Last Sunday (Pentecost 14, Year A, September 14, 2014)
September 21 – 10:00am, Godly Play
September 21 – 11:00am, Morning Prayer, Rite II, Pentecost 15
September 21- 4:00pm, Gospel on the River, Portabago Bay
This Sunday at St. Peter’s – Servers, Readings
Lyra attracts over 80 to St. Peter’s Sept 16, 2014
We were pleased to welcome Lyra, our second annual concert on Sept 16, 2014, a beautiful late summer evening in Port Royal.
Lyra is a collective of over 20 musicians in St. Peterburg Russia established in 1994. Smaller groups tour the US and other countries giving concerts. We had 4 at St. Peter’s. They congregate around their common experience as conservatory graduates and most are now involved in opera. Concert fees support both their travel and to strengthen the group. Sergey, the unofficial leader, said their current tour is 49 concerts over 45 days. St. Peter’s was at the beginning of the tour, only arriving in the US the previous Thursday for Tuesdays concert.
As the concert program explained "LYRA’s main goal is exploring and popularizing Russian choral music from the ancient songs of the Orthodox Church to works of little-known, but remarkable composers of the 18th–20th centuries." Catherine linked this part of heaven, the ethereal side of the group. The second half she said was earth providing the Russian folk song tradition. "Folk songs of lyric, dancing and ritual nature are performed not only in the composer’s original arrangements, but those of LYRA’s as well. Secular songs of Russian classical composers Taneev, Tchaikovsky, and Rakhmaninov represent yet another side of LYRA’s creative activity."
We had between 80-100 people enjoying the concert and we are hoping we can continue the series in the future. We thank the Heimbachs and Davis for housing the group and particularly the Davis for the wine/cheese reception. This has become a hallmark of our concerts and we thank them for their contribution to this effort. We would also like to thank Historic Port Royal, Bill Carter and Shirley Collup for being sponsors of this program.
We consider these free concerts as part of our outreach to the community around Port Royal. They nourish our souls while our food and other ministries support basic human needs. Both contribute to the human spirit. You can still contribute to our concerts – St. Peter’s Episcopal, P. O. Box 399 Port Royal, Virginia 22535 with concert in the memo line or online. Thanks to all for your support.
Gospel on the River, an annual celebration, Sept. 21 , 4pm
Gospel on the River is a wonderful way to welcome the fall, celebrate a bountiful harvest, remember old hymns and thank God for creation that is the Rappahannock River on a late Sunday afternoon.
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Lectionary, Pentecost 15, September 21, 2014
I.Theme – Grace to all who ask. However, we often covet God’s power to forgive and God’s control over who is forgiven and how.
"Late Arriving Workers" – Jesus Mafa (1973)
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Jonah 3:10-4:11
Psalm – Psalm 145:1-8 Page 801, BCP
Epistle –Philippians 1:21-30
Gospel – Matthew 20:1-16
The scriptures focus on God’s gift of grace in the Old Testament and Gospel readings. We should not covet it or second guess and we may wait on the promise. As the Psalm emphasizes, praise God’”wonderous works” and celebrate the mercy, compassion and goodness of God.
There is a sense of unity that should prevail as Paul stresses in the Epistle to the Philippians. They are bound together with Paul in a mutually supportive relationship — they share his conflict and suffering, because their entire struggle is a sharing in the sufferings of Christ. They are to live as free citizens — not of Rome, but of God’s coming rule on earth and stand firm in the face of adversity and to be loving and unselfish in their behavior towards one another.
In the Old Testament reading, Jonah, has run away to avoid delivering the message of forgiveness that God has sent him to proclaim. Jonah complains about God giving grace to those in Ninevah "for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing," and surely this cannot be for them? Jonah regarded God’s "steadfastness" and grace as the unique, covenantal possession of Israel. However, it was not unthinkable that God would "change his mind" with regard to the nations.
Ancient Nineveh was well known for its lawlessness and violence. Nineveh was the capital of Israel’s greatest enemy, Assyria. Assyria would later depose Israel sending them to Babylonia.
Yet Nineveh also represents second chances to hear and obey the Lord. However, Jonah becomes angry, deserts Ninevah . God then caused tree to grow over Jonah but then sent a worm to attack the bush and then sent the heat and wind against Jonah.
In the Gospel’s parable of the workers in the vineyard, Jesus likens the kingdom of heaven to a foreman who hired laborers early in the morning, then successively throughout the day at the third, sixth, ninth, and eleventh hours. A twelve-hour day of manual labor, with the "burden of the work and the heat of the day" is a long day. That evening the foreman settled accounts, paying those who had worked a meager one hour the same as those who had worked twelve hours.
The repeated visits to the marketplace by the landowner to look for laborers is a warning to anticipate some other unexpected behavior from him. He is looking for the many to bring into the kingdom. In the Gospel, grace comes to those who work many or few hours. God’s grace is open to all.
For Jesus the parable teaches that the gift of eternal life is not the reward of human merit, but a free gift of divine grace. The sacrifices of the followers of Jesus will be honored by God, but the reward will so far outstrip the sacrifice that it can only be called sheer grace, something God gives us or brings about in our lives that we cannot earn or bring about on our own steam.
In an article in the The Chautauqan Daily, lecturer Amy-Jill Levine writes:
"Many of the people in Jesus’ audience would have been day laborers and identified with the people in the story.
"Equal wages for workers, no matter what time of day they were hired, was not an unfamiliar aspect to Jewish law.
"The shock of the parable so far is not that everybody was paid equally; it’s how they were paid and the expectation that the first hired would actually receive more,” Levine said.
“The problem is not about economics; it’s about social relations,” Levine said. “They’re thinking in terms of limited good. … They’re thinking in terms of what they think is fair, but the landowner is thinking in terms of what he thinks is just.”
"..perhaps the parable helps us redefine our sense of what good life, abundant living, means. We might have thought that the most important thing in life is to be fair, which means to be impartial. But perhaps the more important criterion is to be generous.”
The parable is part of the great reversal – first will be last and the last will be first.
Those who begrudge the landowners generosity were those who felt that they had earned what they received, rather than see their work and wages as gifts. The wages at stake (even at the moment of Jesus’ first telling of the parable) are not actual daily wages for vineyard-laborers, but forgiveness, life, and salvation for believers.
The scandal of this parable is that we are all equal recipients of God’s gifts. The scandal of our faith is that we are often covetous and jealous when God’s gifts of forgiveness and life are given to other in equal measure.
The reversal saying is also a word of challenge to the disciples in their attitudes toward women and children, and other "unimportant" people with whom Jesus chooses to mingle and eat, whom he heals and restores. The disciples could be among the last.
The disciples, hearing this strange saying about reversal of status probably identified with the last who would become first. But Jesus was using the saying to caution them that, in a spiritual sense, they are in danger of becoming the first who would be last. Jesus’ followers are to beware of spiritual arrogance that makes them the self-appointed elite of others of lower degree.
Read more about the Lectionary…
Generosity of God in video
1. God is generous providing gifts of the Kingdom not because we are good but because he is. Kingdom of God cannot be earned but is a gift. Youtube video by Father James Kubicki.
2. Construction workers debate the story. A modern day parallel.
The Rhetoric of Excess in The Parable of the Workers
by Daniel Clendenin
"Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard", 11th century
"There’s a market near my house where I like to shop called the Milk Pail. It’s a funky place with a loyal following, a down-n-dirty contrast to the upscale Whole Foods Experience. A regular fixture at this grocery is a disheveled man who sits in his wheelchair at the entrance to the store. His puffy face is bright red. His legs are badly swollen.
"As soon as I get out of my car, I can see this man, so there’s plenty of time for the voices inside my head to debate whether to give him any money. Won’t he spend it on alcohol? How will my single dollar help? Am I going to have to do this every time I shop here?
"Sometimes I give him a dollar. Once in a while five dollars. But the last time I was at the Milk Pail, my smallest bill was a twenty. Should I give him twenty dollars?! Isn’t that excessive?
"Part of my problem was that during Lent last year I read through the four gospels, and one of the things I noticed was the exaggerated language that’s repeatedly used to describe the generosity of God, life in God’s kingdom, and our human responses to God’s generosity.
"The British literary critic Frank Kermode (1919–2010) called this phenomenon a "rhetoric of excess." Matthew in particular has what he calls a "quite unusual intensity" of rhetorical excess. We read about about a log in your eye, a camel going through the eye of a needle, and straining a gnat while swallowing a camel.
"Our righteousness must be produced to excess," observes Kermode, it must exceed that of the Pharisees. We must love not only our neighbors but also our enemies. We should give in secret, so that our left hand doesn’t know what our right hand is doing — that is, hidden even from our own selves. Wise people leave their dead unburied. Foolish people build houses on sand and walk through wide gates.
"Kermode suggests an awkward but literal translation of the original Greek in Matthew 5:47: "If ye greet only your brethren, what excess do ye?" He thus writes, "Excess is constantly demanded. Everything must be in excess."
"Another example of excess that Kermode gives is the gospel this week about the workers in the vineyard. It’s a story about a business owner with outrageous ideas about a fair wage. The punch line of the story shocked the listeners with a radical reversal that subverted conventional wisdom. And to make his point clear, Jesus repeats the punch line verbatim three times.
"In God’s kingdom, the first will be last and the last will be first.
"The parable of the workers is preceded by a story about a rich man. When Jesus invited the man to sell his possessions and give his money to the poor, "he went away sad, because he had great wealth."
"Peter then responded, "Lord, we have left everything to follow you. What then will there be for us?" The rich man kept all that he had; the disciples left all that they had. Jesus reassured them: "At the renewal of all things, many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first."
"Jesus follows this with a story about a foreman who hired some laborers early in the morning, then additional workers at the third, sixth, ninth, and eleventh hours. That evening, he paid the workers, "beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first."
"Whereas the first workers hired had endured "the burden of the work and the heat of the day" for twelve hours, the last workers hired at the eleventh hour worked just one hour. In fact, they had "stood there all day long doing nothing." Nonetheless, the last people hired received twelve hours of pay for one hour of work.
"The laborers who had worked twelve hours "grumbled against the landowner." Of course they grumbled! It wasn’t fair, not by a long shot.
"But the excessive generosity of God is different than getting what you earned. And so for the third time Jesus says, "the last will be first, and the first will be last."
"Jesus concludes with a sharp question to those who grumbled about God’s excess: "Are you envious because I am generous?"
Paul in Philippi
For most of the summer, we have been reading Paul’s Letter to the Romans. This weeks shifts to another writing, the Letter to the Philippians. Like Romans, the Letter to the Philippians is one of core Paul letters whose authorship is closely associate with that of Paul.
Philippi was important as an agricultural centre in Macedonia in Greece; it was a Roman colony, which meant that its citizens enjoyed considerable legal and property rights, and the city’s administration was modelled on that of Rome. Communications were reasonably easy by the standards of that time, since the city was conveniently placed on the Via Egnatia, along which one could travel westwards to the Adriatic coast, while the port of Neapolis lay ten miles to the south.
The story of Paul’s first visit to Philippi is recounted in Acts 16. Acts 16:16-24 contains the account of Paul healing the slave girl possessed by a spirit of divination, and being beaten and cast into prison with Silas. After Paul revealed his citizenship, he and Silas were released and ordered to leave town immediately.
The small congregation there must have flourished, for later on when Paul was again imprisoned, the congregation in Philippi sent gifts of money. It is clear from the writing that Paul thought of that congregation as being extremely supportive and in chapter 4 recognized that they were consistent from the beginning in their financial backing of his efforts to proclaim the risen Christ (Phil 4:15).
The context of the letter is important, since it sets the agenda for the content more than any other epistle with the exception of Philemon. Paul seems to have had several reasons for writing this letter. One was to tell the Philippians how he was faring in prison (1:12–26). Another was to explain why he was sending Epaphroditus, who had been seriously ill, back to Philippi. Epaphroditus had been sent by the church to minister to Paul in prison, but his illness had caused such concern in Philippi that Paul felt it necessary for him to return home to allay the community’s fears. Some tact was needed on Paul’s part: Epaphroditus had been the Philippians’ representative, and Paul was anxious not to give the impression that he had rejected his services, or that Epaphroditus had failed to carry out his mission.
The return of Epaphroditus to Philippi meant that Paul was able, thirdly, to seize the opportunity to give pastoral advice to the community, urging them to stand firm in the face of adversity and to be loving and unselfish in their behavior towards one another, while dealing in particular with a problem of personal rivalry that had come to his attention (4:2–3).
Yet another reason often suggested for this letter is the possible existence of opponents who were undermining Paul’s work in the Philippian church; it is suggested that this explains his constant stress on the need for unity. Various groups of opponents are, indeed, mentioned, but it is doubtful whether there was any opposition to Paul’s teaching within the Christian community in Philippi.
Paul tells the Philippians nothing about the conditions of his imprisonment or about how he is being treated, but a great deal about what that imprisonment is achieving, and about how the possible verdicts at his trial might serve the gospel. His imprisonment ‘has actually helped to spread the gospel’, since the whole imperial guard is talking about his case, and so learning about the Christian faith, while fellow Christians are emboldened to make a similar stand. Paul’s own experience of opportunity through suffering is thus a proclamation of the gospel of crucifixion-resurrection.
Paul saw his own Christian discipleship as conformity to the pattern of Christ’s self-emptying and exaltation, which had brought glory to God. It is not surprising, then, that he interpreted all his suffering ‘for [literally ‘in’] Christ’ (1:13) as a means of proclaiming the gospel.
At the centre of this letter lies Paul’s appeal to the Philippians to stand firm against opposition and to live in a manner that is worthy of the gospel (1:27–2:18; 3:1–4:1). The opposition may well have come from those in Philippi who thought that Christianity threatened their customs and livelihood (cf. Acts 16:16–24). Far from suggesting that the Philippians ‘grin and bear’ their suffering, Paul urges them to see it as an opportunity to do something ‘for Christ’: God has given to them – as to Paul himself – the privilege not simply of believing in Christ but of suffering for him (1:29–30).
"Les Miserables" – Grace Abounds
• "To love another person is to see the face of God."
—Victor Hugo
• "The word which God has written on the brow of every man is Hope."
— Victor Hugo
Jesus teaching of grace is evident in the popular Broadway show/movie/novel Les Miserables, the 19th century novel by Victor Hugo.
As the story begins, Valjean is being released from 19 years on the chain gang, paroled back into the world but shackled with his conviction, which keeps him from being able to start over and make a new life. In despair, he returns to a life of petty crime.
He is caught by the police after stealing silver from a church, where a bishop had offered him shelter. But when the police bring him back to the church, everything changes. The bishop denies the charges, insists the silver was a gift, and gives Valjean the most valuable silver candlesticks in the church.
Valjean deserves judgment and condemnation, but instead, he receives grace. Not just forgiveness for his sins, but an abundant, over-the-top gift. This act is the heart of Les Mis. Grace transforms Valjean.
He sings
My life was a war that could never be won . . .
Yet why did I allow that man
To touch my soul and teach me love?
He treated me like any other
He gave me his trust
He called me brother
My life he claims for God above
Can such things be?
For I had come to hate the world
This world that always hated me
The priest responds:
. . . By the Passion and the Blood
God has raised you out of darkness
I have bought your soul for God!
Here is the priest’s song from the show.
Valjean disappears from the world, breaking his parole and creating a new identity as Monsieur Madeleine, a factory owner and mayor. He’s resolved to live a better life, to make a difference in the world, and to help everyone he can, but he’s haunted by his past.
And he’s hunted.
Valjean’s nemesis is Inspector Javert, whose life is marked by a ruthless commitment to the law. Javert says:
Mine is the way of the Lord
And those who follow the path of the righteous
Shall have their reward
And if they fall
As Lucifer fell
The flame
The sword . . .
And so it has been and so it is written
On the doorway to paradise
That those who falter and those who fall
Must pay the price!
There is no mercy for Javert. There is no grace. He wants only to capture Valjean and bring him to justice—back to prison for breaking his parole.
The contrast of Javert and Valjean is deliberate and clear. Valjean is determined to live a life worthy of the grace he’s received, and his sense of calling leads him to radical sacrifice for the sake of others. Javert, on the other hand, lives with unflinching loyalty to the law. His confidence in the law makes him utterly certain of both his own righteousness and also Valjean’s sinfulness.
The story sets these two on a collision course, a head-on crash between law and grace. Just as grace saves Valjean in the beginning, it is ultimately grace that he must count on in the end. As Javert pursues him, we see the effects of grace on a sinner, we see the oppressive power of both the law and someone’s past, and we see the incomprehensibility of grace to a life ruled by the law
Unexpected Generosity “Do You Honor God?” – Hippolytus of Rome
Hippolytus of Rome (170 – 235) was the most important 3rd-century theologian in the Christian Church in Rome, where he was probably born. The poem that follows is about the Gospel reading.
He came into conflict with the popes of his time and seems to have headed a schismatic group as a rival bishop of Rome.For that reason he is sometimes considered the first Antipope. He opposed the Roman bishops who softened the penitential system to accommodate the large number of new pagan converts. However, he was very probably reconciled to the Church when he died as a martyr.
“Do You Honor God?”
by Hippolytus of Rome
"Do you honor God? Do you love him
— here’s the very feast for your pleasure.
Are you his servant, knowing his wishes?
— be glad with your Master, share his rejoicing.
Are you worn down with the labor of fasting?
— now is the time of your payment.
Have you been working since early morning?
— now you will be paid what is fair.
Have you been here since the third hour?
— you can be thankful, you will be pleased.
If you came at the sixth hour,
you may approach without fearing:
you will suffer no loss.
Did you linger till the ninth hour?
— come forward without hesitation.
What though you came at the eleventh hour?
— have no fear; it was not too late.
God is a generous Sovereign,
treating the last to come as he treats the first arrival.
He allows all his workmen to rest—
those who began at the eleventh hour,
those who have worked from the first.
He is kind to the late-comer
and sees to the needs of the early,
gives to the one and gives to the other;
honors the deed and praises the motive.
Join, then, all of you, join in our Master’s rejoicing.
You who were the first to come, you who came after,
come and collect now your wages.
Rich men and poor men, sing and dance together.
You that are hard on yourselves, you that are easy,
honor this day.
You that have fasted and you that have not,
make merry today.
The meal is ready: come and enjoy it.
The calf is a fat one: you will not go hungry away.
There’s kindness for all to partake of and kindness to spare"
Jessica Powers – "The Mercy of God"
"Mercy abounds throughout the scriptures and on Jesus’ own lips. Presume that God’s love, not damnation, will win out. The final chapter of the Scriptures, and the final chapter of life, is about love. Which is where fear and love can gracefully coincide." – Society of Saint John the Evangelist
In the late 1930s Jessica Powers from a farm in Wisconsin lived in New York, pursuing a career in writing. She tells how she sat on a New York park bench arguing with an editor for over two hours as to whether or not truth or beauty was the greater attribute in God. The editor sided with truth; she, with beauty. Several months before she died, she came to the conclusion perhaps both she and the editor were wrong. "In the end," she said, "all we have is the mercy of God. That is God’s greatest attribute." It is not surprising, then, that Jessica asked that her poem "The Mercy of God" be given prominence in her volume of selected poetry:
In the dark night of the soul and of the senses, Jessica held tenaciously to the faith conviction that God was present in her soul. To believe that God abides in the deepest recesses of our being when there is no vision or when we know that we are morally unworthy of God’s love is a supreme act of trust. In this poem Jessica Powers shares something of her heart.
It is not the prayer of high praise or lowly contrition, nor one of joyful thanksgiving or humble petition, but rather the simple prayer of a child. She feels no need for assurance for her senses or intellect; she is firmly convinced that God will not abandon her. Jessica Powers tasted the mystery of God’s immediacy and wrote of it often:
"I am copying down in a book from my heart’s archive
the day that I ceased to fear God with a shadowy fear.
Would you name it the day that I measured my column of virtue
and sighted through windows of merit a crown that was near?
Ah, no, it was rather the day I began to see truly
That I came forth from nothing and ever toward nothingness tend,
that the works of my hands are a foolishness wrought in the presence
of the worthiest king in a kingdom that never shall end.
I rose up from the acres of self that I tended with passion
and defended with flurries of pride:
"I walked out of myself and went into the woods of God’s mercy,
and here I abide.
"There is greenness and calmness and coolness, a soft leafy covering
from judgment of sun overhead,and the hush of His peace, and the moss of His mercy to tread.I have nought but my will seeking God; even love burning in me is a fragment of infinite loving and never my own.
"And I Fear God no more; I go forward to wander forever
in a wilderness of His infinite mercy alone."
Grace in Star Trek – "All Good Things"…
One of the most revealing scenes in Star Trek, the "Next Generation", is the last line of the show, 20 years ago in the finale, "All Good Things." The crew finally gets back to normal after several episodes of time travel and the senior staff is back doing what they like – playing poker – after all that has happened. Only this time the Captain, Jean-Luc Picard comes in to play for the first time. He looks around the table and you sense he realizes how much he has missed being the Captain and not bonding with the others outside of work. It is significant that Pickard as captain even sets the rule for the game:
"Capt. Picard: So, five-card stud, nothing wild. And the sky’s the limit."
"The sky’s the limit." I might say the same thing about life and that’s why it’s so intoxicating. 
In Star Trek, Capt. Picard and the human race are on trial from "Q", his antagonist from the "Q Continuum", for human’s failure to grow as a species. He has been judged "guilty." Picard defends himself :
"Capt. Picard: We’ve journeyed to countless new worlds. We’ve contacted new species. We have expanded our understanding of the universe.
"Q: In your own paltry, limited way. You have no *idea* how far you still have to go."
In the end "Q" does not destroy the human race and in keeping with this week’s Gospel displays a bit of grace in acknowleging human gifts:
Q – “We wanted to see if you had the ability to expand your mind and your horizons –
And for one brief moment you did.
Picard: "When I realized the paradox."
Q –“For that one fraction of a second you were open to options you had never considered.That is the exploration that awaits you. Not mapping stars or studying nebulae – but charting the unknown possibilities of existence.”
I agree. Like "Q" prosecuting Picard, there is a long way to go, much to learn and do. And as humans we do provide our surprises and moments of beauty despite our less than stellar history. We have to be search for them, be open to them.
Another favorite last line Star Trek quote is from the ending of the film Undiscovered Country. Kirk has been ordered by Star Fleet to de-commission the Enterprise which does not go well with the bridge staff. He has to consider a direction to take:
"Commander Pavel Andreievich Chekov: Course heading, Captain?
"Captain James T. Kirk: Second star to the right and straight on till morning."