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, who are still here, and we honor with gratitude the land itself and the life of the Rappahannock Tribe. Our mission statement is to do God’s Will in all that we do. We welcome all people to our church.
The Third Sunday of Easter , Year C
May 1 – 11:00am, Easter – Join here at 10:45am for gathering – service starts at 11am Meeting ID: 869 9926 3545 Passcode: 889278
- Bulletin May 1, 2022
- Lectionary for May 1, 2022
- Commentary May 1, 2022
- Sermon May 1, 2022
- Photo Gallery – The service, May 1, 2022
- Photo Gallery – The celebration, May 1, 2022
May 1 – 12pm. Celebrating 4 friends moving away and introducing 2 more – A special Coffee hour
- Clarence and Betty will be moving to Tucson, Arizona
- Barbara and Boyd Wisdom will be moving to Fredericksburg
- We welcome The Rev. Tom Hughes and his wife Alice, who have decided to join with us in worship and ministry.
Tom preached during Easter so we are delighted that he and Alice want to be at St. Peter’s on more than a supply basis.
May 4 – Bible Study 10am-12pm
Save the Date! May 11, Shred-it
Gather your older sensitive documents to be securely shred now
Lectionary Easter 4, Year C
I.Theme – Jesus as the Good Shepherd
"The Good Shepherd" – Daniel Bonnell)
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Acts 9:36-43
Psalm – Psalm 23
Epistle – Revelation 7:9-17
Gospel – John 10:22-30
Today’s readings explore the image of God as a caring Shepherd. Scripture frequently uses the metaphor of shepherd and sheep to describe the relationship between the faithful and God. Easter 4 is often referred to as “Good Shepherd Sunday,”
In Acts, the apostles’ preaching and miracles bring many Gentiles to believe and follow. The familiar words of Psalm 23 illustrate our understanding of the relationship between the Good Shepherd and his sheep.
The Revelation to John gives us another image of the shepherd. As the seer looks around him, he sees a great multitude that no one can count. They come from all tribes, nations, and languages as they stand before the throne of the Lamb, wearing white robes and waving palm branches. The wrote robes signify their deliverance from tribulation, and the palms their victory over trials. Freed from hunger and thirst, those who were persecuted are now forever in the presence of God, able to worship God day and night in the temple.
In today’s gospel, Jesus pictures his relationship to the faithful as that of a shepherd who works for the life of the sheep. Jesus as a shepherd caring for his own flock provides more than green pasture and still waters. Jesus as a shepherd caring for his own flock provides more than green pasture and still waters – Jesus offers eternal life.
Our Good Shepherd guides us through the heights and depths of life, even during the most difficult times when we feel we are alone and abandoned, even when we feel the absence of God.
The sheep trust the shepherd. We who follow Jesus trust Jesus. We trust his voice, and we believe because we trust. It’s less a question of doubts verses faith as it is a question of trust verses mistrust. We may have doubts and questions about faith, but if we trust in Jesus, we still have faith. It is when we do not trust that we have lost. Trust leads to faith, and what Jesus calls us to do is to know his voice.
From Ministry Matters – "What Changed after the Resurrection"?
"….We can pile on all the theological implications we want to the resurrection, but they don’t change the fact that even as Jesus was walking out of the empty tomb people in his own country were still dying, still suffering under the oppression of the Roman empire, still being taken advantage of by their neighbors, still suffering and causing others to suffer. It’s continued that way for some 2,000 years now as if nothing happened that holy morning.
"When you think about it that way or when you simply turn on the nightly news, it becomes hard not to ask if anything actually did change after the resurrection and, at least in my case, just as difficult to find the energy to get excited about Easter when the promises of Easter seem like they’re still going unfulfilled.
"But hope is not lost. As challenging as my academic predecessor’s question appears and indeed is, it’s not the question we should be asking.
"Because the Church doesn’t believe something changed after the resurrection. We believe something is changing.
"It’s a subtle difference, but a profoundly important one. As Christians, we are not naïve enough to believe that Jesus walked out of the tomb that first Easter morning and in an instant everything changed, all things were made new and suffering and death were no more. As Christians, we believe that when Jesus walked out of the tomb that first Easter morning everythingbegan to change, all things began to be made new and the reign of suffering and death was finally beginning to come to an end. But in believing thusly, we also profess that the kingdom of God is a present but not yet fully realized reality, and it won’t be fully realized until our Lord returns again."
Richard Rohr’s sermon preached All Saint’s in Pasadena follows readings from Acts 5:27-32 and John 20:19-31 and pushes us to broaden our visions of the risen Christ as the passage above. "The Resurrection is not a one-time miracle but the revelation of how reality works: that nothing truly dies." Here is the link.
We are in Eastertide until Pentecost, June 5
Eastertide is the period of fifty days, seven Sundays from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday. Easter is not a day but a season and it is one to examine the Resurrection, more broadly and deeply. There are a number of questions.
Is Resurrection just about death has been swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54-56) ? Is Resurrection of Jesus is a precursor to your own resurrection (1 Corinthians 15) ? Does it say something about our own ability to expect to see Jesus (Luke 24) ? How does the new Christian community begin to function making Christ the central part of daily life ? (Acts 2)
Jesus physically appears in Easter 2 and 3 making the Resurection tangible. The shepherding part of his ministry is explored in Easter 4. From Easter 5-7, Jesus must prepare the disciples for his departure. He is going to leave them. Jesus prepares his disciples for continuing his ministry without his physical presence. Themes explored include the holy spirit, the Prayer of Jesus and God’s glory through His Son and the church.
Christ ascends on the 40th day with his disciples watching (Thursday, May 5th). The weekdays after the Ascension until the Saturday before Pentecost inclusive are a preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit.This fifty days comes to an end on Pentecost Sunday, which commemorates the giving of the Holy Spirit to the apostles, the beginnings of the Church and its mission to all peoples and nation. Note that the Old Testament lessons are replaced by selections from the Book of Acts, recognizing the important of the growth of the church.
During the Easter season Jesus reappears in 2nd and 3rd Easter as Jesus did from Easter Sunday onward. The timeline above shows there were at least 10 appearances between Easter Sunday and Ascension. What do we make of these appearances ?
Gerald Hughes in his book, The God of Surprises mentions three features that are common in all of the resurrection accounts. The most common feature he pointed out is that before Christ appeared everyone was in a negative mood: the women who came to the tomb, came only expecting to embalm Jesus; the disciples on the road to Emmaus are sad and disillusioned; the disciples in the upper room are afraid and living behind closed doors; and Thomas is in doubt. On Easter 3, no fish were begin caught. In every case, their pain and disillusionment revealed their poverty of spirit and need of God. Yet in each person our Lord’s love met them in the midst of their despair and led them to a life-transforming faith.
The second common feature of those who came to faith was the slowness of those to whom Christ appears to recognize that He really was the risen Christ. The disciples on the road to Emmaus walked several miles with him before they recognized him. “But their eyes were kept from recognizing him” In Easter 3, the disciples go back to being fisherman, their profession before they met Jesus, They catch nothing until a stranger calls to them to put out their nets on the right side. Once they bring in the load of the miraculous catch, Peter finally proclaims, “It is the Lord!”
A final feature common to the resurrection is that those to whom Christ appeared are commissioned to go and tell others. In Luke’s Road to Emmaus, the heartburn of despair had been replaced by a new burning faith. These two were re-energized. They might have been dragging on the way to Emmaus but they were ready to run back to Jerusalem. Before their faces were downcast. Even though it was late, very possibly dark by now—they immediately raced off to Jerusalem. The lesson is not to prejudge Jesus and expect to find Jesus in the most unlikely places, such as a war-torn country
Make a Gift Today! 2. Contact the Rev Catherine Hicks, Rector 5. Latest Newsletter-the Parish Post (May, 2022) 6. Calendar 9. Latest Sunday Bulletin (May 1, 11:00am), and Sermon (May 1, 2022) 10. Recent Services: Palm Sunday, April 10 Readings and Prayers, April 10 Easter Sunday, April 17 Readings and Prayers, April 17 Easter 2, April 24 |
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Knowing that not everyone prays at the same pace, you have control over the pace of the retreat. After each screen, a Continue button will appear. Click it when you are ready to move on. If you are new to online prayer, the basic timing of the screens will guide you through the experience.
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Saints of the Week, May 1 – May 8, 2022
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Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, 373 |
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[Elisabeth Cruciger], Poet & Hymnographer, 1535 |
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Monica, Mother of Augustine of Hippo, 387 |
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[Martyrs of the Reformation Era] |
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Julian of Norwich, Mystic & Theologian, c. 1417 |