March 13, 2016 (full size gallery)
It is hard to believe we are almost at the end of Lent with the 5th week. Next week is Palm Sunday
This week was the first week of spring blooms. The daffodils were out, the dogwood blooming and a few new redbud blooms seen. At St. Peter’s the middle of March is usually the time the Japanese magnolia blooms. The only thing that could have made it better was full sunshine but we had cloudy weather though it was mild. The river bank was cleared this week. The kitchen renovation is ongoing – some insulation was added this week.
We had a full house of 43 in church. We had almost almost all of the children this week -14 of 43 in the congregation were under 16! We had a collection for cancer research from one of the schools. Most of us were hit up for a collection. Godly Play had 8 children and we had 9 in Growing a Rule of Life.
In the latter, we reviewed Part 3 and then Part 4 moved to consider self and others. We had to complete a diagram that shows how we view the connections we have with others. The reward in developing these relationships according to the Society of St. James the Evangelist (SSJE) is immense. As they wrote "Change all your energies, all your potential, into selfless gifts for the other person.Then you yourself will be changed from within, and through you God’s Kingdom will break into the world."
At the announcements Catherine announced we had 80% of the funding for the altarpiece renovation and $5K would be coming from a grant from the Community Foundation of the Rapphannock River Region in Fredericskburg. Catherine led the congregation through St. Peter’s sings – eighth notes. The children seemed to catch on fast.
We celebrated the 1 year birthday of Marie Elizabeth Duke. Catherine reminded the congregation of upcoming events – the Holy Week schedule, the Portland Guitar concert on April 15. We also have a Shrine Mont retreat in late April.
Today’s readings celebrate the new life God grants through Christ. Isaiah speaks of the “new thing” God will do—life-giving, restorative, renewing. Paul asserts that all his personal achievements are worthless compared to the new life to be gained in Christ. Jesus reveals that his death and resurrection not only invite judgment but call us to compassion, forgiveness and conversion—that is, to new life!
Over the past weeks we have been looking at the pattern in the readings of the Lectionary during Lent. One aspect of that pattern has been the recurring notion of pilgrimage – an active journey to a holy site, a journey from tyranny into freedom, an interior journey into our own faith, or the journey from spiritual moment to spiritual moment, such as the Stations of the Cross.
In the process of this journey we have to shed the baggage!
The sermon spoke of this process of letting go.
“The swift and varied changes of the world” as today’s collect says, will require letting go on our parts.Change is inevitable. Letting go is inevitable. I was struck by the fact that all of the people we meet in the pages of scripture today are letting go of lots of things. And I want to spend a little time with them, because what we find out is that as they let go of things, God does new things." This was demonstrated using the Epistle and Gospel readings
"Paul can’t see what his new life will bring. But Paul waits with faith and hope for God to grow a new thing in him, and God has given him the grace to have only one desire left—as Paul puts it, “to gain Christ and to be found in him…to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings.”
"Mary lavishly anoints the feet of Jesus because she knows that her friend is about to suffer and to die . Mary must have suffered as she anticipated the death of her friend, not knowing that God would raise Jesus from the dead after his crucifixion, death, and burial. She didn’t know what new thing God was up to, but she did know that her sacrificial love for Jesus would last beyond the grave, into eternity."
"When we struggle to carry our own crosses through the lonesome valleys of suffering and loss, when we can’t imagine or believe that God is up to a new thing, today’s scriptures remind us that we are travelling in a great company of faithful people who have gone before us, hopefully, faithfully, and with extravagant love."
"The people that we’ve spent time with today remind us that what we can do even in the midst of suffering and death in the barren times of our lives is simply to let go.Like them, we can plant our seeds with hope. We can faithfully let go of our own plans and wait on God.We can let go of what holds us back from sharing our love, and extravagantly pour out our love for God by loving one another with sacrificial love. Even when all seems lost, our ancestors in the faith remind us to believe that God is really is up to something new and extravagant and beyond our imaginations"