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

A look at the Gospel Story – The Syrophoenician Woman

From the book "Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry" – French (15th century)

This is a Gospel story told in Matthew, Mark and Luke. It is somewhat unsettling as Jesus response to a request to a woman was at best harsh and worst a racial slur. It is unique in that it’s the only time in the Bible that Jesus changes his mind over his response. This story appears in Mark sandwiched between the Feeding of the 5,000 (Jewish people) and the Feeding of the 4,000 (Gentiles).

Jesus had moved to Tyre and wanted to remain unrecognized. He was undoubtedly tired and needed a rest.  The last thing he needed was a diversion. However, a woman who was not a Jew approached him, "bowed down at his feet" and said her daughter was tormented by a demon. This could be any number of illnesses. In the Matthew version the disciples advocated sending her away.  

Jesus told this Gentile woman that he was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel and that it wasn’t’ right take children’s food and feed it to the dogs.    

The woman responded that even the dogs under the table will eat the children’s crumbs. Basically she said "give them to me!" Jesus was moved by her faith and love and healed her daughter.

Many writers focus on Jesus. Did he call her a dog ? Is a better translation "puppy" ? Did he stage this as a scene to show the disciples a better way to treat foreigners ? Was he just having a bad day which he later corrected ? Is this story a transition where Jesus’ mission is enlarged from just a Jewish perspective to a Gentile?

The real focus should be on the woman. She risked making a fool out of herself and insisted on help. The upshot is an example of evangelism – she left paganism and idolatry and followed God. This becomes the setting for the Feeding of the 4,000 gentiles.  

40 Old Testament Stories that every Christian Should know – #1 Story of Creation

Pastor Vicki Zust was the rector of St. Paul’s, Clarence, NY. Having completed a 2 year cycle of reading the entire Bible she decided to try something different. As she writes, “So I went through the Old Testament and wrote down the stories that a lot of our theology and history depends on. It turns out there are 40 of them.”

For the next few weeks we will look at her list with links to the reading. Her blog is here.

Link to the reading – Genesis 1

“Actually it is the two stories of creation.

“There are two slightly different versions of the story (or maybe just a retelling of the story with a different focus).

“Most Christians are basically aware of the Creation story. “In the beginning, when God was creating the heavens and the earth …” Everything was created in six days and on the seventh day God rested.

“I want to point out three things about the story that you may have skimmed over (or forgotten)

“1. Everything God created was good. Every day of creation ends with “and God saw that it was good.” Creation (including us) are good at its beginning. God saw that creation was good.

“2. We are made in the image of God – to quote from the NRSV – “And God made humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male & female he created them.” This is a pretty good translation from the Hebrew. We are made in the image of God – male & female, black & white, all of us, are made in the image and likeness of God.

“3. God says a strange thing in talking about humanity, again from the NRSV – “and God said, “let us make humankind in our image.” Did you catch that – God is talking to God and talks about himself in the plural. Our image – not my image, that is a good translation from the Hebrew too – so, what do you think that says about God?

Here is another way to look at this sequence.

Earthrise: Caring in the Season of Creation, 2024

In 1968 US astronaut William Anders took this photo of the earth from space. It is called Earthrise. It was the first color photo of the Earth taken from space and as Anders noted it was the only color in the universe. According to the BBC, the photo is credited with raising the profile of the global environmental movement and led to the creation of Earth Day in 1970.

“Earthrise”‘s philosophical significance sunk in over years, after NASA put it on a stamp, and Time and Life magazine highlighted it as an era-defining image. “It gained this iconic status,” Anders said. “People realized that we lived on this fragile planet and that we needed to take care of it.”

Even Anders, who calls himself “an arch cold war warrior”, felt it held a message for humanity. “This is the only home we have and yet we’re busy shooting at each other, threatening nuclear war, and wearing suicide vests,” he said. “It amazes me.”

How do we treat this blue marble located in a deep cosmos? We know that our earth is fragile, beset by the unthinking actions of humanity. How can our readings this week help us reflect on our relationship with God’s creation and this planet.

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Gospel in September, 2024

During September we are back to the Gospel of Mark after our excursion through John Chapter 6.

Jesus is on the move this month from Tyre, to Decapolis, to Caesarea Philippi, back to Galilee, and Capernaum.  (He is in a transition as we are typically in September).  While there are dealings with the public in the form of healings, most of the month concerns conversations with the disciples in the form of teachings.  Some are heated.   While they now see him as the Messiah his fate questioned by them.

September  1- Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

The Gospel according to  Mark and The Epistle of James are paired for the next several weeks in the lectionary, providing help in how to live as faithful followers of Jesus.   The selection from the sayings on defilement (7:1-23) that constitutes today’s gospel raises the question of the relationship between “the commandment of God” and “the tradition of the elders” and of the real meaning of cleanness and defilement, issues of vital interest to the early Church. All three sections concern ritual purity: the first centering on washing (7:1-8), the second and third on food (7:14-15, 21-23). 

Mark 7 begins with Jesus being challenged by the Pharisees and scribes for how his disciples have behaved. They have not all washed their hands. In those days, the washing of hands was for a purification ritual, not for hygiene. The washing of hands was to purify oneself against what was unclean, specifically in this case, food that might have been handled by Gentiles. The leaders were more concerned with people following the literal letter of the law, the traditions that they held, rather than the spirit of the law, which was to honor God in all that they did and said. Their tradition justified the keeping out of the Gentiles as well as the poor and those they would call “sinners”—people who could not afford the rituals of purification in the temple. Jesus tore down the walls that would divide the “pure” from the unclean, the sinners, the Gentiles, the Others—and declared that what comes out of the mouth—what we say that hurts and harms, that divides and separates—this is what is really sinful, unclean, and against God’s ways. 

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Lectionary, Pentecost 15, Proper 17, Year B, Sept 1, 2024

I. Theme –   The challenge of living according to God’s guidelines

Cerezo Barredo (1999)

The lectionary readings are here  or individually: 

Old Testament – Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
Psalm – Psalm 15 Page 599, BCP
Epistle –James 1:17-27
Gospel – Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23  

Today’s readings remind us of the challenge of living according to God’s guidelines. Moses in Deuteronomy teaches that the law of the lord is a gracious gift to God’s people.  James reminds us that the word planted within us can save us as we do what it says. Jesus emphasizes that right relationship is based on obedience to God, not in compliance with human traditions.

Incorporated in the Deuteronomy passage is the incalculable mystery of Israel’s election and mission. Moses appeals to the unique revelation of God to Israel and pleads for whole-hearted obedience to God. The law is to be a fence around the people of God so that they may live obedient to the One God, preserved from idolatrous influences in the years to come. The nation’s fidelity to God’s law was meant to demonstrate to all humanity the divine rule in human history. Here in substance is the missionary purpose of Israel’s existence.

Judaism considers the messianic claim of Jesus an addition that radically departs from the basic principle of the Jewish faith–the unity of God. The reference to a “god so near” is interpreted by the rabbis to mean that no intermediary of any sort is required for the worshiper to approach God in prayer. Judaism has a wide tradition of religious tolerance. It teaches that all people are judged solely on their moral life and the righteous of all nations share in the world to come with the righteous of Israel.

Judaism always taught that right motives are all-important, and Jesus certainly emphasized this in his teaching and preaching. In Mark 7, he points out that evil comes from within, “out of the heart.” Although righteousness cannot be legislated, the innumerable additions to the Torah via the oral tradition were justified by Israel’s teachers as necessary for deeper understanding and for increased resistance to idolatry–the offense that leads to all other sin.

Sin continues to take its toll. Human pride and perversity remain unconquered without divine intervention–the new and marvelous things that God did by sending the Son into the world. We know that the rulers of darkness and the spiritual hosts of wickedness assail us. The sword of the Spirit is still the Word of God. But the word came new and powerful in Christ to cleanse our hearts of evil from within. Christ completes the “whole armor of God.”

Faith is a matter of head, heart, and hands. Faith without works is useless, so says the author of the Epistle of James. Theology that can’t be practiced is irrelevant – a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. Action without reflection or divorced from values and vision is ultimately aimless and destruction, and certainly self-serving. Holistic theology embraces the wisdom of embodiment and integrates it with the guidance of spirit and reason.

In all things and at all times, our lives should praise God. In all things and at all times, our lives should model to others the love of God. In all things and at all times, our words should build up the reign of God, and not harm others. We are called to tear down the walls of division, not to judge others. We are called to care for the poor, the widows, the orphans, the marginalized, the oppressed—not to condemn or curse or justify ourselves. And when we bring ourselves into alignment—our words, actions and beliefs/values, we find ourselves living more authentically as Christians and followers of God’s way, and living more filling lives. We give value to ourselves and to others when we live authentically as followers of Jesus the Christ.

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Pentecost 14, Proper 16, Year B, Aug. 25, 2024

I. Theme –   The Joys and Challenges of Following Jesus

Cerezo Barredo (1999)

The lectionary readings are here  or individually:

Old Testament – Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18 Psalm – Psalm 34:15-22 Epistle –Ephesians 6:10-20 Gospel – John 6:56-69

Today’s readings invite us to consider the joys and challenges of following Jesus. In the first reading, Joshua leads the people of Israel in the choice to follow God. In Ephesians, Paul exhorts Christians to protect themselves with the armor of God. Jesus’ words cause many to turn away from him, but the twelve disciples recognize his teaching as the words of eternal life.

God is present in the community of believers, not in the mountains or the valleys or heaven or earth—God is present among us. We trust in God working in us and among us. We know that God is faithful even in times of doubt and trial. And we know that the way of God is the way to God—the way to eternal life is The Way. It is about how we live our lives for Christ and for others, not for our own gain, for when we seek our own gain, we lose. When we seek to save our lives, to find eternal life, we lose it, but when we seek to live for others, we find our own lives. We cannot be focused on our own mortality if we wish to follow Jesus. For the way of Jesus is the way to the cross, to die to live, to put to death the things that tie us to an earthly life—sin—and to live in Christ’s love.

The hard sayings Jesus gave to his disciples are still hard. That our true life depends on spiritual certainties rather than earthly realities requires a tremendous leap of faith. Even if we, like Peter, give Christ our allegiance, wholehearted trust is more difficult to attain. The universe is full of gods to choose from—they range from pseudo-Messiahs to devils. In between are the enticements of hedonistic pleasures and worldly crowns. Like the tribes in Joshua, we can choose from a dazzling array. Can we say, as they did, “As for me and my household, we will serve the lord”?

The mystical union of Christ with his Church is not an evident fact within Christendom. The Body of Christ is rent with divisions like those of an incompatible marriage. We have marred the model marriage of Christ with his Church by not really understanding the hard sayings that he has given us. The marriage covenant with Christ means to forsake all others and have no other gods.

We are drawn to God by love—just as human love draws us toward a particular person and inspires the desire for a permanent commitment. Mutual choice makes a covenant. The earthly things we know point to heavenly realities. A strong marriage is one in which union transcends the separate existence of husband and wife. The desire of each to give all to the other means that both receive from each other.

God has pledged love and blessings to us forever. God has told us this most explicitly through Christ. How poignant is Jesus’ question to his disciples: “Do you also wish to go away?” May we answer him with Peter’s firm conviction: “lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

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The Gospel – “Jesus came not to give bread but to be bread”

Where have we been during last month? The bread of life concept from John 6 has consumed the Gospel in August, 2024 and we reach the conclusion this week:

Aug 4 – John 6:24-35
Aug 11 – John 6:35, 41-51
Aug 18 – John 6:51-58
Aug 25 – John 6:56-69

John 6:1-21 back on July 28, the “Feeding of the 5,000” is the preview since it sets up the discussion from what follows.

Jesus tries to explain to the people that the bread he has to give them isn’t just bread like the bread that he gave them when they were hungry, and that he himself isn’t just Jesus the carpenter’s son. Jesus is the bread of life itself. Jesus came not to give bread but to be bread.

Jesus said to this crowd, “I am the bread of life.” Overall, the passage returns to the terms of 6:35-50 (Jesus as the word/bread of revelation) rather than continuing the specifically eucharistic theme of 6:51-59. The issue is believing in Jesus, not specifically eating his flesh. “But among you there are some who do not believe.” As in the Exodus story, the issue is not simply the grumbling of the people but the lack of trust in God that it represents:

That is, the bread that Jesus gives for the life of the world is himself—not just a bit of himself here and a bit of himself there, carefully rationed out, but all of himself, extravagantly and with abandon, with such abandon that he ends up on a cross by offering the generous gift of himself.

This generous offering of ourselves is what Jesus hopes that we too will bring to the world. That’s why he tells the disciples later to abide in him, as Jesus himself abides in God, for God is the source of Jesus’ ongoing and profligate offering of himself, the offering that brings life, the offering that ultimately brings life even out of death. When we abide in Jesus, God becomes the source of our generous giving as well.

Bread itself is made of many pieces of flour interconnected with each other. We too, can be more than just ordinary people living ordinary lives. Jesus calls on each one of us, as his disciples, to be heavenly bread to be to give ourselves, with abandon and with love, for the life of this world.

Being bread for the world is obligation of service to others and their causes. Each of us have unique gifts to give to make others lives more beneficial, more productive for the sake of each other and the world. As Genesis writes “And you, be fruitful and multiply.”

Jesus went on to say to them that everyone who has heard and learned from God comes to him, and that he, Jesus, is the way to eternal life.

The disciples know this but they don’t know what to do with it or how to help others understand. Jesus’ way of life is not about earthly success or securing a place in a heavenly kingdom, but rather giving up all personal glory for the glory of God, for the way of Christ, to love one another and lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Many of Jesus’ disciples turned away, and we know that others, even though they remained with Jesus, still did not accept this teaching. They wanted earthly fame, an earthly king and rewards.

Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

How to Use the Bible

From St. George’s newsletter, June, 1992. Church archives and publications often yield items that are timeless and need to be re-published.

Pentecost 13, Year B, Aug. 18, 2024

I. Theme –   Living the Abundant life -Connecting to God as source of wisdom, energy, and adventure.

“The Wedding Feast” -Jan Breughel the Elder (undated, died in 1625)

The lectionary readings are here  or individually:

Old Testament – Proverbs 9:1-6
Psalm – Psalm 34:9-14
Epistle –Ephesians 5:15-20
Gospel – John 6:51-58

Today’s readings continue the theme of God’s sustenance with the emphasis on the eternal consequences. In Proverbs  Wisdom gives a feast to which all are invited. Paul encourages Christians to be filled with God’s Spirit. Jesus promises that all who eat his flesh will live forever.

Jesus’ words about eating his flesh and drinking his blood in the Gospel shocked even his disciples. Early in the Old Testament, blood was identified with life and deemed sacred because God is the source of life. The spilling of human blood was considered an outrage against God.

Eating flesh containing blood was prohibited in the Pentateuch. The penalty for doing so was expulsion from God’s people. Blood was removed from use as food and reserved for sacramental purposes. In the rites of atonement, blood symbolized the yielding up of the worshiper’s life to God and the atoning communion of worshipers with God.

But in John’s gospel, Jesus tells the people, enigmatically, that he is the fulfillment of this sacrificial atonement. In the light of the age-long prohibition against eating flesh containing blood, his words, heard in a literal sense, were quite offensive. But they brought a promise of eternal life.

Not only the atonement, finished on the cross, but also the living instrument of its communication—the eucharist—transcends our ability to understand. In some unseen, incomprehensible way, the energy of redeeming love is transmitted, and we receive food for eternal life. By faith, we allow Christ’s life to penetrate our being and nourish our life. God’s own life comes to us through the natural and temporal elements of bread and wine, so that we, natural and temporal creatures, may become vehicles of God’s supernatural grace.  We participate in terms of a radical embrace of God’s vision so that it becomes the center of our self-understanding. God is in us, just as we are in God.

Eating and drinking are of symbolic significance in most religions, especially in Christianity. Natural life depends on our giving and taking these necessities. The eucharist reminds us of the self-offering of our lord and our dependence on him for our soul’s life. It provides us with a continuous supernatural apprehension of eternity. It suffuses our little lives with the creative spirit of Christ and fits us for our vocation to transform the world.

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The Bread of Life Discourse – Part 3

Reference – Gospel reading for Aug. 18

The Aug 11 Gospel from John contains a preview of Aug 18.  “Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

This week we start with the phrase. “Jesus said, ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

The keywords are “living bread that came down from heaven” and “flesh”. The former was not included at the end of Aug 11.

The Presbyterian Outlook publication for  Aug 18 gets at the heart of the issues.

“This is not a simple proposition. How is Jesus living bread? What does it have to do with eternal life? How is this bread Jesus’ flesh, and are we indeed asked to eat it? It was clearly confusing to his hearers. They immediately dispute among themselves, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (v. 52). And later in verse 60 on Aug 25, they say, ‘This teaching is difficult, who can accept it?'”

There are overtones with the Eucharist – “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you”. The other Gospels include the “Institution Narrative” at the Last Supper, where Jesus breaks bread and says, “This is my body given to you”. Luke 22:19 also includes the blessing of the bread during the Last Supper. John doesn’t do this but includes the first teachings about the Eucharist before the last Supper. Unlike the Synoptic Gospels, John does not include the moment of institution of the Lord’s Supper. In his upper room narrative, he focuses on foot washing.

John’s focus is not only on Jesus giving the bread as in the Euchairst but also on him being the bread. It is a focus on meaning as well as action.

From Presbyterian Outlook “For John, participation in Jesus’ life is a relationship of depth and intimacy. Jesus is the believer’s food, the required nourishment for a life far surpassing what we might consider a regular human life. It is not just about trusting in Jesus or doing what Jesus would do. It is about living within Jesus, having life from God as Jesus came from God.”

The word “abide” is a  common phrase such as “Abide in Me and I in you” John 15. John uses the word “abide” 24 times! You may relate it to participation.

“In this text, Jesus both gives the bread of life, and he is the bread of life. He is both giver and gift. This is his deepest identity in John’s Gospel. We, as believers, receive this gift, and participate in Jesus. Thus, we too become both gift and giver for others.”

Yes, as followers we have to abide, participate, live, and extend Jesus’ version of the Kingdom and share it with others. The benefit which John contrasts with their ancestors is eternal life. They didn’t get this from the Manna though it came down from heaven as does the “Bread of Life”. With Jesus – “But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

Jonathan Roumie’s Full Speech at the National Eucharistic Congress

Johnathan plays Jesus in “The Chosen.”

This is his full Speech at the National Eucharistic Congress which took place from July 17–21, 2024 in Indianapolis. The Congress was a Catholic event “a gathering of clergy, religious, and laity to bear witness to the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.”

His work on filming the series leads to the Gospel from John at 8:43. He will be speaking from John 6:51-58 which will be heard this week (Aug. 18, 2024).

Mary as Companion

“As unique as Mary is, you have so much in common with her. Down through the ages, there has been no one else who was asked to give birth to and bear what she was called to. And so too for you, especially at those moments when you say, like she did: “How can I face this, do this, bear this, survive what is coming at me?” Mary is your companion. Build on that relationship.”

Br. Curtis Almquist, Sociey of St. John the Evancelist (SSJE)