St. Paul's Episcopal Church Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
MESSENGER
"Making friends while serving God"
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The Week of July 26-August 1, 2022 |
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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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Henri Nouwen:
The journey of our adult life
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5
“The question is how to go from an absurd life to an obedient life, from a deaf life to a listening life. If you are anxious and nervous and tense and upset, you don’t listen because your anxiety allows you no space to listen. You can’t receive the voice of God that assures us, “You are with me always, and all I have is yours.” Let us try to give time and space to this amazing voice, speaking in our hearts.
Listening is creating the space in which you can hear the voice that says, “You are my beloved son, you are my beloved daughter, you are special to me. All that is mine is yours.” The whole Gospel, the whole message of Jesus, is precisely that: “All that is mine is yours. All that I say is for you to hear, all that I know is for you to know, all that I do is for you to do.” Jesus is saying, “Nothing that the Father gave me do I hold back from you.” Really try to listen to that so as to gradually become like Jesus. That is the journey of our adult life.”
Henri Nouwen (1932-1996) in From From Fear To Love: Lenten Reflections on the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Richmond Hill: The Henri Nouwen Legacy Trust, 1988) 10.
Today’s post has everything to do with generosity because in “the journey of the adult life” people can only hold on to one thing. Will they choose absurdity or obedience? A deaf life or a listening life? The top alternative people cling to instead of Jesus is money. Rather than use it faithfully, they grasp for it absurdly, deaf to everything else.
Some rationalize this behavior as “saving for the future,” ignoring that Jesus describes the person who does that as a “fool” ( Luke 12:13-21). Others miss that the call of Jesus to “go and sell” possessions aims not at leaving us as His disciples destitute, but it teaches us to distribute God’s abundant provision. The obedient, listening life discovers Jesus wants us to depend on Him. Today’s Scripture reminds us that we must keep ourselves free of the thinking that we need money to make it through life. In reality, Christ is all we need. As the week begins perhaps take some time in solitude today to listen to that still small voice that promises to neither leave nor forsake you. Once you hear His voice, do what He says!
--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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Hosea 11:1-11; Psalm 107:1-9, 43; Colossians 3:1-11;
Luke 12:13-21
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The Sunday Sermon
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.
In today’s gospel Jesus tells us how to pray. And if you stop for a moment to think about it, it’s profoundly moving that we are saying the same words, in our translation, that Jesus spoke to his disciples over two millennia ago. In Luke’s gospel today, these are short, declarative sentences, giving an impression of simplicity, something easy to remember: and, indeed, it’s likely we all know this prayer by heart. Perhaps it’s almost too familiar to us. In the very first word, Jesus said something shocking and new. God in the Hebrew Bible walks in the garden with Adam and Eve, and speaks to them, as well as to Cain, and Abraham and Sarah. God speaks to Moses, too, but by then, at the top of a mountain, as a voice from a cloud of fire and smoke. With one word Jesus returns us into an intimate relationship with God. Jesus’s contemporaries could understand God as a father to Israel; but the father of a person? And though Jesus wasn’t the first Jewish person to call God his father—Isaiah does so twice—that idea made them angry. In John 5:18 we read: “That was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”
The second sentence of the prayer, “Your kingdom come,” is equally scandalous, if anyone cared to listen to what Jesus meant by God’s kingdom. Biblical commentators, when discussing God’s kingdom, generally point to the covenant with Abraham in the book of Genesis, when God tells him that he will be the father of many nations, and the one made with Moses in the book of Exodus, promising that the people of Israel will be a kingdom of priests, and God’s pledge to David, in the second Book of Samuel, to establish the kingdom of his offspring forever.
Jesus talks about the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of heaven, frequently, often in parables to tell us what the kingdom of God is like. Not once does he refer to kings or priests or nations, but of pearls, hidden treasure, mustard seeds, the seeds of a sower, and the leaven in bread.
Recently I have been puzzling over one of these parables in the Gospel of Thomas, which you won’t find in your Bible, and it’s very different in tone and structure from the canonical gospels. It was one of the texts discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945; scholars have suggested that it was buried in response to Bish op Athanasius’s declaration of a strict canon of Christian scripture. Rather than a narrative, it is a collection of Jesus’s sayings, sometimes in response to questions from the disciples. The parable I’m thinking of begins in a familiar way: “The kingdom of heaven is like a good woman who takes leaven, hides it in dough and bakes loaves.” That’s not far from what we hear in Luke, 13:20–21: “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” Matthew’s gospel has very similar wording. But in the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus adds this: “The Kingdom of Heaven is also like a foolish woman carrying a load of flour on a long road; the sack splits and flour pours out, but she doesn’t realize. Because she doesn’t see what has happened, she isn’t worried, but when she gets home her sack is empty.”
I’m not sure what it means, but I like it that there is room in the kingdom of heaven for foolish women as well as good women. And I like that the foolish woman is so free of anxiety, her sack getting lighter and lighter as she goes merrily on her way. In Luke and Matthew, the parable of the leaven immediately follows the parable of the mustard seed, and it’s not hard to see in these parables that the kingdom of God grows from small beginnings. St. Augustine thought that the leaven signifies love, because it causes activity and fermentation.
What is this kingdom that we are asking to come, which, in Matthew’s version, is to come on earth as it is in heaven? It’s pretty clear that it’s not what all those Biblical commentators are pointing us to, who are surely like those Pharisees who ask Jesus when the kingdom of God will come. In Luke 17:20-21, Jesus replies, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.” The kingdom of God is here, in our midst! And though Jesus told us it’s not something that can be observed, we want to know where? In Luke 6:20 we hear: Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. So one place the kingdom of God can be found is among the poor.
That foolish woman in the parable with the empty sack had me thinking of another passage from Luke, 12:22–32: which begins with Jesus saying, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear,” and ends with him saying, “But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.”
Matthew Fox in his book Original Blessing calls it the kingdom/queendom, and tells us that we are each to come into our royal personhood; what we would have then is a beloved community. As this was a phrase used by Martin Luther King, Jr., he must certainly have been influenced by King in his use of the phrase, and indeed, he refers to him throughout the book. One of the epigraphs of a chapter is this quote from King:
“Time . . . can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.
You might have heard that there are only two primal emotions in humans, love and fear; I imagine that those people of ill will that King spoke about were people who acted from fear, and that the people of good will acted from love. But we are living in times when people have good reason to fear: when, before have we heard reports on July 4th of crowds that scattered in fear as the fireworks began because they thought they heard gun shots?
Every so often I have to travel into the city, though less and less these days as Zoom allows for virtual meetings. I take the train so infrequently, in fact, that I have to ask people if I’m on the right train. Not so infrequently that this question isn’t completely absurd. “Is this the train to Grand Central?” I ask, even though at the Poughkeepsie station there’s only one Metro-North train going south, which always goes to Grand Central. Still, I ask, and no doubt I would be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder by a clinical psychiatrist. It is dismaying to me that my anxiety may be projecting fear into the world rather than love. But the way that my question is met unfailingly with a smile of tolerance and a kind reply is evidence, I think, that though I may not be projecting the love, at that moment, that is necessary for the kingdom of God, for the beloved community, the strangers that answer my question are. A mustard seed, a grain of yeast.
And yes, we want that mustard seed to grow into a bush, the grain of yeast to leaven sixty loaves of bread. What can we do to try and heal those ills in our society, how can we be creative about solving the problems of racial injustice and every injustice? Who knows what may happen as we keep praying for the kingdom of God to come?
I love these lines from Adrienne Rich, which are so sad, yet hopeful:
My heart is moved by all that I cannot save:
so much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those
who, age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power,
reconstitute the world.
You might have noticed that I’ve addressed just the first two sentences of the Lord’s prayer. I’d have liked to talk about all of our readings today, at least the rest of the Gospel, but I didn’t want to try your patience too much. But in case you, like me, have sometimes felt that your prayers have gone unanswered, and have been puzzled by Jesus telling us to ask and we will receive, I would like to leave you with this wisdom from Julian of Norwich, who lived in the 14th century:
When we think our prayers have not been answered we should not become depressed over it. I am certain that God is telling us that we must wait for a better time, more grace, or that a better gift will be given us.
God is being and wants us to sit, dwell, and ground ourself in this knowledge while at the same time realizing that we are noble, excellent, assessed as precious and valuable and have been given creation for our enjoyment because we are loved.
Amen.
--Tessa Kale
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Dear St. Paul’s,
Last week, General Convention wrapped up in Baltimore. This is the governing body of The Episcopal Church that meets every three years, and sets policy on everything from marriage rites and ordination to liturgy and what issues the Church will choose to make statements on and devote resources to.
Convention was delayed by a year and shortened to four days because of COVID. But what an active four days it was. Here are a few things that happened:
● The Diocese of Texas the the Diocese of West Texas, which had split over women’s and LGBTQ ordination, reunited.
● Julia Ayala Harris was elected President of the House of Deputies, the first Latina to hold the position, and The Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton became the first Indigenous Vice President.
● The definition of the Book of Common Prayer was broadened to include all authorized liturgies (such as Eucharistic prayers in Enriching Our Worship, and same-sex marriage rites).
● A resolution to uncover and tell the truth about Indigenous boarding schools run by The Epsicopal Church was passed, as well as several resolutions on creation care and racial justice. Importantly, these resolutions came with allocated funds.
You can read more about the work of General Convention here. You can view sermons preached by Michael Curry and others for Convention here (some are also on the first link). Rev. Mary
--The Rev. Dr. Mary E. Barber
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We learned last week that The Rev. James B de Fontaine-Stratton died while on a visit to England with his wife. Father Stratton served at St. Paul’s from 1999 to 2004. He helped strengthen St. Paul's connection with the Diocese, and shepherded the church as it recovered from a fire in 2003.
Fr. Stratton had been living in Florida for the last several years. As we learn more about arrangements, we will send those updates.
But for now, let us pray.
O God, whose mercies cannot be numbered: Accept our prayers on behalf of your servant James, and grant him an entrance into the land of light and joy, in the fellowship of your saints; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
--The Rev. Dr. Mary E. Barber
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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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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:
Remember - Chili is still for sale at reduced prices -
Pt. - $6 and Qt. - $10. Speak to Debbie, Rose or Janet if you want some.
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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July Evangelism Newsletter
This month we continue exploring our Episcopal Evangelism challenge for 2022: Creating authentic communities of friends within our churches to live out our baptismal promises and the church's mission—to restore and be restored in unity with God and each other, in Christ. Our guest Evangelism Catalyst this month is Rachel Jones, who writes about sharing the gift of Good News with those closest to us.
If I have achieved anything in my life, it is because
I have not been embarrassed to talk about God."
“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others…” (I Peter 4:10)
One of my favorite things to talk about with our Embracing Evangelism facilitators is what it means to be evangelists in our daily lives. A marvelous way to start practicing daily evangelism with our friends and coworkers is by becoming a spiritual cheerleader/hype person. Why? Because beginning to learn how to preach the Good News of Jesus’ love often looks like providing encouragement to the folks around us.
We all understand the phrase, “If you see something, say something,” in the context of reporting scary things. But what if we flipped that script? What if, when we see people around us doing hard work, sharing, or loving well, being kind, being a good team player, being brave, showing or needing mercy—what if when we saw that, we said something right then? What if we named those words, those actions, as Good News – out loud?
Read more >> Share Here is this month’s social media image to share. Post this image on your favorite platform and share why you find this quote inspiring or challenging. Invite others to share their reactions as well. Click image to open it in your browser and download Listen Did you know that there are several podcasts available from The Episcopal Church? Topics on TECcast range from migration to agriculture to prophetic preaching, and everything in-between. Listen while you are walking, driving, or gardening, then share your favorite episodes with others. It is an easy Good News practice!
Watch While we take a summer break in July, you can watch and share recordings of earlier Evangelism Huddles from our Huddle Page. Our June Huddle was all about the Good News of Advocacy and how we can practically program God’s love and justice in the public sphere through a variety of words and deeds.
Evangelism CalendarOctober 2 – November 13 – Evangelism for Leadership Course – This course is taught by Jerusalem Greer for Bexley-Seabury’s Pathways for Baptismal Living program. Laypeople and clergy are welcome to apply.
December 9 – 10 - The Good News Festival – Join Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, Bishop Susan Snook, Canon Stephanie Spellers, Jerusalem Greer, and the Diocese of San Diego Evangelism Team for this amazing weekend.
Jerusalem Greer
Staff Officer for Evangelism
(212) 716-6219
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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 Julett Butler
_-7 Janet Quade
11 Ginny Gates
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13 Sharon Sherow
20 Kaylee Curtis
22 Ruthie A. Hodge
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27 Faith Mincey
28 Michael Babb
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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
JULY 2022
Our prayers are asked for:
G.J., Shawn-Lisl, Cynthia, Jeffrey, Linda, Marshall, Lillian, Michail I & II, Chandra (Plain), Evans; Paul; Alexis, The Church family, Avonel; Carola, Violet, Warren; Nancy, Plain family, Sasha; Margaret; Mizell family; Jill; Donna; People of Ukraine, Russia, and Haiti, Joanne, Janice; Norma; Serene, 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' |
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
July 26-August 1, 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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