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

The Annunciation: God's Answer to Gnostics

Today is the Feast of the Annunciation which we read about in the Gospel according to Luke:

 

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.’ Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.  (Lk. 1:26-38).

 

Gnosticism, the heresy which posited that “the material world was an inferior and dark place, evil in its very existence, but that within this world could be found certain people who were meant for something else” (N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope at 90-91 (2008), is alive and well today.  There are many in our day, including many Christians, who have the sense that this world is a nasty place and they can’t wait to get out of it.  Today’s feast, and the reading which accompanies it, tells us exactly the opposite: the created order is indeed good; it matters, and God himself takes on flesh in the person of Jesus Christ to restore all of creation, and that includes you and me.  Mary, a young woman, says “yes” to God’s view of the world, a world which God created and when he finished creating it, God said that it was good.  Yes, good.  The life stirring in Mary’s womb is God’s way of entering into his creation in a radical way, a way that puts God’s good housekeeping seal of approval on the created order. Salvation comes through the Incarnation, God made man, Jesus Christ, who was born of a woman.

 

Let us pray:  Pour your grace into our hearts, O Lord; that we who have known the incarnation of your Son Jesus Christ, announced by an angel to the Virgin Mary, may by his cross and passion be brought unto the glory of his resurrection; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Nick @ Night on Wednesday, 26 March at Trinity at 6 PM.  The Rev. Canon Glenice Robinson-Como from Christ Church Cathedral will be our speaker.  She is a native Virginian and received her B.S. from Virginia Commonwealth University, her M.Div. from Perkins School of Theology at SMU and a Diploma of Theological Studies from the Seminary of the Southwest. She has worked as a Staff Ombudsman with the Houston-Galveston Area Agency on Aging for ten years, and in Contract Administration with the Department of Defense and with the Metropolitan Transit Authority in Southern California. She serves as Chaplain for the John Epps Chapter of United Black Episcopalians (UBE), is a member of the Commission on Black Ministry and a mentor for Kids Hope USA. Glenice is the author of a meditation in the book Yes!, Jesus Loves Me—31 Love Stories, by Kathy H. Culmer, and a prayer entitled, “The Least of These” in the book Lifting Women’s Voices, Prayers to Change the World, which addresses the themes of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. Glenice is married to Paul L. Como and they have two children, Paulie and Dominique.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially, Pat, Karen, Patricia and Evelyn.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

Thomas Cranmer: Archbishop of Canterbury & Martyr

Today the Church remembers the life and ministry of a leader of the Reformation in England, Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury and martyr, who was born on 2 July 1489 and died on this day in March of 1556 when he was burned at the stake under the orders of the Roman Catholic Queen of England, Mary I, as a heretic.

 

Cranmer was 14 when he went to Jesus College, Cambridge obtaining is Bachelor of Arts after studying logic, classical literature and philosophy. For his master’s degree, he took a different course of study, concentrating on the humanists, and after receiving his Master of Arts degree in 1515, he was elected to a Fellowship of Jesus College.

 

After he obtained his MA, Cranmer married Joan, and he was forced to forfeit his fellowship which resulted in the loss of his residence at Jesus College. He took a job as a reader at another college. Joan died during her first childbirth, and Cranmer began studying theology and by 1520 he was ordained.  Cambridge had named Cranmer as one of their preachers. He received his doctorate of divinity in 1526. 

 

Cranmer first began meeting with the Reformers on the Continent in 1531, specifically, Simon Grynaeus, Huldrych Zwingli and Johannes Oecolampadius.  In January 1532, Cranmer passed through the Lutheran city of Nuremberg and saw for the first time the effects of the Reformation. When the Imperial Diet was moved to Nuremberg in the summer, he met the leading architect of the Nuremberg reforms, Andreas Osiander. Cranmer had moved, however moderately at this stage, into identifying with certain Lutheran principles.

 

As a Reformer, Cranmer believed that the prayer of the Church should be understood by its people, and he was foremost in translating the worship of the Church into English and securing their use (the Book of Common Prayer).

 

James Kiefer writes that:

 

When Mary came to the throne, Cranmer was in a quandary. He had believed, with a fervor that many people today will find hard to understand, that it is the duty of every Christian to obey the monarch, and that "the powers that be are ordained of God" (Romans 13). As long as the monarch was ordering things that Cranmer thought good, it was easy for Cranmer to believe that the king was sent by God's providence to guide the people in the path of true religion, and that disobedience to the king was disobedience to God. Now Mary was Queen, and commanding him to return to the Roman obedience. Cranmer five times wrote a letter of submission to the Pope and to Roman Catholic doctrines, and four times he tore it up. In the end, he submitted. However, Mary was unwilling to believe that the submission was sincere, and he was ordered to be burned at Oxford on 21 March 1556. At the very end, he repudiated his final letter of submission, and announced that he died a Protestant. He said, "I have sinned, in that I signed with my hand what I did not believe with my heart. When the flames are lit, this hand shall be the first to burn." And when the fire was lit around his feet, he leaned forward and held his right hand in the fire until it was charred to a stump. Aside from this, he did not speak or move, except that once he raised his left hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

 

There is an excellent biography of Thomas Cranmer by Diarmaid MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer: A Life (1996).  It is a bit lengthy at 692 pages; however, it is a very scholarly work on Cranmer’s life and the Reformation.

 

Let us pray: Merciful God, through the work of Thomas Cranmer you renewed the worship of your Church by restoring the language of the people, and through his death you revealed your power in human weakness: Grant that by your grace we may always worship you in spirit and in truth; through Jesus Christ, our only Mediator and Advocate, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Nick @ Night on Wednesday, 26 March at Trinity at 6 PM.  The Rev. Canon Glenice Robinson-Como from Christ Church Cathedral will be our speaker.  She is a native Virginian and received her B.S. from Virginia Commonwealth University, her M.Div. from Perkins School of Theology at SMU and a Diploma of Theological Studies from the Seminary of the Southwest. She has worked as a Staff Ombudsman with the Houston-Galveston Area Agency on Aging for ten years, and in Contract Administration with the Department of Defense and with the Metropolitan Transit Authority in Southern California. She serves as Chaplain for the John Epps Chapter of United Black Episcopalians (UBE), is a member of the Commission on Black Ministry and a mentor for Kids Hope USA. Glenice is the author of a meditation in the book Yes!, Jesus Loves Me—31 Love Stories, by Kathy H. Culmer, and a prayer entitled, “The Least of These” in the book Lifting Women’s Voices, Prayers to Change the World, which addresses the themes of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. Glenice is married to Paul L. Como and they have two children, Paulie and Dominique.

 

Jared Jackson will be made an Eagle Scout on Saturday, 22 March 2014 at 3 PM at Wortham Auditorium in Rosenberg Library.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially, Pat, Karen, Patricia, Evelyn and Lee.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

St. Joseph: A Model of Fatherhood

Today the Church celebrates St. Joseph, a figure who appears only in the Gospels according to Luke, Matthew, and a few verses in John (1:45 [Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”]; 6:42 [They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”]).  Mark does not mention Joseph at all.

 

Joseph is often forgotten, being in the background.  Nevertheless, Joseph must have played a key role in Jesus’ life.  He was there when Jesus was born.  Joseph raised Jesus and cared for him.  Joseph would have taught Jesus his trade as a τεκτων (meaning a skilled worker).  Joseph, Mary and Jesus shared all of their meals together.  Joseph raised Jesus in the Jewish faith and traditions.  Joseph would have taken Jesus to the Temple and to the weekly worship in their local synagogue.  No doubt Jesus was there when Joseph breathed his last.  The Scriptures do not relate any of these events with the exception of the birth; nevertheless, we know that Joseph was there, in the background, being Jesus’ earthly father.  As James Kiefer writes: “When Jesus spoke of God as being like a loving Father, He was using a word that he had first learned as a child to apply to Joseph. Joseph stands as a testimony to the value of simple everyday human things, and especially that human thing called ‘fatherhood.’”

Those of us who have the privilege and responsibility of fatherhood should take notice of Joseph.

 

Let us pray: O God, who from the family of your servant David raised up Joseph to be the guardian of your incarnate Son and the spouse of his virgin mother: Give us grace to imitate his uprightness of life and his obedience to your commands; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Wednesday, 19 March at 6 PM, the Lenten Series, Nick @ Night, continues at Grace.  The speaker will be the Rev. Wendy Wilkinson.  She came to the priesthood after decades as a professional orchestral trumpeter from Shaker Heights, Ohio. She received a graduate degree in Religious Studies at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio before attending Virginia Theological Seminary. Both she and her husband graduated from VTS in 2004. After graduation, the Rev. Wendy was the Director of the Spirituality Center at Holy Spirit Episcopal Church in Orleans, Cape Cod. When her husband, Mark, was called to be Rector at St Aidan’s in Virginia Beach, she found her ministry as the Episcopal Chaplain to Christopher Newport University in Newport News, VA. In January of 2013, she began her ministry as the Priest-in-Charge at Good Samaritan Episcopal Church in Virginia Beach. She continues to use her musical gifts and visit the Virginia Beach General Hospital with her therapy dog, Kuma. The Rev. Wendy and her husband, Mark, have two grown sons, Jeffrey who resides in Columbus, Ohio and James, who lives in Nagoya, Japan.

 

Thursday, 20 March at 11 AM, the Seaside Seniors meet in Sutton Hall at St. Augustine’s for lunch and fellowship.  The theme is St. Patrick’s Day.

 

Jared Jackson will be made an Eagle Scout on Saturday, 22 March 2014 at 3 PM at Wortham Auditorium in Rosenberg Library.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially, Pat, Karen, Patricia, Evelyn and Lee.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

 

St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Bishop & Theologian

Today the Church remembers the life and ministry of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, a bishop and a theologian who lived between 313 and 386.  Cyril exemplifies the importance of the role of the bishop.  A bishop is the chief teacher for the people entrusted to the bishop’s care.  The bishop is to ensure the handing down of the ancient faith as first taught by the Apostles.  Cyril achieved this, in part, by his Catechetical Lectures on the Christian Faith, which consists of an introductory lecture followed by 18 lectures on the Christian faith.  They were to be delivered during Lent to those who were going to be baptized at Easter.  After their baptisms, the new Christians were then instructed by 5 additional lectures on the Sacraments.  You can find all of the lectures at http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3101.htm

 

Let us pray:  Strengthen, O Lord, the bishops of your Church in their special calling to be teachers and ministers of the Sacraments, so that they, like your servant Cyril of Jerusalem, may effectively instruct your people in Christian faith and practice; and that we, taught by them, may enter more fully into celebration of the Paschal mystery; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Wednesday, 19 March at 6 PM, the Lenten Series, Nick @ Night, continues at Grace.  The speaker will be the Rev. Wendy Wilkinson.  She came to the priesthood after decades as a professional orchestral trumpeter from Shaker Heights, Ohio. She received a graduate degree in Religious Studies at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio before attending Virginia Theological Seminary. Both she and her husband graduated from VTS in 2004. After graduation, the Rev. Wendy was the Director of the Spirituality Center at Holy Spirit Episcopal Church in Orleans, Cape Cod. When her husband, Mark, was called to be Rector at St Aidan’s in Virginia Beach, she found her ministry as the Episcopal Chaplain to Christopher Newport University in Newport News, VA. In January of 2013, she began her ministry as the Priest-in-Charge at Good Samaritan Episcopal Church in Virginia Beach. She continues to use her musical gifts and visit the Virginia Beach General Hospital with her therapy dog, Kuma. The Rev. Wendy and her husband, Mark, have two grown sons, Jeffrey who resides in Columbus, Ohio and James, who lives in Nagoya, Japan.

 

Thursday, 20 March at 11 AM, the Seaside Seniors meet in Sutton Hall at St. Augustine’s for lunch and fellowship.  The theme is St. Patrick’s Day.

 

Jared Jackson will be made an Eagle Scout on Saturday, 22 March 2014 at Wortham Auditorium in Rosenberg Library.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially, Pat, Karen, Patricia, Evelyn and Lee.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550