St. Paul's Episcopal Church Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
MESSENGER
"Making friends while serving God"
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The Week of August 9 - 15, 2022
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AUGUST 14TH SUNDAY SERVICE
WILL BE ON ZOOM AT 10AM
LINK FOR ALL SERVICES BELOW
Our Zoom connections remain the same and are
Meeting ID: 823 3911 5280
One tap mobile
+16465588656,,82339115280# US (New York)
+13017158592,,82339115280# US (Germantown)
Dial by your location
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
--Shawn Prater-Lee
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I will be away on vacation from July 31-August 14. While I'm away, please call the church office or the wardens for any pastoral needs. Our Priest Associate, Mother Gloria, will be the back-up clergy if needed (the wardens will contact her).
On August 7, The Rev. Nils Chittenden will serve as supply priest for the Sunday service. I'll be back at St. Paul's on August 15, and presiding at Sunday services on August 21.
I'll be praying for St. Paul's while I'm away!
Rev. Mary
--The Rev. Dr. Mary E. Barber
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With all of the divisiveness present in society these days, it seems like the last thing we need is a gospel text that seemingly encourages more division.
On the face of it, Jesus calls for or predicts that very thing. Yet, as we dive into this text, there are certainly other interpretations available. Situated inside the entire section, there is ample evidence to suggest that Jesus is setting the stage for the eventual outcome of his ministry and what that means for those who follow him.
This particular section can be looked at as having three different parts. The first is a quick summary of his ministry and its eventual end; a fire of cleansing judgment that spreads the good news and the baptism of his death in order to conquer death. Following this is a discussion of the effects the gospel might have on anyone who follows him, and finally, a warning from Jesus about our willingness to hear and see only what we want to.
Nourishing fire of Good News
In the first part, Luke 12:49-50, we hear this language of fire and think judgement, and that may be what Christ wants us to think … for now. But, in reality, the fire of judgement is perhaps about our own (in)ability to save ourselves. The cleansing fire reveals that we need God.
Fire was meant to destroy the reigning religion and religiosity that people used was a way of “guaranteeing” their salvation, yet, which ironically actually distanced people from God. Could the same be said for our own religion today? For Jesus, fire will burn down our human need for security and by extension those institutions that provide human security instead of security in God. The fire is followed by the talk of baptism, which has promise inherent within it.
Baptism is not meant to be simply an easy, joyous occasion. On the one hand, baptism is promise for us, on the other hand, for Jesus, baptism leads to death on the cross so that we might have life. This death turns our baptism into joy and celebration. For many, baptism is the entry into the life of the church. Part of life as God’s chosen is vocation, God’s calling to us. This means that Christ’s baptism, and his ministry and death on the cross, prefigures our own baptism and provides a bridge to the next section about division. Our callings, varied and numerous, do not end the day we are baptized. What ends in baptism is the consequence for our failure to live out those vocations. So, while joy is a fundamental emotion for baptism, it is joy because of the grace that we have been given, not because we will never experience pain again.
We live in a broken, divided world
In the second part, verses 51-53, Jesus lets those gathered know that following him will not be easy, particularly because the gospel will not always bring peace. Families were being torn apart when the gospel spread because it changed everything. Given our contexts, this may not always happen, but there certainly could be some disagreement or strife in families as the nature of the call is worked out and understood. Whether it be to attend church, go to seminary, engage in social justice issues, etc. the gospel’s effects can create division. There is no doubt that many churches have experienced division at some time in their histories. The problem may not lie in the division itself, but in how we respond to the divisions that happen in our lives.
One possibility may be to see that God is at work in all realities, and that division is not the problem. Perhaps it is in our own naive expectation that we have more truth than others. Instead, could God be at work on both sides of an issue? There have been calls within the Christian church to become one church so that all might believe. Jesus’ talk about division may point to a broken reality for Christianity no matter how hard we work toward unity. Perhaps this is Jesus’ point: that human togetherness is not what the gospel is about. Rather, the gospel preached into the life of an individual person will do its work, and we are left to trust that it is God at work, and resist our attempts to control the outcome.
You’re the hypocrite, not me!
Our need for control may be the point of the final part of this selection, verses 54-56, where Jesus addresses our inability to realize what’s really happening. Why do we remain blind to all that is happening around us concerning Christ and God? The accusation of hypocrites is an interesting one here, since Jesus is talking about those who can read the signs, but can’t figure out the “present time.” This isn’t exactly hypocrisy, but sounds more like bad vision. The hypocrite label might make sense if the hypocrites believe that Jesus brings grace, yet who continue to work under the law to achieve their own righteousness. Or, we might be hypocrites when we believe that we have a monopoly of truth, about ourselves and our world. The hypocrite thinks they have everything figured out, but keeps using human actions to guarantee God’s presence and remain in control.
This accusation of hypocrisy is an important one to consider seriously as we live out life in the church. Do we allow ourselves to hear God’s call again and again, or do we rest comfortably in our perfect church attendance or other human work? Another way to put this is: Why do we insist on pretending to ignore the injustices (racial and otherwise) around us? Most likely the answer is that we don’t want to see what’s really happening or our role in the injustices of the world. There is clearly an opportunity to talk about the “elephant in the room” for many contexts. Simply naming an issue might be gospel for many, and may be that kairotic event that changes everything. It may lead to division, but, we have to trust that God is at work in all situations, and remember that God has claimed us in our baptisms, not because we’ve been perfect Christians.
Rev Eric Thompson in Working Preacher
--Shawn Prater-Lee
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To be redirected to the Lectionary Page and get a digital copy of the readings
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Isaiah 5:1, 1-7; Psalm 80:1-2, 8-18; Hebrews 11:29-12:2;
Luke 12:49-56
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The Sunday Sermon
Sermon for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Poughkeepsie
Proper 14C – Sunday, August 7th, 2022
1974 was not a good year to be the President of the United States. 1974, however, was an excellent year to be a journalist at the Washington Post or the New York Times, and to be on the right side of the Watergate scandal.
In the 1976 movie, All the President’s Men, which chronicled that low point in US politics, a key phrase which appeared was ‘follow the money’. It’s become a catchphrase for investigative journalism – if you want to get to the root of a wrong-doing, look at the money involved in it, and trace it all the way back to its origins.
Because what we choose to do with our money is like our fingerprints, or our handwriting. It’s an indelible, reliable marker about our inner selves. To reinforce that how we interact with our money seems to say more about us that how we interact with most others things.
As Detective Lester Freamon in The Wire says at one point, ‘You follow drugs, you get drug addicts and drug dealers. But you start to follow the money, and you don't know where […..] it's gonna take you". I’ve left out the cursing, but you get the general idea.
You see, here’s the thing about money, and the futility that the pursuit of it can easily bring: the more it is amassed the less it is clear why it is being amassed. And if one does have wealth, it brings its own subset of troubles: worry about how to invest it and worry that that might be a bad investment.
Today’s readings are part six in a six week-series that is focusing on money, possessions, and how, if we are not exceedingly careful, they can take control of us, insidiously realign our priorities for the worse, and take us away from God and his kingdom.
Let’s recap the context of Jesus’ comments. He had been out and about, preaching in the Galilee region – his home region. For the last few weeks, we have been following Jesus chronologically, though because we have our readings in isolation from the others each week, it can sometimes be hard to see the bigger picture: what theologians and literature professors might call by a more technical term, a ‘meta-narrative’.
Then, Jesus had moved on to maybe one of the other local towns, maybe Capernaum, where he had preached to a crowd of several thousand. A man there shouted out to Jesus to get his brother to share his inheritance with him. Turning down this invitation to arbitrate in a family dispute, Jesus says to the crowd, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” And he tells the crowd a parable: we heard it last week: the parable of the rich fool. Let’s recap the parable. A man had so many possessions that they wouldn’t fit into his barns. So he just built some bigger barns seemingly oblivious to the fact that he did have an alternative: sell some of his stuff, and keep the original barns, and be happy with that.
Afterwards, as he so often did, Jesus debriefed alone with his disciples. Making reference to the exchange with the man and his inheritance, and the parable of the rich fool, he gives more specific advice to the disciples, as we heard in today’s gospel reading:
Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Let’s remember that Jesus had said something very similar a few chapters earlier in Luke’s gospel, when he commissioned seventy-two other disciples to go out into the countryside of Galilee, without purses, or sandals, and reliant entirely on the hospitality of the inhabitants of the villages they visited.
Given what Jesus said to those seventy-two, and what he is saying now to the disciples gathered around him, we can gather, surely, that Jesus’ message to us is this: sell everything, don’t wear shoes, don’t carry a purse, and hope that strangers are hospitable to you.
It would be easy to conclude that. And plenty of people have. Religious communities have been arguing about practically from day one of Christianity. It was a major theme in the bitter disputes between the Benedictines and the Franciscans back in the 13th century. And some of the followers of Francis are still pretty literal about this stuff even now.
In Durham, North Carolina, where my wife and I lived before we moved to NY and then to CT, there was a church at which I often provided priestly supply, where a large-ish segment of the congregation were a bunch of young adults connected with the local seminary, who took these words of Jesus at face value, and formed themselves into a kind of commune, and walked around barefoot, and pooled their income so they, ostensibly, had no personal funds, and who lived an apparently extremely frugal existence alongside the homeless folks of downtown Durham. And from this vantage point, they were clear that they were living an exemplary purity of life that everyone should emulate.
Setting aside the rather extravagant piety of this community (about which Jesus also had things to say), I believe that more problematic is a fundamental misreading of these passages from Luke. And here’s why.
Those seventy-two disciples Jesus sent out: in order for them to have the luxury of being able to go around with nothing and be given board and lodge by different people each night meant that the majority of people would have to have sandals and bags, and bread and tunics and money. Those people who hosted the seventy-two each night must have had quite well-stuffed purses.
The point is about cultivating the qualities that will lead us naturally to not want to acquire wealth for its own sake, but for what good we can do with it. Follow the money.
The central message of this sermon is that ‘things’, ‘stuff’ can encumber you and stop you being single-minded about your discipleship. Money is the big one, so are possessions. But it can be anything at all that sets itself up in our lives as more important than loving others in the way God loves us.
It really can be anything – anything from the really obvious things like overt criminality to things that might sound like they’re good, but really they aren’t. Like religious people who get so caught up in getting all of the ritual right that it ends up being at the expense of being kind and understanding – and, yes, I have fallen into that pit a few times myself.
Someone I knew back in the UK was a tireless worker for anti-poverty non-profits. He was on the board of a dozen non-profits. He travelled to meetings and conferences every week to discuss, debate, strategize on how to help the neediest in the towns and villages of the UK. He campaigned ceaselessly, met with government officials, volunteered at homeless shelters, served in soup kitchens, wrote articles for journals. People lauded him for his loyal and committed work. But his wife and child hardly ever saw him, and when he was at home, he was always working the phones or glued to his screens. For all his rockstar standing as a savior in the non-profit world, his wife, sadly, saw him for what he was: someone who had neglected his closest human relationships and his covenant of marriage in order to satisfy his own cravings for attention, importance and adulation.
As Jesus says, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”. If your treasure isn’t what you know, deep down, it really should be, then take a good long look inside your heart and ask yourself what has become your treasure instead of what it ought to be.
And if you want to start to recalibrate your life, remember that as a member of the Body of Christ, the Church, you don’t have to do it all alone. If you want to recalibrate your life, remember this: that you’ve already taken the first step.
Rev. Nils Chittenden
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RURAL AND MIGRANT MINISTRY SCHOOL SUPPLIES DONATION LIST
For 2-weeks ONLY July 31 to August 17, 2022.
As part of the homily I asked the congregation that was present (and now to all our friends/family) to support a short 2-week donation drive for school supplies to support the Rural and Migrant Ministry. I have been in contact with Rev. Richard Witt who is a long time Episcopal priest and the executive director of this ministry. I have known Rev. Witt for over 20 years and the ministry has been pivotal in making the working/living conditions for migrant workers and their families legal and humane.
There’s a basket in the back of the church with a taped on sign for the Sunday donations. My thought is that some donors may bring in their gifts during the week. If that happens, please secure the donations in the office and let me know when they arrive.
Rural and Migrant Ministry school supplies list:
2-pocket folders, washable markers, glue sticks, highlighters, pencil erasers, 12” rulers, pencil sharpeners, composition notebooks, school scissors, colored pencils and 24 count pack crayons.
Church office is opened Tuesday to Thursday 10 am - 2 pm.
Thank you for your kindness!
Deacon Julett
The Rev. Deacon Julett Butler
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CHURCH FUNDRAISER AT OUTBACK RESTRAUNT THIS SUNDAY,
AUGUST 14TH AT 11:15AM
We will begin admitting people to Outback at 11:15 - not before. Those who are picking up takeouts don’t need to be there until at least 12:15 since their orders won’t be taken until all those seated have been served.
EVERYONE, PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR TICKET WITH YOU!!!
IT NEEDS TO BE HANDED IN WITH YOUR ORDER.
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FOOD PANTRY VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
Please call 845-452-8440 to speak to Ms. Daphne Barrett
PLEASE DONATE RE-USABLE BAGS FOR OUR FOOD PANTRY
--Daphne Barrett
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ST. PAUL’S
SMALL BLESSINGS THRIFT SHOP AND FOOD PANTRY
In addition to our regular Thrift shop and Food pantry hours (Tues. Weds. Thurs. 10am - 2pm)
WE ARE ALSO OPEN THE LAST SATURDAY OF THE MONTH - 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Clothing for men, women and children, housewares, knick-knacks, etc.
GREAT BARGAINS - CHECK IT OUT!!
St. Paul’s Church
161 Mansion St.
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
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It was decided and announced that we are dropping the mask mandate for services. People may continue to wear the mask if they choose, but they are not required to wear one.
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ZOOM CHURCH LINK FOR ALL SERVICES
All services except for the second Sunday (on Zoom) of the month, will be in person at 10:00am and will include singing.
Our Zoom connections remain the same and are
Meeting ID: 823 3911 5280
One tap mobile
+16465588656,,82339115280# US (New York)
+13017158592,,82339115280# US (Germantown)
Dial by your location
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
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ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YOUTUBE CHANNEL
We now have a YouTube channel.
To get there PLEASE CLICK THE LINK BELOW:
or search on YouTube for St. Paul's Poughkeepsie.
We hope to put copies of all of our online services there.
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STEWARDSHIP COMMITTEE
FROM THE STEWARDSHIP COMMITTEE:
Many thanks to all who have returned their pledge form for 2022. Your envelopes are available to be picked up in the Narthex. It’s not too late to return your pledge - just complete the form and put it in the collection plate. Your envelopes will then be available the following Sunday.
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A NOTE FROM THE TREASURY TEAM
A reminder - Please remember to either mail in your pledge or drop it off through the mail slot any day during the week. The correct address is: 161 Mansion St., Poughkeepsie, NY 12601.
ST. PAUL’S THANKS YOU!!!
--Bobbie Gordon
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SUMMER OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUTH
For families with youth up through the first year of college, here are two opportunities you might consider for this summer. The first is led by the wonderful Christy Lent, from Christ Church, who some of you might know, and is at Incarnation Camp, a beautiful setting not too far away in Connecticut. It is great for building friendships and developing leadership skills. The second will be led by the anti-racism committee, led by Carla Burns of Holy Innocents Church in Highland Falls. Most likely many of you know Carla too, and she is a wonderful mentor of young people.
1. The Diocese has a Summer Youth Conference, at Incarnation Camp in Connecticut. It's a great campsite, and I have heard wonderful things about the program itself. The brochure is here.
2. The Diocese anti-racism committee is planning a youth pilgrimage:
Youth (New York State) Pilgrimage, Aug 27-28
Age Group: Teenagers ranging from entering high school to recent high school graduates
This year the Anti Racism Committee is hosting a two day pilgrimage within New York State
in lieu of the Jonathan Daniels Civil Rights Youth Pilgrimage. Limited to two participants per church.
(More detailed information to come)
Please get in touch with Rev. Mary if you have questions about either of these.
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NEW Regional EFM Group
We are planning a new Education for Ministry cohort for either the Fall of 2022 or January of 2023.
The intention is for this group to meet on-line as well as occasionally in-person.
Alison Quinn and Heather Sisk are currently in organizational discussions with Deacon Teri Jones.
We need at least six participants to start a new group.
Please contact Heather if you have interested parishioners.
Thanks and Peace,
Heather+
(Cell: 917-561-0141)
The Rev. Heather K. Sisk
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
PO Box 1449
Pleasant Valley, NY 12569
845-635-2854
--The Rev. Dr. Mary E. Barber
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4 Owen Tucker
15 Adriana Babb
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23 Marlene Taylor
25 Dewy Clarke
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
MANY HAPPY RETURNS OF THE DAY TO
REV. MARY!
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Please keep those on our parish prayer list in your minds and in your prayers, especially at this time of separation and isolation.
Intercessions
AUGUST 2022
Our prayers are asked for:
Michael, Those impacted by natural disasters; Habitat for Humanity; Rural and Migrant Ministry; Peace in our world; The elderly, shut-ins and prisoners; Jeanne & Charlie; Ann, Phil; Hailey, Vickie; Marie; Maggie; G.J., Cynthia, Jeffrey, Linda, Marshall, Lillian, Michail I & II, Chandra (Plain), Evans; Paul; Alexis, Avonel; Carola, Violet, Warren; Nancy, Plain family, Sasha; Margaret; Mizell family; Jill; Donna; Janice; Norma; Ruthann; Lauren; Andrew & family, Ian, James family, Pittman family; Nicholas, George; Gary, Marianne; Stacey, Meghan, Peggy K.; Carol, Jim, Seth, Lori, Neil; Whitman, Deb; Adrian; Chloe; Christine, Lucas, Santos family, Bramble, Anna, Sterling, Leigh family, Stewart, Tucker family, Hosier family, Darien family
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Please "Like" our page to stay up to date with all services and events.
St. Paul's Episcopal Church - Poughkeepsie
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'In Service to God & You'
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Our food pantry volunteers are in active service at St. Paul's these days. We give thanks to them and thanks to God for their willingness to help us by helping others.
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THIS WEEK'S CALENDAR
August 9 - 15, 2022
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YOUR NEWS BELONGS IN ST. PAUL'S MESSENGER
Help us get the word out by submitting news of parish activities. Send submittals to stpaulpk@verizon.net or call (845) 452-8440
Give us a call today!
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
161 Mansion Street, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
(845) 452-8440
The Rev. Dr. Mary E. Barber, Priest-in-Charge
The Rev. Gloria Payne-Carter, Priest Associate
The Rev. Deacon Julett Butler, Deacon
Maris Kristapsons, Music Director and Organist
Adam Mazzuto; Audio/PA System
Notoe Hodge, Custodian/Sexton
Ben Sundar, Parish Administration
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St. Paul's Episcopal Church 161 Mansion Street, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
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