2024 Sun June 9 – Page 2 – St. Peter's News

These pictures were originally taken 3 Mays ago plenty of sunshine with a warming trend.The date was May 2, 2021. Time to look for some wildflowers beneath our feet…

Ajuga. Also known as carpet bugleweed. This plant quickly fills in empty areas, smothering out weeds while adding exceptional foliage color and blooms. It’s also good for erosion control. The flowers of bugleweed are normally bluish to purple but they can be found in white as well.

Geraniums and Cranesbills are perennial plants that belong to the genus Geranium and thrive in temperate climates with cool summers and cool summer nights. They are generally easy to grow and constantly bloom over the season from spring to fall though they require well drained and moist soil.

Track 1 or 2 ?

July 5, 2024June 5, 2024

During Ordinary Time there are two possible tracts or Old Testament, Psalm and Epistle Readings:

Track 1 – Old Testament in Order. In Year B we begin with 1 Samuel.

Track 2 – Themes Old Testament in line with the other reading. It follows the Roman Catholic tradition of thematically pairing the Old Testament reading with the Gospel reading, often typologically—a sort of foretelling of Jesus Christ’s life and ministry. We use Track 2 at St. Peter’s.

Anything but Ordinary! Ordinary Time

July 5, 2024June 5, 2024

Beginning on Pentecost 2, we enter the Church year known as Ordinary Time. After Easter, Jesus’s ascension into heaven, and the coming of the Holy Spirit to us at Pentecost, we accept responsibility for being and becoming Christ’s body in the world. We are called by Jesus to live in community, our lives together guided not only by the example of Jesus, but by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Basically, Ordinary Time encompasses that part of the Christian year that does not fall within the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, or Easter. Ordinary Time is anything but ordinary. According to The General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar, the days of Ordinary Time, especially the Sundays, “are devoted to the mystery of Christ in all its aspects.” We continue our trek through the both the Gospels of Luke and John- through parables challenges, healings – some great stories and teachings.

Vestments are usually green, the color of hope and growth. Green has long been associated with new life and growth. Even in Hebrew in the Old Testament, the same word for the color “green” also means “young.” The green of this season speaks to us as a reminder that it is in the midst of ordinary time that we are given the opportunity to grow.

Ordinary Time, from the word “ordinal,” simply means counted time (First Sunday after Pentecost, etc.). we number the Sundays from here on out in order from the First Sunday after Pentecost, all the way up to the Last Sunday after Pentecost The term “ordinary time” is not used in the Prayer Book, but the season after Pentecost can be considered ordinary.

The Church counts the thirty-three or thirty-four Sundays of Ordinary Time, inviting her children to meditate upon the whole mystery of Christ – his life, miracles and teachings – in the light of his Resurrection.

You may see Sundays referred to as “Propers”. The Propers are readings for Ordinary Time following Epiphany and Pentecost, numbered to help establish a seven day range of dates on which they can occur. Propers numbering in the Revised Common Lectionary begins with the Sixth Sunday in Epiphany, excludes Sundays in Lent through Pentecost and Trinity Sunday, and resumes the Second Sunday after Pentecost (the first Sunday after Pentecost is Trinity Sunday), usually with Proper 4.

In some ways, it might be right to think of this time as “ordinary”, common or mundane. Because this is the usual time in the church, the time that is not marked by a constant stream of high points and low points, ups and downs, but is instead the normal, day-in, day-out life of the church. This time is a time to grapple with the nuts and bolts of our faith, not coasting on the joy and elation of Christmas, or wallowing in the penitential feel of Lent, but instead just being exactly where we are, and trying to live our faith in that moment.

It is a reminder of the presence of God in and through the most mundane and ordinary seasons of our lives. . It is a reminder that when God came and lived among us in the person of Jesus Christ, he experienced the same ordinary reality that we all experience. And that God, in Christ, offered us the opportunity to transform the most ordinary, mundane experiences into extraordinary events infused with the presence of God. God is there, present in the midst of the ordinary, just waiting for us to recognize it.

Only when the hustle and bustle of Advent, Easter, and Lent has calmed down can we really focus on what it means to live and grow as Christians in this ordinary time in this ordinary world. It is a time to nurture our faith with opportunities for fellowship and reflection. It is a time to feed and water our faith with chances for education and personal study. It is a time to weed and prune our faith, cutting off the parts that may be dead and leaving them behind. And we have a lot of growing to do, so God has given us most of the church year in which to do it.

Lectionary, Pentecost 3, Year B, Proper 5, June 9, 2024

July 5, 2024June 5, 2024

I. Theme – The pervading role of sinfulness

House Divided Speech

The lectionary readings are here or individually:

Old Testament – Genesis 3:8-15
Psalm – Psalm 130 Page 784, BCP
Epistle –2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
Gospel – Mark 3:20-35

Today’s readings explore the pervading influence of sinfulness that makes humans stand in resistance and opposition to God. In 1 Samuel, we begin a series of readings describing the development of kingship in Israel. In Genesis (ALT), we learn the meaning of human sinfulness from the story of Adam and Eve’s disobedience. Paul encourages the Corinthian Christians to trust in the eternal power of God. In the gospel, when his opponents declare that Jesus is possessed by Beelzebul, Jesus warns them of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

Commentary by Rev. Mindi

We enter this season after Pentecost, after Trinity Sunday, in which (at least in the mainstream Protestant tradition) there are no special days until Reign of Christ Sunday just before Advent. We begin this time with the story of the man and the woman hiding from God in the garden. The man explains his shame, his hiding by scapegoating the woman, who in turn explains herself by scapegoating the serpent, and the serpent is punished by God. As part of the curse of the serpent, humanity is separated from relationship with the creatures of creation. No longer will human beings and animals live in harmony; there will be predators and prey, a need to defend oneself against the wild creatures of the world. We often read this passage and recall humanity’s fall, but there is a sense that the model of harmony in the garden is disrupted among the rest of God’s creatures as well. This harmony is symbolically seen again upon the ark in the story of the flood, where miraculously somehow the animals don’t eat each other or the human beings who are caring for them. We are reminded that God’s intention for creation was harmony between man and woman, between human beings and God, and between humanity and the rest of creation; but through our greed and desire, we have distorted God’s intention, and it is God who must reconcile us through Christ.

The other choice for the Old Testament readings this year follows the historical books, beginning with 1 Samuel 8 and 11, telling the story of the anointing of Israel’s first king, Saul, by the prophet Samuel.

Psalm 130 is a song of hope in God, having patience in God’s deliverance. We may have sinned, but God forgives, and God will save, as long as we hold on to hope.

Mark 3:20-35 tells of Jesus’ homecoming after he called his first disciples and the reception he received. People had begun to talk about Jesus and were spreading some rumors and tales, including that Jesus was possessed by Beelzebul. Jesus’ own family wants to bring him home and stop this “madness,” this “nonsense,” of Jesus’ ministry and healing and preaching, but Jesus declares that Satan can not cast out Satan; therefore Jesus, who is doing good works, cannot be possessed by a demon, for what he is doing is the complete opposite of what demonic forces would do. Demonic forces would destroy, bring pain and anguish and despair; Jesus brings restoration, healing, joy and hope. When Jesus’ family calls out to him and the crowd informs Jesus of this, Jesus reminds them that whoever does the will of God is Jesus’ family–for we are all children of God, we are all Christ’s brothers and sisters, when we do the work of God, bringing healing, hope and restoration to the world by sharing God’s love.

2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 proclaims that we live by faith, not by sight. What can be seen is temporary–what we have made, what we have done–but what cannot be seen, God’s intention for us, is eternal. We must hold on to hope and know that God will restore us, God will reconcile us, and God will heal us. Everything we experience on this earth is temporary, but what we cannot see, cannot perceive, cannot fully understand is eternal–that God’s love endures forever.

When we look back upon the creation story, we recognize the story of God’s intention: a world created in relationship with God, a world in which human beings are in relationship with creation and with each other. In Genesis 3 that relationship is distorted by human beings; but we see glimpses of God’s intention breaking through all throughout Scripture. We see it in the story of the flood and the ark and the rainbow; we see it in the Psalms; we see it in Revelation. We see places where humanity continues to insist on their own way, one in which people are scapegoated and leaders are given too much power over people, where people who do not make good leaders are made into kings and the poor are oppressed. And when God’s intention begins to break through, as in Jesus’ ministry, we still resist. We want our own way. We want to have and others to not have–because we believe we have worked harder, we have earned it. We fail to see that God’s intention is not rivalry but relationship. We fail to see that God’s intention is not survival but harmony. We fail to see that God’s intention is not being right, but doing right. We fail to see that God’s intention is not insiders and outsiders, but all of humanity as God’s children, brothers and sisters of each other. This is what God’s intention is for humanity and the world, what God’s desire is for us: that we be part of Christ’s family.

Jonathan Roumie (Jesus, the Chosen) & Gen Z

July 5, 2024June 6, 2024

See what happens when the nine of the Gen Z generation (approximately age 12 to 27) who just binged Season 1 of the Chosen get a surprise visit from the actor who plays Jesus. An interesting discussion!

Chosen schedule for Season 4

Episode 1, “Promises”: June 2, 2024 at 7 p.m. ET
Episode 2, “Confessions”: June 6, 2024 at 8:30 pm ET
Episode 3, “Moon to Blood”: June 9, 2024 at 7 p.m. ET
Episode 4, “Calm Before”: June 13, 2024 at 8:30 pm ET
Episode 5, “Sitting, Serving, Scheming”: June 16, 2024 at 7 p.m. ET
Episode 6, “Dedication”: June 20, 2024 at 8:30 pm ET
Episode 7, “The Last Sign”: June 23, 2024 at 7 p.m. ET
Episode 8, “Humble”: June 27, 2024 at 8:30 pm ET

Lincoln’s “House Divided Speech”, 1858

July 5, 2024June 5, 2024

"If we could first know where we are and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall; but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new, North as well as South.

Have we no tendency to the latter condition?"

Lincoln’s speech quotes from the Gospel. Lincoln gave this speech June 16, 1858 at the Republican State Convention in Springfield, Illinois. A speech that, under normal circumstances, would have been an acceptance speech for the Republican U.S. Senate seat nomination actually was a bold attack on the divisive issue of slavery.

Lincoln hoped to use a well-known figure of speech to help rouse the people to recognition of the magnitude of the ongoing debates over the legality of slavery. Our Gospel this week contains the phrase, "If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come."

The "fifth year" refers to Kansas-Nebraska, the act that was focal point of the debate on the expansion of slavery in 1854. The violence in this area foreshadowed that of the Civil War.

The speech just came a year after the Dred Scott decision. In March of 1857, the United States Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, declared that all blacks — slaves as well as free — were not and could never become citizens of the United States. The court also declared the 1820 Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, thus permiting slavery in all of the country’s territories.

The "house" refers to the Union — to the United States of America — and that house was divided between the opponents and advocates of slavery. Lincoln felt that the ideals of freedom for all and the institution of slavery could not coexist — morally, socially, or legally — under one nation. Slavery must ultimately be universally accepted or universally denied.

This speech, given two-and-a-half years before South Carolina would become the first state to secede from the Union, foreshadowed the coming storm of the Civil War. Although Lincoln lost the election to Stephen Douglas, his eloquent political arguments put him in the national limelight and paved the way for his election to the presidency in 1860.

Grace-Grit – Corinthians

July 5, 2024June 7, 2024

God intervenes through grace. Our response to grace is thanksgiving. It’s a call and response, a cause and effect. Sunshine and water grow gardens, gratitude grows as we acknowledge God’s daily grace shower. But grace causes more than an explosion of gratitude, grace produces grit! Because of God’s grace, “…we do not lose heart,” St. Paul says. Grace-grit is knowing that though my outer nature might be wasting away my inner nature is being renewed. Grace-grit is knowing that my afflictions are momentary in comparison to the eternal nature of glory. Because of grace-grit I can thrive wherever I’m planted, no matter the storm because of a guaranteed supply of Son shine.

2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1

Shred-It, June 12, 2024, 1:30pm

July 5, 2024May 29, 2024

Above – From Left to right, top to bottom – 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022

Shred-it is an essential ministry because it involves a number of people around a common necessary task that is best accomplished by professionals.

Why support Shred-It?

1. For you. Shred-it’s goal is to safely dispose of records no longer needed. It may be old Tax returns, bank statements, investment records, any expired document etc. They lie around gathering dust and may contain personal information that needs to be kept secured even if the records are no longer pertinent or useful. For obvious reasons we don’t want to put them in the regular trash or even recycling bin. Dispose of sensitive documents safely and securely, and free up needed space at home or work.

2. There is also the environmental benefit for having these documents shred rather than lying in some landfill. A majority of people in the US still sends their trash to the dump. Harmful chemicals and greenhouse gases are released from rubbish in landfill sites. Recycling helps to reduce the pollution caused by waste.

3. Fellowship Shred-it is a fellowship event as well that goes beyond the church. It is a community event We get to see people who come around once a year from the community. We might ask “What’s new ? How has your life changed over the year ? Have you seen so and so from the neighborhood” and then .”Thanks for contributing to St. Peter’s ministries.” Andrea usually had food to encourage the fellowship.

It is also a time to remember those no longer part of our lives whether due to relocation, sickness, death or some other reason. It is another event that is part of the scrapbook of our lives.

4. For the church. It is also a fundraiser for our outreach ministries. The funds we earn less the cost of the Shred-it truck helps our outreach ministries, such as the Village Harvest food distribution, which plows funds back into the Port Royal community. We have netted $2,875 over the last 11 years for outreach ministries.

5. Finally, Shred-it is another opportunity to thank Andrea Pogue who came up with the idea and has organized it since. For all these reasons here it is a great ministry!

So I am encouraging you to check your valuable records, stuff that needs to go that you don’t want to entrust with your regular garbage or recycling services and plan to bring it to St. Peter’s on June 12 to let the professionals dispose of it securely. Publicize it to your friends!