Compline: "I will both lie down and sleep in peace; for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety."

One of the appointed Psalms for today is Psalm 4 where the Psalmist prays:

 

Answer me when I call, O God of my right!

   You gave me room when I was in distress.

   Be gracious to me, and hear my prayer.

How long, you people, shall my honor suffer shame?

   How long will you love vain words, and seek after lies?

But know that the Lord has set apart the faithful for himself;

   the Lord hears when I call to him.

When you are disturbed, do not sin;

   ponder it on your beds, and be silent.

Offer right sacrifices,

   and put your trust in the Lord.

There are many who say, ‘O that we might see some good!

   Let the light of your face shine on us, O Lord!’

You have put gladness in my heart

   more than when their grain and wine abound.

I will both lie down and sleep in peace;

   for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety.

 

I flew out of Houston Saturday night and arrived in London Sunday afternoon. Yesterday evening I went to Southwark Cathedral for compline. I was met at the door by the Cathedral’s mouser, Doorkins Magnificat who walked me down the aisle to my seat. The word “compline” comes from the Latin word “completorium” meaning the completion of the working day. It is the last prayer service in the Church’s day. 

 

Today’s Psalm reminds me of the compline service.  At the end of our day, we come before God in thanksgiving for the day that has gone by and as we prepare to lie down and rest for the next day.  The Psalmist prays: “I will both lie down and sleep in peace; for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety.”  We begin our day coming before God and we end our day in the same way. 

 

Let us pray:  Gracious God, in you we live, move and have our being.  Out of love, you have created all that is.  We respond to you by coming before you in prayer.  We thank you for the start of the day which reminds us of the new life we have in Christ.  We thank you at the end of the day when we are reminded that one day our own lives will come to an end where we will look forward to our own resurrection.  Amen.

 

REMEMBER: The big BBQ is this Saturday!  We still have lots of work to do before the big event.  Please invite all of your friends and family to the event.  We will have the best BBQ around with Neil “Bigmista” Strawder and friends!

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski, Vicar

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

Do Not Be Afraid

The appointed Gospel reading for this Wednesday if Easter week is taken from Matthew, and it is his account of the Resurrection:

 

After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, “He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.” This is my message for you.’ So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, ‘Greetings!’ And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.’

 

While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests everything that had happened. After the priests had assembled with the elders, they devised a plan to give a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, ‘You must say, “His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.” If this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.’ So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story is still told among the Jews to this day.

 

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. (Mt. 28:1-16).

 

Fear is a mighty power that can rule our lives.  We are afraid of many things.  What will people think of me?  I can’t do it! People will make fun of me because I am a Christian. I am afraid to open myself to others. I am afraid to share my faith.  I am afraid to say that I have trouble believing.

 

But the angels say, “Do not be afraid!”  When Mary Magdalene and Mary encounter the Risen Jesus, he says, “Do not be afraid!”  These are the same words that the angels and the Risen Lord say to you and to me: “Do not be afraid!  Do not be afraid of what people will think; do not be afraid that you cannot do it.  Do not be afraid to leave yourself vulnerable.  Do not be afraid if people make fun of you. Do not fear if your faith is weak. Go out and proclaim that Jesus is indeed alive; he is risen!”

 

Let us pray:  O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

THE BIG BBQ IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER—SATURDAY, 3 MAY!  Tell all of your friends and neighbors about it—spread the word!  This year we will have 8 pit masters including our own Neil “Bigmista” Strawder.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List and especially all of those who are discerning a call to ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

The Rev. Chester J. Makowski, Vicar

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

You Have Been Raised With Christ Jesus

On this Tuesday in Easter Week, we continue in Paul’s first letter to the Church in Corinth.  Paul speaks about the reality of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ:

 

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

 

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For ‘God has put all things in subjection under his feet.’ But when it says, ‘All things are put in subjection’, it is plain that this does not include the one who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all. (1 Cor. 15:12-28).

 

Paul focuses on two things: (1) Jesus was raised from the dead, and (2) you and I will also share in his resurrection at the last day and be raised from the dead. The Resurrection and our redemption cannot be separated; they go hand in hand.  Through his death and resurrection, Jesus reconciled God and humanity by restoring humanity to the state God intended it to be, in full relationship with God just as Jesus is in full relationship with God the Father.

 

Let us pray:  O God, who by the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light: Grant that we, who have been raised with him, may abide in his presence and rejoice in the hope of eternal glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be dominion and praise for ever and ever. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

THE BIG BBQ IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER—SATURDAY, 3 MAY!  Tell all of your friends and neighbors about it—spread the word!  This year we will have 8 pit masters including our own Neil “Bigmista” Strawder.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List and especially all of those who are discerning a call to ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

The Rev. Chester J. Makowski, Vicar

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

The Good News & the Witnesses to the Risen Christ

On this Monday in the week of Easter, we hear from Paul’s first letter to the Church in Corinth where he writes:

 

Now I should remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.

 

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe. (1 Cor. 15:1-11).

 

Paul presents the Good News in short form and he also recounts the experience of the Risen Jesus.  Here is the Good News: Christ died for our sins, he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day.  Then Paul tells of the Apostles’ experience of the Risen Jesus, and then others who were witnesses to the Risen Jesus.  Paul also tells us of his encounter with the Risen Christ.  The resurrection is a reality!  The Apostles and Paul dedicated the rest of their lives to the reality of the Resurrection, and they gave their lives for it. During this Easter Season (the 50 days to Pentecost), you and I should meditate on the reality of this history changing event.  Alleluia Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

 

Let us pray:  Grant, we pray, Almighty God, that we who celebrate with awe the Paschal feast may be found worthy to attain to everlasting joys; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

THE BIG BBQ IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER—SATURDAY, 3 MAY!  Tell all of your friends and neighbors about it—spread the word!  This year we will have 8 pit masters including our own Neil “Bigmista” Strawder.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

The Rev. Chester J. Makowski, Vicar

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.

On this Maundy Thursday, we hear from St. Paul’s first letter to the Church in Corinth:

 

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves. For this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. (1 Cor. 11: 27-32).

 

Tonight we celebrate the institution of the Eucharist.  Paul reminds the Church in Corinth and all of us that when we received the Body and Blood of Jesus, we must be mindful of the entire community of faith to whom we are answerable.  If we receive and are unmindful of the entire body, we in effect, bring condemnation on ourselves.

 

Let us pray:  Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

THE BIG BBQ IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER—SATURDAY, 3 MAY!  Tell all of your friends and neighbors about it—spread the word!  This year we will have 8 pit masters including our own Neil “Bigmista” Strawder.

 

Seaside Seniors at 11 AM on Thursday in Sutton Hall.

 

Holy Week & Easter Schedule:

 

         Maundy Thursday at 7 PM, foot washing, Eucharist and the stripping of the altar.

 

         Good Friday at noon, traditional service.

 

          Easter at 9 AM, festival Eucharist followed with Easter Egg Hunt and Pot luck lunch.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

The Rev. Chester J. Makowski, Vicar

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

The Rejected Cornerstone

On this Wednesday in Holy Week, we hear from the Gospel according to Mark where Jesus foreshadows the events later in the week:

 

Then he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the wine press, and built a watch-tower; then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce of the vineyard. But they seized him, and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. And again he sent another slave to them; this one they beat over the head and insulted. Then he sent another, and that one they killed. And so it was with many others; some they beat, and others they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this scripture: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes?’” (Mk. 12:1-11).

 

The owner of the vineyard is God, the vineyard is Israel, the slaves who come on the owner’s behalf are the prophets and the son is Jesus.  Nevertheless, we can apply that very same parable to our own lives.  God sends us people to show us the way, but we reject them out of hand not wanting to see the truth.  God has sent Jesus not only to show us the way but to be the way, and yet we manage to disregard what he has to say to us and what he has to show us. In short, you and I reject Jesus. Yet, Jesus is persistent; he comes after us time and time again to offer us life.  It is indeed amazing in our eyes.

 

Let us pray: Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

THE BIG BBQ IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER—SATURDAY, 3 MAY!  Tell all of your friends and neighbors about it—spread the word!  This year we will have 8 pit masters including our own Neil “Bigmista” Strawder.

 

Wednesday at 6 PM at Trinity, we will have the final installment in our Lenten Series, Nic at Night, with the Rev. Michael Chalk. 

 

Seaside Seniors at 11 AM on Thursday in Sutton Hall.

 

Holy Week & Easter Schedule:

 

         Maundy Thursday at 7 PM, foot washing, Eucharist and the stripping of the altar.

 

         Good Friday at noon, traditional service.

 

         Easter at 9 AM, festival Eucharist followed with Easter Egg Hunt and Pot luck lunch.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

The Rev. Chester J. Makowski, Vicar

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

By What Authority?

On this Tuesday in Holy Week, the appointed Gospel for the Daily Prayer of the Church is taken from the eleventh chapter of the Gospel according to Mark:

 

Again they came to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him and said, ‘By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?’ Jesus said to them, ‘I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin? Answer me.’ They argued with one another, ‘If we say, “From heaven”, he will say, “Why then did you not believe him?” But shall we say, “Of human origin”?’—they were afraid of the crowd, for all regarded John as truly a prophet. So they answered Jesus, ‘We do not know.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.’ (Mk. 11: 27-33).

 

By what authority does Jesus do things?  You and I know by what authority Jesus acts.  He is God himself, in the flesh, who walked among us to show us that it is the Divine Authority of love which prevails, a love which knows no bounds, which sacrifices all, which is humble, which empties itself even to the point of death on a cross.

 

Let us pray:  O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Wednesday at 6 PM at Trinity, we will have the final installment in our Lenten Series, Nic at Night, with the Rev. Michael Chalk. 

 

Seaside Seniors at 11 AM on Thursday in Sutton Hall.

 

Holy Week & Easter Schedule:

 

         Maundy Thursday at 7 PM, foot washing, Eucharist and the stripping of the altar

 

         Good Friday at noon, traditional service.

 

         Easter at 9 AM, festival Eucharist followed with Easter Egg Hunt and Pot luck lunch.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

The Rev. Chester J. Makowski, Vicar

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

Console the Afflicted

As we begin our journey with Jesus to Jerusalem on this Monday in Holy Week, we hear from Paul’s letter to the Church in Corinth:

 

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God that is in Corinth, including all the saints throughout Achaia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.Paul’s Thanksgiving after Affliction Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ. If we are being afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation; if we are being consoled, it is for your consolation, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we are also suffering. Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our consolation.  (2 Cor. 1:1-7).

 

No doubt, there are times in our lives when we are shaken to the core of our being.  You are I are called to console those who may be afflicted because God has consoled you and me in our affliction.  During this Holy Week, you and I are called to remember that God has consoled us and that we are called to console those who are suffering.

 

Let us pray:  Almighty God, whose dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other that the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Wednesday at 6 PM at Trinity, we will have the final installment in our Lenten Series, Nic at Night, with the Rev. Michael Chalk. 

 

Seaside Seniors at 11 AM on Thursday in Sutton Hall.

 

Holy Week & Easter Schedule:

 

         Maundy Thursday at 7 PM, foot washing, Eucharist and the stripping of the altar

 

         Good Friday at noon, traditional service.

 

         Easter at 9 AM, festival Eucharist followed with Easter Egg Hunt and Pot luck lunch.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

The Rev. Chester J. Makowski, Vicar

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

Reformed Lutheran Pastor and Martyr of the 20th Century: Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Today the Church celebrates the life, ministry and witness of a Reformed Lutheran pastor and martyr of the 20^th Century, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  He was born in 1906 and he was executed by the Nazis on this day in 1945.

 

In 1923, he began his theological studies at Tubingen University and studied under such prominent theologians as Adolf von Harnack, Hans Lietzmann, and Reinhold Seeberg.   By the age of 25, he was a lecturer in systematic theology at the University of Berlin. He was ordained in 1931.

 

When Hitler came to power in 1933, Bonhoeffer became a leading spokesman for Protestant resistance to the Nazis strongly opposing Hitler’s euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews. He organized and for a time led the underground seminary.

 

Bonheoffer’s book The Cost of Discipleship attacks what he calls “cheap grace,” meaning grace used as an excuse for moral laxity. In 1939 his brother-in-law introduced him to a group planning the overthrow of Hitler, and he made significant contributions to their work. Bonhoeffer was arrested in April of 1943 and imprisoned in Berlin. After the failure of the attempt on Hitler’s life in April 1944, he was sent first to Buchenwald and then to Schoenberg Prison. His life was spared, because he had a relative who stood high in the government; but then this relative was himself implicated in anti-Nazi plots. On Sunday 8 April 1945, he had just finished conducting a service of worship at Schoenberg, when two soldiers came in, saying, “Prisoner Bonhoeffer, make ready and come with us,” the standard summons to a condemned prisoner. As he left, he said to another prisoner, “This is the end -- but for me, the beginning -- of life.” He was hanged the next day, less than a week before the Allies reached the camp.

 

Let us pray:  Gracious God, the Beyond in the midst of our life, who gave grace to your servant Dietrich Bonhoeffer to know and teach the truth as it is in Jesus Christ, and to bear the cost of following him: Grant that we, strengthened by his teaching and example, may receive your word and embrace its call with an undivided heart; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Lenten Series, Nic at Night continues this Wednesday at Grace starting with Stations and the Eucharist at 6 PM.  Our speaker will be the Very Rev. Dr. Cynthia Briggs Kittredge.  She is the eighth dean and president at Seminary of the Southwest and professor of New Testament. Dr. Kittredge holds degrees from Williams College and Harvard Divinity School where she earned a Th.D. in 1996. She was ordained priest in 1985 and is canonically resident in the Diocese of Texas. She has served as assisting clergy at Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd since 1999. Dr. Kittredge is author of Community and Authority: The Rhetoric of Obedience in the Pauline Tradition and Conversations with Scripture: The Gospel of John. She co-edited Walk in the Ways of Wisdom: Essays in Honor of Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza with Shelly Matthews and Melanie Johnson-DeBaufre. Dean Kittredge represented the Episcopal Church on the Theological Education in the Anglican Communion Steering Committee from 2009-2012. She served as president of the Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars from 2008-2012 and on the board of Evangelical Education Society from 2005-2013. In her teaching she gives students the exegetical and interpretive tools both to appreciate and to critically engage with the Biblical texts for theological reflection. Her research specialty is biblical interpretation and the letters of Paul.

 

Seaside Seniors will meet at 11 AM on 17 April 2014 in Sutton Hall.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially those who suffer from addictions.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

The Rev. Chester J. Makowski

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550