The Week Ahead…
March 9 – 4pm – Vestry
March 11 – 10:00-12pm – Ecumenical Bible Study
March 11 – 5pm – 6:30pm – Village Dinner
The COVID-19 virus has cancelled events on Sat. March 14 and 15
March 14 – 9am – 2pm – Vestry Retreat at St. Peter’s
March 15 – Genesis Christian Ed. Online Return to Bethel: Genesis 35:1-29.
March 15 – Online Learning during Lent – “Signs of Life -Why Worship Matters”. Online
March 15 – 11am – Holy Eucharist, Third Sunday in Lent
March 15 – 11am – Holy Eucharist, Third Sunday in Lent – Servers and Readings
The Church Building is closed on Sunday, March 15 – but the Church is not closed! It does not have walls! Our work continues:
Come back at 11am on Sunday and enjoy an inspiring service with Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, live at the National Cathedral
Some Curry links –
2. Our Michael Curry biography page
3. The Crazy Christian” sermon
Lent – Links
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- 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.
- Lenten Calendar. As Lent begins on Feb. 26, start of practice of reading the Daily Office which is on the Calendar
- Adult Christian Ed on Sundays in Lent at St. Peter’s – Genesis and Previous Sessions
- Adult Christian Ed in Lent online –
Signs of Life
Nicodemus in Art
The First appearance of Nicodemus is in the scripture this week in Lent with the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. Nicodemus has been depicted in art since the 1600’s to our times.
Spring in the first week of March
March certainly did not come in like a lion. Maybe not as a lamb with some windy days Friday and Saturday which brought the wind chill down. Still, temperatures were relatively mild with plenty of sun to see the cherries, daffodils, croakus and other appear.
Here’s a gallery of some of the delights.
Art for the 3rd Week in Lent, Year A
Commentary is by Daniella Zsupan-Jerome.
Byzantine icons are portals to the divine presence. The depictions are heavenly—the gold backgrounds speak of divine truth. The serene, symmetrical faces invite us into the order of Heaven. Here is a peace that surpasses all understanding. We slow down before the icon and encounter the divine presence.
“In this icon of the woman at the well, we see the encounter of Christ with the Samaritan woman, who in the Orthodox tradition has a name: St. Photini, the illuminated or enlightened one. She meets Jesus while he is seated by the well. She approaches with her vessel to get water. Their hands indicate for us that they are engaged in conversation. On Christ’s right hand, his third finger bends in, a subtle sign of his divine nature. The two mountains behind them recall their words, reflecting that they come from two different backgrounds.
“Central to the icon are two architectural elements—the well, and the walled city in the distance.
“The well has a peculiar shape; it’s low and shaped like a cross and is suggestive of a baptismal font. It invites us to enter into the death of Christ so as to rise with him in the Resurrection—the very essence of the Paschal Mystery. We are beckoned to the font to seek the living water that delivers us from death to eternal life.
Lectionary, Lent 3, Year A, March 15, 2020
I.Theme – Water provides life in a physical sense and in a spiritual sense (affirmation, love, hope) as well as a pathway to the divine.
“Christ and the Samaritan Woman” – Stefano Erardi (1630-1716)
The woman`s reaction of surprise is expressed by her hand placed against her chest as though in disbelief, while Christ points out a finger, not in accusation, but to communicate his innocent request for some water, with an expression of humility and compassion for the woman.
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm – Psalm 95
Epistle –Romans 5:1-11
Gospel – John 4:5-42
This lectionary readings this week address water both as a commodity and in a symbolic sense.
The people under Moses had escaped from Egypt where they had become slaves in providing the economic base for Egyptian power. But the desert to which they had come in their bid to secure freedom – trusting that God through Moses would lead them to new life – was an inhospitable place. It was arid, dusty, hot – and seemed to be endless. As a group they railed against Moses. Maybe Egypt had deprived them of dignity, but at least they had had food and water. A crisis in leadership was emerging.
There is a subtheme in obeying God. Moses did what he was told, struck the rock at Horeb and there was water. He had in the past trusted in God and not been let down. He trusted that this trust would once again not be misplaced – and the water flowed.
The Gospel pits Jesus with the Samaritan woman in drawing water. S. Michael Houdmann contrast this passage with the Nicodemus a week ago. “While Nicodemus needed to see himself as a sinner in order to understand grace, the Samaritan woman, who knew she was a sinner, needed to see herself as a person of worth and value…”Jesus’ ministering to those outcasts of the Jewish society (the Samaritans), reveals that all people are valuable to God and that Jesus desires that we demonstrate love to everyone.”
Water is more than life giving but is life transforming. She had had a difficult life with five husbands and is considered an outcast. In trusting her he uplifts her and gives her back her self-esteem. He accepts her with his conversation about this “living water.” Well water is necessary for life and is temporary. Living water is necessary for eternal life and is everlasting. This is the water of revelation, love and spirit. This water is giving is life affirming and life enhancing. In the end she is doing more than the disciples in bring the word of Christ to the many. The Samaritans flock to hear Jesus.
The Epistle doesn’t mention water directly. Paul goes into the benefits of justification by faith, including peace, hope and reconciliation with God. Howver, God’s love is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit like water – evident in baptism into His death and rising. . We were restored to God’s favor by Christ’s death and be given eternal life (“saved”) by the risen Christ.
The Psalm is a shout toward the power of God echoed from the Epistle – as a great god above all other creator of worlds, shepherd sustaining them. There is a reference to Exodus and the conditions of lack of water with the disobedience of the people. Failure to adhere to God’s ways will have dire consequences, as it did for the Israelites during their “forty years.” In the end he sustains them physically.
“Blessing at the Well”, a poem for Lent 3
Jan Richardson is an artist, author , United Methodist minister, and director of The Wellspring Studio, LLC.
Her website is Painted Prayerbook She combines her art, poems and scriptural references in a wonderful review of church seasons and individual Gospel passages.
This poem is for Lent 3 – -the woman at the well. Richardson writes that “the encounter between Jesus and the unnamed woman offers something of an icon of the Lenten season and the invitation it extends to us. If we give ourselves to a daily practice, if we keep taking our vessel to the source even when we feel uninspired or the well seems empty or the journey is boring, if we walk with an openness to what might be waiting for us in the repetition and rhythm of our routines, we may suddenly find ourselves swimming in the grace and love of God that goes deeper than we ever imagined.”
Blessing of the Well
If you stand
at the edge
of this blessing
and call down
into it,
you will hear
your words
return to you.
If you lean in
and listen close,
you will hear
this blessing
give the story
of your life
back to you.
Quiet your voice
quiet your judgment
quiet the way
you always tell
your story
to yourself.
Quiet all these
and you will hear
the whole of it
and the hollows of it:
the spaces
in the telling,
the gaps
where you hesitate
to go.
Sit at the rim
of this blessing.
Press your ear
to its lip,
its sides,
its curves
that were carved out
long ago
by those whose thirst
drove them deep,
those who dug
into the layers
with only their hands
and hope.
Rest yourself
beside this blessing
and you will
begin to hear
the sound of water
entering the gaps.
Still yourself
and you will feel it
rising up within you,
filling every hollow,
springing forth
anew
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, – March 8 – March 15, 2020
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8
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Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy, Priest, 1929 |
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9
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Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, c. 394 |
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10
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Harriet Ross Tubman, Social Reformer, 1913 |
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11
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12
12 |
Gregory the Great, Bishop & Theologian, 604 Symeon the New Theologian, Monastic & Poet, 1022 |
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13
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James Theodore Holly, Bishop, 1911 |
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14
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15
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Vincent de Paul, Priest, & Louise de Marillac, Monastic, Workers of Charity, 1660 |