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God can accomplish more
Than we can ask or imagine
2 Kings 4:42-44; Psalm 145:10-19; Ephesians 3:14-21; John 6 1-21
This past Sunday we noted that the Gospel reading was missing a few significant verses and that those verses related the story of the feeding of the 5,000. This Sunday we get the story of the feeding of the five thousand from the Gospel of John.
The omission last Sunday made us consider how faith in Jesus affects the possibility of miracles being performed. Can miracles be performed when faith is not present?
In our Epistle to the Ephesians this Sunday we are reminded that God can accomplish "far more than all we can ask or imagine." This is a key element of our faith, the belief that we cannot contain or control or conceive the full greatness of God.
The hymns for Sunday July 26
LEVAS-II 184 Blessed assurance (Assurance)
1982 400 All creatures of our God and King (Lasst uns erfreuen) [2/2]
1982 335 I am the bread of life (I Am the Bread of Life)
1982 662 Abide with me (Eventide)
Happy St. Swithin's Day
I figured to take a week to step back, and lighten up a bit, on my piece for the Messenger. The actual St. Swithin's Day was last week (July 15), but I wanted to share a little of our Anglican tradition. He is more properly known by a different spelling, as St. Swithun, and was the Bishop of Winchester.
He served as bishop from 852 (or 853) until 862 (or 865), but the part of him that is most well-known is the folklore that has grown up around him. It seems that the good Saint has a strong connection to the weather:
St Swithun's day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St Swithun's day if thou be fair
For forty days 'twill rain nae mare
In modern English, the poem says that if it rains on July 15, you will have forty days of rain, if it is fair, you will see forty dry days. Some believe that this arose because of what happened when the Saint died. He asked to be buried outdoors, to be trod on by passers-by and kissed by raindrops. Well, some nine years after his death he was moved to a finer, indoor crypt. In his displeasure he caused a heavy rain to fall. While there is no evidence of this actually occurring, it is the story most associated with him. Is it no wonder he is a saint often prayed to during a drought?
Is there a message in all of this? Yes, but nothing too serious, or "heavy." I just couldn't pass up a chance to convey a little piece of the history of the Anglican Communion. --Warden Pete Bedrossian
Summer Sunday School for children
Please let all your friends at St. Paul's with children know that our Sunday School is continuing through the summer. The children are attending the Sunday 10 am service through the Gospel reading, then leaving the sanctuary and going to the Sunday School room. While there they learn from supervising adults about the readings, engage in conversation about the topics covered in the readings, and do art and crafts projects that connect to the scripture for the day.
The Sunday School class returns to the sanctuary for Holy Communion and then goes back to the Sunday School room. They continue with their projects and enjoy a popular snack. The children rejoin their parents and /or guardians at the end of the adult coffee hour.
Children are strongly encouraged to come to church and to hear the scripture readings with their families, experience Holy Communion and enjoy Sunday School with their friends.
This week's calendar
21 Seekers' Group 6 p.m.
22 Healing service 12:15 pm
25 Mohegan Sun bus trip sponsored by Men's Club 7:30 am
26 8am Rite I; 8:45 am Bible study; 0 am Rite II, 11:30 coffee hour
27 Worship, Altar Guild 6 pm; Evening Prayer 7 pm; Vestry 7:30 pm
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