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, who are still here, and we honor with gratitude the land itself and the life of the Rappahannock Tribe. Our mission statement is to do God’s Will in all that we do.

2023 Sun April 23

A Poem for Earth Day

“The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

St. Mark’s Day, April 25

John Mark is the author of the Gospel of Mark which we read in Year B. 

The painting was done in 1625 by Frans Hals, a Dutch painter, who painted portraits of all the Gospel writers.

Mark’s work was the first Gospel probably written in the 60’s AD. Gospel means “Good News” of Jesus Christ reflecting His life and work.  The Gospel says the Kingdom of God is at hand and brings new life, sanctification and hope to the world. It is also one of the Synoptic Gospels.  

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Celebrate Easter Tide

Forward Movement is publishing a meditation everyday during Easter Tide. Access 50days here>

From their introduction – “Easter gives us 50 days to celebrate, 50 days to begin new habits so we can live an Easter life” – and celebrate!

“We get 50 whole days to celebrate the glory of Easter. And we need it. It’s not easy to grasp the mystery and majesty of what happened when Jesus walked out of the tomb on Easter morning.”

“On Good Friday, the powers of the world did their best to extinguish God’s perfect love. It looked like evil had won. But early on the morning of Easter, women found an empty tomb. They went and told others who were disciples of Jesus. The disciples saw that Jesus’s promises had come true.

“Before long, those followers of Jesus told others. And they told others. Soon thousands and thousands, and millions and millions, of people wanted to know the power of God’s transforming love in Jesus Christ. The Easter season invites us to remember that Easter changes everything, not only for Jesus but for us and for the whole universe.”

Earth Day – The Plastics Problem

We need to stop thinking of plastic just as a waste problem, one that can be solved by changing consumers’ habits alone and stopping using plastic bags. We need to think of plastics as a climate problem, as a product that creates damage along all its journey, from the drilling up of hydrocarbons to the spread of microplastics. And that can only be addressed in a systemic way. Single-use plastics account for half of the plastic we use each year with an average useful life of 12 to 15 minutes but can take up to 500 years to disappear!
 
In March, 2022 representatives from over 170 nations at the UN Environment Assembly adopted an initiative to end plastic pollution, committing all these countries to participate in creating, by 2024, a legally binding agreement that addresses the full life cycle of plastics, from production to design to disposal.
 
1. Plastics breed GHG – For 99 percent of all plastics the starting point is fossil fuel hydrocarbons. Oil, gas and coal are extracted and refined to produce plastic and other synthetic chemicals.  Studies indicate that if nothing is done, the production of single-use plastic alone will contribute to more than 10 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. 
 
2. Once plastics enter the environment, landfill, are dispersed in soil or water, they start a process of breaking down into micro and nanoparticles.  And this process of breaking down emits powerful gases such as methane, ethylene and CO2. And that’s true for both traditional and biodegradable plastics. 
 
3.  On the surface of microplastics, new microbial communities can grow. We call them the plastisphere.  And their biological activity also releases additional CO2 and nitrous oxide into the environment, creating the possibility of further magnifying the climate problem. It means that microplastic can also impair the growth and the photosynthesis capacity of phytoplankton, which are the microorganisms producing much of the oxygen we breathe. But also microplastics can have toxic effects on zooplankton, and the health of these organisms [is] essential for the functioning of all aquatic food webs.
 
4. Microplastics bind with the so-called marine snow, which are made out of the clumps of bacteria, plankton and other organic material that sinks down into the ocean depth, acting like a biological carbon pump. But microplastics risk affecting this marine snow and potentially decreasing the capacity of the ocean to absorb and sequester carbon from the atmosphere. And microplastics can be decreasing the reflective properties of snow and ice, potentially accelerating the melting of glaciers and polar ice.
 
5. Plastics are everywhere and so are microplastics.  plastics are present in furniture, construction materials, cars, appliances, electronics and countless other things.   Microplastics are everywhere, from the mountaintops of Everest to the deepest sediment in the Mariana Trench. They are in the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. They are now found in our bloodstream and our lungs. And personally, the most terrifying, in the placenta of our unborn children.
 
It is estimated that 75 to 199 million tons of plastic are in our oceans. It is increasing 9-14 million tons a year. If nothing is done, it could increase to between 23 and 37 tons per year by 2040!.

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Breaking Bread: SALT’S Lectionary Commentary for Easter 3

“Road to Emmaus” – Michael Torevell

Big Picture :

1) This is the third of the seven weeks of Eastertide, and the last of three stories of the risen Jesus appearing to his followers. The next four weeks (or three weeks, if Jesus’ Ascension is celebrated on the fourth) will explore Jesus’ teachings about faith and intimacy with God, all drawing on the Gospel of John.

2) As Luke tells it, this is the first time the risen Jesus steps onto the stage. In the passage just before this one, a group of women find Jesus’ tomb empty, and return to tell the male disciples that two angelic figures have proclaimed that he is alive — but the male disciples dismiss this as nonsense (though Peter, at least, goes to the tomb to see for himself). And now, in this week’s story, Jesus appears.

3) But not to Peter. Nor to Mary Magdalene. Nor to any of the others we’ve come to know over the course of the story. Moreover, Jesus doesn’t appear at the tomb, or at the Temple, or on the Mount of Olives, or at Herod’s palace or Pilate’s headquarters or the house of the high priest. Jesus’ post-crucifixion, alive-and-in-person appearance is, one would think, the highpoint of the story, the climax of the drama, the promised “rising again on the third day” — and so we would expect it to happen in some central, important place, to some central, important people in the narrative. But we’d be wrong. Where does Jesus appear? On a dusty road a couple of hours’ walk outside of Jerusalem, on the way to some now-forgotten village (archeologists today don’t know where “Emmaus” was located). And to whom? Two followers of Jesus — one named “Cleopas” and the other left anonymous — who haven’t even been mentioned yet in the story.

4) Come to think of it, this might remind us of where we began: the grand announcement of the Messiah’s birth is delivered to a few anonymous shepherds in the middle of nowhere (Luke 2:8-20). For Luke, the good news of the Gospel comes first of all not to insiders, but to ordinary folk in overlooked places. Just as he did when he was born, when Jesus rises and returns, he arrives from the outside in.

Scripture:

1) It’s Easter afternoon. In this story, the first surprise is that Jesus appears not in Jerusalem, but on a minor road to an obscure village. The second surprise is that he appears not to Peter, James, Mary, or Joanna, but rather to two minor characters in the story. But the third is the greatest surprise of all: though these two followers of Jesus originally staked their lives on the idea that he was the Messiah, “the one to redeem Israel” (literally “the one to set Israel free”); and though they’re heartbroken to have those hopes dashed; and though they’ve spent many months, perhaps years, walking with Jesus and listening to him along roads just like this one — still, they don’t recognize him (Luke 24:21). He’s right there, talking with them, walking beside them — and they don’t realize it’s him.

2) Why not? One possibility is that their eyes are veiled with tears; they’re overcome with sorrow about having seen their friend and teacher die, as well as disappointment that he turned out to be someone different than they’d hoped for. Perhaps their sadness and anxiety have turned them inward, away from the world, in oblivious self-absorption. They’ve lowered the window shades, we might say, from within their house of sorrow. Jesus is right there, standing outside — but they’re not looking.

3) Another possibility is that somehow Jesus is different, that resurrection doesn’t mean mere “resuscitation,” that the risen Jesus is in some way transformed. The two disciples lay eyes on him, hear his voice, even hear him teach — to no avail. From this point of view, the story suggests that the risen Jesus looks different, sounds different, even teaches in a different way. Cleopas calls him a “resident foreigner”: the word translated as “stranger” here is paroikeis, literally “reside as a foreigner” — suggesting that not only his apparent ignorance about current events (What are you talking about?) but also his overall appearance or style of speech comes across as an unfamiliar outsider (Luke 24:18).

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Road to Emmaus in Stained Glass

Note- The “Road to Emmaus” here refers to a stained glass window at St. George’s Episcopal, Fredericksburg based on the Luke Gospel reading

roadtoemmaus2

Inscription:     None

Maker/Date:  Tiffany Studios, New York, 1912

Description – The story of this window is from Luke, chapter 24, verses 13 to 35. 

Jesus Christ rises from the dead (before dawn) and makes five appearances on the day of His rising. This window represents #3 below:

1 To Mary Magdalene [given a message to the disciples]

2 To the other women who come to the tomb [intending to complete the burial preparation of His body]

3. To two disciples on the Road to Emmaus

4. To Simon Peter [nowhere recorded, but alluded to in Luke 24:33 and 1 Corinthians 1:5]

5. To the astonished disciples [Thomas is absent]

There are a number of unknowns – Emmaus cannot be found on any map though only 7 miles from Jerusalem.  The concept of a road was a common metaphor at the time – The early Christians were called “people of the way.”  The Road to Emmaus may have been an actual  physical road or only a spiritual road

In the image, Cleopas and an unnamed companion encounter the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem

There are two companions – we don’t know the name of one and  Cleopas the other one is only mentioned in the Good Friday reading of the Gospel of John.   One of the key parts of the story is that the two companions were not apostles, not part of the inner circle. Just everyday people. In all of the other resurrection experiences, Jesus appears to the group around Jesus.

Two unknowns going to an unknown place.  The reason they are going is not disclosed.  Are they ending Passover and simply returning after the event in a normal fashion or they are fleeing a desperate situation in Jerusalem? 

The look of incredulity and awe on the faces of the men stands in contrast to the dignity and still expression of Christ.

The men are shocked that anyone could have been in Jerusalem and not known of the events that have happened there.

 “Abide with us,” they ask the unrecognized stranger, “for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.”  ]

It was not until they offered Him hospitality and He blessed and broke the bread that they recognized Him. He soon disappeared.

They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.”

Luke 24 is often seen as a model of the journey that Jesus makes with us today.   He opens our eyes, points us to the Word, and reveals Himself along life’s walk as the resurrected Savior and Lord.  One of the things the story teaches is that Jesus cares for your hopes and your dreams.

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