Grace
Episcopal Church
Sheboygan,
Wisconsin
Grace
Notes
8 October 2015
One thousand,
five hundred and sixty-four years ago today the Council of Chalcedon
opened. The council would remain in
session until 1 November (which later date did not become All Saints’ for about
another three centuries).
Why do we
remember Chalcedon? The Council was the
final of four (Nicaea I, Constantinople I, Ephesus I and Chalcedon) that
defined the Christian faith about who Jesus really is. These four ecumenical councils are the core
of what is referred to as holy Tradition, i.e., the teaching of the universal Church, the revelation of dogma by the
Holy Spirit. The teachings set forth in
the ecumenical councils are the final summation of who God reveals Himself to
be, and in Chalcedon we see this revelation that Jesus is both completely
divine and completely human.
The struggle to
grasp who Jesus really is is as old as the Church because we would like to fit
Jesus into a model that we can better relate to and explain. It is therefore tempting to make Jesus “just”
God, and to treat Him as somebody removed from who we are, or, conversely, to
make Him just human, and our best buddy.
But He is both (albeit not really a “buddy”). He is fully God and fully human.
But here’s the
rub, and here’s how this unexpected truth is also the Good News. Jesus is fully human. He is one of us, the eternal Word who “became
flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn. 1.14).
That means He knows us completely, indeed, better than we know ourselves
(Ps. 139.12-15), and in knowing us this way He also knows that we can be fully human
without being subject to sin and decay.
We can be fully human, free from sin, in the image and likeness in which
we have been created (Gen. 1.26) because of Jesus’ sacrifice. By His redemption, through His atoning
offering of Himself, we are restored to the fullness of humanity which is not
separated from God.
The temptations
of thinking of Jesus as divine but not human, or human but not divine, are
tempting because they are simple. But
simplicity in such error also speaks to smallness of vision. A superhuman or “godlike” superhero—a Jesus
who is not both fully divine and fully human—might save us from an immediate threat in
the same way a comic book superhero saves society from a monster. But the society thus delivered from the
monster remains the same society, a fallen one.
In salvation God does not return us to the same status in which we lived
before He saves us. It’s not just
another day in Gotham City. When we are
saved we enter into a new state of being in which we are not fallen; creation
returns to the blessedness of God’s plan.
Salvation is final, complete, and involves the final and complete
triumph over sin and decay. Gotham
becomes the New Jerusalem.
So, on a day
like today don’t “think small,” but cast your vision wide—across time (to
Chalcedon and to the end of time) and across Creation. The fully divine and fully human Jesus has
such vision, and when we follow Him we grants us this vision!
Grace
abounds: Please thank:
§
John
Davis and Scott Lubbers for the Sunday coffee hours.
Music
this Week: The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost,
Proper 23B
Prelude Prière
(Like as the hart) Leonce
de Saint-Martin
Entrance Hymn 408 “Sing praise to God, who reigns
above” Mit Freuden zart
Offertory Hymn 680 “O God our help in ages past” St.
Anne
Communion Motet Tantum ergo R.
Benjamin Dobey
Communion Hymn 488 “Be thou my vision” Slane
Closing Hymn 438 “Tell
out, my soul” Woodlands
Postlude Toccata in D Johann Krieger
Call for
Contributions: If you
have a spiritual reflection to share, or want to point your fellow worshippers
toward a resource, submit your contributions to Fr. Karl (by email) by
Wednesday in the week of publication.
Parish
Notices
Equipment
alert: With the installation of new video equipment
and TV's we will be recycling the old TV's and carts. If anybody has an
activity in church who could use a TV cart for that activity, please let me know
by Oct 12th or they will be repurposed for other needs. (Ed Clabots)
§ Presentation
on the refugee crisis: On Sunday October 11th
at 11:45 a.m. in the Parish Hall, Deacon Mike Burg will give a presentation on
the refugee crisis.
§ Young
Families: All are invited to Silly Game Day, Sunday, October
11th from 3-5pm in St. Nicholas hall. Come and enjoy an afternoon of
frivolity! If you would like, you may bring a snack to share.
§ Adult
Formation: Continues a four week series at 9:00 a.m. on Giving
Faith a Voice. We are molded by language, by what we call things. How we
“process” information about life affects how we understand these data. This can
determine, for example, how we experience the reality of faith, but also how we
share this reality. We will explore how we understand our own experiences in
ways that allows us to share them with others, to let them too know how God is
present in their own lives and the life of the world. Join with us as we
explore the connections between experience and understanding, and how to give
faith a voice. Come prepared to listen and to share.
§ Walsingham Pilgrimage Music and
Flowers: The
Walsingham Pilgrimage is just around the corner and preparations are being
made. Music will include the Gaudete Brass again this year and a string quartet
in the afternoon. As you are able, please donate so we can once again offer
beautiful music that has become so much a part of the pilgrimage and the
flowers that add so much to the beauty of holiness. Please make your check out
to Grace Church with Walsingham music or flowers or both in the memo.
Reservations are required for lunch at a cost of $15 per person and will be
served at noon on Saturday. Deadline for reservations is October 12th.
§ Walsingham Volunteers Needed: There are many
opportunities to help with hospitality for the Walsingham Pilgrimage. We will
need volunteers to greet pilgrims as they arrive for both the quiet day on
Friday as well as Saturday morning for the Solemn Mass and for the musical
offering, healing prayer and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. We will also
need help with clean-up after lunch. Please sign up on the sheet on the Narthex
table.
§ 25th
Annual Coats for Kids: is a community service
campaign that over that last 24 years the community has donated 20,000 coats to
those in need. Area residents are asked to donate clean coats in good repair.
We accept coats of all sizes for people of all ages, with the need being
greatest for children’s coats. These coats will be distributed to Sheboygan
county residents who would otherwise go without. Drop off location:
Reinbold-Novak Funeral Home, 1535 S. 12 St. Sheboygan, Tuesday, September 1st – Thursday, October
22nd, Monday–Friday 8:30 a.m. –4:00 p.m. Distribution Location: Salvation
Army, 710 Pennsylvania Ave. Sheboygan, Friday, October 23rd, from
1:00 – 7:00 p.m.
§ 23rd Annual Clothing
Exchange: Please
bring by October 30th, gently worn, clean, warm winter clothes
(infant to adult), to any public school in Sheboygan, Kohler and Howards Grove,
or St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School, or to any Sheboygan Wisconsin Bank
& Trust. Exchange will take place at
Grant Elementary School, 1528 N. 5th Street on November 7th
at 9:00 a.m. till 11:00 a.m. For more information please call Chris Kennedy at
208-5459.
Our Lady of
Walsingham Pilgrimage
Friday, October 16,
2015
Quiet Day of Prayer
and Meditation.
12:00 p.m. Service
for Noonday and Meditation
3:00 p.m. Service
of Prayer and Meditation
5:00 p.m. Holy
Rosary
6:00 p.m. Solemn
Evensong and Meditation
The Meditations
will be led by The Rev. George Wilcox Brown,
Rector of the Church of the Holy Cross, Dallas
Musical offering by Nashotah House Seminary choral scholars.
Saturday, October
17, 2015
Pilgrimage
10:30 a.m. Solemn
Pontifical Mass with procession of Our Lady
Celebrant is The
Right Reverend Matthew A. Gunter,
Eighth Bishop of
Fond du Lac.
The preacher is The
Rev. George Wilcox Brown,
Rector of the Church of the Holy Cross, Dallas
Choral and organ music will include Dr. R. Benjamin Dobey Organist and
Choirmaster
and the Gaudete
Brass Quintet of Chicago.
12:00 p.m. Harvest
Lunch. The cost is $15.00.
Please make
reservations by October 12, 2015.
2:00 p.m. Anointing
with Walsingham water and Healing Prayer,
musical offering,
and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
To register and for
more information:
(920)
452-9659 office@gracesheboygan.com www.gracesheboygan.com
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Church on Twitter: @GEC_Sheboygan
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