The Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer are found in the Book of Common Prayer or online: 

Morning            Evening       

Psalm 105 vs 1-22

I find myself drawn to the Psalm again today. Perhaps this is no surprise. I have always found that, in times of distress, as I turn to Scripture, it is invariably the Psalms which speak to my soul. I take the first six words of the Psalm set for today as a pandemic challenge; “O give thanks to the Lord.” Can we find it in our heart to give thanks even at such a time as this?

​Our parishioner Fran has done just that in this month’s edition of the “Chimes.”  She gives thanks for the improvement in air quality; the rise in neighborliness; people helping others.

What might you add to the list?

In Christ,

Mark

The Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer are found in the Book of Common Prayer or online: 

Morning         Evening      

Psalm 37

The Psalm set for today is a long one. I’d encourage you just to focus on the first 7 verses. I once spent every prayer time I had for 6 months meditating on these wonderful verses. It’s packed with wisdom, and what we see there is a move from “fretting” to “stillness”. That’s a move we all need to make at this time. I encourage you to read each verse slowly and let the words sink deeply in to your soul. Notice the power of the verbs; “trust in the Lord”, “take delight in the Lord” and “commit your way to the Lord”. These are the steps that mark the move from fretting to stillness.

The Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer are found in the Book of Common Prayer or online: 

Morning             Evening      

Colossians 1:19-20: “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”

Many of us have struggled with the idea of the Holy Trinity and the the concept of Jesus being both fully  human and fully divine. It is the subject of many questions whenever I teach, especially in newcomer classes, but I don’t think any of us ever feel as though we completely “get it” because it is one of the most confusing and mysterious teachings of our faith. 
However, I don’t think we need to “get it” intellectually, instead, we can simply assent to it spiritually.  Let me explain. This passage from Colossians describes Jesus as being “the image of the invisible God” and the one in whom “the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” That imagery is incredibly helpful – rather than trying to “figure out” the nature of Jesus, we can simply relate to Jesus as the one in whom we can see and encounter God in God’s fullness. 
The “point” to this deep and mysterious doctrine isn’t to send us into mental gymnastics but to give us a deep assurance and sense of comfort, knowing that when we learn from, pray, and walk in the steps of Jesus, God is there – being reflected back to us, dwelling in all God’s “fullness.”  Jesus’ life is simply the love of God, writ large in human form, for our benefit.  We can rest in that now and always, knowing that such extravagant love leads to reconciliation and peace with God. 

Thanks be to God!  

~Rebecca+

The Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer are found in the Book of Common Prayer or online: 

Morning                Evening      

​Colossians 1:11a: “May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious
power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience…”

As a little girl I used to frequent our next-door neighbor’s kitchen. She lived in a cute little
yellow house and was always baking something delicious. I remember one day noticing and
reading a sign posted in her kitchen, “God, grant me patience … and please give it to me right
now!” It hit me just how funny that was (I was about 6 years old), and I never forgot it. I’m not
a naturally patient person and waiting often feels a bit like torture to me, and so that prayer has
sometimes seemed like a commentary on my life … and I have to stop and laugh at myself.

Right now I am feeling fairly impatient, impatient for our lives to return to “normal.” It’s a
good time to recall that little prayer – and then to rest in the strength that God gives us – a
strength that enables us to “endure everything with patience.” This is not a sprint that we’re in;
we’re in a marathon, and endurance and patience are hard to come by. But we have a God
ready to help us … “right now!” 

Thanks be to God.

~Rebecca+

In a preview of next year's season of the St. James Music Series, here is a playlist of some of the most popular recordings by the talented UK-based choir, VOCES8.

To listen click HERE.

Or sample each track in the player below.

Miss Gabby shares her backyard and wonders what could be inside the box.  It must be very precious.

​Miss Gabby shares how water painting can help develop both gross and fine motor skills as well as start a teachable moment about Evaporation.

The Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer are found in the Book of Common Prayer or online: 

Morning                Evening      

1 Peter 5:6-7 "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you."

This pandemic has been an incredibly humbling experience for us as a world, but I have been humbled as a person: both as a parent and a minister. In both of these vocations I deeply want to get it “right” and I thought I knew what that meant or could look like – but I’m no longer sure I know what “right” looks like or whether I can achieve it because all the rules have changed as our lives have been so completely altered. Suddenly success in ministry corresponds to hours and hours of online computer time and tech savviness while success in parenting corresponds to teaching common core math and reading to children who want nothing more than to play outside like its summer every day, all while making sure we have enough food, are washing our hands, and avoiding everyone we know and love. It all adds up to anxiety – anxiety that I’m not getting it right. And I know people have anxiety over many things right now. 
But then we read 1 Peter today – and after calling us to be humbled (check), we hear words of grace: “Cast all your anxiety on (God), because he cares for you.”  In our humbling, the next step is not increased anxiety or beating ourselves up, but simply recognizing how much the Lord cares for us – so much so that we are invited to “cast our anxieties” on God. I like to visualize my prayers and this verse offers a wonderful visualization for us. Can you prayerfully imagine all your anxieties being bundled up, like dirty laundry, and then literally thrown, or cast upon God to carry for you? God takes them for us when we offer them up to God. When my shoulders aren’t big enough, and they certainly aren’t big enough right now, we have a God willing to take the weight off of us. It’s okay not to get it right – and it’s even okay to worry – but then cast your anxieties upon God. God loves us so much that God will take them and bear them for us. And so, in our humbling, we find grace. Thanks be to God! 
 
Easter blessings! 

~Rebecca+

Join with everyone using the service bulletin HERE.    Join our Coffee Hour after the service at 11:00 am HERE.

​​Video of only the sermon HERE. (usually posted Mondays)

With this post we continue the course started as a Sunday morning forum, "The Letters of Paul." Dr. David Moseley started us opening Paul's mail and now we are privileged to sit in on a Yale Divinity course with Dr. Laura Nasrallah. 
Dr. Nasrallah’s course is an in-depth exploration of the historical and cultural context of Paul’s letters and the ancient world in which the New Testament was written based on the letters themselves, archeology, and other historical resources. Read more about Dr. Nasrallah HERE.
Each week of May we will post Dr. Nasrallah's lectures and on Wednesday evenings join Mo. Rebeccah in a Zoom meeting to discuss them. The whole class schedule is posted on the Adult Education page HERE. 

The first week's topic is "Introduction to the Letters of Paul" and the lectures are found HERE. 

After watching the lectures, feel free to return here and type your comments or reply to others'.

Our live discussion on Zoom will be Wednesday, May 6, 6:30-7:15 pm.  Access the meeting HERE.

John 6:1-15

John’s Gospel is the only one of the Gospels which does not include an “Institution” narrative, that is, the account of Jesus instituting the Eucharist at the Last Supper. Scholars think that this passage in chapter 6 is John’s equivalent. In this story, Jesus feeds the people and goes on to describe himself as the bread of life and says things which must have scandalized his original hearers, such as, “he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life”. We now have a deep sense that Jesus here is talking about the way that we feed on him spiritually in the Eucharist. Of course, we are not able to be fed spiritually in that way at the moment. But that does not mean that we can not be fed spiritually at this time. What are the ways that, in our present context, we can still have our spiritual appetites satisfied?

In Christ,

Fr. Mark

The Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer are found in the Book of Common Prayer or online: 

Morning              Evening        

Acts 5:27-33

It is often pointed out that the word “Trinity” does not appear in the Bible. That is true, but it is not true to say that the idea of God as Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is not a biblical idea. The notion of God as triune, as community, is foundational to an understanding of the Bible. We see that in this reading from Acts. In two short verses we have reference to Jesus, who was raised to life by God the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Resurrection can only be understood as the work of the Trinity. It is in this season of our liturgical calendar that we are most aware of the God as Trinity. Look out for a similar Trinitarian reference in Sunday’s Gospel and compare this verse in Acts to one of my favorite verses in the whole of Paul’s writings:
​“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through the Spirit which dwells in you.” Romans 8:11

In Christ,

Fr. Mark

​Miss Gabby shares a favorite childhood story.

The Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer are found in the Book of Common Prayer or online: 

Morning              Evening      

Psalm 119:18: “I will meditate on your commandments
                           and give attention to your ways.”

Some of us (and truly only some of us) have found ourselves with more free time during this period of shelter in place. I know I personally feel busier than ever with homeschooling children in addition to working from home. That said, I know one of the most fruitful things I have ever done when I have found myself with more free time has been meditating upon and even memorizing passages from Scripture.  Those texts still sustain and uphold me even years later and I return to them again and again.   
If you’d like to try meditating on and/or memorizing Scripture, an easy method is to pick out a short verse or phrase that really speaks to your soul.  Write it on a small piece of paper that you can either post some place you see consistently or just keep in your pocket.  Do this for the day  – and return to it again and again and again.  Say it over and over.  You can even set it to a short tune to help you recall it.  Soon the text will stick and then it will become part of you ... and those words can become transformative and sustaining.  This is one of the gifts of attending to Scripture and God’s “ways” and it is something I can wholeheartedly recommend.   

Be well. This too shall pass. In the meantime, we pray.  

Easter blessings! 

~Rebecca+

Our Music Director Alex Benestelli offers a powerful work, the joyful Eastertide cantata, Christ lag in todesbanden, BWV 4, by Johann Sebastian Bach. Go directly to it HERE.
Or sample it first in the player below.

It was one of the earliest, if not the first, cantata written when Bach was still fundamentally a student. In Bach's first year in Leipzig he so thoroughly revised the work that it is not known how much of the original remains. Certainly some things such as the marvelous and rich four-voice harmonization of the chorale that ends the work are the work of the mature master. The work is a set of choral variations on the great Easter Chorale "Christ lag in Todes Banden." The cantata begins with a Sinfonia for the string orchestra. It takes certain phrases of the chorale tune and molds them into a perfect introduction to the energetic and exciting opening chorus. Certainly, the heightened excitement of the brilliant Alleluias is a youthful holdover. A walking bass line accompanies the hushed soprano-alto duet that follows. Tenors then take up the tune against a brilliant Vivaldi-like string line. The center of the cantata is occupied by a vivid four-voice setting of the chorale with the tune in the alto. Here Luther's vivid and brutal lines are marvelously and thoroughly characterized. The bass aria is the most inward part of the cantata, a meditation upon the meaning of the Passover and its relationship to Christian doctrine. The bouncy soprano-tenor duet is a tremendous release from the intensity of the bass aria. The final four-voice chorale setting is one of the greatest in the whole Bach canon and a suitable close to this brilliant and impressive work.

For a translation of the cantata from German click HERE. 

Notes by Craig Smith