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.

Story of a painting – Rembrandt’s “Presentation in the Temple”

Rembrandt returned to the subject, "Presentation of Jesus in the Temple" at least 5 times from 1627 to 1654, two paintings, three etchings.

The subject is the biblical story of Simeon. Jesus was still an infant when Joseph and Mary took him to the temple to be presented to God. There they were approached by Simeon, a devout old man who recognised the child as the Saviour and praised him to God.

The most famous of these works was in 1631 when he was about 25 and still living in Leiden. Later that year he moved to Amsterdam. This painting is the high point of Rembrandt’s Leiden years: it represents the sum total of his artistic abilities at that

Most of his paintings are in very dark tones out of which his figures seem to appear to the foreground. Rembrandt was the master of dark and light and most of his pictures are made in this style of struggle between dark and light, night and day, sorrow and joy.

The key to the picture is how carefully and delicate the figures are painted, even those in the darkest part of the painting. The beautiful contrast, between the light on the central group and the soft dimness of the remoter parts of the cathedral, illustrates a style of work for which Rembrandt was very famous.

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Lincoln and the Beatitudes

From James C. Wright, Jr. Published in Christianity Today| Feb. 4, 1983

In a few days we will celebrate the birthday of our sixteenth President, Abraham Lincoln. There is so much inspirational quality in his life for all people, and especially today, that it should be profitable to spend a few minutes meditating upon it.

No other person in American history is known and quoted so widely. “What is it,” I have asked myself, “that makes Lincoln stand apart from all the rest?” The more we grope for the things that raised Lincoln to his distinctive pedestal of greatness, the more we are forced to conclude that they lay in the realm of the spirit. The attributes that were distinctively Lincoln’s were remarkably those set forth by Christ in the Beatitudes.

Lincoln was poor in the sense that Christ was poor. True, he had few financial resources. But more to the point, he had a basic spirit of humanity that is rare on the political scene. “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Lincoln was dogged by defeat, hounded by failure, and stalked by tragedy. From the loss of his mother, at the age of nine, grief followed his footsteps like an unshakeable shadow. The youthful love he shared with Ann Rutledge ended in heartache at her death. He knew unspeakable anguish at the death of his son Eddie at the age of four, and later, as President, the death of his beloved son Willie. But “Blessed,” said Christ, “are they that mourn.”

There can be no doubt as to Lincoln’s personal feelings about slavery. The spectacle of one human being owned as property by another did violence to his sense of right and wrong. On a trip to New Orleans as a young man he saw for the first time the true horrors of slavery. His conscience rebelled against the inhumanity of human creatures in chains, whipped and scourged. Then and there he swore an oath against the cruel and heartless institution, for it was wrong and reeked of evil. “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.”

Above his distaste for slavery, his greater passion was to save the nation. With the vision of the pure hearted, he knew the Union must endure. Still, he was a peaceful man, not a warmonger. He believed the North was as much responsible that slavery existed as was the South, and that both should bear equally the burdens of its elimination. Fanatic abolitionists railed against him and called him an appeaser and a compromiser.

Finally, as President, he proposed that the slaveholders would be recompensed by the government, paid $400 for each slave who was freed. He called representatives of the states to the White House and urged this settlement. They rejected the entire plan. Lincoln the peacemaker had failed, but, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” said Christ, “for they shall be called the children of God.”

Left no alternative, the President proceeded to gird the Union for war. He proclaimed the emancipation of the slaves, armed the Negroes, and devoted his singular energies to the distasteful business of destroying the enemy. Gloom hung heavy in the North and in the White House. Lincoln’s generals failed him, his cabinet snubbed him, the public reviled him.

The abuse he suffered would have made any ordinary man strike back in wounded pride. When Salmon Chase humiliated him and plotted against him, Lincoln praised Chase and made him chief justice of the Supreme Court. After Edwin Stanton had scorned him as an “imbecile,” Lincoln made him his secretary of war. “Blessed are the meek,” said Christ, “for they shall inherit the earth.”

When the war was finally over and Lee met Grant at Appomattox Court House, there were no humiliating ceremonies of capitulation. There was to be no vengeance such as that demanded by the Northern radicals who for four years had been insisting that Lee and others be hanged for treason. The terms of the surrender were remarkably generous and gentle. Why? Because Abraham Lincoln, just hours before his death, had personally dictated the terms. “Blessed are the merciful,” said Christ.

In the end, Lincoln had done what he had set out to do. Over the most difficult obstacle course to confront a career, he had fulfilled his mission. As he lay dying in the little rooming house across from Ford’s Theater, it remained for Edwin Stanton, his former detractor, to speak the fitting tribute: “There lies the most perfect ruler of men the world has ever seen … [and] now he belongs to the ages.”

Lincoln does belong to the ages because the virtues upon which his life were founded are timeless. They have been the message of God to mankind since the dawn of history. Jesus not only taught these principles of life, but he demonstrated them in every word spoken and in every act performed.

These are the qualities that make a people great, and the neglect of these is the source of evil in the world. My prayer to God is that men and women at all levels of society and in every nation will find in Christ the strength and the courage to demonstrate these virtues in the conduct of the affairs of individuals and of nations.

Sermon 4th Sunday after the Epiphany

At the beginning of creation, God put everything into perfect balance, each part of creation connected to the whole, and everything supporting and supported by everything else.  God made conditions ideal for all of creation to grow and to thrive.  We all live within a great web of life.

But depending on conditions within the web, growing and thriving may be compromised. 

I want to tell you about the African violet I got from a friend. 

Periodically, I find that one of its leaves has dropped. If I just left it where it fell, the leaf would die.  But if I place that African violet leaf in water, it will start to root.  And if I leave it in the water long enough, the one leaf will get more leaves. 

But for this leaf to thrive and to grow into a plant,  I need to plant the leaf with its new roots and leaves in some dirt, because water, by itself, doesn’t have everything this plant needs to grow and thrive. 

So here’s a plant that I grew from one leaf.  You can see that putting the roots in dirt meant that the plant could grow. 

But dirt is not all the plant needs.  At first, as the plant put out new leaves, the leaves grew long and scraggly and were more yellow than green. 

What do you think my plants lacked? 

They lacked light!

So then I got a grow light.

With enough light, the leaves became green, and then, to my surprise, my new African violets bloomed!

So with the right soil, enough water and enough light, these African violets are growing and thriving. 

God made each one of us with the hope that we will grow and thrive, for after all, we are part of God’s creation.  We are like the leaves that fall from my African violet.  Without the essential things we need to live and grow, we just wither away.  But when we have all we need, we too can grow and thrive and live in a thriving community with one another, in the human web of life. 

One thing I love about the Bible is that it has so many stories about so many interesting people.  A lot of these people make spectacular mistakes, because they get messed up in their relationships with God, with one another and with the world around them. Then they start to wither away because they no longer have what they need to grow.    The Bible tells us about what these people learned, and how many of them corrected their ways and started growing and thriving again. 

God sent prophets to help those who were out of balance, those people who were no longer in right relationship with God or with one another.  The prophets told the people what they needed to get back into balance, to take their places again in the web of life instead of dying from a lack of what they needed. 

The stories of these prophets and what they had to say are in the Bible as well. 

Today’s Old Testament reading is from the prophet Micah. Just think, Micah spoke these words almost three thousand years ago to the people of Israel. 

And these words are all about what the Israelites needed to get back in balance and to live in beloved community with one another and to be in right relationship with God. 

Here’s what Micah says.   

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;

And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? 

When we do these three things, not only can we grow into the people hopes we will become, but we can help others to do so as well. 

So let’s start with “love kindness.” 

The word for kindness in the Bible adds richer and deeper meaning to our usual understanding of kindness.  That word is “hesed.”  As the New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary explains, hesed “has to do with love, loyalty, and faithfulness.  It can be used to describe the key element in relationships—the desire to love God and to love one another, faithfully and consistently.” 

If I were not consistent about keeping water in this rooting container, and then watering the plants once they are in soil, they would die.  We all need love to grow into the people God hopes we will become—and our kindness/love to others helps them to grow as well.  Without love, we can so easily wither away, just as a plant will wither away without water. 

Then there’s doing justice.   

Doing justice is providing the soil that will allow a whole community to grow in love. An example of doing justice in the natural world is that trees work together for the good of the whole.   I’ve mentioned before in sermons that trees share water, carbon,  nutrients, and even alarm signals through their underground mycorrhizal networks, each tree contributing to the life of the community of trees in which it lives. 

 In the Bible, when the prophets talk about justice, they are talking about fairness and equality for everyone, so that everyone can thrive. 

Martin Luther King, Jr., a modern day prophet, says that “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.”

That “inescapable network of mutuality” is the great web of life in which we all live.  What affects one of us will sooner or later affect all of us.   When we “do justice” and work for fairness and equality for all, then we find that we too will benefit from the rich soil that we are cultivating for the good growth of those around us. 

And last, Micah tells us that God wants us to walk humbly with God. 

We are always tempted to walk in our own light—our self-importance, our desire for fame, pointing to ourselves by shining light on ourselves.   But God asks us to walk in God’s light.  When we walk in God’s light, with God as our companion, we point the way to God in what we do.  And walking in God’s light we bloom, and become beautiful. 

Water, soil and light—love kindness, do justice, and walk humbly with your God. 

These are the things that God requires of us. 

Jesus was also a prophet and a teacher.  He came to tell us and to show us how to love kindness, to do justice and to walk humbly. 

In today’s gospel, Jesus teaches the disciples about loving kindness—blessed are those who mourn, who are willing to let the sorrows of the world in and to feel the world’s pain, blessed are the ones who are merciful.

Jesus teaches the disciples about doing justice—blessed are the peacemakers, the ones who work for justice, for when there is justice for all,  God’s peace be realized on this earth.    Blessed are those who are persecuted for doing God’s work in this world.  Those who work for fairness and equality for all will inevitably be persecuted. 

And Jesus teaches the disciples about walking humbly with God—blessed are the poor in spirit, the ones who know that they are completely dependent on God; blessed are the meek, those who live under God’s control rather than their own wills; blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those people whose greatest desire is to be in completely right relationship with God and with one another.  And blessed are the pure in heart, those whose hearts are turned toward God, and whose motives are determined by God’s will rather than their own wills.  

Through his teaching and through all he did on this earth, Jesus showed us how to grow and to thrive as the children of God, living in beloved community with all God’s children.  Jesus showed us how to love, Jesus showed us how to work for justice, and Jesus showed us how to walk humbly with God. Jesus showed us how to live in perfect balance as we each do our part in the web of life in which God has planted us. 

When you leave here today, look for ways to  do justice, to  love kindness, and walk humbly with your God, at school, in your families, with your friends, and anywhere else you find yourself. 

For these are the things that God wants of us, and what Jesus will help us to do, so that we can all grow and thrive, through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

 

Sunday Links, Jan. 29, 2023 Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany – The Beatitudes and Youth Sunday

Sunday Links, Jan. 29, 2023 Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

Collage from Jan. 22 service

Jan. 29, 11:00am – Morning Prayer, Youth Sunday

  • Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany Zoom link Jan. 29, 2023 Meeting ID: 869 9926 3545, Passcode: 889278

  • Lectionary for Jan. 29, 2023, Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
  • Bulletin for Jan. 29, 2023, Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, Bulletin
  • Morning Meditation , Jan 30, 6:30am Zoom link Meeting ID: 879 8071 6417 Passcode: 790929
  • Ecumenical Bible Study, Wed., Feb. 1, 10am-12pm.
  • Tues, Feb. 7th, Bingo Night 6-7:30PM at Port Royal Fire Department St Peter’s is serving as a Partner in Education with the Caroline County Public Schools. We will be providing snacks for the Caroline County Bingo Night, Tuesday, February 7th, 6-7:30PM at the Port Royal Fire Department. If you would like to help, please bring granola bars, individually wrapped bags of trail mix, or small bottles of water and place them in the back pew.
  • January, 2023 Newsletter
  • All articles for Jan 29, 2023

  • Catherine’s sermon for Epiphany 4 on Jan 29, 2023 may be called the “African Violet” sermon to illustrate the readings. She brought 3 of her violets.

    The readings this week are like a mission statement – what should we do ? What are the essential things ? The sermon uses the Prophet Micah as a resource and Jesus teaching in the Beatitudes.

    “So with the right soil, enough water and enough light, these African violets are growing and thriving. We are like the leaves that fall from my African violet. Without the essential things we need to live and grow, we just wither away. But when we have all we need, we too can grow and thrive and live in a thriving community with one another, in the human web of life.

    “Micah speaks to a people who have been led astray by other gods and by leaders who have failed to look to God’s ways. His message “And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Jesus speaks his message to the poor and lost and the message is the Beatitudes which considers the areas of Micah

    In today’s gospel, Jesus teaches the disciples about loving kindness—blessed are those who mourn, who are willing to let the sorrows of the world in and to feel the world’s pain, blessed are the ones who are merciful. Jesus teaches the disciples about doing justice—blessed are the peacemakers, the ones who work for justice, for when there is justice for all, God’s peace be realized on this earth.

    Jesus teaches the disciples about walking humbly with God—blessed are the poor in spirit, the ones who know that they are completely dependent on God; blessed are the meek, those who live under God’s control rather than their own wills.


    Jan 29, 2023 Epiphany 4 as well as the last Sunday of the month and youth Sunday. The youth were the readers of the lectionary. It was Morning prayer and the youth contributed some prayers printed below, printed in the bulletin. You can see what is important for them to bring to God

    Prayers from our Youth

    Dear God, Heavenly Father, thank you for the life you have given us. We thank you for our talents and what makes us unique. Amen

    Dear God, Heavenly Father, thank you for the family you have given us and the friends we make along the way, especially my brothers and my sister. Amen

    Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the beautiful world we live in and thank you for all the animals that inhabit this earth. We pray that one day there will be no more fighting across the world you created. We will live in peace and harmony. Amen