Frontpage, Aug. 29, 2021

The Season of Creation, Sept. 1 – Oct 4. See more on this page

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Pentecost 14 – Aug. 29, 2021

Aug. 29 – 11:00am, Morning Prayer In person in the church or on Zoom. – Join here at 10:45am for gathering – service starts at 11am Meeting ID: 869 9926 3545 Passcode: 889278. The Jamaican mission team will present their report as the sermon.

 

• Bulletin
• Pentecost 14 Sunday readings
• Lectionary discussion

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Bible Study on Wednesday 10am-12pm!

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Sept. 5 – 11:00am, Holy Eucharist, Season of Creation 1

Sept. 5 – 7:00pm, Compline on Zoom – Join here at 6:30am for gathering – service starts at 7pm Meeting ID 834 7356 6532 Password 748475

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Lectionary, Sept, 15th Sunday after Pentecost, Season of Creation 1 Year B
 

I. Theme –  God’s power to heal and restore 

Healing the Blindman – El Greco (1570)

The lectionary readings are here  or individually: 

Old Testament – Isaiah 35:4-7a
Psalm – Psalm 146 Page 803, BCP
Epistle – James 2:1-10, [11-13], 14-17
Gospel – Mark 7:24-37  

Today’s readings celebrate God’s power to heal and restore. Isaiah looks ahead to when God will bring healing to God’s people and to the land. Proverbs reminds us that God rewards just behavior. James speaks of God’s gift of inner, spiritual wholeness, a wholeness that results in outward acts of purity and kindness. In the gospel, away from the clamor of the crowd, Jesus transforms a man’s silent world by healing his deafness and a speech impediment.

There is a poem , “God has no hands but our hands, no feet but our feet.” In the scriptures today, there is a theme of doing good—speaking out for the poor, standing up against injustice—in all of these things, we act out of faith, and we know that God is working through us. We can do nothing apart from God, and we know that God is present in us individually and collectively when we love others. And we cannot love others if we do not care for their needs, if we do not seek to end their oppression and stop injustice against them. We must live out the calling of God and allow God to work through us, and not be in it for our own gain.

If you have ever been ill, you know the relief that sweeps over you when you suddenly realize you are in competent hands. Although you may not verbalize it, there is an almost palpable sense that everything will be okay.

That experience, though incomplete, offers a slight parallel to how people must have felt in the presence of Jesus. Hearing that voice cry, “Ephphatha!” (Be Open) and feeling that touch on the ears must have brought an overwhelming joy. The restoration of sound must sing like a great gift.

The church’s healing ministry must take on global proportions, excluding nothing in our quest to be faithful to God’s vision of Shalom.  Healing cuts across boundaries and takes many forms.   We need to expand rather than contract our vision of healing to embrace the healing of the planet’s atmosphere, endangered species, economic injustice, ethnic exclusion, as well as the healing of bodies, emotions, and spirits. Healing is truly global and indivisible. 

Healing in one place contributes to healing in other places.   Any healing act contributes to the well-being of the part as well as the whole and reflects our commitment to be God’s global healing partners.  We cannot separate injustice from physical distress or racism from infant mortality rates and accessibility to health care and healthy diet.  

Our challenge is to recognize the deaf and voiceless among us–noting that difficulties in hearing and speech are not restricted to the physical sphere–then intervene with the healing presence of Christ acting through us.

Read more about the lectionary…

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Season of Creation

Sept 1 – Oct 4, 2021

For Five Sundays in September and early October we will be in this optional lectionary within Pentecost. For the most part, the seasons of the church year follow the life of Jesus: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, and Easter. The remainder of the church year encompasses Pentecost season (or Ordinary Time), which celebrates life in the Holy Spirit. This week we will explore what it is and why we have one. The end of the season, Oct. 4, is the Feast of St. Francis.

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.

Sept 1 was proclaimed as a day of prayer for creation (World Day of Prayer for Creation, or Creation Day) by Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I for the Orthodox in 1989, and was embraced by the other major Christian European churches in 2001 and by Pope Francis for the Roman Catholic Church in 2015.

The event is celebrated in many faith traditions and has a centralized website.

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Season of Creation 2021 – Theme  

In 2021, the  theme is “A HOME FOR ALL? RENEWING THE OIKOS OF GOD.” Oikos is the Greek word for “home,” or “household.” By rooting our theme in the concept of oikos, we celebrate the integral web of relationships that sustain the well-being of the Earth.

This year’s symbol, Abraham’s tent,  signifies our commitment to safeguard a place for all who share our common home, just as Abraham did in the Book of Genesis. Abraham and Sarah opened their tent as a home for three strangers, who turned out to be God’s angels (Gen 18). By creating a home for all, their act of radical hospitality became a source of great blessing.

Abraham’s tent is a symbol of our ecumenical call to practice creation care as an act of radical hospitality, safeguarding a place for all creatures, human and more human, in our common home, the household (oikos) of God.

In Genesis God set a dome over the Earth. The word ”dome“  is where we get words such as ‘domicile’ and ’domestic’ — in other words, God puts us all is — all people, all life — under the same domed roof — we are all in the house, the oikos of God. God gave humans the ministry to take care and cultivate this oikos of God. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others have called the oikos of God ”the Beloved Community,”  a community in which all of life are equally members, though each has a different role. We need to renew our world as an interconnected and interdependent global beloved community.

The Psalmist proclaims “the Earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.” There are two statements of faith at the heart of this song. The first is that every creature belongs to the Earth community. The second is that the entire community belongs to the Creator. A Greek word for this Earth community is oikos

By faith, we join the Psalmist in remembering that we are not stewards of an inanimate creation, but caretakers within a dynamic and living community of creation. The Earth and all that is not a given, but a gift, held in trust. We are called not to dominate, but to safeguard. By reason, we discern how best to safeguard conditions for life, and create economic, technological and political architectures that are rooted in the ecological limits of our common home. Through wisdom we pay careful attention to natural systems and processes, to inherited and indigenous traditions, and to God’s revelation in word and Spirit.

Faith gives us trust that God’s Spirit is constantly renewing the face of the Earth. Within this horizon of hope, our baptismal call frees us to return to our human vocation to till and keep God’s garden. In Christ, God calls us to participate in renewing the whole inhabited Earth, safeguarding a place for every creature, and reform just relationships among all creation.

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Season of Creation focus in 2021 – Your role in reducing climate change 

“Fighting climate change needs to be our life’s work”…“We’re not going to fix this overnight. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, as they say-and that means we need to train for it. “

The above is from Goodside’s M.O.R.E. Model for Effective Climate Action, a short, concise book on climate change in our time which emphasizes the ordinary person’s role in understanding and dealing climate change, the central issue dealing with the future of the earth.

We will review this book over the next 4 weeks on this website. M.O.R.E is an acronym for measure, offset, reduce and educate. We will first look at educate next week.  

“Our goal with this book is to arm you with the know-how to easily adopt lifestyle changes, habits and actions that will aid in your efforts against the climate crisis”.

Get the book now! It’s free after a short sign up form.

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Why a Season of Creation ? 

From The Season of Creation: A Preaching Commentary by Norman C. Habel and David Rhoads

There are many reasons! Here are seven of them:

First, because God is first and foremost the Creator of all of life. To fail to focus adequately on this dimension of God’s reality in worship is to fail to appreciate the fullness God’s work, and it is to narrow and diminish our relationship with God. Our own fullness of life depends upon our relationship with God as Creator.

Second, because we were created with the rest of nature. We came from Earth and we cannot survive without all that Earth provides. Just as Earth has creative powers, so Earth itself has restorative powers. Unless we have centered opportunities to express awareness of and gratitude for our  dependence upon Earth and our relationship with other creatures, we will not be whole as human beings.

Third, because God has given us a creation to celebrate with! In recent years, much of humanity has viewed creation as a resource to be exploited rather than a mystery to be celebrated and sustained. The time has come not only to celebrate creation but to transform our human relationship to creation by worshiping in solidarity with creation

Fourth, because through worship we have an opportunity to come to terms with the current ecological crises in a spiritual way so as to empathize with a groaning creation. Worship provides a viable and meaningful way not only to include creation’s praise of God but also to engender a deep relationship with the suffering of a groaning creation.

Fifth, because a fresh focus on the wonders and wounds of creation will help us in positive ways to love creation and so care for creation as our personal vocation and our congregational ministry. Worshiping with this new awareness may well provide the impetus for a new mission for the church, a mission to creation.

Sixth, because this season enables us to celebrate the many ways in which Christ is connected with creation. From the mystery of the incarnation to the mystery of a cosmic Christ who reconciles all things in heaven and Earth, we celebrate the connection of Christ with creation. And we seek to identify with Earth in solidarity with Christ.

Seventh, because this season enables us to deepen our understanding and experience of the Holy Spirit in relationship with creation. As the “Giver of life” and the “Sustainer of life,” the Holy Spirit is the source of our empowerment, inspiration, and guidance as we seek to live in a way sustainable for all God’s creation. Being “in the unity of the Holy Spirit” encompasses our relationship with all of life. This is foundational for our worship.

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6 Key Environmental issues -Season of Creation 

1. CLIMATE CHANGE

97 percent of climate scientists agree that climate change is occurring and greenhouse gas emissions are the main cause   Specialists indicate that the fossil fuel combustion which provide 93% of the world’s energy sources represents the greatest contributing factor to, greenhouse gas emissions In the 20th century, specialists indicate that the global average temperature increased with 1 degree Fahrenheit.  Hence, the planet overheats, affecting humans, plants, and animals at the same time

Renewable energy comes from natural resources that can be replenished during an average human lifetime and includes the following types of power:  Solar, Wind, Hydro,  Geothermal, and Biomass Renewable energy sources are beneficial because they have a very limited negative environmental impact when compared to fossil fuels. They can also reduce the worldwide carbon dioxide emissions.

Overall, renewables are growing faster than fossil fuels. Last year, solar and wind power accounted for nearly 95% of new energy in the US. A 2018 report recently published by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), predicts the cost of renewable energy will experience a noticeable drop by 2020, putting it on par with, or cheaper than, fossil fuels.

What You Can Do: Your home and transportation could be major sources of greenhouse gas emissions. A certified home energy audit can help make your home more energy efficient. Consider trading in your auto for a fuel efficient hybrid or better yet—go electric.  Switch to LED lightbulbs

2. POLLUTION

Air pollution and climate change are closely linked, as the same greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet are also creating smoggy conditions in major cities that endanger public health

Water and soil pollution might not get the media attention that air pollution does, but they are still important public health concerns. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, dirty water is the world’s biggest health risk. While the Clean Water Act did much to make American water safe from harmful pollutants, today there is a new threat to clean water coming from the shale gas fracking boom taking place across the country and from the EPA itself.

Plastics use are a problem mostly due to their un-biodegradable nature, the materials used for plastic production (hydrocarbon molecules—derived from the refining of oil and natural gas), and the challenges behind properly discarding them

What You Can Do – Give up plastic straws, plastic water bottles. Take a reusable coffee cup with you. Choose cardboard and paper over plastic, Take a little extra time while doing your shopping and select products without plastic packaging.

3. DEFORESTATION

Forests are important to mitigating climate change because they serve as “carbon sinks,” meaning that they absorb CO2 that would otherwise escape into the atmosphere and worsen global warming. It is estimated that 15 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation. Cutting down trees also threatens animals and humans who rely on healthy forests to sustain themselves, and the loss of tropical rainforests is particularly concerning because around 80 percent of the world’s species reside in these areas. About 17 percent of the Amazon rainforest has been cut down in the past 50 years to make way for cattle ranching. That’s a double whammy for the climate because cattle flatulence is a major source of methane gas, which contributes more to short term climate change than carbon emissions.

What You Can Do: Plant trees, stop using paper towels and use washable cloths instead, use cloth shopping bags (instead of paper), and look at labels to make sure you only use FSC-certified wood and paper products. You can also boycott products made by palm oil companies that contribute to deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia..

4. WATER SCARCITY

As the population increases and climate change causes more droughts, water scarcity is becoming more of an issue. Only three percent of the world’s water is fresh water and 1.1 billion people lack access to clean, safe drinking water. By the middle of this century more than a third of all counties in the lower 48 states will be at higher risk of water shortages with more than 400 of the 1,100 counties facing an extremely high risk.

What You Can Do  Installing an ENERGY STAR-certified washer, using low-flow faucets, plugging up leaks, irrigating the lawn in the morning or evening when the cooler air causes less evaporation, taking shorter showers and not running sink water when brushing your teeth. Also, consider using non-toxic cleaning products and eco-friendly pesticides and herbicides that won’t contaminate groundwater.

5. LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY

Increasing human encroachment on wildlife habitats is causing a rapid loss of biodiversitythat threatens food security, population health and world stability. Climate change is also a major contributor to biodiversity loss, as some species aren’t able to adapt to changing temperatures. According to the World Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet Index, biodiversity has declined 27 percent in the last 35 years.

What You Can Do: As consumers we can all help protect biodiversity by purchasing products that don’t harm the environment. Next time you are at the grocery store, check to see if food packaging contains any of the following eco-labels: USDA Organic, Fair Trade Certified, Marine Stewardship Council or Green Seal. Other product certifications include Forest Stewardship Council Certification, Rainforest Alliance Certification and Certified Wildlife Friendly. Also, reusing, recycling and composting are easy ways to protect biodiversity.

6. SOIL EROSION AND DEGRADATION

Unsustainable industrial agriculture practices have resulted in soil erosion and degradation that leads to less arable land, clogged and polluted waterways, increased flooding and desertification. According to the World Wildlife Fund, half of the earth’s topsoil has been lost in the last 150 years.

What You Can Do: you can make a difference in your backyard by switching to non-toxic green pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers.

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