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    • Sunday service - Holy Communion April 2, 2023 at 9:30 am – 11:00 am Grace Church 215 Pleasant Street, Sheldon, VT 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)        +1 929 436 2866 US (New York)Meeting ID:…
    • Sunday service - Holy Communion April 9, 2023 at 9:30 am – 11:00 am Grace Church 215 Pleasant Street, Sheldon, VT 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)        +1 929 436 2866 US (New York)Meeting ID:…
    • Sunday service - Holy Communion April 16, 2023 at 9:30 am – 11:00 am Grace Church 215 Pleasant Street, Sheldon, VT 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)        +1 929 436 2866 US (New York)Meeting ID:…

Pentecost 17 Proper 19C RCL September 11, 2016

Posted on September 11, 2016 by Beth Crane

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Psalm 14
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10

In our first reading, the prophet Jeremiah is telling the people that, because the people are drifting away from God, there will be an invasion from the north and the land will be laid waste.

Back in those days, people believed that everything that happened was directly caused by God. Herbert O’Driscoll offers a modern example. He writes, “Some time ago in Australia, rescuers had to drag bodies from  a number of shattered ski hostels that were demolished by a landslide. Nobody today would say that this was a judgment of God. Yet people did acknowledge that, because of the scarcity of good ski hills in Australia, this area had been heavily over-developed by business interests wishing to make high profits. It was well known that this development was stressing the mountain side severely. In other words—to use the language of morality—greed and stupidity prevailed over intelligence and a healthy respect for the created order.”

O’Driscoll is offering us an excellent example. In biblical times, people would have said that the landslide was sent by God. Now, we have a much more scientific understanding of events, and we also say that moral and ethical laxity have consequences. This is what was happening in Jeremiah’s time. Leaders were forgetting God and relying on human power. They were also failing to care for those who were most vulnerable in the society. Jeremiah is saying that there will be consequences, and he is also saying something else that is very important. God’s love and mercy will prevail.

Our epistle is from the First Letter to Timothy. Most scholars think the this letter was written by a student of Paul, but for simplicity’s sake, I am going to call the writer Paul. From his years of experience, Paul is advising and guiding his beloved assistant, Timothy. Paul can be so refreshingly blunt and honest. He begins by thanking God for judging him as faithful and appointing him to serve God, even though Paul has many flaws.

God chose a persecutor of the Church to be the apostle to the world. Through God’s love and mercy, Paul was given the gifts and strength to speak God’s love and forgiveness to hundreds and hundreds of people around the Mediterranean basin. But Paul does not focus on his life and ministry. He ends by giving glory to God in the words we use in one of our most beautiful hymns. He writes, “To the king of the ages, immortal, invisible. the only God, be honor and glory, forever and ever.”

In today’s gospel, the Pharisees and Scribes are saying that Jesus “welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Yes, our Lord opens his arms to us sinners and does that most intimate and nourishing thing. He breaks bread with us.

Then he tells us how he feels about us. If we are that lost sheep, he is going to look and look until he finds us and brings us back home on his shoulder. He is going to hunt for us the way the woman looked for that lost coin.

As my beloved mentor. David Brown, has said, “The Church is the Communion of Saints, but it is also a hospital for sick sinners.” We have all done things which we ought not to have done and we have all not done things which we ought to have done. We have sinned. We have committed sins of commission and omission. Our Lord has reached out and welcomed all of us. Because of his love and forgiveness and healing, we have been made new in him.

This very day, September 11, 2016, is the fifteenth anniversary of one of the most tragic and horrific events in our history. It is a day that we will never forget. It was such a terrible day that we actually call it by its date—Nine-Eleven.

I am not going to attempt to comment on the meaning of that day, except to say that it has marked each of us and all of us forever. I am not going to try to analyze how we might have avoided that day or how we might prevent another day such as that from ever happening on this earth. I know that we all pray for peace. We pray for all those who lost their lives, and those who were wounded on that day, and we pray for their loved ones. We also pray for the first responders, police, fire fighters, and the many others who went to help and who were injured or lost their lives, and for their families and all who love them.

We pray for the members of our armed forces who put their lives on the line in the fight against terrorism.

When I hear the fighter jets of the Vermont Air Guard flying overhead, as I often do, I always remember that they were the ones sent to protect New York, and we all know that they fly missions all over the world.

As we remember the events of fifteen years ago, our collect offers us some very profound and wise guidance. “O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts. through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

As we move forward in this day and beyond, may we seek the guidance of God in all things; may we work with God to bring in God’s shalom. Amen.

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All Saints’ Day Year B RCL November 1, 2015

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Beth Crane

Wisdom 3:1-9
Psalm 24
Revelation 21:1-6a
John 11:32-44

This morning, we celebrate the feast of All Saints. We remember all of the faithful people who have gone before us, all who are here now, and all who will come after us. We are part of a great cloud of witnesses, all the members of the Body of Christ who are knit together in our common faith. The saints give us deep  inspiration. They have run the race before us, and we can be spiritual athletes as they were.

Our first two readings give us an idea of what heaven is like. Our reading from the Book of Revelation says that, in heaven, God will be with us and will wipe every tear from our eyes. Heaven is a place where God’s joy and peace are completely present. Heaven is a place of safety. God’s reign of peace and protection is complete.

My beloved  mentor, David Brown, used to say, “Heaven is the best time we have ever had with the best friends we have ever had.” He used to talk about “the great fish-fry in heaven.” In other words, when we are in the presence of God and the angels, and all the saints, there is no mourning, only peace and joy. I think there is a great deal of laughter in heaven.

When we think of the Communion of Saints, that wonderful gathering of all the members of the Body of Christ, we remember our favorite saints, those who have inspired us, those whose example we have tried to follow. For example, my birthday is August 1 and the saint for that day in Holy Women, Holy Men, is Joseph of Arimathea, who had the courage to go to the authorities and ask permission to take Jesus’ body down off the cross and bury it in his own tomb. I am inspired by Joseph’s faith and courage, and I ask God to increase my faith and courage. My other birthday saint is Ethelwold, a tenth century monk who became Bishop of Winchester. He founded monasteries, translated books into English, and was a reformer, trying to bring the monasteries and his diocese into the highest levels of prayer and community life. The Penguin Dictionary of Saints notes, “St. Ethelwold…was merciless to the slack, full of sympathy for the good-willed and the unfortunate….”

Hilda of Whitby, Hildegarde of Bingen, Patrick, Francis of Assisi, and my name saint, John the Evangelist, are also favorites.

I share this by way of encouraging all of us to think about our favorite saints. Please let me know yours.

As another of my mentors, Al Smith, long time rector of St. James, Essex Junction, used to say, “There are capital S saints and small s saints.” The much-loved hymn, “I sing a song of the saints of God,” beautifully reflects that fact. In the early Church, letters were addressed to the saints in Corinth, Rome, Ephesus, and other places, We are all small s saints because we are members of the Body of Christ, each offering our God-given gifts to build the kingdom, the shalom of God.

The tune we use for this hymn was written by John Henry Hopkins, the grandson of our first bishop, who was also named John Henry Hopkins. As we look in our hymnals on page 293, we note that the tune is called Grand Isle, where the Hopkins family home is located. Services are still held there each summer.

In today’s gospel, we read the powerful story of the raising of Lazarus. Jesus waits several days before he goes to Bethany. Lazarus is clearly and definitely dead. Mary tells Jesus she wishes he had come sooner so that he could have saved Lazarus. Martha points out that there is going to be a stench. Jesus cries at the death of his friend. Then Jesus calls Lazarus to life, and his beloved friend walks out of that dark tomb.

Perhaps that is the greatest gift we are offered as members of the Body of Christ and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. We don’t have to be afraid of anything, even death. Jesus has the power to call us into new life. Death has no more dominion over us.

This week, we have our Grace Church timeline hanging on the wall. This is a work in progress. It is designed to give us a sense of the long life of the community of faith lasting almost two hundred years. Up until the nineteen-forties, we have the guidance of a history written by Frederika Northrop Sargent. We also have a history by Laura Crane. Dates from those two histories have been put on the timeline.

Frederika notes that sometime in the nineteen-forties, Grace was yoked with Holy Trinity, Swanton. Services continued. Grace Church never closed. One of our great saints, A J. “Jack” Soule, was Senior Warden for many years, and he made sure that Grace remained open. But things did quiet down considerably between the forties and the eighties.

In the 1980s, what Andy has called the “Grace Renaissance” began. Extensive and careful work was done on the building. The number of services increased, and there were other activities. A group of faithful small s saints , inspired by God’s grace and Vermont grit, shepherded this rebirth: Hoddie and Charlotte, Laura, Harriet, Geraldine, Gertrude, Ruth, and Gwen were our elder generation at that time. Sue, who has gone before us, and Andy used to alternate holding the office of Senior Warden and Treasurer and everything else.

Grace has a strong history of service to those near and far,  inclusiveness, accessibility, care for God’s creation, hospitality, concern for those at the margins and those who are most vulnerable, love of music, faithful worship, and compassionate community are some of the hallmarks of Grace Church.

The timeline is designed so that anyone can add a date or something you feel is important. Please feel free to make additions.

May we always sing a song of the saints of God, and may we thank God for all the saints who have gone before us and will come after us.

Amen.

 

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