Pentecost 13A 2020 St. James Anglican Church

Pentecost 13A

Beth Kunkel Preacher

Fr. Carlos Raines Celebrant

https://www.stjas.org/sermons.html

Holy Matrimony - The Kiss of Peace

Bishop Eric Menees

Dear Friends, I hope and pray that this Bishop’s Note finds you healthy and well.  As we gradually work through the pastoral rites in the ACNA 2019 BCP we continue with the Rite of Holy Matrimony. This last week we briefly examined the nuptial blessing. Today we discuss the kiss of peace and the Eucharist.  This tends to be that moment in the service that the bride dreams of for so much of her life and the groom worries that he’s going to mess up. In Ecclesiastes it’s said, “there is nothing new under the sun,” (Ecclesiastes 1:9) and that’s true with the understanding of the Kiss of Peace during the sacrament of Holy Matrimony.

THE PEACE   The Officiant may say to the People          The Peace of the Lord be always with you. People And with your spirit. The newly married couple may then exchange the Kiss of Peace, after which greetings may be exchanged throughout the Congregation.

Today, many people who didn’t grow up in the church see the kiss during this sacrament as something romantic, but that’s not how it began. In the early church, one frequent practice was called the kiss of peace. Originally, this kiss wasn’t something done romantically, it was done as a way of expressing reconciliation and peace between two people. Paul asks that the members of churches greet each other with a kiss of peace in Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, and 1 Peter. Back then though, people had the same misunderstandings as today. One record mentions a Christian wife whose husband was upset that she was giving others the kiss of peace during the Eucharist. The Eucharist was the main place for this kiss of peace because of what it expressed. Before receiving the Eucharist, everyone needed not only repentance of their sins but reconciliation with their brothers and sisters in Christ. When the peace was brought back into the Eucharist in the 19th and 20th centuries, it changed from being a kiss to another sign like a handshake. So rather than being something romantic in origin, this kiss is closer to passing the peace on a Sunday. Being present during Holy Matrimony the kiss has somewhat different connotations. Rather than being only preparatory for the Eucharist, it shows that marriage needs to be entered into with that same sense of reconciliation. It’s also a reminder that marriages won’t be easy and there will be times the couple disagree or get upset with each other, but they need to recognize those moments and both seek reconciliation and demonstrate the willingness to forgive. Now for some weddings the service ends there, but for many others the service continues:

When Communion is not to follow, the wedding party leaves the church. A hymn, psalm, or anthem may be sung, or instrumental music may be played. When there is Communion, the liturgy continues with the Offertory, at which the newly married couple, or members of their family, may present the offerings of bread and wine.

When I prepare couples for Holy Matrimony and put the service together, I strongly encourage them to include the Eucharist. The Eucharist is that sacrament where we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and receive the benefits of the crucifixion and resurrection. To put it simply, the Eucharist is the sacrament that gives us the grace and strength to lead Christian lives. It’s important for the couple to start off their marriage with this grace and it serves as a reminder that they’ll need this grace continually in their married life. Putting the Eucharist in a service of Holy Matrimony also serves to more closely identify the union of husband and bride with the union of Christ and his Church, which we see exemplified in the Eucharist.  I pray you all have a blessed week.

Pentecost 12A 2020 St. James Anglican Church

Pentecost 12A 2020

Deacon Anthony Valdez Preacher and Celebrant 

https://www.stjas.org/sermons.html

Holy Matrimony - The Nuptial Blessing

Bishop Eric Menees

Dear Friends, I hope and pray that this Bishop’s Note finds you healthy and well.  As we gradually work through the pastoral rites in the ACNA 2019 BCP we continue with the Rite of Holy Matrimony. This last week we briefly examined the prayers for the husband and wife. Today we discuss the marriage blessing or nuptial blessing. What happens here is interesting. It is my practice to have the couple kneel, I remove my stole, the sign of my priesthood – my yoke with Christ – and I tie their hands with my stole stating, “I bind your hands with my stole, the symbol of my yoke with Christ. From this moment on your marriage is inextricably bound in the church and the church in your marriage.”  This is a practice that was taught to me by my mentor priest, William Thompson, and a practice that I pass on to young priests.  This act is not specifically mentioned in the Book of Common Prayer, however, the following blessing is…

THE BLESSING OF THE MARRIAGE The Husband and Wife kneel, and the Officiant says Most gracious God, we give you thanks for your tender love in sending Jesus Christ to come among us, to be born of a human mother, and to make the way of the Cross to be the way of life. We thank you, also, for consecrating the union of man and woman in his Name. By the power of your Holy Spirit, pour out the abundance of your blessing upon this man and this woman. Defend them from every enemy. Lead them into all peace. Let their love for each other be a seal upon their hearts, a mantle about their shoulders, and a crown upon their foreheads. Bless them in their work and in their companionship; in their sleeping and in their waking; in their joys and in their sorrows; in their life and in their death. In your mercy, bring them to your heavenly banquet where your saints feast for ever at the great marriage supper of the Lamb; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. The Husband and Wife still kneeling, the Bishop or Priest adds this nuptial blessing. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, bless, preserve, and keep you; the Lord mercifully with his favor look upon you, and fill you with all spiritual benediction and grace; that you may faithfully live together in this life, and in the age to come have life everlasting. Amen.

This blessing is interesting because this and the blessing of the rings are the only parts of the service that require the ministrations of a priest. In the same way that a priest is the minister of the Eucharist and a bishop is the minister of Confirmation, the husband and wife are the ministers of the sacrament of Holy Matrimony. If that’s the case, why should the couple come to the church? A large part of it is this blessing. We as human beings are fallen and incapable of so much by ourselves. If a man and woman decide to get married, the odds are it won’t be successful if it’s just them by themselves putting the effort in. In the presentation and the witnesses earlier in the service we see the community of friends and family come around the couple to support them in this new union. In the exchange of vows, God joins together this man and this woman and gives them the grace they need in their new life together. This blessing in a sense is the priest calling on God in thanks, to not only set apart the new couple but to prepare them to receive that grace from God to strengthen their marriage, to cooperate with it rather than struggle against it. This blessing reminds me of the episcopal blessing I and every other bishop give at the end of the Eucharist. It’s not trying to give an extra helping of grace in addition to what’s just been received, it’s preparing us to continue to receive grace and to cooperate with it. It’s not just that the Eucharist is over and I can go on with my life, it’s that this service is over and I need to be thankful for what I’ve received and I need to live into that. This nuptial blessing is a reminder of not only the grace we receive in Holy Matrimony, but the importance of living into it.  I pray that this week you will be able to discern God’s grace and presence in your marriages and in your lives. One way to turn to God more and more this week is to join others in our diocese online for Morning and Evening Prayer. If you go to https://www.dioceseofsanjoaquin.net/daily-office.htmland submit the form you’ll be given an invitation to join them at 7am and 6:30pm. Morning and Evening Prayer is a wonderful way of regularly praying throughout your day, and this is a great way to do that with others in our diocese to support each other in our prayer lives. Have a very blessed Lord’s Day.

Pentecost 11A 2020 St. James Anglican Church

Pentecost 11A 2020

Preacher and Celebrant Fr. Carlos Raines

https://www.stjas.org/sermons.html

Bishop’s Note - The Prayers - Holy Matrimony

Bishop Eric Menees

Dear Friends, I am rested, back from vacation, and excited to be writing you again.  You’ll remember that we are slowly working our way through the ACNA 2019 BCP. The last time I wrote about Holy Matrimony we examined the marital vows and the pronouncement of husband and wife. This morning we continue with the section simply referred to as The Prayers.  These, of course, underline the importance of surrounding the couple in prayer.   These prayers begin appropriately with the Lord’s Prayer and then move to specific prayers for the couple, their life together in Christ, and God willing the formation of a family.  I’ll not comment on each prayer as they are self-evident.  Please take a moment and read through these prayers thinking of your own marriage or that of someone you love.

THE PRAYERS If Communion is to follow, the Lord’s Prayer may be omitted here.  All standing, the Officiant says Let us pray together in the words our Savior taught us. People and Officiant Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil.  For thine is the kingdom, and the power,  And the Glory.  For ever and ever. Amen.  Let us pray, saying, “Hear our prayer.” Eternal God, creator and preserver of all life, author of salvation, and giver of all grace: Look with favor upon this man and this woman whom you make one flesh in Holy Matrimony, and enable them to fulfill the vows they have made. Reader Lord, in your mercy:  People Hear our prayer. Grant them wisdom and devotion in the ordering of their common life, that each may be to the other a partner in prayer, a strength in need, a counselor in perplexity, a comfort in sorrow, and a companion in joy. Reader Lord, in your mercy:  People Hear our prayer. Grant that their wills may be so knit together in your will, and their spirits in your Spirit, that they may grow in love and devotion to you and with one another all the days of their lives. Reader Lord, in your mercy:  People Hear our prayer. Give them courage, when they hurt each other, to recognize and acknowledge their faults, to seek your forgiveness, and to forgive and be reconciled to one another. Reader Lord, in your mercy:  People Hear our prayer. May their union in Holy Matrimony be a sign of the love between Christ and his Church, and a joyful witness to the world. Reader Lord, in your mercy:  People Hear our prayer. Bestow upon them, if it be your will, the gift and heritage of children, and the grace to bring them up to know you, to love you, and to serve you. Reader Lord, in your mercy:  People Hear our prayer. Grant that they may so love,  honor,  and cherish each other in faithfulness and patience,  in wisdom and true godliness,  that their home may be a haven of blessing and peace.  Reader Lord, in your mercy:  People Hear our prayer.  Give them such grace that together they may reach out in love and concern for others, and grant that all married persons who have witnessed these vows may find their lives strengthened and their loyalties confirmed.  Reader Lord, in your mercy:  People Hear our prayer.

Sermon For Pentecost 10A 2020 St. James Anglican Church

Sermon for Pentecost 10A 2020

Fr. Carlos Rains Celebrant and Preacher,

https://www.stjas.org/sermons.html

Bishop’s Note: The Feast of the Transfiguration 2020

Bishop Eric Menees

Today we in the Church celebrate a major feast day officially known as The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The collect (prayer) which marks this day is, “O God, who on the holy mount revealed to chosen witnesses your well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening: Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith behold the King in his beauty; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”      The scriptures describing the event are found in the Synoptic Gospels, (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), and all point to Jesus’ ascending a mount (Perhaps Mt. Sinai) along with his primary disciples, Peter, James, and John. There before them he is transfigured – his true divine nature is revealed – alongside him Elijah & Moses appear and the disciples hear the voice of God proclaim, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased: listen to him.”       So, what was the purpose of the Transfiguration? Clearly it was to reveal Jesus’ divine nature.  More than a great prophet, like Moses or Elijah – Jesus was the fulfillment of the law, which Moses represented, and the prophets which Elijah represented. In addition he also embodied all that it means to be human.       However, lest there be any doubt in the disciple’s minds, even though the disciples had seen Jesus heal the sick, cast out demons, feed the thousands, and walk on water - Jesus was transfigured before their very eyes.   So much so that he was as bright as the sun reflecting off of snow.  Can you imagine what the disciples must have been thinking?  I imagine that their brains were on overload.       Then standing with Jesus was Moses – the supreme lawgiver – the one who God used first to try to bridge the gap between God and man caused by the fall from grace in the Garden of Eden.  The law was intended to help people connect with God; the problem is that it became the ends rather than the means.      On the other side of Jesus was Elijah, one of the greatest of the prophets.  It was Elijah who was sent by God to call Israel back to the fold and it was Elijah who was swept up into heaven on a whirlwind.       So here was Jesus – standing transfigured between Moses and Elijah representing the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. And just in case the disciples didn’t really get it…the voice of God says, “THIS IS MY BELOVED SON, WITH WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED, LISTEN TO HIM.”       This is a powerful statement because prior to Jesus the people were to listen solely to the law and the prophets – but now they are called to listen to Jesus as the fulfillment of the law and the prophets.      We too are called to listen to Jesus – the incarnation of God – fully God and fully man! And yet, there are so many competing voices out there calling for our attention, voices that seek to place our needs, wants, and desires first.       However, Jesus tells us not to listen to those voices – in fact the message is very simple and straight forward.  “YOU ARE TO LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND. THIS IS THE FIRST AND GREAT COMMANDMENT. AND THE SECOND IS LIKE IT: LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” And to that I say… AMEN!  I pray a very blessed Feast of the Transfiguration to you all!

 

Pentecost 9A 2020 St. James Anglican Church

Christians Will Always Be Strangers In A Strange Land

Sermon Fr. Dale Matson

https://www.stjas.org/sermons.html

Christians Will Always Be Strangers In A Strange Land

Pentecost 9A 2020

Dale Matson

         I would like to begin by restating a portion of our opening Collect for today. “Almighty and merciful God, it is only by your grace that your faithful people offer you true and laudable service: Grant that we may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.”

         Let me contrast that with statements by the late Sociologist Phillip Rieff.

“Religious man was born to be saved, psychological man is born to be pleased.”

“Psychological man may be going nowhere, but he aims to achieve a certain speed and certainty in going.” From Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith after Freud.

         The prophet Amos put it like this. ““Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.

They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.” And people are surely running to and fro in 2020.

Phillip Rieff was not only a sociologist, he was a prophet also. He had this to say in 2006. “The wisdom of the next social order, as I imagine it, would not reside in right doctrine, administered by the right men, who must be found, but rather in doctrines amounting to permission for each man to live an experimental life.” He also stated, “Men already felt freer to live their lives with a minimum pretense to anything more grand than sweetening the time.”

         I agree and believe we are there now where the individual is the supreme being. Each person is his or her own god.  “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.” (From Invictus by William Ernest Henley)

I came from a Protestant white middle class family that embraced what President Herbert Hoover called rugged individualism. Many have pointed to Teddy Roosevelt as the archetype of the rugged individualist.  

When I interviewed student prospects as the director of the school psychology program, I would ask them to tell me their story. What became clear to me over the years was the different world views the students brought to the program. Almost all of the Hispanic and Hmong students told their story in the context of their family and culture. They did not see themselves as individuals distinct from the family which included the grandparents.

There is a risk of an egocentricity that accompanies individualism. Perhaps males are given more latitude than females on this. Someone once said that we give our boys wings and our girls roots. In our society today, individualism has now been raised to the level of idolatry. Human rights translated in today’s terms is, I’ve Got to Be Me (A song popularized by Sammy Davis Jr.). Carol Gilligan correctly asserted the role of relationships in moral development and challenged Lawrence Kohlberg on his system of moral development based on individualism. Today, when the individual is free to do whatever she wants as long as it does not encroach on my rights; it is really a “work around”. It is me absolving myself of a responsibility to my neighbor. Ignoring my neighbor is failure to love my neighbor as myself.

            Eventually, I have come to see myself not as an individual with personal goals to be accomplished and a resume’ to be embellished. While I still enjoy the alone time, it is obvious that I depend more on others every day. God puts those people around us to help us. Our infirmities and aging frailties force us to rely on others.

Life lived in a collaborative fashion produces richer results, affirms and empowers others and draws us out of the hell of self-absorption. There is no such thing as a self-made person. Each person begins with a genetic endowment from ancestors just for starters.

Hyper-reflection is a preoccupation with self. Kierkegaard called it “extravagant subjectivity”. Our contemporary society caters to and assists this narcissism. This individualism contributes to the symptoms of anxiety, hypochondria, depression and character disorders. At its most pathological point, it is the Schizophrenic collecting his urine because his bodily functions have become his sole focus and vocation.

An individual in isolation may succumb to hyper-reflection, dryness and desperation. A life lived interconnected to the community does not threaten the loss of individuality; it nourishes it. Family, friends and the Church are groups that provide structure, nurture faith, provide service opportunities, and direct us toward God and away from ourselves. The older I become, the more I see individualism as a pernicious modern malady.

The poem Invictus has always bothered me, even in my youth. I prefer, “"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Gal. 2:20, NASB)

These are difficult times. As a faith community at St. James, we are one in the Holy Spirit. I do confess that Sharon and I now sit through the entire services from our church office. But we enjoy the singing and saying the liturgy. Maybe some of you folks that are timid about singing in public are bold when singing in your own dwelling.

I am a person of rituals and routines. The Covid 19 virus has made me anxious because it has interrupted many of my routines and rituals. I often feel disconnected from my own family and friends. We aren’t gathering for meals together. I have spent way too much time on YouTube. The news is coming at us in full panic mode. It is hard not to get caught up in the “sound and fury”, which interestingly enough is also the title of a James Faulkner novel about the decline of a once prosperous family who lose their faith. Many family members also die over the span of Faulkner’s story. Isn’t there a kind of sound and fury to the ripping of the social fabric of this country? This is not the country where I grew up. I am now a stranger in a strange land.

A Stranger In A Strange Land is the title of a novel written by Robert Heinlein and published in 1961. It is the story of a human born and raised on Mars by Martians. He was later brought back to earth. The protagonist Valentine Michael Smith has supernatural powers and intelligence with almost limitless funds. He is attracted to the ideals of a neo pagan hedonistic cult and founds his own cult “Church Of All Worlds”. He is eventually murdered by a mob instigated by the rival ‘Fosterites’ cult, his body is eaten by his followers and he has post death appearances.

   It is not an original story is it. Smith is a pagan version of a Christ-like figure. Even the title is from Exodus 2:22, “And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.”

Heinlein had an interesting remark about his book. "I had been in no hurry to finish it [the book], as that story could not be published commercially until the public mores changed. I could see them changing and it turned out that I had timed it right." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land

A pagan “Church Of All Worlds (CAW) was actually formed in 1968 using ideas from the book. “This spiritual path included several ideas from the book, including polyamory, non-mainstream family structures, social libertarianism, water-sharing rituals, an acceptance of all religious paths by a single tradition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land

The similarities with contemporary society are unmistakable. Polyamorous relationships of three or more people were recently recognized by the town of Somerville Mass. The destruction of the nuclear family is also a contemporary goal.

Heinlein was right when he said that the public mores had changed when his book was published in 1961. It was the beginning of the era of sex, drugs and rock and roll. There is a certain irony in this because I was a part of that changing society. I had been raised in a different Kingdom. I was raised in the Baptist church with much of my formation in the 1950’s.  The 60’s transported many of us to a new planet; a new era. I came to believe, that God was dead and that abortion was a good solution to the “Population Bomb” (Paul R. Ehrlich, 1968). My morals changed with this new world of premarital sex, drugs and rock music that promoted a pagan life. It almost destroyed my life and did destroy the lives of many around me. I am a survivor of that era.

Having been rescued by Christ, I became a stranger in a strange land. It is a land on a trajectory of entropy not evolution. The people of this land are rushing headlong into an abyss. One characteristic for the unsaved people today is their state of confusion. No matter how words are arranged, much of what is said is nonsense. It is word salad. It is a kind of “New Speak” lacking meaning. “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” (1st Corinthians 13:1) “At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:10-12)

Are you a stranger in a strange land? I believe these are the last days, Lord, pour out Your Spirit on all flesh.

Our society is undergoing another massive change. In the face of this especially for us older folks, this is not a change for the better. I see no justice, no mercy, no faith, no hope or love. What will the next generation of surviving Christians look like? Modern thinkers like Ben Shapiro and David Rubin believe that it is possible for an individual to be a moral atheist but it is not possible for an entire culture to survive without a religion.

So, what is our belief firewall? It is Christ Jesus who never changes. I don’t believe there are more consoling and comforting words in all of Scripture than our Epistle Lesson today.

“35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen