St. Mark's Day - Rector's Rambling for April 25, 2021

     Today we take a deviation from observing “the Sundays after Easter” in order to celebrate the Holy Day that occurs on April 25.  Today is the Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist.

As noted in the Tables of Precedence on page li in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, All Feasts of Apostles and Evangelists are to be celebrated on Sunday unless bumped by certain Feasts or Sundays that have even higher precedence.  In the older liturgical books this would be considered a second class Feast.  Sundays in Lent or Advent, Holy Week and Easter Week cannot be bumped so they would have a first class status.  Thankfully we have a professionally printed church calendar to remind us where we are today in case we forget to check in the prayer book.

Pictured above is a project that our own Cam Walker stumbled upon recently.  Having moved the Bishop’s Cathedra, which is a fancy name for the special chair the bishop sits in while at St. John’s, he discovered that there were two brass plaques on the wall, hidden by the Sedia up front (another fancy church name for a seat).

The plaques note the donation of the great windows to the left and right of the altar and mosaic reredos.  The windows depict the four Evangelists (including St. Mark), as well as Old Testament Prophets.  One is dedicated to John Minor who died in 1890, the other to St. John’s first Junior Warden, John Roberts, obit 1891.

Cam removed the plaques from their original obstructed location, polished them up, and with the help of Pat Walter they were installed in view beneath the windows.

We give thanks to Almighty God for the gift of these wonderful windows, the lives of those in whose memories they were given, and for the labors of those among us to restore and reveal them.

 

Easter as a Season - Rector's Rambling for April 11, 2021

     What a glorious day we had last Sunday with the celebration of Easter Day here at St. John’s.  Having had attendance restrictions expanded to 25% of occupancy we safely distanced a congregation larger than anything we have had in over a year because of that virus.  How wonderful it was to sing with a portion of our choir (next year, God willing, a full choir with brass as in years previously).  May God grant many more wonderful Sundays of increasing attendance by the faithful and the seeker as we seek to glorify Jesus Christ, and to be nourished in Word and Sacrament.

Let us remember that Easter is more than a day, it is a season!  For 40 days we continue to celebrate the Resurrection until the Feast of the Ascension (May 13 this year) and then 10 days of prayer in anticipation of Whitsunday when we celebrate the outpouring of God the Holy Ghost.

Today’s Gospel lesson from St. John’s gospel actually recounts for us something that took place on Resurrection Day, when Jesus appears to the disciples gathered in the upper room.  All this past week at the Holy Communion Service and Daily Offices we have heard reading of the various Gospel appearances of Jesus.  Today the Roman Catholic and some other Episcopal congregations will be reading the account of “doubting Thomas”, which takes place a week after our reading today.  Also we read this past week about Jesus appearing to the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus, as well as St. Luke’s account of the Resurrection.  And there are other wonderful stories of Jesus appearing and teaching his disciples during these 40 days of Eastertide.

I encourage you to read all of these wonderful Gospel accounts of Jesus’ Resurrection appearances and be encouraged in the faith of those original followers who first reacted in fear, and by the time of Jesus’ Ascension, and then being encouraged and filled by the Holy Ghost, became witnesses to all around them of the Good News of God in Jesus Christ!

And, of course, I encourage you during these 40 days to allow yourself to be encouraged and enlightened by God’s Grace to embrace with surety the Good News of Jesus’ Resurrection, and ask God the Holy Ghost to stir up in you the gift of his presence to help you to become the disciple that Jesus desires you to be – a witness to others of His Resurrection.

 

He is Risen! - Rector's Rambling for April 4, 2021

     "And entering into the sepulchre, they saw, a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment and they were affrighted. And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.”

 This is the account of the story of the Resurrection from Mark’s Gospel, which we see depicted in the mosaic above the High Altar at St. John’s.  An Angel announced the Resurrection to Mary Magdalen, Mary the mother

  of James, and Salome who had come to the tomb to properly anoint the body of Jesus, who had been hastily buried on Friday as the Passover Sabbath began.  We hear in that gospel that they weren’t sure who would roll back the large stone from the tomb so that they could do the anointing, and arrived to find something like you see pictured above.  Ancient tombs like this were met to be used over and over.  Once the flesh rotted off the bones the bones were gathered and placed in a ossuary (a box for bones) and the tableau in the tomb reused for the next family member’s burial.  But Jesus was buried in Joseph of Arimathea's newly hewn tomb, and there could be no doubt, having heard the angel’s proclamation and seeing the tomb empty, that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead.

After long year past, I am so grateful that we are having a Resurrection here at St. John’s.  Not just the celebration of the Holy Day today (which we didn’t get to do together last year because of the Stay Home orders) but also a resurrection of the parish life.

I am so happy to see people returning to public worship again, and God willing we will be able to start some programing and social fellowship events together soon enough.  Having had a ’year off’, I hope that we will have a renewed energy to be active in the life of the Church, and begin again the good work of being equipped for our witness and ministry to the neighborhood, or families and friends, that Jesus Christ is Lord and worthy of our worship!

Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!  And more and more our common life together is rising as well.  Let us rejoice, give thanks, and