We are a small Episcopal Church on the banks of the Rappahannock in Port Royal, Virginia. We acknowledge that we gather on the traditional land of the first people of Port Royal, the Nandtaughtacund, and we respect and honor with gratitude the land itself, the legacy of the ancestors, and the life of the Rappahannock Tribe. Our mission statement is to do God’s Will in all that we do.

Articles

“My dad, Stuart Scott, died of cancer. But he beat it by how he lived.”

Even though my dad’s fight ended and I still miss him all the time, I look back on those days with gratitude.

From USA Today

From Stuart Scott -“When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live”

By Sydni Scott, daughter of the late ESPN commentator Stuart Scott. She is a Rhodes scholar after graduating as a student-athlete at Columbia University.

“At 23 years old, I’m already sick of being in hospitals. I’m unsettled by the familiar murmuring hum of the fluorescent ceiling lights and I dread the stomach-turning response I get whenever I encounter the powdery smell of blue latex-free gloves.

“I spent most of my childhood sitting in lobbies, anxiously waiting for news about my dad, Stuart Scott.

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Van Gogh’s Sower and Stewardship


One of the best illustrations of the Parable of the Sower, this week’s Gospel from Matthew 13, is Van Gogh’s The Sower with Setting Sun from 1888. Look at it—a seemingly simple, rural summer scene of a farmer distributing seed. But look again at the composition and colors—the painting is unique in that the sower is almost overshadowed by the huge sun in the center and the ploughed earth.

Van Gogh had a special interest in sowers throughout his artistic career. All in all, he made more than 30 drawings and paintings on this theme. The sower in particular was a figure that Van Gogh saw in terms of representing the eternal cycle of agricultural life, of honorable endeavor and tradition, and symbolized these qualities to the artist.

Van Gogh studied to be a priest so his pictures often include religious themes. Color always provided a particular meaning for Van Gogh. Here, Van Gogh used colors meant to express emotion and passion. He assigned the leading roles to the greenish-yellow of the sky and the purple of the field. He painted the sun in his favorite color citron, a very intense yellow, which made up the sun and was used in pure form without being mixed. This is the color of God. The bright yellow sun looks like a halo, turning the sower into a saint. Here he has created a great orb of light, from which short precise brushstrokes radiate outwards so that the whole sky becomes bathed in golden rags

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July 2, the Real Day of Independence?


John Adams thought July 2 would be marked as a national holiday for generations to come

As he wrote his wife, “[Independence Day] will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival… It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade with shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this continent to the other from this Time forward forever more,” Adams wrote.

Officially, the Continental Congress declared its freedom from Great Britain on July 2, 1776. On that day in 1776 the Continental Congress approved a resolution for independence and delegates from New York were given permission to make it a unanimous vote. The resolution was submitted by delegate Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, declaring “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”

Congress then needed to finalize a document explaining the move to the public, and it took two days for the Congress to agree on the edits. Hence, the annual celebration falls on July 4th. It was the actual document that was approved on July 4 which then had to be sent off to the printer.

Nearly a month would go by, however, before the actual signing of the document took place. First, New York’s delegates didn’t officially give their support until July 9 because their home assembly hadn’t yet authorized them to vote in favor of independence. Next, it took two weeks for the Declaration to be “engrossed”—written on parchment in a clear hand. Most of the delegates signed on August 2, but several—Elbridge Gerry, Oliver Wolcott, Lewis Morris, Thomas McKean and Matthew Thornton—signed on a later date. (Two others, John Dickinson and Robert R. Livingston, never signed at all.)

Adams was apprehensive about independence. While he tended to be with the changing of times, he was realistic about the cost of declaring independence. However, once he saw it was the right course in the long run to guarantee our natural rights as people and not just our legal rights as English citizens he argued for it incessantly and passionately to get it passed. He wrote to Abigail, his wife –“You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. — I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. — Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will triumph in that Days Transaction, even although We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.” 

We may see the last sentence of the Declaration of Independence in relationship to Adams- "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.""

A Weekful of Saints!

A Weekful of Saints!

Collect for this week – "Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."

June 24th – Nativity of John the Baptist

John the Baptist

June 24 is the day that the church observes for birth of John the Baptist, the prophet who foretold the coming of the Messiah and who baptized Jesus.

John the Baptist came from a family of priests and has been associated with the Essenes. The Essenes were a Jewish mystical sect somewhat resembling the Pharisees. They have been identified as living at Qumran, a plateau in the Judean Desert along the Dead Sea. Some have linked them to the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Despite the remarkable similarities in their teachings, John was never identified as an Essene, was not a member of any community, and cannot be placed definitively at Qumran. He proclaimed his message publicly rather than seeking the shelter of a monastic setting like that of Qumran.

The Birth of John the Baptist, or Nativity of the Forerunner) is a Christian feast day celebrating the birth of John the Baptist, a prophet who foretold the coming of the Messiah in the person of Jesus and who baptized Jesus. The day of a Saint’s death is usually celebrated as his or her feast day, but Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Baptist, while not being exceptions to this rule also have feast days that celebrate their earthly birth. The reason is that St. John (Luke 1:15), like the Blessed Virgin, was purified from original sin before his very birth (in Catholic doctrine), though not in the instant of conception as in the latter case.

June 28 – Irenaeus

Irenaeus

Irenaeus (125?-202) was an early Church father, having been taught by Polycarp, who had been taught by John the Evangelist.

 During the persecution of Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emperor from 161-180 the clergy of that city, many of whom were suffering imprisonment for the faith, sent him in 177 to Rome with a letter to Pope Eleuterus concerning heresy.  While Irenaeus was in Rome, a massacre took place in Lyons. Returning to Gaul, Irenaeus succeeded the martyr Saint Pothinus and became the second Bishop of Lyon, the main trading port for Western Gaul (France). During the religious peace which followed the persecution of Marcus Aurelius, the new bishop divided his activities between the duties of a pastor and of a missionary.

We remember him for two things – his work against Gnosticism and the recognition of the four gospels. He apparently did well there, becoming an influential leader against the rising heterodoxy Gnosticism. He first used the word to describe heresies . The Gnostics saw the world as material, and leaves much room for improvement and they denied that God had made it. They saw Jesus more as a spirit than a real flesh human . Before Irenaeus, Christians differed as to which gospel they preferred. Irenaeus is the earliest witness to recognize the four authentic gospels, the same we have today. Irenaeus is also our earliest attestation that the Gospel of John was written by John the apostle and that the Gospel of Luke was written by Luke, the companion of Paul. 

Psalm 74:17 You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth; you have made summer and winter.

Luke 21:30 As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near.

Luke 21:29-36 And he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Psalm 32:4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah

Genesis 8:22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

Mark 13:28 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.

Matthew 24:32 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.

Proverbs 26:1 Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, so honor is not fitting for a fool.

Amos 8:1 This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit.

Jeremiah 8:20 “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Jeremiah 40:10 As for me, I will dwell at Mizpah, to represent you before the Chaldeans who will come to us. But as for you, gather wine and summer fruits and oil, and store them in your vessels, and dwell in your cities that you have taken.”

Proverbs 10:5 He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.

Proverbs 6:6-8 Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.

Isaiah 16:9 Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah; I drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh; for over your summer fruit and your harvest the shout has ceased.

Proverbs 30:25 The ants are a people not strong, yet they provide their food in the summer;

Matthew 13:1-58 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil,

Amos 8:2 And he said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them.

Amos 3:15 I will strike the winter house along with the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall come to an end,” declares the Lord.

Jeremiah 40:12 Then all the Judeans returned from all the places to which they had been driven and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah. And they gathered wine and summer fruits in great abundance.

Isaiah 28:4 And the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley, will be like a first-ripe fig before the summer: when someone sees it, he swallows it as soon as it is in his hand.

2 Samuel 16:2 And the king said to Ziba, “Why have you brought these?” Ziba answered, “The donkeys are for the king’s household to ride on, the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine for those who faint in the wilderness to drink.”

1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

John 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

John 13:35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Micah 7:1 Woe is me! For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been gleaned: there is no cluster to eat, no first-ripe fig that my soul desires.

Daniel 9:27 And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”

Daniel 2:35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Jeremiah 48:32 More than for Jazer I weep for you, O vine of Sibmah! Your branches passed over the sea, reached to the Sea of Jazer; on your summer fruits and your grapes the destroyer has fallen.

Judges 3:24 When he had gone, the servants came, and when they saw that the doors of the roof chamber were locked, they thought, “Surely he is relieving himself in the closet of the cool chamber.”

Judges 3:20 And Ehud came to him as he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber. And Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.” And he arose from his seat.

Exodus 20:10 But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.

Hebrews 13:4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Luke 21:20-24 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

2 Samuel 16:1 When David had passed a little beyond the summit, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of donkeys saddled, bearing two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred bunches of raisins, a hundred of summer fruits, and a skin of wine.

It’s Butterfly Time!

July is usually considered butterfly month but several have come our way. Here are two submitted by Andrea and Ben. There are about 20,000 species of butterflies worldwide. About 700 inhabit North America.

Connecting Sundays, June 11, 18, 2023

Last week’s sermon’s (Jun 11) key phrase was “Press on to know the Lord.” The knowledge and love of God bring peace and a deeper knowledge and love of God and is a circular turning that promotes more of the same and our own spiritual growth.

Today’s sermon (June 18) “As we receive God’s peace, as we come to know God’s love more and more personally, we also find that our hearts fill with joy. And that is the theme of today’s sermon! Rejoice! To rejoice in God is our reason for being! “

That is our point of rejoicing for religious reasons. But there is also political freedom that intersects the religious. Today, June 19 is Juneteenth the second of three documents during the Civil War promoting freedom for black slaves – Emancipation Proclamation, Juneteenth, and the 13th Amendment. This one extended the Emancipation Proclamation to Texas. This one also must have caused rejoicing since an army came with it to enforce it. And this rejoicing is for all. The first institution that the emancipated people of Galveston established legally was a church . As Time magazine recently wrote “We should care because the very fabric of our society depends on our shared religion of inalienable rights. A celebration of freedom for any American is a celebration of the ideals that make our country what it is today.”

In honor of Juneteenth, two of our hymns on Sunday, June 18 were “We Shall Overcome” and “Go Down Moses” The bulletin contained a background of both hymns. We Shall Overcome” began as a folk song, a work song. Slaves in the fields would sing, ‘I’ll be all right someday.’ It became known in the churches. A Methodist minister, Charles Albert Tindley, published a version in 1901: “I’ll Overcome Someday.” As it spread it became a political message and one looking for eventual progress. With “Go Down Moses” slaves related their experiences under slavery to Moses and Israelites who were enslaved by the Pharaoh. It was used by Harried Tubman to communicate with fugitive enslaved people.

Juneteenth was kept alive by black populations despite the pushback. They were the fruits of their rejoicing. As historian Henry Louis Gates recounts about Juneteenth “For them, Juneteenth was, from its earliest incarnations… a past that was “usable” as an occasion for gathering lost family members, measuring progress against freedom and inculcating rising generations with the values of self-improvement and racial uplift.”

Links for Juneteenth
1. Here is Henry Louis Gates on Juneteenth

2. A recent program from PBS