18th Sunday After Pentecost Sept 22, 11am. Season of Creation 4
Coming up!
All articles for Sunday, Sept 22, 2024
Recent Articles, Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Sept 22, 2024
Eigteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Season of Creation 4, Sept. 22
Season of Creation 4, Sept. 22. Lycoris (Red Spider Lily)
Diocesan ECW 134th Fall Meeting, Oct. 12, 2024
Lectionary, Sept. 22
Lectionary commentary, Sept 22
Visual Lectionary
Commentary – A Lack of engagement-Jesus and the Disciples
Episcopal Lingo Part 5 – Parishioners
Hildegard, Sept 17, an original
Matthew, Sept. 21, Apostle and Evangelist
Lancelot Andrewes, Sept 26, Theologian
From Week 4, Sept. 22 – Food
Focus on 5 areas of the Environment during the Season of Creation – Food this week
Food waste introduction
Focus on Food Waste
Food Waste tackled by 9 states. Only Mass. was able to make reductions
Season of Creation Lectionary IV, Sept 22
Prayers for the Earth
From Week 3, Sept. 15 – Native Plants
Focus on 5 areas of the Environment during the Season of Creation
Native Plants on the Rappahannock
Boosting Pollinators during the Season of Creation
From Week 2, Sept 8 – Climate Change
Focus on 5 areas of the Environment during the Season of Creation
The tipping points of climate change — and where we stand
Summing end of 2023 progress on climate change
Assessing Climate – What’s NOT Working?
From Week 1, Sept 1 – Introduction
Why a Season of Creation ?
What is the Season of Creation ?
The Season of Creation, 2024
Connecting to the Season of Creation
Keys to the Season of Creation
Spritual Reflections on Nature and Humankind
Season of Creation – Forests (Deforestation)
This week we look at ground level to consider deforestation
Deforestation
Forests in our memories – From Michelle Cook, Intergen. “How do you think of forests? In your imagination are they places of peace and quiet? Are they places that scare you? Are you more at home in a eucalypt forest than in a mangrove forest? Sometimes forests can be places of fear. Think of all the old stories from Europe, the folk tales some of us may have grown up hearing. Stories like Hansel and Gretel, where children get lost in the forest. Stories like Snow White, where the beautiful young girl gets taken to the forest by the hunter so that he may kill her far away from witnesses. Forests in these stories are seen as places of secrecy, of unknown dangers and mysterious powers.”
“In Psalm 139 it is our bodies being knit together in our mother’s wombs that becomes known. God, the creator of everything, knows our bodies, and hear the Psalmist says to us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Even the workings of the womb, hidden from us, and felt by mothers, are known by God. The story of creation is retold in Genesis 2:4b-22. Adam is created from earth and is set in a garden – a forest of fruit trees – a garden of food. Here is a forest, where again, all is known. The chaos and desperation of the land, where nothing is yet growing, is contrasted with the richness and safety of the garden.”
Richard Rohr on St. Francis
Rohr is a Roman Catholic priest and writer. He is the founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation which brings together action and contemplation .
He recently created a video on St. Francis.
Rohr discusses St. Francis and his connection with nature which he refers to as “The First Bible”. Some points
1 The early Franciscans taught that the whole natural universe is the first Bible
2 if we murder and mangle and manipulate and destroy, how would we possibly have the skills to reverence and use, correctly, the written Bible?
3 You grant respect and reverence to nature and you let the animals talk back to you. Once you’re inside the enchanted universe where everything is granted subjectivity, you’re never lonely
Lectionary, Pentecost 18, Proper 20, Year B, Sept. 22
I. Theme – Looking beyond self-centeredness toward "spirit-centered" relationships.
“Christ Blessing the Children” – Lucas Cranach the Younger (1540)
“ Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’” – Mark 9:36-37
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Jeremiah 11:18-20
Psalm – Psalm 54 Page 659, BCP
Epistle – James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a
Gospel – Mark 9:30-37
Today’s readings call us to humility, compassion and service. The author of Wisdom gives voice to the ungodly, who experience the goodness of the righteous as an unwelcome reminder of their selfishness. James reminds us that humility and peaceableness show the wisdom of God. Today’s gospel reading from Mark contrasts the disciples’ battle over privilege with Jesus’ proclamation of his radical approach to the Kingdom of God and discipleship—placing ourselves at the disposal of the lowliest of the kingdom.
Brian Epperly writing in Patheos about this week, "Taken together, these passages are invitations to spirit-centered relationships. They challenge us to see beyond our own or our nation’s self-interest. They convict us of self-centeredness when we place profit over people or success over relationship. They urge industriousness that builds community and well-being that embraces an affirmation of women and men in their many and varied roles."
The Gospel is the second of three efforts to tell the disciples about his coming death and resurrection. The disciples don’t understand, are angry and are concerned about their role in the kingdom and what will happen to them (somewhat like a company which looks like it will close).
As Jesus probes the anger and denial of his disciples in today’s gospel, his question comes to us: What concerns are closest to our hearts? Do we, too, fret over status, authority or a lack of perks we think we deserve? Are we engaged in the disciples’ game of comparison?
We envy and can’t obtain, so we quarrel. From our painful attempts at acquisition, we know the truth of this stark statement. Jesus’ finger points at us as well as at his companions. But by the same token, he offers us the same remedy. Into our midst, he plunks the same disheveled, impish and probably grubby child. And if we’re honest, we ask, “What does this kid have to do with theological discourse? Who invited her?”
Jesus invited her. And if Jesus invited her, then the child must have something to tell us. The child who has no bank account, no learned degrees, no office staff and no expertise has everything. In her total vulnerability, she is wrapped by the arms of Christ. She enjoys a peace for which the contentious disciples would crave.
"God, grant me heavenly wisdom which is pure, peaceable, gentle and willing to yield…"
Jesus and the disciples – a lack of engagement
From the SALT Blog, Sept 22, 2024
Jesus for the second week as directing the disciples on the path forward as well as teaching about discipleship. The desciples are not engaging with Jesus and are in their own little world.
SALT Blog – “This week’s reading is the second of three successive cycles through a distinct pattern: a) Jesus predicts his suffering and resurrection; b) the disciples clumsily misunderstand him; and c) Jesus offers a clarifying teaching on discipleship.” We saw this last week Mark 8:27-38. Mark knows Jesus is the Messiah but they don’t understand how they fit in. Theis focus should be on the community and not on themselves and rank.
SALT Blog – “The disciples are more worried who is the greatest. They are falling back on traditional thoughts. SALT Blog – ” their argument on the road share a common root: a vision of greatness as marked by the conventional trappings of power and prestige. Associate with the relatively powerful, and thereby gain power. Look down on the relatively powerless, and thereby take up a position on a rung above them. Conquer and win, and you climb. Be vulnerable and lose, and you fall.”
“It’s as if Jesus says: You have heard it said, “Conquer and be great!” — but I say to you, God will redeem the whole world not with a mighty army but through a suffering servant. You have heard it said, ‘Be dominant, and get what’s yours!’ — but I say to you, live your life in gentleness and love, not as a master but as a “servant of all’ (Mark 9:35). You have heard it said, ‘Consort with the powerful, and gain power!’ — but I say to you, welcome the powerless, the outsider, the ones whose supposedly low status offers you no promise of conventional advantage in return. Otherwise your hospitality may well be a thinly-veiled, self-serving maneuver. Take this child, for instance, a person with perhaps the least social status in the neighborhood. ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me'” (Mark 9:37).
Visual Lectionary Vanderbilt, 18th Sunday after Pentecost, Sept. 22, 2024
Click here to view in a new window.
Lectionary, Season of Creation IV
Link to the Lectionary, Sept. 22
1 Collect – Hold fast to the environment! “Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure”
2 Proverbs 31:10-31 The ‘capable wife’ is someone whose practicality certainly extends to the necessary negotiation with climate and the environment
In Hebrew tradition, wisdom is embodied. we best understand it best by reflecting on a lived example. This is a way that we can approach Proverbs
“She considers a field and buys it;
with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.”
She looks well to the ways of her household,
and does not eat the bread of idleness. “Give her a share in the fruit of her hands,
and let her works praise her in the city gates”
She is able to negotiate the market in terms of price but imports from far away if necessary. Sells in the market. Rises early to provide food and “works with willing hands
“She opens her mouth with wisdom,
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
She looks well to the ways of her household,
and does not eat the bread of idleness.”
3 Psalm 1 compares wise and righteous folk to trees planted by streams of water: what a lovely and profound natural image!. Everything they do prospers and contrasts to wicked
4 Wisdom of Solomon 1:16-2:1, 12-22 The option of reading from this apocryphal book encourages a godly community to stand up for the wisdom of justice and God’s love and favor for the poor, and for Creation.
5 Jeremiah 11:18-20 Perhaps drawing from the same source as Psalm 1, Jeremiah squirms and cries out when opponents scheme to “destroy the tree with its fruit”, in a passage which has been traditionally linked to the mission of Christ.
Focus on 5 areas of the Environment in the Season of Creation, 2024
We have taken the five Sundays readings in the Season of Creation and highlighted a specific environmental area which we will cover weekly. (This week, earth; ) How is this area affecting us ? What can we do to improve our use of them ? We have added related scriptures.
Collect “O God, creator of heaven and earth, you have filled the world with beauty and abundance. Open our eyes to behold your gracious hand in all your works; that rejoicing with your whole creation, we may learn to serve you with gladness; for the sake of him through whom all things were made, your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. ”
Isaiah 55:9-10 “8 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater.”
Isaiah 40:28-31 “The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. 30 Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; 31 but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
James 5:7-8 “Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. ”
5. Climate (Deforestation) – Sept 29
Romans 8:18-21 “18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20 for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ”
How to turn the tables on food waste
Transcript
Inevitably, we’re sitting there at the end of the meal, they’re pushing food around their plate, they don’t want to eat, and they’re looking at me with some awkward excuse. And I say, like, we can’t eat our way out of this. This is a systems problem. And it’s just way too big. How big?
It’s the size of the entire United States. It uses three times as much water as the whole country. And it grows food all year long, and when harvested, produces enough to fill 100 tractor trailers every minute, all year long. Those trucks then drive, fly and float all over the world. Except instead of going somewhere to be eaten, they go straight to landfill, where the food rots and produces nothing. A powerful greenhouse gas. Seems crazy, right? But that’s effectively what we’re doing, from science experiments in the back of our refrigerators to truckloads of products that are too close to some arbitrary expiration date
Globally, 1 billion meals are wasted. Go any in every single day. That’s more than a meal per person for everyone on this planet who faces hunger. Not to mention it’s worth $1 trillion. And this whole ridiculous exercise has five times the greenhouse gas footprint of the entire aviation industry.
Food Waste tackled by 9 states. Only Mass. was able to make reductions
From the Washington Post, Sept 13, 2024
“Food waste is a pressing national problem. Of the millions of tons of food in the United States, more than 30 percent goes unsold and uneaten, according to ReFed, a research and advocacy group that works on food waste. Spoiled food makes up the single largest volume of material sent to landfills and incinerators, where it decomposes, releasing methane — a powerful greenhouse gas that is heating the planet. A study by the Environmental Protection Agency found emissions from food waste in the United States are roughly equal to more than 50 million cars on the road.
Nine states have passed food waste bans aimed at businesses such as chain restaurants and supermarkets. Researchers studied the first five laws and found that from 2014 to 2018, Massachusetts reduced its solid waste by an average of 7.3 percent. But similar legislation in the other states — California, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont — had no discernible effect.
What did Massachusetts do differently? Read on
Season of Creation – Food waste
1. Food Waste
The local food banks and other distributors have worked out agreements with restaurants to help eliminate waste by taking foods they cannot sell due to sell by dates and redistributing the foods. Globally, the issue of waste is a large one.
World Wildlife Federation has covered the topic in its fall magazine.
“Today, 7.3 billion people consume 1.6 times what the earth’s natural resources can supply. By 2050, the world’s population will reach 9 billion and the demand for food will double.
“So how do we produce more food for more people without expanding the land and water already in use? We can’t double the amount of food. Fortunately we don’t have to—we have to double the amount of food available instead. In short, we must freeze the footprint of food.
“In the near-term, food production is sufficient to provide for all, but it doesn’t reach everyone who needs it. In fact, one-third of the world’s food—1.3 billion tons—is lost or wasted at a cost of $750 billion annually. When we throw away food, we waste the wealth of resources and labor that was used to get it to our plates. In effect, lost and wasted food is behind more than a quarter of all deforestation and nearly a quarter of global water consumption. It generates as much as 10% of all greenhouse-gas emissions. As it rots, it pollutes water and soil and releases huge amounts of methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases.
“Another negative aspect of food waste is its connection to species loss. Consider this: Food production is the primary threat to biodiversity worldwide, expected to drive an astonishing 70% of projected terrestrial biodiversity loss by 2050. That loss is happening in the Amazon, where rain forests are still being cleared to create new pasture for cattle grazing, as well as in sub-Saharan Africa, where agriculture is expanding rapidly. But it’s also happening close to home.
“These wasted calories are enough to feed three billion people—10 times the population of the United States, more than twice that of China, and more than three times the total number of malnourished globally. Wasted food may represent as much as 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and is a main contributor to deforestation and the depletion of global water sources.
“By improving efficiency and productivity while reducing waste and shifting consumption patterns, we can produce enough food for everyone by 2050 on roughly the same amount of land we use now. Feeding all sustainably and protecting our natural resources.”
South Korea has a system that keeps about 90 percent of discarded food out of landfills and incinerators, has been studied by governments around the world. But the country’s mountainous terrain limits how many landfills can be built, and how far from residential areas they can be built.
Since 2005, it’s been illegal to send food waste to landfills. Local governments have built hundreds of facilities for processing it. Consumers, restaurant owners, truck drivers and others are part of the network that gets it collected and turned into something useful.
In the case of a restaurant when it gets to a plant. Debris — bones, seeds, shells — is picked out by hand though most facilities are automated. A conveyor belt carries the waste into a grinder, which reduces it to small pieces. Anything that isn’t easily shredded, like plastic bags, is filtered out and incinerated.
Then the waste is baked and dehydrated. The moisture goes into pipes leading to a water treatment plant, where some of it is used to produce biogas. The rest is purified and discharged into a nearby stream.
What’s left of the waste at the processing plant, four hours after Mr. Park’s team dropped it off, is ground into the final product: a dry, brown powder that smells like dirt. It’s a feed supplement for chickens and ducks, rich in protein and fiber, said Sim Yoon-sik, the facility’s manager, and given away to any farm that wants it.
For consumers, at apartment complexes around the country, residents are issued cards to scan every time they drop food waste into a designated bin. The bin weighs what they’ve dropped in; at the end of the month they get a bill.
Prayers for the Earth
Based on the Fifth Mark of Mission
To Strive
God, creator of the universe, Fill us with your love for the creation, for the natural world around us, for the earth from which we come and to which we will return. Awake in us energy to work for your world; let us never fall into complacency, ignorance, or being overwhelmed by the task before us. Help us to restore, remake, renew. Amen
To Safeguard
Jesus, Redeemer of the World, Remind us to consider the lost lilies, the disappearing sparrows; teach us not to squander precious resources; help us value habitats: seas, deserts, forests and seek to preserve this world in its diversity. Alert us to the cause of all living creatures destroyed wantonly for human greed or pleasure; Help us to value what we have left and to learn to live without taking more than we give. Amen
Integrity of Creation
Spirit of the Living God At the beginning you moved over the face of the waters. You brought life into being, the teeming life that finds its way through earth and sea and air that makes its home around us, everywhere. You know how living things flourish and grow How they co-exist; how they feed and breed and change Help us to understand those delicate relationships, value them, and keep them from destruction. Amen
To Sustain
God, of the living earth You have called people to care for your world – you asked Noah to save creatures from destruction. May we now understand how to sustain your world – Not over-fishing, not over-hunting, Not destroying trees, precious rainforest Not farming soil into useless dust. Help us to find ways to use resources wisely to find a path to good, sustainable living in peace and harmony with creatures around us. Amen
To Renew
Jesus, who raised the dead to life Help us to find ways to renew what we have broken, damaged and destroyed: Where we have taken too much water, polluted the air, poured plastic into the sea, cut down the forests and soured fertile soils. Help all those who work to find solutions to damage and decay; give hope to those who are today working for a greener future. Amen
Anne Richards, Mission Theology Advisory Group, Resources available on www.ctbi.org.uk The Dispossession Project: Eco-House
The Episcopal Lingo, Part 5: Parishioners
The series will explore words used in the Episcopal Church that are arcane, unusual or have changed over time. This week’s word-parishioner.
We know the parishioners of St. Peter’s today – those people who attend the church. Granted it’s a subset of all that choose to join a church, one of many. In the Colonial Church, all were required be a part of one church – Anglican. No formal establishment of Baptists, Presbyterias and they paid the same annual parish levies. (These dissenters had to rely on voluntary contributions to their own churches.) Thus everyone in your parish was a member – men, women, indentured servants and yes, slaves.
Earlier research emphasized how colonials were unchurched despite laws to the contrary. Although there are few surviving parish registers, recent research has shown that annual baptisms nearly approximated annual white births. Actual attendance, however is a problem since Va. parishes kept no membership roles. Attendance was mandantory and it differed over the 170 years of colonials from one or two times a month. If you violated the law you could be fined five shillings or 50 pounds of tobacco paid to the churchwardens. In 1750, that would amount to $31 (2006).
Virtually every county recorded non-attendees with most of the prosecutions in the older Tidewater area. Dissenters, however, were excluded from attendance requirements.
Twice yearly at May and November county court sessions, grand jurors, in response to information provided by the sheriff, churchwardens, vestrymen, justices, other officers of the court, or from their own personal knowledge, presented individuals suspected of violating the laws prescribing the conduct expected of Virginians
Parshioners entering colonial churches found them divided by class, sex. They had assigned areas to sit with men and women divided. Pews were just being introduced in England in the 18th paid for by the wealthy but in Virginia they were a standard furnishing erected at public expense. The wealthy were assigned the best pews toward the front. Benches were usually reserved in the back for servants, slaves and other lower classes. Galleries originated by the wealthy parishinioners who were not satisfed even when they commanded the best pews.
Church buildings were simple in the colonial era – usually only one room in a rectangular design. They were wooden at first and then brick became more popular, particularly in the 18th century. They expanded as colonial planters donated land for the cause. Some churches in the northern Virginia area late in the 18th century were two story.
Essential to Anglican worship were the pulpit and communion table. Pulpits stood two or three "decks" high located on the north or south walls. The communion table often made of black walnut or white oak and with a low wooden railing was situated along the interior east wall. (Churches were built in an east/west direction) . Unlike in today’s church, communion was only held three or four times a year as a reaction against the Catholic past. A part of the Church’s 1606 canon was a requirement for the 10 commandments to posted along the east end. In Virginia churchdes, wall tablets were situated there with the 10 commandments, Apostles’ Creed and the Lord Prayer.
One item that Colonial Churches did not have was an organ – only about 5 or 6 did. So singing was generally done unaccompanied usually led or announced by the clerk. The latter was a lay official whom we call the officiant today. Congregations sang hymns but also the Psalms according to metrical settings.
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) – musician, writer, prophetess – and saint
We celebrate Hildegard’s life on September 17.
Accounts written in Hildegard’s lifetime (1098-1179) and just after describe an extraordinarily accomplished woman: a visionary, a prophet (she was known as “The Sibyl Of The Rhine”), a pioneer who wrote practical books on biology, botany, medicine, theology and the arts. She was a prolific letter-writer to everyone from humble penitents looking for a cure for infertility to popes, emperors and kings seeking spiritual or political advice. She composed music and was known to have visions
Here is what Gay Rahn, former Associate Rector at St. George’s Fredericksburg, wrote about her several years ago – “Hildegard of Bingen was a twelfth-century mystic, composer, and author. She described the Holy One as the greening Power of God. Just as plants are greened, so we are as well. As we grow up, our spark of life continually shines forth. If we ignore this spark this greening power, we become thirsty and shriveled. And, if we respond to the spark, we flower. ”
Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626)
Lancelot Andrewes’ life (1555-1626) encompassed the reigns of Elizabeth (1558-1603) and James I (1603-1625). He was closely associated with both of them. We celebrate his day on his death Sept 26, 1626.
Andrewes was the foremost theologian of his day and one of the most pious. He will be forever linked to the creation of the King James Bible being on the committee that created the book. He served not only as the leader of the First Westminster Company of Translators, which translated Genesis – 2 Kings, but also as general editor of the whole project. His contemporaries include everyone from Shakespeare, Sir Walter Raleigh, Captain John Smith who ventured to Virginia and scientist Galileo.
A concise description of him can be found in God’s Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible, noting his intellectual abilities as well as a man close to the ordinary Englishman. “This was the man who was acknowledged as the greatest preacher of the age, who tended in great detail to the school-children in his care, who, endlessly busy as he was, would nevertheless wait in the transepts of Old St Paul’s for any Londoner in need of solace or advice, who was the most brilliant man in the English Church, destined for all but the highest office. There were few Englishmen more powerful. Everybody reported on his serenity, the sense of grace that hovered around him. But alone every day he acknowledged little but his wickedness and his weakness. The man was a library, the repository of sixteen centuries of Christian culture, he could speak fifteen modern languages and six ancient, but the heart and bulk of his existence was his sense of himself as a worm. Against an all-knowing, all-powerful and irresistible God, all he saw was an ignorant, weak and irresolute self”
A man of intense piety who spent five hours every morning in prayer, Andrewes kept in that chapel a book of private devotions which, when published after his death, became a classic Anglican guide to prayer.