Back to school time caught up with us this week. (Well we did have one summer fling with the children, as shown above). We have a wonderful group of teachers this year coordinated by Elizabeth Heimbach. For the children we had Becky Fisher, for the teens Cookie Davis and Ben Hicks for the adults.  Other teachers include Terri Harrison, Marian Mahoney, Sandra Smith and our newest teacher Marilyn Newman. Thank you to all!

Today, we had 3 children, 2 teens and 7 adults in Christian education, not bad for Labor Day weekend. The curriculum is all new this year - "Living the Good News" (LGN) based on the Lectionary. All three groups - children, teens, and adults - are reading the same materials on different levels. The beauty is that after Christian Ed you get a second chance to hear the readings in Church and a sermon based on the readings you've just discussed.  Secondary benefits include a variety of activities associated with LGN including music, poetry and art besides reading and discussing the scriptures. For instance, today we brought in Bach's "Brandenberg Concerto #4" and Laurel Burch's art  "Harmony under the Sky" into a discussion of the many types of communities. It's quite a creative curriculum.

As mentioned above, the readings were centered around Christian community and how it is kept together through resolving conflict (Matthew) or through practice of common beliefs (Romans).

The sermon delved into the latter. Paul tells us the fundamental commandment is to love one another and  “to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Paul is asking us to make the decision to remember that we are marked as Christ’s own forever, to choose to put on Christ in every moment of our lives and get rid of our bad practices - " anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth " and put on the armor of  "Kindness, Humility Patience and Meekness". This is all about behavior. Love binds everything together in perfect harmony. We pass through the cross.

Despite the long weekend, we had 46 in Church today as well as Coffee Hour and a pool party for the children.  We welcomed the Williams family, above from Fredericksburg along with their daughter Laura and her two children from California. We also celebrated Beverly Williams' birthday as well as Cheyenne's. Coffee hour featured barbecue sandwiches, fruit, finger sandwiches and fruit.  Thanks to Betty and Clarence for their treats.

After coffee hour all of the children and teens enjoyed a cool swim at Cookie and Johnny's home along with their grandchildren. Cookie  prepared snacks and a birthday cake for Cheyenne (see above).

We are off to a great start. Here's our bulletin with a number of announcements for the week ahead.

With plenty of sunshine, seasonable temperatures after several days of rain, we celebrated the arrival of Jesus at Passover in Jerusalem but at the same time remembered his passion as we officially began Holy Week. As the sermon explained "Trust and betrayal, joy and sorrow, triumph and tragedy, life and death—all rolled up in this one hour of worship"

Over 60 were in attendance. A great start! The bulletin is here. A photo gallery of the day's activites can be found here.

Adult Ed studied passages from Matthew including the Passion and Resurrection from Dr. Shaia's book the Hidden Power of the Gospels. The key question of Matthew is "How do we handle Change" with a metaphor of climbing the great mountain. The path is not linear but along the way we have to accept the need for change, the need for honesty and openess to face the pain and at the same be open to accepting gifts (Magi) and guidance (Beatitudes) from God .

The issue of betrayal is central to our feelings and in the Gospel today, Judas arrives in Gethsemane after the betrayal, ready to kiss Jesus and Jesus says “Friend, do what you are here to do.” (Matthew 26:50) Can each of us look at those who we think have betrayed us and say that ? Jesus is leading  us on a journey forward to places unexplored, without and within, but always towards a larger life. At the end of Matthew on an unidentified mountain he says God gives the only thing we need, ―”I am with you.”  The Adult ed materials can be found here.

The service started with the Liturgy of the Palms in the back of the church with palms donated by the Allwine family. Elizabeth Heimbach led us in procession into the Church. The Choir augmented by Paige Martindale led the congregations in "All Glory Laud and Honor".

The Choir was in fine form learning a new piece this week from Dr. Bill Roberts of Virginia Theological Seminary on our reading from Philippians.

The Gospel reading, of course, was that of the Passion Gospel of Matthew. The readings were led by narrator Linda Beck with Alex Long playing Peter, Helmut handling Jesus, Mike Newman as Pilate, Bill Wick as the high priest, Elizabeth and Terri playing servant women.

We celebrated two birthdays and looked forward to two baptisms for the Easter Vigil on Saturday.

The sermon elaborated on the suffering in holy week.  "Like the crowds shouting Hosanna, we can be so caught up in joy that we refuse to see or acknowledge the underlying darkness that is a constant part of living in a world where people are still broken and full of sin.  Evil in our world is alive and well. Our worship together today reminds us that holding the opposites, the paradoxes together in our lives  is of the utmost importance—sometimes even a matter of life and death." The sermon provided the story of  Marine Corporal Clay Hunt who was the epitomy of a war veteran but earlier this year committed suicide in his apartment. Jesus cry of his last words "was not only for himself, but for every human being on the face of this earth, throughout all of human history, who has felt forsaken...As Christians, even in our joys, we are called to remember and to do what we can to help the forsaken ones, not only those around us but all of the forsaken around the world." The complete sermon is here.

We are in transition this week to Lent. We said our goodbyes to Epiphany, the season of light and to the Alleluias. We ended our Bible study of Isaiah with the Judeans ready to be exiled to Babylon. I saw an Bald eagle perched behind the Parish house who then flew on. 
  

So what kind of entrances were there ? This is the first week I saw daffodils ready to bloom. Some adventuresome stalks, others more hesitant. We are busy planning new events (Shrove Tuesday, Lenten Bible Study and a new Adult study on the Gospels) that enter shortly 

This was Transfiguration Sunday.  Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white... While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”  

Transfiguration Sunday is both a celebration and a call to the work of the 100 Day church retreat and festival from Ash Wed through Pentecost  The ancient retreat/festival was designed at a moment in our history when our theological debate was overtaking a sense of union/communion and charity. The church’s remedy was to require an annual retreat/festival focused on the critical spiritual practices of our “union.”  It revolved around Theosis.

Theosis is a theology whereby we understand we are and are ever more being transformed into the radiant body of Christ  – the place of an inherent tension, held in respect, so that such tension may bend toward greater harmony.  

The tension with theosis can be  the Lenten emphasis of atonement and penitence - a darker perspective - "to give up something" personally, to mourn. It is part of our individual spiritual journey. Ash Wed is a part of that process of being transformed into that body - sealing of Christians as servants of Christ with Ashes.  We have to hold atonement and theosis together to understand both our individual needs and those of the community.

Today's sermon was a call to action in Lent which fits in with Theosis -  to come off of that mountain, go outside of St. Peter's to the "valley still full of hunger and discrimination and injustice and turmoil".  We need to proclaim the Gospel,  "feed the truly hungry in our world, to work to end injustice", "to seek peace and to serve others in His name." We need to roll up our sleeves. 

The sermon was on the Beatitudes version in Matthew.  Matthew’s gospel presents four blessings only found in that book. One, “blessed are the peacemakers”, comes to mind for the following two who serve the church. (You can find the sermon  as well the bulletin). 

On Friday and Saturday we celebrated Genevieve Davis’ 89^th birthday. She may be the oldest parishioner and is most grateful for visitors on her birthday or at any other times. Genevieve is a trooper – besides the mother of Cookie, she was elected the first female trustee on November 18, 1973. She also contributed graciously to the St. Peter’s Building Fund in memory of her son James C. Davis as well as serving on the Vestry in the early 1980’s. Her late husband completed the installation and wiring of the 19^th chandelier that hangs in the church.

Typically, on the last Sunday Morning Prayer we have the youth serving. Kim Fisher besides was both crucifer and acolyte on Sunday even while having to deal with a set of broken glasses. We are also grateful for her talents as a Celtic harpist. She also is a trooper. The kingdom of God is large enough to embrace all ages and all talents. 

We continue to study Isaiah in Adult Ed and tackled the 5^th chapter which has the famous “Song of the Vineyard” as well as the “6 woes”.  The Song describes a people of the 8^th century BC who had ignored the blessings of God and in the Song appear as  the faithless “bride” of God.  It is easily applicable to our own time - God has been busy on our behalf! The question is, what have we done with his outpouring of grace? Are we using our talents and gifts in His name to make our world better ? We thank those who have served the Church and have taken up that charge faithfully.