St. Paul's Episcopal Church   Poughkeepsie, NY 12601


MESSENGER
"Making friends while serving God"

The week of January 28 - February 3, 2019
SUCCESSFUL ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING


Kevin Kelly received the 2019 Paraclete Potter Award for volunteer service 

St. Paul's Annual General Meeting featured three vestry members being elected and one warden being re-elected, a budget being presented and a variety of committee reports being given as well as a printed report of parish activity for the year.

Maria Bell, Shawn Prater-Lee and Adrian Goldson were elected to the vestry and Mark Debald was re-elected Warden.

 

 

FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE ABIDE; THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE

This work, titled, "Eternal Echoes," reflects the resonance of Jesus' citing Isaiah Chapter 61 in the Gospel and St. Paul's reflections on love in the First Letter to the Corinthians

 
Our Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, preaches about love in every sermon. He is focused on this word and how it comprises the ministry of Jesus and the mission of our church.

Bishop Curry preached about love at the royal wedding last year and thrilled Episcopalians with his passion and his own love for those he was addressing. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to notice that when an African American preacher speaks of love to the gathered royalty and aristocracy of England the message carries a special weight.

Michael Curry reminds us that Jesus didn't suggest love be our focus. He ordained it. He didn't say we should fit it into our lives when it was convenient. He said it was the top priority.
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THIS WEEK'S READINGS

Our epistle reading this Sunday from the First Letter to the Corinthians contains St. Paul's splendid summation of what love is and what it isn't. This from our namesake who is railing about sin in our ongoing study of the Letter to the Romans. Still, this Sunday's epistle reading latches onto our hearts and brings us back to the understanding that Jesus and Paul--yes, even Paul--sought to implant. "Faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love."
 
 
Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6; 
1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Luke 4:21-30

        
     
            Readings for the week of January 28-February 3

Monday, January 28
Romans 8:9-17

Tuesday, January 29
Romans 8:18-30

Wednesday, January 30
Romans 8:31-39

Thursday, January 31
Romans 9:1-18

Friday, February 1
Romans 9:19-33

Saturday, February 2     Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
Romans 10:1-4

Sunday, February 3      4 Epiphany

            Readings for the week of February 4- February 10
Monday, February 4
Tuesday, February 5
Romans 10:14-21
Wednesday, February 6
Romans 11:1-10
Thursday, February 7
Romans 11:11-16
Friday, February 8
Romans 11:17-24
Saturday, February 9
Romans 11:25-36
Sunday, February 10     
5 Epiphany   Hear God's Word at your local church
  PARISH  NEWS


FOOD PANTRY ITEM OF THE MONTH
PB & J is our new item of the month. Smooth or chunky, jelly or jam - our clients will appreciate every bite. Thanks to all who do a little grocery shopping for our neighbors in need. Donation basket is located in the Narthex.

HELPING HANDS NEEDED!
   
The Building & Grounds Committee needs your help! It has been brought to our attention that all the tables and chairs in the undercroft and Scout Hall need a good cleaning. On February 9th at 10 am, we will be wiping them all down. That' s a lot of tables and chairs!!! We could use more hands. If you' re available, please join us.



The February-March-April edition of Forward  Day by Day has arrived. Copies are available in the Narthex and in the parish office.


ANNUAL CHILI & CORNBREAD
TAKE-OUT  
 
COMMUNITY CALENDAR
 
                           
                     
                         JANUARY BIRTHDAYS

1    Mavis Rivera                                                12     John H. Filor
2    Bill Rhode                                                     13     Rena Mazzuto
3    Linda Santos                                                14     Edna Clarke
      Jeffrey Francis                                              15    John Jerome Mazzuto
7    Jacinto Xavier Santos-Thompson                 21    Donna Hudak
8    Abraham Joseph Foley                                 23    Carola Madrid
11  Francis McKenzie                                         25    Agnes Scarlett


The Sunday Sermon
          What just happened?

SERMON: 3 Epiphany C 1 27 19
Neh 8:1-3,5-6,8-10; Ps 19; 1Cor 12:12-31a; Lk 4:14-21

What just happened? Did you hear that? Were you paying attention?
Jesus just said these amazing things. And he said it here and there and everywhere.
Then he said it in his home town.
 
What he said was, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
 
When Jesus said these things the people in Nazareth were knocked out. They were stunned. They were undoubtedly thrilled. They complimented him and spoke well about him. After all, Jesus had just laid down some extremely important news.
Let's take a minute to look at what he said.
 
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me" is a proclamation of sorts that we would not expect to hear in this day and age. Jesus is quoting Isaiah Chapter 61 and he is making some of the same points that Isaiah made: that God is pleased with us, God loves us, God is on our side.
 
"...because he has anointed me..." is reflective of his baptism and God's pronouncement at that baptism that "This is my son, the beloved; with him I am well pleased." God's pleasure is for the people living in Jesus' time a fairly remote concept, likely reserved for only a few. Yet here is one of their own townspeople. There is a hope dawning, wouldn't you say? Maybe the people of Nazareth are starting to realize God actually cares about them.
 
Jesus is telling them God anointed him "to bring good news to the poor." We know that when Jesus is talking about the poor he isn't just talking about those with little money or no food, He's talking about them, sure, but he's also talking about those who are poor in spirit, those who need hope and faith. He came to help them, as well. No one is left out.
 
Jesus then said God sent him "to proclaim release to the captives." Now maybe the people thought he was only talking about the people in jail. You know, down the street at Dutchess County Jail, for example. And they, certainly, Jesus came to free.
But you and I both know that Jesus understood captivity in a much broader sense. In those days, for example, a person might be a slave. They may be so indebted to someone else that they become their slave to pay off the debt. There are other forms of captivity, of course. Perhaps someone is in a dead end marriage. Maybe someone is burdened by poor fields. Or sickness, or depression. There are many, many forms of captivity.
 
Now what did Jesus come to do?  Jesus came to proclaim release.
 
I don't know if this is where the expression "Let go and let God" came from, but it might as well have been. Because Jesus was saying to every single person who heard him that they did not have to let their lives be defined by their troubles. He wanted to give people spiritual freedom to move beyond their aches and their heartaches, their resentments and their oppression.
 
In a linguistic twist Jesus said he was sent to declare recovery of sight to the blind knowing full well that all the people who lacked vision would not be receiving that kind of sight. But Jesus was telling people that the love of God meant that they could see things more clearly in their minds with or without vision if they had spiritual health. Eyeballs that did not work were one thing, but the unwillingness of people to see God's goodness was a much greater concern.
 
All these forms of oppression, both the externally and internally generated, were declared disabled by Jesus, freeing people who had suffered and struggled with them for much of their lives.
 
And all this, Jesus said, was to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
Well no wonder the crowd was stunned. No wonder they marveled at his words. What grace! What vision!
 
As we are gathered here today we also recognize the power, the potency, of Jesus' words. Like the people of Nazareth we are moved by them, thrilled even. We also have a profound advantage over the people of Nazareth: we believe these things are true. Unlike the people of Nazareth we have experienced these things in our own lives as our faith has helped us through all manner of struggle and pain. We believe it.
 
Big time.
 
Now I don't want to steal next week's thunder, but the people of Nazareth didn't hold onto these notions of God's loving them and freeing them for very long. I guess they felt they knew better. But after all, Jesus was just getting started. We're only in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, and Jesus was baptized only on the previous page of my Bible. So these themes will be developed much more fully in the coming months.
 
Fortunately for you and me, however, we can live into the ideas that Jesus proclaimed without waiting for more information.
 
When Jesus entered the synagogue and spoke to the people there was an question of authority for the leaders of the synagogue or perhaps Jesus contemporaries. It was not clear. And that's where we'll explore next week.
 
But you and I have the benefit of knowing a little more about what was going on then and what has transpired since and we can believe Jesus' proclamation without hesitation. Jesus was proclaiming a message of peace to people who had never known any and couldn't imagine any.
 
We have our struggles, but we enjoy the personal connection to God and to Jesus that enables us to experience the very sensations Jesus proclaimed in today's Gospel:
 
Release from captivity, that is, when we're stuck; sight when we're blinded, unable to see the truth of situations; freedom from oppression whether we cause it ourselves or we find ourselves struggling with externally imposed oppression.
 
Let's think about these things. When are we captives? When we can't ignore the 24-hour news cycle? When we say our family members drive us crazy? When our government can't get it together? Are we captivated by these things and others? Isn't it often that we voluntarily submit to such captivity?
 
There are other forms of captivity such as substance abuse and addiction, pornography and domestic abuse, cycles of abuse and despair that captivate both the oppressor and the oppressed.
 
When are we blinded? What keeps us from seeing clearly, even when the seeing is actually having clear thinking? When do we find ourselves unwilling to consider another viewpoint? When do we refuse to see another's point of view or even give it serious consideration?
 
Jesus offers us freedom, if only we will turn to God and give ourselves to God, moment by moment if necessary. That moment to moment thing is the key in my experience. We can only turn to God in the moment. We can't turn to God last Tuesday or in an hour and a half. It is only in the moment that God is available. So we need to keep our dependence on God in the present moment.
 
When Molly and I were living in Germany I had a number of friends who were reading a book titled, "Jetzt!" J-E-T-Z-T. It means Now. The whole idea of the book was that we live only in the moment. We can't do anything at any time other than now. There's an old cliché, "The past is history and the future's a mystery," but it also happens to be a truism.
 
The more we include God in our present moments, in the Now for you and the Now for me, the quicker we realize, that is, we receive, these gifts Jesus promised his neighbors in Nazareth two millenia ago.
 
Thanks be to God. Amen
 
A sermon preached at the Annual General Meeting on the Third Sunday after the Epiphany, Jan. 27, 2019, at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Poughkeepsie NY by The Rev. Tyler Jones, Rector
 

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St. Paul's Episcopal Church-Poughkeepsie
 
 

'In Service to God & You'
SUNDAY 8AM
Server:            Maria Bell

Lectors:           Rose Marie Proctor
                        Tom Walker

Litanist:           Pete Bedrossian
  
SUNDAY 10AM
Organist:         Maris Kristapsons
  
Acolytes:         Shawn Prater-Lee                 
  
Lectors:           Molly Jones
                        Jim Schneider
  
Litanist:            Mark Debald
  
Usher:              Dewy Clarke
                         Mark Debald
  
Altar Guild:       Hyacinth & Daphne

Greeters:          Joanna Frang & Mark Debald              
 
 
 
 

THIS WEEK'S HYMNS

1982              379          O love, w deep, how broad, how high 
 
1982              7              Christ, whose glory fills the skies
 
LEVAS-II       119           Spirit if God, descend upon my heart
 
1982               379           God is Love, let heaven adore him
 

 HYMN INFORMATION: God is Love, Let Heaven Adore Him is a 20th century hymn with Welsh and English roots. The words reference a variety of scriptural passages and were wrtten around 1922 by Welsh native Timothy Rees, who was later appointed bishop of Llandaff, Wales, where he served until his death in 1939. Two years later, English clergyman Cyril Taylor composed the tune "Abbot's Leigh" when he was working for the Religious Broadcasting Department of the BBC at its wartime headquarters in Bristol, England. The tune, named for the nearby village of Abbot's Leigh, was originally composed for the hymn "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken" as an alternative to the familiar tune "Austria," which was objectionable in England during World War II due to its use as the melody for the German and Austrian natonal anthems. Coupled since then with a number of different hymn texts, "Abbot's Leigh" is now most frequently used with Rees' verses.
  
 

 
 
 
 
 

THIS WEEK'S CALENDAR
January 28 - February 3, 2019
                               
MON 28
7:30am "Good Morning" AA Meeting;  

6pm Evening Prayer, Vestry Mtg;
6:30pm NA Meeting;


TUE 29
10am-2pm Office, Pantry, Thrift Store;


WED 30
CLOSED DUE TO SNOW


THUR 31
10am-2pm Office, Food Pantry, Small Blessings Thrift Shop; 


FRI 1
7:30am "Good Morning" AA meeting; 
6:30pm NA Meeting;


SAT  2
3pm NA Meeting "Journey to Recovery"; 

SUN 3
8am Rite I;
8:45am Lessons' Discussion;

9:30am Choir Practice; 

10am Sunday School;

10am Rite II;

11:15am Coffee Hour & The Good Book Club Meeting;
11:45am Hospitality;
                          

YOUR NEWS BELONGS IN ST. PAUL'S  MESSENGER

Help us get the word out by submitting news of parish activities. Send submittals to stpaulpk@verizon.net or call 845 452 8440

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