From left to right, top to bottom – Swallow tails butterflies out today, tired after the sermon!,Eunice’s birthday, flowers on the altar, 5 keys for the Lord’s Prayer in the sermon, summer program last Wednesday about the man born blind, Howard and Millie anniversary
Photos and Text from Sun, July 28, 2019
The Week Ahead…
July 31 – 8:00am – The Way of Love Breakfast
July 31 – 10:00am-12pm – Ecumenical Bible Study
July 31 – 1:00pm-2pm – Acolyte Training for children
July 31 – 2:00pm-4pm – Children’s Summer Program
Aug. 4 – 11:00am – Holy Eucharist, Rite II
Aug. 4 – 12:00pm – Potluck Coffee Hour
Sunday, Aug. 4 Readings and Servers
Way of Love Breakfast, July 31, 8am
During the year, 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. The Way of Love is like a powerful spiritual vaccine that can keep us well, and able to walk in love with God and with one another.
The Episcopal Church has 2 series that cover the Way of Love – “Traveling the Way of Love” where host Chris Sikkema meet people in the country implementing the Way of Love. Then there is the Way of Love Podcast This season, hosts Kyle Oliver and Sandy Milien talk with Bishop Curry and others about the meanings of each of the 7 actions as well as how they have lived them.
This week we will look at Turn. Turn has recently been the subject of the above series:
2. The Way of Love Podcast Episode 7 here
Join us on July 31 as we learn how to “Turn”.
Help us win a bench – donate your plastic bags!
St. Peter’s is signed up for a charity program that is offered by the Trex Corporation. Trex Company, Inc. is a leading recycled materials manufacturer of wood-alternative decking, railings and other outdoor items
As a non-profit organization we have the opportunity to collect plastics in exchange for a bench made from recycled plastics (it never requires painting and will last for many generations). The bench, if we are awarded one, will likely be placed near our memorial garden in the cemetery.
We are nearing the end of our six month time frame for collection (Oct. 30) and have reached the half way point on collecting 500 pounds. Please help save our environment and get a free bench in the process by bringing your plastics to church.
Our collection container is a large white box with a hole in the top, located in the Parish House hallway. You may also bag it and place it in the back pew at church and someone else will be sure it lands in that box.
Types of plastics to include are:
1. Plastic grocery/store type bags
2. Shrink wraps
3. Ziplock bags (if they are clean)
4. Bread bags (shake out crumbs)
5. Plastic bubble wrap (deflated)
6. Toilet paper/paper towel overwrap
> NO hard plastics (no bottles, straws cups, etc
Here is the link to the program
School Supplies for the Village Harvest August 21
We plan to distribute school supplies at the Village Harvests again in August (Aug 21). Caroline Schools begin Aug. 12. Please bring them and leave them on the back pew .
We have a list of requested supplies for Grade 1 to Grade 5 by grade and item. The list is here – School Supplies 2019-2020
The most prevalent items are glue sticks, crayons and gallon size ziploc bags, requested in all five grades. Four of the five grades request these items: dry erase markers, hand sanitizer, headphone or earbuds, highlighters, quart-size Ziploc bags.
Between the Village Harvest dates is the Virginia tax holiday this coming weekend, August 2-4, 2019. Qualified school supplies $20 or less per item will not be taxed.
Lectionary, August 4, 2019 – Pentecost 7, Proper 12
I. Theme – Finding True Riches to Enjoy a Happy Life
"St. Lawrence Delivering the Riches of the Church" – Master of the Osservanza (1440)
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
First Reading – Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23
Psalm – Psalm 49:1-11
Epistle – Colossians 3:1-11
Gospel – Luke 12:13-21
Today’s readings encourage us to discover true riches in order to live a happy life. In Ecclesiastes (Track 2), a Jewish wisdom teacher ponders the vanity of human life. The psalmist invites us to bow in worship and praise before God our Maker. The second reading encourages followers of Christ to focus on the things that are above. In the gospel, Jesus tells the parable of the rich fool.
God suffers or celebrates, depending on how we live our lives. Injustice is an affront to God; it literally pains God and leaves in its wake divine sorrow and anger. God is not an amoral force, but God’s energy encompasses us all – believer and atheist, pacifist and terrorist, humankind and the non-human world.
To live for earthly things “is vanity and a striving after wind,” and work that is driven by such vanity “is an unhappy business” (Eccl. 1:13–14). The man who lives like that has nothing to show for “all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun … all his days are full of sorrow” (Eccl. 2:22–23). We can’t take it with us. So why do we worry so much about it?
The foolish live their lives solely for their own pleasures on earth and ignore the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized. The Wisdom Tradition of the Bible tells us this is vanity, a chasing after wind, something that will never be fully realized or satisfied. Life is empty. On the other hand, the foolish also live their lives focused solely on heaven and not caring about this life or the people in this world.
So, too, your “covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col. 3:5), makes a god out of that which cannot give you life or happiness. For “one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15)
The wise look to living their lives for God, which means living for others. But “Christ who is your life” (Col. 3:4), in giving you Himself, gives you all the wealth of heaven. Instead of striving to lay up treasures for yourself, be “rich toward God” in Him (Luke 12:21). We are called to love and care for others, but especially the ones in need. With that, we live with the hope of resurrection, knowing that life continues after death, though we may not know what that looks like, we hold on to that hope. We live our lives on earth with the same hope for eternity—to live into God’s ways of love and justice that restores and heals and brings wholeness.
Read more about the Lectionary….
Sunday Focus on "attitudes toward stuff" in the Kingdom
The four lectionary texts assigned for this Sunday have a common theme: "wealth". More specifically, the texts are concerned with attitudes toward wealth. The theme is considered in a variety of literary types: a parable, a piece of wisdom literature, a letter, and a psalm.
Background- Parable of the Rich Fool -Luke 12:13-21
Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem. People seek him out – the Centurion that wants him who servant was on the road to death; in other cases with the widow of Nain he wonders into situations. Some might come to challenge him or justify themselves, like the lawyer who provided the context for the parable of the Good Samaritan (10:25-37). Others came to Jesus with a complaint. We saw this in a previous exposition of the Mary/Martha story (10:38-42). Actually for this story we don’t know the motivation but it leads to another teaching moment. The gospel reading is here.
Jesus is in the middle of encouraging his disciples to confess even when they are under duress, when he is interrupted by one of the crowd who wants Jesus to settle a financial dispute between siblings. Jesus, however, refuses to enter into the family squabble and instead uses the situation as an opportunity to teach about the seduction of wealth.
The problem the man faced was a common and significant one–how to divide the property between siblings. At that time the older son received twice the inheritance of youngers ones – maybe this is a younger. It may be natural to come to Jesus – Rabbi’s were expected to arbitrate on matters of law, but Jesus is unwilling to play this role.
If Jesus had taken up the man’s challenge and entered into his life, he faced two problems: the first is that his intervention might provide the occasion for the brothers both to turn on Jesus; the second is that Jesus’ intervention would just open a Pandora’s box of more questions until Jesus had actually become the man’s attorney. Jesus may be a healer or teacher or proclaimer of the message of the kingdom, but he isn’t a judge in domestic disputes. . He knows his task and his limitations. Thus, Jesus really isn’t a "problem solver."
Do you have a clear sense of what you are about it in life? Jesus has an instinctive sense of what he ought to be doing; of when he ought to enter in and when he ought to keep his distance. Jesus’ explanation is "who made me a judge or arbitrator over you? Jesus doesn’t give an explanation for why he doesn’t want to intervene but finds the heart of the matter (abudance, greed) and throws it back to the questioner. Jesus reframes the question and it becomes a parable.
So how is your barn ? Parable of the Rich Fool
The second part of this scripture is the reframing of the man’s question and the parable -"Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." Since there is stuff to be divided there could be “abundance of possessions” and the next step beyond that – greed.
The Greek word used here for greed means “yearning for more”. It is a form of idolatry. If greed is a desire to get more — then there is never a point where a greedy person has enough. Greed can never be satisfied. It is always looking to get more. In other places, there are writings against greed. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and Ephesians 5:3-5. The greedy will not inherit the kingdom of God. It brings God’s wrath. greed can take many forms: the greed for attention, the greed for control, the greed for security.
Luke, by situating the parable of the rich fool right in the middle of Jesus’ predictions of his own death and the plots to kill him, connects this universal human desire for more with universal human insecurity and fear of death.
The parable is about a farmer who does well – he has produced abundantly and has no place to store his crops so he will build larger barns. So what’s wrong with this ? David Lose causes us to assess the situation “He is not portrayed as wicked – that is, he has not gained his wealth illegally or by taking advantage of others. Further, he is not portrayed as particularly greedy. Indeed, he seems to be somewhat surprised by his good fortune as he makes what appears to be reasonable plans to reap the abundance of the harvest. What is wrong, we might therefore ask, about building larger barns to store away some of today’s bounty for a potentially leaner tomorrow?
Lose goes on. “Except for two things. First, notice the farmer’s consistent focus throughout the conversation he has with himself: "What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?" Then he said, "I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul…."
The relentless use of the first person pronouns "I" and "my" betray a preoccupation with self. There is no thought to using the abundance to help others, no expression of gratitude for his good fortune, no recognition of God at all. The farmer has fallen prey to worshiping the most popular of gods: the Unholy Trinity of "me, myself, and I." This leads to, and is most likely caused by, a second mistake. He is not foolish because he makes provision for the future; he is foolish because he believes that by his wealth he can secure his future: "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry."
Wealth is not the problem but how we use it – wealth for its own enjoyment or own end. It’s thinking that possessions lead to a satisfied life. Bigger barns do not necessarily bring happiness and contentment. They rob us of the person who builds the barns. People retire and set them up to separate themselves from a world they help to build. The man in this story does not have the vision and/or imagination to see beyond his own walls. He is his own prisoner.
The text says that the man decided to gather in these new barns not just the grain from the harvest but "my goods" (v. 18). He is thinking of barns not just for the grain but also for his "goods." He can kill two birds with one stone, but in Jesus’ parable, it is as if he is killing his soul by the expansion project. Then he has thoughts that he has made it and can kick back. The idea of celebrate goes back to the parable of the prodigal son to describe the festive atmosphere at the return of the prodigal.” In the end the grim reaper may be coming for him.
The story ends: "So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
The parable tells us about two different kinds of riches–those toward oneself and those toward God.
Block Print by Mike Newman
Projects
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 28 – Aug. 4
|
28
|
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer, 1750 |
|
29
|
Mary and Martha of Bethany |
|
30
|
William Wilberforce, Social Reformer, 1833 |
|
31
|
Ignatius of Loyola, Priest and Spiritual Writer, 1556 |
|
1
|
Joseph of Arimathaea |
|
2
|
Samuel Ferguson, Bishop for West Africa, 1916 |
|
3
3 |
Joanna, Mary & Salome, Myrrh-bearing women George Freeman Bragg, Jr., Priest, 1940 |
|
4
|