Frontpage, August 30, 2020

August 30, 2020 – Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” – Matthew 16:24

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The Week Ahead…

August 30- Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

August 30 – 10:00am, Morning Prayer on the River

Bulletin Morning Prayer

Photo Gallery

August 30 – 11:15am – National Cathedral church service online

August 30 – 7:00pm, Evening Prayer on Zoom – Join here at 6:30pm for gathering – service starts at 7pm Meeting ID 834 7356 6532 Password 748475

1. Bulletin for Aug. 30, 7:00pm, Evening Prayer

2. Readings and Prayers Pentecost 13, Aug. 30

3. Sermon

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Sept. 2 – 10:00am – Ecumenical Bible Study through Zoom

Sept. 6 – Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Season of Creation I

Sept. 6 – 10:00am, Morning Prayer on the River

Sept. 6 – 11:15am – National Cathedral church service online

Sept. 6 – 7:00pm, Evening Prayer on Zoom – Join here at 6:30pm for gathering – service starts at 7pm Meeting ID 834 7356 6532 Password 748475

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What is the Season of Creation  ?

This is fourth year we have used this optional lectionary which begins Sept 1 and ends at St. Francis Day, Oct. 4. Usually Pentecost is the longest season from Pentecost Sunday until Advent.  Now the Season of Creation, five Sundays, helps to break up the period we spend in Pentecost. Where did this come from ?

Since the 1980’s, the Eastern Orthodox Church has designated this time each year to delve more deeply into our relationships with God and with one another in the context of the magnificent creation in which we live.   The Catholic Church also recognizes this season.  The Church of England, as well as the Anglicans in Australia and New Zealand observe this season as well.  Various churches across the United States also celebrate the Season of Creation.

For centuries, our theology our theology has focused on relationship with God and our human relationships with one another. The Season of Creation focuses God’s relationship with all creation and with our relationship with creation (and with God through creation). It highlights our role in understanding and addressing address the ecological problems we face today as a part of God’s creation.

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Season of Creation Devotional for Sept. 6

Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. – Romans 13:11

“Discipleship is a lifelong calling to worship, learn, listen and act in the name of Jesus. In Romans 13, disciples are invited to wake up to the significance of the times in which they live.

“Waking up to matters of climate justice and environmental stewardship are among the most important callings people have today. Over many years, through many voices, our churches have come to a growing conviction that loving our neighbor includes loving Mother Earth as a neighbor.

“Who helps you to wake up?

“For our churches, many voices have come from Indigenous Peoples who continue to teach us the significance of land and relationships. The particular “place you are in” at any given moment is important. “Land” is about relationships between earth, water, animals, plants, peoples, environments and climate. Healing relationships with the land are essential for justice and peace among peoples. God speaks to us anew through relationships with the land.

“Worship also wakes us up. Worship helps open our hearts, minds, bodies and spirits to our relationships with creation and to the possibilities for action. We are grateful for the worship you regularly offer in order to support many on the journey of learning, listening, discerning and acting.

“What songs, prayers, words and practices encourage you as you express your discipleship through caring for creation? What helps you wake up?”

Loving God, we thank you for the gift of life in all its diversity and beauty; renew us in discipleship and in love for the earth. Amen.

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Climate Change -Spiritual Reflections on Nature and Humankind

The issue of Climate Change that has enveloped over the last generation has involved both religion and science. It is closely related to the Season of Creation due to need to take action on climate change that imperils God’s creation.

Science and religion are tools to investigate reality from two different angles. Each discipline asks a fundamentally different question.

Science asks: how does the universe work?

Religion asks: why is there a universe and what is its purpose, and what is our purpose of existence as human beings?

Now, as the Earth is affected by climate change and other environmental problems we need science to learn more about the causes, effects, and solutions to these problems.

So what’s the role of religion? While scientists can tell us what needs to be done, they are usually not able to motivate society to implement these solutions. That’s where we need religion. Religion provides us with the spiritual understanding of our responsibility towards the Earth and towards other human beings including future generations. In other words, religion provides an ethical or moral framework. And it motivates us to act!

The concern of the environment is an interfaith issue and not just Christian. All faiths have talked about it.

The issue in the Bible goes right back to the early Israelites

A major theme of Deuteronomy is that God’s covenantal gift of the land came with a warning: the Israelites were not to forget God’s commandments; if they did, they would lose the land. Here is Deuteronomy 8 “… the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with/lowing streams, ‘with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing. Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes”

As with any gift, the need to preserve it was crucial. They couldn’t do well unless they maintained the land. The soil was thin and easily eroded. The rain was sparse and came in the winter, the wrong time of year. They were a partner with the Lord

More specifics came from Exodus and Leviticus the land was to be allowed to rest, to lie fallow one year in seven; second, crops growing at the edges of the field were not to be harvested, but left for the poor, those who had no land. The covenant was not only between Jew and God but Jew, God and Land.

In Jeremiah, every family was allocated a farm in the promised land Over time the Israelites abused God’s hospitality by living in ways that were unjust, ways contrary to Torah, ways that desecrated the land. Time and again God offered to forgive the people if they would only repent and live faithfully. But they refused, and so God’s commitment to the land required that the Israelites be exiled. But exile was not the end of the covenant. It was intended to be a sabbatical to reconsecrate the land and people, a time of fallowing for land and people. The birth of Jesus was an end to the era of exile which began with the takeover of the temple 500 years earlier.

The Israelites and us all live in fragile land. Our collective impact on the global environmental system has increased since the Industrial Revolution, and we now find ourselves in a situation much like that of the Israelites. To continue to flourish, we need a sabbatical to understand as impact and judge what we can do to reconstitute our relationship to the environment. We are bringing back the kingdom by understanding how everything is connected with everything else. There is a balance which is getting out of balance.

The sun is the source of all life and of all energy. It provides the temperature necessary for the existence of life. Plants absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen with the help of sunlight. That’s called photosynthesis. During photosynthesis, plants transform atmospheric carbon into organic compounds, especially glucose (sugars). That glucose is used in various forms by every creature on the planet for energy and growth.

Also important is keeping trapping some of this energy warming the planet and enabling man to survive. Atmospheric gases like carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide are called greenhouse gases because they act similar to the glass in a greenhouse by trapping heat.

Since the industrial revolution, greenhouse gases have sharply increased upsetting the previously long-lasting balance. The increase comes mainly from emissions from power plants, cars, airplanes, from deforestation and industrial activities. In a very short period of time, human beings have used huge quantities of stored solar energy (fossil fuels) thereby releasing unprecedented amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

The more greenhouse gases there are in the atmosphere the warmer our planet becomes. This has warmer climates particular in southern areas and has eliminated a percentage of glacial coverage. The balance is upset and we are likely to pay the price.

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Lectionary, Sept. 6 2020, Pentecost 14,  Proper 18, Year A

 I.Theme –   Differing approaches and solutions to sin.

 "Forgiveness"- Sofiya Inger (2006)

About the artist

"I grew up in Russia, in the old northern town of narrow streets, ancient cathedrals, long white snowy winters, white cottonwood blizzards every spring…

"Painting became the color, the meaning, and the way to feel and to live. It led me through adolescence, strict schooling, sleepless nights of motherhood, through the strains of marriage, deaths, and the feverish attempts to grow new roots in strangely colored soil of a new country.

"All of that fascinates me.. people, their connections, aspirations, and the mysteries of everyday life…." 

The lectionary readings are here  or individually: 

Old Testament – Ezekiel 33:7-11
Psalm – Psalm 119:33-40 Page 766, BCP
Epistle –Romans 13:8-14
Gospel – Matthew 18:15-20 

The readings today are about the ways and methods of combating sin. The message is not so much the concept of sin but how chosen individuals deal with it and from them the community at large.  We have to remember that all of this is leading to concepts of reconciliation.

Ezekiel’s prophetic ministry to his people in the Old Testament extended from 593BC to about 573 BC, from before the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. to the time of the exile in Babylon. Today’s reading harks back to Ezekiel’s concern for individual responsibility.

The sentinel or watchman, chosen by the townspeople, was responsible for warning them of the approach of an enemy. They then could come in from the fields and take refuge. In this passage, God both chooses the watchman and sends the awaited enemy in judgment. There is an implicit tension between the punishment of the wicked and the desire that they repent and live. Israel believed that mere membership in the community of God’s people guaranteed salvation; here God declares that the individual is responsible for his or her own choices.

In the Ezekiel reading, God’s threat of a death sentence as a motivation to repent is what God calls prophets to announce. The threat of death is supposed to inspire the repentance that brings life.  God calls the prophet to be faithful and have courage to speak God’s warning to the people. It is a warning to those called to speak on behalf of God, but whose desire to play it safe, to please others.  In both this reading and the Gospel, our responsibility is to call others to live rightly.

According to today’s Psalm, learning and obeying God’s commandments and fearing God will keep you from sin and lead to life.  The poet proclaims a dependence on the Lard. She wants to observe the law with her whole heart , have her heart and eyes turned away from worthless things and toward God’s law and have disgrace turned away from her. The poet even says she wants to “follow” or walk in the way laid out by God’s precious law.  

In today’s Romans reading, Paul’s solution to sin is to “love one another” and “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” which actually are the same thing, because Jesus Christ, in his faithfulness in life even to the point of death, fulfilled the law, which is summed up by the saying “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Paul’s injunctions to "love one another," to "love your neighbor as yourself," and to lay aside the works of darkness" (vv. 8,9, 12), mean that the pervasive individualism and "privatized" notions of faith that remain all-too-common features of contemporary church life must give way to a faith that actively nurtures and works toward mutuality, solidarity, and justice in our social transactions.

Matthew’s gospel approaches the question of evil within the personal sphere. How should a Christian act when the network of relationships hits a snag? It is inevitable that human connections will sooner or later go haywire. How then should we intervene?

First, he suggests dealing with the problem directly, before it grows like a cancer. We are often tempted to ignore trouble, which then becomes more difficult to heal. 

Jesus proposes that the person who feels wronged should initiate the reconciliation. Matthew outlines a community process that gives a “brother or sister who has sinned” an opportunity to repent, either in private or in front of the community, before the community bans them from participating in the community’s life.  

The process is kept private until various channels have been tried and exhausted. In contrast, we often rush to complain publicly before we even have a clear picture of what’s wrong. When the gossip spreads, the whole situation worsens. The process involves confrontation (confronting the sinner in private), negotiation (confronting the sinner with two or three others)  and adjudication (confronting the sinner by the community).  Sin is more than a private responsibility with which to deal.

Finally, he operates from a basis of compassion. The purpose of the process is never to humiliate or to condemn, but always to restore union with the brother or sister. In contrast, we often enter conflict with the self-righteous purpose of emerging as a winner. Jesus upholds the ideal that the person takes priority over our raging opinions and the causes we champion.

In the gospel Jesus makes clear that accepting this responsibility affects the well-being of the whole community. Traditionally, the sacrament of penance has been solely a private matter among penitent, priest, and God. 

Read more about the Lectionary…

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Reconciliation – on the "Field of Dreams" baseball field

Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella hears a voice in his corn field tell him, "If you build it, he will come." He interprets this message as an instruction to build a baseball field on his farm. The voice becomes more insistent, until he gives in and builds a baseball diamond, complete with lights for night games and bleachers for spectators on his farm. Then appear the ghosts of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other seven Chicago White Sox players banned from the game for throwing the 1919 World Series to play the game again. When the voices continue, Ray seeks out a reclusive author to help him understand the meaning of the messages and the purpose for his field. 

But the real "He" who was to come is the farmer’s long estranged and now dead father. His father John asks, "Is this heaven?" To which, the farmer responds, "It’s Iowa." In a simple game of "catch" on the field they have a chance to talk, see life from the other’s point of view, and experience forgiveness and a restored relationship. A poignant scene.

Some links:

Field of Dreams Trailer
Ray and his Dad play catch

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Reconciliation in the movies- "Home Alone"

Home Alone is the story of eight-year-old Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) waking up and finding himself home alone. His family and extended family had already left, in haste, for Paris, where they will spend Christmas. At first, it is a dream come true for Kevin. He eats what he wants; watches what he wants; and sleeps where he wants. But he quickly becomes the defender of his home against two goons, Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern) who have their eyes set on Kevin’s home for robbery. Kevin develops a series of traps for the burglars to keep them out. And they work.

The film has at least two streams of reconciliation. In the movie we are reminded of a mothers’ love for her child because she did whatever she had to do to get back to her son – even riding in a truck with a polka band! There is probably a notion in her mind that the family seemed to gang up on Kevin at the beginning from the pizza scene to breakfast. The movie is all about Kevin rising to challenges particularly in defeating the crooks. Kevin has a new appreciation of his family providing warmth, comfort and protection.

There is also the subplot of the grizzly old neighbor, Marley who clears his walk and is scary for Kevin. On the night in which Kevin prepares for the arrival of Harry and Marv, he stops by the church. This is the pew scene which was filmed inside of an Episcopal church. While sitting in his pew listening to the children sing, old man Marley moves from his pew to sit next to Kevin. Marley is there to listen to this granddaughter sing. It is the only time when he gets to see her. Kevin preaches reconciliation: 

"Kevin: So give it a shot, for your granddaughter anyway. I’m sure she misses you and the presents. "

Marley: I send her a check. "

Kevin: I wish my grandparents did that. They always send me clothes. Last year I got a sweater with a big bird knitted on it. "

Marley: That’s nice. "

Kevin: Not for a guy in the second grade. You can get beat up for wearing something like that. Yeah, I had a friend who got nailed because there was a rumor he wore dinosaur pajamas."

Old man Marley takes Kevin’s advice, and as Kevin is reunited with his family when they return home, Marley is reunited with his. It is the heartwarming moment of the film.

And the moment when we all find hope. Christmas is about family coming and being together. Christmas is about forgiveness and reconciliation.

"For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross."- Colossians 1:19-20

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