Frontpage, Jan. 24, 2021

This Sunday from 2018

Jan. 24 – Third Sunday after the Epiphany

Jan. 24, Lectionary – Discipleship and change

Bulletin

Jan. 24 – 11:00am Morning Prayer – Join here at 10:30am for gathering. Meeting ID: 869 9926 3545 Passcode: 889278

Jan. 24 – 7:00pm Compline – Join here at 6:30am for gathering – service starts at 7pm Meeting ID: 878 7167 9302 Passcode: 729195

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Jan. 27 – 10:00am – Ecumenical Bible Study through Zoom

Jan. 28 – 4:00pm – Vestry meeting

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Jan. 31 – Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

Jan. 31 – 11:00am Morning Prayer, Parish Meeting – Join here at 10:30am for gathering – service starts at 11am Meeting ID 834 7356 6532 Password 748475

Jan. 31 – 7:00pm Compline – Join here at 6:30am for gathering – service starts at 7pm Meeting ID: 878 7167 9302 Passcode: 729195

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Epiphany –  Jan 6 until Lent  begins Feb. 17, 2021

Adoration of the Magi – Bartholomäus Zeitblom (c. 1450 – c. 1519)

The English word "Epiphany" comes from the Greek word epiphaneia, which means "appearing" or "revealing." Epiphany focuses on God’s self-revelation in Christ.  

Epiphany celebrates the twelfth day of Christmas, the coming of the Magi to give homage to God’s Beloved Child.  

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The Epiphany celebration remembers the three miracles that manifest the divinity of Christ. The celebration originated in the Eastern Church in AD 361, beginning as a commemoration of the birth of Christ. Later, additional meanings were added – the visit of the three Magi, Christ’s baptism in the Jordan River with the voice from heaven that identifies Jesus as God’s son, and his first miracle at the wedding in Cana. These three events are central to the definition of Epiphany, and its meaning is drawn from these occurrences. 

More about Epiphany

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Read the Gospel of Mark during Epiphany

The Good Book Club is an invitation to all Episcopalians to join in reading the Gospel of Mark during Epiphany 2021. Mark is the Gospel in Year B which will be a part of us in 2021. Episcopalians will read a section every day through the Epiphany season. Most of the readings are 20 verses or less.

1. There is also a free ChurchNext course to go along with it –

2. Sign up for weekly emails

3. The Bible Project on Mark, including videos

4. Binge Reading the Gospel of Mark

5. Link to the daily readings.

Mark opens with words from the prophet Isaiah: “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,” and indeed the gospel itself serves as a messenger for the life and ministry of Jesus. Written around 65-75, Mark proclaims the good news that Jesus is the messiah and Son of God.

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Conversion of St. Paul, Jan 25 – in art and words 

On January 25 we remember how Saul (or Paul) of Tarsus, formerly a persecutor of the early Christian Church, was led by God’s grace to become one of its chief spokesmen. Here are two art works that depict the event :

“The Conversion on the Way to                                       "The Conversion of St. Paul" 
 Damascus” Caravaggio 1601                                                Nicolas-Bernard Lepicie, 1767

 "and suddenly a light from heaven shined round about him. And falling on the ground, he heard a voice saying to him: Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Who said: Who art thou, Lord? And he: I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. " Acts 9: 3-5

The Italian painter Caravaggio painted the one on the left in 1601 for the Cerasi Chapel of the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, in Rome. The painting depicts the moment recounted in Chapter 9 of Acts of the Apostles when Saul, soon to be the apostle Paul, fell on the road to Damascus.

Caravaggio is close to the Bible. The horse is there and, to hold him, a groom, but the drama is internalized within the mind of Saul. There is no heavenly apparition. He lies on the ground stunned, his eyes closed as if dazzled by the light.

Caravaggio’s style featured a dark background with usually one point of breaking light. Paul is flung off of his horse and is seen on his back on the ground. Although Paul reflects the most light out of all the characters, the attention is given to him in a strange way. Because Paul is on the ground, he is much smaller than the horse, which is also at the center of the painting but he is pictured closer to the viewer.

The second painting constrast with Caravaggio in the use of color and light. This one has some of the most vibrant colors.  Heaven’s light is shown coming dynamically from left to right.  The painting is like the key frame in a movie on the conversion.  At the time Lepicie was a professor at the  Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris

Read more about Paul’s conversion… 

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Village Harvest numbers rise significantly in Jan., 2021

The Village Harvest takes many people and time to prepare the harvest as it does for real farmers.

1 The Village Harvest takes people willing to drive to Montross to pickup the food

2 Then people to bag the items and finally people willing to distribute it between 3pm and 5pm on the third Wednesday of each month

The weather improved in January (55 degrees) compared to December (34 degrees) and helped to boost the number of clients from 81 to 116. This was the third best total for 2020 and early 2021 and exceeded the 12 month rolling average of 110.

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Congregational Meeting, Sun., Jan. 31

 

 

 

Jan. 31, 11am.  What were the key things that happened in 2020 ? What’s in store for St. Peter’s in 2021 ?

These are other questions will be part of the 2021 congregational meeting held during the 11am service.    

We will be electing one member of the Vestry

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Epiphany 4, Year B Lectionary Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021

I.Theme –  Scope and meaning of God’s Authority

 "St. Peter’s – inside picture as a drawing"

The lectionary readings are here  or individually: 

Old Testament – Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Psalm – Psalm 111 Page 754, BCP
Epistle –1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Gospel – Mark 1:21-28

Mark – Jesus demonstrates divine authority by healing a man with unclean spirit. Jesus preaches the Good news even when it leads to conflict

Deuteronomy – Moses encourage people to listen to God’s prophet and heed God’s word

Corinthians – True obedience to law must be balance by love and compassion

From Bruce Epperly – "Process and Faith"

"Today’s lectionary readings reflect on the nature of authority and the impact of our actions on the wellbeing of others. The season of Epiphany is an invitation to reflect on the many places and ways God reveals Godself to humankind. With the mystic Meister Eckhardt, Epiphany is grounded in the affirmation that all things are words of God. Anyone of us – and also the non-human world – can be a vehicle of divine revelation. Yet, revelation is always contextual, concrete, and variable.

"In the historical matrix of life, some persons and places are more transparent to the divine than others. This is a matter of call and response – God’s call and our responses as individuals and communities. Still, even though all of us turn away from God at times, some more than others, all persons have something of the divine within them. As John’s Gospel proclaims, the light of God enlightens all, even when we pursue darkness rather than light.

"The words of Deuteronomy are both promising and threatening. God will raise up a prophet – another spiritual leader or group of leaders – to succeed Moses. According to the text, God will put words in the prophet’s mouth. Those who don’t follow the prophet’s words will be punished. Any prophet who extemporizes or deviates from God’s revelation will be destroyed.

"The good news is that “God is still speaking” and we can find enlightenment for our path. Still, these words are ambiguous and raise a number of questions:

"Can finite, time bound, and imperfect human beings speak God’s words “perfectly?”

"Can prophets and spiritual leaders ever escape their historical, ethnic, and religious perspective?

"Can we directly speak for God or are our words, by nature, indirect and opaque despite their insight and inspiration?

"How do we know which words come from God and which are self-promoting and manipulative? That is, in a pluralistic environment, how can we discern the difference between “true” and “false” prophecy?

"Psalm 111 speaks of divine authority as a blend of love, power, and justice. Creation itself reflects divine authority, the ability of God to shape our world, cosmologically as well as ethically. There is plenty of free play and competition in the universe – each event emerges from many causes ranging from environment, personal choice, and divine direction – but within this intricate matrix of causation, there is a consistent force aiming at novelty, justice, fairness, and beauty. Authority figures must be judged by their adherence to the “moral arc” of divine intentionality.

"We must always ask the following questions: Does an authority figure promote justice, creativity, and beauty? Does an authority figure seek what is truly best for the community, including honoring diverse opinions and lifestyles? Does an authority figure enable people to be more creative, more adventurous, and more compassionate?

I Corinthians 8:1-13 explores the nature of personal authority and our responsibility for the way our actions – even matters of personal preference – shape the lives of others. Paul notes that even though some of our behaviors or words are in and of themselves innocuous, we need to take heed for their impact on others – especially less mature members of our community. Ethics, Paul recognizes, is not a matter of absolutes or unbending principles, but the impact on the people right in front of us. If our abstractions harm our neighbors, then our principles are of little value to the communities in which we live.

"The reading from the Gospel of Mark (1:21-28) sees Jesus’ authority as joining words and action. Jesus walked the talk, and spoke words that transformed people’s lives and reflected God’s vision for humankind. In today’s reading, Jesus’ sermon leads to action. He confronts a man, possessed by a destructive spirit. While we don’t know the nature of this spirit, it destroyed his personality, rendered him an outcast, unclean, and unable to live with his family. Jesus confronts this unclean spirit with the simple words: “Be still. Come out from him.”

"Jesus’ authority leads to healing and wholeness, inclusion and hospitality. Jesus’ power was for good. His words and actions promoted creativity, agency, growth, and interdependence.

"Today’s readings promote spiritual practices that enable us to attentive to God’s “whispered word.” Discovering our personal authority involves a commitment to prayer, devotional reading, communities of support and accountability, and concern for others. They also challenge us to embody the values we affirm as we seek the wellbeing of our companions and communities. Contemplation and action are one dynamic reality: our insights lead to healing and affirming actions that shape people and communities."

Read more about the Lectionary…

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Possession in the Gospel of Mark  

by David Lose, president of Luther Seminary

One more thing on Jesus’ first public appearance and activity. We’ve already said that these early words and deeds of Jesus are important to pay attention to because they help flesh out what he means by “the kingdom of God.” But even if we’re paying close attention to what’s happening at this point of the story, we almost immediately run into a problem. And that’s with miracles – they don’t always fit into the way we look at and think about the world today, and that makes them hard to relate to. And in this first miracle of Jesus, it’s even worse: possession. I mean, who believes in possession any more.

Actually, I do. I have, that is, on occasion been possessed by anger at a colleague or family member that has led me to say and do things I regret. I have been possessed by jealousy and envy that had led me to use my resources in ways I regret. And that’s just the beginning. And can you honestly tell me that you haven’t had these experiences also, when you feel possessed by something that is so clearly not the Spirit of God blessing us to be a blessing to others? And there are worse things to be possessed by as well. Think of what it’s like to be possessed by an addiction to alcohol, drugs, gambling, or pornography. Or how it feels to be possessed by prejudice. Or maybe it’s the kind of possession that isn’t quite as obvious, or that our culture actually approves of, like workaholism, affluenza, or greed. (Remember Gordon Gekko’s Wall Street speech that “greed is good” and the way that attitude more recently has both captured and ravaged our culture and economy?)

There are, I think, a lot of ways to be possessed. Is that what Mark describes in this story. I don’t know, but I do think we might be helped by shedding our Hollywood-fed images of demons causing us to vomit and spin our heads (Exorcist-style) and instead image that they represent those forces that are diametrically opposed to God’ will. Rather than bless, they curse; rather than build up, they tear down; rather than encourage, they disparage; rather than promote love, they sow hate; rather than draw us together, they seek to split us apart.

So maybe we could boil down this first miracle of Jesus this way: Jesus has been baptized, tempted in the wilderness, and now comes to proclaim and demonstrate the kingdom of God on earth, and he does this by opposing the forces of evil which would rob the children of God of all that God hopes and intends for them.

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Preaching the Healing Narratives in Mark 

By Lawrence

The new messianic community: healing, restoration and conflict

Jesus’ ministry is about gathering into being a new community – a messianic community – which is a sign of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the world as it ought to be and will be under God. The message of the kingdom is the Good News that Jesus preaches (1:14). It has “come near” in Jesus and begins to take shape – takes on “ground space” – in the community of disciples and followers that Jesus gathers around him. This new community is an anticipation and sign of the kingdom of God.

Significantly, this happens on the margins. Jesus’ ministry takes place in Galilee, far away from Jerusalem. He is baptized in the vicinity of the city, but in the wilderness. This is the place of resistance to the Temple and the religious purity system center there. The point is that the purity system breaks down community by exclusion. The focus of Jesus’ ministry is among the excluded.

We need therefore to be constantly alert several narrative-structural features of the healing narratives, in addition to the healings themselves:

· Jesus is a healer, not a curer. This is the “healing and wholeness” point. Jesus pays virtually no attention to the symptoms of illness, so crucial in medical diagnosis. He is not a super-doctor! He does not attempt to explain the causes of illness, either in medical or spiritual terms (eg as a result of sin).

·A fundamental feature of the healing narratives is the restoration of community. Peter’s mother-in-law is healed in order to participate in the Sabbath meal (with all the importance that attaches to table fellowship). Lepers are healed in order to be re-integrated into the community. The purity system excludes sick people from participation in communal life and blessing, and the healings that Mark records almost invariably entail the restoration of the healed person to the wider community.

· Unsurprisingly, the healings are therefore in effect (though not intention) a direct confrontation with the religious purity system. We need to be alert to the reaction of those who see healing as a threat. So, for example, the healing of the man with the withered hand (3:1-6) is set in terms of the conflict over Sabbath keeping (as is Peter’s mother-in-law, by implication). Healings are theologically significant and provide the context for many of the deadly conflicts over the Law between Jesus and the Pharisees. The account of a healing concludes with the Pharisees and the Herodians conspiring together to destroy Jesus (3:6).

· The healings are messianic actions. Not only are they the presence of the saving actions of God (the plundering of the Strong Man’s house) but they directly provoke the opposition of the religious authorities that results in Jesus’ suffering and death (which is what is to define his messiahship).

· They make sense of the “great reversal” of the kingdom. Jesus heals among the marginalized and outside the dominant religious system. The dominant system has no place for these people, so that the idea that God is at work through the Messiah among these is anathema to the leaders. This is part of the reason why “the first shall be last and the last first”. Grace is seen in God’s radical inclusion of the excluded. Those who are unable to accept this cut themselves off from Jesus, the new messianic community and the kingdom.

· Jesus did not see himself primarily in opposition to the religious system of his day, but as a prophetic, “purification” movement within Judaism.There is a dynamic tension in all the gospels over what would have happened had Jesus and his message been accepted. The passion predictions suggest that Jesus was fully aware that he had come to be rejected and that his death was inevitable. His weeping over Jerusalem suggests his hope that he would have been accepted and that the kingdom he inaugurated would come about. The healing stories reflect this tension. In the cleansing of the leper (1:40-5), Jesus urges the leper to go to the priest and go through the proper cleansing and restoration rituals. It is clear that Jesus wished to establish the new messianic community within Judaism, rather than in opposition to it. The healing narratives help to plot the movement of Jesus’ initial hope of acceptance, then through opposition to rejection and inevitable death. They help to emphasize the fact that Jesus died because of the life of the kingdom he lived, rather than only a result of the divine plan of salvation through suffering and death. They make his life, as well as his death and resurrection, significant for Christian discipleship.

Read more about the healing narratives…

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