A hotter day than in the last two days didn’t keep 46 people from church. Appropriately, coffee hour was lighter with refreshing lemonade and about 5 varieties of cookies. Despite the 4th of July weekend with parishioners on the road, we were blessed to have the Long’s two grandchildren as well as newcomers from King George, the Browns. A photo gallery of this Sunday is found here
Clearly there was a patriotic theme. The red flowers, gladiolas were presented by Phyllis Sue in memory of her parents. Tom Guthrie returned – this time with his flag tie. Flags were part of the Coffee hour table in the parish house with red, white and blue napkins. Flags were outside in the basket in the front and on the side. We sang "God of our Fathers" and Brad closed with the "Star Spangled Banner." The bulletin covered featured a flag hung at St. Peter’s from last year’s fourth of July celebration.
In that spirit of patriotism and country, the sermon touched on the issue of being both Christian and America through the eyes of Robert E. Lee and Abraham Lincoln. "They prayed to the same God, and for the same thing—that this country might be delivered from its distress" and yet they fought each other. Add to that thoughts of Zecchariah’s time – "there were competing notions of what the rebuilt community should look like, especially about religious and political matters." The gospel included passages from Matthew . "Jesus reminds us that we can lay down the heavy burden of trying to come up with our own solutions in regard to competing political and religious agendas in our country, by turning to God for guidance." The sermon is here as well as the bulletin . The scripture readings are also published.