Pentecost 2, June 7, 2015 (full size gallery)
Another beautiful Sunday with moderate temperatures. We had 41 which included many of our Godly Play children. The day lilies were beginning to bloom – only the beginning group. They should be out in mass within a week or two.
The altar area had another new look with the Pentecost fabric removed. It is plain but avoids the heavy appearance of the red curtain. This week the Altar Guild found some very old linen that had a note that it was intended for a marbled-top altar. Ironically the table with the copier may be that altar. Elizabeth Heimbach washed the linen and it is very beautiful.
This week featured birthdays for Tucker, and Odessa with anniversaries for Mike and Marilyn Newman (44 years) and Jim and Elizabeth Heimbach (47 years). Catherine also thanked Stanley Fields for his work on fixing one of historic grates. Stanley said later the grate goes back to the turn of the 20th century.
The readings for Pentecost 2 deal with sinfulness. The Old Testament is the story in Genesis with the story of the man and the woman hiding from God in the garden after man aned woman disobeyed God. 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. The key is that has not forsaken us, is looking for us and based on the Epistle lesson from Corinthians God will restore, reconcile and heal us.
The sermon was about gardens and God’s role. (The readings are here) . Gardens have provided much of our identity going back to the Founding Fathers. In Genesis, "God is present at the time of the evening breeze, walking in the garden. And God is seeking the man and the woman." God doesn’t foresake them even though man and woman create the original sin.
"And, along with the fact that God is always seeking us, that God is merciful and full of plenteous redemption, Paul tells us that God is also full of grace.According to the dictionary, grace is the freely given, unmerited favor and love of God. But grace is also the spirit of God operating in us… Paul reminds us that God’s mercy is like an everflowing stream of water —“streams of mercy never ceasing, ” ongoing redemption. God’s streams of mercy are always available to us because God loves us so much and God wants that love to constantly wash over us and through.
"In Jesus, God takes up residence with us. Jesus walks with us through our days. And Jesus looks for us when we go wander away or hide. Jesus brings with him the new age of redemption, the weight of glory, the abundance of glory, fulfilled, here and now—doing battle against the things that send us into hiding—battling the demons of sin and sickness, and death itself, so that we can be free once more to live as members of God’s family. Because when we gather around Jesus and do God’s will, we become the family of God. "This season of Pentecost, this season of green, new growth, gives us time. Time to come out of hiding, time to gather round Jesus and listen, and with God’s grace, mercy, power and glory, to enter into untold opportunities to do God’s will."
This week was Coffee hour presented by Cindy and Betty. It featured sandwiches of ham, turkey and cheese with two different salads and a mandarin orange frozen desert prepared by Betty and cookies.
Commentary by Canon Lanon Ousley, Diocese of Olympia
The readings for 2nd Sunday after Pentecost Year B include 1 Samuel 8:4-11, (12-15),16-20, (11:14-15); Psalm 138; or Genesis 3:8-15; Psalm 130; and 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1; and Mark 3:20-35.
All of the readings for this week have a common thread of allegiance running through them. One of the basic understandings of stewardship is placing one’s allegiance in the right place in the right relationship.
The story from 1 Samuel, though its context is several thousand years ago, reflects the influence that contemporary culture has on our allegiance today. Human nature is human nature. Our option from Genesis shows this to us "from the beginning."
As I read through the 1 Samuel reading, I thought about my preference for an Annual Ingathering of Pledges being Christ the King Sunday and how powerful this can be when we place our pledges at the foot of the altar on that day as an act of proclaiming Christ our Lord and God, as our king. This is counter to our culture, but it is central to our faith. It also sets us free from the type of cultural king described in 1 Samuel and as the serpent in Genesis. Allegiances to cultural kings deliver empty promises that are snake-belly low. To be clear, cultural kings are anyone or anything that distracts us from fully giving our allegiance to God. Money, materialism, power-grappling, etc, all can distract and demand our allegiance if we get caught up in the cultural wave of self-made personhood. Remember, the first article of the Nicene Creed where we proclaim belief in the one God, "the maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen."
The Gospel lesson addresses allegiance, too. I grew up in a family where everyone was expected to contribute. That meant we would show our allegiance to our family with our presence lived out at meals and other times, our God-given abilities lived-out in doing our chores, as well as by how we lived our lives and by paying our own way for some of the things in our lives. Don’t get me wrong, my parents provided for our needs, but when it came time for a car and gas I was expected to contribute. And Dad held the title! This was all part of being a member of our family. Likewise, Jesus identifies his family as those who show their allegiance to God through doing the will of his Father.
God’s will is that we would live our lives as a proclamation that God is our king through our presence, our abilities, our actions and by contributing to God’s kingdom work from the first the fruits of our labors. And the reality is that when we do all these things as part of the Family of God, we live more fully into the life of the Family and cultural allegiances fall away. And then we find ourselves set free from that cultural king described in our 1 Samuel text that slithers like the serpent set to deceive us into destructive allegiance. But God is a gracious king and a loving parent that welcomes all prodigal children into the Divine family as sisters and brothers of Jesus Christ.
So this Sunday how firm will you stand when you say the Creed, how grateful will you be when the offering plate is passed contributing to the Family mission, and how present will you be when the Family gathers at the Table, and how will you show your allegiance to God with your actions? This is all part of being a member of the Family.