St. Mark's News & Notes, September 17, 2010

Blessings to you all today.

Our readings for Sunday in the NRSV translation with the collect may be found at this link.

Readings for Sunday in the ESV translation.
Amos 8:4-12
Psalm 138
1 Timothy 2:1-8
Luke 16:1-13

The Sunday at 9:45 the classes continue: Children's Sunday School in the classrooms; Adult Bible Fellowship in the parish hall. The Adult Bible Fellowship will discuss the Sunday lessons from Scripture.

See you all Sunday,

Fr Greg+

St. Mark's News & Notes, September 3, 2010

As any of you are praying about a friend with no church home that you plan to invite to worship some Sunday, you might want to email a link to the our blog as part of your invitation to join us for worship.

Those who are our newest friends and may not know about Trinity Parish (which actually has its own blog), I'll explain. Trinity Parish of NE Texas is the name of the Church which is a shared work of St. David's, Gilmer, and St. Mark's, Mt. Pleasant. Sharing resources across the communities allows more stability and impact as we seek to be the Church.

Please allow a brief digression: In the New Testament, when St. Paul writes to the Church in a given city or region--the Church in the cities of Ephesus, Rome, Colossae, or the Churches of Galatia--he isn't writing to buildings. He's writing to people. And we can assume that these people didn't cease to be Church once the worship service had concluded. They are the Church, a untied body of all kinds of people whose "head" or King, is Jesus. And that's who we are. The Church.

One of gifts of being Church together between two cities is that we can learn, in some very tangible ways, that we need each other. We need each other to give and share our money to support the ministry in NE Texas. Even more, we need the various spiritual gifts that God has given each of us (see, for example, Rom 12:3-8ff) and our souls need the immediate and frequent opportunities to "love one another in brotherly love" and "outdo one another in showing honor" (Rom 12:10).

Our Almighty God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is gracious and good to give us himself and one another as he makes of us what we could never make of ourselves without his help: his Church. May we be his Church together each Sunday at Mass, and everywhere else we go through the week.

Our lessons for Sunday are:
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Psalm 1
Philemon 1-20
Luke 14:25-33

All three lesson & the collect of the week are also available here.

Announcements

St. Mark's - Adult Bible Fellowship, studying the Sunday readings, begins Sunday, September 10. Children's Sunday School also begins Sunday, September 10. Both begin at 9:45am. Adults will meet in the parish hall, and children in the classrooms.

St. David's - Our Wednesday evening Bible study on Colossians will begin this coming Wednesday, September 8, following the 6pm Mass. Please read Colossians chapter 1 at least two time. Come prepared to discuss verses 1-14. And if possible, read the whole book (it's only four chapters, you can do it!)

Blessings to you all in Christ,

St. Mark's News and Notes, July 10, 2010

Blessings to you this fine week of . . . well . . . "the season after Pentecost" as the 1979 Book of Common Prayer (BCP) says, or "the 6th week after Trinity" as the 1928 Prayer Book says, or "14th week of Ordinary Time" as the Roman Catholic liturgy says.

I always get a kick out of the phrase "Ordinary Time." It sounds so plain. But then, if you put in a blender and mix it up with our traditional Anglican language, "After Trinity," and our revised 1979 BCP language, "after Pentecost," then the word "Ordinary" doesn't seem quite so . . . ordinary.

Our participation in the love of the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit is what is revealed by the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The revelation of God as Trinity is what we celebrate the following week on Trinity Sunday.  This means that at Pentecost, we're caught up in that fellowship of love who we call the Trinity, who is the One God from whom all creation flows. So if life in that love is "ordinary" (which it is for all baptized) then our Christian definition of "ordinary" is quite extraordinary.

In other words, we are loved beyond our understanding of the concept of love. And that speaks not of the smallness of our minds, but of the greatness of our God.

I want to tell you all that this Sunday we will pray together a portion of what may be my favorite Psalm, and is certainly the most influential Psalm for me, Psalm 25. I began to engage Christianity in my early 20's, not because my parents told me so (which they did and that was a good thing), but because I believed it just might be true (which is a better thing). I found Psalm 25:3-4 and wrote the verses on a note card, taped them to the dashboard of my car, and memorized them. "Make me to know your ways, O Lord; Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me; for you are the God of my salvation. For you I wait all the day."

I have to say now that I had no idea what I was getting into. But God's ways and His paths are the best thing that I have ever committed to, or ever will, or ever could.

So I hope you don't mind if I repeat myself.

I am loved. And, my friends, you are loved. More than our capacity to know what we're getting into. So, by all means, let's get into it. Get into the love of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

To help us grow in the grace, knowledge, and love of God, the readings for this week are:
Deuteronomy 30:9-14
Psalm 25
Colossians 1:1-14
Luke 10:25-37

Announcements

St. Mark's - The 9:45am Sunday morning Screwtape Letters study--after a lively and enjoyable talk on letter 16 last week--will cover letters 17-18 this week. It's not too late to join or, if you've been away, to re-enter the conversation.

Blessings to you all,

Fr Greg+

St. Mark's News & Notes, July 1, 2010

Our series in Luke continues this week with the calling of the seventy-two (ESV) or seventy (RSV) disciples.

Which was it and why do different versions have different numbers?

For much more information here is a teaching video on the subject of the transmission of the Bible.

Here's is a short summary of the issue from the ESV Study Bible with my additions in brackets (and emphasis added):
"Should the presence of textual variants [i.e. seventy, or seventy-two disciples in Luke 10:1], then, undermine the confidence of ordinary laypersons [and their ordinary priests] as they read the Bible in their own language? No—actually, the opposite is the case. The abundance of variants is the result of the very large number of remaining New Testament manuscripts, which itself gives a stronger, not weaker, foundation for knowing what the original manuscripts said.

"In addition, modern Bible translation teams have not kept the location of major variants a secret but have indicated the ones they think to be most important in the footnotes of all “essentially literal” modern English translations [such as the RSV, NASB, & ESV], so that laypersons who read these footnotes can see where these variants are and what they say. The absence of any such footnote (which is the case with far more than 99 percent of the words in the English New Testament) indicates that these translation teams have a high degree of confidence that the words in their English translation accurately represent the words of the New Testament as they were originally written.

What Is at Stake?

"The most significant textual variants certainly alter the meaning of various verses. And where the meaning of verses is changed, paragraphs and even larger units of thought are also affected to some degree. At times, a particular doctrine may not, after all, be affirmed in a given passage, depending on the textual variant. But this is not the same thing as saying that such a doctrine is denied. Just because a particular verse may not affirm a cherished doctrine does not mean that that doctrine cannot be found in the New Testament. In the final analysis, no cardinal doctrine, no essential truth, is affected by any viable variant in the surviving New Testament manuscripts. For example, the deity of Christ, his resurrection, his virginal conception, justification by faith, and the Trinity are not put in jeopardy because of any textual variation. Confidence can therefore be placed in the providence of God in preserving the Scriptures.

"In sum, although scholars may not be certain of the New Testament wording in a number of verses, for the vast majority of the words in the New Testament the modern English translations accurately represent what the original authors wrote, and therefore these translations can be trusted as reproducing the very words of God."

The Scriptures that we will hear together on Sunday are:
Isaiah 66:10-16
Psalm 66
Galatians 6:1-18
Luke 10:1-20

Announcements

St. Mark's - The 9:45am Sunday morning Screwtape Letters study will cover letters 16-18.

A few final reminders: Please keep each other in your prayers as we travel and enjoy our summers. Please be faithful in your regular Sunday worship when you are in town (and even on the road, if possible). And please make the effort to stay faithful in your giving, especially over the summer months.

Blessings to you all,

Fr Greg+

St. Mark's News & Notes, June 25, 2010

Just in case you missed it, yesterday was the Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist. In celebrating St. John's birthday, I was reminded that just as God sent John to go before Jesus to prepare the way, God always prepares His people with grace to receive the full measure of His grace.

And as I've been turning my attention back to the Gospel of Luke in preparation for our summer and fall preaching series, I've been reminded that God's grace not only precedes but follows the saving work of Jesus.

Luke begins his Gospel this way: "Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught" (Lk 1:1-4, ESV).

A few quick observations: (1) There was (and is) the actual event of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection itself in human history, these are "the the things that have been accomplished among us;" (2) there was the preaching and proclamation of those events by eyewitnesses, "those who from the beginning (i.e. when it happened) were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word" (please notice that they were ministers, they served the message, they didn't make it up); (3) there was and is the Scriptures, which are the trustworthy and authoritative writings that we have, "it seemed good to me . . . to write."

And why? "That you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught."

We don't follow a made up gospel in the midst of a cloud of uncertainty. God the Father sent His Son Jesus to save us, and he did just that. The people who saw it and were saved by Jesus were sent by Jesus to spread the news about what He and His Father had done, are doing, and will do. And people like Luke wrote it down so that people like us can have certainty (real knowledge) about the message we hear from faithful priests and bishops who continue to share the truth about what Jesus actually did, is doing, and will do.

What wonderful reminders. God sends John the Baptist before Jesus. God sends Jesus. And God sends the Apostles to spread the word and evangelists to write down and confirm the word.

What goodness and grace! As St. John the Apostle writes, "And from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace" (Jn 1:16).

I'm excited about this series in Luke, and I anticipate many gifts of God's grace as we grow in certainty, assurance, and real knowledge of the things God has accomplished in Jesus.

Readings for Sunday, June 27, 2010:

1 Kings 19:15-21
Psalm 16
Galatians 5:1-25
Luke 9:51-62

Announcements

St. Mark's - The 9:45am Sunday morning Screwtape Letters study will cover letters 13-15 (unless I'm off in my counting and need correction).

A few final reminders: Please keep each other in your prayers as we travel and enjoy our summers. Please be faithful in your regular Sunday worship when you are in town (and even on the road, if possible). And please make the effort to stay faithful in your giving, especially over the summer months.

Blessings to you all,

Fr Greg+

St. Mark's News & Notes, June 11, 2010

Blessed Feast of St. Barnabas to you all.

Barnabas was an early Christian convert and leader in the Church in Jerusalem. When people in Antioch fist believed the Gospel, Barnabas was sent from Jerusalem to see what was happening. Luke writes in Acts, "The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith" (Acts 11:22-24).

What an honor to be described in Holy Scripture as "a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith." And this passage also tells us why Barnabas is described as good. For when he saw the grace of God (i.e. people trusting Jesus and His Gospel) "he was glad, and exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose." Now, think about an enthusiastic coach more than an angry preacher and I think we'll have a sense of Barnabas' goodness. Barnabas recognizes God's goodness in Jesus as good, and encourages the faithful to remain faithful to God's goodness which is Jesus.

The passage continues, "And a great many people were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians" (Acts 11:24-26).

Barnabas brought Paul, the former persecutor of the faithful, to Antioch to teach the faithful. And together with Paul, Barnabas was in the place where the word "Christian" was coined. Wow! What goodness, indeed.

And His goodness can become our goodness, because it's God's goodness shared freely through faith in Jesus who is "our great God and savior . . . who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works" ( Titus 2:13b-14). This self-giving love of God in and through Jesus is what is celebrated today by Christians who observe this day (the Friday after Corpus Christi) as the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The main idea of this celebration is to adore the love of Jesus, and ask for grace to return His love by asking for God's help to live the Great Commandment. As it says in the prayer book, "Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." And as it says in Scripture, "We love because he first loved us" ( 1 John 4:19).

Enjoy this day giving thanks for the examples of a good man named Barnabas, whose character was transformed to share the loving heart of his savior, Jesus.

The lessons for this coming Sunday are:

2 Samuel 11:26--12:10, 13-15
Psalm 32:1-8
Galatians 2:11-21
Luke 7:36-50

Announcements

This coming Sunday at St. Mark's we will recognize our graduate, Rachel Roach.

There are no mid-week Masses this week.

The Sunday morning study continues at St. Mark's, Mt. Pleasant, at 9:45am and will cover letters 7-9 of The Screwtape Letters this week. Newcomers are invited and encouraged to join the discussion at any time.

Blessings,

Fr Greg+

Lenten Study: 30 Days Through the Bible

Our Lenten study begins Monday, March 2 and ends Saturday April 4.

We will read and discuss 30 Days Through the Bible, edited and with commentary by F. LaGard Smith.



Our group discussions will be on Sunday mornings at St. Mark's Church from 9:30-10:30am, with Mass following at 11am. Discussions begin Sunday, March 1st, and conclude Sunday, April 5th.

We're pleased to have guest lecturer Mr. Michael Schutt lead our Sunday morning discussions.

Whether or not you're able to read along, you're welcome to join us for teaching, discussion, and worship on Wednesdays during Lent.

Welcome to St. Mark's Church

Welcome to the weblog for St. Mark's Church, Mt. Pleasant, Texas.

The purpose of this blog is to provide a simple Web presence for a group of committed Christians of the Anglican tradition who worship and live in and around Mt. Pleasant, Texas.

Our regular worship times are posted on the right-hand column. Guests are welcomed and warmly received at any time.

This blog will consist of articles and posts on relevant subjects--What do you believe? What is Anglicanism? What is the Book of Common Prayer? and How do we read, understand, and live the Bible?--and will also contain announcements and pertinent church news.

Feel free to post tasteful comments and to contact the blog host, Fr. Gregory Crosthwait, rector, Trinity Episcopal Parish (St. David's & St. Mark's).