Thursday August 6
The Feast of the Transfiguration
The Feast of the Transfiguration commemorates the event where Jesus led his three closest disciples, Peter, James, and John, upon a high mountain. Suddenly he began to glow his clothes becoming dazzling white, with a brightness of the sun itself. Next there appeared with him Moses and Elijah. The disciples were overwhelmed and spell bound and didn’t know what to say. Peter suggested that they make three shelters for all of them, “not knowing what he said.” Next a cloud overshadows them and they hear a voice say, “This is my Son, listen to him.” Just as suddenly the vision ends. Coming down the mountain, Jesus tells them to say nothing until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.
The Transfiguration conveys a number of things. For a brief moment, disciples behold Jesus’ divine glory. The appearance of Moses and Elijah shows that Jesus fulfills and surpasses both the Law and the Prophets. The Transfiguration is an “Epiphany” a disclosure of God in Christ. As such it not only has it’s own feast day on August 6, but we always end the Epiphany season with the account of the Transfiguration. You might say that before we enter into the darkness of Lent, we get a glimpse of where we are going in a vision of the Risen Lord. A similar thing happens at the end of the Season after Pentecost, where before entering Advent with the anticipation of Christ’s coming both at Christmas and the Parousia, we celebrate Christ the King, again a glimpse of where we are going.
The Transfiguration is of particular importance in the Easter Orthodox Tradition where the Light of Tabor (The mountain where this happens) is to take root in the human heart.
One of our hymns, #137 captures the meaning of the Transfiguration as a sign of the destiny toward which we are all being drawn.
O Father, with the eternal Son,
and Holy Spirit, ever One,
Vouchsafe to bring us by thy grace
to see thy glory face to face
Emmaus Road: Summer Movies.
Emmaus Road continues its summer movie schedule this Monday with the viewing of Part 2 of Quo Vadis. This is a classic. It’s one of those 1950’s Biblical Epics like The Ten Commandments, or King of Kings. Some of us call them “Lust in the Dust” movies because, well, those Egyptians and Romans in warm climates didn’t wear much, but since it was about the bible, it could get by the censors of the Hays Code. Besides telling a Christian story, it also gives a window on to American culture post World War II and the beginning of the Cold War. Join us Monday August 10, 7:00 p.m. You’ll be glad you did. You’ll also come away with a greater appreciation for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Summer Reading; The Late History of Israel
Keep at it. We’re in the middle of: The One and Only True and Authoritative, Historically Correct, and Officially Approved Report of the Amazing Rise, God Fearing Life, Heroic Deeds, and Wonderful Achievements of David the Son of Jesse, King of Judah Seven years, and of both Judah and Israel for Thirty three, Chosen of God and Father of King Solomon.* Or by it’s working Title: The King David Report. You can find the Scripture citations in what follows below…
Something Added to the Large Print Bulletin
Chris Askew who makes the Large Print Bulletin for Sundays has added something to it as an aid to, as we say in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, “Enable fuller participation in the Liturgy.
Chris is adding the brief introductions to the Sunday Scripture Readings that appear in the small print bulletin inserts. They come from a book written by our former bishop and New Testament scholar, Frederick Borsch entitled Introducing the Lessons of the Church Year. Bishop Borsch has written a brief paragraph on each of the Sunday readings. This paragraph helps set the context of the readings we’re going to hear with some relevant historical and theological information. Looking at these introductions prior to the readings can help in getting a deeper of understanding of them. These introductions will come on one page that also contains the calendar and announcements and Daily Scripture readings. You can easily take that page out of the Large Print Bulletin and take it home.
The Large Print Bulletin can be a help in your daily prayer life. On a Sunday morning we get a lot of material in a very short period of time. It can be helpful to later in the week go back and re-read the Scriptures, the hymns which are religious poetry set to music, and the Liturgy itself as a way of continuing and deepening the sense of Christ’s presence to us in Scripture and Liturgy.
Coffee Hour Sign Up for July and August
The sign up sheet for Coffee hour is next to the Air Pots on the Coffee table outside Church. Please sign up to take a Sunday during the summer.
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd
Level 2
August 9, 2015 Pentecost 11
The True Vine
John 15
In CGS Level I, the image of Christ Jesus is taken from the Old Testament as the Good Shepherd (Ezekiel 34, Jeremiah 23, and Psalm 23). We read about the Good Shepherd who looks after his sheep, knows them by name, and takes care of them to the point of giving his life; the sheep recognize and follow his voice.
For Level II, the image of Christ Jesus as the True Vine “does not have an exact precedent in the Old Testament. The author of John’s gospel seems to go beyond the Old Testament in this point, revealing to us a particular relationship between Christ (the True Vine, with the Father as Vinedresser) and us (the branches of the Vine).”[1] The sap is the life of the Risen Christ and free flow is needed for the life of the vine. We receive the sap through Baptism, Eucharist, prayer, and listening to the Word. The fruit is the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22).
As the development of the 6 to 9 year-old grows toward the “age of reason,” s/he becomes aware her/his community is united in communion with Jesus and with one another. This union brings profound joy. The relationship we are called to on the True Vine is a continuation of the relationship begun with the Good Shepherd.
We “remain” in relationship with Jesus through prayer, scripture, participating in the sacraments and fidelity to the commandments so we will bear fruit for the glory of God and the benefit of those who share this life on the vine with us. Our action on the vine makes life for others richer or poorer. God the Father is the vinedresser who shapes and guides our growth, nurturers and gives personal care to the True Vine. God’s constant care produces much fruit that returns much glory to God. In following meditations on the True Vine, we discuss how sin disconnects us from the vine and reconciliation frees us from those things that block the sap from flowing to and through us.
One of the indirect aims of the presentation is to lay the foundation for moral and religious life. But the one I find to be most profound is the True Vine links people of faith before us and after us, of all time; those living in relationship with the Good Shepherd and those who have gone before us who now belong to the Communion of Saints. The True Vine is the cosmic unity of the Kingdom of God through our relationship of the Risen Christ. That deserves a 5-star “wow.”
In the presentation of the True Vine, the reading of the Word is our material. I invite you to read John 15, just as the children do.
Ms. Georgie
Food For Thought
On the Food For Thought Table this weekend, from the current issue of The New York Review of Books, a review of a new book in the Library of America series, Major Works on Religion and Politics, by Reinhold Niebuhr. Reinhold Niebuhr was one of the most influential American theologians of the first half of the 20th Century. Besides all the profound books and articles he wrote, Niebuhr is also the author of the famous Serenity Prayer. However, popular as the prayer is, it is about something different than most people think. Quoting from the article:
Despite its name, it is not a prayer for serenity alone—it could just as well be called the Courage Prayer or the Wisdom Prayer, virtues that Niebuhr sees as equally important, and indeed indispensible to the achievement of serenity. Far from being a call to resignation, or a permission slip for turning over one’s problems to God, the prayer is actually an acceptance of responsibility. It is up to each individual to examine him/her self and the world, and to find out how much they need to be and can be changed. It is only when the limits of this change are reached that we are allowed the consolation of serenity. The Serenity Prayer is actually a prescription for a strenuous moral life.
This strenuosity, this refusal of easy religious and political answers, this insistence on responsibility in thought and action, is the hallmark of Niebuhr’s thought.
Reinhold Niebuhr is a person well worth Christians (everyone really) getting to know.