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Lenten Devotion 2011 For the second year in a row the people and friends of our parish have decided to share something of their own journey with the rest of us. In these devotionals you will read some things that are intensely personal, introspective, thought provoking and moving. They are offered in the hope that they will deepen all of our Lenten journey’s.
April 22, 2011, Good Friday The Rev. Stephen Hayward “By his blood, he reconciled us, By his wounds, we are healed.” BCP, page 370 The essence of Good Friday, "God‘s Friday," and Christian salvation theology are summed up by these short responses in Eucharistic Prayer C from our Book of Common Prayer. What it suggests is that God in Christ is the actor, and we are simply the recipients of God‘s salvivic work. It sometimes goes under another name: Grace. "There, but for the grace of God, go I." But for God‘s own suffering, we mortals would have no hope of salvation and eternal life. I was thinking the other day about how we each have "our day" – a birthday, Mother‘s Day or Father‘s Day, Secretaries Day, Grandparents‘ Day, Groundhog Day. Usually we expect to be catered to on "our" day. We get to choose a special meal, receive gifts and cards, maybe sleep in a bit. It is a great contrast, isn‘t it, to how God chooses to use this day! On God‘s Friday, God is completely focused on the human race. No narcissistic hopes or dreams. No wavering from God‘s purpose. As Jesus slowly ascends the steep streets towards Calvary, he may stumble once or twice, but there is no thought of turning back, no desire to avoid the pain of separation and death that is about to occur. This is the day and the purpose for which he has labored. This is his greatest desire – that through the Cross, he may win the elusive reconciliation between God and the human spirit. God‘s Day is the fulfillment of God‘s greatest wish. Martin Luther says the Cross acts as a mirror for us. What he means is that by looking into the Cross, we see the great chasm between God‘s action and our own. We see how self-centered our world tends to be, and we see, at the same time, how self-less God is. I‘ve often thought how short we fall of the Great Commandment: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself." The Cross shows how God fulfills one end of the bargain by loving us so completely. And in the mirror of that awe-ful sight, we see how far short we have fallen in responding to God‘s grace. To use a word, we see clearly in the mirror of the Cross our sin. The question then becomes: What can we do about ourselves and our world? If only God can save, does it make any difference what we do? Are we helpless to participate in salvation – or is it simply that God will save no matter what? The answer comes again in that Eucharistic Prayer. By God‘s action on this Good Friday, Jesus has "opened the way of freedom and peace." But the mere fact that the door has been opened leaves us with a decision: Now that the door is open, will we walk through, or are we pretty happy where we are? And there lies our quandary. Most of us are pretty content with life as it is. Life may not be perfect, but especially for those of us in the United States, things are mostly okay. To walk through the door to a world where we are to love God above all else and put our neighbors‘ needs on the same level with our own – somebody is probably going to have to carry us, kicking and screaming, into that new place! The good news of God‘s Friday is that, if we are willing, God will carry us. Remember the poem "Footsteps"? When we thought there would be two sets of footprints as God walked with us through life, there was only one set of prints, because, at some point, God had picked us up and carried us through difficult days. On Calvary God promises to do the same – taking us into a new way of thinking and acting in the world, living a grace-filled life, making "our" days the same as God‘s days – focused on healing and reconciling those around us who are in need of a lift. Maybe we can be some help after all – carrying those in need of our help, encouraging them, urging them to walk through doors that we might open, loving them with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. God would like that. April 23, 2011, Holy Saturday Holy Week and the Sound of Music The Rev. Cynthia Simpson When I think of Jesus and this week of despair, I think, oddly, of Julie Andrews portraying Maria von Trapp in the classic film "The Sound of Music." Maria and husband Georg – a World War I hero – faced tremendous challenges when Nazi Germany swept Austria under its domain. Georg refused to fly the Nazi flag and rejected a naval appointment. Maria applauded, saying "I cannot ask him to be less than who he is." I think Jesus throughout Holy Week offered the fullest expression of himself as our Savior, unwilling to be less than who he was. He chose the kind of Messiah he would be through his embrace and reinterpretation of Judaism‘s Messianic tradition, his daily communion with his heavenly Father and his guiding principles thus derived. He sought to develop humanity‘s receptivity to God as the goal of his ministry while respecting mankind‘s freedom to refuse. He did not attempt to coerce or control the actions of those around him. He rejected negotiation with his enemies if principles were at stake. He opposed violence and embraced divine love as the driving force of his whole being. His devotion to his Father and their shared mission, seeking the maximum development of creation with humanity as its zenith, no matter the cost, never wavered. Jesus‘ courage to be our Messiah no matter the response astounds me. Our zeal to kill the only life force that ultimately matters shames me. April 24, 2011, Easter Day The Rev. Tom Purdy Perhaps it illuminates the kind of person who becomes a priest, but when I think of the Easters of my childhood, it is not the candy and cellophane grass that I remember. I can hardly remember an Easter Egg Hunt. I do remember my grandmother‘s peanut butter eggs, so there is some candy in there, but what I remember most is what Easter meant at church. Easter was really a weekend event for us as a family. For some historical reason unknown to me, my grandparents had been given responsibility for the flower ministry for Easter Day – not the altar flowers, but everything apart from the altar areas, which were handled by the altar guild (no flower guild in my home parish!). I was always excited for Holy Saturday because our family gathered early in the morning to wrap the Easter flowers and decorate the church and chapel. The greenhouse would deliver them the day before and they would be kept in the chapel, at that time the only air conditioned room in the church. To open that door on Saturday morning was glorious as the scents of lilies, hyacinths, geraniums, impatiens, tulips and other varieties exploded into the hallway. We would wrap hundreds of plastic pots in green foil that my grandfather had carefully cut to size with a large square on the dining room table, and we would decorate the organ, the window sills, the font in the back, the lower altar rail, around the pulpit and the lectern – anyplace we could stick a flower, we stuck a flower! My brother and I would find ourselves so wearied by the labor that we just 'had‘ to take donut breaks in the breezeway. It was always a feeling of knowing a secret as we left on Saturday, realizing the delight that others would experience on Sunday morning. Easter Day was glorious too, as most of the family sang in the choir and we sang at all the services. Between the larger two the choir and clergy always had a large hot breakfast prepared by choir spouses. The church would often be filled to standing room only, the music was better than any other day of the year, and our gifted organist would finish out the liturgy with Widor‘s fifth on the massive pipe organ – a feat he managed for all of his 50+ years as organist before retiring in his 80‘s. In those early years, I don‘t pretend that I understood the resurrection. I did understand that Easter day was different than any other. It just felt different. That‘s what I remember about it more than anything as I remember those years. Easter changed for me as I got older, in no small part because my grandmother died when I was a teenager and the family rituals around the holiday forever changed. But to this day, Easter is a glorious day for me that just feels different than other days, as it should. Today recalls the day that the world was forever changed, when the power of death was forever wiped away, when God showed that all things can be made new, even us – because we share in Christ‘s resurrection. Today recalls that first day of the resurrection – today IS that first day of resurrection. Today is a different day, another new day in a new world, another day of resurrection. We make our song every day with everything we have, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia – yet, this day is different. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! The strife is o‘er, the battle done, the victory of life is won; the song of triumph has begun. Alleluia! The powers of death have done their worst, but Christ their legions hath dispersed: let shout of holy joy outburst. Alleluia! The three sad days are quickly sped, he rises glorious from the dead: all glory to our risen Head! Alleluia! He closed the yawning gates of hell, the bars from heaven‘s high portals fell; let hymns of praise his triumphs tell! Alleluia! Lord! by the stripes which wounded thee, from death‘s dread sting thy servants free, that we may live and sing to thee. Alleluia! Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! |
May 20, 2012 CLICK HERE FOR CALENDAR
WORSHIP TIMES
Regular Sunday Schedule 8:00 am Holy Eucharist, Rite I, 9:15 am Family Friendly Eucharist, 10:00 am Christian Formation For All Ages, 11:00 am Holy Eucharist, Rite II
Monthly, 2nd Sunday CRE:8 Service CRE:8 Contemporary Worship is preparing for it's summer break. On Sunday May 20th, CRE8 will provide the worship for our Sunday morning 9:15 am service.
Healing Eucharist - Wednesdays, 6:00 pm Next Holy Eucharist with Laying on of Hands and Anointing: Wednesday, May 30, 6:00 pm.
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