
Begins Sun Sept 17, 10:30am -“God’s Garden” in the Parish House—A gathering of children ages 5-9 for Sunday School activities and fun, led by Elizabeth Heimbach
St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Port Royal, VA
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.
Begins Sun Sept 17, 10:30am -“God’s Garden” in the Parish House—A gathering of children ages 5-9 for Sunday School activities and fun, led by Elizabeth Heimbach
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Lector: Cookie Davis
Chalice Bearer: Elizabeth Heimbach
Altar Cleanup: Linda Kramer
Lectionary link
Coming Up!
I.Theme – Forgiveness, the basis for reconciliation.
"The Unforgiving Servant – 1973. Jesus MAFA. JESUS MAFA is a response to the New Testament readings from the Lectionary by a Christian community in Cameroon, Africa. Each of the readings were selected and adapted to dramatic interpretation by the community members
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Genesis 50:15-21
Psalm – Psalm 103:(1-7), 8-13 Page 733, BCP
Epistle –Romans 14:1-12
Gospel – Matthew 18:21-35
There are two interwoven themes:
•The power and importance of story and the role of story in developing identity
•The recurring Biblical theme of forgiveness and the related theme of resisting our tendency to judgment.
Both themes have intertwined in and through them God’s presence, always available and always working in and through the life of an individual and the life of a group of people.
The other connecting thread is that of healing or becoming whole as Christians. This way of looking at healing embraces both our formation as Christians, the building up of our identity in faith; and challenges us to allow ourselves to be reformed through forgiveness.
Genesis looks at forgiveness from the victim. The Gospel looking at forgiveness in terms of grace.
The story of Joseph in Genesis 50: 15-21 describes a very human situation with which most of us can identify. It deals with guilt of Joseph’s brothers in their treatment of him, selling him into slavery. Joseph father may have prevented Joseph from getting even. But now the father was dead That thought of getting even consumed them, even more than the loss of their father. They tell Joseph that Jacob’s dying wish was that he forgive them. We do not know if that is true. At least, it shows how desperate they were to use every device they knew to persuade Joseph to forgive.
The family that has known disruption, favoritism, hostility, and deceit all through the book of Genesis may finally get its act together. There is hope for reconciliation after this forgiveness. One marvels at the graciousness of Joseph who is actually able to forgive after all of this.
As a response to the first lesson from Genesis 50, these verses from Psalm 103 could provide hymn texts for Joseph and for Joseph’s brothers. Verses 1-7 would be the song of pious Joseph who suffered deep wrong at the hands of his envious brothers and had ample reason to question God’s sovereignty
Instead, the singer remembers "all God’s benefits": forgiveness of sin (pride for Joseph), deliverance from the grave (the pit and then slavery); crowing with mercy (not to mention the literal "crown" of Pharaoh); and vindication — to the point that Joseph can find God’s hand at work in the evil deeds of his brothers.
Verses 8-13 would be the song of Joseph’s thankful brothers when they hear Joseph’s words of pardon. Joseph’s forgiveness bears witness to the God who is full of compassion and slow to anger and who does not deal with us according to our sins or repay us according to our iniquities. And as Joseph draws his father and brothers west toward Egypt, the memory of their sins is blown as far to the east as can be imagined.
Romans gives some practical examples of forgiveness of others and ourselves. Here it is more of a group conflict. Differences in lifestyle, however, were the attitudes that were dividing the church. Paul’s commands toward both groups make it pretty clear that the "strong" were despising the "weak," while the "weak" were judging or condemning the "strong. God judges; we shouldn’t. Each Christian is answerable to “the Lord” and should not be criticized.
Paul’s goal for the church is presented in his benediction in Romans 15:5-6, that instead of using our words to despise or judge others in our fellowship, we glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ "with one voice!"
The Matthew story is all about forgiveness from the perspective of those who give it. Jesus sets before us an ideal, namely that we be forgiving as God is forgiving. Yet, at the same time we are reminded that the greatest in the kingdom of heaven is not the good person who is good at forgiving, but the sinner whose sin is forgiven.
This is the story of the unmerciful servant. The king forgives a servant who owes him more than could be repaid in a lifetime. However, in turn the servant fails to forgive other who owes much less to the servant. He fails to imitate the forgiveness of the king. When the king hears about this, he retracts his forgiveness and has the first slave tortured – probably for ever.
Two key thoughts.
1. Forgiveness in this parable is both an extravagant and a precious thing.
2. Forgiveness in the Gospel of Matthew is not only relational it is reciprocal and reliant. When teaching his disciples to pray Jesus would have us say, "Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors" (Matthew 6:12). It is a change in attitude. Members of the community must treat one another as God has treated each of them. However, it does not mean that the sin involved is forgotten or overlooked.
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From Presbyterian Outlook for Proper 19
In 2013, the novelist Ann Patchett toured a homeless mission in Nashville, Tennessee, with Father Charlie Stroble. Patchett’s essay, “The Worthless Servant,” describes how Stroble’s ministry to the unhoused began after he, as a young priest, answered a knock on his rectory’s door — one of a dozen men sheltering in the church’s parking lot, looking for something to eat. Stroble, recognizing that the temperature would drop below freezing that night, invited all the men inside.
Stroble knew the consequences of his decision. Once he let the men in, they’d keep coming back. “I didn’t think too long about it,” he told Patchett, “probably because I knew I would talk myself out of it.”
Forgiveness is a recurring theme in the lectionary texts for Sunday, September 17. Joseph forgives his brothers who sold him into slavery in Egypt (Genesis 50:19). Paul writes that we are not to pass judgment on our brother or sister (Romans 14:10). Jesus instructs Peter to forgive “seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:22). And Psalm 103 is the exuberant song of one who has been forgiven.
Reading Psalm 103 was a balm to my soul this week. I don’t know about you, but humanity, as a whole, has got me down. The overwhelming societal problems our greed has caused; the ways we have desecrated the earth; all the recent news about rolling back civil rights, banning books and white-washing history. We are a lot for God to put up with.
We have taken the five Sundays readings in the Season of Creation and highlighted a specific environmental area which we will cover weekly. (This week, energy ) How is this area affecting us ? What can we do at St. Peter’s and individually to improve our use of them ? We have added related scriptures.
Isaiah 40:28-31 “The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. 30 Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; 31 but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
1. Power in the Bible
We think of power in the natural world as produced from various energy sources in nature -the sun, wind, coal, water, geothermal, oil, biomass and the atom (nuclear). Power in religious terms is spiritual energy God is unlimited and this spiritual energy is unlimited in contrast to the energy we seek in the physical world which is limited. The difference from the physical world is that we do not consume this spiritual energy; we reflect it. It can be adapted to many needs in this world.
A. Power is an inherent characteristic of God ( Rom 1:20 ). It is the result of his nature. God’s kind of power is seen in his creation ( Psalm 19 ; 150:1 ; Jer 10:12 ). His inexplicable power is the only explanation for the virgin birth of Jesus ( Luke 1:35 ). Power is always a derived characteristic for people, who receive power from God ( Deut 8:18 ;Isa 40:29 ; Micah 3:8 ; Matt 22:29 ; 1 Cor 2:4 ; Eph 3:7 ), from political position ( Esther 1:3 ; Luke 20:20 ), from armies ( 1 Chron 20:1 ), and from other structures that provide advantage over others. When humans perceive that their power is intrinsic to themselves, they are self-deceived ( Lev 26:19 ; Deut 8:17-18 ; Hosea 2:7-9 ; John 19:10-11
B. The Bible uses spiritual energy which is transmitted to humans. It begins with God’s generation of light. This illumination is the spontaneous effect of divine Love in action, of Truth manifested. The Bible then goes on to chronicle this energizing force in the lives of individuals and nations, such as Moses energizing his people, leading them out of slavery and introducing them to the laws of God and brought them to the borders of the Promised Land.
Later Jesus said, “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.” n2 His great power to do good was generated by God.When he took Peter and John up onto the mount and was transfigured before them, “His face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.” n3 The sparkling spiritual energy the disciples saw in him was evident throughout his ministry, feeding thousands and calming seas. He told his disciples that they could move mountains if they had “faith as a grain of mustard seed
C Faith in God is a transformer. It transforms thinking. Holding to it and living by it can bring a solution to energy needs by causing us to be more inventive, more aware of resources close at hand, more accurate and disciplined, more universal in our concerns, and thus more equitable.
Paul especially images the living of the Christian life as an empowerment from God. The believer’s union with Christ delivers him or her from the power of sin (cf. Rom. 6-8) and introduces him or her to the “power of [Christ’s] resurrection” ( Php 3:10 ). Salvation and holy living provide the Christian with a “spirit of power” for witness ( 2 Tim 1:7-8 ).
D. For our use we may find spiritual energy can be generated through prayer.