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Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Two Natures, One Savior

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 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.

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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