Finishing Where We Started

This Sunday begins our final arc of the Liturgical Year as we finish where we started. We began this year in Advent (December 3, 2017 to be exact)  in Mark 13. There we found Jesus had triumphantly entered Jerusalem, cleansed the temple of the pretenders that plagued it, and was teaching in the temple about the destruction that would come upon it and the coming of the Son of Man at the end of the age. The lesson was “be ready.” 

This week we come upon Jesus as he’s teaching in the temple about the folly of the Pharisees and their desire for recognition in light of the self-giving of a widow who offers all she has for the Lord her God. 

You may have noticed that most of our Gospel lessons this year have been in Mark. That’s because we’re on a three-year cycle of readings that follows this pattern: Year A - Matthew, Year B - Mark, Year C - Luke, with a healthy portion of John’s gospel mixed in the high holy days and various seasons of the year. So when Advent begins, we’ll start a new liturgical year with a new gospel as our focus, that of Luke. But the themes of Advent won’t change dramatically. We’ll begin at the end and work our way towards the birth of Christ where the overarching lesson remains “be ready”.  

Jay+

Where does our liturgy come from?

Many of you have expressed interest in learning more about the Book of Common Prayer, but if you've ever picked up a prayer book, you probably know that it is not the easiest book to navigate. All those pages and all that tiny print can feel intimidating and confusing. I know that was true for me. When I first picked up a prayer book, I didn't really know what I was doing, and I didn't really know where to begin. But once someone showed me and explained to me the why and the how of the prayer book, it began to deeply enrich my times of prayer and scriptural devotion.

We hope that we can do the same for you. Starting Sunday, November 4 we will spend three weeks discussing what the prayer book is and how you can use it in your daily devotions. So if you have been curious about where our liturgy comes from or have wondered what the Daily Office is and how to do it, please make plans to join us at 4pm on November 4 in the parish hall.

Christopher+ Myers

What Do You Want?

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus, after being prodded by James and John, asks them “what do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:25-35) Can you imagine if Jesus asked you that question? What would your answer be? Sure we could throw out any wild idea similar to the Sons of Zebedee - “grant us to sit one at your right hand and one at your left” - (at least they were honest, right?) But imagine if James and John answered differently. What if they answered with something a little more in line with Jesus’ trajectory and his vision for the kingdom of God? He would soon tell them if they want to be first, they must be servant of all, which seems a bit at odds with their request. 

What if we knew what we wanted? What if we had been steeped in God’s story, attentive to his work in our lives in the past and present, and possessed a Spirit-inspired anticipation of what he might be doing in the future? That kind of clarity takes time and effort, listening and prayer. It’s more like farming than going to the store for produce. And, at our Discerning Your Call Retreat, we will begin that work of moving towards clarity. 

God is calling each of us to fulfill a role that no one else can. During this transformational time you’ll discover how God has worked in your past to discern how he may be leading you in the future. And when you come to that moment of asking Jesus what you want, you can do so with confidence and clarity. 

RSVP and Details Here

Jay+

Happy Independence Day : We Are St. Bartholomew’s

Our first week as St. Bartholomew’s has gone off with a bang. There were even fireworks last night! Last Sunday July 1, we marked our first Sunday as St. Bartholomew’s. If you were there for church you saw new signs, a new bulletin, and experienced the beginning of a new season as a new people. I’m full of expectation at what God will do in us in this new season.  

I hope you were able to celebrate Independence Day with friends and family. I’m always quick to forget all God has provided for us in our nation. We have been blessed so greatly! And, as a country, we find ourselves at a particularly difficult moment politically and socially. In these days following July 4th, pray for our nation. God has given his Church a priestly vocation of intercession - we exercise this each Sunday in the prayers of the people. Join me in praying the Collects below for our nation.

Collect for Independence Day

Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn: Grant that we and all the people of this land may have grace to maintain our liberties in righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Collect for the Nation

Lord God Almighty, you have made all the peoples of the earth for your glory, to serve you in freedom and in peace: Give to the people of our country a zeal for justice and the strength of forbearance, that we may use our liberty in accordance with your gracious will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.


- Jay+

Summer is Here!

Believe it or not, summer is here! Your kids or grandkids (or friend’s kids) are out of school, running rampant all over the neighborhood, and our relaxed rhythm at St. Bartholomew’s is in full swing.

Sundays will be, as always, devoted to worshiping the living God. But we’ll also be following the establishment of Israel’s monarchy in 1 and 2 Samuel. In these coming weeks we’ll see how Israel became a people and gain insight for our own lives and to see our own process of becoming St. Bartholomew’s.

By now hopefully you’ve signed up for a Dinners for 9 group. If you’re a recent newcomer, since March or so, we have a great Newcomer’s Night coming up on June 18. And Wednesday June 20, we’ll have our first Summer Worship Night where we’ll worship, hear some teaching, and pray, as God makes us ready to become St. Bartholomew’s.

See you Sunday!

- Jay+

Becoming A People

This Sunday is our first in Ordinary Time. Don’t cringe. Really, Ordinary Time is a great season with the beautiful, lush color GREEN as its theme color. 

Green is so good. It means go (so I remind drivers every day). It’s the color of life. As I look out my office window, my soul is eased by the verdant view despite the untimely yet sweltering heat of late May. Green will go with us this season, and we’ll experience that slow, subtle growth that green reminds us of.

And this Ordinary Time is not ordinary at all for us at St. Bartholomew’s. We’re in the final days of becoming. We’re becoming a people and learning what it means to be our own church. We'll have increased responsibility and increased joy as we continue to expand in mission and ministry. We’ll continue to welcome the stranger, the newcomer, the seeker and the friend to enter into life with us at St. Bartholomew’s.

And the lectionary will have us in a saga of becoming. For the next 10 weeks we’ll be in 1 and 2 Samuel. Seeing Israel’s monarchy established, watching Saul be anointed and ultimately fall because of jealous, rebellion, and disobedience, we’ll move through David’s reign the victory of his triumph, God’s unfailing, covenant love promised to him and his descendants, and the chaos that falls upon his kingdom and his family after his sin against Bathsheba and Uriah. 

We’re becoming a people, and God is presiding over the entire process: the good, the beautiful, and the messy. He’s trustworthy and has a beautiful plan for St. Bartholomew’s that is beyond ordinary. I can’t wait to embark on it with you.

- Jay+

Meditation for Trinity Sunday

God is love. God is Trinity. The first of these two statements is one most of us are quite comfortable with. In fact, many people who would never count themselves as Christians have no problem saying ,“God is love”. The second statement, God is Trinity, doesn’t fare as well, especially with those who aren’t Christians, and even with Christians themselves. One God in Three Persons. It seems needlessly perplexing, a paradox that we would simply rather spend little time thinking about. Yes, we might say it as part of the creed every Sunday—I believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—but it’s hard to think that it matters that much. What difference does it make, really?

It turns out that it makes all the difference in the world. It is actually impossible to say God is love without also affirming that God is Trinity. We cannot have one without the the other. That God is love is a result of him being Triune because love requires relationship. Notice that what we affirm in saying “God is love” is not simply that God is loving, or does loving things, but that he is in and of himself Love. This is a key distinction. For love to exist, there must be the one who loves, the one who is loved, and the love that is created between them. Or to put it another way, there is the Father who loves the Son and the bond of love between them is the Holy Spirit.

Now I know I haven’t solved the deep mysteries of the Trinity in two puny paragraphs. Nor do I pretend to know exactly how it all works, but there is something deeply profound here, and I want to encourage you that the Trinity deserves our deepest contemplation. I also want to affirm that when our hearts warm at hearing that God is love, we are instinctually connecting with the reality of the Trinity and affirming the nature of reality itself. C.S. Lewis says something to this effect in The Problem of Pain: “In self-giving, if anywhere, we touch a rhythm not only of all creation but of all being…[it is] self giving which is absolute reality." Self-giving describes the very nature of God’s love. God so loved that he gave. And Lewis affirms that self-giving tells us something about the nature of the world we live in and about the nature of Being, of God and existence, itself.

- Chris+

Fulfilled Time

In my house there is a note of hope, a promise of freedom and fulfillment. Yes, we’re excited about Pentecost coming this Sunday, but we’re also excited about school letting out. The fruits of our labors - school lunches, homework, extra activities, patiently enduring the fights and tears (at least the school related ones) - can now be harvested in the restorative space of summer. We’re ready to live in fulfilled time.

Liturgically and spiritually we’re living in fulfilled time as well especially as Pentecost approaches this Sunday. We began the Church year with Advent anticipating the coming of our Lord Jesus in his glorious second coming and his birth at Bethlehem at Christmas. We saw him revealed to the Gentiles on Epiphany. We remembered our own mortality and death as Ash Wednesday led us into Lent a time of fasting, pain, and suffering with our Lord. We meditated upon the cruel beauty of the Cross. We witnessed the empty tomb and remembered that all around us are signs of resurrection, the potential for life, renewal, and glory. We experienced the transformation of place, power, and prayer in the Ascension this past Sunday. 

The marking of our liturgical time will be complete this Sunday with Pentecost. On this feast we celebrate with expectation the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Jesus’ followers thus giving birth to the Church, God’s heavenly people living on earth. We also cry out for his Spirit to fill us afresh and anew.

But not only will our liturgical time be fulfilled, by the power of the Spirit, we live now in that same space of fulfillment, of God’s kingdom come in the person of the Holy Spirit who fills us, gives us power, makes us witnesses to our adoption as his sons and daughters to every tribe, language, tongue and nation. He does this to us collectively, the Church. He does this for us individually as members of his body. 

So we live in fulfilled time now. The summer is almost here. We can rest in God’s provision for us. We can be restored by the Spirit who empowers us and makes us witnesses. We can be filled with power to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. Thanks be to God!


- Jay+