The Invited Make Excuses

The appointed Gospel reading for the daily prayer of the Church is taken from the Gospel according to Luke where we read:

He said also to the one who had invited him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’

One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, ‘Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, “Come; for everything is ready now.” But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, “I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my apologies.” Another said, “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my apologies.” Another said, “I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.” So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, “Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.” And the slave said, “Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.” Then the master said to the slave, “Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.” ’  (Lk. 14: 12-24).

We are so easily distracted by what we consider to be important.  Just like the characters in today’s Gospel reading, we are so much so distracted that when Jesus calls us to follow him and to join the feast, we make excuses as to why we cannot come.  Why do we do it?  Why do we fail to follow Jesus when he calls us to the feast?  Why is what we want so much more important that what Jesus calls us to?

Let us pray:  O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light riseth up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what thou wouldest have us to do, that the Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices, and that in thy light we may see light, and in thy straight path may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

CALENDAR REMINDERS

The turkeys from St. Augustine made it to St. Vincent’s House this morning for the Thanksgiving celebration for the clients of St. Vincent’s House. 

We will celebrate Thanksgiving Day as a community of faith on Sunday, 25 November after the 9:00 a.m. Eucharist where Fr. Kern Huff will concelebrate.  Please sign up to bring a side dish or dessert.

On Sunday, 25 November, we will celebrate the Feast of Christ the King.

We will begin a new Adult Christian Education series on the first Sunday of Advent.  Please join Jillian Bain for the study.

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially Betty Robinson who fell while she was working with the Altar Guild this last Friday, Michael Lombard who is suffering from an inoperable brain tumor, and for his father, Joe and for Carol Hogan.

Your servant in Christ,

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550

The Lost Sheep

The appointed Gospel reading for the Eucharistic celebration is taken from the Gospel according to Luke.  We read:

Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’

So he told them this parable: ‘Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.

‘Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.” Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.’  (Lk. 15: 1-10)

A new Archbishop of Canterbury has been appointed.

 

The 105^th Archbishop of Canterbury is Justin Welby, the current Bishop of Durham in England.  He was born in 1956 in London. He has a degree in law and history, and went to work in the oil industry for 11 years.  Justin married Caroline in 1979.  They had a daughter who died in a car accident in 1983.  The Welbys have 5 children ranging in age from 16 to 27.

Welby went to seminary at Cranmer Hall in Durham and was ordained deacon in 1992 and thereafter, he was ordained a priest.  He served in several parishes and became Bishop of Durham in 2011. 

In an interview in March of this year, Bishop Welby said that he wanted to be remembered as a “bishop who cared about God and cared about the people.”  Today’s Gospel reading is one that he should read again and again.  In that same interview, Bishop Welby said that there needs to be “a cultural change that says it is normal for us to share our faith … for that to happen in this area it has got to be clear that the Church is working effectively with those on the edge.”  The Church must reach out to the lost sheep, to those who have not only strayed away, but who have no idea how to get back.  Not only does the new Archbishop of Canterbury have that challenge, but you and I do as well, right here in Galveston.

 

Let us pray:  Almighty and most merciful Father, we all have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep, we have all followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, we have all offended against your holy laws, we have all left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have all done those things which we ought not to have done. O Lord, have mercy upon us, restore those who are penitent, give us strength to seek those who are lost and to declare the Good News of your salvation to all people.  Amen.

CALENDAR REMINDERS

Saturday, 10 November, we will have a second work day at the Community Garden. Following on Karen Lehr’s report to everyone in Church on Sunday, we have an opportunity to reach out to work with the Scott School in our Community Garden. Please keep this opportunity in your prayers.

Thanksgiving in nearly upon us! Please remember St. Vincent’s House and bring a food donation for the food pantry and place it in the St. Vincent’s basket in the narthex of the Church.

We will have a pot luck lunch for our Thanksgiving celebration at St. Augustine’s this year.

Please remember everyone on our prayer list, especially all of those who are recovering after Sandy.

Your servant in Christ,

Fr. Chester J. Makowski

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550

 

The Sabbath & Completeness

The Gospel appointed for the daily prayer of the Church is taken from the 13^th chapter of the Gospel according to Luke who recounts the story of Jesus healing on the Sabbath:

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment.’ When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, ‘There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day.’ But the Lord answered him and said, ‘You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?’ When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing. (Lk. 13: 10-17).

The leader of the synagogue is “indignant.”  The original Greek uses the word ἀγανακτῶν which means “angered” or “incensed.”  The leader is angry because Jesus cured a woman on the Sabbath.  What was the source of the leader’s anger?  Why was he angry?  In the face of the miracle of the cure, the leader says that there are 6 other days when Jesus could have cured her instead of doing it on the Sabbath.  The leader has forgotten the purpose of the Sabbath.  On the Sabbath day, the world was complete.  Part of honoring the Sabbath is to remind us that we are called to be complete persons in God.  Is there a better day for Jesus to have restored the woman to completeness and wholeness? I don’t think so.

Let us pray:  Gracious God, in You we live, move and have our being.  Through Your Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ, You have restored us to completeness.  Send Your Holy Spirit to sanctify all that we do so that it may be for Your greater glory and honor.  Amen.

CALENDAR REMINDERS

Saturday, 10 November, we will have a second work day at the Community Garden. Following on Karen Lehr’s report to everyone in Church on Sunday, we have an opportunity to reach out to work with the Scott School in our Community Garden. Please keep this opportunity in your prayers

Thanksgiving in nearly upon us. Please remember St. Vincent’s House and bring a food donation for the food pantry and place it in the St. Vincent’s basket in the narthex of the Church.

We will have a pot luck lunch for our Thanksgiving celebration at St. Augustine’s this year.

Please remember everyone on our prayer list, especially all of those who are recovering after Sandy.

Your servant in Christ,

Fr. Chester J. Makowski

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550

William Temple: Defender of the Working Class

Today the Church remembers William Temple who served as the Archbishop of Canterbury for a very short time, from 1942 to 1944.  William was born in 1881.  His father, Frederick Temple, was a priest, served as Bishop of London and became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1897 and he died in 1902.

William was a sickly man.  He suffered from gout from the age of 2; he had bad eye sight and eventually went blind in his right eye at the age of 40. But William was intelligent.  He had the unique ability to reduce issues to their key points, and William often used this ability when dealing with persons and groups who disagreed with each other.  Once he boiled down an issue to its basics, those who were in disagreed were able to come to common ground. 

William was educated at Oxford and he applied for ordination in 1906, but was refused because his Bishop in Oxford thought that his faith was insufficient.  Shortly thereafter, the Archbishop of Canterbury interviewed William and decided to take a chance on him.  William was ordained a deacon in 1909 and a priest in 1910. 

 In 1916 William married Frances Anson; however, the couple was childless. 

 William Temple was known as a theologian, and considered to have been the most brilliant since St. Anselm who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109.  William defended the working class; he said that in a Christian society:

          1.      Every child should find itself a member of a family housed with decency and dignity.

          2.      Every child should have an opportunity for education up to maturity.

          3.      Every citizen should have sufficient income to make a home and bring up his children properly.

          4.      Every worker should have a voice in the conduct of the business or industry in which he works.

         5.      Every citizen should have sufficient leisure—2 days' rest in 7 and an annual holiday with pay.

         6.      Every citizen should be guaranteed freedom of worship, speech, assembly and association.

Let us pray:  O God of light and love, you illumined your Church through the witness of your servant William Temple: Inspire us, we pray, by his teaching and example, that we may rejoice with courage, confidence and faith in the Word made flesh, and may be led to establish that city which has justice for its foundation and love for its law; through Jesus Christ, the light of the world, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

CALENDAR REMINDERS

Saturday, 10 November, we will have a second work day at the Community Garden. Following on Karen Lehr’s report to everyone in Church on Sunday, we have an opportunity to reach out to work with the Scott School in our Community Garden. Please keep this opportunity in your prayers.

 Thanksgiving in nearly upon us. Please remember St. Vincent’s House and bring a food donation for the food pantry and place it in the St. Vincent’s basket in the narthex of the Church.

We will have a pot luck lunch for our Thanksgiving celebration at St. Augustine’s this year.

Please remember everyone on our prayer list, especially all of those who are recovering after Sandy.

Your servant in Christ,

Fr. Chester J. Makowski

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550

Be Disciples Today, Not Tomorrow

The Gospel for today’s Eucharist is taken from the Gospel according to Luke, who writes:

Jesus said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Lk. 14: 12-14).

Last night, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, reminded the Anglican Communion of the theme expressed in today’s Gospel.  He said that God expects us to be disciples today, not tomorrow.  Archbishop Rowan Williams was addressing the dissention within the Anglican Communion.  He stressed that he believed Anglicans have a message to give the Christian world about how they can be “both catholic and orthodox and consensual, working in freedom, mutual respect and mutual restraint, without jeopardizing the important local autonomy of our churches.”  Addressing the question of authority, Archbishop Williams said: “When people say of Jesus he speaks with authority, I don’t think they mean he’s just a good problem-solver; those words occur when Jesus has performed spectacular acts of liberation. The authority in question is an authority to act and an authority to make a difference, an authority that enables and empowers.”

Archbishop Williams said: “When we stand before the throne of God, it will be a very poor answer if when God says ‘Why did you not preach the gospel and serve the poor?’ we say, ‘We had too many internal problems to resolve, we couldn’t quite decide who had the authority to pronounce things.’ God expects us to be disciples today, not the day after tomorrow.”

So let us be disciples today.  Let us “invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind” as Jesus asks us to do in today’s Gospel.  Let us reach out to those in need and proclaim the Good News of Christ putting into action spectacular acts of liberation in the name of Him who set us all free by His cross an resurrection.

Let us pray:  O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look  favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred  mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry  out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world  see and know that things which were being cast down are being  raised up, and things which had grown old are being made  new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection  by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus  Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity  of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

CALENDAR REMINDERS

Saturday, 10 November, we will have a second work day at the Community Garden.  Following on Karen Lehr’s report to everyone in Church on Sunday, we have an opportunity to reach out to work with the Scott School in our Community Garden.  Please keep this opportunity in your prayers.

Thanksgiving in nearly upon us.  We will donate turkeys to the St. Vincent’s House Thanksgiving Dinner.  Please remember St. Vincent’s House and bring a food donation for the food pantry and place it in the St. Vincent’s basket in the narthex of the Church.

We will have a pot luck lunch for our Thanksgiving celebration at St. Augustine’s this year.

Please remember everyone on our prayer list, especially Rosalind Crockett who is looking for a place to live, and all of those who are recovering after Sandy.

Your servant in Christ,

Fr. Chester J. Makowski

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550

O Death Where Is Thy Sting?

REMEMBER TO TURN YOUR CLOCKS BACK 1 HOUR SATURDAY NIGHT!

Today follows on yesterday’s celebration of the Feast of All Saints, those holy one’s of God who known and unknown, with the New Testament Epistle reading appointed for today which is taken from Paul’s letter to the Church in Corinth where he writes:

What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Cor. 15: 50-58).

We often do not think of this, but death results because of sin; it is the break in our relationship with God.  In essence, we choose to reject God and to put Him aside, and to make ourselves the center of the universe, to take center stage.  Imagine the arrogance of humanity to put God aside; yet, that is what we do, and that is sin.  We fail to see our proper role in God’s universe.  But Paul reminds us that we have been brought to new life in Jesus Christ, God made man, who repaired the breach in the relationship, and who destroyed death itself.  Jesus puts things to rights and places God exactly where God belongs, center stage, and through that we have been changed.

Let us pray:  Help us, we pray, in the midst of things we cannot understand, to believe and trust in the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection to life everlasting. Grant us, with all who have died in the hope of the resurrection, to have our consummation and bliss in thine eternal and everlasting glory, and, with all thy saints, to receive the crown of life which thou dost promise to all who share in the victory of thy Son Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

CALENDAR REMINDERS

There is a work day for the Community Garden tomorrow starting at 10 a.m.  Karen Lehr says there will be a “meeting/lunch from noon to 1:00. I'll be bringing vegetable soup. Bring a side dish if you can, but come anyway if that doesn't work out. Hope to see a lot of you, get us all up-to-date, and some needed work done in the garden.”

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially Rosalind Crockett who is looking for a place to live, Bishop Doyle and his family as they celebrate the Liturgy of the Resurrection for his father who died this week.

Your servant in Christ,

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550

The Feast of All Saints

Today is the feast of All Saints where we remember all of those holy ones, both known and unknown, who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith.  We will celebrate it at St. Augustine’s this Sunday.  All Saints Day dates back to the late fourth century, and was celebrated in Antioch.  St. Ephrem the Syrian mentioned it in a sermon in 373. In the early centuries, this feast was celebrated in the Easter season.

 
One of the appointed Psalms for today is Psalm 150 where we read:

Praise the Lord!

Praise God in his sanctuary;
   praise him in his mighty firmament!
Praise him for his mighty deeds;
   praise him according to his surpassing greatness!
Praise him with trumpet sound;
   praise him with lute and harp!
Praise him with tambourine and dance;
   praise him with strings and pipe!
Praise him with clanging cymbals;
   praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!

On this day we remember the reality of the Church united, all of those who lived before the coming of Christ, and all of those who lived after the coming of Christ, all of those now living and all of the saints were are in the immediate presence of God Almighty, praise the Lord!

Let us pray:  O Almighty God, who have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship, in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those indescribable joys which you have prepared for those who truly love you: through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting.  Amen.

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+
St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550