 million – It is a legal term. People outside their country due to fear of being persecuted for reason race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion is unable to return. Half of the refugees are children.

Most of the refugees are hosted by – Turkey (3.5m), Pakistan (1.4m), Uganda (1.4m), Lebanon (998,900m), Iran (979,400), Germany (970,400), Bangladesh (932,200), Sudan (906,600), Ethiopia (889,400), Jordan (691,000).

3. Asylum seekers 3.1 millions An asylum-seeker is someone whose request for sanctuary has yet to be processed and whose claim for refugee status has not been determined

Bishop Curry on World Refugee Day

Read more about World Refugee Day 

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Way of Love Podcast

This new weekly podcast offers ways to engage with the Way of Love, The Episcopal Church’s intentional commitment to practicing faith by following Jesus. Hear stories and get practical advice from Bishop Michael Curry and others who are putting the Way of Love practices (Turn, Learn, Pray, Worship, Bless, Go, Rest) into action

You can find it here and/or subscribe

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Lectionary, June 23, 2019 – Pentecost 2

I. Theme – Jesus’ presence changes our lives

 Demon Possessed Man

The lectionary readings are here  or individually: 

First Reading – Isaiah 65:1-9
Psalm – Psalm 22:18-27
Epistle –Galatians 3:23-29
Gospel – Luke 8:26-39 

Today’s readings focus on the understanding of how Jesus’ presence changes our lives. Past, present and future unfold before us in today’s scripture readings.

Isaiah describes God’s necessary judgment and promise of final deliverance and cleansing for the people.

The psalm conveys Israel’s experience of God in the past and extols God’s majesty and divine protection. The psalmist’s lips give praise to God, whose identity was never in question. The psalmist yearns for God’s presence, especially in times of suffering.

By the time Paul wrote to the Galatians, the heirs of the promise to Abraham’s spiritual offspring were claiming their inheritance. Justified by faith in Christ, no longer separated by the law from God or neighbor, Jews could be united with Gentiles. The blueprint of God’s kingdom was discernible on earth. Paul writes to the Galatians of their unity and freedom in Christ Jesus.

Following the chronological order of revelation, we move to scenes of those who come to know the mystery and majesty of Jesus. Jesus’ begins his mission to the Gentiles with the expulsion of many demons in this foray across the Sea of Galilee. The healed demoniac and his fellow villagers struggle with the implications of such a powerful figure in their midst. The demoniac is healed and restored to community through Jesus’ power. Although he wants desperately to follow Jesus, the healed man is directed to do his evangelizing first with his own family.

Two questions emerge in today’s readings: “What are you doing here?” and “What is your name?” In responding to those questions, fright and powerlessness are transformed into resolve and agency. Both Elijah and the man possessed by a demon are given the same instruction following their encounter with God, “Return.” Go back to the place where life fell apart; return to the community you fled out of fear and powerlessness.  Go back to your household,  Jesus tells the demoniac. Show your face again, but as a new creation, in the words of Paul, clothed in the mantle of divine power and purpose. What questions do we need to hear to experience healing, transformation, and courage?

God is at work among the people we don’t even know are there for us. God is at work in the restoration that will happen after the destruction. God is at work in our very lives. God is at work in us as a community, for we are the body of Christ. But we are the ones who put up barriers, who raise up walls, who divide and declare who is inside and who is out. We are the ones who do the damage, who divide the body. But Christ is at work in all of us, if we can remember that we are the body of Christ.

Read more from the lectionary 

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Those possessed pigs, Ordinary Time

This is the famous story that everyone knows as the “drowning pigs”. The focus on the story on the demoniac is shifted away to cries of animal abuse. “How could Jesus let the hapless pigs drown?

This story is part of 4 stories in all synoptic Gospels -the stilling of the storm, the Gadarene demoniac, Jairus’ daughter, the woman with the hemorrhage.   It represents another example of Jesus dealing with sinister forces, such as the storms in the preceding this story. In fact both the beginning and ending of this passage mention storms.

Michael Rogness in the “Working Preacher” blog tries to give a contemporary slant to the passage . "All the “demons” Jesus confronts have three things in common: they cause self-destructive behavior in the victim, the victim feels trapped in that condition, and they separate the victim from normal living in the family circle. ..We could call be controlled by demons as being controlled by disease and/or abuse – mental illnesses, schizophrenia, paranoia, addictions, obsessions, destructive habits, and so on."

The demon possessed man was living a life apart from God, living in the tombs, naked, shouting.

The name "Legion" for the demons has a double meaning. Literally, it means, "Many, thousands, multitudes" which indicates the power of the demon that no chain could contol. But it also alludes to the occupying Roman soldier legions which numbered 3,000 to 6,000 each.

This story is interesting when considering the crowd scenes. Previously crowds affirm Jesus action and praise him. However, these people are scared of him Why ? Perhaps they prefer the stability of demonic occupation by Roman legions to the disruption and destruction that might come with them being cast out? As a Gentile, the healed demoniac has no place in the Jewish mission of Jesus, but he may proclaim the mighty acts of God to his own people. Here, we see an echo of the coming Gentile mission.

The crowd begged Jesus to leave. The healed man begged to remain with Jesus, but Jesus sent him away to his friends tell his friends how much the Lord has done for him. That’s our take away from Ordinary Time. We are called to help liberate people from the negative forces, addictions of all kinds that can enslave. We are called to be sources of healing and wholeness and for this we do not need to be part of the medical profession. 

So let’s return to the pigs that drowned when the demons went to them from the man. The pigs here just happened to be in the way. True, pigs did not have the highest reputation – they were seen as unclean by Jews. The blog “Lectionary Studies “ however, states that Jesus’ mission is not to destroy the demonic powers, but rather to deliver a people from their control. The people were delivered though not in the pigs favor.  It must be said that it was the demons who recognized the true identity of Jesus as the Son of God before common and ordinary people did.  

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Anything but Ordinary! – Ordinary Time

Beginning Sunday, June 16, Pentecost 2, we enter the Church year known as Ordinary Time. After Easter, Jesus’s ascension into heaven, and the coming of the Holy Spirit to us at Pentecost, we accept responsibility for being and becoming Christ’s body in the world. We are called by Jesus to live in community, our lives together guided not only by the example of Jesus, but by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
 

Basically, Ordinary Time encompasses that part of the Christian year that does not fall within the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, or Easter. Ordinary Time is anything but ordinary. According to The General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar, the days of Ordinary Time, especially the Sundays, "are devoted to the mystery of Christ in all its aspects." We continue our trek through the both the Gospels of Luke and John- through parables challenges, healings – some great stories and teachings.  

Vestments are usually green, the color of hope and growth. Green has long been associated with new life and growth. Even in Hebrew in the Old Testament, the same word for the color “green” also means “young.” The green of this season speaks to us as a reminder that it is in the midst of ordinary time that we are given the opportunity to grow. 

Ordinary Time, from the word "ordinal," simply means counted time (First Sunday after Pentecost, etc.). we number the Sundays from here on out in order from the First Sunday after Pentecost, all the way up to the Last Sunday after Pentecost The term "ordinary time" is not used in the Prayer Book, but the season after Pentecost can be considered ordinary. 

The Church counts the thirty-three or thirty-four Sundays of Ordinary Time, inviting her children to meditate upon the whole mystery of Christ – his life, miracles and teachings – in the light of his Resurrection.

You may see Sundays referred to as "Propers". The Propers are readings for Ordinary Time following Epiphany and Pentecost, numbered to help establish a seven day range of dates on which they can occur. Propers numbering in the Revised Common Lectionary begins with the Sixth Sunday in Epiphany, excludes Sundays in Lent through Pentecost and Trinity Sunday, and resumes the Second Sunday after Pentecost (the first Sunday after Pentecost is Trinity Sunday), usually with Proper 4. 

In some ways, it might be right to think of this time as “ordinary”, common or mundane. Because this is the usual time in the church, the time that is not marked by a constant stream of high points and low points, ups and downs, but is instead the normal, day-in, day-out life of the church. This time is a time to grapple with the nuts and bolts of our faith, not coasting on the joy and elation of Christmas, or wallowing in the penitential feel of Lent, but instead just being exactly where we are, and trying to live our faith in that moment.  

It is a reminder of the presence of God in and through the most mundane and ordinary seasons of our lives. . It is a reminder that when God came and lived among us in the person of Jesus Christ, he experienced the same ordinary reality that we all experience. And that God, in Christ, offered us the opportunity to transform the most ordinary, mundane experiences into extraordinary events infused with the presence of God. God is there, present in the midst of the ordinary, just waiting for us to recognize it.  

Only when the hustle and bustle of Advent, Easter, and Lent has calmed down can we really focus on what it means to live and grow as Christians in this ordinary time in this ordinary world. It is a time to nurture our faith with opportunities for fellowship and reflection. It is a time to feed and water our faith with chances for education and personal study. It is a time to weed and prune our faith, cutting off the parts that may be dead and leaving them behind. And we have a lot of growing to do, so God has given us most of the church year in which to do it.