February 11, 2024
Last Sunday after Epiphany B – George Yandell
The Transfiguration of Jesus- an event described in Mark, Matthew and Luke. It is the great turning point in Mark’s gospel. The transfiguration of Jesus looks back to his baptism and forward to his death and resurrection. That is of course where we are in the Church’s keeping of time. This mystical vision and experience has it all- it is intended to lead Peter, John, James and us into mystical participation in the work of Jesus the resurrected Christ.
Moses and Elijah appear talking with Jesus. The law given by Moses was intended to shape and form people from the outside. It’s like when people slow down when they know that a photo radar trap is up ahead. That’s how the law works—it only makes a change in behavior from the outside. But grace, transfiguration—is the kind of change that takes place on the inside, and as we open up our hearts and minds to the vision of God in Jesus, we receive the Spirit of God to be changed from the inside.
When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” All too often we explain these expressions of fear on the part of humans as a reaction to divine bullying— as if the disciples’ fear was God’s fault. It is more likely that human fear at the manifest presence of God is rather an indication of problems within us,
Februaary 4, 2024
Epiphany 5B – George Yandell
Community organizing is just about the hardest work people can do. Fishing for a living is harder. When Simon Peter and his partners met the finest community organizer in Galilee, the fishing got harder still.
The formula for successful grassroots community organizing is simple. Immerse yourself in the community. Study its history. Learn how people relate to one another. Meet individually with all the people you’re interested in getting to know. Listen for their passions. Ask questions that agitate people around their passions- it moves them off dead center. Hold small public meetings with people of passion to raise up the problems that confront folks in their daily places. Challenge those people to break down the problems into manageable public actions. Teach them to agitate others around their mutual self-interest. Confront them to make them accountable for changing the community. Act publicly in large meetings to hold the powerbrokers accountable for changing the community. Get what the community says it wants through negotiation and repeated, determined public presence. When you accomplish a major action, reflect on your successes and failures and give the people credit for their accomplishments. Begin to work on the next problem the people raise up. Continue the cycle until the community leaders act for the common good, and all the people treat one another with mutual self-respect. Then go on to the next community. That’s a brief synopsis of Jesus’ actions in this first part of Mark’s gospel.
February 1, 2024
The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple – George Yandell
40 days after He was born, Luke tells us Jesus was presented in the temple by Mary and Joseph. “Every 1st born male shall be designated as holy to the Lord.” This event harkened back to the law of Moses in Leviticus (12:6 ff): “When the days after the [ritual] purification are completed, whether for a son or a daughter, [the mother] shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb in its first year for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. He shall offer it to the Lord and make atonement on her behalf…. If she cannot afford a sheep, she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering, and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean.”
The rules for purification after birth were different for the mother if a female child was born- then it stretched twice as long- to 74 days- emphasizing that a male child didn’t occasion the lengthier time of separation from the clan before she presented her child. Luke’s point is that Mary and Joseph presented the minimum offering- they couldn’t afford the lamb.
The real depth of the gospel’s lengthy narrative is the songs and prophecies that Simeon and then Anna spoke. They were both guided by the Holy Spirit- Simeon intercepted the Holy Family,
January 28, 2024
Epiphany 4 – The Rector’s Annual Report – George Yandell
In my annual reports over the past thirteen years, I have said these words, and I’ll say them again: This is your parish. I serve God with you, guided by the Spirit of Jesus. I want to tell what I perceive God has done, is doing, and what God may be leading us to do together.
Our parish has done remarkably well considering all the changes we’ve lived through. If the parish is the bridge for us in living into our baptisms in the company of Jesus, you have been resilient and devoted in serving Christ. Where is the parish headed? That’s what the newly reconstituted vestry will continue to discern after they start their work in the meeting after this all-parish meeting.
We are now into our 38th year as a parish- the founding parents are almost gone. New members are finding Holy Family and becoming part of the ministering body. The results of our pledge campaign have surprised me and made me most grateful.
We added new 4 members in 2023. 6 members transferred out. Our total active membership now is 253. There was 1 Marriage, noBaptisms and 6 Burials in 2023. We’ll remember the faithful departed by name in the annual meeting. Our average Sunday attendance in 2019 was 169. In 2020, our average attendance before we began worshipping outside and online was 146. It was tailing off by early February.