O what blessedness accompanies devotion,
When under all the trials that weary me,
The cares that corrode me,
The fears that disturb me,
The infirmities that oppress me,
I can come to Thee in my need
And feel peace beyond understanding.
- Puritan Prayer

Today I am once again taken up with the words of CS Lewis, one of my true heroes. I give to you today a quote from his book, The Problem of Pain: Amazing Love, How Can it Be?

When Christianity says that God loves man, it means that God loves man (humanity); not that He has some ‘disinterested’, because really indifferent, concern for our welfare, but that, in awful and surprising truth, we are the objects of His love. You asked for a loving God: you have one. The great spirit you so lightly invoked, the ‘lord of terrible aspect’, is present: not a senile benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way, not the cold philanthropy of a conscientious magistrate, nor the care of a host who feels responsible for the comfort of his guests, but the consuming fire Himself, the Love that made the worlds, persistent as the artist’s love for his work and despotic as a man’s love for a dog, provident and venerable as a father’s love for a child, jealous, inexorable, exacting as love between the sexes. How this should be, I do not know: it passes reason to explain why any creatures, not to say creatures such as we, should have a value so prodigious in their Creator’s eyes.

O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
George Matheson

Debra’s Midweek Meditation
"And Joshua said to all the people, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel:...Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord.'" Joshua 24:2

I am starting this week with Joshua, the Old Testament reading for Sunday. These words about leaving behind former gods in order to serve the Lord remind us that faith is not static, and revelation is an ever-expanding target. I can hear the above statement about faith and not feel too uncomfortable. I am willing to revere the Lord in sincerity and in faith, knowing that the Lord is the author of my faith and will help me sort it out when times are tough.

Things get a bit more dicey for me, when I turn to the reading this Sunday from Ephesians:

"Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord (and)...Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her..."
Ephesians 5:21-33

I don't need to go into all the ways this passage has been misused, however, what about the meaning underneath the words that hard to hear?

Whenever I come up against a "hard saying" I ask myself what is that I need to wrestle with and what is it that I need to learn?
What gods am I being asked to put away so that I might worship the Lord?

In a church community when we treat each other as though we were "aware" of the Christ within us, the Spirit has a lot more freedom to move.
I think this happens in marriage as well. If I am not trying so hard to get my own way--I am able to listen to what the other has to say.
If we consider the whole scope of Paul's teaching here we realize that what he is requiring is faithfulness, humility and above all love for Christ and for each other.
Beyond the words of submission are the words of deep relationship, anchored in Christ and supported by the community.

Yes, there will always be those who want to use scripture to bully and to oppress.
Jesus' life was not about those things.
Jesus' life was about sacrifice and holiness.

Blessings,
Debra

Daily Morning Prayer
http://www.episcopalchurchingarrettcounty.org/morning_prayer.htm

O God, make the door of this house
Wide enough to receive all who need
Human love and fellowship,
And a heavenly Father’s care;
And narrow enough to shut out all envy, pride and hate.
Make its threshold smooth enough
To be no stumbling-block to children,
Nor to straying feet,
But rugged enough to turn back
The tempter’s power:
Make it a gateway for your eternal kingdom.
- Thomas Ken

This week at St. James
Sunday: 9:00 Sunday School Teachers in Parish Library
Monday: Public Schools begin
Wednesday: 8:30 Healing Liturgy; 9:30 Prayer Shawl ministry

Prayers, Etc.
We pray for those who are deployed and their families.
For peace in the Middle East.
For Laura and Lyle.

For those on our prayer list:
Dot; Sue; Lori; Bill; Sarah; Joel
Toni; Anna; Philip; David; Brooke; Brian G.
Leib ∓ Carlyn Lovisah; Jeffrey; Miriam F.; Pat Easter
Traskey family; Harold Fitch; Walter Rasmussen
Dick Hauck; Matthew Day; Erin Nilles; Sharon C.
Gage C.; Tristan Jennifer; Henry Chen; Auds
Joan Lopez and family Avery

Be gracious to all that are near and dear to me,
And keep us all in thy fear and love.
Guide us, good Lord, and govern us by the same Spirit,
That we may be so united to thee here
As not to be divided when thou art please to call us hence,
But may together enter into thy glory,
Through Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Savior…
- John Wesley

In Closing:
Grace

Grace of love be thine,
Grace of floor be thine,
Grace of castle be thine,
Grace of court be thine,
Grace and pride of homeland be thine

The guard of the God of life be thine,
The guard of the loving Christ be thine,
The guard of the Holy Spirit be thine,

To cherish thee,
To aid thee,
To enfold thee.

The Three be about thy head,
The Tree be about thy breast,
The Three be about thy body
Each night and each day,
In the encompassment of the Three
Throughout thy life long.
- Celtic Vision

Pax et Bonum,
Loree+

<- Back to Parish News