graciousness – St. John's Episcopal Church, Suffolk, VA https://stjohnsepiscopal-suffolk.org Serving our community since 1642 Sun, 24 Sep 2017 19:35:22 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.1 https://stjohnsepiscopal-suffolk.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/cropped-Door-for-website-55x55.jpggraciousness – St. John's Episcopal Church, Suffolk, VAhttps://stjohnsepiscopal-suffolk.org 32 32 116451644 Plenty but not too much – reflection and sermon for September 24, 2017https://stjohnsepiscopal-suffolk.org/2017/09/24/plenty-but-not-too-much-reflection-and-sermon-for-september-24-2017/ https://stjohnsepiscopal-suffolk.org/2017/09/24/plenty-but-not-too-much-reflection-and-sermon-for-september-24-2017/#respond Sun, 24 Sep 2017 19:35:22 +0000 http://stjohnsepiscopal-suffolk.org/?p=593 Blessings to you on the last Sunday of September. I will admit that this morning saw the most unique thing on the altar at the offertory – a jar with about 73 ounces of Chinese Chestnuts. We gathered the chestnuts from the tree in front of the Parish House to help reforest Virginia’s forests. The chestnuts will end up at the Augusta Forestry Center to grow into tree seedlings that will become the forests of tomorrow. We have been blessed with bounty and return to our community from that bounty. A wonderful lesson for our Parish and our hope for tomorrow. Next week, we will have fun “blessing the pets” during worship – hooved after service please.

In worship, we listened to stories of manna and quail – plenty without too much; rejoicing in our opportunity to work for God in our community, because work makes us whole and work makes us complete; and Jesus’ story responding to Peter request “what about us…” by reminding that God is just AND gracious. Our focus, based on the lessons we heard, is to see our community in a new way and to consider how the relationships we have may be changing as we see the kingdom of heaven breaking in.

I invite your comments and likes,
Les+

Readings: Exodus 16:2-15; Psalm 105:1-6, 35-42; Philippians 1:21-30; Matthew 20:1-16



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