Sunday August 22nd Audio
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Proper 16
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Sunday August 22nd Sermon Audio-The Rev’d Warren Hicks
Tags: Cautionary Tale
The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
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Proper 13
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This week during our Summer Celebration this sign appeared in the staff and volunteers room. With the two expressions of thanks appearing on
consecutive days. It struck me that we need to give thanks for Mary and Martha, the contemplative and active lives lived in our midst.
This past Sunday The Rev’d Ed Greene, a former rector of St. Luke’s, delivered a brilliant sermon on the Mary and Martha story from Luke’s Gospel (Luke 10:38-42) this past weekend. In that sermon he stated that Mary and Martha are examples of the contemplative and active life in Christ, respectively. He went on to say that, largely based on Jesus’ response to the women in this story, that many have come to see the contemplative life as ‘better’ than the active life. Let me remind you of the brilliant words of William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury during much of World War II, “at the root of all heresy lies the refusal to deal with paradox.”
We all have times when, like Martha, we feel like we’re doing all the work and life would be much better if God would inspire those around us to get with the program and lend us a hand.
At the end of the Eucharist we pray one of two prayers. The second of these post communion prayers contains this text:
And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord (BCP p. 366)
It seems to me that this prayer ought to remind us that in any given day or any given week we’re called to lives of both action AND contemplation based on the context we find ourselves.
Look back to the previous week’s tale of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Contemplation and prayer alone was not going to help the man waylaid by robbers as much as the actions of the one who had been considered ‘apostate’ by the hearers of Jesus’ story in Jesus’ time.
The long and the short of it is that we need to be contemplative activists for the sake of the Gospel and in the name of Jesus and we need to thank God and one another for the Marys and Marthas in our midst and for the times we are called to fill those roles.
Tags: Action and Contemplation
Today was the first day of our VBS, termed in our lexicon ‘Summer Celebration’. 
One of the charisms of St. Luke’s is a ministry to children and not just our own. We have a goodly heritage of providing exposure to God and the life of the church for many in our neighborhood who are not ‘members’ of St. Luke’s. Frankly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Too often, it seems to me, we join together outreach and evangelism like conjoined twins and don’t recognize that each of them is a faithful and viable ministry in and of itself. The purpose of Outreach is to demonstrate to the world that we love them with the love of Christ, just because Jesus said to ‘love your neighbors as yourselves’ (but only after you’ve had an experience of a loving God.).
Evangelism is simply carrying the Good News (the Gospel) around with us as part of who we are not like something that we wear to impress others. Here’s where the obligatory nod to St. Francis mantra, “Go forth and preach the Gospel, and, if necessary, use words.” makes it’s predictable appearance.
Many times we only view our Evangelization as ‘successful’ if we get people to come to our church (usually meaning a building) or to be saved so that they get to experience heaven at some point in the future. It seems to me, as I encounter Jesus in the Gospels, that to be one of the Evangel is simply to communicate the love of God in Christ through word and especially action.
This week because we take both Outreach and Evangelism seriously we are opening the doors of our building and the heart of the Church to the children of God of all sorts and conditions in the Tatnuck Square area. We do it not because we think that it will add to the bottom line, but rather because it is part of the ‘top line’ understanding of who God calls us to be. So that means that whatever the results sewing the seeds of faith might or might not be, what we do here is a success even if only 5 children show up.
Thanks be to God for Good News and a world to share it with!!!!!!
Tags: Church, Evangelism, Jesus, Outreach
Dear Folks,
I hope you will all have a chance to get away and spend some time with a good book when you do. I usually get a lot of reading done during August vacation. Here are a few of the titles that I’m going to be loading up the Kindle with and taking with me in old-fashion print form.
Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch—I recommended this to a number of you Kindle owners when the price was $9.99. Now I look and it’s more expensive to buy on Kindle than in hardback. That being said, I ordered a used copy for $20.00 from Amazon. MacCulloch is a top level scholar and, in his own words, ‘sympathetic to Christianity’ if not a true believer. He’s the son of an Anglican Cleric and author of a biography on Thomas Cranmer and an acclaimed account of the Reformation. The narrative style of the book is readable and yet contains no shortage of serious scholarship. I may not put this on my ‘beach list’ but it will get some serious reading time. More on this one later.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0670021261/ref=oss_product
- The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything by James Martin S.J.
- Fr. Martin is an engaging writer who has found a following on Facebook and other social media sites. He’s in much demand as a speaker across the country in Catholic and Ecumenical circles. He writes in this book about his experience as a Jesuit and how that God’s presence permeates all of creation. The Jesuit emphasis on education informs a spirituality that encourages humanity to take seriously our role as co-creators with God of the Kingdom. I’ll read this one on Kindle. http://www.amazon.com/Jesuit-Guide-Almost-Everything-Spirituality/dp/0061432687/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279310118&sr=1-1
Glamorous Powers by Susan Howatch
- This is the second in the Starbridge series of books about different segments of the Church of England in the 20th Century. These are an interesting look at the structure of the church with no shortage of solid background to the different streams of Anglicanism. There are six books in the series and you can find links to all of them here http://www.amazon.com/Susan-Howatchs-Starbridge-Series/lm/RKO5ZKKV41XL8. I started reading these in seminary and picked them up again from the beginning while recovering from surgery. They are often available very affordably from used book stores. Check with Ben Franklin Books across the street from the Worcester Public Library.
The Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others by Scot McKnight
- I first encountered McKnight on a podcast where he talked about teaching Jesus in college as professor of Religious Studies at North Park University in Evanston, IL. The first of McKnight’s books I read was about how we relate to the Bible, The Blue Parakeet. He writes accessibly with humor, insight, scholarship and joy. This would make a great book study (hint, hint!) http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Creed-Loving-God-Others/dp/1557254001/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279310861&sr=8-1
Things Seen and Unseen: A Year Lived in Faith by Nora Gallagher 
- This is one of those books that’s been on my stack of books for way too long. Gallagher writes about her life lived in a community of faith and the joys and struggles of living that are best shared with the Church as living body of Christ. Another that would make a great study, methinks. http://www.amazon.com/Things-Seen-Unseen-Lived-Faith/dp/0679775498/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279311175&sr=1-1
All Fishermen Are Liars by Linda Greenlaw
- No trip to the Maine Coast is complete for me without reading a book on the fishing industry. Last year it was Greenlaw’s The Lobster Chronicles. Greenlaw came to notoriety in Sebastian Junger’s A Perfect Storm the true story of swordfishing. She’s the author of several other books including The Hungry Ocean and her most recent Seaworthy: A Swordboat Captain Returns to the Sea. Her sense of place is wonderful. A sense of fishing as vocation permeates her book and she writes well! http://www.amazon.com/All-Fisherman-are-Liars-Adventures/dp/0786888784/ref=pd_sim_b_1
If I get through this list I’ll be surprised, but time will tell….
Have a great summer y’all!!!!!
