1. Prelude – “Lead me, Lord”
2 Hymn – “I to the hills will lift mine years
3. Gospel from Luke 18:1-8
4. Sermon – the Unjust Judge
5. Offertory – “Jesus Teach Me”
2022 Sun Oct 16
Photos, Beau Soir Concert Oct. 14 2022
Beau Soir Concert Oct. 14 2022(full size gallery)
“Wrestle” – From Bishop Wright, Diocese of Atlanta
Genesis 32:22-31
“To love God and be loved by God is to wrestle with God from time to time. Think back to your last wrestling match with God, what were you trying to persuade or pin God down about? Wrestling is about opposing forces trying to get the better of the opponent. Some people wrestle with God and are unable to change God so they decide to leave God for a season. What is amazing about God and God’s approach to wrestling with us is God is never trying to contort us into something other than ourselves. There’s a blessing for the exertion. In the contest with God we learn our limits, get wisdom, see the genius of God, and our praise and adoration for God reaches new heights. Jacob wrestled all night with an angel of God but it wasn’t until daybreak that he got his blessing. At daybreak he got a new name! So this is a word of encouragement to you. Don’t give up in your wrestling match with God or with life. Hang on until your blessing gets named. ”
“October” – Robert Frost
October
O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—
For the grapes’ sake along the wall.
Photo Gallery of early fall color, Oct., 2016
Sunday Links for Pentecost 19, Oct. 16, 2022
Harvest Scene
Oct. 16, 11:00am – Holy Eucharist, Pentecost 19
Photos, Oct. 16, 2022 – Pentecost 19
Pentecost 19, Oct 16, 2022(full size gallery)
Bulletin, Pentecost 19, Oct. 16, 2022
Click here to view in a new window.
The Persistent Widow in the Gospel, Luke 18:1-8, Pentecost 19
“This peculiar story of the widow’s astonishing (read: countercultural) behavior is intended, as parables are, to disturb and reveal disruptive truth. It not only says something about how important it is for us to pray without ceasing, it also names what we should be praying for: justice. The widow is so certain of God’s justice that she acts in resolute faithfulness and courage, in anticipation of that certainty. She is anything but passive or powerless, as the ancient stereotype went.
“This kind of resolute faithfulness and sheer, dogged persistence, also demonstrated in ordinary and extraordinary women of the Bible and in social justice history — speaks to Christians today of the courage it takes to reject barriers and social norms, in the name of justice and human flourishing. Who among us will persist in the quest for justice? Like the widow pleading her own case before the unjust judge, we must not take no for an answer. It is a matter of faith. It is a matter of trust in God’s goodness — and in our commitment to claiming God’s reign of justice with constancy.”
—Dr. Kathy Bozzuti-JonesA longer interpretation where Author Amy Jill Levine says this scripture forced her to reexamine her own views