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Thursday, August 14, 2014

A Healthy Tension in Belief

Grace Episcopal Church
Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Grace Notes
14 August 2014

Tonight we celebrate the Feast of St. Mary the Virgin, which some of us insist on calling the Feast of the Assumption.  Why “some of us”, and why tonight, rather than on the appointed date (15 August)?  The second question is easy to answer.  The feast is “movable” (BCP p. 17), and more can join with us (and in the pot luck supper which follows) on a Thursday than on a Friday evening.
The first question reveals how names have importance.  How we describe something, particularly in prayer, reveals a lot about what we believe.  The collect for the feast states that God has “taken to [Him]self” the Blessed Virgin.  This is a classical example of Anglicanism as a middle way that can encompass diverse beliefs and practices around a common core.  Thus, those who speak of the Assumption do so on the basis of their understanding and belief that Mary was free of sin, and was created free of sin.  This is doctrine within a wide segment of western Catholicism (not just Roman Catholicism), but it is not required (as it is in Roman Catholicism) that one believe in the sinlessness of Mary.  By praying that God has “taken” Mary to Himself, in our prayers we allow those who believe in her sinlessness to believe in the dependent doctrine that as one free from sin she was assumed into heaven.  But we also allow those who do not believe in sinless status of Mary to simply acknowledge that God has taken to Himself His servant and handmaiden.
Whether or not you believe in the sinlessness of Mary may matter very much to you in terms of how you understand your identity in faith, but it does not matter in terms of whether or not you are saved and will be one day taken by God unto Himself.  Allowing this tension in belief is one of the strengths of Anglican practice and doctrine.  Regardless of where you fall on this spectrum of belief, what we can all agree on is that Mary was the human being closest to God, having conceived and bore the Savior in her womb, and having granted to her son His human nature.  When we gather to remember and honor our Lord’s mother, as we gather to offer Him worship, we remember her “yes” to God, and pray that our response to our Lord’s call may ever mirror that of His mother, that by Jesus’ merits we may aspire to union with God.

The sad clown?  Why is the death of Robin Williams generating so much comment, and so much expression of loss?  A suicide is, of course, tragic, and perhaps the stark contrast between the zaniness of a comic and the darkness with which he struggled strikes a collective nerve.  It could be just another example of the cult of celebrity (a form of idolatry).  It could be just that people feel loss that one they found so entertaining is gone.  I suspect, however, that the outpouring of grief over Williams has a lot to say about us, about how we understand ourselves, because humor is itself very revealing.
There is a certain element of aggression in humor.  In jokes we often say things that are otherwise forbidden.  Jokes can be light and comic, in which case they involve punning and just basically celebrate the silliness that is the antidote to taking life too seriously.  But jokes can also be sarcastic and hostile, expressing otherwise repressed animus against people who are “different”, or otherwise repressed sexual tension.  In our own day sarcasm and mocking dominate humor (college-aged people rarely “get” farce or something like the physical humor of someone like Buster Keaton), and I suspect that the strength of the reaction to Williams’s death relates to our appreciation that his witticisms and  sarcasms and imitations made as much “fun” of him as of his targets; that because he never took himself too seriously (or appeared not to), he could point out all those others in society who figuratively had forgotten to zip their trouser fly, or who figuratively had a piece of spinach caught between two front teeth.
Comedy involves the intention to amuse, the intention to produce laughter.  In today’s society most comedy involves laughter produced at the expense of someone else, someone who is the target.  Williams’s personal tragedy was one in which the comic’s intention and the target ultimately merged, and so when we laugh we must always ask “What (or who) are we laughing at?”

Grace Abounds:  Please thank:
§  Ed and Mary Clabots and Paul and Andrea Aparicio for the Sunday coffee hours.
§  Jane Hanson and Pat Ford Smith for help in the office.
§  Ben Dobey for gardening in the columbarium courtyard and the cutting garden.
§  Bev Evans and Nancy Yurk for serving at The Emmaus Meal at The Salvation Army.
§  The Crouse family, Scot Fabiano, Kaleigh Kraft and Caleb Klinzing for serving in the altar party at the Feast of the Transfiguration.
§  Bernie Markevitch and Pat Ford Smith for preparing and hosting the clergy luncheon for the clergy of the deanery.

Call for ContributionsIf 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.

A Prayer for the People of Iraq
Eternal God,
in whose perfect kingdom
no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness,
no strength known but the strength of love:
So mightily spread abroad your Spirit,
That all peoples may be gathered
under the banner of the Prince of Peace,
as children of one Father;
to whom be dominion and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

This Prayer for Peace is found at p. 815 of The Book of Common Prayer.  It’s use is commended to the Church in this season by our presiding Bishop, The Most Rev. Katherine Jefferts-Schorri.

Music this week:

Music for Thursday, August 14th, 2014 (Feast of the Assumption, St. Mary the Virgin)
Solemn Mass at 6 pm

Prelude                        Antiphons for the Magnificat                                                   Marcel Dupré
Entrance Hymn           “Ye who claim the faith of Jesus”                                              Daily, daily
Offertory Hymn          “Sing we of the Blessed Mother”                                           Abbot’s Leigh
Communion Hymn     “Sing of Mary, pure and lowly”                                           Pleading Savior
Closing Hymn 438      “Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord”                             Woodlands
Postlude                      Sicut erat in principio (Magnificat)                                 R. Benjamin Dobey

Music for Sunday, August 17th
Proper 15 A

Prelude                        Intermezzo; Melodia                                                                      Max Reger
Entrance Hymn 390    “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”                                       Lobe den Herrn
Offertory Hymn 544   “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun”                                             Duke Street
Comm. Hymn 470      “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy”                       Beecher
Closing Hymn 551      “Rise up, ye saints of God”                                                         Festal Song
Postlude                      Chorale Prelude on Praise to the Lord, the Almighty                            Reger

Parish Notices

§  St. Mary the Virgin–The Assumption of Mary: Today! we celebrate the eve of the Feast of St. Mary the Virgin also known as the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. We will celebrate with a Solemn Mass at 6:00 pm. We continue the celebration with an All Parish Potluck Dinner. Please join in the fun. If you can stay and help clean up that would be wonderful.

§  Care & Share Small Groups: This Sunday, the 17th following the 8 am service, the "Care & Share" small groups will meet, if need be we will divide into two groups during the coffee hour.

§  Intercessory Prayer Team: The prayer team has changed their time of prayer in the church to Saturdays at 11:00am. All are welcome to come and pray for Grace Church and the world. If you have questions please call the office.

§  Grafton Commemoration: An observed Feast of the diocese to honor the anniversary of Bishop Grafton's earthly death and heavenly birth. The 2014 Commemoration is August 23rd from 2-6pm at the Cathedral of St. Paul, Fond du Lac. Bishop Gunter will speak on "Evangelical at heart, while in belief, a liberal Catholic." Visit diofdl.org/grafton for more information.

§  Mass in the Grass: Please join us Sunday, September 7, 2014 for an outdoor Mass and All Church Picnic at Deland Community Center, 901 Broughton Dr., Sheboygan, the Mass will begin at 10:15 a.m. with lunch following. There will be games and an appearance by Hiccup the Clown for our children’s enjoyment. Inviting guests is encouraged. There will be ONE MASS only that day. Please sign up on the sheet on the Narthex table.

§  Intercessory Prayer Team: The prayer team has changed their time of prayer in the church to Saturdays at 11:00am. All are welcome to come and pray for Grace Church and the world. If you have questions please call the office.

§  “Before and After”:  The floor cleaning project to well underway! The Chapel of Christ the King is complete and the floors surrounding the high altar are finished with the help from many people. If you are interested in participating, see Fr. Karl. This is tough, physical labor, so if you are challenged in working on hands and knees, consider whether you want to help with material costs, with a gift outside of your regular giving to the parish. Thank you to all who are helping.



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