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.

2025 Sun Aug 10

Commentary Pentecost 9, Proper 14, Year C

I. Theme – Understanding our Heritage and Putting our Trust in God

The lectionary readings are here or individually: 

First Reading – Genesis 15:1-6
Psalm – Psalm 33:12-22
Epistle – Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Gospel – Luke 12:32-40 

This week’s readings help us to understand our heritage of faith and to strengthen our trust in God. In Genesis , Abram puts his faith and his family’s future in God’s promises. The psalmist sings the praises of the sovereign Creator God. The author of Hebrews gives examples from salvation history of the faith that pleases God. There is a sense of urgency about the parables in the gospel for today. Jesus admonished his followers to be ready for action: “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; — Luke 12:35 . Jesus cautions his disciples to live in a manner that reflects the imminent possibility of his unexpected return.

This would have reminded them of the instruction for celebrating the feast of the Passover. At the time of the exodus, when they escaped from slavery in Egypt, they had been told to be ready to move without notice. This urgent readiness was then remembered in the way they celebrated these great events in the Passover every year: so we have the instruction on how the Passover meal was to be eaten hurriedly, in the book of Exodus:

This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the LORD. — Exodus 12:11

The Jewish people were used to recalling these directions in scripture every year and would easily have recognized the same idea in the teaching of Jesus about the coming to the Kingdom of God:be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. — Luke 12:36

Today’s readings remind us to seek God’s realm in and beyond our daily responsibilities, and to consider constantly the need to give up certain types of security to be faithful to God’s presence in the persons in front of us and across the globe. We may have an uneasy conscience at times and this is good news, for such uneasiness invites us to mindfulness and intentionality, and reflection on what is truly important in the course of a day and a lifetime.

“See, the eyes of the lord are upon those who fear him, upon those who hope for his kindness” (Psalm 33: 18). The Spanish-speaking and Native American peoples have a lovely yarn craft called “Ojos de Dios” or “God’s eyes.” It symbolizes God’s beneficial watchfulness over us.

However, God’s all-seeing, ever-present eye is not a comforting thought to everyone. In order for this to be a soul-warming concept, we must have an understanding of the true nature of God. As the psalmist says, we must be among “those who hope in his kindness.” To those who await only God’s judgment, the thought of God’s eye upon them is threatening rather than comforting.

The opposite of faith is fear. Jesus’ exhortation, “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock,” is really an appeal to trust God. Trust and love go together. In our human relationships, we know that we trust more where mutual love exists and trust the least where there is no love. We are told that, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love” (1 John 4:18).

It has been said that every human being responds to God’s existence, either in fear or in love, that is, to judgment or salvation. When we have grasped the good news of God’s steadfast love towards us, the lord becomes our help and our shield. That God’s eye is upon us is our most supportive thought. We can never be lost or alone because God sees us in all times and places. God’s love will provide for us and reward us as we seek God’s will.

We seek God’s will because we are certain that it is our Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom. We trust God’s perfect love, and this casts out our fear. We have confidence for the day of judgment. When the lord returns, our lamps will be burning brightly for the celebration that will be like a marriage feast. Hearts that have held the treasure of Jesus’ saving love will tremble with joy at his appearing.

Seeking the kingdom is a tough road and we cannot get caught up in our own world, We are reminded that we may not see the fulfillment of God’s promises in our lifetime. All too often, we put our own worldly hopes and dreams in front of God’s promises, believing that God fulfills promises by blessing people with wealth, health and happiness. This could not be further from the Gospel of Jesus, who told the rich to sell all they had, who told the disciples not to take more than they could carry and to rely on the generosity of others, who told us all to become first we must become last of all and servant of all. This is what Jesus has called us to do—to seek eternity, we must not be wedded to the wealth and success of this world, for it will fall away. Our lives are a witness to the future: did we seek to live for Christ by living for others, or did we seek to live for ourselves?

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Blessings of the Backpacks in 2019

This was our first separate backpack service, a chance for a more informal service in the late afternoon before school begins the next day. We had one family with 4 eager children ready to go back to school. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon with mild temperatures for Aug. 11.

Everyone showed off their new backpacks with all the gear. The service was a shortened communion service with a reading from Deuteronomy, Chapter 6, Verses 4-8 and Luke Chapter 2, Verses 41-52, Jesus as a student

Links:

1. Story

2. More Photos

3. Bulletin

Schools to begin, Mon., Aug. 11, 2025

Local schools begin on Aug 11, 2025

School supplies are thought of a pencils, pens, paper and the like but prayers and blessings should be part of the supplies as well. From BuildFaith:

“Blessings and prayers are practices that help ground and guide us. Prayer reminds us that our community extends beyond what we see in front of us, connecting us to something bigger than ourselves. Blessing reminds us of God’s love in our lives. During times of transition and change, establishing a pattern of prayer and blessing can offer space to express worries and joys, hopes and dreams, and a time to both accept God’s love and peace, and extend it to someone else.”

Here are two prayers from Buildfaith:

A Prayer for the New School Year

“God of all wisdom, we praise you for gifting us with curiosity and learning. Give to all students, teachers, and caregivers a clear sense of your love. May they feel your presence throughout this school year. Guide their choices, their quest for knowledge, and their relationships. Use their successes and failures as opportunities to grow in understanding of who you would have them to be. Continue to shape them, that they may walk in the way of Christ, grow strong in Spirit’s love for all people, and know the complete joy of life in you. In the name of Christ our Great Teacher, we pray. Amen.” Linda Witte Henke, adapted, “From the Vine,” in Marking Time: Christian Rituals for All Our Days, Moorehouse Publishing 2001, p. 63.

A Prayer for Parents

“Loving God, We confess some days the worries of parenthood are as abundant as the joys. Guide us through the valleys, so we may be present for our children in their valleys, until we are all brought again to the the mountaintop. We ask you to bless our children with hearts of compassion and courage, and keep them safe from harm. Fill them with the knowledge that they are loved and beloved. And may we always remember to pray: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Amen.” Meg Bucher, adapted, www.sunnyand80.org; Reinhold Niebuhr, “The Serenity Prayer”

A downloadable resource

Finding Joy in Life

“7 short, simple, science-based ways to add joy to your life” -The Washington Post” By Richard Sima

Summary
To incorporate more “joy snacks” into daily life, commenters suggest engaging in simple, joyful activities such as walking a dog in nature, spending time with friends and family, and enjoying gardening or houseplants. Other suggestions include taking walks without technology, reading, and cultivating a sense of awe in everyday experiences.

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With the stresses of daily life, it can often seem difficult to find moments to smell the proverbial roses.

But you don’t necessarily need a lot of time or effort to experience meaningful joy, a recent study reported.

The study, which researchers dubbed the Big Joy Project, enrolled more than 17,000 people across 169 countries to receive one daily joy-boosting activity for a week via email.

Each activity was based on scientific research and — importantly — was accessible and brief, requiring only five to 10 minutes.

Despite the low time commitment — past online intervention studies lasted multiple weeks — the researchers were “surprised” by the effect the program had in sparking joy across the world.

Compared with how they felt before the program, participants said they saw meaningful improvements in emotional well-being, increases in positive emotions and a better sense of control over their own happiness afterward. Participants also said they felt more willing to help others.

The benefits extended to other aspects of health: Participants also reported feeling less stressed and generally healthier, and sleeping better after the week.

“You can make small changes in your life that have big effects,” said Darwin Guevarra, an assistant professor of psychology at Miami University and an author of the study.

The Big Joy Project was meant to show people that “joy is a skill they can build,” Elissa Epel, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of California at San Francisco and a study co-author, said in an email.

Here are seven, short, science-based practices you can try — think of them as joy snacks.

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The Gospel  -“Do Not Be Afraid Little Flock”, Luke 12:32-40

Our verses are part of a larger context of “Readiness for the Coming Judgment” from Luke 12:1-13:9. This section started last week with the parable Fool and will last until Aug 24.

Jesus is in the presence both of his disciples and the large crowds (12:1). He appears to be speaking primarily to the disciples, though within earshot of a large number of people. Even though teaching the disciples, “someone in the crowd” is able to interrupt with a question. Though speaking directly to the inner circle of the movement, Jesus’ teachings are also “overheard” by a large number of people.

This week, he follows the parable of the rich fool (12: 13-21) with exhortations to live without anxiety. Worry about food or clothing is unnecessary in light of God’s providence. “The nations” worry about such things–that is to say, people who think and act in light of the dominant culture’s assumptions will find themselves riven with uncertainty and anxiety.

Basic summary – In the declaration of paragraph one, Jesus puts his hearers at ease. God wants to give you the kingdom where he lives, with pleasure. So you can get rid of  your possessions and give alms to the poor because your investment is in the kingdom of the heavens. Do this because wherever you invest your life is where your attention will be.

The master is coming soon to celebrate his victory and even his slaves will be blessed in this celebration. The master will serve the slaves the only condition is the slaves must be awake and recognize him when he knocks at the door. It might even be in the middle of the night so vigilance is necessary so as not to fall asleep and miss the arrival of the master. Bill Long in 2007 comes with the key focus of this passage

There are three ever-more-difficult commands that Jesus gives his disciples.

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Poem for the week – “Kindness” – Naomi Shihab Nye

“Your Life Is a Poem. Growing up, the poet Naomi Shihab Nye lived in Ferguson, Missouri and on the road between Ramallah and Jerusalem. Her father was a refugee Palestinian journalist, and through her poetry, she carries forward his hopeful passion, his insistence, that language must be a way out of cycles of animosity.” She has been a poet for most of her life, sending out poems at age 7.

Listen to her read her poem, “Kindness”

She feels this poem was given to her. Here is the background to the poem – she had just married and was with her husband in South America, in Columbia. They were to travel 3 weeks. However, they were robbed on a bus in the first week. It was serious, one person was killed and they lost all their possessions. (She did have a notebook in a back pocket). They had no passports, no money. Where would they go ?

In a plaza a man came up to them on a street and exhibited kindness. He could see their disarray and asked what happened. He listened and was sad for them – he expressed sorrow in Spanish. Her husband was ready to embark alone to go to another city to try to get their travellers checks. As she was alone, a voice came across the plaza as night was coming on and she reached in her pack pocket for the notebook and she felt like as a secretary as a female voice dictated this poem:

“Kindness” – Naomi Shihab Nye

“Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth. What you held in your hand, what you counted and carefully saved, all this must go so you know how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness. How you ride and ride thinking the bus will never stop, the passengers eating maize and chicken will stare out the window forever.

“Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness, you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho lies dead by the side of the road. You must see how this could be you, how he too was someone who journeyed through the night with plans and the simple breath that kept him alive.

“Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing. You must wake up with sorrow. You must speak to it till your voice catches the thread of all sorrows and you see the size of the cloth.

“Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore, only kindness that ties your shoes and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread, only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say It is I you have been looking for, and then goes with you everywhere like a shadow or a friend.”

Jonathan Myrick Daniels, Aug 14

Who Was Jonathan Daniels ?

This week is the anniversary of the arrest of seminarian Jonathan Myrick Daniel in 1965 at the height of the racial strife in Selma in 1965. Daniel was killed when he took a shotgun blast that was intended for a black female, Ruby Sales. It killed him instantly. Daniels’ life showed a pattern of putting himself in the place of others who were defenseless and in need.

Describing the incident, Dr Martin Luther King said that “one of the most heroic Christian deeds of which I have heard in my entire ministry was performed by Jonathan Daniels.”

What happened to Ruby Sales? Sales went on to attend Episcopal Theological School in Massachusetts which Daniels had attended (now Episcopal Divinity School). She has worked as a human rights advocate in Washington, D.C. She founded The SpiritHouse Project, a non-profit organization and inner-city mission dedicated to Daniels.

The Rev. Gillian Barr in an Evensong in honor of Daniel in Providence RI provides an apt summary of Daniels. “He was a young adult who wasn’t sure what he was meant to do with his life. He had academic gifts, a sense of compassion, and a faith which had wavered from strong to weak to strong. He was searching—searching for a way to live out his values of compassion and his faith rather than just studying them in a book. He was living in intentional community, first at VMI, then at EDS, and then finally with activists in Alabama. His studies, and his prayer life, and his community all led him to see more clearly the beauty and dignity in the faces of all around him, even those who looked very different and came from very different backgrounds than the quiet boy from Keene, NH.”

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The Virgin Mary, Aug. 15

We celebrate her saint day on August 15, the assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven. The day represents God’s redeeming work in all of the world.

Mary lived circa 18 BCE- 41 CE. She was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee, the daughter of Joachim and Anne and the wife of Joseph, the carpenter. Little is known of her life except when it relates to Jesus life. She remained faithful to him through his death (when his disciples denied, betrayed, and fled), and even after his death, continued life in ministry with the apostles.

The New Testament records many incidents from the life of the Virgin which shows her to be present at most of the chief events of her Son’s life:

  • her betrothal to Joseph [Luke 1:27]
  • the Annunciation by the angel Gabriel that she was to bear the Messiah [Luke 1:26-38]
  • her Visitation to Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist [Luke 1:39-56]
  • the Nativity of our Lord [Luke 2:20]
  • the visits of the shepherds [Luke 2:8-20] and the magi [Matthew 2:1-12]
  • the Presentation of the infant Jesus in the Temple at the age of forty days [Luke 2:22, 2:41]
  • the flight into Egypt, the Passover visit to the Temple when Jesus was twelve, [Matthew 1:16,18-25; 2; Luke 1:26-56; 2];
  • the wedding at Cana in Galilee [John 2:1-11]
  • and the performance of her Son’s first miracle at her intercession [John 2:1-11],
  • the occasions when observers said, “How can this man be special? We know his family!” [Matthew 13:54-56, Mark 6:1-3, Luke 4:22; also John 6:42],
  • an occasion when she came with others to see him while he was preaching [Matthew 12:46-50,Mark 3:31-35, Luke 8:19-21],
  • her presence at the foot of the Cross, where Jesus commends her to the care of the Beloved Disciple [John 19:25-27],
  • her presence with the apostles in the upper room after the Ascension, waiting for the promised Spirit [Acts 1:14].   

Besides Jesus himself, only two humans are mentioned by name in the Creeds. One is Pontius Pilate, Roman procurator of Judea from 26 to 36 AD and the other is Mary. There are more feast days in The Episcopal Church honoring Mary than anyone else.

There have been many appearances of Mary over the centuries. Tradition says that in 39 CE, the Virgin Mary appeared in a vision to Saint James the Great in Zaragoza, Spain. Over the centuries, there have been dozens of additional reports of appearances of the Virgin Mary in different times and places. Two of the most influential visions of the Virgin Mary are the Virgin of Walsingham and the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Her story was carried by National Geographic in December, 2015 –”How the Virgin Mary Became the World’s Most Powerful Woman”

Her message to us was simple – “Listen to Him. Listen to my Son. Do what He tells you.” 

Recent Articles, Pentecost 9, Aug. 10, 2025

“Aug 7, 2022”

Pentecost 9 – Parable of the Doorkeeper

Lectionary Pentecost 9, Year C
Commentary Pentecost 9
The Gospel  -“Do Not Be Afraid Little Flock”, Luke 12:32-40
Visual Lectionary, Aug 10, 2025

These four passages are united by the themes of faith, trust in God’s promises, and living with hope toward a future not yet seen. In Genesis 15:1-6, Abram trusts God’s improbable promise of descendants despite his old age, and his faith is counted as righteousness. Psalm 33:12-22 reinforces this trust, celebrating the steadfast love of the Lord and proclaiming that true hope lies not in human strength but in God’s faithful care. Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16 reflects on the faith of Abraham and others who, like him, acted in trust, looking forward to a better country—a heavenly one—without fully receiving what was promised in their lifetimes. Finally, Luke 12:32-40 echoes this call to faithful living, encouraging Jesus’ followers not to fear, for God delights in giving them the kingdom, and to remain vigilant and prepared, living in expectation of the fulfillment of God’s promises. Together, these texts invite believers to place their hope in God’s unseen but trustworthy future.

Transitions – School begins
Schools to begin, Mon., Aug. 11, 2025
Blessings of the Backpacks, 2019
Adding Joy into your Life
Poem for the Week “Kindness”

The Transfiguration celebrated, Aug. 6
The Transfiguration
Transfiguration Gallery

Remembering
Jonathan Myrick Daniels (1939-1965), Aug. 14
Clare of Assisi (1194-1253), Aug. 11
Virgin Mary, Aug 15