Pentecost 3, June 10, 2018 (full size gallery)
Today’s service was an instructed Eucharist which included the sermon. An Instructed Eucharist is a special service for new Episcopalians, which is narrated in order to teach the meaning of the service. There is no established form in the Episcopal Church for doing so. We had 40 people to hear it. It actually was more than the Eucharist and was more of a instructed service.
In addition we had a special anniversary blessing for 3 couples with 45+ years of marriage each! One couple Jim and Liz Heimbach have been married for 50 years.
We greeted Clarence’s family visiting from Tucson, Arizona. In addition an overly large box turtle was found on the vacant lot next to the church. This is mating season for turtles.
Today was youth Sunday for both greeters and ushers for communion.
We announced some new activities this month – a "Nature Hike" at Portobago Bay on June 19 at 9:30am and a congregational pastoral care event on June 28 called "One Day". Details are on our front page for June 10
Today’s readings explore the pervading influence of sinfulness that makes humans stand in resistance and opposition to God. In Genesis , we learn the meaning of human sinfulness from the story of Adam and Eve’s disobedience. Paul encourages the Corinthian Christians to trust in the eternal power of God. In the gospel, when his opponents declare that Jesus is possessed by Beelzebul, Jesus warns them of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Jesus throws it back at them.
Today’s Old Testament reading from Genesis about the fall is excerpted from the second (2:4b–3:24) of the two creation stories in Genesis God has placed a prohibition upon the tree “of the knowledge of good and evil.” Chapter 3 this week recounts human rebellion against God’s prohibition. Wisdom can grow by experiences – and this is one!
The serpent first insinuates doubt about the facts of the situation and the woman responds by overstating the case. Then he instills suspicions of God’s motive and opens the possibility of freedom, especially the freedom to judge God.
The primary sin is disobedience, a stepping outside of the sphere of God’s will. This disobedience leads to the disordering of all relationships. First the couple become individually self-aware; they are no longer “one flesh.” The relationship with God is disrupted; the couple tries to hide from God. The man accuses the woman and God, and the woman accuses the snake. The judgments given by God account for the natural world and society as these were apparent to the Hebrews. They explain why the serpent crawls and why there is hostility between humans and snakes.
Verse 16 explains why the blessing of fertility (1:28) is associated with pain and why there is tension between the sexes. Likewise, through the cursing of the ground, the work for which humans were created (2:15) is now laborious. Verse 19 would seem to show that the mortal nature of humankind was implicit in the circumstances of creation (2:7), but now death is a conscious and inevitable fate.
Man and woman are now first individualized and called Adam and Eve. In an act of grace toward them, God redeems the sentence of death (2:16) and clothes the couple before sending them out of the garden, showing God’s protective care even in a time of judgment.
Psalm 130 is a lament, a plea for deliverance from unspecified trouble. It is one of the Songs of Ascent (Psalms 120–134), perhaps sung by pilgrims on the way up to Jerusalem. The psalmist makes an implicit confession of sin (vv. 1-3). He puts his trust in the Lord and exhorts the community to do likewise.
Paul’s Epistle (2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1) continues to explain the nature of his ministry. Despite his suffering, his faith will not let him keep silent, he must bear witness as he illustrated by quoting Psalm 116:10 His preaching, his suffering and his faith are all for the Corinthians’ sake so that the gift of grace may call forth the response of gratitude. For the believer, life in Jesus is both present (4:11-12) and future (4:14).
Paul uses dualistic images. God’s work of salvation and the Christian experience of it are both ‘now’ and also ‘not yet’. In verse 17, Paul plays with the sense of the Hebrew word for glory, which also means heavy. Literally, ‘the present lightness of affliction’ prepares believers for “an eternal weight of glory,” not as a compensation for suffering but as a product, a fruit, of it (Rom. 8:17).
The Gospel from Mark the further build up of opposition to Jesus’ ministry. The issue is now not questions of religious observance, but the very source and nature of Jesus’ authority and power. Jesus is judged (psychologically) as “beside himself” by his friends. This is tantamount to a charge of demon-possession (John 10:20). He is accused (theologically) as “beside himself” by the scribes. Their charge against him may be two-fold: possession by a particular demon, Beelzebul (2 Kings 1:2), and use of Satan’s power to cast out demons.
In response to the blindness of family and authorities, Jesus uses a parable to draw his listeners toward a decision. He refutes the charge of collusion with Satan and shows that instead, through him, Satan himself is bound by a stronger power (Isaiah 49:24-25; Revelation 20:2-3), the sign of the coming of the kingdom. He then turns the charge against the scribes—all sins and blasphemies will be forgiven, except setting one’s self against the very source of forgiveness by believing that the Spirit active in Jesus is satanic. Doing the will of God, on the other hand, brings one into intimate family relationship with Jesus (Matthew 25:40; John 15:14; Hebrews 2:11-13).