March 19, 2017
Winter returned in March with a March 14 ice storm that snarled traffic and closed businesses. The spring flowers that were blooming were crunched. However, most were resilient, particularly the daffodils, and they were back up by the end of the day.
The Village Harvest was the next day. On March 15, 2017, we served 123 people, 1169 pounds of food which included chicken sausage cabbage, apples, tuna, canned fruit, and ritz crackers. Here are the charts and story. Growth in people served has been 134% and food 127% in the first quarter of 2017 compared with the same period in 2016.
Morning Prayer was scheduled today because Catherine thought she would be on continuging education. However, she arrived back early and did the service. Congregation was small with 32 with various people still traveling or dealing with illness.
The Five Marks of Love continued in Christian ed with the second mark of love – "tell". We tell about our community. The videos stressed the importance of community this week as we build each other up. The class emphasized baptism, that new person we become in baptism and the importance of community to support us through our lives. A video on accountability said the following, "But a true Christian fellowship is based on giving and receiving, helping others and being helped by helping them, allowing yourself to be helped, and thereby helping others by letting them help you." The class took dirty rocks and cleaned them, the sign of our transformation.
The sermon considered salavation and grace in relation to the texts in the readings.
"The Apostle Paul says in Romans, Chapter 5, verse 2, which we heard in today’s reading from Romans, that since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand. Paul wants us to know that salvation is something that really happened and began in the past, and that is in the death and resurrection of Jesus."
"Have you been saved? This is a legitimate question for all Christians, and so I want to talk about what we Episcopalians believe about salvation. In the Episcopal Church we don’t have altar calls on Sunday, giving people the opportunity to be saved, because we believe that we’ve already been saved, and that salvation is an ongoing process. To put it simply, we Christians believe and have faith that we have already been saved, that we are being saved, and that we will be saved.
"We are all in the process, all the time, of being saved… Here’s what I mean. Salvation is a present experience."
"Paul tells us that we stand here and now in this grace of God. He goes on to say that we can boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Hoy Spirit that has been given to us. "
"We may not be able to understand the suffering in this world, but we have faith that God’s purposes are being carried out in spite of the ways we make one another suffer. We have hope and confidence that God is always working toward having God’s kingdom to become a reality on this earth
"And this hope for God’s kingdom to come and to be realized on this earth is the third dimension of our ongoing salvation. Remember, the first dimension is that our salvation began long ago on the cross; second, it is the reality in which we live as Christians every day; and third, it is the future about which we dream
"We are standing in God’s grace, not just ankle deep grace, not just knee high grace, not grace up to our chins, but we’re immersed and covered in grace all the time"
"Talk about grace! Today’s gospel is a perfect illustration of God’s grace, and the joyful and strengthening power of God’s saving grace always at work in all the corners and cubbyholes of the world.
"The familiar story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well is rich in symbolism and ties together several emerging themes. In order to appreciate this passage, it is important to put it in context. For example, this story about a Samaritan woman in chapter 4 of John’s gospel follows immediately the story of Nicodemus, a leader of the Pharisees, in the preceding chapter. It seems we are meant to contrast these two characters: one a man, the other a woman; one a Jew, the other a Pharisee; one with a name and prominent position in the Jewish establishment, the other nameless and despised by the religious establishment; one who comes to Jesus “by night,” and the other who comes to Jesus at noon, in the full light of day.
"Notice not only the contrasts but the similarities between Nicodemus and the anonymous (though somehow thoroughly known to Jesus) Samaritan woman. With Nicodemus, Jesus insists that no one can see the kingdom of God unless he or she is “born again” or “born from above.” Nicodemus seems stuck on a literal level with Jesus and so does not understand. “How can anyone be born, after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb, and be born?” Jesus responds that one must be “born of water and the Spirit,” in order to enter the kingdom of God, thus setting up the controversy that concludes chapter 3, the controversy about Jesus’ disciples baptizing more disciples than John, and introducing the theme of water that plays out here in chapter 4.
"Like Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman at first seems to take Jesus literally and misunderstands what he is means when he says (paraphrasing), “If you knew who I am, you would have asked me, and I would have given you living water.” The Samaritan woman is incredulous, maybe mocking, when she points out that this is a deep well, and Jesus doesn’t even have a bucket. How, exactly, does he think he would give her a drink? Jesus responds that whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again, but not so with the water he will give. “The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” (The inscription which will soon be found near our memorial garden fountain, by the way.) And the Samaritan woman, again understanding all of this literally, says, “Great, give me that water, so that I won’t have to keep coming back to this well over and over again.”
"But what she soon comes to realize, as this most unusual conversation with Jesus unfolds, is that she is standing in the presence of grace, being immersed by love, drowning in living water. She is experiencing the grace of salvation, and not only that, but she wants to drink this living water, so that it can be a spring of water inside of her, gushing up to eternal life
“I know that the Messiah is coming, the One who will proclaim all things to us,” the woman says. And Jesus answers, “I am He. I am the One you have been waiting for all your life.”
"The Samaritan woman goes off to tell all the people in town about all this grace, brought by Jesus, who has identified himself as the Messiah. And they come out of the town in order to meet Jesus.
"And when they experience his grace, they give him grace in return. “Come stay with us,” they say to Jesus. “Come and stay with us.”
"Scripture tells us that many more believed because of Jesus’ grace-filled presence with them. They are no longer simply witnesses to grace, they are immersed in it as well. They are thrilled to be part of God’s ongoing passionate love. "