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.

2023 Sun Sept 24

Climate Change, More Book, Part 3 Reduce, Sept. 24

The first two chapters of the MORE book were required material to get to Part 3 – Reduce.

Understanding the significance of our need to reduce greenhouse gases from Part 1, led to calculate our carbon footprint in Part 2. We meet to strive towards net zero emissions by 2050. Net zero means cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible, with any remaining emissions re-absorbed from the atmosphere, by oceans and forests for instance. Part 2 focuses on reduction to get to net zero.

How much do we need to reduce our carbon footprints? For Americans, that number is about 90 percent.The United Nations’ intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said that if we don’t act now, we’ll be facing the severe effects of a warming planet as early as 2040.  One example? 50 million people around the world, will be affected by coastal flooding.

This chapter lists 26+ ways for us to act.

Click this button on the bottom right of the PowerPoint window to enlarge

Forgiveness over two Sundays, two ministers

The Gospel passages from Sept 10 and 17, 2023 work well together as demonstrated by Tom’s (Sept 10) and Catherine’s (Sept 17) sermons.   Both were about forgiveness and mostly the failure to practice it. And both used the same symbol – an inflated beachball that had to be held underwater which symbolized the lack of forgiveness.

Video Links – 1 The Rev. Tom Hughes (Sept 10)
2.The Rev. Catherine Hicks (Sept 17)

Tom preached that forgiveness is one of the critical issues of life. Without it, you limit yourself and are constantly frustrated. It derails your life in God. It keeps you in the past and keeps you from flourishing in the present and future. It keeps a hold on you – chaos is the only winner in that situation. It keeps you from loving God.

Forgiveness is an important place to start creating a new life and living in a different way.  New life is part of  the Season of Creation which we are celebrating.

Tom brought up a metaphor of a beachball that you are being forced to hold underwater.  You can’t do anything else -your hands are occupied. That’s the case of not forgiving.

If we expect God to forgive us we have to be open to forgive others.  In many cases, we are not prepared to receive it. We cannot understand it If  we hold out on our unforgiveness to others who have hurt us.

Tom described his method for forgiveness. Go find a quiet place and go over every detail of the “crummy’ incident = what is haunting us, where you have been wronged or have wronged others. Finally, you pray “O Lord take this from me.” I will not think of it again. It is done with. I forgive and let go and accept and give forgiveness.

Tom believes it is important both to forgive and forget to restore your life. Both you and the other person are set free though you may have to repeat this process more than once to be truly effective.

On Sept. 17, Catherine described the Gospel story where a slave fails to practice forgiveness. “In today’s gospel, Jesus tells a story about a king who forgave a slave in tremendous debt to the king. That slave, having been forgiven his debt, went out and refused to forgive one of his fellows who owed him money.  In fact, the forgiven slave had the person in debt to him thrown into jail until the man could pay his debt to the slave the king had so generously forgiven.     

“The others who witnessed all of this went and told the king, who called the forgiven slave in.  The king said, “You wicked slave!  I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.  Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?”

“And the king hands over the slave to be tortured until he pays his original debt.  And then comes this zinger from Jesus.  “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”  That is, we suffer the consequences when we continue to be unforgiving people.  

“So I’m wondering—are there, in the end, limits to God’s limitless mercy?  The answer to that question is yes, there are limits to God’s mercy—the limits to that mercy that we create through the exercise of our own free will. 

“So let’s do a thought experiment.  Go back to Tom’s beach ball image for a moment.  Imagine that you are at the beach in the water, right beyond the breakers, holding down the ball under the water. 

“Jesus comes walking by, sees what is going on, wades out to you and says, “Hey, let me hold that beach ball underwater for you.”  You gratefully agree because you’re tired,  and you hand Jesus the beach ball.  Jesus holds the ball underwater for a minute with you still standing there, amazed that someone would do this for you. 

“And then Jesus laughs and says, “Listen,  there’s something I’d love to do for you.   I’m going to free you from this ball forever so you can go live your life. Is that ok with you?” You reluctantly agree.     Jesus takes the ball and hurls it far out into the ocean, and the currents quickly carry it out to sea.

“For a moment you are relieved, but then you think to yourself, “Wait, I can’t let that ball go! What am I going to do if I can’t hold this ball underwater?”    You ignore Jesus, who continues to stand next to you, hoping that you will go with him back to shore,  and you start swimming out toward the ball.   Jesus stands there in the water weeping, as you swim far, far out into the ocean, swimming after the ball that was already robbing you of life, and ultimately you drown. 

“What ball are you chasing today that Jesus has ALREADY taken away from you?  What is it that you can’t forgive or let go, that you keep taking back, even though you have been forgiven and freed by God and by others for your sins toward them over and over and over? 

“The unforgiveness that you hold onto, the unforgiveness toward others or even toward yourself that you keep holding onto because you think you can’t live without it, because it’s become such a part of you,  is going to kill you in the end.

“Here’s the good news.  No matter how many times we take that ball out into the ocean and try to hold it underwater, Jesus will come out to us and offer to take the ball away.  Seventy times seven, and then on and on, through infinity.  In that way, God’s forgiveness is limitless

“As St Augustine says, “Sins that have been forgiven return when there is no brotherly love.”  And that is the whole point of this story.   Our sins return because WE keep making space for them, and even actively taking them back, even after we’ve been freed of them, when we choose not to forgive and to love one another from our hearts.   

“Paul asks the people of the church in Rome, “Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister?  Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister?  For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.” We all stand before the judgment seat of God all the time.  Jesus is next to us in the water all day long, hoping to take away that ball of unforgiveness that is distracting us and potentially killing us once and for all.

“Last week, Tom reminded us that when are tempted not to forgive someone or when we are tempted to continue carrying a grudge, to go to a quiet place and after thinking about all that has happened, let that thing go.  Yes!  

“Another important thing about these lessons is the reminder that once the ball is gone, we need to replace the ball with something else, or we will start longing for the ball again, because it’s what we know, and we’re comfortable with it, even if we don’t like it. 

 “Replace the thing you’ve released with praise for our almighty Lord, our healer, redeemer, our advocate, the one who loves us through eternity. And the one who frees us, once and for all, to live free, joyful, and loving lives.”

“God’s Garden” Begins

A new ministry debuts 9/17/2023! God’s Garden for 5 to 9 year olds began with 4 children and two experienced teachers, Elizabeth Heimbach, the originator of the class and Jan Saylor. With this age range the pace is fast. The lessons included a song which will be weekly and then the focus was on water. This was apropos since we are celebrating the Season of Creation during September. After a song on creation, the class looked at why water is necessary through agriculture, people, and nature. The teachers next asked for examples of water in the Bible. With a little prompting the children brought up Noah’s flood and Jonah being swallowed by a whale. Water is necessary but there are hazards!

An engaging segment demonstrated how Moses life was shaped by water in multiple ways. Miriam is the sister who watches over her baby brother Moses among the bulrushes on the banks of the Nile. Their mother had hidden Moses in a basket on the riverbank to protect him from Pharaoh’s decree to throw all Hebrew baby boys into the river. Pharaoh’s daughter finds the floating basket on the Nile River with a helpless baby inside. She adopts him and calls him Moses. What a way to start your life!

Both the children and teachers were enthusiastic in the class, which made for good learning and the conversations flowed in both directions.

Images left to right top to bottom. Taking about creation (the big world!), a song, water in our time, and story of Moses

Kickball in Port Royal, Tues Sept 26

Tuesday, September 26 5:30-7PM at St Peter’s Caroline County Kickball in conjunction with the Caroline County Public Schools and in celebration of National Family Day is on!

The Heimbach field will be the kickball field, and St Peter’s will be contributing snacks and water for the event by Sun, Set. 24 . If you would like to help, please donate granola bars, small boxes of raisins, and other healthy snacks, and water for those coming out to play. Last year’s event was a big success!

Here is what was collected on Sept 10:

A decisive moment with Matthew

Sept 21 is the feast day of Matthew one of Christ’s apostles and author of the Gospel that bears his name. He was different from the other Gospel writers being a tax collector. (Luke a doctor and Mark a recorder). He was least likely to become one of Jesus’ own. We will look at him through a painting.

The painting Caravaggio’s “Calling of Saint Matthew” captures a powerful moment of spiritual awakening painted 1599-1600. Set in a gritty, realistic environment (looks like a back room to a bar where other tax collectors, armed are counting money), Christ points to Matthew, a tax collector, inviting him to follow – you’re coming with me! This isn’t Christ coming down from heaven!

Tax collectors, also known as “publicans,” were held in low regard within Jewish society during Jesus’ time. They were often seen as collaborators with the Roman oppressors who occupied the land of Judea. The tax collection system, fraught with potential abuse, allowed collectors to gather more than the prescribed amount, pocketing the surplus for themselves. This encouraged extortion and corruption, leading to the accumulation of wealth through dishonest means.

Here is a video about the painting

Article about Matthew on our website

The Rhetoric of Excess in The Parable of the Workers

by Daniel Clendenin

"Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard", 11th century

There’s a market near my house where I like to shop called the Milk Pail. It’s a funky place with a loyal following, a down-n-dirty contrast to the upscale Whole Foods Experience. A regular fixture at this grocery is a disheveled man who sits in his wheelchair at the entrance to the store. His puffy face is bright red. His legs are badly swollen.

As soon as I get out of my car, I can see this man, so there’s plenty of time for the voices inside my head to debate whether to give him any money. Won’t he spend it on alcohol? How will my single dollar help? Am I going to have to do this every time I shop here?

Sometimes I give him a dollar. Once in a while five dollars. But the last time I was at the Milk Pail, my smallest bill was a twenty. Should I give him twenty dollars?! Isn’t that excessive?

Part of my problem was that during Lent last year I read through the four gospels, and one of the things I noticed was the exaggerated language that’s repeatedly used to describe the generosity of God, life in God’s kingdom, and our human responses to God’s generosity.

The British literary critic Frank Kermode (1919–2010) called this phenomenon a "rhetoric of excess." Matthew in particular has what he calls a "quite unusual intensity" of rhetorical excess. We read about about a log in your eye, a camel going through the eye of a needle, and straining a gnat while swallowing a camel.

Our righteousness must be produced to excess," observes Kermode, it must exceed that of the Pharisees. We must love not only our neighbors but also our enemies. We should give in secret, so that our left hand doesn’t know what our right hand is doing — that is, hidden even from our own selves. Wise people leave their dead unburied. Foolish people build houses on sand and walk through wide gates.  

Kermode suggests an awkward but literal translation of the original Greek in Matthew 5:47: "If ye greet only your brethren, what excess do ye?" He thus writes, "Excess is constantly demanded. Everything must be in excess."

Another example of excess that Kermode gives is the gospel this week about the workers in the vineyard. It’s a story about a business owner with outrageous ideas about a fair wage. The punch line of the story shocked the listeners with a radical reversal that subverted conventional wisdom. And to make his point clear, Jesus repeats the punch line verbatim three times.

In God’s kingdom, the first will be last and the last will be first.

The parable of the workers is preceded by a story about a rich man. When Jesus invited the man to sell his possessions and give his money to the poor, "he went away sad, because he had great wealth."

Peter then responded, "Lord, we have left everything to follow you. What then will there be for us?" The rich man kept all that he had; the disciples left all that they had. Jesus reassured them: "At the renewal of all things, many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first."

Jesus follows this with a story about a foreman who hired some laborers early in the morning, then additional workers at the third, sixth, ninth, and eleventh hours. That evening, he paid the workers, "beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first."

Whereas the first workers hired had endured "the burden of the work and the heat of the day" for twelve hours, the last workers hired at the eleventh hour worked just one hour. In fact, they had "stood there all day long doing nothing." Nonetheless, the last people hired received twelve hours of pay for one hour of work.

The laborers who had worked twelve hours "grumbled against the landowner." Of course they grumbled! It wasn’t fair, not by a long shot.

But the excessive generosity of God is different than getting what you earned. And so for the third time Jesus says, "the last will be first, and the first will be last."

Jesus concludes with a sharp question to those who grumbled about God’s excess: "Are you envious because I am generous?"

The alternate reading from Jonah makes this same point. When God had compassion on the pagan Ninevites, Jonah complained bitterly in words that echo the grumblers in Jesus’s parable: "I knew that you were a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity."

When Jonah finally preached to Israel’s pagan conquerors, the unthinkable happened. The city famed for cruelty and wickedness believed the message and repented. The king proclaimed a national day of civic repentance.

Jonah found it hard to believe that Nineveh was a city “important to God.” It was a city for which God had great compassion (3:10). And just as Jesus asked the grumblers a question, so God asked Jonah a question in the very last sentence of this story: "Should I not be concerned about that great city?"

The "rhetoric of excess" isn’t limited to Matthew, which was Kermode’s focus. It’s everywhere. Parable of the workers in the vineyard, 11th-century codex.

The gospel for last week is another example. Jesus told us to forgive a person 490 times — "seventy times seven." Divine forgiveness, given and received, is beyond calculation or comprehension. Forgiveness on that scale is wildly disproportionate to the sincerity of the penitent or the seriousness of their offense.

Some disciples quit their jobs.

Others left their families, like the rich women who itinerated with Jesus and supported him.

One woman anointed Jesus with a bottle of perfume worth $50,000 in today’s wages.

Luke compares God to a shepherd who abandons a flock of ninety-nine sheep in order to find one lost sheep. In the parable of the prodigal son he’s like an indulgent father who welcomes back his indigent son with the best party that money could buy, despite the anger of the older son at such excessive generosity.

John compares God’s kingdom to a wedding party with an outrageous excess of fine wine. He says that the whole world couldn’t contain enough books to describe the deeds of Jesus.

In the book of Acts some people sold property and distributed the proceeds to the Jesus movement.

Yes, I gave the man at the Milk Pail my twenty dollar bill. It was an honest effort to imitate the excessive generosity of God by doing something that defied common sense or conventional wisdom.

The irony is that, compared to the gospel’s rhetoric of excess, my twenty dollars was at best a pale imitation of the generosity of God. You could even say that it was more parsimonious than profligate. I gave out of the surplus of my wealth. I seem to recall a widow described by Jesus who despite her extreme poverty "gave everything she had to live on."

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