Sunday, February 9, 2014 (full size gallery)
A "low" Sunday with only 24 here. We had another 5 in Godly Play. We celebrated Millie’s 90th birthday and Clarence’s birthday.
Two examples of leadership at St. Peter’s this week during the announcments
1. Johnny Davis described his work with "Hunters for the Hungry." This is coordinated through Essex Baptist. Hunters store the deer in a truck with Champlain. The Baptists pick it up and deliver to the butcher who prepares it and returns it to the Baptists which later distribute it. St. Peter’s provides a donation for the work and Johnny delivered 550 pounds to Caroline Social Services which took a freezer and 1/3.
2. Ken Pogue has proposed a new tutoring program for Port Royal youth from kindergarden to high school. He provided a sign up sheet to request tutors. Deadline is end of the month. It is not just about the learning but for students about professionalism and workplace skills, community and family life skills, motivation (spiritual and secular) and career resources/opportunities. The program will evolve with the students and tutor and will be depend on the commitment of both.
Region One also met this week. Here is a link to the story The region meeting concentrated on three topics – reactions to Annual Council, What’s Happening in Region One and planning for 2014. We were joined by our two youth delegates to Council, Hannah Cannon from St. George’s and Mike Hamilton from Trinity Episcopal. I expected their presentation to last 10 minutes and for them to leave. Actually they spoke more than 30 minutes and they stayed with the meeting until the budget discussion. Their thoughts were mature and presented so well.
The sermon concentrated on the Mathew passage from the readings. Salt preserves and enhances flavor. Light reveals truth. As the sermon states "As salt, we add flavor and zest to the world, and we also preserve goodness in the world. And as light, we reflect God’s glory and bring God’s light into dark places—and there is plenty of darkness in our world—just read the front page of the newspaper any day of the week. "
This perspective of authentic belief and outward practice described as righteousness runs through all of our readings this week. In short, the question is "Who is your God?" This question is at the very core of stewardship in our faith authenticated, or not, by how we use our time and God-given abilities and how we share our material and financial resources.
Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount that we are salt and light. We are baptized as partners with Jesus in establishing the kingdom of heaven to preserve the faith of the Gospel for the good of the world. The sermon states "In today’s reading, Jesus gives us our job description, tells us who we are to be as his followers—And that’s all of us. Farmers, parents, horseback riders, nurses, realtors, insurance agents, priests, retired people, students, teachers, accountants, those of us who are still seeking clarity about what God is calling us to do in our lives—regardless of who we are, and who we are to become, God is always giving us work to do, here and now."
Preservation of our own belief in the Gospel comes through authentic practice of our faith stewarding our time and abilities in prayer, worship, and service of others, and stewarding our material and financial resources to support the mission of the Church. The "scribes and Pharisees" in Matthew’s gospel account are characterized by closing themselves off to the presence of the kingdom of heaven because they were busy maintaining their own kingdoms.