On this Thanksgiving and First Sunday of Advent weekend we want to express our prayers for all and give thanks for the ongoing connection.
Note that this week's gospel lesson focuses on God's coming, but suggests strongly we do not know when. Perhaps for this reason, Advent ("coming") Season actually begins the church year (see your liturgical calendars). Advent is also a season of light and helps enliven the darker winter days. In this, the Collect (collective prayers) of the Day and Epistle fit well with Advent Season, since both mention an "armor of Light". But what is this armor of light? Paul goes on to point out, shortly after telling to put on that armor, to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ", for your faith will be the light. Thus Paul was saying, along with Isaiah in the first lesson telling the House of Jacob, that the church should "come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!" It should be pointed out that "Advent" (coming) pertains both to God and God's people - it is a collective advent with both parties making the effort to come. We hope you all will come and see the light of faith. Our love to all, Bart (and Tony!) and for all of us at St Matts! Events St Matts will be meeting as is our custom at 4pm this next Sunday for Evening Prayer while fellow missions St Lukes in Jolon and St Marks in King City will meet at their chapels at 10am for services. While we will be travelling for work on the days (and the News might be very brief) of Dec 2 and 3, we wanted to mention to all that our friends at St Lukes Church in Atascadero are having their annual Christmas Bazaar on those days. The event runs from 9am to 6pm on Fri, Dec 2 and from 9am to 1pm on Sat, Dec 3. We hope many will attend! Diocesan Advent Retreat(s) For this weeks News we concentrate on an upcoming and very special event for our entire Diocese. It will consist of three retreats in three parts of the Diocese, first at St Francis Church in the Willow Glen neighbourhood of San Jose on Dec 3, then on Dec 10 at St Stephens Church in San Luis Obispo, and finally on Dec 17 at St. Paul's/San Pablo in Salinas. Each day will begin with worship at 9:30am, include a provided lunch and end at 3pm. (A $10 donation to help with lunch costs is suggested but no one will be turned away.) The theme of the day is "Courage in the Wilderness" and the retreat will be led by Canon Martha Korienek; on December 17th the retreat will be co-led with the Rev. Ale Trillos, and will be bilingual in English and Spanish. Questions? Please email Canon Martha at canonmartha@realepiscopal.org
0 Comments
Folks,
The lessons this Sunday include from Jeremiah warning Israel's enemies, and from Luke's gospel a description of the crucifixion with many fascinating points. But for me the greatest amount of spiritual substance comes again from Paul's epistle, in this case writing to the Colossians. Paul was amazing in his ebullience - the life of his spirit - despite suffering many things at the hands of the authorities, not to mention his constant hard work (see last week's lessons and News). In his letter to the church in Colossus he speaks of one who is both first and last, even the "image of the invisible God". He may have been speaking of Jesus but clearly not of an ordinary human being but rather one who captures the imagination of all the good, the Bodly in our world (as someone once said reversing the Genesis words that God made man in His image, Paul participating in making God in human form so to have a real connection). So let us join Paul in making God in human likeness - not a human without all the flaws of humankind, yet with all the love - and more. Our love to all in contemplating such a wonder! Bart (and Tony!( And for all of us at St Matts! Events Because of work both at the ranch and in Santa Barbara, we only have time to point all to the website of their local parishes. Note that our fellow missions St Lukes, Jolon and St Marks, King City, will be meeting together this Sunday at 10am at St Lukes while St Matts will be meeting at 4pm for Evening Prayer at the chapel in San Ardo. Folks,
The lessons appointed for this Sunday include an OT lesson from Isaiah, but with a fierce if short altnerate lesson from Malachi ("See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.") along with Paul writing again to the Thessalonians in high praise of hard work, and a gospel lesson from another fierce statement by Jesus, warning against speculating about the end times. While it is understandable in their context why the writers wrote so much about doom, destruction and despair - they were written when the Jews were in the midst of conflict, in Jesus' time with the Romans leading to the Great Revolt of 66 CE - ie AD, and in the Book of Malachi, according to the Brittanica written in the 500s BCE as a litany of Q&A + discussion asking why it was taking so long for God to restore justice provide prosperity to the Jews after their many wars, captivity, etc. Yet those lessons fit well with the Paul's letter espousing hard work as an example. For it was natural to be concerned about end times, especially if you as a religious person thought things were so bad that surely God must set things right and soon. But the lessons, including Malachi, teach us clearly that in such times (including today, when secular thinking prevails in much of the world and religious folks lament the withering of the church), it is as important as ever to work hard, both keep ourselves occupied with doing God's good work and avoiding the damaging speculation of the end - either of the church and its loving community, or the world order. I think for those reasons Paul was very upbeat about the work and made a point of such hard work himself (sacrificing himself even with frequent imprisonment and perhaps martyrdom). Note that it is at this point that I can mentioning by way of analogy my concern that we do not expect enough hard work from our religious community leaders (perhaps because we do not demand it of ourselves?). The analogy was clear when I worked at Stanford University's Office of Development - their fundraisers. One of their most successful at raising funds for what was basically a good cause was the scion of a auto dealership owner - an alum himself. He described the newly hired fundraiser, given an office, a list of "prospects" (mostly alums, but also foundations, etc), and the means to contact them (phone, computer, etc). He described how he had observed such new hires, sitting in their offices and nervously wondering what they should be doing - since they could not "force" people to donate. The answer was the simple hard work - making constant contacts, visiting with individual potential donors, setting up attractive events, etc, and then letting to donations take care of themselves. This example from the secular world (but with an ethos of good) is one we in the church would do well to follow, expecting such hard work of our leaders (making those contacts, etc) and ourselves. The work will put our minds and hearts on the most important matters of the Spirit, and our bodies rather than a building will be God's temple, which always "needs work". Note that this is as true of the lay "order" as it is of the orders of deacons, priests and bishops! May we all exult in joyous work of building the loving community! Our love to all, Bart (and Tony!) and for all of us at St Matts! Events We want to remind all that St Matts will be meeting at the chapel in central San Ardo (corner of Railroad and Jolon) for evening prayer at 4pm TOMORROW. Please also recall our fellow missions, St Lukes, Jolon and St Marks, King City which will be meeting jointly at Jolon. Other Events Just a brief reminder that NOW at St Benedicts Church in Los Osos. As we wrote previously: Community Workshop (learn what you can do) “Hopeful Solutions to Climate Change” - Don Gaede, Citizens Climate Lobby "Reducing Our Carbon Footprints" - Kristen Hazard, ResilientSLO “Opportunities for Meaningful Action” - Grant Helete, ECOSLO “Doing What You Love for a Healthy Planet” - Don Maruska, Climate Solver Saturday, November 12 10 a.m. - noon St. Benedict’s Episcopal Church, LOVR and Clark Valley Road, Los Osos |
WILLIAM BARTOSH
st. matthews newsWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
May 2024
Categories |