Frontpage, February 23, 2020

February 23, 2020

Feb 23, 2020 – Last Epiphany

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The Week Ahead…

Feb. 25 – 5:00pm-6:30pm – Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper

On the night before Lent during medieval times, families used up all the fat to prepare for the strict fasting of Lent. These ingredients were made into pancakes. Annually we revive this practice on the night before Lent begin.

Feb. 26 – 10:00-12pm – Ecumenical Bible Study

Feb. 26 – 7pm – Ash Wednesday, imposition of ashes. Story and Photos

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent and is 40 days before Good Friday. Our foreheads are marked with the sign of a cross, symbolizing we belong to Jesus Christ, who died on the cross.

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March 1 – 10am – Genesis

Links

1. Genesis Sunday schedule
<br style=”font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt;”>2. Genesis Sunday sessions. Links to the Powerpoints and notes from previous Sunday

We will complete last week’s topic Genesis 18:15-Genesis 23 and then move to the Courtship of Rebekah: Genesis 24:10-67

March 1 – Online Learning during Lent – “Signs of Life -Why Worship Matters”. Online.

Examining 5 symbols of worship through “Signs of Life” – March 1 considers Light. Here’s an introduction.

March 1 – 11am – Holy Eucharist, First Sunday in Lent

March 1 – 12am – First Sunday Potluck in the Parish House

March 1- First Sunday of Lent Readings and Servers.

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Lent Begins Feb. 26

Lent is a 40 day Christian festival beginning Ash Wednesday and concluding on Easter (Sundays are not counted).  The 40 day fast of Jesus in the wilderness was responsible for the number 40 being chosen .  It was said by Athanasius in 339 AD to be celebrated the world over.

The word “Lent” comes from the old Anglo-Saxon word lengten, which means “springtime,” named so for the time of the year in which it occurs.   The five Lenten Sundays are followed by the Sunday of the Passion, Palm Sunday, which begins Holy Week, when we relive the events of Jesus Christ’s suffering and death.

What we now call Lent was originally a period of fasting and study for catechumens who were to be baptized on the Saturday before Easter.  The purpose of this extended fast was to practice self-denial and humility. This was to prepare oneself for receiving God’s grace and forgiveness in baptism, given on Easter Saturday or Easter Sunday.

Lent is:

• A time for looking at the things we do that are wrong or that tempt us, asking God’s and other people’s forgiveness;
• A time for giving up things that keep us from being loving people;
• A time for doing extra things that will help us grow closer to God;
• A time to be more aware of what it means to love as God loves us;
• A time to ask God to help us to be more loving, remembering
that God is always ready to strengthen us.
• A time to let go of our normal routine, try a new spiritual practice, to step out of our box, to reflect on ourselves, to reflect on a relationship with God. It can be a very creative time. At a later time these practices may help us endure trying of challenging times. Lent gives us a chance to practice facing our fears, journeying in the wilderness, confronting the dangers and difficulties we find there, and reaching out for Jesus’ hand the entire trip.

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Lent – Getting Started

• We have a dedicated Lenten part of the website Lent at St. Peter’s Includes the background of Lent, the Lenten calendar with readings, resources, etc. It begins on Shrove Tuesday, Feb. 25.
• Lenten Calendar. As Lent begins on Feb. 26, start of practice of reading the Daily Office which is on the Calendar. (The first session of the calendar actually begins with Shrove Tuesday on Feb. 25). Each day has the Daily Office, Forward Movement, Daily Meditation, and Living Well in Lent passages as well as Episcopal saints reconized for the day.
• Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper, Feb. 25, 5pm-6:30pm. All about Shrove Tuesday.
• Lent begins Wednesday, Feb. 26. The Ash Wednesday service with the imposition of ashes and Holy Eucharist is at 7PM. 3 important points about Ash Wednesday
• Adult Christian Ed on Sundays in Lent at St. Peter’s – Genesis
• Adult Christian Ed in Lent online – Signs of Life. Here’s an introduction.
• Lenten Quiet Day, Feb. 27. The Rt. Rev. David C. Jones will lead the program on Wednesday, Feb. 27th at Roslyn Conference and Retreat Center. Registration begins at 9:30 a.m. and the meditations at 10 a.m. The day will end at approximately 2:30 p.m. Cost for the day is $35 and includes lunch. The sign-up sheet is in the Parish House.

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Voices of Lent

1.  Desmond Tutu   from In God’s Hands

And humans were given dominion over all creation. That is why we were created to be God’s viceroys, to be God’s stand ins. We should love, we should bear rule over the rest of creation as God would. We are meant to be caring in how we deal with the rest of God’s creation. God wants everything to flourish. It gives us a huge responsibility – that we should not ravish and waste the natural resources which God places at our disposal for our wellbeing.

 2. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry

Lenten Message

Clarence Jorden of the Koinonia Movement many years ago wrote this:
Jesus founded the most revolutionary movement in human history, a movement built on the unconditional love of God for the world, and the mandate to those who follow to live that love.

The season of Lent is upon us. It is a season of making a renewed commitment to participate and be a part of the movement of Jesus in this world. You can see some of that in the Gospel lesson for the first Sunday of Lent where Luke says that after the Baptism of Jesus he went into the wilderness, there to be tempted of Satan.

After the Baptism. Baptism is the sacrament of commitment to the Jesus Movement. It is to be washed, if you will, in the love and the reality of God, and to emerge from that great washing as one whose life is dedicated to living that love in the world.

In this season of Lent, we take some time to focus on what that means for our lives, whether it is as simple as giving up chocolate candy or as profound as taking on a commitment to serve the poor or to serve others in some new way. Whatever it is, let that something be something that helps you participate in the movement of God’s love in this world following in the footsteps of Jesus.

And the truth is, the fact that Jesus was baptized and began that movement in the world and immediately found himself tempted by the devil is an ever-present reminder that this movement is not without struggle. It is not easy. The truth is, this movement is difficult. It’s hard work. It’s work of following Jesus to the cross. And it’s work of following Jesus through the cross to the Resurrection. To new life. And new possibility. That is our calling. That is the work of the movement. To help this world move from what is often the nightmare of the world itself into the dream that God intends.

So I pray that this Lent, as they used to say many years ago, might be the first day of the rest of your life. It might be a new day for this world.

Read more voices…

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Conversation about Ash Wednesday

Two priests from All Saints Episcopal Church in Frederick Maryland discuss the Ash Wednesday experience. (click the picture)

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Art for Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent

Art expresses the key themes of the season – conflict between secular and religious, the forces of temptation and selfishness affecting all of us, the importance of retreat, repentance, and conversion in this season. We have three pieces of art thanks to the Loyola press

1. Pieter Brueghel the Elder, “The Fight Between Carnival and Lent,” 1559

Sometimes when the spiritual and the secular clash, we can see the hand of God at work. In Pieter Brueghel’s The Fight Between Carnival and Lent, there is a clash of contrasts happening in this 16th-century Dutch village. Near the center of the hustle and bustle a curious pair is ready to spar: “Carnival,” represented by a well-endowed man riding a barrel, wears a meat-pie hat and is ready for action with a spear loaded with roasted pork. “Lent” faces him, personified by a clear-eyed but gaunt woman on a spare cart, wearing a beehive and holding out two fish on a peel. She is surrounded by loaves, pretzels, and a basket of mussels.

See for two more pieces of Ash Wednesday art

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Art for the 1st Week in Lent, Year A

This Sunday’s first reading from Genesis invites us back to the beginning—to the creation of man and woman, and their original fall, succumbing to the temptation of the serpent. Ivan Kramskoi’s Christ in the Desert returns Jesus to this same beginning to face his own temptations before heading out to engage in public ministry.

Christ is seated in a rocky, arid landscape. Seated in the dust from which we came, Christ is battling. His battle is intensely psychological. As the devil tempts him with thoughts of worldly satisfaction, power, and an easier way out, he recalls the original temptation, the one Adam and Eve could not resist. This time around, Christ knows what is at stake—the gravity of the difference between Paradise gained or lost is visible on his face.

Read more…

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Lectionary, Lent 1, Year A, March 1, 2020

I.Theme –   Dealing with Sin and Temptation

Duccio di Buoninsegna – “Temptation of Christ on the Mountain” (1308-11)

The lectionary readings are here  or individually:

Old Testament – Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
Psalm – Psalm 32
Epistle –Romans 5:12-19
Gospel – Matthew 4:1-11

One key word this week is “Sin” and it fits in well with Lent. We remember Jesus 40 day fast and resulting temptation by the devil. The 40 days fits in with the period designated for Lent.  Lent is 6 days of fasting over 7 weeks with the period at Ash Wednesday.  Lent is a special time of prayer, penance, sacrifice and good works in preparation of the celebration of Easter.

As we begin Lent, let’s start at the very beginning and consider why we need to go on this trip in the first place.

What does it mean to be human ? From the Genesis story of Adam and Eve’s fall from grace, through Paul’s exploration of how Jesus functions as a “second Adam,” to Matthew’s portrayal of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, these readings cut to the chase of what it is to be human.

The other key word this week is “temptation.”  As  Brian Stoffregen writes  “ Wherever it comes, the tempter/tester does not have the power to make someone do something. Temptation is not coercion. The serpent in the garden didn’t make Eve and Adam eat the apple. The devil in our text can’t make Jesus turn stones into bread. “To tempt” means to try and convince someone to do something. It means enticing someone to want to do something. Tempters can’t make someone do something bad, but try to make the temptee want to do something bad. They don’t take away the will. Rather, they try to change one’s will.”

“The way [the devil] seeks to change our wills is by lying, by stretching the truth. Generally, [the devil] entices us not to do great evil acts, but to good things for the wrong reasons. It could be argued that none of Jesus’ temptations were to do anything grossly evil, but to do good things for the wrong reasons or at the wrong time.”

In essence we need a relationship with God living not by our own whims but by God’s limits.  We are also tempted to be self-succient in Genesis by eating of the tree of knowledge as Jesus is tempted to be self sufficient in turning stone into bread, cheating death and controlling the whole world. We are insufficient, We are not complete in and of ourselves, that lack is a permanent part of our condition.

There is more to it as David Lose maintains. “Rather, to be human is to accept that we are, finally, created for relationship with God and with each other. Perhaps the goal of the life of faith isn’t to escape limitation but to discover God amid our needs and learn, with Paul, that God’s grace is sufficient for us.”

Lose continues, “Perhaps faith, that is, doesn’t do away with the hardships that are part and parcel of this life, but rather gives us the courage to stand amid them, not simply surviving but actually flourishing in and through Jesus, the one who was tempted as we are and thereby knows our struggles first hand. This same Jesus now invites us to find both hope and courage in the God who named not only him, but all of us, beloved children so that we, also, might discover who we are be recalling whose we are.”

Read more..

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