St. Paul's Episcopal Church   Poughkeepsie, NY 12601


MESSENGER
"Making friends while serving God"

 
The Week of June 24-30, 2019
  

                      ANNUAL SUMMER OUTDOOR SERVICE 
                     AND PICNIC SUNDAY JUNE 30
 
Our annual outdoor church service and picnic will be held this Sunday, June 30th from 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. The outdoor service will be the only service that day. There is no 8am service.
 
The location for the picnic is the Germania Recreation Grounds on Old Degarmo Rd. (See Bobbie Gordon for directions.)
 
Hamburgers and hotdogs will be provided.
There are sign up sheets in the Parlor OR just bring a dish to share!


     THE FIDELITY OF ELISHA 
 

 
When we look at the amazing images of Elisha watching Elijah ascend into heaven in a fiery chariot we notice a lot of obvious things. Fiery chariot for one. But also, Elijah didn't have to die to get to heaven. We also see Elisha's reaching out to Elijah as he ascended, missing him already.
bible.jpg
THIS WEEK'S READINGS
 
What we read but do not see in these images is Elisha's remarkable fidelity to Elijah. He refused to leave the prophet, even when the going got tough. The only thing he asked was to be given a double measure of Elijah's spirit.
 
Elisha became a prophet in his own right after Elijah's ascent to heaven. We hear of him repeatedly after he began flying solo. He himself is so humble and perhaps even unsure that he didn't know if he would inherit Elijah's spirit until he cast the mantle on the river and it parted.
 
Elisha's example of complete fidelity is a model for each of us to consider when we seek to live into our relationship with God. Do we scrimp in our attention? Do we go most of the way God wants us to, or all the way? Elisha left no room for doubt. We can have the same aim.
 
 
 
To be redirected to the Lectionary Page and get a digital copy of the readings 

 
  2 Kings 2:1-2,6-14; Psalm 77:1-2,11-20
    Galatians 5:1,13-25; Luke 9:51-62
 

    PARISH  NEWS
 
SCHOOL'S OUT & THE FOOD PANTRY NEEDS YOUR HELP!
During the summer months, our Food Pantry volunteers see an increase in demand from our neighbors in need. School is out, so children are eating more meals at home. Please bring non-perishable food with you when you come to church and place it in the large basket in the Narthax.
 
Items that are always needed are pancake mix and pancake syrup, tuna fish and mayonnaise, and beef stew. Anything you donate will be given away. Thank you!



       HELP WITH HOME REPAIRS
Rebuilding Together Dutchess County is an organization that helps those struggling to keep their homes up make small and large repairs. There is information in the waiting area outside the parish office with phone numbers to call. If you or someone you know is in need of such services, please make use of this information.
 
 
  
 
   EPISCOPALIANS IN THE PARK 2019
On July 20 Episcopalians are invited to Beacon to participate in the 2019 Episcopalians in the Park picnic at Saint Andrew and Saint Luke Episcopal Church, 850 Walcott Ave. in Beacon. All are welcome. An RSVP is requested.

 
25 WEEK CLUB

A REMINDER FOR THOSE WHO DON'T REMEMBER HOW IT WORKS
.
You buy a ticket for $25.   You are then eligible to win any of the drawings and you can win multiple times!! Weekly drawings of $20 & $10 will be held every Sunday at Coffee Hour beginning April 7 and continuing through September 22.

A final drawing and party will be held Saturday, September 29. Prizes of $500, $250, $150, $100 and $50 will be awarded at that time.

Tickets will be available beginning Saturday, February 16. Plan to get at least 1 ticket and try to sell some also. It's a fun way to support the church.

This time at least half of the profits will help pay for our new pew cushions.
 
The Sunday Sermon
 

            We are all one

 
 
Sermon: 2 Pentecost C 6 23 19
Isa65:1-9;Ps22:18-27 ; Gal3:23-29;Lk8:26-39
 
It's too bad I hadn't paid much attention to Isaiah before I went to seminary. I might have saved myself some serious trouble if I had read today's lesson before Molly and I went to Brazil in 2001. Our son Alex was living there and before we moved from Miami to New York for seminary we visited him in that South American Country for a couple of weeks.
 
We had said our goodbyes and Alex had headed back to the town where he lived in the mountains, leaving us on the beach in Rio De Janeiro to get some supper before we headed for the airport and home.
 
I felt like some seafood. Brazil's cuisine was meat-oriented, as far as I was concerned, and I thought on the beach we should be able to order some seafood. I ordered the squid dinner. When it arrived Molly warned me not to eat it. I admit it was not very appetizing. The squid--there were two or three--looked like boiled tennis balls, gray and not looking very fresh. I dove in and basically I don't remember very much after that. Molly steered me onto a bus and onto a plane and got me home 14 hours later, or something like that. But I was utterly out of commission.
 
I would like to say I learned my lesson, but frankly, faced with a big bowl of Chesapeake Bay oysters a few years later I repeated my performance. But now that I've read this passage from Isaiah, I'm sure I'll never make that mistake again. Or maybe just never talk about it again. At least in public.
 
But I like to think that I might have reconsidered my selections if I had heard Isaiah preach against "broth of abominable things." I mean, maybe just the briefest pause might have brought me to my senses.
 
But Isaiah was not out and about preaching the way he was preaching because people got his message and changed their ways. He was preaching the way he did because people did not realize how much their own decisions and choices were responsible for their unhappiness, their dissatisfaction and their discomfort. Some things never change.
 
Isaiah writes of God saying, "I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask, to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, "Here I am, here I am," to a nation that did not call on my name. I held out my hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices."
 
Isaiah is probably the best and most evocative writer in the entire Bible. When he writes about God, we see the outstretched hands of the Almighty, trying to help.
What did Isaiah say God called them? "A people who provoke me to my face continually."
 
When Isaiah relates that God equates these people with "smoke in my nostrils," it is not the sweet and scented clouds of incense he's talking about. He is talking about stench. He is expressing God's great displeasure.
 
However, God chooses to judge but not destroy the present generation. Instead God's hope is put in future generations. Happily, that includes us.
 
Whether and how we seek to live into that promise is what our faith journey is all about. Heaven knows--and God knows quite clearly, according to Isaiah--that there are times when we --you and I-- are the people ignoring God's outstretched hands. But we realize it and we make an effort to shift our focus so we can give better consideration to what God has to offer. We seek to do God's will rather than try to follow our own will, our devices and desires.
 
Our psalmist today seems to have that viewpoint already. The opening lines of today's psalm are pretty clear:
 
18 Be not far away, O Lord; *
     you are my strength; hasten to help me.
19 Save me from the sword, *
     my life from the power of the dog.
20 Save me from the lion's mouth, *
     my wretched body from the horns of wild bulls.
21 I will declare your Name to my brethren; *
     in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.
 
These words reflect recognition of God's availability and power and the psalmist's strong desire to conform to God's ways.
 
Paul's letter to the Galatians suggests that those who truly believe in and follow Jesus no longer need a disciplinarian because we have adopted Jesus' ways and our faith guides us into right living. This particular reading concludes with , "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise."
 
What this makes clear is that the rules that controlled behavior for the faithful in the past no longer apply; rather, we are called to love God and love our neighbor. And in case it wasn't clear, the followers of Jesus are led to understand they are to live as Jesus lived. That is how we are guided into right living.
 
The closing lines about "there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female," and so forth drives home that the old ways, the old rules about who was in and who was out, who was in charge and who was not, all these things have been removed by Jesus. People who follow Jesus don't need rules; they do the right thing. People who follow Jesus don't need to know who's important and who's ordinary. Everyone is equal in God's sight and should be in our sight as well. It's pretty clear and it's pretty emphatic.
 
Jesus offers us a fine example in our Gospel reading from Luke. In his time people did not try to reason, much less heal, those who behaved erratically, like the Gerasene demoniac. They kept their distance and those so afflicted were expected to not get too close to ordinary society, either.
 
This didn't stop Jesus. He ordered the demons to leave the afflicted man and they entered a herd of pigs and the pigs ran into a lake and drowned. We have no clear notion of what was afflicting the man, but we know that Jesus dealt with him with kindness and peace and when the townspeople came and found them talking, the troubled man was dressed in clothing and in his right mind.
 
At that point we come upon the difficulty we face every time our faith asks us to do something we're not comfortable with doing. The people see the man, stable and sane, clothed and speaking with Jesus. What's their response?
That's right. They were afraid. They asked Jesus to leave.
 
We don't know if they were afraid because of the power to exorcise that Jesus just demonstrated. We don't know if they were afraid because the pigs had drowned themselves and, well, somebody was going to be unhappy about losing a herd of pigs. We don't know if they just didn't want to face the reality of a neighbor who was a raving lunatic before and who now was being sane. But we know they were afraid.
We can understand being uncomfortable doing things that are socially unacceptable. We can understand feeling awkward helping a stranger, especially one who was raving not so long ago. We can imagine some discomfort inviting into our circle of friends people who previously were considered outsiders and rather permanent outsiders at that. So we can perhaps see how the people were afraid in this story.
 
But we can also see that Jesus offers us a better way to handle situations that used to baffle us. Jesus shows us how to help the person who is struggling, whether they're disabled or disoriented or disagreeable. That's our calling. And it is in fulfilling this calling to reach out to those who are struggling that the church was formed, that we might be of help to those in need, of comfort to those who are stressed, and to love every one of our neighbors who comes our way.          Amen
 
A sermon preached on the second Sunday after Pentecost, June 23, 2019, at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Poughkeepsie NY, by The Rev. Tyler Jones, Rector

                           
                     
                                   JUNE BIRTHDAYS
 
2        Kevin Kelly                                             15        Bobbie Gordon
          Donna Taylor                                         16        Obafemi Oni
7        Molly Jones                                            17        Jordan Rosborough
          Mary Ann Bagatta                                              Benjamin Rosborough
8        Serena Mazzuto                                     21        Shirley Richardson
10      Hyacinth Curtis                                       22        Michael Babb II
12      Garrett Martin Bell                                  25        Donna Hosier
          Ira Wethington                                       30        Amanda Bell
13      Kimberli Williams                                               Luke Goodwin
                                                                             

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St. Paul's Episcopal Church-Poughkeepsie
 
 

'In Service to God & You'
 

SUNDAY 10AM
Organist:         Maris Kristapsons
  
Acolytes:         Shawn Prater-Lee                 
  
Lectors:           Molly Jones
                        Mark Debald
  
Litanist:            Mark Debald
  
Usher:              Dewy Clarke
                         Mark Debald
  
Altar Guild:       Norma Williams & Mertlyn Tomlinson
     
 
 
 
 

THIS WEEK'S HYMNS

LEVAS-II                 79        Jesus, lover of my soul
 
LEVAS-II               109        What a friend we have in Jesus
 
LEVAS-II                 64         I love to tell the story

LEVAS-II               210         Down by the riverside
 
 

HYMN INFORMATION:    Down by the riverside is a spiritual, whose roots predate the American Civil War, though it was only first published in 1918. Because of its pacifist imagery, it has also been used as a protest song, especially during the Vietnam War. The words suggest baptism in water, with the metaphor of crossing the River Jordan to enter the Promised Land in the Old Testament. The refrain of "ain't gonna study war no more" is a reference to a quotation found in the Old Testament: "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" [KJV, Isaiah 2:4].

 
 

 
 
 
 
 

THIS WEEK'S CALENDAR
June 24-30, 2019
                               
MON 24
7:30am "Good Morning" AA Meeting;  

6pm Evening prayer, Vestry;
6:30pm "Journey to Recovery" NA Meeting;


TUE 25
10am-2pm Office, Pantry, Thrift Store;
6pm Evening Prayer, Bible Study;


WED 26
7:30am "Good Morning" AA Meeting;
10am-2pm Office, Food Pantry, Small Blessings Thrift Shop; 
12:15pm Healing Service & Eucharist;


THUR 27
10am-2pm Office, Food Pantry, Small Blessings Thrift Shop; 


FRI 28
7:30am "Good Morning" AA meeting; 
6:30pm "Journey to Recovery" NA Meeting;


SAT  29
10am "Journey to Recovery" NA Meeting;
3pm  "Men do Recover" NA Meeting;



SUN 30
10am Rite II at Germania

11:15am Outdoor Church Picnic at Germania;
                          

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