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Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, *

and I shall keep it to the end.

Give me understanding, and I shall keep your law; *

I shall keep it with all my heart.

Make me go in the path of your commandments, *

for that is my desire.

Incline my heart to your decrees *

and not to unjust gain.

Turn my eyes from watching what is worthless; *

give me life in your ways. (Psalm 119:33-37)

I would like to give a special thank you to our Wardens, Patti and Sean, to our vestry, to Fr. Daniel Ade and Alex, to Coral, to Deacon Claire and Deacon Zack, to John, Jenni and Chris and all those who helped with the floors, to our teachers in the Nursery school, and to all those who helped and supported the kitchen remodel. I invite our entire congregation to service this Sunday, to see the new, remodeled kitchen and floors, and to the Parish Picnic on September 17th. September is a homecoming for many of us, as we return back to the practice of listening to the Word of God at St. John’s.

During my sabbatical this summer, I wrote about my great-grandmother in a book that will be titled, “Restless Heart.” The book is about the life of one strong, independent, indigenous woman. I include some of the stories that she gave me that reveal what it was like to be an orphan on the reservation in Muskogee, Oklahoma. I am amazed that she named a musical society that is still active over a hundred years later in Tulsa, that she was a music composer from New York to Paris, that she knew President Teddy Roosevelt, that she helped found a mission school that later became Tulsa University, that she was number one on the Dawes roll of all indigenous people in Oklahoma, and that she went from extreme poverty to abundant wealth and back to poverty in her lifetime. I gave her a promise that I would share the oral tradition of the Muscogee (Creek) people and share her thoughts on how to teach the next generations to align their lives with the will of God.

Paul tells us in Romans that the fulfillment of the law is to love one another. Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (John 13:34). Jesus brings people from slavery to freedom, from brokenness to wholeness, and from death to life. We need to have a relationship with Jesus that we may also love each other as Jesus loves us. Paul asks us to, “Owe no one anything except to love one another.” Jesus tells us that when we are gathered here together, he will be with us. Let us witness to the reconciling power of Jesus Christ by listening to one another, caring for one another, and loving one another. 

My great grandmother told me that there are two ways to know God. The first is with a relationship with Jesus Christ through loving one another. The second is through the Native American practice of knowing God through nature. She taught me to watch the sunrise every day and to give thanks to God for everything that I have received from God. She showed me how to listen to God’s will through a deep relationship with the natural world.

In a few weeks, many of us will travel to Iona, Scotland on pilgrimage. We will have the opportunity to meet God in nature and Jesus in the Word of God at the St. Columba Chapel. We will celebrate the Eucharist and either Evensong or Compline every day. Please pray for us and we will pray for you. 

We are given the opportunity to hear the Word of God and to be in community each weekday through Morning Prayer. We have an 8AM and 10AM service on Sundays in person or on Zoom. There is noonday prayer on Wednesdays in the church and a Healing Service and an Evensong every month on Thursday nights. You are invited to join us with God because, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am among them ” (Matt. 18:20).

In Christ, Fr. Duncan

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This week’s Gospel reading contains one of the most famous of Christian imperatives, “take up our cross and follow him.” The snippet from Paul also contains a list of imperatives. Our love is to be genuine, hate what is evil, give good hospitality, bless those who persecute us, be humble in thought and, what seems like an impossible task nowadays, live in harmony with one another. Human nature is so complex and much psychologized these days, that it never seems to remind us how broken we are. One of the great hypocrisies of modern Christian life is the downplaying of the sinfulness of our human nature while also thinking that science and what is so fashionably called “progress” will save us from our ills. But Christian faith rests in the knowledge that Jesus Christ has completed the work of reconciling God’s love and grace to us, which is sufficient to get us through all our ills. 

Of course, I don’t mean to sound like praying can simply heal us physically! Much of modern medicine and technology is well and good (though not above critique and miracles do happen), but at the core of who we are, as both spiritual and physical beings, we need both spiritual and physical help. Christians offer the world in the fullest way both, by offering the Gospel to the world. God is using us to help the world learn how to love, care, and seek truth. We cannot do these things on our own; we need God’s help. The self-denial that Jesus calls for is the sacrifice that we proclaim: not our own way, Lord, not our own will, which will always be imperfect, but thy will, which is always perfect. Everyone’s “cross” will look different, but it is the same in that we are allowing ourselves to be led by God and His will for us and for the world. But the world, in its imperfection and self-interestedness, does not like this and may well persecute us for it but we keep on loving like Christ loves us.

Yours in Christ,
Deacon Zach

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Obedience is a concept most 21st century Christians in America struggle with. For many of us it invokes our fear of failure and judgement. Much of Protestant Christianity has used fear of judgement to get people to obey, to "tow the line." but the opposite often happens. Fear leads to anxiety, shame, and eventually alienation. In this week's lesson from St. Paul's Letter to the Romans we hear the exact opposite approach to obedience. In the first two verses of chapter 12, Paul encapsulates a vision for living the christian life based on gratitude for everything God has done rather than fear of punishment. 

Before he tells us what to do, he reminds us of everything God has done for us, and then uses the simple word "therefore." Since God has broken all the boundaries that separate us from God through a lasting, abiding, unbreakable relationship in Christ -- Therefore, brothers and sisters, what do we offer back to God? The foundation of our relationship with God is gratitude for these cords of love binding us together. And God's response is delight. Our  relationship with God can never be based in fear but only in mutual self-giving, gratitude and delight. 

So this week, as we look at Romans chapter 12:1-2 ask yourself these questions: Do I ever obey God out of fear? What would change if I obeyed God out of gratitude and a desire to please him? What about my life delights God?

Blessings,
Fr. Dan

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God’s Dream:
To Be a Welcoming World 

Our lectionary for Sunday, August 20th, Proper 15, deeply reflects God’s dream – a dream for a world that is much greater than national identity, a dream that welcomes all young and old, poor and rich, Gentiles, Jews and all ethnicities. A beloved Community! It is a dream that doesn’t love the walls we create – walls that separate, isolate, categorize and make us think we are safe. Nevertheless, history has taught us – or at least we should have learned the lesson – that walls are a mere illusion and those who build walls end up locked inside them. Those who believe that by defining their own space against others end up in a space that is only bare and empty.

Robert Frost wrote a poem called “Mending Wall,” which casts a cold eye on the real and figurative walls that divide us. The first stanza goes like this:

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

There is Someone who doesn’t love a wall and today’s extract from Isaiah introduces us to that Someone. Taking place when the Jews were released from Babylon to return to their homeland around 538 BCE, the prophet announces God’s salvation as a motive for maintaining justice and righteousness. This salvation will include non-Israelites – people from other nations to become worshippers of the Lord. God will bring those foreigners – all peoples - to his holy mountain. 

Psalm 67 reminds us that we must be joyful – for God judges the peoples with equity and guides all the nations upon the earth.

In Romans, Paul is struggling to understand the disbelief of his own people – the Jews of Israel. Why do they reject the gospel of Jesus Christ? His argument reminds us that God’s gifts and call are irrevocable. God made an oath to Abraham and Sarah that he would always be their God and they would be his people. He dismantles the wall that divides Gentile and Jews as he reminds us that all are justified by his gift of grace.

Finally, in our Gospel – Jesus further removes the bricks from the wall of ethnic separation when he responds to the Canaanite woman and heals her daughter.  

Please join us this Sunday as we embrace God’s dream – his yearning for us to break down our walls become his true beloved community.

In God’s Great Love,
Deacon Claire

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We often hear about how much impact words have on our life, especially in our relationships. Our words can hurt, uplift, spark curiosity, and bring joy and laughter. Other’s words can have the same effect on us of course. In this week’s reading from Romans 10, Paul highlights for us the importance of both faith held in one’s heart and the expression of our faith upon our lips, which culminates in the phrase that “Jesus Christ is Lord”. 

Two phrases are central to my personal theology, “the Word of God” and “Jesus Christ is Lord.” It was once explained to me that all language is a response to the initial word spoken at the beginning of creation. Notice in Genesis 1 that God creates the universe through speaking. That Jesus Christ is Lord means for us that everything is ordered towards his authority under which we order our lives. He speaks His word, and we listen. How else could we believe it? I must include verses 16 & 17 of Romans 10 in this text because they continue the centrality of about which Paul is talking. I will read these verses on Sunday but know now that faith comes through listening (v. 17). 

As well, “being saved” may sound a bit too “American evangelical” for some of us. I understand. But I must insist we work against the cultural zeitgeist of our time (like our Christian ancestors did all those centuries ago!). This is what Jesus Christ came to do, to save us (John 3:17). As Christians we do believe in salvation through faith and this is the Good News! The etymological root of evangelical is the one who is the bearer of Good News. That is the central essence of a Christian life, that we know, embody, and can share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, proclaiming that Jesus Christ is Lord.

In Christ,
Dcn. Zach

The Readings

1 Kings 19:9-18

Psalm 85:8-13

Romans 10:5-15

Matthew 14:22-33

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This weekend, the church commemorates the Feast of the Transfiguration, always celebrated on August 6. This year, it lands on a Sunday. For us, at St. John’s, we will also be celebrating five baptisms! Thanks be to God! We are pleased to welcome back three sets of families for the baptism of their children who have deep roots here at St. John’s. Much like Mary and Joseph in the Gospel of Luke going back to Joseph’s family’s ancestral town of Bethlehem to be registered, these families have made the choice to come back to their “ancestral” church for baptism. Pray for Logan, Connor, Wyatt, Colby, and Ryan as they begin their Christian journey.

Logan’s parents, Patrick and Stacey Wright, were married here and Patrick grew up here in the parish. Patrick’s sister Colleen, who will be Logan’s godmother, too was married here just last summer. John Mulada is the grandfather of the four young men being baptized, Connor, Wyatt, Colby, and Ryan. Along with his sister, Ruth, they attended St. John’s during their formative years. John’s children, Amy and Jeffrey, were baptized here as well. Jeffrey is the father of Connor and Wyatt. Amy is the mother of Colby and Ryan. We welcome them all back and look forward to seeing them on Sunday!

Yours in Christ,
Dcn. Zach

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When last we left St. Paul in Romans chapter eight, he was filled with exuberance in his proclamation of the saving grace of God for all people. In chapter nine, our text for this Sunday, we meet a very different Paul. He seems to be in the depths of despair wondering why his own Jewish people have not freely embraced the message of Jesus. Yet he wisely remembers that God will continue to be faithful to Israel.

The gentile Christians in Rome would have been immersed in a powerful imperial narrative contrary to the story of the Bible. From the brothers Romulus and Remus to the current emperor seen as the lord of the earth, the story of Rome was one of divinely sanctioned power, privilege and domination of peoples. It would be easy for gentile Christians in Rome to assume exceptionalism for themselves over the Jewish community who had not come to believe in Jesus. But Jesus is not another emperor. Paul strenuously counters the myth of Roman dominance with the story of God's continuing invitation to Israel as the bearers of God's hope for the world. The gentiles are invited to join Israel in God's mission to redeem all things in Christ. 

In our time, another imperial counter narrative is alive and well through the myth of American tribalism and Christian nationalism. As Christians faithful to God's vision in an increasingly secular culture, our mission is to oppose that counter narrative and to keep alive a global vision of God who first called Israel and now invites us as well to reconcile all people to God and one another.

Blessings,
Fr. Dan

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We have spent the last several weeks with Fr. Dan, pondering the words of Paul to the Romans. Just last week, we were given the deep assurance that nothing can separate us from the love of God. That indeed is comforting and grounding – especially as we move forward into a message that takes us out of our safe haven, compelling us to face the gray areas of our lives.  This week we are being called to occupy in-between places – places that may be mixed, messy, confusing. A message that challenges our comfort zones and moves us into God’s field to live among the wheat and the tares.

Why is it that the servants are deterred from removing the weeds to ensure a good harvest? Jesus tells us that in removing the weeds, we run the risk of uprooting some of the good crop – because indeed the wheat and the darnel look alike. So, we are told to wait – to have patience and restraint. It isn’t quite time for the harvest. And we are not the harvesters. It is God who will sort it out at the final judgment. In the meantime, we are called to live, grow, love and flourish together.

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Here are a few initial thoughts for my sermon on Sunday. This week we will look at Romans chapter 8 where St. Paul sums up the theological argument he has been presenting through the first half of the letter. We will focus our reflection on Romans 8:31-39:

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all day long;
 we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved 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.

In 21st Century American Christianity there are two divergent, but equally dangerous theological takes on this Scripture profoundly departing from St. Paul's intention. The first sees the promises of God as being owned by the 'right kind" of people. Those trumpeting this belief make a loud and brittle proclamation of self assuredly accepting those promises for themselves while excluding everyone else. We can see this in the rising tide of white nationalism. The second is quite different but also dangerous for a person's spiritual welfare. It assumes an almost secular vision of God's promises -- a breezy pursuit of life, liberty and happiness for nice people. I think we Episcopalians are more tempted to this second vision.

St Paul is not talking about the stingy withholding of God's compassion, nor about an optimistic Christianity asking nothing of anyone promising only sunny days. What he is talking about is assurance. Paul knew the experience of powerful suffering. He teaches us that hardship is not God's turning away from us, but a sign of God's presence with us in life's difficulties. All of God's covenant promises with us are made incarnate in his gift of Jesus' redemptive suffering on the cross. God stands in solidarity with all those who experience anguish, pain and grief. This is the gift of our blessed assurance that God is with us. and this is the place where we find our hope.

Blessings,
Fr. Dan

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From this week's Gospel

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)