• Content

  • Pages

  • Upcoming Events

    • Sunday service - Holy Communion December 28, 2025 at 9:30 am – 11:00 am Grace Church 215 Pleasant Street, Sheldon, VT Website: www.gracechurchsheldon.comTime:  09:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)        Every week on Sun.Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/83929911344?pwd=alZQTWZMN0ZkWFFPS1hmNjNkZkU2UT09Meeting ID: 839 2991 1344Password: Call for detailsOne tap mobile+13126266799,,83929911344#,,1#,816603# US (Chicago)+19294362866,,83929911344#,,1#,816603# US (New York)Dial by your location        +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)        +1 929 436 2866 US (New York)Meeting ID:…
    • Sunday service - Morning Prayer January 4, 2026 at 9:30 am – 11:00 am Grace Church 215 Pleasant Street, Sheldon, VT Website: www.gracechurchsheldon.comTime:  09:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)        Every week on Sun.Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/83929911344?pwd=alZQTWZMN0ZkWFFPS1hmNjNkZkU2UT09Meeting ID: 839 2991 1344Password: Call for detailsOne tap mobile+13126266799,,83929911344#,,1#,816603# US (Chicago)+19294362866,,83929911344#,,1#,816603# US (New York)Dial by your location        +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)        +1 929 436 2866 US (New York)Meeting ID:…
    • Sunday service - Holy Communion January 11, 2026 at 9:30 am – 11:00 am Grace Church 215 Pleasant Street, Sheldon, VT As of January 16, 2022 our service online only (via Zoom). Website: www.gracechurchsheldon.orgTime:  09:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)        Every week on Sun.Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/83929911344?pwd=alZQTWZMN0ZkWFFPS1hmNjNkZkU2UT09Meeting ID: 839 2991 1344Password: Call for detailsOne tap mobile+13126266799,,83929911344#,,1#,816603# US (Chicago)+19294362866,,83929911344#,,1#,816603# US (New York)Dial by your location        +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) …

Pentecost 16 Proper 18B RCL September 9, 2018

Posted on September 9, 2018 by Beth Crane

Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
Psalm 125
James 2:1-10, (11-13), 14-17
Mark 7:24-37

In our baptismal vows, we are asked, “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?” Donna Hicks, the author of the book Dignity, was with us at our Diocesan Convention to help us to understand the meaning of dignity on a deeper level. Our bishop has done a great deal of work on this topic, and this has led him to become a part of Jerusalem Peacebuilders. All of our readings today reflect on the topic of dignity in one way or another.

Our passage from the Book of Proverbs tells us that a reputation for honesty and integrity is a precious thing. Justice, generosity, and compassion bear good fruit. God is the creator of all people, rich and poor, powerful and vulnerable. We are called to honor the dignity of every person, because the dignity of every person is a quality given to
them at birth. Every person is a child of God.

Our reading from the Letter of James builds on these ideas, asking, do we treat people differently according to their position in society? Do we show a rich person to his or her seat and ignore a poor person? Or do we recognize every person as a beloved child of God? James tells us that our faith must be lived out in action. If a person comes to us who has no clothes and no food, we cannot say, “Go in peace; have a good day.” We are called to take care of that person. Food shelf ministries are one way to respond to that call. Thank you for your support of that ministry.

In our gospel, we have some encounters which teach us about dignity and God’s love on a very profound level. Jesus has just been trying to teach us that what is in our hearts is what really matters. The Pharisees were chiding him and his disciples for not washing their hands and therefore being ritually unclean and Jesus was trying to
teach us about the importance of compassion.

Now our Lord goes into what was then called Phoenicia and now would be called Syria. This is a Gentile land. He goes into a house and tries to keep his presence a secret. He is tired; the crowds are around him constantly, and he is trying to get some privacy. A woman whose daughter is ill hears about him. She comes and bows down before him, pleading with him to heal her daughter.

Jesus is a rabbi, a teacher. Rabbis are not supposed to be near Gentiles. He has gone into a Gentile territory. Rabbis are not supposed to talk to women. If they talk to Gentiles and women, they will be ritually unclean. So Jesus is now ritually unclean according to the law. He is still thinking that his ministry is to his own people, so he tells the woman that the children need to be fed, that is, the Jewish people. He says, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” It makes us squirm to hear this language. Herbert O’Driscoll writes, “One cannot help wondering if there were moments in [Jesus’] life as in ours, when he regretted saying something.” (O’Driscoll, The Word Among Us, p. 99.)

The woman is desperate to get help for her daughter. She genuinely believes Jesus can bring about this healing. And she is deeply spiritual, highly intelligent, and a first-class theologian. “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Jesus recognizes the woman’s faith. And her wisdom. Her daughter is healed.

The woman refuses to accept that she is inferior, either because of her gender or because of her nationality or religion. She goes home and finds her daughter well.

Jesus has just had his ministry clarified and vastly expanded by a woman he had never met before and probably will never meet again. Although he responded at first from his exhaustion and frustration, a moment he will probably regret, he has, in this brief but life-changing encounter, respected her dignity and allowed her to teach him
something about his ministry.

Jesus goes on, into another Gentile territory, Sidon and the region of the Decapolis, and they bring him a deaf man. This man can neither hear nor speak. This time, Jesus has no hesitation. He takes the man to a quiet spot, puts his fingers into the man’s ears, spits on his hand and touches the man’s tongue. This is a deeply intimate encounter. Now he is even more ritually unclean. Jesus says, “Be opened.” The man can hear and speak. He and his friends cannot be stopped from spreading the good news of his healing.

Jesus has been opened to the breadth of his ministry. The new faith is for all people. This was good news indeed to the many Gentiles who were flocking to the new faith in the first century.

Our Lord was fully human and fully divine. In his first response to this courageous woman, his humanity shows through. But his compassion, his humility, his own openness to all people is clearly demonstrated when he opens his own heart to her response. Jesus had just had a long and tiring discussion with the Pharisees about ritual purity. One must eat the right foods and associate with the right people. In these two encounters today, he learns from a most unlikely teacher that his ministry is to all people. In listening so carefully to her words, he accepts her as a teacher, one who changes his life.

Loving and gracious God, help us to respect the dignity of every human being. Help us to be people of compassion. Help us to follow where you lead. In your holy Name. Amen.

Filed under: Reverend Janet Brown, Sermons | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Pentecost 4 Proper 6B RCL     June 17, 2018

Posted on June 17, 2018 by Beth Crane

1 Samuel  15:34-16:13
Psalm 20
2 Corinthians 5:6-10, (11-13), 14-17
Mark 4:26-34

Last week the people wanted Samuel to appoint a king for them. Our reading ended with Saul becoming King of Israel. As our reading opens today, Saul’s reign is spiraling downward. He is a disaster as a leader, and he has little regard for the guidance of God.

While Saul is still alive, God calls Samuel to anoint the next King. The tyranny of Saul is apparent in Samuel’s asking God how he can go to the home of Jesse to carry out this mission, for Saul will kill him. God tells Samuel to say that he has come to sacrifice to the Lord.

You know the story. All of Jesse’s excellent sons pass before Samuel. As wonderful as they are, none is the one called to be King. It is the youngest, David, the shepherd, who will become the beloved leader of his people. In this passage, we read something on which we could meditate for the rest of our lives: “For the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” God does not look at our outward appearance. God looks into our hearts. That is to say, God looks at our intentions, our will, our intuitions, our thoughts. Bishop Tom mirrors this statement about God when he says that we should always evaluate situations, especially vocations, in terms of two things—intentions and integrity. What are our intentions? Are we carrying out those intentions with integrity?

In our epistle for today, Paul is still in difficult circumstances. He actually admits that it is difficult for him to be here on earth alive. He would rather be at home with the Lord. But since he is here, he is going to try to please God. We can all follow his example. Paul says that Christ died so that we would no longer live for ourselves, but for our Lord. I think we are all trying, with his grace, to do that.

Then Paul echoes our first lesson when he says that, because of Christ, we should no longer regard others from a human point of view, that, because we are now following Jesus, we are called to look at others through the eyes of Christ and love them with the heart of Christ.

And then he says this most mysterious thing—mysterious because we can think about it and pray about it and meditate on it, but we probably will never plumb its depths.  Paul writes, “So, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new.” That is what is happening to us. We are being made new. We are being transformed in Christ.

In today’s gospel, we have two parables. In the first, the kingdom of God is as if someone plants the seed, time goes by, the seed grows, we know not how. The grain grows, as if mysteriously, but the growth is energetic and robust. Finally, the grain is ready to be harvested.

In the other parable, the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. very, very small. Yet is grows into a large shrub, so large that birds can nest in it.

What are these parables telling us? Here are some thoughts. The kingdom of God is growing all the time. We do not understand how it grows, but it is progressing constantly without our awareness of how it grows. And, the other amazing thing is that the kingdom of God starts small, just like a seed, like the tiniest of seeds. Yet it can grow into something we would not believe possible.

Here in Vermont, the parable of the mustard seed is very important. Here in Vermont, a very small state which assumes national leadership on all kinds of topics far out of proportion with its size, we really do think that small is beautiful. Bigger is not always better.

In the Church, we are grappling with the fact that we will never return to the glories of the nineteen-fifties, with burgeoning buildings, bulging church schools, and no end in sight. We are now in the post-Christendom era. Membership is shrinking, formation is taking place in different ways, and we are looking around our neighborhoods seeing where God is doing good things and finding ways that we can pitch in and help. Once again, Vermont is leading in this effort, and I give thanks for Bishop Tom’s leadership on these issues.         

One of the things we will want to continue is the practice of placing just as much value on small churches as on large ones. St. Martin’s Church in Houston, where Barbara Bush’s service was held, is the largest parish in the Episcopal Church, with an average Sunday attendance of 1700 people. Vermont has no parish that even comes close to that size in numbers. But in depth of faith, commitment to the life of local parishes,  interest in learning, willingness to help neighbors near and far, the Episcopal Church in Vermont has no equal. In numbers of what we may call “mustard seed churches,” Vermont may be our national leader. This is a great gift, and I hope we will cherish that gift. When people visit with you here at Grace, or even hold concerts here, they sense a deep quality of faith and life in community. This is a pearl of great price.

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation. Let the whole world see and know that things that have been cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Filed under: Reverend Janet Brown, Sermons | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Pentecost 5 Proper 8B June 28, 2015

Posted on June 28, 2015 by Beth Crane

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
Psalm 130
2 Corinthians 8: 7-15
Mark 5: 21-43

In our opening reading, King Saul and his son, Jonathan, have died in a battle against the Philistines. King Saul was the first king of Israel, and he brought Israel from a confederation of tribes into the beginnings of a nation-state. David had become one of Saul’s greatest warriors, but, as King Saul became more and more ill, he began to plot to take David’s life.

Jonathan and David were very close friends, but, as King Saul’s illness because worse and he felt David was his enemy, it became more and more difficult for Jonathan to continue to be David’s friend because Saul might think that Jonathan was taking David’s side against Saul. By the usual right of succession, Jonathan, as Saul’s son, would have been the heir, but, as we know, God had sent Samuel to anoint the next king, and that king was David.

In spite of all the complications in this situation, Jonathan and David remained loyal to each other, but Jonathan also stayed loyal to his father, Saul. Now, we see the tragic end to this saga as both Jonathan and Saul die in battle.

Though Saul has been trying to have David killed, David honors Saul and Jonathan in this hymn. In spite of Saul’s plots to kill him, and in spite of all his own faults, David is able step back and honor the first King of Israel and his son Jonathan.

In our epistle for today, Paul is asking the Corinthians to be generous in their participation in a fund drive Paul is conducting for the Christians in Jerusalem.

In our gospel, Jesus sails back to the busier side, the Western side of the Sea of Galilee. This is also the Jewish side of the sea. He reaches the shore, and there is again a great crowd gathered around him. Jairus, a leader of the synagogue, a prominent man honored in the community because of his position, comes to Jesus in desperation.

He falls at Jesus’ feet, a position of deep reverence. and tells Jesus that his little daughter is at the point of death. Immediately, Jesus goes with him. The crowd is surging around Jesus.

Now someone at the other end of the social spectrum, a woman who has been suffering from bleeding for twelve years, approaches Jesus. Because she is shedding blood, this woman is considered unclean. She has spent all her money on doctors and she has only gotten worse. This woman has deep faith in Jesus. If she simply touches his robe, she will be healed.

Jesus is considered a rabbi, and she should not be near him, says the law. She should be staying away from people because she is unclean. But she is desperate. Maybe she intuitively senses something else about Jesus. Yes, he can heal her, but, perhaps more importantly, he has come into the world to transcend these barriers of clean and unclean, acceptable and unacceptable, in and out.

She comes up behind him. She knows she is not supposed to be there. She reaches out. As soon as she touches his robe, she knows she is healed. But she probably has not realized that Jesus would know that some energy had gone out of him when she touched his robe. Jesus turns around and asks, “Who touched me?”

It is almost impossible for us to understand how humiliating it was for someone in that culture who was considered unclean. They had to stay by themselves, They were supposed to warn people if they had to walk in the street around people. It was terrible. And here this woman had gone right into the middle of the crowd and touched Jesus’ robe.

Now Jesus has detected that something has happened. What is she going to do? It would have been understandable if she had run as fast as she could or tried to slink quietly away without being detected. But something happens when we get close to Jesus. We know that he loves us. He gives us courage. And perhaps we even begin to realize that all the divisive rules that are based on class and gender and color and all those ways we humans have of dividing ourselves and classifying ourselves as good, bad, and indifferent—well, those things simply do not matter to God. As Archbishop Tutu says, God has a big family, and God loves all of us.

Maybe this woman knows that on some level. At any rate, she shows steely courage. She is terrified and trembling, but, like Jairus, she falls at Jesus’ feet in humble reverence and tells Jesus the whole truth. And Jesus says, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease.” Of course, she already knows she has been healed.

Without skipping a beat, Jesus goes on to the home of Jairus. Some people have come to tell Jairus that his daughter is dead and he shouldn’t bother Jesus any further, but notice that Jesus is never bothered by our needs. He is always ready to respond with love and healing. Jesus tells Jairus and us, “Do not fear, only believe.” Faith is such a powerful thing. Then he takes his closest followers, Peter and James and John into the girl’s room, puts the people weeping and wailing people outside, and then reaches out to this  girl, “Little girl get up!” She gets up, and the ever-practical Jesus asks them to get her something to eat.

Jesus heals the daughter of a prominent man, and he heals a woman who is an outcast. He loves each of them infinitely. No matter what our social status, we are part of his family. I know that all of us have been praying for the people of Mother Emanuel Church and for the healing of racism. The love that has been pouring out from Mother Emanuel and for Mother Emanuel is spilling out into Charleston and South Carolina and our nation and the world. Thanks be to God for that love, which breaks down barriers and heals all of us and makes us whole.  Amen.

Filed under: Reverend Janet Brown, Sermons | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a comment »