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St. James - Westwood Weekly Epistle
Approaching the Sixth Sunday after The Epiphany
February 13, 2014
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ
 
"Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison." ( Matthew 5: 25-26)

 

   Read Sunday's Lessons here
    
Barbara Mitchell - Bridging the Torn Places
Bridging the Torn Places - Barbara Mitchell
Reconciliation is one of the most difficult yet most important concepts to understand in our Christian tradition. It means much the same as redemption (God's action in liberating human beings from the powers of sin, evil, and death). However, reconciliation feels more relational and gritty to me. Adrian Hastings (The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought, 2000) writes that reconciliation requires mutuality and a two-sided desire to live into deeper, more loving relationship with ourselves, God, and other people. Reconciliation isn't easy yet it seems so crucial to our faith. For me, redemption begins with God. God initiates reconciliation too but its our work to accomplish.  Forgiveness is required.

My personal experience is that reconciliation with ourselves, family members, neighbors, political, religious, and cultural foes and enemies, and God becomes much more complicated the longer we avoid whatever problems or situations cause us to be separated from ourselves, other people, and God. My current take on Sunday's Gospel is that Jesus, in rather stark terms, is teaching his followers to begin sooner rather than later how to living peacefully. The consequences of letting problems or relationships become further complicated is that, in this pericope's (text's) terms, you'll lose something important, like an eye or an arm. That's brutal! God doesn't desire such self-imposed suffering. Neither should we.

Meeting By RaRa Schlitt
Meeting By RaRa Schlitt
I don't understand this text in literal terms but I do understand it as far as how it plays out in real life. Wounds fester. I especially think about this truth in terms of how "divorce," in all of its forms often begins with one non-reconciled incident. Someone we love offends us but we don't let them know. We hurt someone we love and we don't offer forgiveness in that moment. Ten hours, ten months, or ten years later one wound has become 100 wounds and reconciliation is much, much more troublesome and sinful.

 No one I know innately desires to live an "imprisoned" life. Yet many of us do. If my inference is true, then Jesus beckons us to live more closely with him and his love.  Righteous perfection, at least in Matthew's Gospel, is the principle means for obtaining salvation from such sin. That's an impossibility without Jesus' abiding and self-giving love in my Christian understanding. What is much, much more possible is to seek reconciliation with ourselves, with God, and with one another, sooner rather than later.  Let our yes be yes, especially when it comes to seeking love rather than hate. Let our no be no when our pride, egotistic desires, and self righteousness push us into a prison of shame and isolation.

Blessings Along The Way, Jim+
 

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Awkward Valentine's Day Cards 
Have an "Awkward" but Happy Valentine's Day



Friday - Feb. 14 (New Time -  4:30 PM)
- Yoga Classes Continue - Vinyasa (flow) yoga with Heather Poast - These classes are a great way to unwind from the stress of the work week. Yoga is also a superb way to regain your breath while gaining energy for your weekend!

Saturday - Feb. 15 (10:00 AM)
- CCM Preparatory Voice and Instrument Lessons - Classes for children and adults have started up again. Chat with Alex about getting yourselves or someone you know signed up!





Hazel Whited Saturday - Feb 15 (2:00 PM) - Memorial Service
for Hazel Whited  

Sunday - Feb. 16 (8:45 AM) - Adult Education
Chancel Choir rehearsal

Sunday - Feb. 16 (10:00 AM) - Choral Eucharist - Rite II
Children's Sunday School

Monday - February 17 - Office closed in observance of President's Day

Jim is away from the office in Philadelphia from Feb. 18- Feb. 22. Please contact Walt or Gayle with administrative questions. Please contact Joyce for pastoral concerns and emergencies. Gayle has Walt's and Joyce's cellphone numbers if you wish to directly speak with them.

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Ash Wednesday
is March 5 - Worship Services at 12 Noon and 7 PM


Dire Straits
Dire Straits "Brothers In Arms"

Through these fields of destruction
Baptisms of fire
I've witnessed your suffering
As the battle raged higher
And though they did hurt me so bad
In the fear and alarm
You did not desert me
My brothers in arms   (Mark Knopfler, 1985)

Hugh O' Doherty, was born & raised in Northern Ireland. He works around the world with clients teaching them how to exercise leadership in complex social systems, including violent locations such as Bosnia, Croatia, and throughout Asia. Hugh reminds his students that civil war in one form or another has been happening in Ireland for centuries. Great, nearly irreconcilable divisions exist between neighbors. To offer forgiveness is to cause shame against one's one clan. The subsequent cost of human life has been astronomical in numbers. Hugh personally knows such pain. He educates leaders that the perceived and psychotic threats of personal and cultural loss and death are often so great that human beings crazily choose war rather than peace.

Dire Straits sings about this theme too. Mark Knopfler is Scottish and well acquainted with the "Brave Heart" tradition of bloody war in Scotland. The video "Brothers in Arms" speaks to the honorable loyalty that warriors share with one another on the battlefield and in graveyards back home. Sacrificial love for sure. Nonetheless, what opportunities for peace and co-existence did leaders and nations pass by prior to picking up arms and battling one another. In our own daily lives, what opportunities for grace do we set aside & instead choose harm?