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.

Commentary

Meditation for March 16, 2020

Meditation for March 16

In Psalm 80, the psalm appointed for today, the psalmist prays, “Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.” To “restore” something is to return it to its original state; to renovate something old to a good state of repair.
The psalmist’s petition reminds us that in all things, God is the One who can and will restore and save us. And the light of God’s face is shining all around us. But sometimes, in our own blindness, we miss the light. This week, open your eyes and look around. Look for the light of God’s love shining in the faces of the people who love you. Look for the light of God’s love shining in the beauty of this early spring season. Look for God’s love shining in the ways that people are determining their actions based not on their own needs, but on the good of the community. Look for God’s light shining in the sacrificial work of those on the front lines of our health care system. Look for the ways that God’s light is shining in new possibilities and ways of being the church, to fully restore us to our mission of loving God and our neighbor here and now, under these new circumstances. God’s light IS shining, and we SHALL be saved.

Prayer based on Prayer for the Absent in The Book of Common Prayer
O God, your merciful and compassionate love reaches around the world: We humbly ask you graciously to behold and bless those we love, even though we cannot gather as one body to worship you during these uncertain times. Defend us all from the dangers of soul and body; and grant that we all, drawing nearer to you, may be bound together by your love in the communion of your Holy Spirit and in the fellowship of the saints, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Recent Articles, Easter 4, May 11, 2025 – Good Shepherd Sunday


Easter 4 – Good Shepherd Sunday
Lectionary- Easter 4
Commentary Easter 4
SALT Blog for Easter 4
Visual lectionary, May 11

Good Shepherd Sunday
Good Shepherd Sunday
What is the Good Shepherd?
The Good Shepherd in our hymns
Good Shepherd.. in the movies

Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day
Origin of Mother’s Day
A Mother’s Day Poem – To the Moms Who Are
Francis Perkins and Mother’s Day

After the Resurrection
What Changed after the Resurrection?
Jesus’ Appearances

Eastertide
Eastertide
Celebrate Easter Tide

The SALT Blog for Easter 4, Good Shepherd Sunday

Shepherdess with a Flock of Sheep, by Anton Mauve, c. 1870-88, Dutch painting, oil on canvas

1. This is the 4th week of Eastertide The gospel readings for the first three weeks were resurrection appearance stories; the next four weeks will explore Jesus’ teachings about living in intimacy with God.

2. Many early followers of Jesus would have been familiar with describing the promised messiah as a caring and skillful “shepherd”: Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel each use such language, and likewise, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah contrast the divine shepherd with “worthless shepherds” who neglect, exploit, and scatter the flock. For listeners today, Psalm 23 (this week’s psalm) is likely the best-known reference to God as a shepherd, with the “rod and staff” evoking the hazards of the wilderness: the rod is for fending off wolves and lions, and the staff for rescuing sheep trapped in thickets or crevasses.

3. In the phrase “good shepherd,” the Greek word translated as “good” (kalos) means not “morally good” but rather “real and proper” or “true,” as in, “I am the true shepherd” or “I am the genuine shepherd.”

4. The goal of the true shepherd’s work is to give the sheep abundant life. For John, Jesus’ death makes possible this surprising chain of events, this grand reversal and ever-opening entrée into “abundant life.” It’s for the sake of this chain of events, and ultimately that abundant life, that “the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” And what is “abundant life”? According to John, it’s a life of love and intimacy with God . To give the sheep this vibrant fullness of life, Jesus is willing to lay down his own.

5. Both Jesus and Peter frame the crucifixion as an enactment of the psalm’s ancient choreography: a stone is rejected, but it then becomes the cornerstone (or “the keystone”) of an even greater edifice. For Peter, that edifice is the community of the church — and similarly, for John, the fact that Jesus is rejected and killed ultimately makes possible his resurrection, ascension, and the birth of that community. Unbeknownst to his killers, Jesus’ death is just the first act in this larger drama.

6. Beneath and throughout all of this is the dynamic of an ever-expanding circle of salvation. The Jewish messiah, Luke and John and the whole New Testament insists, will also welcome Gentiles ( Jews + Gentiles = everyone!). Jesus ascends and “will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32). In this week’s passage from John, Jesus puts the same theme this way: “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold” (John 10:16). Precisely who these sheep are is left unspecified; that’s the shepherd’s business, not ours. The practical effect of this teaching for us today is that we dare not imagine anyone to be outside of God’s love and care (even those who reject Jesus!); as Jesus himself hints, in the end the flock may well include “all people” (John 12:32).

Good Shepherd Sunday

1. Good Shepherd Sunday – The setting for the Gospel – John 10:22-30

From Trinity Church New York —Dr. Kathy Bozzuti-Jones

Set in a moment of high tension in John’s Gospel, today’s Gospel passage is Jesus’s answer to the question: who are you, exactly?

Are you the Messiah? He responds by saying, in effect, “If you have to ask, then you are not one of my sheep.” Jesus claims his authority and asserts his unity with God when he says, “The Father and I are one.” At the conclusion of these words, John reports that the angered religious leaders intend to stone Jesus for blasphemy, but he escapes them.

In this brief passage, Jesus identifies so closely with God that they are not just close but “one.” In other words, to know Jesus is to know God. Jesus doesn’t just bring us closer to God, he puts us directly in relationship with God, removing any distance between us. Jesus invites all who hear the Good Shepherd’s voice to share in the life of God.

Few of us have direct experience with sheep, but the image of the shepherd speaks of care and protection and security; it is no wonder that Psalm 23 is one of the most beloved prayers throughout the ages.

2 Good Shepherd Sunday – Art Exhibit on Psalm 23

Enjoy this art exhibition inspired by Psalm 23: The Lord is My Shepherd from the Theology and Religious Studies department at King’s College London.

3 Good Shepherd Sunday Psalm 23 – the Most famous poem ever written

Story from Patheos

What is a Good Shepherd ?

John 10:1-20

  • He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out (v3)
  • When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice (v11)
  • A willingness to lay down his life for the sheep (v11).
  • Personal knowledge of the sheep (v14). I know my sheep and my sheep know me
  • A missionary heart for other sheep (v16)

Psalm 23

In this passage, God is described as a shepherd who cares for his sheep. The speaker of the psalm (presumably David, the author of many of the psalms) identifies himself as a sheep who is under God’s care. Here are some of the ways in which God is depicted as a shepherd in this passage:

  • God provides for his sheep’s needs (“I shall not want”), leading them to green pastures and still waters where they can find rest and refreshment.
  • God guides his sheep on the right path (“he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness”), correcting and restoring them when they go astray.
  • God protects his sheep from danger, even in the midst of the darkest valley (“though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me”).
  • God provides comfort and sustenance in times of hardship (“thy rod and thy staff they comfort me”; “thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies”).
  • God promises to care for his sheep always, and to welcome them into his house (“surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever”).

Another passage in the Old Testament where God is depicted as a shepherd is Ezekiel 34. In this chapter, God rebukes the leaders of Israel for their failure to care for their people and promises to be a shepherd to them himself. Here are some of the ways in which God is described as a shepherd in Ezekiel 34:

  • God seeks out his lost sheep, rescuing them from danger and bringing them back to safety (“I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away”).
  • God provides for his sheep’s needs, giving them food and water and protecting them from predators (“I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel”).
  • God cares for his sheep’s physical and emotional well-being, healing their wounds and strengthening the weak (“I will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick”).
  • God judges between the strong and the weak, ensuring that justice is done and that the vulnerable are protected (“I will judge between cattle and cattle, and between rams and he goats”).
  • God promises to be with his people always, watching over them and bringing them to a place of safety and abundance (“And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods

Voices on Good Shepherd Sunday

1. Br. James Koester, SSJE/

The good news is that we don’t need to be perfect. We only need to be found. We give thanks that the Good Shepherd continues to search for us, so that one day we will be found, gathered into his arms, and brought home.

2. David Lose – "God is Not Done Yet"

Amid Jesus’ discourse on being “the good shepherd,” what jumped out to me this time was Jesus’ simply but bold assertion that, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” Have you ever noticed that before? Or, more than notice it, have you ever given much thought to its theological and homiletical implications? 

What strikes me is that, quite simply, Jesus isn’t done yet. Despite his healings, despite his preaching, despite all that he had already done and planned to do, Jesus isn’t done yet. He still has more sheep to reach, sheep that are not in this fold. By extension, I’d suggest that God isn’t done yet, either. And this matters for at least three reasons. 

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The Good Shepherd in our hymns

“The Good Shepherd” – Jorge Cocco

Our hymns speak of the qualities of the Good Shepherd

1 Savior, like a shepherd lead us . Author  Dorothy Ann Thrupp (1779-1847) speaks of Jesus as guardian of us in our lives,  keeping away from sin and coming after us when we go astray, freeing us in the process. She calls upon Jesus help us do His Will in general

Thrupp compiled several hymnbooks for children. Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us appeared unsigned in her Hymns for the Young, published in 1836, but is commonly attributed to her.

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Good Shepherd.. in the movies

In the Old Testament, Shepherds are used to represent leaders of God’s people (see Isaiah 63:11; Jeremiah 23:2). Shepherds watch for enemies who might attack the sheep, and they defend them when necessary. They tend to sick or wounded sheep and search for and rescue lost or trapped ones.

In Christ’s teachings, shepherds love their sheep and try to earn their trust. The sheep know, love, and trust the shepherd above all others. A good shepherd will even die for his sheep. Christ contrasts the shepherd with the hireling, who deserts the sheep in times of danger because he does not love them.

There are movies where the main character exhibit this behavior.

One of Jack Nicholson’s early films was “One Flew over the Cukoo Nest” (1975). Randall McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) is sent from the state penitentiary to a mental hospital in order to be evaluated. McMurphy is promptly situated as the deviant who will challenge the establishment, embodied principally by the villainous Nurse Ratched. Randall demands to know what medication is being administered to him, attempts to teach fellow patients basketball and black jack, and instigates a futile campaign to have the schedule altered so that everyone may watch the World Series. His threat to the stability of the institution is finally acknowledged by the Board after he commandeers the hospital bus in order to take his disciples on a fishing expedition. The group gradually questions the hospital’s procedures. A violent uproar ensues, causing Randall’s beloved disciple “Chief” (Will Samson) to physically assault a ward who attempts to subdue McMurphy.

After the administration of corrective shock treatment to the dissenters, McMurphy begins to persuade the others to leave the institution, a premise they resist due to a lack of faith in their own capabilities to function on the outside.

In the concluding sequence, it is obvious that McMurphy has empowered at least one of his disciples to do what was once unthinkable. “Chief” hurls a limestone bathroom fixture through the window and escapes the hospital. The rush of water at the beginning of the scene can be linked to baptism.

Link to the last scene

A Mother’s Day Poem – “To the Moms Who Are”

On Mother’s day we celebrate all mothers. The Bible is full of great mothers – Sarah: the mother who waited in the Old Testament to the New Testament, Elizabeth: the mother who believed in miracles and Mary: the mother who is blessed among Women.

This poem will be a part of our services today in honor of our mothers.

“To the Moms who are struggling, to those filled with incandescent joy.
“To the Moms who are remembering children who have died, and pregnancies that miscarried.
“To the Moms who decided other parents were the best choice for their babies, to the Moms who adopted those kids and loved them fierce.
“To those experiencing frustration or desperation in infertility.
“To those who knew they never wanted kids, and the ways they have contributed to our shared world.
“To those who mothered colleagues, mentees, neighborhood kids, and anyone who needed it.
“To those remembering Moms no longer with us.
“To those moving forward from Moms who did not show love, or hurt those they should have cared for.
“Today is a day to honor the unyielding love and care for others we call ‘Motherhood,’ wherever we have found it and in whatever ways we have found to cultivate it within ourselves.”

– Hannah Kardon, Pastor at Elston Avenue United Methodist Church

What Changed after the Resurrection”?

From Ministry Matters – “What Changed after the Resurrection”?

“….We can pile on all the theological implications we want to the resurrection, but they don’t change the fact that even as Jesus was walking out of the empty tomb people in his own country were still dying, still suffering under the oppression of the Roman empire, still being taken advantage of by their neighbors, still suffering and causing others to suffer. It’s continued that way for some 2,000 years now as if nothing happened that holy morning.

“When you think about it that way or when you simply turn on the nightly news, it becomes hard not to ask if anything actually did change after the resurrection and, at least in my case, just as difficult to find the energy to get excited about Easter when the promises of Easter seem like they’re still going unfulfilled.

“But hope is not lost. As challenging as my academic predecessor’s question appears and indeed is, it’s not the question we should be asking.

“Because the Church doesn’t believe something changed after the resurrection. We believe something is changing.

“It’s a subtle difference, but a profoundly important one. As Christians, we are not naïve enough to believe that Jesus walked out of the tomb that first Easter morning and in an instant everything changed, all things were made new and suffering and death were no more. As Christians, we believe that when Jesus walked out of the tomb that first Easter morning everythingbegan to change, all things began to be made new and the reign of suffering and death was finally beginning to come to an end. But in believing thusly, we also profess that the kingdom of God is a present but not yet fully realized reality, and it won’t be fully realized until our Lord returns again.”

Richard Rohr’s sermon preached All Saint’s in Pasadena follows readings from Acts 5:27-32 and John 20:19-31 and pushes us to broaden our visions of the risen Christ as the passage above. “The Resurrection is not a one-time miracle but the revelation of how reality works: that nothing truly dies.” Here is the link.

The Gospel in May, 2025

May 4, Third Sunday of Easter,   John 21:1-19 

Jesus appears to the disciples as they fish on the Sea of Galilee.   Jesus stood on the shore and called out to the men in the boat asking if they had caught anything. The disciples replied that they had caught nothing. When their nets are filled to breaking, they know from this abundance that Jesus must be the one on the shore calling to them.   They share breakfast with Jesus on the beach, and then in one of the most poignant scenes in the Bible, Jesus returns to Peter the three chances he missed on the night Jesus was betrayed to profess his love and loyalty to Jesus.  In spite of Peter’s earlier failures, Jesus entrusts Peter with the task of caring for the sheep, the ones that Jesus has called into his flock.  

May 11, Fourth Sunday of Easter, John 10:22-30

This Sunday is often called Good Shepherd Sunday. 

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Those who hear his voice will follow him.  Once a person responds to the invitation, he or she belongs to God forever.  No one can snatch a follower of Jesus from God’s hand. 

May 18, Fifth Sunday of Easter , John 13:31-35

During the last supper that Jesus shared with the disciples,  he pointed toward his future glory after his death and resurrection when he would be reunited with his Father in heaven.  “Where I am going, you cannot come.” He also gave the disciples a command: to love one another. But the disciples didn’t have to figure out how to do this on their own. Jesus told them to love one another in the same way he had loved them.

May 25, Sixth Sunday of Easter, John 14:23-29

John 14:23-29 is part of Jesus’ farewell discourse.  Jesus’ answers Judas’s (not the one who betrayed him) question about how Jesus will manifest himself to the disciples but not to the world?  The question echoes the hope for an unmistakable external occurrence to convince the world. The disciples hoped for the coming of the Messiah to do this; the early Church counted on Jesus’ second coming. The passage is intended to give assurance to a young and persecuted community.

Jesus promised the disciples that after his return to God, the Holy Spirit would live within them and provide strength and courage. The Spirit would always be available to help them as a counselor and advocate. Through the Spirit, they would recall the words and teachings of Jesus and even come to understand these things in a way that they could not before. In addition, the disciples would receive the peace that passes all understanding. 

 

Lectionary Easter 3, Year C

I.Theme –   Considering Jesus’ presence with us. 

 "Christ’s Appearance on Lake Tiberias" – Duccio di Buoninsegna 1308-11)

The lectionary readings are here  or individually:

Old Testament – Acts 9:1-6, (7-20)
Psalm – Psalm 30 
Epistle –Revelation 5:11-14
Gospel – John 21:1-19 

Today’s readings invite us to consider the meaning of Jesus’ presence with us. In the story from Acts, the apostles, empowered by the Spirit of Jesus, preach the gospel despite persecution. John, in his Revelation, describes how being in the presence of Jesus, the enthroned Lamb of God, moves all of creation to bless and praise. In today’s gospel story, Jesus, in another pos t resurrection appearance, provides an abundant catch of fish for his disciples.

In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, the White Queen tells Alice that in her youth, she believed six impossible things every morning before breakfast and counsels Alice to believe in impossibilities as well. The Easter season is a season for mystics and “impossibility” thinkers. We are challenged to believe “more” rather than “less” about the world and its resources. Tempted to think small, we may discover that God is at work in our lives – in the causal events of life – to give us more than we can ask than imagine. Possibilities abound that appear to be “impossibilities” for unimaginative realists. Persecutor Paul encounters the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus; the Resurrected Christ cooks breakfast for the disciples and invites Peter to claim a global vocation; the author of Revelation envisages an enchanted and lively universe, in which all creation praises God; and Psalmist experiences ecstasy and joy amid the maelstrom of external challenges.

The call of the readings is to go out and act on them. There are people who are hungry—we must go and feed them, we can’t be only worried about our own needs. There are people who are mourning, who are sad—we must go and be with them, to help bear their burdens. We must remember that the picture is greater than ourselves. Messages of personal salvation only go so far, to help us feel good about ourselves. Remembering that God’s purpose as Creator is new life, we must do our part to help in all of creation to nurture that new life. "Feed my sheep", "Follow me’

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Making Adjustments – Easter 3

Suzanne Guthrie

“The disciples have been night-fishing, but as dawn breaks they have nothing to show for their efforts. Jesus appears on the shore, too far away to help. He shouts at them to fish differently, to throw their nets on the unconventional side of the boat. That’s where they find what they’re looking for.”

-Richard Beard from the novel, Lazarus is Dead (p.219)

“Is it possible that finding what I’m looking requires just the slightest adjustment in my way of seeing? How can pulling up my net, moving it a few feet over, throwing it back in the same waters, make a difference? And yet…

“What other slight adjustments to my life, my character, my thinking, my relating to family, friends, neighbors, the world, might change barrenness to fecundity? At any given moment there’s probably at least 153 ways to begin.

Do you remember the dynamic between the two disciples running to the tomb on Easter Morning? Mary Magdalene, having found the tomb empty runs to wherever the disciples have been hiding and brings back Peter and John. John outruns Peter but hesitates to go in. When Peter arrives he enters the tomb and sees the disarray of cloths. “Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed” (John 20:8).

“John understands. Peter acts.

“Here in the boat, the stranger on the shore calls to the men in the boat. Children, have you caught anything? No? Cast your net on the right side of the boat and you’ll catch some. And they did. And could hardly manage the haul of fish. “The disciple who Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!”

“Peter, who is naked, throws on his clothes and jumps into the water to swim toward shore, leaving the others to manage the miraculous catch of fish.

“John understands. Peter acts.

“When I act first, perhaps I need to understand more. When I understand and fail to act, well, that’s another adjustment I need to make.”