Sunday, March 8, 2015 (full size gallery)
This Sunday was supposed to be a Bishop visitation by Bishop Goff. Unforunately, her father died and her visit had to be cancelled. We extend our sympathies to the Bishop and her family. The service for March 8 switched back to Rite 1 but a reception turned into a belated coffee hour from last week when Sunday events were cancelled due to ice.
Snow has come late this year but it has made up for lost time. This week had a significant 6 inch snowfall on Thursday after a similar snow storm a week earlier. Sunday March1 was an ice storm which cancelled church. Today was a gradually warming day with plenty of sunshine. By the end of the service, the driveways were flooded! We had 36 this Sunday.
Our Lenten Adult education at 10am continued with a session on "Lectio Divina" which is Latin for divine reading. We had 6 in attendance. This is an ancient tradition going back to Jews and then popularized by St. Benedict in the 5h century. It involves a extended prayer in several parts 1 Silence to orient ourselves to God 2. Lectio – reading a selection from the scripture several times 3. Meditatio – meditation on a phrase or severl words 4. Oratio – pray on how God speaks to you in the phrase 5. Contemplation – resting in God’s light and then return. We could see how this prayer could be used during the day when we were "stressed" out and also if the day went extremely well. Next week is the Jesus Prayer.
The covenants stress continued in Lent 3. All of this helps to explain Jesus as the Messiah. We have remembered the covenants of God with Noah and all of creation, between God and Abraham and Sarah and their family, and now God’s new covenant with the people journeying out of Egypt to be their God in Exodus.
The new covenant, which is emerging in the Lenten passages this season, ends all separation from God. The covenant with Noah and all creation ensures that days and seasons, the passing of years, will never cease. The covenant with Abraham and Sarah promises a family of God that will endure for generations. The covenant with Moses and the people at Sinai ensures a community of faith, the family of God, participation with each other and relationship with God. But Christ calls forth a greater covenant, one in which there are no boundaries as demonstrated in the Gospel reading that can be drawn on earth or by any power to separate us from God’s love, and that by being the body of Christ, we are the temple for God, that cannot be destroyed because we have the promise of eternal life in Christ.
The sermon centered on the ten commandments. The sermon constantly referred to the tablets on our front wall which are unique addition to a church built in the 1830’s since they were more products of colonial churches. The first several commandments shape our relationship with God. You shall have no other gods before me, you shall not make for yourself idols. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. "
The way we worship has a bearing on how we treat others. "And so the second set of commandments has to do with the love of our neighbors, starting with our parents. Honor your father and mother, you shall not kill, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness against your neighbor, or covet anything that belongs to your neighbor."
She drew on an analogy with mending socks. "They are the threads that close the holes, and draw us back into closer communion with God and with one another. And not only do these commandments help us mend our own lives, but when we follow them, they also help us mend the world."
Coffee Hour was a product of what was planned for March 1 with elements planned for the Bishop on March 8. Cookie, Eunice and Catherine combined their talents with Susan Tilt, Brad providing some wonderful desserts. Susan contributed a wonderful blueberry cake and Brad two famous cheesecakes with both blueberry and cherry preserves. The main table featured ham bisuits, grits casserole, salad with Bill Wick’s homemade french dressing and a fruit basket mainly with pineapple. While this doesn’t seem like Lenten food, even in Lent Sunday is a feast day. A wonderful Sunday!
Commentary by Canon Lance Ousley, Diocese of Olympia
The readings for the Third Sunday in Lent reach deep into the heart of stewardship. The Ten Commandments establish the basis for so much of our stewardship, if not all that we do. The fact that God is our God and that we should not let anything come between ourselves and God is a powerful place from which to begin. The Commandments continue and even acknowledge that we, at least culturally, establish other gods; but it is stated that we are not to worship any of these, for that would be putting them before our one true God.
This is where the rub begins for us. In our culture today money, and all the materialistic trappings it represents, is worshipped as a god, whether we accept that fact or not. Some of this comes in the form of cultural wisdom passed-off as prudence. But in 1 Corinthians, Paul attacks cultural wisdom that conflicts with the wisdom of God. For most people the notion of giving away ones money is not a wise thing to do. But God, the One True God, understanding the idolatrous seductive power of money has set a minimum amount of our wealth for us to give as an offering to the Church. We refer to this minimum as the Tithe, 10% of our income. The beauty in this Divine Wisdom is that when we do give away our money at that rate we exert our power over it, and it ceases to have power over us along with its seductive material companion idols. The inverse folly of the world in this transaction is that when we practice this generous gifting of our wealth, we find we have more available to us because we are no longer wasting our money on the emptiness of material goods that never had any divine whole-making properties in the first place! In God’s wisdom we are set free from that deceptive temptation and we find we have more disposable income and less anxiety about our finances! Tithing sets us free from the money-god of our culture and it helps us to acknowledge and keep the Ten Commandments! Who knew? God does, and always has!
Money often is a barrier for so many in our culture to acknowledging God truly as God. I believe that was at the heart of the issue for Jesus when he witnessed the money-changers in the Temple which were establishing a barrier to the access to God for the people. Likewise, they had failed to realize the heart of worshipping God is in right relationship with God and all people (because God creates us all). This is what the last six of the Ten Commandments are addressing in the way we treat others and honor them in the way we treat their property and family. But for the moneychangers in the Temple money had become a barrier, also, to their own hearts fully receiving God and all people, especially the poor they were exploiting.
As we travel these 40 Days in the Wilderness of Lent I pray we examine those things which we have made into idols in our lives and that we cast them down to acknowledge the One True God. A start might just be tithing the rest of Lent and Easter, and see how your heart is set free from the moneychangers in the Temple of the Holy Spirit within you. The thought of tithing may be a stumbling block to some and foolishness to others, but we proclaim Christ crucified and we know what happens on the Third Day, regardless of what our culture says!