Weekly Reflections for Practicing Gratitude

Giving thanks comes easily when life is going well, but when things are not what we want them to be, it's really hard to be grateful. Yet, as the late priest and author John Claypool writes: "Only when life is seen as a gift and received with the open hands of gratitude is it the joy God meant for it to be."  Recognizing that one of the best ways to embrace gratefulness at the core of our being is to reinforce it over and over again, starting November 1 explorefaith will unveil a dynamic new section on our site designed to provide you with reflections and suggestions for PRACTICING GRATITUDE for the next year.

Read about it here and sign-up for their free weekly emails and practice gratitude in your life!

Online Bible Study

Found this great resource...

This free online weekly reading program allows you to explore God's Word, beginning in Genesis, with the guidance of an outstanding biblical scholar who has a deeply personal Christian faith.

Not only will you learn from your guide, but beginning in November you'll have the option of "going deeper" in your study of each week's Scripture passage through links to other commentaries and resources. And each Lectio comes with related artistic renderings of the passage.

Over the course of four years, you'll encounter a majority of the Bible – and do so in tandem with the Seattle Pacific University community as students, faculty, and staff focus on the same weekly Scripture in Chapel, community Bible studies, and other weekly worship events.

To sign-up or learn more, go here.

Fall Study: Embracing an Adult Faith

Beginning in October:

Author and Bible scholar Marcus Borg invites us to join him in revisiting Christianity’s most fundamental questions:

• Who is God?
  
• What does salvation mean?
  
• What place does Jesus hold in contemporary Christian faith?
  

Each session includes a 10-minute presentation by Marcus Borg followed by interaction with the group. The program print resources are designed to help our small group “join the dialogue” in our setting. The five sessions will include:

• God
• Jesus
• Salvation
• Community
• Practice

Join us!

What is an Episcopalian?

Some reflections from the youth confirmands:

• "An Episcopalian is free to be who they are without being questioned about their faith and looked down upon by other members. We are allowed to have our own thoughts and opinions about God and the Church without being judged."
• "I go home wondering about something said during the sermons. I really like that our church is very accepting of everyone and it doesn't matter who they are and if they are a different religion, we welcome all kinds of people! We will never judge anyone on there looks or there skin color we are just very kind and welcoming people, I think our congregation is just filled with nice and caring people who are like family to me, They will welcome anyone who walks through our doors and that is a big thing to me, I really dislike who people judge people by there looks and we don't do that. I have had friends come with me to church and be surprised at how fast our services are and how nice everyone is."
• "One of the most important characteristics of being an Episcopalian is being open-minded. By this I mean to not judge others on what they look like or anything they have done in the past. As Episcopalians we welcome everybody to come and rejoice with us no matter what race or past religion."
• "We focus on Grace rather than sin. We believe that God will forgive us for anything we have done or might do. Being an Episcopalian lets you live your life in happiness rather than in fear of doing something wrong. When someone happens to make a bad choice in life all they have to do is ask for forgiveness from God and they receive it. There are no special tasks you must do in order to receive forgiveness from God."
• "As Episcopalians we believe in helping others whenever we get the chance. By helping and doing charity work we know we are doing what God wants us to do by bringing peace to all and making the world a better place. We are to spread the word of our lord and bring peace and happiness wherever we go."
• "My favorite event of the parish is the Apple Festival because I think this shows the true feelings of faith and belonging of our Church family. Our whole parish comes together either baking, setting up, cleaning up, keeping the kitchen stocked, cooking, and doing whatever is needed at the time to make the fair go smoothly. We want to raise money for St. Peters, but also show the community that St. Peters is a family of people that work hard together but with much fun and happiness to support our church."
• "To me an Episcopalian is someone who welcomes all to their church with open arms and really makes everyone feel accepted. AT work, at home, at the store and anywhere we go, an Episcopalian is one who likes to make people feel better when their down and to forgive people who do wrong."
• "An Episcopalian is someone who enjoys and embraces the gift of life given to us by God. It also means that we have to teach others the benefits of helping others and our church without getting a physical benefit."
• "An Episcopalian is a role model and guides young church goers in the right direction on their journey of faith."
• "My family had been Episcopalian's for many generations. I know when I am older and on my own I will still be an Episcopalian because I always feel welcomed when I walk into the church and I can talk to everyone because everyone is so nice and friendly. I just fell like I really belong at this church and with this religion. Now this is what being an Episcopalian means to me."

A prayer for our Lenten Journey

A Prayer for Availability to God's Will
(adapted from Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow, 1867)

O God, I do not know what to ask of you.
You alone know my true needs and love me more than I know how to love.
I ask neither for cross nor consolation, but only that I may discern and do your will.
Teach me to wait in patience with an open heart, knowing that your ways are not our ways, and your thoughts are not our thoughts.
Help me to see where I have erected idols of certitude to defend myself from the demands of your ever unfolding truth: truth you have made known to us in the one who is the truth, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Advent Bible Study: Week Four

Session Four: The Politics of Advent

Read Luke 1: 39 -56

Advice - Do not expect that when this fourth and final session is concluded that every question which has been raised will have been answered or that every issue which has emerged in these discussions will have been resolved. The aim here, in other words, has been to articulate significant queries exposed by the passages from Luke concerning the topic of Advent and, thus, to offer an alternative to the superficial and commercialized versions of the Advent season which prevail in the culture and to the often trivialized and unbiblical treatment of Advent prevalent in many churches. So, if you finish this session with a mind bustling with issues, rather than a tidy list of answers, do not be discouraged, be heartened: the effort has been worthwhile. Persevere, in the last session, in practicing listening by hearing the entire text read aloud and then reviewing it sentence by sentence.

Comment - The story of Mary's visit to the mother of John the Baptist, and the attribution of the Magnificat to her, is another traditional Advent text which may be so familiar that it is easily overlooked how explicitly it emphasizes the politics of both Advents. Keep rereading it and notice its political statements. "He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away." (Luke 1 52-53; see l Sam. 2:1-10). Moreover, in the final verses of the Magnificat it seems clear that the destiny of the nation is the particular political matter involved.

Since the ministries of John the Baptist and of Jesus are, as became evident in earlier texts studied, so intertwined, this may be an appropriate place to read the remainder of this first chapter of Luke, concerning the birth of John the Baptist. (See Luke 1:57 80). How is the auspicious birth of John related to the coming of Jesus?

Consider, also, the obvious political character of other events associated with or proximate to the birth of Jesus. This is often overlooked because the manger scene is recalled and represented in the culture as if it were some quaint pastoral scape, what with hay and sheep and so on. Yet stop to think that the census to which Mary and Joseph submitted was a surveillance, the homage of the Magi acknowledged the status of Jesus as Lord and King, while Herod, frantic about the birth, sought to assassinate the child. This is no quiet, simple, politically innocuous event; it is a cosmic happening. In the first Advent, Christ the Lord comes into the world, in the next Advent, Christ the Lord comes as judge of the world, and all the world's thrones and pretenders, regimes and presidencies, principalities and authorities, in vindication of the reign of the Word of God in history. That is the truth, which the world hates, which biblical people bear and by which they live as the Church in the world in the time between the two Advents.

Advent Bible Study: Week Three

Session Three: The Fruits of Repentance

Read Luke 3:10-20

Advice - Perhaps it would assist in comprehending what repentance means, if you tried to locate in the daily newspapers, or in books or on television programs or the like, reports of happenings which need to be repented, or examples of repentance, or evidence of the fruits of repentance. Be especially alert for items or episodes involving the life of society and the nation.

Comment -Those who heard John the Baptist preach "a baptism of repentance" evidently had some problems understanding his message. (Luke 3:3, 3:10). Yet the political authorities, represented as Herod the tetrarch, understood enough about the political scope of the Baptist's proclamation of the Judgment to imprison John, and, subsequently, subject him to terrible interrogation, torture, and, finally, decapitation. (Luke 3:16-20; Matthew 14:3-12; Mark 6:16-29) The fact that in such circumstances Jesus makes John's preaching his own, and instructs his disciples accordingly, foreshadows his own arrest, trial, humiliation and crucifixion at the behest of similar authorities, and, for that matter, portends the chronicle of the Acts of the Apostles. The passages which are being studied here manifest that it is not possible to apprehend either Advent except through the dialectic of both Advents. However much that may have been ignored or suppressed in the contemporary churches, the pioneer Christians, beleaguered as they were because of their insight, knew that the message of both Advents is political. That message is that in the coming of Jesus Christ, the nations, principalities, powers and rulers of the world are judged in the Word of God and are rendered accountable, under the Lordship of Christ, to human life and to all created life by virtue of the sovereignty of the Word of God in history.

Hence the response of John the Baptist, when he is pressed to show the consequence of the repentance he preaches, is "Bear fruits that befit repentance." (Luke 3:8). To state the same issue another way, the call for repentance, addressed to a nation, or similar principality, concerns forswearing blasphemy. Blasphemy occurs in the existence and conduct of a nation wherever there is such profound confusion as to the nation's character, place, capabilities and destiny that the vocation of the Word of God in history is preempted or usurped. Thus, the very presumption of righteousness of the cause of a nation is blasphemy. (See Revelation 13:1-10). How, then, can a nation repent of blasphemy? And what are the fruits of such repentance?