HARVEST THANKSGIVING

October 13, 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS

The human person/soul has been created by God as a unity of body and spirit. Materialism, a philosophy which acknowledges the reality of our physical needs in the form of food, clothing, shelter, etc.,  and  denies the spiritual dimension of our lives, and spiritualism, a philosophy which accepts spiritual reality, but denies the body as the bearer of the Spirit, are both destructive to thus unity. There is a physical labour and food which we need, as well as spiritual labour and food which we need.  The lessons for this Harvest Thanksgiving service highlight for us that Christ, who is the Incarnate ( enfleshed) Word of God,  as the source of life for both the body and the spirit, bestowing us with meaningful, purposeful, satisfying  existence in this life , and in the world to come, life everlasting.

THE LESSON : Isaiah 55:1-12

Continue reading “Harvest Thanksgiving October 13, 2024 – Bulletin”

NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

October 6, 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS.

In our Gospel lesson today, St. Matthew describes for us the healing of the paralytic, which comes to us an illustration of the power and authority of Christ to heal the afflictions of our souls, and not just our bodies, through the forgiveness of sins., something we experience every Sunday morning in the Holy Communion. Sin, truly, is a paralyzing force in our lives, which deadens, and keeps us from doing the good God would have us do. In forgiveness, God causes us to stand up from the bed of our paralysis, and walk in newness of life.  Just what that newness of life consists of, and looks like, is what St. Paul describes for us in our Epistle reading from his Letter to the Ephesians.

THE LESSON : Ephesians 4:17-32

Continue reading “Trinity 19 October 6 2024 Bulletin”

EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

September 29, 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS.

In today’s Gospel lesson, the Lord gives us the Summary of the Law of Moses which we know so well from the service of Holy Communion  in The Book of Common Prayer. This Summary of the Law of Moses is the foundation for our worship and spiritual life, and contains the whole meaning of out lives. But , as Jesus pointed out to the scribe, the Law is unable to establish the kingdom of God within  and among us. This kingdom , in which the power of sin, death, and the devil has been defeated, is something we receive through the death and resurrection of the God/Man Jesus Christ. It’s why Jesus immediately directs our attention to the premier Messianic Psalm,  Psalm 110, where we discover that the Messiah , Jesus, is David’s “Son” with respect to His humanity, and David’s “Lord” with respect to His divinity, and thus our Savior! In our Epistle reading, St. Paul shows how it is that we are sustained in spiritual life and holiness by our union with Jesus Christ. 

THE LESSON : 1 Corinthians 1:4-9

Continue reading “Trinity 18 September 29, 2024 – Bulletin”

SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

September 22, 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS

“What God has done for us in Christ, He intends to do in us and through us.” This pretty much sums up the theme of Trinity season. In the Incarnation, the Eternal Son and Word of God, who is Jesus Christ, united Himself to our lowly human nature, thereby exalting or “lifting” us up to Himself, in a communion of love. In our Epistle lesson St Paul sets out the implications of this “lifting up ” for the character of our relationships with each other.  And in our Gospel lesson St. Luke gives us a picture of how it is that through the Incarnation Christ has healed our human nature, in which we take on the character of Christ which is humility.

THE LESSON : Ephesians 4:1-6

Continue reading “Trinity 17 September 22, 2024 – Bulletin”

SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

September 15, 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS.

In today’s Gospel lesson , St. Luke describes the miracle of the raising of the dead of the son of the widow of Nain. Miracles in the New Testament are not understood in the modern sense of a suspension of the “laws of nature” but rather a manifestation of the loving, life-giving power of God which upholds our lives and that of the universe moment by moment. In this miracle, the power of God meets the depths of human need and desperation. In our Epistle reading from Ephesians St. Paul prays that we ourselves, in our weakness and desperation,  would know this power working within us, so that we might be filled to the brim with His fulness, so that God would be glorified. 

THE LESSON : Ephesians 3:13-21

Continue reading “Trinity 16 September 15, 2024 Bulletin”

FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

September 8, 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS.

Back in 1979, Bob Dylan, famously wrote,

You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

Bob Dylan’ lyric was a riff off today’s Gospel where Jesus gives a name to the devil that we invariably serve if we are not serving Christ: it is money or as the older translations have it, “Mammon. Unlike Christ, “whose service is perfect freedom”, service to Mammon is perfect slavery, filling us with anxiety in a never ending search for financial security. As an antidote and alternative to the anxiety stemming from the false worship of money,  Jesus invites to consider the birds and the flowers and in  so doing place our trust in God’s providence. In our Epistle reading, St. Paul shows us how, in the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer,  “In a world where success is the measure and justification of all things, the figure of Him who was sentenced and crucified remains a stranger and is at best the object of pity. The world will allow itself to be subdued only by success. It is not ideas or opinions which decide, but deeds. Success alone justifies wrongs done. . . . The figure of the Crucified invalidates all thought which takes success for its standard.”

Continue reading “Trinity 15 September 8, 2024 Bulletin”

FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

September 1, 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS.

Our Epistle and Gospel lesson for today continue the theme of spiritual life which we have been exploring these last few weeks. The Gospel lesson tells the story of Christ’s healing of the 10 lepers, which is for us a picture and promise of the power of Christ to heal not only the seemingly incurable diseases of our bodies, but more importantly the diseases of our souls.  This is what is given to us to experience and receive by faith through our participation in the sacramental life of the Church. What kind of diseases are we talking about? In today’s Epistle reading St Paul describes the “leprous condition” of self-conceit, or vain-glory, and envy, which wrecks such havoc in our relationships, and is healed through the acquisition of humility and the practice of thanksgiving.  

THE LESSON : 5:25-26, 6:1-5

Continue reading “Trinity 14 September 1, 2024 Bulletin”

THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

August 25 , 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS.

The long season of Trinity sets before us the goal and purpose of the Christian life, which is to share and participate in the Divine Nature ( 2 Peter 1.4), which  Christ has revealed as self-emptying love. (Philippians 2.7). In our Epistle reading for today from The Letter to the Galatians, St. Paul sets before us both the obstacles that stand in the way of reaching our goal, the satisfaction of self centered desires, and the means of attaining our goal: spiritual life. Our Gospel lesson is the Good Samaritan which not only sets before as picture of the human conditi0n, but also how it is that Christ has come among us in his mercy heal our souls and bodies of the wounds of sin, that we might truly embody God’s mercy and become a neighbor to those in need.

Continue reading “Trinity 13 August 25 2024 Bulletin”

SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

JULY 14, 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS

Bob Dylan famously wrote, “You may be an ambassador to England or France. You may like to gamble, you might like to dance. You may be the heavyweight champion of the world. You might be a socialite with a long string of pearls. But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed. You’re gonna have to serve somebody. Well, it may be the Devil or it may be the Lord. But you’re gonna have to serve somebody…” It’s an idea which Paul articulates in today’s Epistle lesson. As those who have been baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ, we  have been set free from our slavery to sin, and now become slaves to righteousness.”  But how is that God nourishes us and sustains us in our life in Christ? The chief way is by means of the Holy Communion. Our Gospel lesson for today tells the story of the feeding of the 4,000, where Jesus took, gave thanks, broke and distributed the seven loaves and a few fish, which is for us an image of the Eucharistic feeding we experience every Sunday, whereby our souls and bodies strengthened and preserved unto eternal life.

THE LESSON : Romans 6 :17-23

Continue reading “Trinity 7 July 14 2024 Bulletin”

THE SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

July 7, 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS

In this season of Trinity, which is the season dedicated to our spiritual growth as Christians, the Church invites us to become “partakers of the divine nature” ( 2 Peter 1.4). According to the teaching of the Church Fathers, this path to union and communion with God necessitates  a cleansing of the heart of the passions, as we state in the prayer of confession in The Book of Common Prayer,” we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts.”  In today’s Gospel the passion in question is that of anger against our enemy, the ungrateful, and selfish which Christ exhorts to transcend  through love, doing good, blessing, charity, kindness, and mercy, in imitation of God. This is the path we were set on in our baptism, where we consider ourselves “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus, as  St. Paul describes in today’s Epistle.

THE LESSON: Romans 6. 3-11.

Continue reading “Trinity 6 July 7 2024 Bulletin”