Sunday, February 23, 2014 (full size gallery)
This was our "double header" Sunday with services at 9am and 11am. Weather began sunny and then became unsettled with heavy clouds. By early afternoon it had turned sunny. Highs were in the high 50’s or low 60’s.
9am Rite I Eucharist had one of our largest attendances since we started this service. – 13. Bill Wick was back in action after recent surgery reading the scriptures.
11am was Morning prayer with 23 present, attendance was down. We sang the canticles (see the bulletin) since they were originally written to be sung.
The sermon was on loving our neighbor, the two parts of the " antitheses ". The key points were in these phrases:
"And we see, right up front, that responding to God’s divine grace has everything to do with how we respond to one another.
"In fact, how we respond to one another sets us apart and becomes the evidence to the world that we are the people of God.
"In Leviticus, the people of Israel are learning how to be the people of God. God provides a foundation—a list of rules that, when followed, set the people apart and make them holy."
and considering the examples provided of "loving our neighbor."
".Jesus gave these shocking examples to get us to think about how to respond to life based on our love for God."
We provided birthday wishes for Barbara and Mary Ann both born on the 28th in the coming week.
Ken was busy explaining and signing up people for Port Royal Tutoring
There are no limits to your love of your neighbor or to the poor. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, they, and everything else, belong to you (the community), and you to Christ
This week is a continuation of last week when the text was on 1. You shall not commit murder. 2. You shall not commit adultery 3. You shall not divorce 4. You shall not bear false witness.
The last two of the six so-called ‘antitheses’ (contrasts) cover revenge and love of enemies. They end with the ultimate moral challenge from Jesus: to be perfect.
Who is our neighbor ? A fellow citizen or neighbor is a companion, a friend, one to share life with. Jesus not only repudiates hatred of enemies, but adds the shocking notion of actually loving them.
Richard Rohr writes that until there is love for enemies, there is no real transformation, because the enemy always carries the dark side of your own soul. Normally those people who threaten us carry our own faults in a different form. The people who really turn you off are very much like you. Jesus offers not just a suggestion; you’ve got to love your enemy to grow up. Jesus rightly puts it in the imperative form: Do it!
Peace activist Hildegard Goss-Mayr tells the story of the Russian army entering her village during World War II. Because the soldiers were victorious and hungry, everyone expected them to loot and destroy. Yet, when they pounded on her unlocked door, her father opened it and welcomed them like guests. He invited his family to create an atmosphere of trust for the dreaded Russians. Accordingly, the soldiers did not plunder or rape but, seeing that the family were weak and thin, they shared their own meager supply of food.
Oscar Romero, the priest assassinated in 1980 during the Salvardorian Civil War, puts it simply – we are all humans.serving each other. "Liberation that means revolutions of hate and violence and takes away lives of others or abases the dignity of others cannot be true liberty. True liberty does violence to self and, like Christ, who disregarded that he was sovereign becomes a slave to serve others.” From the Violence of Love
We need to think twice about hurting others and look at whose end we are serving – God’s or our own. As Romero wrote "Whoever tortures a human being, whoever abuses a human being, whoever outrages a human being abuses God’s image…"