The Spirit does what we cannot

The Episcopal Church of the Incarnation

West Point, Mississippi

The Incarnate Word

30 June 2011

In the epistle for this coming Sunday, St. Paul writes of a struggle over “my own actions” (Rom. 7.15), of intending good but not doing it, and of encountering evil close at hand when good is intended.  Each of us has had this experience.  Paul is using “speech in character,” a well-attested rhetorical phenomenon (prosopopoeia, cf. Rom. 3.7) in which the character then becomes generalized as the argument develops into ch. 8:  “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8.2).  The Spirit does what the law can’t do.

That last line in the preceding paragraph bears repetition.  The Spirit does what the law can’t do.  The Spirit does what our wills cannot do unaided, and so rather than focusing on how I can become a better person, I need to focus on how I can make my own will more available to God.

In Summer we can all be quite busy, but in the life of a parish it is common that organized activities are fewer.  Sunday School, adult education, EYC take a holiday, but our relationship to God does not.  It is expressed differently and explored differently.  So, during a season when outside of worship your spiritual life is more personal, consider how you can explore two things:  (1)  How do I make my heart and mind more open to God, to allow my will to be conformed to His will?  (2)  What practices and ministry am I called to by God to put His will into effect, and strengthen me in how I become available to God?  You can explore questions like these in study of Scripture and in fellowship, but most particularly you can explore these questions in prayer.  Praying itself will open your hearts and minds to God, and will allow you to hear better just what it is that God is calling you to.

Talk to God every day, and listen every day, and you’ll find soon enough that the Spirit can do all those things that we cannot do on our own.

Building and Grounds:  We need people to sign up to help water the ornamental plants at the parish.  Please contact Kyle Chandler IV to sign up.

Parish facebook page:  The parish has a facebook page (search under the email address of incarnationwp@gmail.com).  Consider linking your own friends to the parish page, to increase exposure of who we are to those who may not have a church home.

Fireworks celebration:  Ron and Diann Powell have again graciously invited the parish to share in the fireworks at Old Waverly.  Fireworks will be launched at dark, but come early for a cook out at the Powell’s (2012 Waverly Drive, 494-8823).  Bring a lawn chair and something to add to the food and drink. 

Vacation Bible School will be held Sunday 17 July to Wednesday 20 July, from 6 to 8 p.m., at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church.  Please contact Carolyn Jane Hay to coordinate help.

Adult Education options:  Please indicate your interest in the following options for Sunday morning adult education during the Summer:  (1)  A survey of Christian Art; (2)  Women of the Bible.  In the Fall we will focus on the Acts of the Apostles as a Sunday morning study option (plus one of the above-listed options) and the option of a 32 week Fall and Spring curriculum of a comprehensive survey of Holy Scripture.  This 32 week course will be offered in 150 minute sessions, on either Sunday or Tuesday night.

Evolution and Scripture:  A very interesting discussion about evolution and Scripture may be found at http://accurmudgeon.blogspot.com/ .  The Anglican Curmudgeon comments on issues in the Church, and in this case is commenting (in a five part series) on the questions surrounding the Genesis creation story, and how this relates to scientific theory.  The Curmudgeon is someone you may or may not agree with, but he has done his homework, and this series is a good example of how to take Scripture seriously.

Creedal Christian:  Check out The Rev. Dr. Bryan Owen’s blog at http://creedalchristian.blogspot.com/ (27 June post) for an interesting reference to our need to look beyond the rational to better know God.

Frozen food appeal:  We are very low on deer meat.  If you have prepared game, or other frozen foods that can be donated to those in need, please bring them for the freezer in the Trulove House.

Change in parish web address:  The parish website domain has changed from “.org” to “.com”.  The correct address is http://www.incarnationwestpoint.com/ .

New to the prayer list:  We pray for healing for Norman Armstrong, Sarah Pogue and Elizabeth Schaffenburg.  The prayer list needs to be updated for July.  Please provide names to the parish office.

Thanksgivings:  Thanksgivings are offered to Keith and Andrew Mooney, and to Patricia Cantrell, for setting up the Digital Hymnal in a way that will allow us to hear the music while we are without an organist.

Music this week:  In Sarah’s absence, we have changed the hymns from those planned to ones that we can sing using the Digital Hymnal.  The psalm will be recited.  The hymns are:

                        Pro.      74, Blest be the King whose coming

Seq.     482, Lord of all hopefulness

Off.      Anthem: O beautiful for spacious skies (Hymn 719), a capella

Rec.     544, Jesus shall reign where’er the sun

Com.    693, 302

Christ the Cornerstone

The Episcopal Church of the Incarnation

West Point, Mississippi

The Incarnate Word

23 June 2011

In the collect for this coming Sunday, we speak of the foundation of the Church being upon the apostles and prophets, with “Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone”.  This prayer may resonate in your mind with the message of hymn 518, Christ is made the sure foundation or 525, The Church’s one foundation.  The latter hymn seems to figure frequently (and appropriately) in funeral services.  If we are not focused on Jesus Christ, if our relationship with Jesus is not the cornerstone of what we do as a Church, we have no foundation at all.  But note that we acknowledge in prayer that included with Jesus in the foundation are the apostles and prophets.  Apostles bring the message, the Good News, and prophets speak for God, words which can include encouragement or reproof.  And guess what?  Each one of us is empowered by the Holy Spirit to act as an apostle or prophet to some other person.  We may not be called (or we may!) to a public ministry, but every one of us faces times in life when we are called to a private ministry, which can involve leading someone else to Jesus, or reconfirming them in their faith.

An anthem prepared for the centennial of a parish in another diocese reminds us of the theme in the collect by combining elements of Psalm 127 with those of Ephesians 2.20. 

Christ the Cornerstone

Unless the Lord build the house,

they labor in vain that build it.

But built on the sure foundation

of the apostles and prophets,

the household is joined and rises,

a holy temple in the Lord.

With Christ Jesus himself the cornerstone,

blessed are they that dwell in the house;

they will praise the Lord and sing,

“His mercy endures forever.”

Vacation Bible School will be held Sunday 17 July to Wednesday 20 July, from 6 to 8 p.m., at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church.  Please contact Carolyn Jane Hay to coordinate help.

Adult Education options:  Please indicate your interest in the following options for Sunday morning adult education during the Summer:  (1)  A survey of Christian Art; (2)  Women of the Bible.  In the Fall we will focus on the Acts of the Apostles as a Sunday morning study option (plus one of the above-listed options) and the option of a 32 week Fall and Spring curriculum of a comprehensive survey of Holy Scripture.  This 32 week course will be offered in 150 minutes sessions, on either Sunday or Tuesday night.

Frozen food appeal:  We are very low on deer meat.  If you have prepared game, or other frozen foods that can be donated to those in need, please bring them for the freezer in the Trulove House.

Clothing appeal:  We are working with a person in need of men’s clothing.  Shirts in the L or XL size will work, and pants in W36, I30 are needed.  Please bring any extra clothing to the parish office.

Change in parish web address:  The parish website domain has changed from “.org” to “.com”.  The correct address is http://www.incarnationwestpoint.com/ .

Dugan Home devotionals:  Incarnation will offer the Sunday morning devotionals at Dugan Home during June, at 9 a.m. on Sunday.  Make sure you join Rufus Ward, who will lead the service this Sunday!

New to the prayer list:  We pray for Parker, Ruth, Mike Meeks, and for healing for Sarah Pogue.

New member welcome:  Please welcome Karen Powell to Incarnation.  Karen is a West Point native returning here from Jackson.

Thanksgivings:  Thanksgivings are offered to again to the Care Committees of the parish, and to .

Music this week:  In Sarah’s absence, we have changed the hymns from those planned to ones that we can sing using the Digital Hymnal.  The psalm will be recited.  The Hymns are:

                        Pro.      401, The God of Abraham praise

                        Seq.     475, God Himself is with us

                        Rec.     423, Immortal, invisible, God only wise

                        Com.   440, 609

An Act of Will

The Episcopal Church of the Incarnation

West Point, Mississippi

The Incarnate Word

16 June 2011

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above,

where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Colossians 3.1

Last Sunday in preaching I spoke about what a Spirit-filled church looks like.  Frankly, my sermon was a bit of a rant, and you have been gracious.  (Does this mean one rant every five years is OK?)  I spoke about what a Spirit-filled church does not look like, and then God, in His infinite wisdom, decided to let me experience His Spirit at work right here.  How did God do this?  He did this by allowing me to experience how people step forward to help when someone is in need.  Our time in hospital was punctuated by offers of help, actual help and visits, and our return home has been greeted with meals and prayers.

The Spirit works best when we choose to work with the Spirit ourselves.  To choose, or to decide, calls to mind the origin of the word “crisis,” from the Greek krisis, which means “decision”.  Faith involves decision.  The practice of faith involves decision, an act of the individual will.  Whenever each one of us decides to submit our will to God’s and to offer up our own gifts to the good of the common Body of God’s Church, the Spirit is at work.  As a form of reminder, then, please sing with the choir during the communion hymn this Sunday.  The hymn is 370, popularly known as “St. Patrick’s Breastplate”.  When you sing this hymn, let the active voice of the verbs reflect your own active decision to choose God: “I bind unto myself today the strong Name of the Trinity ...”  Decide on God, and then invoke His presence and aid in the famous sixth verse of the hymn:

Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me,

Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort and restore me.

Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet,

Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me,

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

Guest celebrant:  The Rev. Lynn Barker, formerly rector of All Saints’, Grenada, will be celebrant on 19 June (Trinity Sunday).  Please welcome her at coffee hour.

Change in parish email address:  The yahoo address will become dormant.  Effective immediately, email communication to the parish should be sent to incarnationwp@gmail.com.

Dugan Home devotionals:  Incarnation will offer the Sunday morning devotionals at Dugan Home during June, at 9 a.m. on Sunday.  Make sure you join Rufus Ward, who will lead the service this Sunday!

New to the prayer list:  We pray Elizabeth Schaffenburg, for Parker, and for the Bryan family.

Thanksgivings:  Thanksgivings are offered to the Care Committees of the parish, as organized by Carolyn Jane Hay.

Vestry will meet on Monday, 20 June, at 5:30 p.m.  This will be a brief meeting which focuses on financial review only.

Music this week:        Canticle            S13, Benedictus es, Domine

                                    Pro.      362, Holy, holy, holy!  Lord God Almighty!

Seq.     31, Most Holy God, the Lord of heaven

Off.      Anthem:  O Trinity of Blessed Light (WOV 744)

Rec.     460, Alleluia!  Sing to Jesus!

Com.    370

Spiritual Fellowship

The Episcopal Church of the Incarnation

West Point, Mississippi

The Incarnate Word

9 June 2011

Alleluia!  Christ the Lord has ascended into heaven!

At Pentecost we celebrate the birthday of the Church.  Before He ascended into heaven, Jesus told his disciples that “...you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1.8).  The rest of Acts describes just that:  the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples and they then witness to God, starting in Jerusalem.

We stand in the apostolic succession of those who first received the Holy Spirit.  We are Jesus’ witnesses, and we have received power.  In the epistle for Pentecost, St. Paul writes “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor. 12.7).  Whatever God empowers each of us to do, if it is truly done in God’s Name it is for the good of God’s people.

This week I want to focus on one gift:  hospitality.  Paul does not list this gift in our lesson, although both in 1 Cor. 12 and Rom. 12 Paul does list “service” as a gift.  Hospitality is a way to build up the common Body, and when done in God’s Name for God’s Church, it is a form of service.  This is one reason why we will institute a new practice of Eight for Five.

Eight for Five will be a monthly dinner, falling on the last Sunday of each month.  At 5 p.m. eight adult members (plus their children) of the parish will gather to share in fellowship.  Locations will vary, but will include the rectory and the homes of some members of the Vestry.  The idea is that each dinner will be hosted by the rector (and Elizabeth!) and a member of the Vestry plus spouse, and that two other couples or four other adults will be included.  The focus will be on an increase in fellowship, that as we all get to know each other better we will better discern how we are called to live together as God’s people in this place.  Eight for Five can serve as a way of inviting and welcoming newcomers and as a way for people in the parish who may not know each other outside of Sunday worship to get to know each other better.  The focus will be on building up the common Body, but there’s a danger involved.  The danger?  It’s that as we function better in common God will call us to do more.  But remember, God will never ask us to do anything that He does not equip us to do!

Pentecost celebration:  It is a tradition to wear something red at the celebration of the feast of Pentecost.  Red is the liturgical color for the Holy Spirit.  Please note that there will be no Pentecost luncheon.  Mass in the Grass was just last Sunday, and that will serve as our seasonal luncheon.

Guest celebrant:  I will be in Washington, DC from 17 through 19 June.  The celebrant for Holy Eucharist on Sunday, 19 June will be The Rev. Dr. Lynn Barker of Starkville, formerly rector of All Saints’, Grenada.  Please be sure to welcome her at coffee hour.

Men’s Fellowship:  The fellowship meets this Monday, 13 June, at 6:30 p.m. at the Trulove House.  Bring something to grill and something to drink.  This is an important meeting, and all men of the parish are urged to attend.  The fellowship will review options for ministry to undertaken going forward.

Change in parish email address:  The yahoo address will become dormant.  Effective immediately, email communication to the parish should be sent to incarnationwp@gmail.com.

Dugan Home devotionals:  Incarnation will offer the Sunday morning devotionals at Dugan Home during June, at 9 a.m. on Sunday.  Make sure you join Rufus Ward, who will lead the service this Sunday!

New to the prayer list:  We pray for the Gray family.

Thanksgivings:  Thanksgivings are offered to the Pryors for their wonderful hospitality at last Sunday’s Mass in the Grass, and to all who brought the delicious food and drink.  Thanksgivings also to Sandy Gentry and Juanita O’Brian for their service on Altar Guild this month.

.

Music this week:        Service music changes for this season to S280 (Gloria), S125 (Sanctus) and S152

                                    (fraction)

                                    Psalm 104.25-35, 37      A Hymn Tune Psalter

                                    Pro.      48, O day of radiant gladness

Seq.     510, Come Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove

Off.      Anthem:  Come Thou, Holy Spirit Bright (hymn 226)

Rec.     528, Lord, you give the great commission

Com.    516, 315

Extending Christ's Reign

The Incarnate Word

2 June 2011

Alleluia!  Christ the Lord has ascended into heaven!

Note how the “tag line” has changed from “Alleluia!  The Lord is risen indeed!”  This is because today is Ascension Day, a principal feast of the Church that commemorates the inauguration of Jesus’s reign in heaven.  The issue for us is not whether Jesus reigns in heaven, but whether He reigns in our own lives, and what we do to extend His reign to others.  I’ve written much about how our Lord’s reign is expressed in what we do together, and that’s where something else has changed.  This communication is no longer a newsletter but is a parish blog.  Why the change?

The fact of the matter is that the more we can communicate, and in more media, the better chance there is that seeds of faith will be planted, and that seeds which have been planted will grow.  Our communications need to be interactive.  The new website will go live within the week, and it will feature a link to a new parish Facebook page.  A lot of you have your own pages.  Please add the parish page as a “friend”.  You can then link your own friends in, and whether or not they ever choose to attend worship at Incarnation, they will have the opportunity to learn more about the faith we profess.

The website let’s you look at lessons, sermons and hymns in parallel.  You can link to Christian Education materials by topic.  Should we worry, therefore, that some folks will just try to “do church” online?  I think not.  Once you have been exposed to worship as the complete package, as including fellowship and the sacraments, restricting yourself to private study of the Word will seem just that, restricted.  But for those who have not yet experienced the fullness of worship, or have lapsed, exposure to the Word can lead to the desire for more, to reconnect.

Note that the blog title is now The Incarnate Word.  Remember that “what the Word means is what the Word does,” and that you incarnate the very Word of God in how you gather as members of Christ’s Body.  Extend Jesus’s reign to all!

Call for photos!  If you have a good digital photo of the church or of church activities, please send them to us to be added to the website.

Dugan Home devotionals:  Incarnation will offer the Sunday morning devotionals at Dugan Home during June, at 9 a.m. on Sunday.  Make sure you join Rufus Ward, who will lead the service this Sunday!

New to the prayer list:  We pray for the Gray family.

 Mass in the Grass is this Sunday, 5 June, at Pryor Farm, 626 Hwy. 47N.  Directions have been emailed to all on the distribution list for this newsletter.  There will be no Pentecost luncheon on 12 June.  Given the late date of Easter this year, MiTG will serve as our seasonal opporunity for a parish luncheon.

 Thanksgivings:  Thanksgivings are offered to Katie Chandler for all her work to support and revise the parish website, and to enhance the communications of the parish through electronic media.  Joe and Betty Trulove have been busy watering the new plants, and all of the Pryor’s are busy in preparing for Mass in the Grass.  Kristen Stevens has been active on Care Committee this week.  Please take time to thank people who serve the Church, and also take time to communicate to the office anyone who we might miss in offering thanks.

New Christian Education content:  Check out on the new website a course in Paul’s Letter to the Romans.  This is an adaptation into text of the course slides used in the winter and spring adult education class.  The content is derivative, coming in part from published commentaries and in part from class notes I took during a seminary course in Romans.  The course is not simple, but it is an example of how deep we can go at a parish level.  Please indicate your interest if you are interested in more courses like this (e.g., on Sunday mornings), and your preference on a book to tackle next (e.g., Acts, Revelation, a survey of the Pentateuch?)

Another document you’ll find on the Christian Education section of the website is An Introduction to Scripture.  (This one is original to me, except as noted.)  One option for next Fall is to take the Tuesday night slot (6:30 to 9) which was dedicated to EfM and undertake a detailed 34 week survey of all of the Bible, using the Introduction document as an outline of topics, but diving much deeper into each topic.  Please indicate your interest.

Music this week:         Psalm 68.1-10, 33-36, recited

Pro.      Alleluia, Alleluia!  Give thanks to the risen Lord (camp setting)

Seq.     I want to walk as a child of the light (camp setting)

Off.     Anthem:  A Repeating Alleluia (G.I.A. Choral Series)

Rec.     493, O, for a thousand tongue to sing

Com.   325, 335

Remember to come at 10 a.m. to rehearse for the offertory music.