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Block Print by Mike Newman
Projects
Link to the reports from Jan 15 Annual Meeting
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, Aug. 20- Aug. 27
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20
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Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, 1153 |
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21
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22
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23
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[Martin de Porres, 1639 and Rosa de Lima, 1617, Witnesses to the Faith in South America] |
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24
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Saint Bartholomew the Apostle |
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25
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Louis, King of France, 1270 |
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26
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27
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Thomas Gallaudet, 1902, and Henry Winter Syle, 1890 |
August 20, 2017 – The Canaanite Woman
The sun played a role this week – hazy and murky suns, rainbows in the late afternoon. And you thought next week was the sun’s big day?
Life comes in many ages and passages. Salli, in discernment about the diaconate preaching about welcome at the table – and for all; Ron, in retirement, serving, remembering anniversaries or not remembering them – still getting a kiss; a youngster peering up at a priest with big eyes.
That other congregation..This week serving a record number in that other table – the Village Harvest. 167!! Wow. We gave out of both food and school supplies.
Nature overflowing. 30,000 bees in a space not much bigger than a big table. Butterflies in greater number than in the past. Gentle rain drops shining jewels in the grass. Light providing patterns on the floor, on the pew, in the gallery. All at St. Peter’s this week.
See the link for the details.
Sunday, Aug. 20, 2017
The River Reflected
Worth Repeating.. Village Harvest, Aug 16, 2017
Did you catch the article on our Village Harvest on Aug 16, 2017 ? Here’s the link.
The Week Ahead…
Aug. 23 – 10:00am – Ecumenical Bible Study
Aug. 27 – 9:00am – Holy Eucharist, Rite I
Aug. 27 – 11:00am – Morning Prayer, Rite II
Sunday, August 27, Readings and Servers
Lectionary, Aug. 27, 2017, Pentecost 12, Year A
I.Theme – Finding identify, confronting power of leaders and molding the growing church.
"Keys to the Kingdom" – Hermoleon
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Isaiah 51:1-6
Psalm – Psalm 138 Page 793, BCP
Epistle –Romans 12:1-8
Gospel – Matthew 16:13-20
This week is about identity, power and authority of leaders, people and within the growing church. In fact there is little action – we step back, examine ourselves, ask questions and interpret where this is leading us
This section marks a turning point in both Roman’s and Matthew’s Gospel.
In three prior chapters, Paul has figured out how God will bring all peoples into the grace of Jesus Christ, even the Israelites who, by rejecting Jesus, seem to have given up their status as the Chosen People. Now Paul focuses on what life as one body with diverse gifts looks like as he blends both Jew and Gentile. And with one body comes worship. We must adopt a new mind set, in order to recognize God’s will for us
Paul insists that we should offer our bodies and minds to God, open to actively being used and changed – thus our whole lives become “spiritual worship.” There is a wonderful promise that in doing so, we may discern the will of God
He identifies core activities in his Kingdom though in his time the actual churches were far more dispersed. Note that the gifts listed here are focused not on the “institution” of the church, but on the core activities of the Christian community with each other and on mission in the world—proclaiming God’s living word, serving others, teaching, coaching, giving, leading, and offering mercy . The body only functions when everyone’s gifts are being exercised. The image of the church as the body strongly challenges giving excessive authority in the church to particular individuals or positions, as the body only functions when everyone’s gifts are being exercised.
In the Gospel, up till now Jesus has been teaching the crowds the mystery of the Kingdom in the face of growing hostility from the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus now withdraws with the disciples to begin forming them into his ‘church’.
The gospel text poses a challenge to the authority that comes from Roman might, or divine rule by their gods. And it is happening in their backyard – in Caesarea Philippi . So who is Jesus to challenge the foundation of society ? “Who do others think I am and who do you think I am”
Jesus’ identity is composed in the context of God’s interaction with Israel as well as the power of Jesus’ own time. When Peter declares Jesus to be the Messiah or the anointed one of God, images of political independence are certainly in the air
In his words to Simon Peter, Jesus gives authority to him and the other disciples – to a bunch of fishermen, tax collectors, rebels and others, who misunderstand him 9 times out of 10, and do not fit anyone’s conventional notion of leaders.
In doing so, however, the Gospel writers are not just interested in correctly defining who Jesus is but also in shaping a community molded in light of his actions and teachings. And so these questions of identity are not just a matter of definition but of formation, not just doctrine but discipleship
Isaiah is not about the identity of leaders or churches but the people themselves.
In the Isaiah passage it is not the leader whose identity is under scrutiny, but the people themselves, as the prophet asks them to look to their own heritage. Although this passage points to several moments in Israel’s story, the most overt reference is to Abraham and Sarah.
In the Psalm identity comes in the context of praise, the psalmist continuing the words of thanks, this time to the “name ” of god, because of God’s “steadfast love and faithfulness. “Name” was an important concept in the ancient Near East. Names reflected the natures and characters of the person who bore them and were conceptually equal to the essence of ones being. The Psalmist is providing identity to God, one how provides “love and faithfulness;” who “increased my strength within me” , “cares for the lowly”, keeps him safe and confronts the psalmist’s enemies.
Identity
"God wants us to become fully the person he created us to be and not to settle for anything less: to become so alive that when people see us they actually see something of God radiating through us and glorifying God." – Br. Geoffrey Tristram, Society of Saint John the Evangelist
SSJE is a monastic community of The Episcopal Church & The Anglican Church of Canada.
"St Peters as our rock"
From a sermon Aug 24, 2011 
In July of 1833, three of our ancestors here in Port Royal, William Gray, Charles Urquhart and George Fitzhugh, placed an ad in the Virginia Herald for builders.
To Builders— “The Subscribers, Commissioners for building a church in Port Royal, will receive proposals for erecting the same—they would prefer to have the whole work undertaken by a single individual, but will contract for the Brick work separately, if necessary. A hundred thousand Bricks, it is supposed will be about the number required for the church.”
And this church is built of bricks. Bricks, made from the earth itself, are a strong building material, much like rock. In many places in the Old Testament, the rock is a symbol for God.
…Here we are, in a brick church named after St Peter, the man that Jesus called a rock.
And Jesus asks each and every one of us the same question he asked the disciples. “But who do you say that I am?”
When we are able to answer this question as Peter did, “You, Jesus, are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!” we experience a cosmic shift in our lives. When we recognize that God IS the solid core within us—our inner rock.
We profess our faith every Sunday in the words of the Nicene Creed—our belief in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
But how do we know when God really is at the center of our lives? Paul provides some help with this question in the passage from the letter to the Romans that we heard today. We find that rather than being conformed to the world, we are being transformed by the renewing of our minds. And our minds are made new when we can wake up every morning and hand ourselves over to God. “God, please be the rock in my life today, and please help me serve you by serving my neighbors. Please help me to do whatever it is you give me to do today, to your glory.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer – "Who am I" (1946)
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a professing Christian who kept the Christian faith alive during the Adolf Hitler’s rule in Germany. At St. Peter’s we read part of Life Together in Adult Ed.
He was implicated in the bomb plot against Hitler in 1944. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote “Who Am I” just one month before he was executed.
"Who am I? They often tell me
I stepped from my cell’s confinement
Calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
Like a squire from his country-house.
Who am I? They often tell me
I used to speak to my warders
Freely and friendly and clearly,
As though it were mine to command.
Who am I? They also tell me
I bore the days of misfortune
Equably, smilingly, proudly,
Like one accustomed to win.
"Am I then really all that which other men tell of?
Or am I only what I myself know of myself?
Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
Struggling for breath, as though hands were
compressing my throat,
Yearning for colors, for flowers, for the 88voices of birds,
Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,
Tossing in expectation of great events,
Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?
"Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou knowest, 0 God, I am Thine!"
March 4,1946
Janine Shepherd – "A Broken Body Isn’t a Broken Person"
Australian Cross-country skier Janine Shepherd hoped for an Olympic medal — until she was hit by a truck during a training bike ride. She shares a powerful story about the human potential for recovery. Her message: you are not your body, and giving up old dreams can allow new ones to soar.
She writes, "The philosopher Lao Tzu once said, "When you let go of what you are, you become what you might be." I now know that it wasn’t until I let go of who I thought I was that I was able to create a completely new life. It wasn’t until I let go of the life I thought I should have that I was able to embrace the life that was waiting for me. I now know that my real strength never came from my body, and although my physical capabilities have changed dramatically, who I am is unchanged. The pilot light inside of me was still a light, just as it is in each and every one of us.
"I know that I’m not my body, and I also know that you’re not yours. And then it no longer matters what you look like, where you come from, or what you do for a living. All that matters is that we continue to fan the flame of humanity by living our lives as the ultimate creative expression of who we really are, because we are all connected by millions and millions of straws, and it’s time to join those up and to hang on. And if we are to move towards our collective bliss, it’s time we shed our focus on the physical and instead embrace the virtues of the heart."
This is a wonderful TED Talk. Read the transcript
