Christ Church Cobble Hill

10 SUNDAY:  THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST (Proper 18)

Sunday Summer Schedule
Holy Eucharist 11:00 AM.  In the garden, weather permitting
(Coffee & Conversation follows)

Parish House:
AA 7:30-8:30 AM

11 Monday:  Weekday
Fifth Anniversary of 9/11/01

Parish House:
LINDEN TREE PRESCHOOL - 9:00 AM-12:00 Noon / 12:30-3:30 PM
NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYSPACE - 9:00 AM-12:00 Noon
GYMSTARS - 12:Noon-3:00 PM

         
12 Tuesday:  John Henry Hobart, Bishop of New York, 1830

Holy Eucharist  9:00 AM *  

Parish House:
LINDEN TREE PRESCHOOL - 9:00 AM-12:00 Noon
NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYSPACE 9:30 AM-12:00 Noon
COBBLE HILL BALLET
MUSIC TOGETHER - 3:30-5:00 PM
ACTORS WORKSHOP - 5:15-7:30 PM

 
13 Wednesday:  Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr of Carthage, 258.

Evening Prayer 6:00 PM

Parish House:
LINDEN TREE PRESCHOOL - 9:00 AM-12:00 Noon / 12:30-3:30 PM
NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYSPACE - 9:00 AM-12:00 Noon

14 THURSDAY:  HOLY CROSS DAY

Parish House:
LINDEN TREE PRESCHOOL - 9:00 AM-12:00 Noon
NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYSPACE 9:30 AM-12:00 Noon
GYMSTARS - 3:00-4:00 PM  
COBBLE HILL BALLET  1:00-3:15 PM
AA - 6:30-7:30 PM

15 Friday:     Weekday  Day of Special Devotion:  Abstinence

Holy Eucharist  9:00 AM *

Parish House:
LINDEN TREE PRESCHOOL - 9:00 AM-12:00 Noon / 12:30-3:30 PM
NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYSPACE - 9:00 AM-12:00 Noo

16 Saturday:  Ninian Bishop of Galloway, c. 430

Parish House:
AA - 7:30-8:30 AM
COBBLE HILL BALLET - 10:00 AM-12:45 PM

17  SUNDAY:  THE FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST (Proper 19)

Holy Eucharist 11:00 AM
(Coffee & Conversation follows)

Parish House:
AA 7:30-8:30 AM

*  At Saint Andrew's House, 199 Carroll Street, between Court and Clinton Streets

BISHOP’S COMMITTEE MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT

The Bishop’s Committee will meet SUNDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2006, following the 11:00 a.m. Sung Eucharist. Committee reports and agenda items must be submitted by Sunday, 17 September, to be considered at this meeting.

ANNUAL CHRYSANTHEMUM SALE

The Annual Chrysanthemum Sale will take place on Saturday, 23 September and Sunday, 24 September.  Please speak with Mary or Norman Fox or Haigo Salow for more information.  We need volunteers to help sell plants on Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon!

CHRIST CHURCH FOR KIDS: SUNDAY SCHOOL

We will have an organizational meeting on Sunday, 21 September for planning and scheduling courses and teachers for our Sunday School.  You do not need to have a child in the Sunday School to be a teacher.  The commitment is for 10 weeks.  Please consider this as something YOU can do for your church!

CHRIST CHURCH BOOK READING GROUP

The Christ Church Book Reading Group is currently reading Dark Fire by C.J. Sansom is published by Penguin Books at $14.00 (available from Amazon.com starting at $1.37); ISBN: 0143036432. 512 pages. This book is a is the next in the series after Dissolution, our last selection. The discussion notes and a review of the book are on the leaflet table. We will meet this Wednesday, 20 September, for good food and drink, and a lively discussion of this book following the 6:30 p.m. Mass. If you are interested in joining us, please R.S.V.P. on 718-625-2919, or speak with the Vicar.

CHRIST CHURCH COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Can and Will You Help with our outreach ministry? We want to schedule a meeting to plan for the future of this work, including applying for grants and working more closely with Family Consultation Service to distribute food, clothing, school supplies, campers supplies, toys, etc. and adopting a family year-round — and working with Cobble Hill Nursing Home to provide on-going visits to residents. CHIPS (Christian Help in Park Slope) feeds the hungry and provides counseling and clothing to those in need. Please consider this outreach of our Christian community to our wider community!

SUMMERTIME, AND THE LIVIN’S EASY

Church Members are reminded that church expenses do not take a summer break . . . so please keep your pledge to your church up-to-date as you take your own summer vacations.

REFLECTION

 The main event of the reading from the Gospel of Mark is the healing of the deaf man with a speech impediment, but the passage also has an odd verse that reveals something important about the close study of scripture.  Mark writes that Jesus “returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee”  Turn to a map of Israel, ancient or contemporary, and find these places – Tyre, Sidon (both along the Mediterranean coast, and the Sea of Galilee (slightly southwest).  You will see that Jesus would not go “by way of Sidon” from Tyre to the Sea of Galilee.  It is in the opposite direction and many miles out of the way!

The occasional fallibility of the authors of the many books of the Bible can, in an odd way, be a consolation to us.  As people who also make mistakes, with various degrees of consequence, we can trust that in spite of our limitations God loves us and uses us to incarnate gifts to others.  Can you think of mistakes of your own that have had surprisingly beneficial consequences?

 
 
“ … the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down … ” (Psalm 146:8)
 
 
In our Gospel Lesson Jesus heals the deaf man with the speech impediment. We are familiar with this miracle and with other healings in the Gospels. A story we never read in the Lectionary is one in the Gospel of Luke (13:10f.) of Jesus’ healing of the “bent-over woman.” Is it perhaps too threatening—or too obviously subversive? But it’s such a lovely story that I’m sharing a commentary on it that I couldn’t resist. It’s not about the Gospel reading for today—or is it? I’m getting by with sharing it, since it can be seen with reference to the Psalmist’s reminding us how God lifts up those who are bowed down:
“ … When she was straightened up, she began at once to praise God in the midst of that congregation.” I can almost hear her shouting: “Praise God! Thank you, Jesus! Hallelujah, Lord! Thank you, Jesus!”

At that point the leader of the synagogue, seeing that a formerly bentover woman was straightened up— seeing that a person who had been weighed down for 18 years had suddenly in his own synagogue had her vivaciousness revived—himself became so thankful and so enthusiastic that he, too, began to sing and dance and shout, saying: “Praise God! Hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus!” Is that the way the story went? No, that’s not the way the story went.

Instead of rejoicing, the synagogue leader began to grumble and grump. He began to construct some elaborate arguments about the synagogue not being the place or the Sabbath not being the day. …

“And Jesus, seeing his fearful fussing, just looked at him and said, ‘Since it was the Devil himself who bent her over, what better place than the church and what better day than the Sabbath to have her stand up?’ The synagogue leader didn’t like that because he didn’t know how to deal with women who were standing up; but the common people heard Jesus gladly and together began to rejoice that the Bent-Over Woman had finally heard the liberating Word of God and straightened up.”

That’s not quite the end of the story. As Luke tells it, Jesus then said, “Therefore.” Jesus said, “Therefore, let me tell you what the kingdom of God is like.” This is not the sudden insertion of a new teaching. What Jesus is about to say is connected to the story by “therefore,” and is a way of summarizing what the story means. “The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed that falls into the ground and takes root.” Or, “The kingdom of God is like a lump of leaven within the loaf that eventually causes the whole loaf to rise.” Or, “The kingdom of God is like telling a Bent-Over Woman that she is free to stand up, for lo, every now and then a Bent-Over Woman actually hears the Word and does stand up! And when one Bent-Over Woman stands up, that’s like leaven in the loaf, and causes another and another and still another Bent-Over Woman to stand up—until all the Bent-Over Women are standing up.”

What is the kingdom of God like? It’s like more and more Bent-Over Women standing up. How can we know if the kingdom of God is actually coming? Why not look around and see if there are any formerly Bent-Over Women standing up?

The message of the story seems to be in two parts—or is it two directions? Brother, if you ever see a Bent-Over Woman beginning to unbend and to straighten herself, at the very least you had better give her a little standing room, because that isn’t just another Bent-Over Woman standing up. That’s your sister rising to her full stature—and that’s God’s kingdom cranking up! And, sister, if for whatever reason you are still bent over and weighed down, and you think that that’s the way it was intended to be or must always be, then know that you have been given divine permission to straighten yourself fully and to stand up. And know, too, that since it is Satan who wants you to be a slave, only the Devil himself would say that now is not the time or that this is not the place. If your spirit is bent over, you are free to rise up! Let it be so, brothers and sisters! Again and again and again, let it be so!—In Through the Eyes of a Woman, Wendy S. Robins, ed., World YWCA, 1986.
 
Though not
A contest
Life
Is
The reward
& we
Have
Won.

 —Alice Walker, novelist, poet, and “straight-backed” woman

 
PRACTICE OF FAITH: GOD HAS CHOSEN THE POOR.   Today's reading from James is a good reminder of the feast of the Birth of Mary (8 Sept) this past Friday.  We know and revere Mary as Mother of God and Queen of Heaven.  But to have known her as a girl would probably have been to dismiss her.  James points out that we say "to the poor person in shabby clothing . . . ‘sit at my feet" and become "judges with evil thoughts."  As we pray with the gospel reading from Mark, let us ask Jesus to heal us.  Let us ask that our ears be opened to hear and our mouths be opened to proclaim that God has indeed "chosen those who are poor in the world (like Mary) to be rich in faith and heirs to the dominion promised to those who love God."

PRACTICE OF HOPE: BE STRONG, FEAR NOT.  In one parish I regularly held Mass at a local nursing home.  About ten of the residents there are Episcopalian. The daily Mass participants from the parish joined-in, and as folks arrived they move freely around the room and shook hands.  There was much kidding and laughing.

The presence of outside guests warmed the hearts of the residents.  That presence gave them the assurance that we had not forgotten them and that they could risk being open to God working in their lives even in their old age.  Might this be a time for you to visit someone you know in a nursing home and bring them, through the gift of your presence, the hope which surmounts all fear?  Consider our Community Outreach!

PRACTICE OF CHARITY: SHOW NO PARTIALITY.  The Letter of James challenges us to act without discrimination in our personal lives — a worthy task indeed.  Let us strive to treat everyone with respect and give even greater deference to those in simple attire or who clearly have little.  In addition, we must strive to apply these words globally and bring justice to all nations without discriminating against the poorest or those who think or act differently.  Consider a donation to the International Rescue Committee, 386 Park Ave. South, New York, NY l0016; (212) 679-0010.  Designate it for use in a country that has been marginalized politically or economically, a country whose people you may have difficulty accepting.  Perhaps a country of the Middle East or the Far East with which the United States has strained relations or lacks diplomatic relations, or in Africa or South America.  Search your heart; then be generous.