Sunday, July 30, 2017, Pentecost 8 (full size gallery)
Sat. July 29 was the funeral held at St. Peter’s for Myrtle Samuels, the mother of Andrea Pogue. There were 90+ people at St. Peter’s with the family taking most of the center section. Many had travelled long distances (Jamaica, Grenada) to be there. Myrtle was eulogized by many of the family and Catherine. The family noted her calm demeanor, her loving life, and her marvelous cooking. Catherine’s homily was based on something Myrtle said quite often "Not So Bad." After the service, there was a reception in the Parish House with people from the church and others contributing the food. The flowers were magnificent. The flowers on the altar were contributed for the viewing ceremony at Storke’s Funeral Home in Bowling Green. The flowers behind were arranged by Cookie. The rain held off for most of the service and reception.
A beautiful Sunday on July 30, mild temperatures on abundant sunshine. The rain cleared out the humidity. The river was glistening and the insects were out! We had 8 at 9am and 37 at 11am, both services of Holy Eucharist.
This Sunday we welcome back Amy Turner developed Godly Play at St Peter’s over the two years she was here. She is now the Upper School Chaplain at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy in Melbourne, FL. She preached both services on Romans and enjoyed seeing how her students had grown. Catherine added a children’s sermon on the mustard seed.
We celebrated 24th anniversary of Howard and Milly Muhly today.
We pushed the Virginia tax holiday coming up this week Aug 4-6 to help buy school supplies. We have a list this week on the website and the newsletter to be distributed. They will be distributed at the Village Harvest on Aug 16 along with cereal, grits and oatmeal that you can bring in by Aug 13.
We have new bees! The older hive did not work out to produce a queen so Andrew has gone back to the source of his mentor. The former hive came from an old house. The new bees have a queen and are based 16 year old stock. Their temperament is less friendly but we are expecting more honey. Thanks to Andrew Huffman for his hard work on this project. He is expecting the 20,000 to become 30,000 by the end of September.
Today’s readings remind us of God’s presence and how we are to respond to it. Solomon delights God by asking for a heart of wisdom to govern Israel. Paul confidently reminds the believers that God’s plan of salvation for them will be fulfilled. Jesus reveals to his disciples that the kingdom of heaven is worth all that they have.
Amy chose the Romans passage (Romans 8:26-39) for her sermon since it addressed what she needed to heard this week. It has three famous phrases:
- “that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”
- “If God is for us, who is against us?”
- “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
This passage is the Christian 911. When struggles seem to over come us, when all else fails, when we are hearing harsh words, when we are beleaguered and we are stretched thin and life making us weary, these are the words we need to hear.
Paul was trying to bring a comforting word to Christian followers in Rome. Paul knew both sides of persecutor – as a persecutor of Christians and then as a reformed leader and soon to be a martyr himself in Rome.
God knows what we are thinking, what we are experiencing. Amy named the struggles – financial struggles, those with families and friends, illnesses, the changing news.
We can’t strip evil and sin from the world. We have doubts about ourselves – Will God still love me if I do this or don’t do this? However, God’s love is endless and forever and God’s steadfast love is our companion. No situation stands between us and God. We will wait for the final victory of God to come over the sins of the world.
She used the image of a candle. It doesn’t extinguish the dark but neither can darkness conquer the day. It is a symbol of God bringing light into our world.
We have to realize that we are works in progress and so we experience failures. But God’s love is something to hold onto when we fail or feel lost and to provide comfort through our earthly trials and tribulations.