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Easter March 31, 2024 Bulletin

THE SUNDAY OF THE RESURRECTION

March 31, 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed, Alleluia! Today we celebrate the Feast of Feasts: the resurrection of Lord Jesus Christ, who “by His death has trampled down death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!”

Our Gospel lesson for today tell us how it was that the initial reaction to the discovery of the empty tomb was not the occasion of joy and gladness for the first followers of Christ, but rather surprise and confusion, which eventually gave way to wonder and joy in the bodily encounter with the the Risen Lord, that then also eventually gave way to understanding through the Scripture. But the Resurrection of Christ is not simply something to be believed, but rather a Life and Experience to be shared and participated in,  right here and right now. How does the resurrection become for us a personal reality? St. Paul points the way in our  epistle reading from Colossians:  by “setting our minds on things above”, and by “putting sin to death, practices which define our life in the Church. 

THE LESSON:  Colossians 3:1-11

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Lent 5 March 17, 2024 Bulletin

THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT

Passion Sunday

March 17, 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS

Today marks the beginning of Passiontide in our church calendar, which comprises the final two weeks of Lent leading up to Easter. Our Scripture lessons for today set the “tone” for the season, setting forth something  of what the sacrificial death of  Christ on the Cross is, and  how the Cross of Christ provides us with the model and pattern for our own lives. The Epistle lesson from Hebrews speaks to us of what Christ has done for us. He is the mediator of the new covenant, that by means of death, we are set free from our sins, our consciences are purified by means of forgiveness, and we receive the promise of an eternal inheritance. Christ has done something for us, once and for all, which we could not do, but can only faithfully and thankfully receive. But the sacrifice of Christ is not just something that was done for us. It is something that must be done in us and through us, transforming our minds and hearts, and ultimately our lives, day by day. This is precisely the message of our Gospel lesson for today where in place of the pursuit of worldly ambition, power, and status, Christ calls his disciples to take His attitude of humble obedience, and make it their own. 

Hebrews 9:11-16

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Lent 4 March 10, 2024 Bulletin

THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT

March 10, 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTIOR.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS.

In the Sunday Eucharistic lections in The Book of Common Prayer, the season of Lent is understood as pilgrimage of the soul. It is a hazardous journey through a spiritual wilderness of demonic trials and temptations that separate us from the true and living God, and hold us in bondage and captivity.  The first three Sundays of Lent have been all about how it is that Christ liberates us from the deceptions and power of the Evil One. On this the Fourth Sunday in Lent, the Church holds before us the goal and end of our journey. IN our Epistle reading from Galatians, St. Paul refers to “Jerusalem which is above is free and is the mother of us all.”  In symbolic terms, Jerusalem is our spiritual home, a place of freedom and peace where we  enjoy union and communion with God in  a fellowship of love.   Such also is the parish Church, the earthly counterpart of the heavenly city, which brings us to birth through the waters of baptism, and like a good mother, nourishes us through Word and Sacrament and guides us in our way. The Gospel lesson relates the story of Christ’s  feeding of the 5,000 in the  wilderness with 5 loaves and two fish, which is for us an image of the Eucharist, where our “bodies and souls are preserved unto eternal life”, and where we are refreshed and given the strength we need  to continue the journey home.

THE LESSON:  Galatians 4:26-31

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Lent 3 March 3, 2024 Bulletin

THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT

March 3, 2024

THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE; 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTIOR.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!

LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.

GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS

Lent is a season in which we are confronted with the reality of “ spiritual warfare,” that is  our battle with “the demons”, which is to be interpreted  not merely in a reductionist  psychological sense, but in an actual spiritual sense of demons as actual “ malignant intelligences” and “ evil powers” that impact our lives and seek “to corrupt and destroy the creatures of God.” ( Book of Alternative Services p. 154) Our Gospel lesson today portrays Christ as the one who through the finger (power) of God casts out demons and overpowers Satan. In baptism, when we renounced “ the world, the flesh, and the devil” and united ourselves to Jesus in His death and Resurrection,  we became partakers of Christ’s victory over sin, death, and the devil, and the house of souls was swept clean. But as we see in the parable which Christ tells, unless we continue in repentance and acquire  thevirtues, the house of our souls remain vulnerable to demonic attack. In our Epistle lesson St. Paul unpacks Christ’s teaching, warning us to be especially on guard against the demons of sexual sin, covetousness, and idolatry.

Continue reading “Lent 3 March 3, 2024 Bulletin”