SUNDAY 1st August, 2010
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost - Holy Innocents’ Day
Our Celebrant today is Fr. Warren Huffa and Guest Preacher is
Bishop David McCall, sometime Bishop of Willochra and Bunbury
WELCOME
Please join us for breakfast in the hall after the 8am service or for morning tea after the 10am service. At 10am you will find all prayers and hymns projected onto the sanctuary walls. There is Sunday School at the 10 am service during School term times.
THE PRAYER FOR TODAY
Heavenly Father, Whose children suffered at cruel hands though they had done no wrong; give us grace neither to act cruelly nor to stand by indifferently, but to defend the weak from the tyranny of the strong, in the name of Jesus Christ Who suffered for us, yet is alive and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen
TODAY’S READINGS Jeremiah 31: 15 – 29 & 1 John 1: 5 – 2:2 read by Eric D
Gospel Matthew 2: 13ff
PRAYERS FOR THE PEOPLE led by Don B
We pray for those in need Warren and Thea, Janet Phillips, Ron Teague, Michael Boere. Barbara and David Corbett,
We give thanks
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Penny Kormaat, Joy Campbell, Annabel William and Graham Pater
HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY –
PREPARATION FOR NEXT SUNDAY – Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost -
Readings Isaiah 1:1 & 10 – 20 and Hebrews 11: 1 – 3 & 8 – 16
Gospel Luke 12: 32 - 40
Refer Fr Ron’s Notes available at http://www.anglican-belair.blogspot.com/
POWERPOINT ROSTER –
This Week Araki Family or Don Caddy
Next Week Ron Keynes or Barb Capon
REGULAR GROUPS AND BOOKINGS
PRAYER CIRCLE meets noon on the 2nd Tuesday each month at 36 Penno Parade North
THURSDAY Morning Eucharist and evening events restart this week
BIBLE STUDY 10am every Wednesday at 378 Main Road Coromandel Valley
St John’s Grammar has booked the Hall each day for Yr 12 exams from 19 to 23 July and 26th.
OTHER COMING EVENTS
Aug 1 Patronal Festival with Bishop David McCall guest preacher.
There will be a luncheon after the service. You had been asked to put your name on as list of those attending.
HELPLINE
Part of being a Christian community is the support offered to each other in times of need. We offer short-term delivery of food where needed, local transport, phone calls, visits and other types of assistance. Call Christie Hodgson on 8370 3260 or Caroline Sweet on 8278 3058
TOY APPEAL
Our Anglican Toy Appeal will be held as usual in November, See ‘Joyce Arnold for details - phone 83702779’
Ross Hill-Brown will be taking part in the 40 Hour Famine which be from 8.00 pm on 20/08/10 to 12.00 pm on 22/08/10. Other than for water and fruit juices Ross will have nothing else and he seeks sponsors to take part. The Forty Hour Famine is run by World Vision to raise funds for children from impoverished countries who do not get enough to eat. The area represented by the Mitcham Hills Interchurch Council last year raised enough money to help 600 children for a year and hopes to help 1000 this year. $40 raised helps six children for a month. If you want to know more, in the foyer there is a party pack containing a DVD which you can borrow."
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An Afternoon of Music with Robin and Dorothy Mann
At Blackwood Uniting – 266 Main Rd Blackwood Sunday 8th August 2010 1.30- 3pm
A workshop for all musicians, worship leaders, lay preachers
and any interested people.
This is a free workshop weekend sponsored by the Helen Lee Memorial Trust. This will be an opportunity to learn some new songs (particularly from ‘ALL Together For Good’ song books)
This is a free workshop with a retiring offering towards the music ministry of Robin and Dorothy Mann. RSVP Blackwood Uniting Church 82787699 or email ministers@optusnet.com.au
For further information contact Rev Leanne Jenski O.82787699 M.0409516857
*********************************************************************************************************************
This year the Needlework Guild of St Peter’s Cathedral celebrates 125 years of service, not only to the Cathedral, but to other churches in the diocese. It is my pleasure to invite parish members to a Eucharist service in St Peter’s Cathedral on Sunday, August 15 at 3.00pm to commemorate the talents of members past and present, whose ministry has been to provide items for use in the Cathedral for worship and to the glory of God. A display of needlework will be on show in the Cathedral and afternoon tea will be served after the service. If you are able to attend please phone Michelle Brennan on 8267 4551 by Friday 6 August or email office@stpeters-cathedral.org.au
Items for the Newsletter need to be sent to Fr. Ron at 8298 7160 or ronpkeynes@internode.on.net or
60a Davenport Terrace, Seacliff Park SA 5049 by Tuesday nights, please
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
RonBlog
Sunday 18th July, 2010 Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
Sentence
In returning and rest you shall be saved: in quietness and trust shall be your strength.
Isaiah 30:16
Collect
O God, You alone can order our unruly wills and affections: teach us to love what You command and to desire what You promise, that, among the changes and chances of this world our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Old Testament Lesson Amos 8: 1 – 12
This is what the Lord GOD showed me--a basket of summer fruit. He said, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the LORD said to me, “The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass them by. The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day," says the Lord GOD; "the dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place. Be silent!"
Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, "When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the Sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat."
The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt? On that day, says the Lord GOD, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day. The time is surely coming, says the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or 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, seeking the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it.
Psalm 52
Why, you that are so powerful, do you boast all the day long: of mischief done to those that are faithful to God?
You contrive destroying slanders: your tongue is like a sharpened razor, it cuts deceitfully
You have loved evil, and not good: to tell lies rather than to speak the truth
You love all words that may do hurt: and every deceit of the tongue
But God will destroy you utterly: He will snatch you away and pluck you out of your dwelling, He will uproot you from the land of the living
The righteous shall see it and fear: they shall laugh you to scorn and say
‘Here is one who did not take God for strength: but trusted the abundance of riches and found strength in slander.’
As for me I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I will trust in the goodness of God for ever and ever
I will always give You thanks, for this was Your doing: I will glorify Your name before the faithful, for it is good to praise You
Epistle Colossians 1: 15 – 29 (28EPB)
Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers--all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 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.
And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him-- provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.
I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. I became its servant according to God's commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil and struggle with all the energy that he powerfully inspires within me.
GOSPEL Luke 10: 38 – 42
Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."
NOTES ON THE READINGS
Old Testament
Most old commentators tend to see ‘unrelenting gloom’ in Amos’ outpourings, but I would see things rather differently. In a time of great wealth for some people, the prophet pointed to the great damage that wealth and greed did to a community and nation. Having just had another of the downers from such a burst of greed, one tends to see Amos’ words not so much as a tirage of gloom as an anticipation of collapse! It strikes me that Amos was very close to the bone with his preaching, but undeniably accurate: as were most of those ancient prophets .... and modern ones like John with his apocalypse.
The play on words here is interesting but only available in Hebrew. In that language, qeyts means ‘end’ and qayits means ‘summer fruits.’ So Israel is like a bowl of summer fruits, ready to decay, because of the commercial abuse of people by the use of false weights. So there is nothing new under the sun: high prices for underweight goods. So cash became more important than people, and there is the beginning of the end. As Amos would be the first to indicate, he was not anticipating the end of the world, but rather the collapse of a totally false social, economic and even political situation. Most defeats of a country or culture come from within. And it follows, almost invariably, that when cash becomes more important than the person, then everything will fall apart in the not too distant future.
It is a solemn and strong comment about faith and justice, which is a very common theme both amongst the prophets as it was with our Lord. For those who see ‘religion’ as superstition, it is about time that their blinkers were removed.
Psalm
And the content of this psalm is not far removed from the same subject. It is a tragic fact that, all too often, those who present themselves as most religious can be also the most greedy and usurious.
Epistle
Another sadness for me is the extent to which sincere Christians do not seem to be aware of the power of Paul’s statements in his letters. Instead of being caught up in the ‘holy talk,’ one needs to be careful to understand the enormity of his statements about Jesus. It is all-embracing, with intent for all humans regardless of race, colour and creed, in a world where all manner of competing ‘theologies’ and world views permeated. Jesus, from where Paul sits, is the glue that holds everything – absolutely everything! - together, is the One Who alone makes sense of life. It is not just that Jesus died for me, but that He offers to all humans a way forward from the hugely destructive dilemma in which we all live. And from the Old Testament on, that path has as much to do with living with justice and truth as it does with facing and dealing with other human sin.
GOSPEL
Here, in a brief cameo which always provided difficulty for my ‘Martha’ mother, it is not always terribly easy to pick up on where Jesus was pointing. Certainly, there always needs to be that time to stop and think before actions, especially if that action involves doing something for others – one needs to ponder how such action would affect even the friend. Mind you, I doubt if Jesus was into the sort of activity so beloved by earnest Christians, of hiding away for prayer before any action is allowed. That reduces to pious nonsense, does it not!
NOTES FOR A SERMON
It is naughty of me, I know, but I recall a situation decades ago on a Youth Camp for the Diocese where I was in those days. With a large crowd of eager young people attending, it took considerable organisation to ensure smooth running, especially when it came to housekeeping sorts of activities for meals and clearing up afterwards. Rosters had been distributed well in advance and everyone knew when their jobs were to be done. So I was not impressed when one young couple failed to turn up a couple of times for washing up duty. The second time I asked if anyone knew where they were and the answer was well-known to the young people. ‘Pops, they are off praying for the Camp!’ was the reply, with some of them impressed with the holiness of the young couple concerned.
I disappeared quietly in the direction where I expected to find them: young and in love and holding hands, praying their little hearts out. They were not impressed when I suggested quite firmly that there was lots of time for praying when they were not rostered on. Against their protestations of being involved in far more important ‘work,’ I required them to front up with tea towels at the ready, and not to miss out again thank you very much. They were really quite at odds with me – and maybe are still!
I cannot imagine Amos – or any of the other prophets – hiding away from hard work when the need arose, because they saw that as their prior commitment. In fact, they seemed quite prepared to put their lives and reputations on the line, because of the vast importance of what they had to say. Now that is something of which we see very little in our own day and age, from leaders at all sorts of levels. So perhaps one of the reasons for that disparity is the difference between what those ancients saw as important, and what lesser people do these days. No room for ensuring future election for the prophets and certainly not for Paul. In other words, they needed to be convinced totally of the facts to which they adhered with such determination.
It is interesting to see the different foci, for prophet and apostle, though I wonder if there was really much difference at all. For the Old Testament people, the issues were matters of fairness, justice, truth and integrity. It is surprising to see this, for they lived in a day and age when most of the gods and goddesses were not attributed with any social or moral superiority to the rest of the human race, but JHWH was! A millennium later, the Roman and Greek gods were no further along the road of moral improvement, but the Biblical faith had developed greatly. God was seen as not only the upholder of all that is just and true, but also as guarantor, repository if you like, of those inalienable and unalterable values of life.
Consider the New Testament view, and what do we see? For Paul that focus turns to Jesus, and this fascinating passage from Colossians – reflected elsewhere too! – as the One in Whom all things hold together, first place in everything. That was not a matter of Paul getting excited and talking through his hat! That was a powerful statement of the primacy of Jesus, not just for His followers, but for all humanity. It is another way of saying exactly the same sort of thing that the prophets propounded.
Now let us stop a moment and consider whether there could be any validity in what is being stated here. The real question is to wonder if the position proffered by prophet and apostle will stand up to examination, and the answer is self-evident from the start. As Paul says in his own writings, ‘against such things there is no law,’ when he describes the position of love and compassion, and fairness of living. In other words, whilst the Church has tended to be apologetic about presenting a ‘religion,’ there is no need for apology in offering what is so self-evident. Mind you, there will ever be times in the history of a country or culture when the most obvious best things are downgraded, such as our own time when greed has long been seen as the way to go. So much of Jesus’ problem, so to speak, was in challenging the status quo of the time when He lived and showed that love and compassion offers far better leadership than overpowering and violence and hatred. That is something that even recent regimes could learn from, if they dared.
Is there not quite some room to move in our view of the Faith and process of presenting it to the world at large, in all this? It is not religion; it is way of life and choices of priorities. And singularly, tangibly valid.
Sentence
In returning and rest you shall be saved: in quietness and trust shall be your strength.
Isaiah 30:16
Collect
O God, You alone can order our unruly wills and affections: teach us to love what You command and to desire what You promise, that, among the changes and chances of this world our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Old Testament Lesson Amos 8: 1 – 12
This is what the Lord GOD showed me--a basket of summer fruit. He said, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the LORD said to me, “The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass them by. The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day," says the Lord GOD; "the dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place. Be silent!"
Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, "When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the Sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat."
The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt? On that day, says the Lord GOD, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day. The time is surely coming, says the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or 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, seeking the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it.
Psalm 52
Why, you that are so powerful, do you boast all the day long: of mischief done to those that are faithful to God?
You contrive destroying slanders: your tongue is like a sharpened razor, it cuts deceitfully
You have loved evil, and not good: to tell lies rather than to speak the truth
You love all words that may do hurt: and every deceit of the tongue
But God will destroy you utterly: He will snatch you away and pluck you out of your dwelling, He will uproot you from the land of the living
The righteous shall see it and fear: they shall laugh you to scorn and say
‘Here is one who did not take God for strength: but trusted the abundance of riches and found strength in slander.’
As for me I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I will trust in the goodness of God for ever and ever
I will always give You thanks, for this was Your doing: I will glorify Your name before the faithful, for it is good to praise You
Epistle Colossians 1: 15 – 29 (28EPB)
Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers--all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 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.
And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him-- provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.
I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. I became its servant according to God's commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil and struggle with all the energy that he powerfully inspires within me.
GOSPEL Luke 10: 38 – 42
Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."
NOTES ON THE READINGS
Old Testament
Most old commentators tend to see ‘unrelenting gloom’ in Amos’ outpourings, but I would see things rather differently. In a time of great wealth for some people, the prophet pointed to the great damage that wealth and greed did to a community and nation. Having just had another of the downers from such a burst of greed, one tends to see Amos’ words not so much as a tirage of gloom as an anticipation of collapse! It strikes me that Amos was very close to the bone with his preaching, but undeniably accurate: as were most of those ancient prophets .... and modern ones like John with his apocalypse.
The play on words here is interesting but only available in Hebrew. In that language, qeyts means ‘end’ and qayits means ‘summer fruits.’ So Israel is like a bowl of summer fruits, ready to decay, because of the commercial abuse of people by the use of false weights. So there is nothing new under the sun: high prices for underweight goods. So cash became more important than people, and there is the beginning of the end. As Amos would be the first to indicate, he was not anticipating the end of the world, but rather the collapse of a totally false social, economic and even political situation. Most defeats of a country or culture come from within. And it follows, almost invariably, that when cash becomes more important than the person, then everything will fall apart in the not too distant future.
It is a solemn and strong comment about faith and justice, which is a very common theme both amongst the prophets as it was with our Lord. For those who see ‘religion’ as superstition, it is about time that their blinkers were removed.
Psalm
And the content of this psalm is not far removed from the same subject. It is a tragic fact that, all too often, those who present themselves as most religious can be also the most greedy and usurious.
Epistle
Another sadness for me is the extent to which sincere Christians do not seem to be aware of the power of Paul’s statements in his letters. Instead of being caught up in the ‘holy talk,’ one needs to be careful to understand the enormity of his statements about Jesus. It is all-embracing, with intent for all humans regardless of race, colour and creed, in a world where all manner of competing ‘theologies’ and world views permeated. Jesus, from where Paul sits, is the glue that holds everything – absolutely everything! - together, is the One Who alone makes sense of life. It is not just that Jesus died for me, but that He offers to all humans a way forward from the hugely destructive dilemma in which we all live. And from the Old Testament on, that path has as much to do with living with justice and truth as it does with facing and dealing with other human sin.
GOSPEL
Here, in a brief cameo which always provided difficulty for my ‘Martha’ mother, it is not always terribly easy to pick up on where Jesus was pointing. Certainly, there always needs to be that time to stop and think before actions, especially if that action involves doing something for others – one needs to ponder how such action would affect even the friend. Mind you, I doubt if Jesus was into the sort of activity so beloved by earnest Christians, of hiding away for prayer before any action is allowed. That reduces to pious nonsense, does it not!
NOTES FOR A SERMON
It is naughty of me, I know, but I recall a situation decades ago on a Youth Camp for the Diocese where I was in those days. With a large crowd of eager young people attending, it took considerable organisation to ensure smooth running, especially when it came to housekeeping sorts of activities for meals and clearing up afterwards. Rosters had been distributed well in advance and everyone knew when their jobs were to be done. So I was not impressed when one young couple failed to turn up a couple of times for washing up duty. The second time I asked if anyone knew where they were and the answer was well-known to the young people. ‘Pops, they are off praying for the Camp!’ was the reply, with some of them impressed with the holiness of the young couple concerned.
I disappeared quietly in the direction where I expected to find them: young and in love and holding hands, praying their little hearts out. They were not impressed when I suggested quite firmly that there was lots of time for praying when they were not rostered on. Against their protestations of being involved in far more important ‘work,’ I required them to front up with tea towels at the ready, and not to miss out again thank you very much. They were really quite at odds with me – and maybe are still!
I cannot imagine Amos – or any of the other prophets – hiding away from hard work when the need arose, because they saw that as their prior commitment. In fact, they seemed quite prepared to put their lives and reputations on the line, because of the vast importance of what they had to say. Now that is something of which we see very little in our own day and age, from leaders at all sorts of levels. So perhaps one of the reasons for that disparity is the difference between what those ancients saw as important, and what lesser people do these days. No room for ensuring future election for the prophets and certainly not for Paul. In other words, they needed to be convinced totally of the facts to which they adhered with such determination.
It is interesting to see the different foci, for prophet and apostle, though I wonder if there was really much difference at all. For the Old Testament people, the issues were matters of fairness, justice, truth and integrity. It is surprising to see this, for they lived in a day and age when most of the gods and goddesses were not attributed with any social or moral superiority to the rest of the human race, but JHWH was! A millennium later, the Roman and Greek gods were no further along the road of moral improvement, but the Biblical faith had developed greatly. God was seen as not only the upholder of all that is just and true, but also as guarantor, repository if you like, of those inalienable and unalterable values of life.
Consider the New Testament view, and what do we see? For Paul that focus turns to Jesus, and this fascinating passage from Colossians – reflected elsewhere too! – as the One in Whom all things hold together, first place in everything. That was not a matter of Paul getting excited and talking through his hat! That was a powerful statement of the primacy of Jesus, not just for His followers, but for all humanity. It is another way of saying exactly the same sort of thing that the prophets propounded.
Now let us stop a moment and consider whether there could be any validity in what is being stated here. The real question is to wonder if the position proffered by prophet and apostle will stand up to examination, and the answer is self-evident from the start. As Paul says in his own writings, ‘against such things there is no law,’ when he describes the position of love and compassion, and fairness of living. In other words, whilst the Church has tended to be apologetic about presenting a ‘religion,’ there is no need for apology in offering what is so self-evident. Mind you, there will ever be times in the history of a country or culture when the most obvious best things are downgraded, such as our own time when greed has long been seen as the way to go. So much of Jesus’ problem, so to speak, was in challenging the status quo of the time when He lived and showed that love and compassion offers far better leadership than overpowering and violence and hatred. That is something that even recent regimes could learn from, if they dared.
Is there not quite some room to move in our view of the Faith and process of presenting it to the world at large, in all this? It is not religion; it is way of life and choices of priorities. And singularly, tangibly valid.
Newsletter
SUNDAY 18th July, 2010
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
Our Celebrant and Preacher today is Fr. Brenton Daulby
WELCOME
Please join us for breakfast in the hall after the 8am service or for morning tea after the 10am service. At 10am you will find all prayers and hymns projected onto the sanctuary walls. There is Sunday School at the 10 am service during School term times.
THE PRAYER FOR TODAY
O God, You alone can order our unruly wills and affections; teach us to love what You command and to desire what You promise, so that, among the changes and chances of this world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
TODAY’S READINGS Amos 8: 1- 12 & Colossians 1: 15 – 29 read by David C
Gospel Luke 10: 25 - 37
PRAYERS FOR THE PEOPLE led by Hal S-C
We pray for those in need Warren and Thea, Janet and Peter Phillips, Ron Teague, Michael Boere. Barbara and David Corbett,
We give thanks for the life of Joan Gooch (1994) Frank Bach (2006) Mavis Irvine (1994) Margaret Leslie (1976) Leonard Goreham (2000) and Ivan Marriott (1994)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Lucinda Hale, Cathy Browne, and Ian Macintosh
HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY –
PREPARATION FOR NEXT SUNDAY – Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
Readings Hosea 1: 2 – 10 and Colossians 2: 6 - 15
Gospel Luke 11: 1 - 13
Refer Fr Ron’s Notes available at http://www.anglican-belair.blogspot.com/
POWERPOINT ROSTER –
Today Luke Vandepeer or Araki family
Next Week Trevor Tregenza or Ron Keynes
REGULAR GROUPS AND BOOKINGS
PRAYER CIRCLE meets noon on the 2nd Tuesday each month at 36 Penno Parade North
THURSDAY Morning Eucharist and evening events restart this week
BIBLE STUDY 10am every Wednesday at 378 Main Road Coromandel Valley
St John’s Grammar has booked the Hall each day for Yr 12 exams from 19 to 23 July and 26th.
OTHER COMING EVENTS
Aug 1 Patronal Festival with Bishop David McCall guest preacher.
HELPLINE
Part of being a Christian community is the support offered to each other in times of need. We offer short-term delivery of food where needed, local transport, phone calls, visits and other types of assistance. Call Iris Downes 8278 3260 or Marlene Dixon 8278 8568
BCA BOXES
A cheque has been forwarded to BCA for the money from the BCA Boxes; a total of $552.75. A wonderful effort. Our thanks to all involved in supporting this important work. Yvonne Caddy Treasurer.
CHILDREN'S MINISTRY
Sunday School resumes today. We are planning to obtain more tables and chairs for the children, and hope to have more detail shortly.
TOY APPEAL
Our Anglican Toy Appeal will be held as usual in November, See ‘Joyce Arnold for details phone 83702779’
There will be an Evensong at St David’s Burnside on 25 July at 5pm for St James Day. St David’s Choir will be at full strength for this occasion and it should be an enjoyable Service.
*******************************************************************************************************
QUESTION TIME Sunday 18th July 7,30pm at Holy Innocents’ Church
GOD OF THE FORGOTTEN
If God runs the world, does it really matter to God that some people get forgotten or lost?
Is God on the side of the poor, the marginalized, the refugee? Come and ask questions that matter to you
Speakers include Dr. Lynn Arnold, Kent Truehi …… and live music by Sharon Turley
THRIVE DIOCESAN YOUTH INITIATIVE 25TH July at 745pm
For the young and young at heart
Cynthia Poulton Hall, St. Peter’s Cathedral, 27 King William Street, North Adelaide – all welcome
*******************************************************************************
An Afternoon of Music with Robin and Dorothy Mann
At Blackwood Uniting – 266 Main Rd Blackwood
Sunday 8th August 2010 1.30- 3pm
A workshop for all musicians, worship leaders, lay preachers
and any interested people.
This is a free workshop weekend sponsored by the Helen Lee Memorial Trust. This will be an opportunity to learn some new songs (particularly from ‘ALL Together For Good’ song books)
This is a free workshop with a retiring offering towards the music ministry of Robin and Dorothy Mann.
RSVP Blackwood Uniting Church 82787699 or email ministers@optusnet.com.au
For further information contact Rev Leanne Jenski O.82787699 M.0409516857
**********************************************************************************************************
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost – 18 July 2010 Luke 10:38-42
One can’t help but feel a bit sorry for Martha in today’s gospel. You can feel her anguish as she says, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ I wonder how she felt when Jesus responded by telling her that she is distracted by many things and that Mary has chosen the better way. It is like when someone tells us a truth that hurts. I often feel like this when people ask me, ‘How’s your prayer life?’, then I hear Jesus say to me, ‘Jazz you are worried and distracted by many things’. That’s a bit confronting! The reality is that if we don’t stop, reflect, pray, contemplate, rest, we risk burn-out, frustration and resentment. I believe it is not Martha’s zealous and servant heart that is the distraction but rather forgetting the balance. It is in the quiet space with God, the ‘Source of all Being’ that we find our energy, sustenance and inspiration. Our social action comes from contemplation – ‘contemplative action’.
• Pray that you may find balance in contemplation and action.
• Give thanks for educational projects that ABM donors support.
The Revd Jasmine Dron, a member of ABM’s Church to Church Program’s Committee.
© Anglican Board of Mission Pew Reflections 2010
Items for the Newsletter need to be sent to Fr. Ron at 8298 7160 or ronpkeynes@internode.on.net or
60a Davenport Terrace, Seacliff Park SA 5049 by Tuesday nights, please
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
Our Celebrant and Preacher today is Fr. Brenton Daulby
WELCOME
Please join us for breakfast in the hall after the 8am service or for morning tea after the 10am service. At 10am you will find all prayers and hymns projected onto the sanctuary walls. There is Sunday School at the 10 am service during School term times.
THE PRAYER FOR TODAY
O God, You alone can order our unruly wills and affections; teach us to love what You command and to desire what You promise, so that, among the changes and chances of this world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
TODAY’S READINGS Amos 8: 1- 12 & Colossians 1: 15 – 29 read by David C
Gospel Luke 10: 25 - 37
PRAYERS FOR THE PEOPLE led by Hal S-C
We pray for those in need Warren and Thea, Janet and Peter Phillips, Ron Teague, Michael Boere. Barbara and David Corbett,
We give thanks for the life of Joan Gooch (1994) Frank Bach (2006) Mavis Irvine (1994) Margaret Leslie (1976) Leonard Goreham (2000) and Ivan Marriott (1994)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Lucinda Hale, Cathy Browne, and Ian Macintosh
HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY –
PREPARATION FOR NEXT SUNDAY – Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
Readings Hosea 1: 2 – 10 and Colossians 2: 6 - 15
Gospel Luke 11: 1 - 13
Refer Fr Ron’s Notes available at http://www.anglican-belair.blogspot.com/
POWERPOINT ROSTER –
Today Luke Vandepeer or Araki family
Next Week Trevor Tregenza or Ron Keynes
REGULAR GROUPS AND BOOKINGS
PRAYER CIRCLE meets noon on the 2nd Tuesday each month at 36 Penno Parade North
THURSDAY Morning Eucharist and evening events restart this week
BIBLE STUDY 10am every Wednesday at 378 Main Road Coromandel Valley
St John’s Grammar has booked the Hall each day for Yr 12 exams from 19 to 23 July and 26th.
OTHER COMING EVENTS
Aug 1 Patronal Festival with Bishop David McCall guest preacher.
HELPLINE
Part of being a Christian community is the support offered to each other in times of need. We offer short-term delivery of food where needed, local transport, phone calls, visits and other types of assistance. Call Iris Downes 8278 3260 or Marlene Dixon 8278 8568
BCA BOXES
A cheque has been forwarded to BCA for the money from the BCA Boxes; a total of $552.75. A wonderful effort. Our thanks to all involved in supporting this important work. Yvonne Caddy Treasurer.
CHILDREN'S MINISTRY
Sunday School resumes today. We are planning to obtain more tables and chairs for the children, and hope to have more detail shortly.
TOY APPEAL
Our Anglican Toy Appeal will be held as usual in November, See ‘Joyce Arnold for details phone 83702779’
There will be an Evensong at St David’s Burnside on 25 July at 5pm for St James Day. St David’s Choir will be at full strength for this occasion and it should be an enjoyable Service.
*******************************************************************************************************
QUESTION TIME Sunday 18th July 7,30pm at Holy Innocents’ Church
GOD OF THE FORGOTTEN
If God runs the world, does it really matter to God that some people get forgotten or lost?
Is God on the side of the poor, the marginalized, the refugee? Come and ask questions that matter to you
Speakers include Dr. Lynn Arnold, Kent Truehi …… and live music by Sharon Turley
THRIVE DIOCESAN YOUTH INITIATIVE 25TH July at 745pm
For the young and young at heart
Cynthia Poulton Hall, St. Peter’s Cathedral, 27 King William Street, North Adelaide – all welcome
*******************************************************************************
An Afternoon of Music with Robin and Dorothy Mann
At Blackwood Uniting – 266 Main Rd Blackwood
Sunday 8th August 2010 1.30- 3pm
A workshop for all musicians, worship leaders, lay preachers
and any interested people.
This is a free workshop weekend sponsored by the Helen Lee Memorial Trust. This will be an opportunity to learn some new songs (particularly from ‘ALL Together For Good’ song books)
This is a free workshop with a retiring offering towards the music ministry of Robin and Dorothy Mann.
RSVP Blackwood Uniting Church 82787699 or email ministers@optusnet.com.au
For further information contact Rev Leanne Jenski O.82787699 M.0409516857
**********************************************************************************************************
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost – 18 July 2010 Luke 10:38-42
One can’t help but feel a bit sorry for Martha in today’s gospel. You can feel her anguish as she says, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ I wonder how she felt when Jesus responded by telling her that she is distracted by many things and that Mary has chosen the better way. It is like when someone tells us a truth that hurts. I often feel like this when people ask me, ‘How’s your prayer life?’, then I hear Jesus say to me, ‘Jazz you are worried and distracted by many things’. That’s a bit confronting! The reality is that if we don’t stop, reflect, pray, contemplate, rest, we risk burn-out, frustration and resentment. I believe it is not Martha’s zealous and servant heart that is the distraction but rather forgetting the balance. It is in the quiet space with God, the ‘Source of all Being’ that we find our energy, sustenance and inspiration. Our social action comes from contemplation – ‘contemplative action’.
• Pray that you may find balance in contemplation and action.
• Give thanks for educational projects that ABM donors support.
The Revd Jasmine Dron, a member of ABM’s Church to Church Program’s Committee.
© Anglican Board of Mission Pew Reflections 2010
Items for the Newsletter need to be sent to Fr. Ron at 8298 7160 or ronpkeynes@internode.on.net or
60a Davenport Terrace, Seacliff Park SA 5049 by Tuesday nights, please
Saturday, July 10, 2010
RonBlog
Sunday 11th July, 2010 Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Sentence
Do to others as you would have then do to you. Love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Luke 6:31. 35
Collect
O Lord we beseech You mercifully to hear the prayers of Your people who call upon You, and grant that we may both perceive and know what things we ought to do, and also may have the grace and power faithfully to fulfill them, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Old Testament Lesson Amos 7: 1 - 17
This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the LORD said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass them by; the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword."
Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired against you in the very centre of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said, 'Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.'" And Amaziah said to Amos, "O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom."
Then Amos answered Amaziah, "I am no prophet, nor a prophet's son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.' Now therefore hear the word of the LORD. You say, 'Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac." Therefore thus says the LORD: 'Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be parcelled out by line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go in away from its land.'"
Psalm 82
God stood up in the council of heaven: in the midst of the gods He gives judgement
‘How long will you judge unjustly: and favour the cause of the wicked?”
Judge for the poor and the fatherless: vindicate the afflicted and oppressed.
Rescue the poor and the needy: and save them from the hands of the wicked.
They do not know, they do not understand, they walk about in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are shaken
Therefore I say ‘Though you are gods: and all of you children of the Most High
Nevertheless you shall all die like mortals: and fall like one of the princes.
Arise O God and judge the earth: for You shall take all nations as Your possession
Epistle Colossians 1: 1 – 14
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God.
This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit. For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. 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, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
GOSPEL Luke 10: 25 – 37
A lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself." And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live." But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbour?"
Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while travelling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.”
Jesus asked, “which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."
NOTES ON THE READINGS
Old Testament
This insight into the role of the early prophets is fascinating, for – as mentioned before often, - there is no parallel in other cultures or religions to this function some people held. One can imagine something of the enormous difficulty encountered by these people as, without much in the way of precedent, the responded to inner compulsions to do what they understood to be the work of the Lord. (Never, never compare these people with the idiot fringe who are ‘convinced’ that they are told to do ridiculous things.)
Amos came from the southern kingdom to preach in the northern, and while I doubt he would have been popular in either realm, he was certainly unwelcome in the north. It was a time of increased wealth and even (comparative) opulence and the widening of the gap between rich and poor. It is important to note that the real issues for these people who became prophets were issues of justice and equity, and the imbalance that ensued from such tensions. The matters are not essentially religious or esoteric; they are down to earth and very basic issues. (Having recently had a series of tirades from atheists in the Advertiser about religious superstition, I admit to considerable delight in refuting their rather ill-informed challenges. I would have thought that they knew rather better!)
Psalm
As if to underline the significance of the prophet’s emphasis, even the psalmist gets up on the same bandwaggon. It is a strange sort of scene, and obviously early in OT times, but the nail is really hit on the head as the ancient worthy tears strips off ‘other gods’ because they have no brief about the ordinary necessities of life. It is a fascinating if short statement of where the realities of faith should operate.
Epistle
Although the same strong sentiments may not be all that obvious here, it may be helpful to note how the Apostle describes the matters the previous authors have been dealing with. They talk about justice; Paul talks about ‘powers of darkness.’ And, of course, he draws the distinction between those of the faith and those who are not. That may well have been because in the cultures amongst which Paul worked, a real superstition operated, not unlike some of the so-called New Age views of things.
Gospel
And here is one of the clearest pictures of all, where real justice is seen in the offering of assistance to someone in need, regardless of the religious, political or class divisions we humans like to indulge in. This parable of the Good Samaritan tends to lose much of its impact for us to whom the bigotry between Jew and Samaritan of those days rings no bells. (C/f Jew and Palestinian today and you get the picture!) This parable must have blown up in the face of the holy ones of the time, for it was a devastating critique of their isolationist and very selfish outlooks. One hardly needs to make much comment on this very familiar passage.
NOTES FOR A SERMON
I may have told the story before of a man of mature years who oft related the story of his conversion. He had been a long and constant attendee at an Anglican Church somewhere in western NSW., until he was in his late thirties. Then for the first time in his life, at some other Church or group, he heard (what he called) the Gospel preached. He responded to this new teaching with huge delight and joy and became a member and later Pastor of that sect. I guess in one way it was a nice story, but the more you heard that man speak and preach, the more I wondered what sort of Gospel has attracted him. It had more to do with getting to heaven than it had to do with being one of God’s people here.
It is possible to express the overall emphasis of the Christian Faith fairly simply. And it has rather more to do with living out life right here and now than it does about waiting for the next life. What is more, it focusses on resolving life-issues that really do tear human beings apart, which is one of the reasons it has been despised, oddly.
Take a long hard look (or not so long or hard!) at life and she is lived and the very thing that hits the most airspace – surely – is the almost constant tension and conflict that mars human relationships at every level. Whether it is kids growing up, or pressures between parents and families, or within communities, countries or internationally, it is always headline news. And it is always unavoidable. This has been the permanent blot on the landscape since history began. And to my knowledge, no one has been able to stop it, even though there have been ideas that offer some hope.
It is into such a maelstrom that the Christian Faith proffers a solution that can be a way forward, but sadly much of its sting has been drawn because the solution has been turned into a religion rather than the way of life it pointed to. The offer has been constant yet growing and developing over millennia – evolving if you are game! And today’s readings point to quite some of that evolution over at least one of those millennia.
Right from the start, Hebrew Christian Faith saw that the problem was a human one. Very human one. And the problem lies in the fact that we each determine to be boss, and to force others into submission to me. Genesis 3 has the story, the myth, the situation. So when the perceived problem is of human determination to control, then it is possible to respond to such tactics by proposing a different reaction. Instead of control, there needs to be service; instead of self-aggrandizement there needs to be self-giving. Instead of war, let there be love. As a sort of general summary, one might refer to the Two Great Commandments, to love God and to love neighbour. (If anyone has problems with the ‘God’ thing, I would suggest that they simply see that such a statement is making it clear that the impetus to operate in such a way is of universal significance, and maybe they would like to find their way to express that.)
As one looks at the history of this development of the Faith, Hebrew and Christian, I find it interesting that the rise of the prophets brought that element of justice and integrity. It strikes me as a move that stopped the response being ‘religious’ and pointed to the real and existential situation in which one needs to respond to others. If I say I love you and reduce it to some sort of emotional level, it is possible for me to avoid the real need to be fair dinkum with you. Love requires justice and integrity for it to be real. Tangible, measurable. If I act towards you without being fair, I am being very shallow indeed, and any protestation of love is rendered meaningless.
With the coming of Christ, the whole business of reality of faith was earthed to a remarkable degree. Although Jews were fairly clearly the most religious people then around, they had managed (as ‘religious’ people often can,) to turn it into yet another form of competition against hoi polloi. Sadly, that is often the outcome of ‘religion,’ but it is far from its real purpose and point.
Sentence
Do to others as you would have then do to you. Love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Luke 6:31. 35
Collect
O Lord we beseech You mercifully to hear the prayers of Your people who call upon You, and grant that we may both perceive and know what things we ought to do, and also may have the grace and power faithfully to fulfill them, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Old Testament Lesson Amos 7: 1 - 17
This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the LORD said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass them by; the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword."
Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired against you in the very centre of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said, 'Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.'" And Amaziah said to Amos, "O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom."
Then Amos answered Amaziah, "I am no prophet, nor a prophet's son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.' Now therefore hear the word of the LORD. You say, 'Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac." Therefore thus says the LORD: 'Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be parcelled out by line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go in away from its land.'"
Psalm 82
God stood up in the council of heaven: in the midst of the gods He gives judgement
‘How long will you judge unjustly: and favour the cause of the wicked?”
Judge for the poor and the fatherless: vindicate the afflicted and oppressed.
Rescue the poor and the needy: and save them from the hands of the wicked.
They do not know, they do not understand, they walk about in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are shaken
Therefore I say ‘Though you are gods: and all of you children of the Most High
Nevertheless you shall all die like mortals: and fall like one of the princes.
Arise O God and judge the earth: for You shall take all nations as Your possession
Epistle Colossians 1: 1 – 14
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God.
This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit. For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. 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, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
GOSPEL Luke 10: 25 – 37
A lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself." And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live." But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbour?"
Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while travelling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.”
Jesus asked, “which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."
NOTES ON THE READINGS
Old Testament
This insight into the role of the early prophets is fascinating, for – as mentioned before often, - there is no parallel in other cultures or religions to this function some people held. One can imagine something of the enormous difficulty encountered by these people as, without much in the way of precedent, the responded to inner compulsions to do what they understood to be the work of the Lord. (Never, never compare these people with the idiot fringe who are ‘convinced’ that they are told to do ridiculous things.)
Amos came from the southern kingdom to preach in the northern, and while I doubt he would have been popular in either realm, he was certainly unwelcome in the north. It was a time of increased wealth and even (comparative) opulence and the widening of the gap between rich and poor. It is important to note that the real issues for these people who became prophets were issues of justice and equity, and the imbalance that ensued from such tensions. The matters are not essentially religious or esoteric; they are down to earth and very basic issues. (Having recently had a series of tirades from atheists in the Advertiser about religious superstition, I admit to considerable delight in refuting their rather ill-informed challenges. I would have thought that they knew rather better!)
Psalm
As if to underline the significance of the prophet’s emphasis, even the psalmist gets up on the same bandwaggon. It is a strange sort of scene, and obviously early in OT times, but the nail is really hit on the head as the ancient worthy tears strips off ‘other gods’ because they have no brief about the ordinary necessities of life. It is a fascinating if short statement of where the realities of faith should operate.
Epistle
Although the same strong sentiments may not be all that obvious here, it may be helpful to note how the Apostle describes the matters the previous authors have been dealing with. They talk about justice; Paul talks about ‘powers of darkness.’ And, of course, he draws the distinction between those of the faith and those who are not. That may well have been because in the cultures amongst which Paul worked, a real superstition operated, not unlike some of the so-called New Age views of things.
Gospel
And here is one of the clearest pictures of all, where real justice is seen in the offering of assistance to someone in need, regardless of the religious, political or class divisions we humans like to indulge in. This parable of the Good Samaritan tends to lose much of its impact for us to whom the bigotry between Jew and Samaritan of those days rings no bells. (C/f Jew and Palestinian today and you get the picture!) This parable must have blown up in the face of the holy ones of the time, for it was a devastating critique of their isolationist and very selfish outlooks. One hardly needs to make much comment on this very familiar passage.
NOTES FOR A SERMON
I may have told the story before of a man of mature years who oft related the story of his conversion. He had been a long and constant attendee at an Anglican Church somewhere in western NSW., until he was in his late thirties. Then for the first time in his life, at some other Church or group, he heard (what he called) the Gospel preached. He responded to this new teaching with huge delight and joy and became a member and later Pastor of that sect. I guess in one way it was a nice story, but the more you heard that man speak and preach, the more I wondered what sort of Gospel has attracted him. It had more to do with getting to heaven than it had to do with being one of God’s people here.
It is possible to express the overall emphasis of the Christian Faith fairly simply. And it has rather more to do with living out life right here and now than it does about waiting for the next life. What is more, it focusses on resolving life-issues that really do tear human beings apart, which is one of the reasons it has been despised, oddly.
Take a long hard look (or not so long or hard!) at life and she is lived and the very thing that hits the most airspace – surely – is the almost constant tension and conflict that mars human relationships at every level. Whether it is kids growing up, or pressures between parents and families, or within communities, countries or internationally, it is always headline news. And it is always unavoidable. This has been the permanent blot on the landscape since history began. And to my knowledge, no one has been able to stop it, even though there have been ideas that offer some hope.
It is into such a maelstrom that the Christian Faith proffers a solution that can be a way forward, but sadly much of its sting has been drawn because the solution has been turned into a religion rather than the way of life it pointed to. The offer has been constant yet growing and developing over millennia – evolving if you are game! And today’s readings point to quite some of that evolution over at least one of those millennia.
Right from the start, Hebrew Christian Faith saw that the problem was a human one. Very human one. And the problem lies in the fact that we each determine to be boss, and to force others into submission to me. Genesis 3 has the story, the myth, the situation. So when the perceived problem is of human determination to control, then it is possible to respond to such tactics by proposing a different reaction. Instead of control, there needs to be service; instead of self-aggrandizement there needs to be self-giving. Instead of war, let there be love. As a sort of general summary, one might refer to the Two Great Commandments, to love God and to love neighbour. (If anyone has problems with the ‘God’ thing, I would suggest that they simply see that such a statement is making it clear that the impetus to operate in such a way is of universal significance, and maybe they would like to find their way to express that.)
As one looks at the history of this development of the Faith, Hebrew and Christian, I find it interesting that the rise of the prophets brought that element of justice and integrity. It strikes me as a move that stopped the response being ‘religious’ and pointed to the real and existential situation in which one needs to respond to others. If I say I love you and reduce it to some sort of emotional level, it is possible for me to avoid the real need to be fair dinkum with you. Love requires justice and integrity for it to be real. Tangible, measurable. If I act towards you without being fair, I am being very shallow indeed, and any protestation of love is rendered meaningless.
With the coming of Christ, the whole business of reality of faith was earthed to a remarkable degree. Although Jews were fairly clearly the most religious people then around, they had managed (as ‘religious’ people often can,) to turn it into yet another form of competition against hoi polloi. Sadly, that is often the outcome of ‘religion,’ but it is far from its real purpose and point.
Newsletter
SUNDAY 11th July, 2010
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Our Celebrant and Preacher today are Fr. Ron Keynes and Stephen Daughtry
WELCOME
Please join us for breakfast in the hall after the 8am service or for morning tea after the 10am service. At 10am you will find all prayers and hymns projected onto the sanctuary walls. There is Sunday School at the 10 am service during School term times.
THE PRAYER FOR TODAY
O Lord we beseech You mercifully to hear the prayers of Your people who call upon You, and grant that we may both perceive and know what things we ought to do, and also may have the grace and power faithfully to fulfill them, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
TODAY’S READINGS Amos 7:7 – 17 & Galatians 1: 1 – 14 read by Clare B
GOSPEL Luke 10: 25 - 37
PRAYERS FOR THE PEOPLE led by Wendy
We pray for those in need Warren and Thea, Janet and Peter Phillips, Ron Teague, Michael Boere. Barbara and David Corbett,
We give thanks for the life of
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Margaret Baker, Yena Kim, Caroline Sweet, Sue Parham, Carol Barber, Amelia and Thomas Kormaat
HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY –
PREPARATION FOR NEXT SUNDAY – Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
Readings Amos 8: 1- 12 & Colossians 1: 15 – 29
Gospel Luke 10: 25 - 37
Refer Fr Ron’s Notes available at http://www.anglican-belair.blogspot.com/
POWERPOINT ROSTER – (with apologies for some mix-up)
Today Craig Deane or Trevor Tregenza
Next Week Luke Vandepeer or Araki family
REGULAR GROUPS AND BOOKINGS
PRAYER CIRCLE meets noon on the 2nd Tuesday each month at 36 Penno Parade North
THURSDAY EVENINGS No morning Eucharist nor evening events till late July
BIBLE STUDY 10am every Wednesday at 378 Main Road Coromandel Valley
St John’s Grammar has booked the Hall each day for Yr 12 exams from 19 to 23 July and 26th.
OTHER COMING EVENTS
Aug 1 Patronal Festival with Bishop David McCall guest preacher.
HELPLINE
Part of being a Christian community is the support offered to each other in times of need. We offer short-term delivery of food where needed, local transport, phone calls, visits and other types of assistance. Call Iris Downes 8278 3260 or Marlene Dixon 8278 8568
BCA BOXES
Thank you to all .BCA box holders, You have contributed $552.20 to the Society and your support is always much appreciated. Margaret and Alan Pressley
MU Belair AGM This is set for Thursday 15th July at 2.00pm. Margaret Pressley
Time travel on the wings of song and prayer RSCM ANNUAL CHORAL FESTIVAL Evening Prayer as it may have been sung around 1710 with music by Tallis, Blow, Purcell SATURDAY 17TH JULY 2010
ST JOHN’S ANGLICAN CHURCH HALIFAX STREET, ADELAIDE Rehearsals from 10.00 am and 2 pm
Morning and afternoon tea and lunch provided Evening Prayer will be sung at 4.30 pm. ALL WELCOME TO ATTEND EVENING PRAYER AT 4.30 PM AS CONGREGATION Cost for the full day of rehearsals:
RSCM members (individual and affiliated choirs): $10 Non-members: $12 Enquiries: Dr Warren Bourne 8278 5589
CHILDREN'S MINISTRY
Last time we met, there were 12 children for Sunday School and so much activity that we nearly missed Communion A couple of issues arise, needing attention:
(1) If parents want their children in for Communion, please come and get them
(2) We need another table and four chairs for the Kids’ Corner in Church. Ikea has a setting for $100 – but second-hand may be the go. Do you have any suggestions?
Sunday School resumes on 18th July
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost – 11 July 2010
Who is my neighbour? A man I know told me a story recently. He watched people pass by a woman sitting near the footpath. He was amazed that no-one said hello. He stopped and said hello to the woman and her face lit up. In the gospel story today many people (of so-called ‘high’ social and religious standing) pass by someone in need. Who are the invisible people in our society? Or Who is my neighbour? Why is it that people become invisible? This week’s gospel reading challenges me to think about who is society’s ignored? The gospel challenges me to include, giving full attention, hearing and telling stories at the table, breaking bread and sharing the feast of God.
• Pray that those who are ignored by society, those who are homeless, and those who are mentally ill may be given full attention to, both by their individual and structural neighbours.
• Give thanks for the Anglican Church of Melanesia.
Text: The Revd Jasmine Dron, a member of ABM’s Church to Church Programme’s Committee.
© Anglican Board of Mission Pew Reflections 2010
Items for the Newsletter need to be sent to Fr. Ron at 8298 7160 or ronpkeynes@internode.on.net or
60a Davenport Terrace, Seacliff Park SA 5049 by Tuesday nights, please
Contact person during Rector’s absence is Cynthia on 0408813244 or Church phone 10am weekdays
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Our Celebrant and Preacher today are Fr. Ron Keynes and Stephen Daughtry
WELCOME
Please join us for breakfast in the hall after the 8am service or for morning tea after the 10am service. At 10am you will find all prayers and hymns projected onto the sanctuary walls. There is Sunday School at the 10 am service during School term times.
THE PRAYER FOR TODAY
O Lord we beseech You mercifully to hear the prayers of Your people who call upon You, and grant that we may both perceive and know what things we ought to do, and also may have the grace and power faithfully to fulfill them, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
TODAY’S READINGS Amos 7:7 – 17 & Galatians 1: 1 – 14 read by Clare B
GOSPEL Luke 10: 25 - 37
PRAYERS FOR THE PEOPLE led by Wendy
We pray for those in need Warren and Thea, Janet and Peter Phillips, Ron Teague, Michael Boere. Barbara and David Corbett,
We give thanks for the life of
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Margaret Baker, Yena Kim, Caroline Sweet, Sue Parham, Carol Barber, Amelia and Thomas Kormaat
HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY –
PREPARATION FOR NEXT SUNDAY – Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
Readings Amos 8: 1- 12 & Colossians 1: 15 – 29
Gospel Luke 10: 25 - 37
Refer Fr Ron’s Notes available at http://www.anglican-belair.blogspot.com/
POWERPOINT ROSTER – (with apologies for some mix-up)
Today Craig Deane or Trevor Tregenza
Next Week Luke Vandepeer or Araki family
REGULAR GROUPS AND BOOKINGS
PRAYER CIRCLE meets noon on the 2nd Tuesday each month at 36 Penno Parade North
THURSDAY EVENINGS No morning Eucharist nor evening events till late July
BIBLE STUDY 10am every Wednesday at 378 Main Road Coromandel Valley
St John’s Grammar has booked the Hall each day for Yr 12 exams from 19 to 23 July and 26th.
OTHER COMING EVENTS
Aug 1 Patronal Festival with Bishop David McCall guest preacher.
HELPLINE
Part of being a Christian community is the support offered to each other in times of need. We offer short-term delivery of food where needed, local transport, phone calls, visits and other types of assistance. Call Iris Downes 8278 3260 or Marlene Dixon 8278 8568
BCA BOXES
Thank you to all .BCA box holders, You have contributed $552.20 to the Society and your support is always much appreciated. Margaret and Alan Pressley
MU Belair AGM This is set for Thursday 15th July at 2.00pm. Margaret Pressley
Time travel on the wings of song and prayer RSCM ANNUAL CHORAL FESTIVAL Evening Prayer as it may have been sung around 1710 with music by Tallis, Blow, Purcell SATURDAY 17TH JULY 2010
ST JOHN’S ANGLICAN CHURCH HALIFAX STREET, ADELAIDE Rehearsals from 10.00 am and 2 pm
Morning and afternoon tea and lunch provided Evening Prayer will be sung at 4.30 pm. ALL WELCOME TO ATTEND EVENING PRAYER AT 4.30 PM AS CONGREGATION Cost for the full day of rehearsals:
RSCM members (individual and affiliated choirs): $10 Non-members: $12 Enquiries: Dr Warren Bourne 8278 5589
CHILDREN'S MINISTRY
Last time we met, there were 12 children for Sunday School and so much activity that we nearly missed Communion A couple of issues arise, needing attention:
(1) If parents want their children in for Communion, please come and get them
(2) We need another table and four chairs for the Kids’ Corner in Church. Ikea has a setting for $100 – but second-hand may be the go. Do you have any suggestions?
Sunday School resumes on 18th July
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost – 11 July 2010
Who is my neighbour? A man I know told me a story recently. He watched people pass by a woman sitting near the footpath. He was amazed that no-one said hello. He stopped and said hello to the woman and her face lit up. In the gospel story today many people (of so-called ‘high’ social and religious standing) pass by someone in need. Who are the invisible people in our society? Or Who is my neighbour? Why is it that people become invisible? This week’s gospel reading challenges me to think about who is society’s ignored? The gospel challenges me to include, giving full attention, hearing and telling stories at the table, breaking bread and sharing the feast of God.
• Pray that those who are ignored by society, those who are homeless, and those who are mentally ill may be given full attention to, both by their individual and structural neighbours.
• Give thanks for the Anglican Church of Melanesia.
Text: The Revd Jasmine Dron, a member of ABM’s Church to Church Programme’s Committee.
© Anglican Board of Mission Pew Reflections 2010
Items for the Newsletter need to be sent to Fr. Ron at 8298 7160 or ronpkeynes@internode.on.net or
60a Davenport Terrace, Seacliff Park SA 5049 by Tuesday nights, please
Contact person during Rector’s absence is Cynthia on 0408813244 or Church phone 10am weekdays
Saturday, July 3, 2010
RonBlog
Sunday 4th July, 2010 Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Sentence
The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few; ask therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest. Luke 10:2
Collect
O God, You have prepared for those who love You such good things as pass our understanding; pour into our hearts such love towards You that, loving You above all things, we may obtain Your promises that exceed all that we can desire, through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen
Old Testament Lesson 2 Kings 5: 1 – 14
Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the LORD had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, "If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy." So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. And the king of Aram said, "Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel."
He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments.
He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, "When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy." When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me." But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel."
So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha's house. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean." But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, "I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?" He turned and went away in a rage.
But his servants approached and said to him, "Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, 'Wash, and be clean'?" So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.
PSALM 117
O praise the Lord, all you nations: O praise Him all you peoples
For great is His loving-kindness towards us: and the faithfulness of the Lord endures for ever.
Praise the Lord
Epistle Galatians 6: 7 – 18
Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up.
So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.
See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand! It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised--only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. Even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh. May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything! As for those who will follow this rule--peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
From now on, let no one make trouble for me; for I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.
GOSPEL Luke 10: 1 – 12 & 17 – 24
After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, nor sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house!' And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid.
Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.' But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 'Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.' I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town.
**************************************************
The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!" He said to them, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."
At that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."
Then turning to the disciples, Jesus said to them privately, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it."
NOTES ON THE READINGS
Old Testament
I have often commented on this rather lovely Sunday School type story, for as a young child it appealed to me. “How are the mighty fallen!” seemed to be the message as a kid, but sadly neither then nor today is the sequel, just as powerful and telling, brought to people’s attention. (That has to do with the mendacity of Elisha’s servant who thought it a great way to make a quid.)
Naaman should have been disqualified from attention for he was both Gentile and outcast – either leprosy or any other skin complaint was regarded very serious by all people of that age. It may well have been only Naaman’s skill as a general that kept him in position in his own country, but that was no barrier to the prophet. Mind you, one suspects that Elisha saw this as a means of lowering the man’s ego, and that certainly had its place.
Anyhow, once said ego was reduced, he bathed in the Jordan (see notes before that suggest that the soldier’s view of the creek was justified!) and was grateful to be healed. If only things were so easy!!!
Psalm
Not a great deal to comment on really, is there. It is simple and straightforward – and true.
Epistle
The closing stanza of this letter of Paul shows that he used an amanuensis or secretary to write his epistles. It may be an indication that he had trouble with his eyes, like many people even these days. But the important matters precede that.
What you sow you will reap is not unlike the karma thing that seems to be the popular expression these days. “What goes round comes round” is perhaps a little more Australian. But on the serious side, this is another way of expressing Paul’s theology of how God responds to human evil and sin. We may prefer God to knock off the naughty ones, until we realize that we would not be exempt from such a process. ‘God gives them up’ is Paul’s way of expressing this, in his Roman epistle. This is one of the reasons that people complain about God’s absence or even non-existence. Fortunately for all of us, the Lord is rather more patient with everyone, or we would all be history.
When Paul talks about God’s wrath he is not referring to the punitive reaction that even many Christians are expecting. God’s wrath works like this: whenever you see ‘judgement’ in any of New Testament books, stop to realize that, almost invariably, the Greek word behind it is what you know as crisis. for the purist. And ‘crisis’ is a crossroads in the path ahead of you, a decision to be made, a choice. Choose foolishly and God will not get in your way, but wait to see what you will do when the choice shows up to be less than wise. Choose that way constantly and wilfully, and God may well give you up in order for you to learn the folly of such choices. ‘He wills all people to repent’ you understand, and that is why He operates that way – thank heaven. Keep heading that silly way, and again in New Testament terms, you judge yourself. In a way you do the same if you learn from your mistakes, and go on to choose wisely. You will thus have chosen life, rather than death.
As we have been considering in earlier Sundays, whilst the works / faith controversy needs to be restated and re-understood, if I choose to follow truth, and live that out, I am then bearing true witness to the faith, and may well cop considerable flak, even from Christians. I kid you not!
GOSPEL
‘Like lambs into the midst of wolves.’ In this country we have not really encountered any of the deep hatred that other people in other countries have done. Mind you, it could still happen, and then I suspect the sheep will be clearly visible as apart from the goats!!!!
This Gospel of Christ has never been popular, and never will, because it runs to contrary to the general human approach to issues of conflict and disagreement. (I find it utterly appalling, making me ashamed of our leaders, whenever Parliament, State of Federal, is broadcast. I have yet to find any MP who has learnt that degrading the opposition is a most unfruitful path to travel.) Nor yet have I encountered anyone prepared to say that they turn their backs on such practitioners.
Many a wise word was spoken by that Lord of ours when He was under great pressure. Quite clearly there was a positive response to that ministry of the disciples. No better way to learn than to be dropped in the deep end to teach. And that reference to Satan falling is a very Jewish way of explaining that the truth was getting through in spite of all human attempts to stop it.
NOTES FOR A SERMON
I have never been all that averse to sticking my neck out when it comes to attempting to advance people’s understanding of the way that the elements of the faith are expressed in Biblical language. It has long been understood that when catching sight of what people in other cultures express, then one needs to understand the others’ idiom and even local humour.
One particular issue that had long bugged me was this business of the Devil. Satan, Lucifer, the Great Deceiver. As I grew up, all manner of explanations and Biblical texts were offered to prove the ‘personal’ Satan, but none of them actually made a lot of sense to me. When it came to the extraordinary situation where some people began to use the excuse that ‘the devil made me do it,’ to explain that their actions were forced from outside of them, and so to refuse responsibility, then I fear that my patience came to a sudden and rapid end.
I have long asked people to re-read the passages in Scripture that refer to the subject, including in particular the records of Jesus ‘temptation’ before the start of His public ministry. Then I ask them to explain what was going on with those temptations, and where it would be possible for Jesus to have succumbed to the blandishments. Then I ask them to answer the rather more personal question of who tempts them! Whereas another person may well put all manner of temptations in their way, the final answer, as it is in the Genesis 3 story, is ‘I tempt myself.’
Once we begin to understand the rather vivid Jewish way of getting a message across, it becomes clearer and clearer that whenever the subject of evil hits airspace, the Biblical picture is the same. Evil always has human roots, and that makes humans responsible. The old and surely discreditted ‘Original Sin’ dogma, that had us all tied up as sinners because Adam did it in Genesis 3, may have scared the living daylights out of far too many generations, but had they thought it through, the duplicity of that dogma would destroy itself. If that were the case, then I can blame that Adam and Eve, not myself or anyone else for the stuff up to life that the story appears to portray. And if I am not responsible, then I am only some sort of puppet on a string. Less than human, not even humanoid.
So what was going on in Jesus’ mind in that six weeks in the wilderness. If you have been following this set up on readings, comments and sermons, the easier thing would be to go back to the First Sunday in Lent. A shorthand version here is that Jesus, at the very start of His public ministry had to consider what would be His approach to that ministry, how would He appeal to people, how would He gain a following. He would not want one that would be fair-weather followers, but ones that would perceive and understand the implications of a Gospel for change. His first challenge to turn stones into bread was not for His own satisfaction, but to consider ‘bread and circuses,’ that cynical Roman approach to control and leadership, which He rejected out of hand. ‘Man does not live by bread alone’ is the clear understanding that there is more to being a person than one’s stomach, one’s search for satisfaction in whatever direction. The falling down and worshipping Satan was the usual temptation for leaders of all sorts: substitute the truth for the lie, and vice versa. Bling, spin, baloney, or the straightforward Aussie expression – bull****. If there is one thing that annoys the living daylights out of me these days it is the capacity of political leaders, and the media to lay on the wider public anything but the truth unvarnished. Maybe there are people who do not want to know, but without the truth there is no way forward. There is only the downward slide into the abyss. And miracle. Jumping from the pinnacle of the Temple. Jesus refusal to use miracle as a means of gaining a following, convincing people to follow Him, is so rarely recognized as to be tragic. Sure, Jesus used miracle – as John puts it in his Gospel – as sign, pointer, semeion. Something to think through, not something at which to be amazed and astounded. Any thinking person’s response to miracle is either to disbelieve or refuse it, or more likely to ask where the trick lies. In other words, read John 6 and see why Jesus expanded the Feeding of the Five Thousand to underline the massive difference between Moses and Himself, and the relative worth of the Mosaic approach and His own.
No one outside Jesus ‘tempted’ Jesus. It was that Lord of ours facing the necessity of direction and strategy of His mission, and refusing to be diverted into something less that effective, true and of value. Temptation is always the search for the short-cut, the easy path, the half-way along the real road.
Satan. Lucifer. 666. Christ’s number, so the story goes, is 777. The symbol of completeness. But Satan is that which poses as the Real Answer, the Anti-Christ, but forever falls short, being unable to produce the goods. I do not need anyone to tempt me, boyo, and nor do you.
Sentence
The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few; ask therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest. Luke 10:2
Collect
O God, You have prepared for those who love You such good things as pass our understanding; pour into our hearts such love towards You that, loving You above all things, we may obtain Your promises that exceed all that we can desire, through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen
Old Testament Lesson 2 Kings 5: 1 – 14
Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the LORD had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, "If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy." So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. And the king of Aram said, "Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel."
He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments.
He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, "When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy." When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me." But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel."
So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha's house. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean." But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, "I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?" He turned and went away in a rage.
But his servants approached and said to him, "Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, 'Wash, and be clean'?" So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.
PSALM 117
O praise the Lord, all you nations: O praise Him all you peoples
For great is His loving-kindness towards us: and the faithfulness of the Lord endures for ever.
Praise the Lord
Epistle Galatians 6: 7 – 18
Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up.
So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.
See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand! It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised--only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. Even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh. May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything! As for those who will follow this rule--peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
From now on, let no one make trouble for me; for I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.
GOSPEL Luke 10: 1 – 12 & 17 – 24
After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, nor sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house!' And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid.
Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.' But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 'Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.' I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town.
**************************************************
The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!" He said to them, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."
At that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."
Then turning to the disciples, Jesus said to them privately, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it."
NOTES ON THE READINGS
Old Testament
I have often commented on this rather lovely Sunday School type story, for as a young child it appealed to me. “How are the mighty fallen!” seemed to be the message as a kid, but sadly neither then nor today is the sequel, just as powerful and telling, brought to people’s attention. (That has to do with the mendacity of Elisha’s servant who thought it a great way to make a quid.)
Naaman should have been disqualified from attention for he was both Gentile and outcast – either leprosy or any other skin complaint was regarded very serious by all people of that age. It may well have been only Naaman’s skill as a general that kept him in position in his own country, but that was no barrier to the prophet. Mind you, one suspects that Elisha saw this as a means of lowering the man’s ego, and that certainly had its place.
Anyhow, once said ego was reduced, he bathed in the Jordan (see notes before that suggest that the soldier’s view of the creek was justified!) and was grateful to be healed. If only things were so easy!!!
Psalm
Not a great deal to comment on really, is there. It is simple and straightforward – and true.
Epistle
The closing stanza of this letter of Paul shows that he used an amanuensis or secretary to write his epistles. It may be an indication that he had trouble with his eyes, like many people even these days. But the important matters precede that.
What you sow you will reap is not unlike the karma thing that seems to be the popular expression these days. “What goes round comes round” is perhaps a little more Australian. But on the serious side, this is another way of expressing Paul’s theology of how God responds to human evil and sin. We may prefer God to knock off the naughty ones, until we realize that we would not be exempt from such a process. ‘God gives them up’ is Paul’s way of expressing this, in his Roman epistle. This is one of the reasons that people complain about God’s absence or even non-existence. Fortunately for all of us, the Lord is rather more patient with everyone, or we would all be history.
When Paul talks about God’s wrath he is not referring to the punitive reaction that even many Christians are expecting. God’s wrath works like this: whenever you see ‘judgement’ in any of New Testament books, stop to realize that, almost invariably, the Greek word behind it is what you know as crisis. for the purist. And ‘crisis’ is a crossroads in the path ahead of you, a decision to be made, a choice. Choose foolishly and God will not get in your way, but wait to see what you will do when the choice shows up to be less than wise. Choose that way constantly and wilfully, and God may well give you up in order for you to learn the folly of such choices. ‘He wills all people to repent’ you understand, and that is why He operates that way – thank heaven. Keep heading that silly way, and again in New Testament terms, you judge yourself. In a way you do the same if you learn from your mistakes, and go on to choose wisely. You will thus have chosen life, rather than death.
As we have been considering in earlier Sundays, whilst the works / faith controversy needs to be restated and re-understood, if I choose to follow truth, and live that out, I am then bearing true witness to the faith, and may well cop considerable flak, even from Christians. I kid you not!
GOSPEL
‘Like lambs into the midst of wolves.’ In this country we have not really encountered any of the deep hatred that other people in other countries have done. Mind you, it could still happen, and then I suspect the sheep will be clearly visible as apart from the goats!!!!
This Gospel of Christ has never been popular, and never will, because it runs to contrary to the general human approach to issues of conflict and disagreement. (I find it utterly appalling, making me ashamed of our leaders, whenever Parliament, State of Federal, is broadcast. I have yet to find any MP who has learnt that degrading the opposition is a most unfruitful path to travel.) Nor yet have I encountered anyone prepared to say that they turn their backs on such practitioners.
Many a wise word was spoken by that Lord of ours when He was under great pressure. Quite clearly there was a positive response to that ministry of the disciples. No better way to learn than to be dropped in the deep end to teach. And that reference to Satan falling is a very Jewish way of explaining that the truth was getting through in spite of all human attempts to stop it.
NOTES FOR A SERMON
I have never been all that averse to sticking my neck out when it comes to attempting to advance people’s understanding of the way that the elements of the faith are expressed in Biblical language. It has long been understood that when catching sight of what people in other cultures express, then one needs to understand the others’ idiom and even local humour.
One particular issue that had long bugged me was this business of the Devil. Satan, Lucifer, the Great Deceiver. As I grew up, all manner of explanations and Biblical texts were offered to prove the ‘personal’ Satan, but none of them actually made a lot of sense to me. When it came to the extraordinary situation where some people began to use the excuse that ‘the devil made me do it,’ to explain that their actions were forced from outside of them, and so to refuse responsibility, then I fear that my patience came to a sudden and rapid end.
I have long asked people to re-read the passages in Scripture that refer to the subject, including in particular the records of Jesus ‘temptation’ before the start of His public ministry. Then I ask them to explain what was going on with those temptations, and where it would be possible for Jesus to have succumbed to the blandishments. Then I ask them to answer the rather more personal question of who tempts them! Whereas another person may well put all manner of temptations in their way, the final answer, as it is in the Genesis 3 story, is ‘I tempt myself.’
Once we begin to understand the rather vivid Jewish way of getting a message across, it becomes clearer and clearer that whenever the subject of evil hits airspace, the Biblical picture is the same. Evil always has human roots, and that makes humans responsible. The old and surely discreditted ‘Original Sin’ dogma, that had us all tied up as sinners because Adam did it in Genesis 3, may have scared the living daylights out of far too many generations, but had they thought it through, the duplicity of that dogma would destroy itself. If that were the case, then I can blame that Adam and Eve, not myself or anyone else for the stuff up to life that the story appears to portray. And if I am not responsible, then I am only some sort of puppet on a string. Less than human, not even humanoid.
So what was going on in Jesus’ mind in that six weeks in the wilderness. If you have been following this set up on readings, comments and sermons, the easier thing would be to go back to the First Sunday in Lent. A shorthand version here is that Jesus, at the very start of His public ministry had to consider what would be His approach to that ministry, how would He appeal to people, how would He gain a following. He would not want one that would be fair-weather followers, but ones that would perceive and understand the implications of a Gospel for change. His first challenge to turn stones into bread was not for His own satisfaction, but to consider ‘bread and circuses,’ that cynical Roman approach to control and leadership, which He rejected out of hand. ‘Man does not live by bread alone’ is the clear understanding that there is more to being a person than one’s stomach, one’s search for satisfaction in whatever direction. The falling down and worshipping Satan was the usual temptation for leaders of all sorts: substitute the truth for the lie, and vice versa. Bling, spin, baloney, or the straightforward Aussie expression – bull****. If there is one thing that annoys the living daylights out of me these days it is the capacity of political leaders, and the media to lay on the wider public anything but the truth unvarnished. Maybe there are people who do not want to know, but without the truth there is no way forward. There is only the downward slide into the abyss. And miracle. Jumping from the pinnacle of the Temple. Jesus refusal to use miracle as a means of gaining a following, convincing people to follow Him, is so rarely recognized as to be tragic. Sure, Jesus used miracle – as John puts it in his Gospel – as sign, pointer, semeion. Something to think through, not something at which to be amazed and astounded. Any thinking person’s response to miracle is either to disbelieve or refuse it, or more likely to ask where the trick lies. In other words, read John 6 and see why Jesus expanded the Feeding of the Five Thousand to underline the massive difference between Moses and Himself, and the relative worth of the Mosaic approach and His own.
No one outside Jesus ‘tempted’ Jesus. It was that Lord of ours facing the necessity of direction and strategy of His mission, and refusing to be diverted into something less that effective, true and of value. Temptation is always the search for the short-cut, the easy path, the half-way along the real road.
Satan. Lucifer. 666. Christ’s number, so the story goes, is 777. The symbol of completeness. But Satan is that which poses as the Real Answer, the Anti-Christ, but forever falls short, being unable to produce the goods. I do not need anyone to tempt me, boyo, and nor do you.
Newsletter
SUNDAY 4th July, 2010
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Our Celebrant and Preacher today is Fr. Philip Tolliday
WELCOME
Please join us for breakfast in the hall after the 8am service or for morning tea after the 10am service. At 10am you will find all prayers and hymns projected onto the sanctuary walls. There is Sunday School at the 10 am service during School term times.
THE PRAYER FOR TODAY
O God, You have prepared for those who love You such good things as pass our understanding; pour into our hearts such love towards You that, loving You above all things, we may obtain Your promises that exceed all that we can desire, through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen
TODAY’S READINGS 2 Kings 5: 1 – 14 and Galatians 6: 7 – 18 read by Grahame B
GOSPEL Luke 9: 51 - 62
PRAYERS FOR THE PEOPLE led by Sue D-T
We pray for those in need Warren and Thea, Janet and Peter Phillips, Ron Teague, Michael Boere. Barbara and David Corbett,
We give thanks for the life of Marjorie Webber (2001) John Clarke (1995) Jean-Jacques Tibuzzio (1991)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Rita Musolino John Wilson and Valerie Taylor
HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY –
PREPARATION FOR NEXT SUNDAY – Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Readings Amos 7:7 – 17 & Galatians 1: 1 - 14
GOSPEL Luke 10: 25 - 37
Refer Fr Ron’s Notes available at http://www.anglican-belair.blogspot.com/
POWERPOINT ROSTER – (with apologies for some mix-up)
Today Barb Capon or Luke Vandepeer
Next Week Craig Deane or Trevor Tregenza
REGULAR GROUPS AND BOOKINGS
PRAYER CIRCLE meets noon on the 2nd Tuesday each month at 36 Penno Parade North
THURSDAY EVENINGS No morning Eucharist nor evening events till mid July
BIBLE STUDY 10am every Wednesday at 378 Main Road Coromandel Valley
St John’s Grammar has booked the Hall each day for Yr 12 exams from 19 to 23 July and 26th.
OTHER COMING EVENTS Note change of date for Patronal Festival
Aug 1 Patronal Festival with Bishop David McCall guest preacher.
HELPLINE
Part of being a Christian community is the support offered to each other in times of need. We offer short-term delivery of food where needed, local transport, phone calls, visits and other types of assistance. Call Iris Downes 8278 3260 or Marlene Dixon 8278 8568
FLINDERS MEDICAL CENTRE SERVICE HELPERS
A remninder that Sunday 11th July is our turn to visit the wards and take patients to the service in the Chapel. Please be at the Chapel by 10 am. Anyone else who would like to help in this effort would me most welcome. Please contact Jean Fordham on 8278 2837. Thank you
BCA BOXES
Box holders are advised that your box is available to be collected from the foyer. Thank you for your continuing support. Marg and Alan Pressley
Time travel on the wings of song and prayer RSCM ANNUAL CHORAL FESTIVAL Evening Prayer as it may have been sung around 1710 with music by Tallis, Blow, Purcell SATURDAY 17TH JULY 2010
ST JOHN’S ANGLICAN CHURCH, HALIFAX STREET, ADELAIDE Rehearsals from 10.00 am and 2 pm
Morning and afternoon tea and lunch provided Evening Prayer will be sung at 4.30 pm. ALL WELCOME TO ATTEND EVENING PRAYER AT 4.30 PM AS CONGREGATION Cost for the full day of rehearsals:
RSCM members (individual and affiliated choirs): $10 Non-members: $12 Enquiries: Dr Warren Bourne 8278 5589
CHILDREN'S MINISTRY
Last Sunday saw 12 children for Sunday School and so much activity that we nearly missed Communion A couple of issues arise, needing attention:
(1) If parents want their children in for Communion, please come and get them
(2) We need another table and four chairs for the Kids’ Corner in Church. Ikea has a setting for $100 – but second-hand may be the go. Do you have any suggestions?
Sunday School resumes on 18th July
Items for the Newsletter need to be sent to Fr. Ron at 8298 7160 or ronpkeynes@internode.on.net or
60a Davenport Terrace, Seacliff Park SA 5049 by Tuesday nights, please
Contact person during Rector’s absence is Cynthia on 0408813244 or Church phone 10am weekdays
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Our Celebrant and Preacher today is Fr. Philip Tolliday
WELCOME
Please join us for breakfast in the hall after the 8am service or for morning tea after the 10am service. At 10am you will find all prayers and hymns projected onto the sanctuary walls. There is Sunday School at the 10 am service during School term times.
THE PRAYER FOR TODAY
O God, You have prepared for those who love You such good things as pass our understanding; pour into our hearts such love towards You that, loving You above all things, we may obtain Your promises that exceed all that we can desire, through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen
TODAY’S READINGS 2 Kings 5: 1 – 14 and Galatians 6: 7 – 18 read by Grahame B
GOSPEL Luke 9: 51 - 62
PRAYERS FOR THE PEOPLE led by Sue D-T
We pray for those in need Warren and Thea, Janet and Peter Phillips, Ron Teague, Michael Boere. Barbara and David Corbett,
We give thanks for the life of Marjorie Webber (2001) John Clarke (1995) Jean-Jacques Tibuzzio (1991)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Rita Musolino John Wilson and Valerie Taylor
HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY –
PREPARATION FOR NEXT SUNDAY – Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Readings Amos 7:7 – 17 & Galatians 1: 1 - 14
GOSPEL Luke 10: 25 - 37
Refer Fr Ron’s Notes available at http://www.anglican-belair.blogspot.com/
POWERPOINT ROSTER – (with apologies for some mix-up)
Today Barb Capon or Luke Vandepeer
Next Week Craig Deane or Trevor Tregenza
REGULAR GROUPS AND BOOKINGS
PRAYER CIRCLE meets noon on the 2nd Tuesday each month at 36 Penno Parade North
THURSDAY EVENINGS No morning Eucharist nor evening events till mid July
BIBLE STUDY 10am every Wednesday at 378 Main Road Coromandel Valley
St John’s Grammar has booked the Hall each day for Yr 12 exams from 19 to 23 July and 26th.
OTHER COMING EVENTS Note change of date for Patronal Festival
Aug 1 Patronal Festival with Bishop David McCall guest preacher.
HELPLINE
Part of being a Christian community is the support offered to each other in times of need. We offer short-term delivery of food where needed, local transport, phone calls, visits and other types of assistance. Call Iris Downes 8278 3260 or Marlene Dixon 8278 8568
FLINDERS MEDICAL CENTRE SERVICE HELPERS
A remninder that Sunday 11th July is our turn to visit the wards and take patients to the service in the Chapel. Please be at the Chapel by 10 am. Anyone else who would like to help in this effort would me most welcome. Please contact Jean Fordham on 8278 2837. Thank you
BCA BOXES
Box holders are advised that your box is available to be collected from the foyer. Thank you for your continuing support. Marg and Alan Pressley
Time travel on the wings of song and prayer RSCM ANNUAL CHORAL FESTIVAL Evening Prayer as it may have been sung around 1710 with music by Tallis, Blow, Purcell SATURDAY 17TH JULY 2010
ST JOHN’S ANGLICAN CHURCH, HALIFAX STREET, ADELAIDE Rehearsals from 10.00 am and 2 pm
Morning and afternoon tea and lunch provided Evening Prayer will be sung at 4.30 pm. ALL WELCOME TO ATTEND EVENING PRAYER AT 4.30 PM AS CONGREGATION Cost for the full day of rehearsals:
RSCM members (individual and affiliated choirs): $10 Non-members: $12 Enquiries: Dr Warren Bourne 8278 5589
CHILDREN'S MINISTRY
Last Sunday saw 12 children for Sunday School and so much activity that we nearly missed Communion A couple of issues arise, needing attention:
(1) If parents want their children in for Communion, please come and get them
(2) We need another table and four chairs for the Kids’ Corner in Church. Ikea has a setting for $100 – but second-hand may be the go. Do you have any suggestions?
Sunday School resumes on 18th July
Items for the Newsletter need to be sent to Fr. Ron at 8298 7160 or ronpkeynes@internode.on.net or
60a Davenport Terrace, Seacliff Park SA 5049 by Tuesday nights, please
Contact person during Rector’s absence is Cynthia on 0408813244 or Church phone 10am weekdays
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