St John’s Episcopal Church, Cornwall, New York

The second concert of St. John’s Revelations Series will be on Saturday evening, March 13, 2010 at 7:30pm at St. John’s Episcopal Church, located at the corner of Clinton and Hazen Streets in Cornwall, NY.

This concert will feature the guitar and saxophone duo of Mike Benninger and Lois Hicks-Wozniak. Featuring selections by Albinoni, Charriere, Hovhaness, Keuris, Nosse, Piazolla and A. Jobim/C. Adderley, this concert offers works ranging from the Baroque to 20th century contemporary with an emphasis on world music with Asian inspired works to Argentinean Tango and Brazilian Bossa Nova.

$10 donation and reception to follow.

Exodus 3.1-13; Luke 13.31-35

My sympathies have always been with Moses in this encounter with the burning bush. God identifies God’s self as the God of Moses’ Father. It is not clear to me that Moses ever knew his father so I wonder how compelling this first identification is.

God says that not only have the prayerful cries from the oppressed Israelites awakened his reaction but God has also seen their oppression.

God tells Moses that he is to be God’s agent in going to Pharaoh and bringing God’s people from Egypt. Moses recognizing that he is about to be placed in a situation with mortal consequences wants to know how he is going to do this. He could conceivably be tried for killing the Egyptian overseer if he is recognized.

God’s answer is supposed to be comforting: I will be with you and you will have a sign—when the people are worshiping on this mountain it will be evident that I sent you. Moses is not comforted. Continue Reading »

Episcopal Charities is the outreach arm of the Episcopal Church. It currently supports 80 parish-based programs around the Diocese that deliver vital support to people who really need it.

In 2007 the Diocesan Convention passed a resolution that each year a Sunday be designated on which “parishes and missions take a special collection to be donated to Episcopal Charities of New York to support feeding programs which receive funding from Episcopal Charities of New York.” We urge you to participate in Episcopal Charities Sunday, and give as generously as you can. To visit the Episcopal Charities website, click here.

LUKE 13:31-35
As we hear how Jesus is not to be admired, or even accepted, as a prophet, a speaker of the truth of the times, in his home town,  how Jesus desires this were not so! He yearns to alter the course of history and stop Jerusalem and its appointment with destiny. He laments, he wishes undone, he wants to spread a blanket of comfort over the painful outcome he knows will ensue.  The story made me wonder if  those moments happen to us as well and how would we respond to “those things done and undone.”
Again Luke reminds us that even those who know Jesus well could not see the son of a local carpenter as the agent of change. While Jesus, reluctantly accepts the fact that there will be many obstacles and even resistance to God’s message of redemption, his hometown friends and family almost scoff at the effrontery of his efforts. Continue Reading »

“Whatever you give up will be replaced tenfold.”

This week I was struck by the limitlessness of God and our struggles to be reconciled to that. There are no limits to God’s love for us, yet we must be accountable for our actions, or inactions. This is a time for us to pause, and reflect on our responsibility to accept and account for God’s love at work in our lives.

At this time of year, as the light increases in the sky perceptibly, I can lift my eyes to a greater horizon and dream of my summer garden. It is easier to wonder and imagine, now the darkness is receding. But we are also called to dream in awe of how we can be God’s stewards and servants in the midst of the gloom. That is a tough one for me. Lent allows us to corporately give each other permission to have some doubts and look to the light of Easter for hope. Continue Reading »

One of the attractive aspects of this church during my call process was the choice to use a verse of scripture as its mission statement: We love because He first loved us. It is found in 1st John, Chapter 4, verse 19.

Now whether we love in general or love Jesus and reflect that love in loving others, the love spoken of is the same love extolled by the Apostle Paul in today’s reading.

From the context that it appears, the love which Paul extols is a product of the Holy Spirit just as faith and hope are and that makes sense as Paul uses the word agape which was used at the time to describe God’s love for humanity. Continue Reading »

Download the complete January issue here

I don’t know what your experience has been, but the timing of Christmas and then the weekend has certainly confused my internal liturgical clock. It will receive another jolt on Friday, January 1st, when we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ (the full title) with Sunday coming only two days later. The Feast of the Holy Name recalls the custom still practiced today in most Jewish families to name the male child and perform the circumcision on the eighth day.

January 3rd was the second Sunday after Christmas. I had hoped people would have returned from visiting relatives or hosting relatives and come Continue Reading »

FROM St. Peter’s Complaint, 1595
THE BURNING BABE.
By Robert Southwell

As I in hoary winter’s night stood shivering in the snow,
Surprised I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow;
And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,
A pretty babe all burning bright did in the air appear;
Who, scorchëd with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shed
As though his floods should quench his flames which with his tears were fed.
Alas, quoth he, but newly born in fiery heats I fry,
Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I!
My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns,
Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns;
The fuel justice layeth on, and mercy blows the coals,
The metal in this furnace wrought are men’s defilëd souls,
For which, as now on fire I am to work them to their good,
So will I melt into a bath to wash them in my blood.
With this he vanished out of sight and swiftly shrunk away,
And straight I callëd unto mind that it was Christmas day.