‌ A Word at Mid-Week

Wednesday, September 28, 2022

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SUNDAY WORSHIP The Holy Eucharist Rite II 8:00 a.m. (quiet, contemplative) & 10:00 a.m. (with music) WEDNESDAY The Holy Eucharist 10:00 a.m. For ONLINE SERVICES  Check our our Facebook page or go to www.stmattsindy.org to pray along with our worship videos The Revd Frank S. Impicciche Rector Contact Fr. Frank  with pastoral concerns, upcoming surgeries, hospitalizations, illness, etc. The Revd Cathy Scott Deacon Brianna Owens Parish Administrator   Crystal Black Bell Choir Director PARISH OFFICE HOURS Mondays 8:30am-2pm Wednesday 8:30am-2pm Friday 9am-12pm Also, by appointment: [email protected] 317.898.7807 This Week's Readings: Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost Diocesan Cycle of Prayer  St. Francis-in-the-Fields, Zionsville The Rev. C. Davies Reed, The Rev. Joél Muñoz Anglican Cycle of Prayer The Anglican Church of Canada September sMATTerings DIOCESAN   GENERAL NEWS  September 21, 2022 Our Prayer List Glen, John, Doug, Stuart, Rachel, Doris, Anthony, Justin, Kaitlyn, Taylor, Robert, Hamlet, William, Jacob, Charlene, Mike, Ann, Molly, Jeff, Ruth, Blake, Pam, Janie, Maria, Coral, David, Jim, Jo Linn, and Cathy. We ask that you continue to hold all those persons listed on our prayer list in your hearts and prayers.  A Word from Father Frank Seeing the face of Jesus   A 2013 post by the internet media news and entertainment company, BuzzFeed, featured stories of twenty-two people who claimed they found Jesus in their food. Some of the sightings included Jesus on a banana, a fish stick, pancakes, the inside of an orange, and on a potato chip. The tag line was, He may have been crucified 2,013 years ago, but when you scarf potato chips, he’s watching!   This week’s Gospel is about seeing and not seeing – but it has nothing to do with your food!!! Instead, it is the well-known parable of “the rich man.” It's a grim story, but one that bears repeating. In the story, the rich man feasts at a fine table every day while Lazarus, a poor man, lies at the gate of his mansion, starving, and covered in sores. He is so weak, that dogs come and lick his sores. Eventually, both men die. Lazarus is carried up to heaven and the rich man goes to Hades. Being tormented by hot flames that leave him parched, the rich man looks up and sees Abraham and Lazarus “far away” across a great chasm. He asks Abraham to send Lazarus down to him with some cool water to soothe him. But Abraham refuses saying that the chasm separating Lazarus from the rich man is fixed, and nothing can be done about it.   There are several angles from which we can approach the story – good versus evil, rich versus poor, or the dangers of wealth. But what struck me was that the rich man was not condemned for being wealthy. He is condemned for his blindness, for not seeing Lazarus. For covering his apathy and indifference at the disparity between himself and Lazarus.   There are some things in life that we just want to avoid looking at. Turning a blind eye or ignoring something that we know is wrong see can be a way of protecting ourselves. By shutting out something that scares us, or overlooking someone we are uncomfortable with, or diverting our gaze helps us feel less vulnerable. We can be blind to someone’s ideas, we can overlook a person’s abilities, and we can shut out another person’s experience, especially when the other person is someone from outside our normal orbit.   But when we are blind to others, the parable warns us, we cause a great chasm to form between ourselves and others – a chasm that can grow so wide and become so fixed that nothing can be done about it.   But Jesus offers us a way to narrow the chasm before it becomes too late. He presses us to see one another. To really take notice of one another. To do our utmost to see, hear, and understand another person, especially when they are difficult to see! The kind of seeing that Jesus is calling us to is seeing the image and likeness of God in each and every person we encounter. To see Jesus’ own face in another person’s face.   To see the face of Jesus in the other means putting aside questions of worthiness. It means being aware of our own biases and striving to close the gap between an “us and them” mentality. When we acknowledge the image of God in ourselves and the person right in front of us, when we risk the vulnerability of relationship and solidarity with others, it can fill in the gulf of judgement and resentment between our differences. Seeing the face of Jesus in each other, draws me closer to you, and you to me, and, together, we can begin to cross over the abyss of prejudice, and discrimination, and intolerance, and bigotry that divides us.   The parable urges us to retrain how we look at one another. To look at each other carefully and see the face of Jesus staring back at us. And if we do this, if we see the face of Jesus staring back at us, we won’t want to look away!   What will you dare to see this week? A Word from Deacon Cathy Another Quote from the late Queen Elizabeth (who was quoting someone else!) Really, I am not obsessed with the Royals! But this quote from the late Queen, who was quoting an Aboriginal proverb, was so powerful that I wanted to share it with everyone, just in case you missed it during the funeral commentary. (I promise this will be my last reference to the Royals)   "We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love... and then we return home.”   Queen Elizabeth II, quoting an Aboriginal proverb in 2011 This quote is not just a commentary on travels we have during our lifetime. I love this as it also reflects the observations and experiences of the saints in their writings. We often describe our time on earth as a journey – a journey in learning how to be a disciple of our Lord. Bottom line – we are learning how to love, how to be so transparent that God can love through us. The encounters we have, the circumstances of our life, our experiences along the way, are all lessons in love, compassion, mercy, patience, forbearance, courage, and selflessness. And returning home, in the spiritual sense, is returning to our Creator, returning to God. We walk this earth for a reason. Take some time to reflect on your most meaningful experience, conversation, or encounter. What was the lesson learned? How was God present? Perhaps you weren’t even aware of the Sacred in your midst. Also, reflect on a most mundane, ordinary experience, conversation, or encounter. And, ask yourself the same questions: What was the lesson learned? How was God present? God is the God of “Ordinary Time.” One of the classic spiritual writings books was written by a monk who was permanently assigned to the monastery kitchen as a cook. His thoughts were memorialized in the small book, The Practice of the Presence of God.” Brother Lawrence’s lesson he learned was that his encounters with God happened in the kitchen and in the monastery chapel.  The Sacred is in the midst of all our activities and in our inactivity. We just need to have our eyes and heart open. We need to be both a visitor and a resident of the Kingdom of God. Love and enjoy your journey, wherever God may lead you!

CHURCH HAPPENINGS

Did you miss us last week? Join us here on video!

Annual St. Francis Pet Blessing Saturday, October 1st in the Upper Parking Lot at 11a.m.

Parish Work Day October 15th | 10am-12pm More details to come!

SAVE THE DATE for the Annual Crop Walk. This year it will take place October 16, 2022 at 2pm. You can find the link to the St. Matthew's Hunger Walk Fundraising page below. St. Matthew Episcopal Church Crop Walkers

OUTREACH HAPPENINGS

Outreach Question While we await more volunteer opportunities with the Warren Township Resource Center, I would like to know if parishioners are interested in a more in-person outreach. Meaning, traveling a short distance to offer your service, your care, and your presence to folks who are dealing with poverty, homelessness, and other burdens that have pushed them to the margins of society. As an example, Holy Family folks offered a Saturday meal one time a month at Mother Teresa’s Shelter for women and children on the hear-eastside of Indianapolis (close to Woodruff Place). Some Holy Family folks created a simple menu (Ex. spaghetti, salad, bread, cookies), others shopped for the ingredients, others cooked the food on Saturday afternoon in the church’s kitchen, and finally other folks (no more than 4), brought the food to the shelter, served it and then sat down and ate the dinner with the women and children. The time at the shelter was no more than 45 minutes, but the memories are forever. The meal prep and serving were eventually expanded to other groups: a family (mom, dad, and kids) would plan, cook, deliver, and serve; the choir took a Saturday, the vestry took a Saturday. After many years of this outreach, one person assumed the Saturday meal slot. (That person now attends St. Matthew’s !) That is just one example of an in-person service. Based on parishioner’s ideas and passions, we can create a St. Matthew’s outreach that exemplifies the scripture from the second chapter of James:  “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” St. Matthew parishioners continue to demonstrate their faith and discipleship every week as they generously donate food and paper products for those in need in our community and in Irvington. This is a weekly visible display of our faith and discipleship in action. You are touching many lives with your love! Don’t stop! And if you haven’t donated previously, consider joining your fellow parishioners in this service of love.  And, if God is gently nudging your heart to further service, please email Deacon Cathy and [email protected]. Let’s work together to find that outreach described by Frederick Buechner, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” ― Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC

DIOCESAN HAPPENINGS

Cole Arthur Riley Visit October 22 Cole Arthur Riley, author of "This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us," will offer two workshops on writing, spirituality and liberation on October 22 at a site to be determined. Watch future issues of the newsletter for more information and registration.

St. Matthew's Episcopal Church stmattsindy.org