We had a beautful day to start Christian ed for the 2012-2013 year. The humidity of the past week was eliminated by a Saturday storm. Today’s weather was seasonable with a dominent sun. We had 44 parishioners. The bulletin is here with the readings.
We have three classes. Catherine teaches the young ones from 2-6, Becky takes the next level for 7-11. The teenagers go with the adults but there will be special breakout sessions.
Kevin and Zeke dominated the first class. 
Tucker showed off a poster of "words."
The adult viewed the "First Christianity" Part 1 on the History of Christianity. A good crowd! Marilyn Newman is out of the picture on the the left:
We had several guests, Loretta, Susan O and Charles Sydnor.
We celebrated the Pannells 54th wedding anniversary. (Weren’t they up there last Sunday?).
One Door closes – another opens
This week’s readings are about healing. In the words of Isaiah- "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy." Mark’s Gospel sheds light on two stories the Syrophoenician woman who has daughter healed of a demon and the deaf and mute man who is transformed. In between is the Epistle reading in James which defines faith in conjunction with works. " What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you?.. So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. "
The story in the sermon about Luciano Anastasini is about another man who in his life story develops and defines faith. The life he had known – high wire acts – disappears to another that only revealed itself after a tragic accident – training unwanted dogs. As the sermon says " It’s to ask the same question that Luciano asked—“What’s next for me, Lord?” and to ask that question with our ears open to hear God’s answer—because God will have an answer, often surprising and unexpected, to this question, and the answer will come out of whatever it is that has you stuck or washed up."
Another way to look at this is not to turn up opportunities if it doesn’t meet your mold. Bishop Jones had a phrase he used – "one door closes, another opens". Look for the open door. The sermon quotes the book of Hebrews definition of faith – " In the book of Hebrews the writer gives the following definition of faith. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. " We initially do not see opportunities placed before us since we often rigidly define our path forward. We need to step back and evaluate, open our eyes and consider the possibilities.
This exactly what Jesus did with the Syrophoenician woman. He hadn’t planned to heal her sick daughter. Her actions defines faith in action. She convinces him only a morsel is needed to heal her daughter due to his power. Her initial attraction to Jesus and falling at his feet recall other stories of faithful people and her refusal to accept no for an answer resembles Bartimaeus’s stubborn cries of faith (in Mark 10:48). Her desperate, begging pleas and persistence do not represent alternatives to faith; they give added definition to what faith is, and what it looks like when expressed as dire supplications.
The transition in faith is highlighted in Mark by the woman’s move from one house to another. Mark depicts her enacting a confident, anticipatory faith that allows
her to cross the distance from the house of the promise (“the demon has gone out
of your daughter”) to the house of the realization (“[she] found the child lying on
the bed, and the demon gone."