| a weekly e-newsletter from Saint Martin's Church |
March 29, 2018
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This Week
at
St. Martin's
Maundy Thursday Service at Christ Church
Friday
Good Friday Worship at St. Martin's
12:00 p.m. &
7:00 p.m.
Rite I Worship
8:00 a.m.
Choir Rehearsal
9:00 a.m.
Rite II Worship with Music
10:00 a.m.
Easter Egg Hunt and Coffee Hour
11:15 a.m.
Monday
Office is closed.
Wednesday
Holy Eucharist
12:15 p.m.
Bible Study at
St. Martin's
7:00 p.m.
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Greeting
"Jesus's resurrection is the beginning of God's new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord's Prayer is about."
~ N.T. Wright, Surprised By Hope
I love this quote from N.T. Wright as a corrective to some of the messages coming from Christians that seem to wish to turn the ultimate act of love into a weird revenge fantasy. Perhaps it's just plain hard for us to even conceive of being loved so much, in all of our chaos and fear and brokenness - our humanity, that is - to just accept the gift of God's self in sacrifice for us. But a priceless gift is exactly what the Gospel and the Passion of God is. Free, priceless, but not without responsibility: "Love one another as I have loved you..." There, in all its simplicity, and challenge is a taste of what heaven colonizing earth looks like. A Blessed Holy Week, and a joyous Easter, fellow pioneers!
Peace & blessings,
Chris+
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Again this year we will donate the plate offerings from our Good Friday services to The Domestic & Foreign Missionary Society in support of their ongoing ministry throughout the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. Please be generous.
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 At 11 a.m on Good Friday we will prayerfully walk the stations of the cross in the chapel and Gurley Room areas. This is a time to focus and be present with Christ in his final hours. The stations are followed by the noon worship service. Please join us for this spiritual practice.
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Easter Celebration. Children are in worship for the whole service, with Megan and Ms. Deb having activities in the back of the Gurley Room. The worship service is followed by an Easter egg hunt. Why Easter eggs? They are a symbol of the empty tomb. Christ is risen and brings new life, just as a chick hatched from an egg represents new life. The annual hunt is a time for the whole St. Martin's community to come together with guests and share in the joy of Easter. We encourage you to explain the symbolism of the empty egg before Easter Sunday, then join us so your children can participate just before the worship service begins in unrolling the "Allel...." word. Children rolled it up and stored the banner that they had created in the trunk for Lent. Easter is here so we are ready to bring the word out again and sing a song of praise to God!
OTHER NOTES:
Good Friday at St. Martin's:
11 a.m. Stations of the Cross led inside before the noon Good Friday Service.
Easter Sunday:
9:30 a.m. Please bring Easter eggs to the small Sunday school room if you have some ready to put out. Youth are asked to join Ms. Deb at 9:30 a.m. to assist in preparing for the egg hunt.
10 a.m. Worship
11:15-ish a.m.
(right after service) Easter Egg Hunt and Coffee Hour outside if weather is good or Bolingbroke if rainy.
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Lenten Outreach Soup Cook
 Our homemade soup delivery this week was a great Holy Week gift to the people at The Great Valley Food Cupboard. Thank you to Carlie Hutton, Gale Muir, Sarah Rittenhouse and Abby Thomas who provided the wonderful selection of soups.
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Holy Communion Experience
 Many Christian churches offer a Eucharist education opportunity. This is designed to help children and youth more fully understand Communion, the Liturgy of the Table, as part of weekly worship. These Communion programs go by many names. Some use the title Early Communion Class, others in the Roman and Lutheran churches may call it First Holy Communion. At St. Martin's we are offering this type of program. We are calling it a "Holy Communion Experience."
The evening will include participating in a Passover meal, linking that to the Last Supper, and finishing with an instructed Eucharist. We will gather on April 17 at 6pm. Barry Thomas and Deb are planning the evening. The Holy Communion Experience will be for children and youth as well as adults. More details will follow, but if you are interested in participating please RSVP by email to Deb ([email protected]) because we need a definite head count in order to provide enough food. We hope you help spread the word to families who may not see The Cloak, so they know about this formation event.
On April 22 (the Sunday following the Holy Communion Experience) will be a second opportunity for learning more about the Eucharist during the worship service. There will be places in the front of the worship space for those who participated on Tuesday--as well as families where they would like for the children to be close and see more about what is done to prepare and serve Communion. This event is celebratory and we look forward to everyone growing closer to Christ in this Easter season by understanding more about the Eucharist as part of our faith journey.
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Fifth and Sixth Stations of the Cross
Fifth and Sixth Stations of the Cross
We are approaching the final hours. March 29 is Maundy Thursday with foot washing (at Christ Church at 7pm). Christ serves the least of us. This is also the night of the "Last Supper." The gospel of John is not the routine account used in church for Thursday and Friday, but John illuminates our understanding that "God isn't just good and great; God is on the move toward us. Jesus joins us at the table..." *
Jesus joins us on this journey. He calls us to follow him to the garden. We are weak but he never abandons us. In these last two stations, we have a chance, again, to not abandon him regardless of how uncomfortable we are and how difficult the journey.
Fifth Station: Jesus Cries Out to His Father--Then Dies
Luke 23: 44-46
Prayer:
Lord, grant us trust in you that when our time on earth is ended our spirits may come to you without delay.
Sixth Station: Jesus is Buried in the Tomb, with a Rock Rolled in Front of It
Matthew 27: 57-60
Prayer:
Lord, grant us your compassion that we may always provide for those in need.
* from "Thank God it's Thursday: Encountering Jesus at the Lord's Table as if for the Last Time" by William Willimon
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Upcoming Events
HOLY WEEK
(see details above)
Stations of the Cross
Good Friday, 3/30, 11 a.m. Stations will be led before the noon worship service.
Easter Egg Hunt
Easter Sunday, 4/1, 11:15-ish on the church grounds.
Bible Study Resumes
Wednesday, 4/4, 7 p.m. at St. Martin's Church
Confirmation Gatherings
Sunday, 4/8, 4:30 p.m.
Read Chapter 8 in My Faith, My Life, and bring Outreach Project forms
Sunday, 4/22, 4:30 p.m.
Outreach Project and selecting scripture passage for end of year.
Worship Planning Meeting
Tuesday, 4/10, 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday, 4/17, 6 p.m.
For ages 5 through adult in the Gurley Room and worship space. Dinner included. Please RSVP to Deb Parker ([email protected])
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Read and Ponder
this Week's Scriptures
The scripture readings for this Sunday are:
Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
John 20:1-18
The Collect
Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord's resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Isaiah 25:6-9
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
The Response
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; *his mercy endures for ever.
2 Let Israel now proclaim, *"His mercy endures for ever."
14 The LORD is my strength and my song, *and he has become my salvation.
15 There is a sound of exultation and victory *in the tents of the righteous:
16 "The right hand of the LORD has triumphed! *the right hand of the LORD is exalted! the right hand of the LORD has triumphed!"
17 I shall not die, but live, *and declare the works of the LORD.
18 The LORD has punished me sorely, *but he did not hand me over to death.
19 Open for me the gates of righteousness; *I will enter them; I will offer thanks to the LORD.
20 "This is the gate of the LORD; *he who is righteous may enter."
21 I will give thanks to you, for you answered me *and have become my salvation.
22 The same stone which the builders rejected *has become the chief cornerstone.
23 This is the LORD'S doing, *and it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 On this day the LORD has acted; *we will rejoice and be glad in it.
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you--unless you have come to believe in vain. For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them--though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.
The Gospel
John 20:1-18
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, `I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
Optional parts of the readings are set off in square brackets.
The Bible texts of the Old Testament, Epistle and Gospel lessons are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.
The Collects, Psalms and Canticles are from the Book of Common Prayer, 1979.
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| Saint Martin's Episcopal Church of Radnor
400 King of Prussia Road
Radnor, PA 19087 (610) 688-4830 |
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