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Who controls access to God?
I'm not crazy about ladders - they remind me of gutters full of wet leaves, and of stupid things I did painting houses when I was growing up. Jacob's famous vision of a ladder is just that: a vision, a symbolic image to aid our understanding. It stretches from earth to heaven, with the angels traveling up and down it (I wonder how they avoided tripping on their long angel-gowns....). It seems to point to a channel of access between the human and the divine, between ourselves and God. Jacob and his posterity receive a grand blessing from God, based on this relationship.
This symbolic vision points to the question of human access to God: how do we connect with God? Is it an open line of communication, or must we use certain channels, go through certain intermediaries? The Church historically has a mixed message on this. The early Church inherited the Jewish understanding of sacrifice as the way to reach God, and in fact influence God to pardon sins, grant blessings, and generally stay happy with us. The Jerusalem Temple had a monopoly on the sacrificial system, and so in Jesus' day the Temple leaders had huge power to distribute God's grace.
The early Church sought to understand and interpret the meaning of Jesus' death and resurrection, and soon it was interpreted as sacrifice also, "to take away the sin of the world." The Eucharist or Mass which re-presents that offering of Christ's Body and Blood, became a means of grace providing forgiveness and renewal. The priesthood controlled this sacrament, as well as the sacrament of Confession for forgiveness. So, once again, religious leaders tried to monopolize access to God's grace.
But is sacrifice our only channel to God?
No. We also understand prayer as a means of connection. But can we pray directly to God, or do we need an intermediary? Again, the Church's history is mixed. Jesus the God-Man became a logical connection between human and divine. Thus we often pray, "through Jesus Christ our Lord." But in the Roman Catholic tradition, the veneration of St. Mary cast her in the role of intercessor for us, with her son Jesus. (The Church ever offered to sell "indulgences" to reduce people's time in purgatory after death!) This was hotly contested during the Protestant Reformation, which insisted that no "middleman" was needed to receive God's grace. Our Anglican Eucharistic prayer made this clear with its language that Jesus is "our only mediator and advocate."
Today the Church faces a challenge: how to help people find access, connection, and relationship with God, without trying to control it through the priesthood, the sacraments, or other church-controlled means. God is bigger than any of us, and surely God's grace and love is freely offered in all kinds of ways.
JBM
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Summer Formation ...
Street Church - P.R.A.Y. Youth Event
Tuesday, July 25
11:00 am. to 2:30 p.m.
Church of the Epiphany
1317 G St. NW, Washington, DC 20005
Calling all youth for a day in the city preparing food, worshiping God, and feeding the hungry! Earn some SSL hours for school next year! Have fun with other youth!
Get a real flavor of life on the streets of DC for those who do not have a place to live and rely on the generosity of others for food. Plan to arrive at Epiphany no later than 11:00 a.m. and leave no earlier than 2:30 p.m. This time includes an orientation session about life on the streets, preparing food for the lunch, taking the food to the park, worshiping and serving lunch, and a debrief after the experience.
Sign up no later than Sunday, July 23. We will need at least 5 youth signed up for this event to take place. Those who sign up will be contacted after the registration deadline to confirm the event.
L Sue von Rautenkranz
Children and Youth Formation Coordinator
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Backpack Drive ...
Partnership with National Center for Children and Families
Throughout the Month of August
St. Dunstan's will join in the effort again this year of providing backpacks for children served by the National Center for Children and Families.
One of the best ways for children to succeed in school is to make sure they have all that they need in the way of supplies. We can make this happen for many children.
And it is simple. Pick up a supply list flyer in Founders' Hall and go shopping
. Then bring your filled backpack to church no later than August 27. Let's see if we can top our number from last year which was 35. And don't forget the books - any two books appropriate for the age. Most of these children have no books in their homes.
The Blessing of Backpacks will take place on Sunday, August 27 at both the 9:00 and 10:45 Liturgies.
L Sue von Rautenkranz
Children and Youth Formation Coordinator
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Outreach ...
At an Outreach Meeting held on June 25th the following donations were decided upon:
$2,000 to Samaritan Ministries of Greater Washington;
$2,000 to Five Talents South Sudan Mission,
$500 for Neighborhood Engagement;
$400 to Education Equals Hope for a Buen Pastor Schoolchild,
$500 to the Fuller Center for Housing, in support of Fred Smoak's fundraising.
Including all of the above and our annual donation of $2,000 towards the expenses of our missionaries in Quito, the Vivancos, and the cost of our monthly sandwich making, we will have exhausted our 2017 budget for Outreach.
We are again requesting that 12 parishioners support a schoolchild at Buen Pastor at $35 per parishioner donation. We are also looking for a parishioner to fully support a school child at a cost of $384 for the year.
Elin Botha
Outreach Chair
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Parish Notice ...
 Office Assistance Needed
Our beloved Parish Administrator is going on vacation for the first 2 weeks of August. As such we are seeking flexible and temporary help in the office ideally 10:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m., answering phones, and greeting visitors. Please let us know if you can spare a few hours to help us from July 28- August 11. This is great volunteer opportunity for adults and teenagers and we can offer SSL credit to Montgomery County students. Please contact
Kimberly Matthews if you are interested or call the church office.
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An Open and Growing Heart ...
An Open and Growing Heart
By Richard Rohr
Like "prayer," "religion," and so many other words, the word "faith" means different things to different people. As we recover the lost tradition of contemplation, here are some clarifications for what I mean by "faith" and why, understood in a nondualistic way, faith is not blind assent, or even reasoned assent, but an essential part of spiritual transformation.
(Faith points to an initial opening of the heart or mind space from our side.)
Foundationally, this is all that faith is, but its effects and implications can be enormous. Faith is our small but necessary "yes" to any new change or encounter.
Such an opening or re-opening is necessary to help you make fresh starts or break through to new levels. You normally have to let go of the old and go through a stage of unknowing or confusion before you can move to another level of awareness or new capacity. This opening up and letting go is largely what we mean by faith, and it explains why doubt and faith are correlative terms. People of great faith often suffer bouts of great doubt because they continue to grow. Mother Teresa experienced decades of doubt, as was widely reported after her death. The very fact that the media and people in general were surprised by her experience demonstrates our very limited understanding of faith.
The movement through unknowing is necessary in all encounters, relationships, or intellectual breakthroughs, not just with the Divine. Human faith and religious faith are much the same except in their object or goal. What set us on the wrong path was making the object of religious faith "ideas" or doctrines instead of a person. Our faith is not a belief that dogmas or moral opinions are true, but a faith that Ultimate Reality/God/Jesus is accessible to us-and even on our side. Jesus was able to touch and heal people who trusted him as an emissary of God's love, not people who assessed intellectual statements and decided whether they were true or false. Faith is more how to believe than what to believe.
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Hopes and Prayers on our Journey ...
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 I
n Need of Healing:
Curt Shively
,
husband of Susan Burkhalter
,
in nursing care
Ken Farnsworth
, ill at home in Wheaton
David and Karen Keegan
, friends of Tom and Rosemarie Barrett, fighting cancer
Pam Plaisance
, fighting cancer, cousin of Sue von
Samantha Barnes,
ill,
sister of Muriel Croston
Ray Bridson
, friend of the MacKnights, fighting cancer
DJ Crane
, family friend of Trudy Surut, fighting cancer
The flowers
are given to the glory of God by Donald and Beatrice Hamilton and family in loving memory of their mother, grandmother, and great grandmother Patience Gemima Hamilton and their sister, aunt, and great aunt, Bennetta Hamilton.
Recently Departed: Don Larrabee
We pray for St. Dunstan's Missionaries,
Cameron and Roberto Vivanco, who serve in Quito, Ecuador, and the parish of Buen Pastor.
If you or someone you know is in need of prayer, please complete our prayer request form by clicking
here.
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The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
July 23, 2017
9:00 a.m. Family Service
9:50 a.m. Fellowship
10:45 a.m. Traditional Holy Eucharist
12:00 noon Fellowship
The readings for this Sunday are:
Genesis 28:10-19a, Wisdom of Solomon 12:13, 16-19, Matthew 13:24-30
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Sunday Schedule of Ministries ...
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Serving this Sunday
Liturgical Coordinator:
Rosi Sweeney
Eucharistic Ministers:
Carl Adams
Lector:
Carl Adams
Prayer Minister: Rosi Sweeney
Altar Guild:
Ann Johnson
Flower Guild: Trudy Surut
Tellers:
Donna Alvarez
and Chuck Cash
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