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.
Village Dinner, Wed, Aug 10, 4:30pm,-6 PM. Take out only this month due to high Covid rates. Call Susan Linne von Berg to make your reservation. 804-742-5233.
15 in house and 10 online. Two of our members have COVID returning from a summer trip.COVID have shifted our events as local numbers are up. Today was a return to masks. Wed for the Village dinner will be take out.
This was first Sunday and coffee hour was all tomatoes. Johnny brought tomatoes from the garden and Cookie made stuffed tomatoes with many delights from the Summer. A summer delight!
The key words this week in the lectionary are “faith” and “waiting.” Faith is about trust in things unseen – the trust in the reality of the relationship with, and the promises of, God is especially exemplified by Abraham.
In the Gospel, we need to be ready and waiting for Christ to come in a new way. Paired with the parable of the Rich Fool from last week, we once again are reminded that living for the ways of the world is foolish.
So what shall the faithful Christian do? First of all, “have no fear”. The promise from God is that the kingdom will be given to those who believe. What follows are two images: be properly dressed for action and movement, and take a flashlight, ready to move and to see when the Bridegroom comes. We are called to expect the unexpected and be ready to act.
We had Youth Sunday on July 31, 2022 in part of a common activity and to provide a celebration on going back to school. We had 10 youth participating during the church service on July 31 in bell ringing, the sermon, communion distribution and communion prep. They also helped to write the Prayers of the People.
The lectionary, particularly the Gospel Luke 12:13-21 on the Parable of the Rich Food, was particularly apropos dealing with greed, excess possessions, and ultimately fate. The youth came to the altar during communion. Using popcorn kernels each youth received a different number of kernels. This prompted interesting discussions. How to handle friends who were given much less ? In Luke’s scripture there is no thought to using the abundance to help others, no expression of gratitude for his good fortune, no recognition of God at all who is responsible for all possessions. The man in the Gospel is not evil. Wealth is not evil in itself – only how you use it. Some real world lessons in church today about building justice and how we lead our lives toward that end. Great to see smiles during the sermon!
Please email Andrea to volunteer at wakepogue.public@gmail.com, or (540) 847-9002. Pack bags 1-3PM, Deliver food to clients’ cars 3-5PM.
We had 24 in house and 7 online for Pentecost with Rev Lee Hill, Diocese missioner for racial justice and healing. His sermon was on the story of Mary and Martha a short story that appears abruptly in Luke when Jesus visits their home in Bethany. Both Mary and Martha serve, yet Mary understands the priority and necessity of choosing to be present with Jesus at his feet which was the key point to Rev. Hill. Martha is doing everything to get ready except be with Jesus. Jesus seems to favor Mary’s approach . Both of them were not typical of the time – Mary a female sitting with a prominent male guest and Martha a female head of household.
As of Sunday, we have collected 182 markers out of a total of 250 for donation to Caroline’s Promise for the news school year. We hope to make up the rest this week.
We celebrated BJ’s birthday. BJ is our bread maker for Sunday communion.
Another unique Sunday for music. Larry on guitar and Helmut on violin teamed up for the prelude, “Sweet Hour of Prayer”. Larry took the offertory, “Because all men are brothers”. The tune is Bach. Tom Glazer wrote the words in 1947. Peter Paul and Mary’s version in 1965 is probably the best known. It also fit the work and message of Rev. Hill
Lunch was held in the parish house in honor of Rev. Hill. A portion of the “Sacred Ground” group met with Rev. Hill during Lunch. Hill’s work is to encourage Sacred Ground as a prime responsibility. He is also promoting a second ground that is intended for Black and Indigenous populations. Another activity is help congregations handling racially related issues. For example, he is working with Little Fork church with a Confederal statue on their property.
Take out or eat in. Call Susan Linne von Berg to make your reservation. 804-742-5233. July’s menu is : Barbecue ribs, bake beans, potato salad, corn on the cob and dessert.
We had 18 in the church on Sunday and another 6 on Zoom. We were able to to provide birthday greetings on Zoom for Laura Carey whose birthday is on July 13
School believe it or not is another month way. To that end, we have been asked by Caroline’s Promise to collect 250 boxes of markers. We have a ways to go with 35 boxes collected through I know several are ordering this week.
Helmut and Brad teamed up on violin and piano for both the prelude and offertory. They are recorded under video’s.
Tom provided the sermon on the Good Samaritan. The Samaritan had build a solid base for his life. To live a solid life, it needs to based on something with meaning and purpose, such as Christ who is the rock. He cited Deuteronomy as the basis – “For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, just as he delighted in prospering your ancestors, when you obey the Lord your God by observing his commandments and decrees that are written in this book of the law, because you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
We had a diverse crowd 26 in the service and 5 online. However, we had Brad Saylor’s family visiting from Africa (8 or so) and Peter from Wales. We also had Ken’s father from Tennessee. We had ample time for dialogue – the sermon featured it. It was also first Sunday coffee hour called “Cookies and Conversation”. It was a picturesque Sunday with not only the regular flowers but special flower for a parishioner’s mother born on July 4. The town had their July 4 flags out. We introduced our task to provide 250 markers for school children by the middle of the month.
We even had enough children for an impromptu children’s sermon.
It was one of the most important Gospel lessons from Luke 10 – in essence how to spread Jesus teaching with his sending out of the 70.
The mission was the same as Jesus’ own ministry: “cure the sick” and “say to them, ‘the kingdom of God has come near to you.’”
There are two basic tasks 1. Bring the message, “God’s kingdom has come close to you!” All this is in the present tense and not the future. 2. Show by action. Bring deeds of the kingdom. (Namely, heal the sick.) Tell them the good news that “the kingdom of God has come near to you” (v. 9): it’s partly already here! The teams went out with an urgent message. “Turn around people – and seek peace – God’s reign has come close to you!” The message is timeless.
Notice how Jesus only tells them what they should do and doesn’t say anything about measuring their success. The version 16 paragraph closes with another note about success. We are not to rejoice about our success in our various ministries, but to rejoice “that your names are written in heaven,” that is, that we are part of this kingdom of God which we are proclaiming.
So, the essence of the mission is to live out the relationship with God that has been given to us through Jesus Christ. And this is what it looks like; don’t travel alone, do travel light, not worry about what is up ahead, just share peace and healing if you can.
Bishop Susan Goff’s visitation occurred on June 19. The last Bishop visit was Bishop Ihloff in 2019. She substituted for the Rt. Rev. Jennifer Brooke-Davidson who had a death in the family
Arthur Duke and Cornesha Howard were confirmed with a covered dish luncheon following the service.
Image is from Léonard Gaultier (artist) French, 1561 – 1641, Scenes from the New Testament
Sunday is Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when enslaved people of Galveston, Texas, learned they were emancipated, although it had been the case since 1863. This observance is “about the journey and achievement of African Americans — from a horrific period of sanctioned enslavement to the pinnacle of human endeavors” (Juneteenth.com). So, it is fitting that Sunday’s Gospel (Luke 8:26-39) is about healing and freedom: A man possessed by demons, ostracized and “living in the tombs,” is made whole by Jesus. It’s the drowning pigs story
Today, we tend to understand demons as a metaphor for personal struggles — such as addiction, disease, or chronic illness. But demons can be systemic in society as well, such as our country’s addiction to guns, white supremacy, and income inequality. These societal demons perpetuate the fear that keeps us divided. We see systemic fear of freedom in Sunday’s Gospel as well. The Gerasa community is seized by fear at the man’s healing and restoration, and they banish Jesus, the healer and restorer.
Juneteenth is a time to celebrate what has been done to make our world better for all and reminds us to recommit ourselves to the healing work we need to do before we can all truly be free. It also reminds us to attend to the systemic forces that prevent change, keep oppression in place, and distract us with the falsehood that one person’s freedom must be another person’s loss. As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”—Ruth Frey
Jesus disturbed the comforted and comforted the disturbed – Ryan W. Clayton
The story of the Gerasene demoniac in Luke pushes us to reflect on questions of identity. Immediately preceding this story, Jesus calmed violent wind and raging waves with a word. His disciples ask, “Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?” (Luke 8:25) Who is this, indeed? He masters the storm when the disciples cry out for help, he masters the demons when they cry out to be left alone. Junteenth gave a legal identity to those caught by slavery.
Juneteenth is also related to World Refugee Day.
Junetenth is about personal freedom. World Refugee Day also proclaims the value of each person as a unique child of God and commit ourselves to the healing and wholeness of all persons.
There is a community element as well. As the Bishop of Atlanta writes “God rejoices when we celebrate the truth-that we were made for each other and for God’s glory. “How good and how pleasant it is for brothers and sisters and siblings to dwell together in unity.”
Juneteenth also preserved the integrity of the family by allowing families to stick together without the possibility of being sold. World Refugee Day remembers and honors the families and individuals made homeless by disasters, wars, poverty, and intolerance around the world
Today’s sermon is almost completely taken from the first sermon I preached on Trinity Sunday here at St Peter’s.
The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the ways that we Christians try to understand the nature of God. In today’s reading from Proverbs, the woman called Wisdom gives us some insight into God’s nature.
Ellen Davis, who teaches at Duke, and is one of our most important Old Testament theologians and Hebrew scholars, says that “the picture of Wisdom playing, even giddily, before God, must be allowed to stand as the important theological statement it is.”
Davis offers this translation of Wisdom speaking about herself at the end of today’s reading from Proverbs.
“And I was delights daily, playing before him continually, playing in his inhabited world, and my delights were with human beings.”
Davis says that here the writer of Proverbs emphasizes the element of play in God’s nature.
After all, God didn’t have to create this world, or us, for that matter!
Davis points out that God’s decision to create the world was a matter of absolutely free choice, and in fact, creation, and especially humanity, God created simply for “the sake of God’s own pleasure.”
The freedom to create and delight in what is created belong together, in divine play just as in child’s play. In this “boisterous” image we see Divine Wisdom freely playing with, and delighting in human beings!
The fact that God plays in creation reminds us that God is here with us and is intimately involved with every aspect of our lives, just as God is intimately involved with all of creation.
And the fact that God is intimately involved with us and with all of creation finds expression in the doctrine of the Trinity,
because as Davis goes on to point out, we “Christians confess that God not only created the world but dwelt in it as a human being and God now continues to be present in our midst through the Holy Spirit, one of whose seven gifts is the wisdom of God.”
An understanding of the Trinity that was popular in the first few centuries of the church captures this playful nature of God.
This understanding is known as perichoreisis.
Catherine LaCugna, a theologian who wrote about the Trinity, tells us that perichoresis expresses the idea that the three divine persons mutually exist permanently in one another, draw life from one another, and are what they are by relation to one another.
If we take the Greek prefix peri (around) and link it with the root of the verb choreuein (to dance), we get a lively metaphor that describes the “one nature in three persons” of the Trinity. Literally God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit “dance around.” The choreia or dance of God is “the choreography of the cosmos—it’s the interrelationship of Creator, creation, and life itself, the holy creativity of the All in All.” (from notes on Perichoresis from The Rev. Susan Sowers)
And LaCugna goes on to add that we, yes, all of us, all of humanity, have been made partners in this divine dance, not through our own merit, or because we’re good dancers, but because God has chosen us to join in this cosmic dance of love. We have been made partners in the divine dance, because everything comes from God, and everything returns to God, and this coming and returning happens through Jesus Christ in the Spirit—“the choreography of the divine dance which takes place from all eternity and is manifest at every moment of creation.”
LaCugna points out that this “one mystery of communion includes God and humanity as beloved partners in the dance.”
Dancing is good for us. A recent article in The Washington Post, “Anxious, lonely, or angry? Try Dancing,” quotes Lucia Horan, who teaches a specific kind of dance that helps people to deal with stress. She says that the “beauty of dance is that it addresses these quadrants of healing—the physical, the emotional, the mental and the spiritual.” She goes on to say that dance works for many people because if forces people to focus on the present moment, which can bring relief from worry, grief, and emotional pain.
The early church fathers used the metaphor of dancing as a way of elevating the soul.
St Augustine says this about dancing.
“I praise the dance, because it frees people from the heaviness of matter and binds the isolated to community. I praise the dance, which demands everything: health and a clear spirit and a buoyant soul. Dance is a transformation of space, of time, of people, who are in constant danger of becoming all brain, will, or feeling. Dancing demands a whole person, one who is firmly anchored in the centre of his life…I praise the dance. O Man, learn to dance, or else the angels in heaven will not know what to do with you.”
Brendan O’Malley tells us that in the Christian Church for the first thousand years Christians danced in procession to and from the church. This dance was known as the “Tripudium, which means three steps or transport of joy… The dancers linked arms and danced in row after row, three steps forward, one step back, moving through the streets and into the church and around it during the hymns of the service, and then out through the streets as a recessional.”
Three steps forward, one step back, three steps forward and one step back—this is how we move toward God in this lifetime, stepping backward periodically, but then advancing again.
So the early Christians danced into, and in, and out of their churches, and felt in their bodies the pull of the divine dance of the Trinity, a dance of mutual love, breathing in together the breath of life, and pouring out to one another in mutual giving.
So what does this understanding of the Trinity, this divine dance that we’re a part of, have to do with how we live our lives today?
Brain McLaren, a current theologian, offers this simple thought experiment.
Imagine God as “this loving trinity of perichoresis, a sacred choreography of self-giving, other receiving; honoring, being honored; fully seeing the other, fully revealing the self.”
Now imagine the universe that this God has freely and playfully chosen to create. Imagine dancing to the music of this universe—“a wild and wonderful symphony, full of polyphony and surprise, expansive in themes, each movement inspiring the possibility of more movements as yet unimagined, all woven together with coherent motifs and morphing rhythms, where even dissonance has a place within higher more comprehensive patterns of harmony and wholeness.”
And finally, McLaren asks us to “imagine how people in this universe would manifest trust in this triune God—with undying creative love toward creation, and all of humanity, and even love toward those people who hold differing beliefs.”
This doctrine of the Trinity as perichoresis is a gift to us, because it allows us to imagine God-in-God, dancing in community, God electing us, choosing you and choosing me, to join in God in this divine dance, stepping with joy into God’s dance with the rest of humanity and all of creation.
And because God has no limits, we know that God has elected all of humanity, not just us, to dance divinely, our arms outstretched and linked in love to one another, taking three steps forward, one step back, and three more steps forward, in a transport of joy, as we learn to dance this divine dance with one another and with God right here in God’s good creation.
And if we fully enter into this divine dance, then surely, as Clement of Alexandria said, even now, “we raise our winged souls to the heavens.”
References
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs, by Ellen Davis. Westminster John Knox Press, 2000.
God for Us: The Trinity and Christian Life, by Catherine Mowry LaCugna. HarperSanFrancisco, 1973.
The word “novena” means “nine” and is used to describe nine days of private or public devotion or focused and persistent prayer for a specific cause, usually as a form of petition or intercession but also as a prayer of thanksgiving for blessings received, devotion to a particular saint or feast day, as a period of mourning a loss, or anticipating a significant event.
The nine days of a novena come from the time that the Apostles and Mary waited in prayer between the Ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. This was the period of time in which the Church prepared to go forth into the world to carry out Christ’s mission. These nine days, in essence, constituted the very first novena.
June 1 – Bible Study 10am-12pm
June 5 – 11:00am, Pentecost– Join here at 10:45am for gathering – service starts at 11am Meeting ID: 869 9926 3545 Passcode: 889278
