April 17, 2016 (full size gallery)
The Portland Guitar Duo entertained about 40 on tax day, April 15, 2016 at St. Peter’s. Thanks to Cookie for the reception before the concert, Andrea and Ken for being the MC’s and for housing the musicians. A lovely evening!
Earth Day is this week on April 22 and the focus this year is on planting trees. We planted two apple trees two years ago. The Earth Day network reports."Our planet is currently losing over 15 billion trees each year due to deforestation, land development, and bad forest management (that is roughly 48 football fields every minute). EDN is announcing Trees for the Earth (#Trees4Earth), a plan to plant 7.8 billion trees by Earth Day’s 50th in 2020. That is one tree for every person on the planet!
We had 7 in "Weaving God’s Promises" which concentrated on chapter 1 of Revelation and in particular relationships with one another. The idea of "Alpha and Omega" was explored and the children enjoyed finding examples of "Alpha and Omega" in the church after Sunday School
We had 40 in the service today. Dogwood is still in full bloom – sycamore trees not out year. We may have an osprey nesting on one of those. It was a warmer spring day than we have had recently with full sunshine.
During the announcements there were discussion of various projects. One project ends and another begins. The kitchen cabinets are in and the project is drawing to a close while another, the altarpiece restoration begins on Friday, April 22 with the removal of the tablets. Johnny talked about the gifts for the Altarpiece (O’Neill Fund for the Stewardship of Historic Resources) and the donation that made possible the new roof on the church put in two weeks ago.
The fourth Sunday in Easter is traditionally Good Shepherd Sunday.The familiar words of Psalm 23 illustrate our understanding of the relationship between the Good Shepherd and his sheep.The Revelation to John gives us another image of the shepherd. As the seer looks around him, he sees a great multitude that no one can count. They come from all tribes, nations, and languages as they stand before the throne of the Lamb, wearing white robes and waving palm branches. The wrote robes signify their deliverance from tribulation, and the palms their victory over trials. Freed from hunger and thirst, those who were persecuted are now forever in the presence of God, able to worship God day and night in the temple.
In today’s gospel, Jesus pictures his relationship to the faithful as that of a shepherd who works for the life of the sheep. Jesus as a shepherd caring for his own flock provides more than green pasture and still waters – Jesus offers eternal life. It is all about relationship (my sheep hear my voice – I give them eternal life.) Jesus as a shepherd caring for his own flock provides more than green pasture and still waters
The sermon used the metaphor of clothing to understand our role or mission “Clothe yourself in the resurrection and don’t wait until you’re dead.”
"Jesus wants to dress us in eternal life, here and now! We ARE what we wear. And God has been trying to dress us, or at least to be our wardrobe consultant, since way back in Genesis, Chapter 3.
"In the Acts reading "Douglas Wingeier, the editor of the commentary Keeping Holy Time: Studying the Revised Common Lectionary (pg 171), notes that “making and distributing clothes to the needy was one of the special tasks assigned to widows in the early church.” Dorcas was one of these women.
"Her friends clearly valued her work. When Peter arrived after Dorcas had died, these friends showed him some of the tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made. What Dorcas had been doing, making clothes, had clearly been an important part of her life and what she had been doing gave glory to God.
"When Peter brings Dorcas back to life, he joins Elijah and Elisha, the Old Testament prophets, and Jesus himself, in restoring dead people to life. All of these people who get brought back to life—the widows’ sons, Lazarus, and now Dorcas, get to come back into their human bodies, reclothed in their humanity through their miraculous resuscitations, and to continue their lives on earth, through God’s goodness and mercy, for some finite amount of time before they physically die again
Revelation – "In today’s reading, we find ourselves in the midst of a crowd so great that no one can even count all the multitude, people from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the Lamb—and that’s Jesus—and all of them are wearing their heavenly garments.
"We’re surrounded by people clothed in white.
"The writer of Revelation is trying to put into words the mystery of God forgiving our sins through the death of Jesus, so that we can be made worthy to stand here at the throne—God’s goodness and mercy at work, like a miraculous stain remover.
"God’s goodness and mercy, available to every person on the face of this earth, from every nation, from all tribes, peoples and languages.
And here’s the point I want to make today. “We ARE what we wear!” And NOW is the time to put on our resurrection clothes. These resurrection robes won’t cover up our scars and the hard knocks of this life—our scars will show through, just as Jesus, even in his resurrection body, showed the disciples the nail marks in his hands, still visible—essential to who Jesus is as our resurrected Savior.
"The fact that Jesus bears scars makes the goodness and mercy that he continues to bring into the world that much more powerful and transforming.
"His scars, still visible, remind us that when we clothe ourselves in the resurrection, God heals our scars and transforms them into the goodness and mercy that we can offer to the scarred and broken world around us.
In baptism "In the early church, the newly baptized people were then robed in white—robed in God’s goodness and mercy, a visible sign of that person’s new status as a healed, forgiven, loved and free Christian
So what would it be like if we got dressed and then imagined that in addition to our usual clothes, that we would remember to put on our robes of God’s goodness and mercy every morning?
"Imagine being enfolded and wrapped in God’s goodness and mercy, knowing that we are the beloved children of God.
"Clothed in the resurrection, we want to go out and love the same people that God loves, God’s children, God’s sheep from every nation, from all tribes and people and languages.
"Clothed in the resurrection, we want to do God’s work. Sewing, cooking, farming, caring for others, teaching, learning, caring for children, caring for a spouse, caring for ourselves as God would care for each one of us—it’s all God’s work, and what a joy to do the things that God is trusting us to do. "
To make the point Catherine held up a bottle of ‘Shout" stain remover to illustrate – "God’s goodness and mercy at work, like a miraculous stain remover."