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”

THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

June 16, 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). Our Epistle lesson for today describes what that means and what that looks like: we are to be subject to the elders, clothe ourselves with humility, cast our anxieties on God, resist the devil, embrace suffering, and greet one another with a “ holy kiss.” In all of our spiritual struggles and afflictions we rejoice that we worship a God who in Christ takes the initiative and seeks out those who have lost their way in life.

THE LESSON: 1 Peter 5:5-14

Continue reading “Trinity 3 June 16, 2024 Bulletin”

FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

June 2, 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.

With the First Sunday after Trinity, we are launched on the second half/ semester of the church calendar! In our Epistle reading for today, St. John gives us a review of what we have seen and discovered in our worship and preaching in our first “semester” from Advent through Christmas, Epiphany, Lent and Easter: “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.” So what’s in store for us in the second semester? John writes, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” In our Gospel lesson todayJesus tells the parable of Dives ( the rich man) and Lazarus which comes to us a cautionary of tale of someone who did not receive and embody the love of God…with catastrophic results. 

Continue reading “First Sunday After Trinity June 2, 2024 – Bulletin”

TRINITY SUNDAY

May 26, 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.

Continue reading “Trinity Sunday May 26 2024 Bulletin”

THE FEAST OF PENTECOST

May 19, 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

Today we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, and the presence, power, and work of the Holy Spirit in our lives in the special anointing for personal renewal that will take place at the beginning of today’s service. The Holy Spirit is the gift of God to those who align themselves with Jesus through obedience to His commandments.  It is the Holy Spirit through whom we receive the spirit of sonship whereby we know  ourselves deeply loved by God as our Father, even as we participate in the sufferings of His Son, Jesus Christ. It is the Holy Spirit who also gives us peace in the midst of our troubles 

THE PENTECOST READING:  Acts of the Apostles: Acts 2. 1-21

Continue reading “The Feast of Pentecost 2024 Bulletin”