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A WORD FROM THE RECTOR
Greetings in the
Name of our Lord, Jesus Christ!
Since General Convention met and acted in July, you have heard me preach on
a number of occasions about our need to stay focused in our faith. I have tried to be direct in what I have had
to say, but I have also been mindful of the pressing need that preaching must
focus on what God has to say in His Word, not on what the opinion of the
preacher might be. Regardless of what I
might think about anything in the Church or the world, my call as your pastor
is to strive to keep this community of the faithful Christ-centered, not
“issue oriented” and not agenda-driven.
September is a good month for
us to look more closely at what being Christ-centered means, for in this month
we celebrate the feast of local saints.
On 9 September Constance and her companions are commemorated. This company is recalled as “The Martyrs of
Memphis,” for their sacrificial service in 1878, when they nursed (and became)
victims of the yellow fever epidemic in
The Martyrs of Memphis stand,
indeed, as a good example of discernment to proper action, to how we are to act
in following Jesus.
Our actions always have spiritual and moral dimensions, and in their
moral dimensions they are never actions taken for ourselves only. Indeed, we can best think of all moral
decisions as necessarily involving three “C’s”:
Cross, Community, and new Creation.
The Cross is central. Jesus’ death
on the Cross is the paradigm of faithfulness to God in this world. We are to deny ourselves and take up our own
cross to follow Jesus (Mark 8.34, from the Gospel lesson for 13 September; see
also Matt. 10.38). The cross we take
up is not a burden; it is something we take up voluntarily. (Jesus takes our burdens from us, Matt.
11.28.) This cross is taken up in
community. We are to bear one another’s
burdens (Gal. 6.2), the Church being a countercultural community which is the
primary addressee of God’s imperatives. Being a member of the people of God means that we participate in
each other and in each other’s actions.
(See, e.g., Rom. 12.4; 1 Cor. 12.26.) Finally, the Church embodies the power of the
resurrection in the midst of a not-yet-redeemed world. The whole of creation has been “groaning,”
awaiting redemption (Rom. 8.22). In
Jesus Christ, creation is made new, and we are thus called into a new mode of
being, a new way of living. We are freed
from whatever burdens of sin we have born, if we will but offer these burdens
to our Lord.
You see how countercultural
this all is? Part of the disputes that
have arisen from actions taken at General Convention relate to whether the
Church sees itself as countercultural, and acts that way, or whether we seek to
be “relevant” (and so to accommodate) to the world. The world tells us that as long as we’re all
“nice” everything is OK. God’s Word
tells us that no matter how good or nice we may be, we are still in need of
salvation, and that salvation is through Jesus Christ alone. There is no other name under heaven by which
humanity may be saved (Acts 4.12). Our
faith is set forth in the Creed, and the Creed speaks of many things that are
not of this world. One of these things
is new life. We confess to “one
baptism,” and in the liturgy of Baptism we pray that in the water of baptism we
“... are buried with Christ in his death ... [to] ... share in his resurrection
... [and to be] ... reborn by the Holy Spirit ...” (BCP 306). We are called not to worry over what others
may or may not do, whether they be within or without
the Church. We are called to focus on
following Jesus (our own cross), but we are called to this together (in
community), seeking new life, new creation, by and in our Lord.
Our focus in this parish will
continue to be on what we are called to do in our faith, and how we are called
to confess our faith. I will be happy to
share my opinion with you on any issue, but I will seek to avoid expressing any
opinion in preaching. We are living
members of one Church, embodying the same “faith once delivered” of the
Apostles. This faith is a firm rock, and
when our focus is on the love and knowledge and service of our Lord, we’ll not
be shaken from this rock.
Yours
in Christ Jesus,
Christian Education: Two adult
education options will be offered starting on 13 September.
1. The Sunday morning adult
forum will meet from 9:15 to 10:00.
We’ll look at the Bible lessons to be used in the service that day. The
format will follow the Bible study outlines that are posted weekly on our
parish website. In other words, we’ll
examine the word and put it in context, discuss any subtleties in language, and
then hold an open forum on how the message of the Scripture resonates in our
lives today. Put another way, we’ll
examine:
a) What the Scripture meant when it was
written (and how it came to be written), and
b) What the Scripture means
today. How does it apply in our
lives? How are we guided in responding
to issues in our lives by the message in the Word?
We will do this every week to
allow for longitudinal progression in knowledge and discussion. If you follow the progression of the lessons
through the lectionary cycle, you will
start making connections between lessons, and between lessons and life,
without falling into the danger of either (i) hearing
the word but not making it as real as it must be in your life, or (ii) “proof
texting”: falling into the trap of
saying “Here is what the Bible teaches” about any issue, and then just citing
one text.
An adult forum based on the book The Cross of Christ (a classic by
the Anglican opinion-leader James Stott) will be accompanied by a pot-luck
supper, following the 6 p.m. service on the first Wednesday of each month. This will kick-off on 9 September. (We still have 2 copies of Eugene Peterson’s The
Jesus Way and 3 copies of William Young’s The Shack, from last
year. Stop by the office if you want a
copy.) An offering of $20 to help defray
costs will be welcome.
Attendance and Stewardship:
Year to date 2009: 2273 Year to date 2008: 2099 Trend: +8.3%
2009 pledges paid to date: 65
% of an expected 66.
Grace Notes
Music: Many
thanks are due to Sarah and the choir for making such a joyful noise! Having an offertory anthem each week
certainly adds to worship (as does the choir singing a capella at times). To date anthems have been selected from
sources which include With One Voice (a hymnal supplement of the
Notable hymns in September
include the Charles Wesley favorite (no. 657), Love divine, all loves
excelling, the final line of which is the origin of the title for Wonder,
Love and Praise. On 13 September the
hymns focus on the Cross, reminding us that there is no reconciliation, either
in this world or with the next, unless the Cross is part of it. Note, particularly, the direct parallel
between the Gospel message on that day, and the words of humn
675, Take up your cross. In
taking up our cross, we seek to follow Jesus, and we are reminded of this
pilgrimage in the famous words of St. Richard of Chichester,
sung in hymn 654, Day by day:
“Day by day, dear Lord, of thee three things I pray: to see thee more clearly, love thee more
dearly, and follow thee more nearly, day by day.”
The month concludes with
lessons referring to prophecy, and on 27 September we’ll sing hymn 359, God
of the prophets, bless the prophets’ heirs.
This hymn is heard most often at ordinations, but just as the lesson that
day from Numbers ch. 11 speaks of desire that all
might speak for the Lord, so the
hymn reminds us that when God is heard, “... righteousness ... shall all evil break”. The tune to
this hymn, “
Holy Days:
Sunday school, E.Y.C., and adult education start for the new year on 13 September.
This date is one day before Holy Cross Day on the calendar, and what a
good day this is to refocus on spiritual growth! Holy Cross Day commemorates the finding in A.D.
335 of a relic of the cross on which Jesus died, on
The Church calendar begins in
September with the remembrance of Bl. David Pendelton
Oakerhater, the first Native American canonized in
the Episcopal Church. Oakerhater was a
September ends with the feast of
Men’s Fellowship: The Men’s
Fellowship will meet on Monday, 14 September, at 6:30 p.m., at the little house
at the residence
of Kyle and Susan Chandler (
E.Y.C. (Episcopal Youth Community)
Kick-off: The E.Y.C. had a fun day of water sports on 29
August. (Special thanks to Joe
Stevens and Bill Sugg.) E.Y.C. will
meet each week from 9:15 to 10:00, on Sunday mornings. Led by Alexandra Fowler, the group will focus
on content on Sundays (with fun planned for other times). Content will include specific matters of
faith (e.g., where do we get the Creed?
why these words?), but will also focus very
much on service. Each quarter the E.Y.C.
will undertake a local service project (e.g., Adopt-a-Family), with a
bigger project planned annually (e.g., a mission trip). On a triennial basis, a really big trip (such
as an overseas pilgrimage) will be planned.
Vestry Highlights:
There is a balance of $17,422.57 in the
Operating Account; $14,383.91 in the Capital Account.
The crepe myrtle trees need trimming and
the Vestry authorized Fr. Karl and the Grounds Committee to get a bid and
proceed as needed later in the Fall.
The music program is making progress
although we still need a tenor. Fr. Karl
suggested that we look into singing the Psalm.
A children’s music program will start this Fall
with the goal of providing several special music performances during the year.
Youth Sunday is scheduled for the first Sunday in Advent (Nov. 29).
Women’s Group: The Women's Group was organized several months ago by Deborrah
Wray and is intended to unite the women of Incarnation and of St. Paul
Methodist in service and friendship. We meet in a member's home, enjoy a light
supper, have a devotion and discuss how we can help
the needy of our community.
Last month we assembled 33 activity kits
for children who are hospital patients or children who accompany those needing emergency room service. The kits contain
crayons, coloring books, sticker books, puzzles, small stuffed animals, and little
game type items. Diann Powell and Amy Tabor delivered
the kits and were told that the hospital had a small girl in with severe burns
last week. She was given a doll and she clung to the doll for comfort. Hospital
personnel feel these activity kits will help occupy restless emergency room
children and comfort sick little ones. We will continue to provide these to the
hospital as the need arises. Our next project will involve the needs of Safe
Haven, a secure and safe home for women (and their children) escaping domestic
violence. Because many times a woman leaves in a hurry without packing, there
is a great need for toddler sized diapers, pull-ups, feminine hygiene products
and other toiletries. Please bring your items to your church before Monday, September
14. Priscilla Ivy will make arrangements for someone from Safe Haven to pick up
the donations.
All ladies are invited to our next meeting
which will be on Monday, October 5, at 6 p.m. at the home of Dawn Richardson.
Connie Williams will help with the light supper that evening. All donations to
help with our projects are appreciated. Together we can all make a difference.