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.

2024 Sun Jan 28

Village Harvest, Jan.17, 2024

It was a snow day Jan. 16 so we benefited by a full crew of help, including three teenagers to help prepare. We were well prepared for the harvest on Jan. 17.

Food available in pounds

For the first month of 2024, we had meat (chicken breasts) vegetables (carrots, rice, corn, cabbage,lettuce, soup) fruit (peaches), and Food Lion packages for distribution. 52% was grocery, 28% produce and 20% meat. A Year ago in Jan., 2023 76% was grocery and 24% meat, less variety then.

Despite the variety, supplies were tight. The buyers noted that stock was low at the Healthy Harvest Food Bank.

1,110 pounds were available for distribution in Jan, 2024. This was the lowest supply since June, 2023 which had 949 pounds. A year ago in Jan, 2023, 1,137 pounds were distributed, close to the current total.

Comparable numbers showed 1,081 pounds in Jan, 2022, 1147 in Jan, 2021 and only 1,020 for 2020. Clearly, the 2024 number was actually better than most years.

In the chart below, the red bars display foods available in the last 6 months of 2023 and 2024. Blue is a year earlier. Beginning in Oct, 2023, the number of pounds available per month slipped behind that of the month a year earlier.

Clients served by the Harvest.

Trends were more positive on the client side in January but have fluctuated over the last several years.

We served 91 in Jan. 2024, the lowest total since October with 99. A year ago in Jan, 2023 the number was only 60. This was an anomoly. In Jan 2022 there was almost double the clients at 115. Jan, 2021 was similar 116 but Jan, 2020 was only 81.

Monthly totals provide a recent trend in those fed by the harvest.

Looking at the last six months of clients fed at the harvest show an improving trend monthly in the current year compared to a year ago. Client totals were over 99 or better for the last 3 months of 2023 with an average of 107. A year earlier maximum was 90 for the last 3 months of 2022 with an average of 86.

Preparation

We have up to four teams that make the Harvest a reality though there is a blending between groups. One team goes to Montross to purchase food from the Healthy Harvest Food Bank. This happens on the Monday or Tuesday before Wed. distribution. We have a team that then unloads the food from the truck to our Parish House.

We have another team that will organize the items and fill the bags. The frozen items, such as chickens may get their own separate bags. A final team helps with the distribution on Wed.

Tues Jan 16 the day of preparation was a snow day and so we had the services of several teenagers to help:

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Demons… in our own time

From the SALT blog.

The Devil presenting St Augustine (of Hippo) with the book of vices. Michael Pacher (c1435-1498).

1) “Since many people today don’t typically interpret the world in terms of demons and exorcisms, it can be tempting to apologize for this passage as obsolete and unconvincing. But this is a false start. After all, when we read the Bible we engage ancient texts from halfway around the world — it’s only to be expected that they’ll feel cross-cultural and unfamiliar at first. Think of this as a kind of travel through time and space. The opportunity here is to stay open to how another way of thinking and living can shed new light on our own.

2) “Any number of death-dealing forces today are often experienced as “possession” or being “caught up” in dynamics that far exceed our intentions or control. Think of how addiction overwhelms individuals and families; how racism and white supremacy shape-shift over time; how anger consumes; how envy devours; or how all of us, even against our will, are complicit in creating the blanket of pollution overheating the planet (2023 set the record for the hottest global year on record). We may or may not call addiction or racism or the sexual objectification of women “demons,” but they are most certainly demonic. They move through the world as though by a kind of cunning. They resist, sidestep, or co-opt our best attempts to overcome them. And as we make those attempts, the experience can be less like figuring out a puzzle and more like wrestling with a beast.

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Healing Narratives in Mark

By Lawrence

The new messianic community: healing, restoration and conflict

Jesus’ ministry is about gathering into being a new community – a messianic community – which is a sign of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the world as it ought to be and will be under God. The message of the kingdom is the Good News that Jesus preaches (1:14). It has “come near” in Jesus and begins to take shape – takes on “ground space” – in the community of disciples and followers that Jesus gathers around him. This new community is an anticipation and sign of the kingdom of God.

Significantly, this happens on the margins. Jesus’ ministry takes place in Galilee, far away from Jerusalem. He is baptised in the vicinity of the city, but in the wilderness. This is the place of resistance to the Temple and the religious purity system centre there. The point is that the purity system breaks down community by exclusion. The focus of Jesus’ ministry is among theexcluded.

We need therefore to be constantly alert several narrative-structural features of the healing narratives, in addition to the healings themselves:

· Jesus is a healer, not a curer. This is the “healing and wholeness” point. Jesus pays virtually no attention to the symptoms of illness, so crucial in medical diagnosis. He is not a super-doctor! He does not attempt to explain the causes of illness, either in medical or spiritual terms (eg as a result of sin).

· A fundamental feature of the healing narratives is the restoration of community. Peter’s mother-in-law is healed in order to participate in the Sabbath meal (with all the importance that attaches to table fellowship). Lepers are healed in order to be re-integrated into the community. The purity system excludes sick people from participation in communal life and blessing, and the healings that Mark records almost invariably entail the restoration of the healed person to the wider community.

· Unsurprisingly, the healings are therefore in effect (though not intention) a direct confrontation with the religious purity system. We need to be alert to the reaction of those who see healing as a threat. So, for example, the healing of the man with the withered hand (3:1-6) is set in terms of the conflict over Sabbath keeping (as is Peter’s mother-in-law, by implication). Healings are theologically significant and provide the context for many of the deadly conflicts over the Law between Jesus and the Pharisees. The account of a healing concludes with the Pharisees and the Herodians conspiring together to destroy Jesus (3:6).

· The healings are messianic actions. Not only are they the presence of the saving actions of God (the plundering of the Strong Man’s house) but they directly provoke the opposition of the religious authorities that results in Jesus’ suffering and death (which is what is to define his messiahship).

· They make sense of the “great reversal” of the kingdom. Jesus heals among the marginalised and outside the dominant religious system. The dominant system has no place for these people, so that the idea that God is at work through the Messiah among these is anathema to the leaders. This is part of the reason why “the first shall be last and the last first”. Grace is seen in God’s radical inclusion of the excluded. Those who are unable to accept this cut themselves off from Jesus, the new messianic community and the kingdom.

· Jesus did not see himself primarily in opposition to the religious system of his day, but as a prophetic, “purification” movement within Judaism.There is a dynamic tension in all the gospels over what would have happened had Jesus and his message been accepted. The passion predictions suggest that Jesus was fully aware that he had come to be rejected and that his death was inevitable. His weeping over Jerusalem suggests his hope that he would have been accepted and that the kingdom he inaugurated would come about. The healing stories reflect this tension. In the cleansing of the leper (1:40-5), Jesus urges the leper to go to the priest and go through the proper cleansing and restoration rituals. It is clear that Jesus wished to establish the new messianic community withinJudaism, rather than in opposition to it. The healing narratives help to plot the movement of Jesus’ initial hope of acceptance, then through opposition to rejection and inevitable death. They help to emphasise the fact that Jesus died because of the life of the kingdom he lived, rather than only a result of the divine plan of salvation through suffering and death. They make his life, as well as his death and resurrection, significant for Christian discipleship.

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Lectionary, Epiphany 4, Year B

I.Theme –  Scope and meaning of God’s Authority

 "St. Peter’s – inside picture as a drawing"

The lectionary readings are here  or individually: 

Old Testament – Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Psalm – Psalm 111 Page 754, BCP
Epistle –1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Gospel – Mark 1:21-28

Mark – Jesus demonstrates divine authority by healing a man with unclean spirit. Jesus preaches the Good news even when it leads to conflict

Deuteronomy – Moses encourage people to listen to God’s prophet and heed God’s word

Corinthians – True obedience to law must be balance by love and compassion

From Bruce Epperly – "Process and Faith"

"Today’s lectionary readings reflect on the nature of authority and the impact of our actions on the wellbeing of others. The season of Epiphany is an invitation to reflect on the many places and ways God reveals Godself to humankind. With the mystic Meister Eckhardt, Epiphany is grounded in the affirmation that all things are words of God. Anyone of us – and also the non-human world – can be a vehicle of divine revelation. Yet, revelation is always contextual, concrete, and variable.

"In the historical matrix of life, some persons and places are more transparent to the divine than others. This is a matter of call and response – God’s call and our responses as individuals and communities. Still, even though all of us turn away from God at times, some more than others, all persons have something of the divine within them. As John’s Gospel proclaims, the light of God enlightens all, even when we pursue darkness rather than light.

"The words of Deuteronomy are both promising and threatening. God will raise up a prophet – another spiritual leader or group of leaders – to succeed Moses. According to the text, God will put words in the prophet’s mouth. Those who don’t follow the prophet’s words will be punished. Any prophet who extemporizes or deviates from God’s revelation will be destroyed.

"The good news is that “God is still speaking” and we can find enlightenment for our path. Still, these words are ambiguous and raise a number of questions:

"Can finite, time bound, and imperfect human beings speak God’s words “perfectly?”

"Can prophets and spiritual leaders ever escape their historical, ethnic, and religious perspective?

"Can we directly speak for God or are our words, by nature, indirect and opaque despite their insight and inspiration?

"How do we know which words come from God and which are self-promoting and manipulative? That is, in a pluralistic environment, how can we discern the difference between “true” and “false” prophecy?

"Psalm 111 speaks of divine authority as a blend of love, power, and justice. Creation itself reflects divine authority, the ability of God to shape our world, cosmologically as well as ethically. There is plenty of free play and competition in the universe – each event emerges from many causes ranging from environment, personal choice, and divine direction – but within this intricate matrix of causation, there is a consistent force aiming at novelty, justice, fairness, and beauty. Authority figures must be judged by their adherence to the “moral arc” of divine intentionality.

"We must always ask the following questions: Does an authority figure promote justice, creativity, and beauty? Does an authority figure seek what is truly best for the community, including honoring diverse opinions and lifestyles? Does an authority figure enable people to be more creative, more adventurous, and more compassionate?

I Corinthians 8:1-13 explores the nature of personal authority and our responsibility for the way our actions – even matters of personal preference – shape the lives of others. Paul notes that even though some of our behaviors or words are in and of themselves innocuous, we need to take heed for their impact on others – especially less mature members of our community. Ethics, Paul recognizes, is not a matter of absolutes or unbending principles, but the impact on the people right in front of us. If our abstractions harm our neighbors, then our principles are of little value to the communities in which we live.

"The reading from the Gospel of Mark (1:21-28) sees Jesus’ authority as joining words and action. Jesus walked the talk, and spoke words that transformed people’s lives and reflected God’s vision for humankind. In today’s reading, Jesus’ sermon leads to action. He confronts a man, possessed by a destructive spirit. While we don’t know the nature of this spirit, it destroyed his personality, rendered him an outcast, unclean, and unable to live with his family. Jesus confronts this unclean spirit with the simple words: “Be still. Come out from him.”

"Jesus’ authority leads to healing and wholeness, inclusion and hospitality. Jesus’ power was for good. His words and actions promoted creativity, agency, growth, and interdependence.

"Today’s readings promote spiritual practices that enable us to attentive to God’s “whispered word.” Discovering our personal authority involves a commitment to prayer, devotional reading, communities of support and accountability, and concern for others. They also challenge us to embody the values we affirm as we seek the wellbeing of our companions and communities. Contemplation and action are one dynamic reality: our insights lead to healing and affirming actions that shape people and communities."

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The Season after the Epiphany – What’s it all about ? Focus on the Gospels

The Season after the Epiphany – Epiphany is all about establishing the identity of Jesus. Now that he has been born who is he ?   Epiphany continues to define who Jesus is – healer, preacher and the Messiah, the last one comes early in Epiphany and continues.

Epiphany refers to the appearance of Jesus Christ as the savior of the world—of Israel and the Gentiles.  For this reason, Epiphany is commonly associated with the visitation of the Magi (or “wise men”), who were almost certainly Gentiles, in Matthew 2:1–12.

We focus on the mission of the church to reach all the peoples of the earth with the great gift of God’s grace in revealing healing truth and light to the world.”

It is very much present oriented. The main idea of Epiphany is that Christ is the light of the world that came at Christmas and now beckons us to travel with Him ths year. The story of the Epiphany is about discovery—following a star to the source of salvation.Epiphany is filled with unexpected revelations that change our minds and ways – we have to be willing to experience them.

Epiphany is our jumping off spot. From the Eucharistic Prayer – “With each new day, you call us to feed the hungry, bring recovery of sight to the blind, liberate the oppressed, heal the broken hearted and bind up their wounds, and keep watch for the dawn of your reign on this earth. ”

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