2008 National Day of Prayer
March 19, 2008
The National Day of Prayer is Thursday, May 1, 2008.
Fr. Chip will participate in the San Antonio observance at noon at the Steps of City Hall. Praise music starts at 11:30am.
Grow or Stagnate
March 18, 2008
“As I have worked to develop disciples for Jesus, I have found one consistent element that either severely retards or greatly accelerates growth — private devotions: prayer, meditation, Bible reading, and the like. Those who set aside time alone with God grow. Those who don’t, stagnate.” ~Pastor Ralph Wilson in JesusWalk Bible study: The Sermon on the Mount: The Jesus Manifesto – Giving, Prayer, and Fasting (Matthew 6:1-8, 16-18).
Holy Week Schedule
March 17, 2008
Holy Wednesday
7:00 PM Evensong/Tenebrae
Maundy Thursday
6:30 PM Holy Communion/Foot Washing/Stripping of Altar/Black Veiling of nave and altar/
Beginning of the Vigil at the Altar of Repose with the Reserved Sacrament (which continues until sunrise on Easter Day)
Good Friday
12:00 Noon Stations of the Cross
6:00 PM Stations of the Cross and screening of The Passion of the Christ
Holy Saturday
Private devotions/meditations/fasting/ decoration of the nave for Easter Sunday
Easter Sunday
7:34 AM Sunrise said service in prayer garden (in chapel if weather is inclement)
No Sunday School, Children’s Church/Children’s Sermon/Youth Group
Shofar sounding at beginning of service
10:30 AM Blessing and procession of the Paschal Candle, Mass with incense
Reception
Liturgy Lesson for Palm Sunday: Triumphal Entry
March 16, 2008
Today is Palm Sunday, that day in Lent when we commemorate our Lord’s triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, the “foundation of peace” and the holy city. We begin with the blessing of palms for worship, invoking God’s intervention in our lives to make our worship and other actions more than just a corporeal event or “attendance,” instead asking Him to enter our hearts in triumph—as the Lord of those lives, in spirit and truth—a contrast to the crowds that outwardly hailed Jesus at his arrival, but then turned on Him, becoming the mob that demanded His blood on the Cross just hours later. With this prayer, we begin Holy Week—completing Lent’s spiritual creation of new and contrite hearts and preparing us for the joys of the Resurrection Sunday. May we, then, add to our “hosanna,” “Maranatha”—meaning “Come quickly, Lord,” as we give Him real Lordship in the Holy Cities of our Hearts.
What’s Our Heart?
March 14, 2008
Lent is all about preparing our hearts for Jesus’ Lordship-something we celebrate every Palm Sunday with the blessing and processing of palms, crying “hosanna” (save us, we pray!). The big question: have we really pursued what we pray in the Collect for Ash Wednesday-and should be praying daily in Lent:
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Consider what we asked the Father to smith in each of us-knowing He does not hate us, but has good things for us. Hear Him speak through Jeremiah, to Israel, suffering in captivity:
10 For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.
What great news! Even though we richly deserve God’s judgment–as Israel received here–like God’s People of the Old Testament, He wants to bring us out of captivity, and has blessings in mind for us-and will bring us to that place we, once were…a place where He dwells with us, and blesses us in worship and life. How do we return? Our collect for Ash Wednesday-Lent’s “everyday prayer” shows us:
” If we are penitent-derived from Middle English, French & Latin, feeling or expressing humble or regretful pain or sorrow for sins or offenses, we are naturally led to ask Him to…
” Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, which implies a work of the Holy Ghost to change our inner motivations-becoming the new creatures described in 2 Cor 5:17 and Galatians 6:14-16.
” If we will allow the Holy Ghost to lead us and change us, (worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness) then we can be led to real, heartfelt…
” Repentance-a word stemming from penitence-meaning, to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one’s life. This is not just “being good,” (nobody can do that all the time!), but instead of following our own flesh and the Devil’s World around us, following the Spirit’s lead-what St. Paul taught as “walking after the Spirit” in Romans 8 and Galatians 5. In Galatians, in fact, God provides us a stark contrast between what the Spirit crafts in us, and what we are like, when left to our own devices:
19 Now the works of the flesh [emphasis mine] are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit [emphasis mine] is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. [emphasis mine] 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
The Church Fathers that wrote our prayerbook understood the Spirit walk. They knew that the “rubber meets the road” for us as Christians when we allow the Holy Spirit to show us if have we really laid our hearts open for Jesus to enter as King. Do we have new and contrite hearts, or are we, like the mob that turned on Him, after that triumphant palm-covered entry to Jerusalem, instead sending Him to crucifixion? Are we “walking after the Spirit” or fulfilling the desires of the flesh? As our Lenten examen turns down the home stretch to Resurrection Sunday, we have to ask the Holy Spirit to show us all if are truly the new creatures Jesus came to make us.
What’s our heart? Do we walk after the Spirit – or remain captive to the flesh? Hosanna, Lord – save us!
All love in the Beloved,
Chip+
Liturgy Lesson for Passion Sunday: Way of the Cross
March 9, 2008
On the nave walls, you may have noticed we have placed stations for the Way of the Cross, an ancient devotion intended for us to each make a small pilgrimage with our Lord through His Passion and Death. This is a very Scriptural practice-St. Paul taught us to glory in Christ and Him crucified, and we are also instructed to be willing to share in Christ’s sufferings, taking up our own crosses and following Him. This small, but intense devotion is a way we can do that, rehearsing His propitiation in a series of 14 meditations, walking from one station to another to help the faithful to make in spirit, a pilgrimage to the chief scenes of Christ’s sufferings and death, . To aid in that devotion, we have placed small booklets in each pew from now until Easter. The origin of this devotion may be traced to the Holy Land , where the Via Dolorosa at Jerusalem was reverently marked out from the earliest times and has been the goal of pilgrims ever since the days of Constantine. For us, we use the stations and devotions to help us put our lives in perspective and to reproduce devotions in holy places in other lands for those who were hindered from making the actual pilgrimage. For us, as we make our devotions to the Lord, may we ask the Holy Ghost to help us to take up our cross and follow Him in our Lenten examen, growing in Him, as we rehearse His Passion for us all!
Life Marinade
March 2, 2008
Bible Reading: For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. ~Romans 8:5 (NKJV)
Bonus Reading: Romans 8:6-14
Lent…the diet for our lives in Jesus. A time of examen and seeking the Holy Ghost’s refilling. The season we ask Him to show us even more clearly where we need to shed a few unwanted spiritual pounds. That being said, let’s consider the following, adapted from Stephen Graves & Thomas Addington in Deep Focus:
If you’re someone watching your weight, you’ve probably heard people say, “You are what you eat.” If you’re as careful about your spiritual diet, the phrase “You are what you think” serves the same purpose. In Romans 8:5, St. Paul makes it clear that our minds are the primary influencer of how we live out our faith. To increase the likelihood we’ll behave in a spiritual manner, we must saturate our minds in spiritual things.
Christie and I have a world-class marinade for steak. When we put an already delectable cut in that special sauce, the meat absorbs through its pores the flavors and juices it’s submerged in. When it’s cooked…and we take a bite, the flavor of the marinade has penetrated the flavor of the meat. What a wonderful product…and what a great picture of our minds.
St. Paul is teaching us, by the Spirit’s prompting, that our mind acts as a dry sponge. It sits and it soaks. If we subject it to continuous gossip, complaining, immoral television, and unhealthy music, those flavors will sink into us—and we have that savor about us. If we allow ourselves to be influenced by such negative things, we hamper our ability to hear the Holy Spirit speak to our hearts, please the Father, and live in victory over the World around us. How can we expect to rise above the World and be the Salt and Light Jesus wants, if we remain mired in its tastes?
If, on the other hand, we spend our time and focus on Godly pursuits—paying attention to what we read, watch, listen to, laugh at—worshipping and fellowshipping with God’s people as often as possible, we change what our life marinade, taking the thought life advice in Philippians 4:8:
whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.
Contemplative Prayer: “Holy Spirit, please show me what I soak in—how to monitor what I read, see, and watch, and where my thoughts—and lips—lead me.”
Think about it: “Therefore my anxious thoughts make me answer, because of the turmoil within me. I have heard the rebuke that reproaches me, and the spirit of my understanding causes me to answer. ~Job 20:2-3 (NKJV)
All love in the Beloved,
Chip+
Healing: Debbie McCullough (written by Father Chip)
March 2, 2008
Debbie has been plagued by post surgical complications from a procedure she had several years ago On a recent Sunday night, she had a flare up and ended up in the ER at North Central Baptist Hospital. I received this call at Koinonia and promptly went to the wrong hospital. In the meantime, two of our parishioners went to the correct hospital, joined Steve in laying hands on Debbie, praying for the Lord heal her and take away her considerable pain. He did! She went home that night and has not returned. Praise the Lord! We serve a mighty God who will honor the prayers of His people. Let us go forth in joy to love and serve Him!
Liturgy Lesson for the Fourth Sunday in Lent: Laetare – Rejoice
March 2, 2008
The Fourth Sunday of Lent, called “Laetare” (Rejoice) is named for the first words of the Introit prayed or sung before the procession to the Holy Table. In the first six or seven centuries, Lent began on the Sunday after Quinquagesima (50 Days before Easter)–but was only thirty-six fasting days. Church Fathers then added four days preceding, making a Biblical 40-day fast—as Jesus did in the Wilderness before He began His ministry. Originally the middle day of Lent, the Thursday before Laetare enjoyed relaxed discipline with special joy to encourage the faithful in their devotion through Lent’s Holy Ghost–powered examen, but was moved to the more practical Sunday feast day. Like Gaudete Sunday in Advent, this Sunday uses flowers on the altar, more festive worship music and allowed rose-colored vestments instead of the more penitential purple as on the other Lenten Sundays, reminding us that it’s the quality of our devotion–not the details–that God wants—and that we are not to make our customs into the Law. The contrast between Laetare and other Lenten Sundays, then, echoes a promise God gave us in Scripture—that when the Enemy [of our Souls] rushes in like a flood, He would provide a standard to rally to—much like during the Exodus, when God instructed Moses to fashion a brazen pole and serpent; which, when looked upon, ensured Israelites bitten by venomous snakes would live. This all points us to Jesus—our Hope of Glory—our Standard to rally in the Wilderness to live eternally. Also called Refreshment Sunday, Sunday of the Five Loaves, (from a miracle recorded in the Gospel); Mid-Lent and Mothering Sunday, we rightly take joy in today’s Epistle, as it cites our right to be called sons of God—and not in bondage to the letter of the law—eating the miracle meal from Jesus’ own hand—nailed to the Cross for us. Rally us, Lord—we follow you!
