From the Rector: Onan and Tamar

There are five women mentioned in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:1-16).  They are Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and Mary.  I finally realized last week why I have a hard time remembering who Tamar is.  This Tamar is not Tamar the sister of Absalom, King David’s son, who was raped by another of David’s sons, Amnon.  This is Tamar, the widow, who conceives a child by playing the role of a harlot and having intercourse with her deceased husband’s father, Judah. 

From the Rector: Christian Sunday

Sunday worship has been normative for Christians since the time of the apostles.  Sunday worship sets apart Christianity and Christians at all times and in all places.  Almost always, this gathering for worship is the Eucharist, a meal.  Sunday is the day when Christians break Bread and share the Cup.

From the Rector: Gospels of Lent

When I was first ordained, I served at a parish where I was the most junior of five full-time priests.  All of the others were senior men.  One topic that often came up was their joy and delight in preaching through the then new three-year lectionary.  The old Prayer Book used just under 17% of the gospel texts in its annual cycle.  The new Prayer Book uses just over 71% of the gospel texts in its three-year cycle.  There is no season when the importance of the new lectionary is more apparent than Lent in the first year of the three-year Sunday Mass cycle.  We have five gospel “home runs”, or, if you will, five Super Bowl victories.

From the Rector: Lent Is Upon Us

Father Mead sent Father Smith and me an e-mail earlier this week to remind us that this Sunday’s lessons were those appointed for the Last Sunday after the Epiphany, not the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany.  The First Day of Lent this year is February 6.

From the Rector: Nine Years On

Sunday worshippers know that after years of preaching without a text, since December I have been writing out my sermons.  For a long time I’ve made sure to have a text or an outline at Christmas and Easter – these days are far too full to keep what I want to say in my head.  I was especially glad to have a text when I preached at Father John Beddingfield’s institution service earlier this month.  As I began my sermon I was very aware of the many threads of my own life represented in the room.  The text kept me from digression.

From the Rector: Holy Week 2008

Let’s start with something that’s wonderfully special: The Most Reverend Frank T. Griswold, XXV Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, will be celebrant and preacher for the liturgies of the Easter Triduum.  Plan now to be at Saint Mary’s for all of them.

From the Rector: Baptism of Christ

Some of you have heard me say in different contexts how much I enjoy watching very young children learning to walk at Saint Mary’s.  For those who may not know New York well, our church and many of its rooms are by far the largest space young children are usually in and free to walk around in.  I’m talking babies who are just beginning to walk.  When turned loose, they will walk as far as they can until their muscles tire.  Then they collapse with, almost always, a huge smile.  Their whole beings are experiencing something new and they love it.  They aren’t talking yet.  But they are growing and changing and anyone looking at them can see this.  It’s truly natural, truly our nature that God made.

From the Rector: Epiphany Complex

The Church remembers in its worship its earliest traditions.  Three ancient great feasts of the Church take precedence over all other commemorations.  They are, in order of precedence: Easter, Pentecost and Epiphany.  Of the three, the last is the richest in its layers of celebration.  Epiphany is, first, the “manifestation” of Christ in his birth to the wise men who journeyed, second, Jesus’ baptism and, third, the first miracle in John’s gospel at Cana in Galilee.  It is in a real sense the ancient feast of Christ’s kingship, the kingship of the Child.  The wise men asked, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?  For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.”  Epiphany is not about the wise men or the star.  It’s about Jesus’ revelation of himself to us in history and his revelation to us and through us today.

From the Rector: Twelve Days of Christmas

Saint Mary’s celebration of the Twelve Days began formally with music on Christmas Eve before the 5:00 PM Sung Mass of the Nativity.  Some preparations for Christmastide actually had begun in the spring.  That’s the very latest that certain decisions about music and the service schedule can be made here.  The activity intensifies in early November as music and server rehearsals and flower decorating and everything else are settled.  There is a flurry of emails among staff and volunteers about everything from deliveries to mailings.

From the Rector: Merry Christmas

Few things can take most of us more easily to a godly place in our heart and minds than Christmas can.  Most of the time, the joy and fun I have known in my life at Christmastide break through the nonsense of life and of the season pretty easily for me.  I don’t think this is really surprising.  Jesus Christ makes sense of the world around us.  I believe in him.  The celebration of Christmas is a natural for believers.  It is a day when we can focus on the joy of new birth, the birth promised to all of us.

From the Rector: Christmas at Saint Mary’s

Tuesday, December 25, is Christmas Day.  On Christmas Eve, there will be two Masses, a Sung Mass at 5:00 PM and Solemn Mass at 11:00 PM.  The parish choir will sing for both services and there will be special Christmas carols and music before both services.  On Christmas Day, there is one service, Solemn Mass at 11:00 AM.  Yours truly is celebrant and preacher for all of these Masses.  Each one is glorious and different in its own way.

From the Rector: Welcome, Father Smith!

The Reverend James Ross Smith has joined the parish clergy staff as one of our two curates.  He has served here for almost a decade as an “assisting priest” and as an “assistant.”  At Saint Mary’s there are often priests associated with the parish who are on the roster in some capacity because of their commitment to Saint Mary’s and because of their availability to help the regular parish clergy with the liturgical schedule.  But “rector” and “curate” are terms used at Saint Mary’s for the full-time parish clergy who are the pastors of the congregation. 

From the Rector: New Year, Visitation, Patronal Feast, & Curate

In this year of grace, the new Church year begins as the sun sets on Saturday, December 1, as the First Sunday of Advent arrives.  The Bishop of New York, the Right Reverend Mark S. Sisk, will make his formal visitation of the parish on Friday, December 7, at 6:00 PM, when we will be celebrating our patronal feast.  And I am also delighted and honored to announce that the Reverend James Ross Smith will become our next curate.  Our parish community is receiving many gifts as Advent begins.  And have I mentioned that the 2008 Stewardship Campaign is well underway?

From the Rector: This Sunday is Christ the King

When this feast was instituted in the Roman Church in 1925, it was not immediately adopted by other Christian communities.  Its popularity among other denominations in the West has a lot to do with the elegant “fix” the feast was given in the lectionary scheme proposed under Pope Paul VI: the feast was moved from the last Sunday of October to the end of the Christian year, and is now observed by most Western Christians.

From Father Mead: Growing Up

My son, Liam, is growing up fast; we celebrated his first birthday on Tuesday, November 13, 2007.  We had Cookie-Monster Cake because he likes Sesame Street.  When I was a boy I remember watching Cookie Monster eat cookies on Sesame Street.  I remember counting numbers with the Count.  I remember Ernie singing about the joys of bathing.  Overall, Sesame Street hasn’t changed all that much.  The only big difference is Elmo.  When I was a boy Elmo was a friendly red monster who hung out with Grover (a friendly blue monster) and said very little.  Now he has his own fifteen-minute segment each morning that educates kids on everything from running and jumping to digital cameras.   

From the Rector: One Component

Letters for the 2008 Stewardship Campaign were mailed last week.  I’ve been a parish priest long enough now to expect the range of comments that I started receiving on Sunday.  (“They asked for too little.”  “Just give more!” or “They asked for too much.”  “Give what God is speaking to you.”)  Quite frankly, I look forward to responding to questions and addressing concerns.  Today I want to share with you some of my understanding of the financial situation of the parish and my thinking of the future, the thinking that helps me sleep at night.

From the Rector: News and Good News

The Episcopal Church Medical Trust, which administers medical insurance programs for employees of Episcopal churches and institutions, publishes a monthly newsletter called “Health News.”  It is a basic summary of readily available knowledge on various topics, information already reported. The next issue is advertised to be on “smoking.” The last issue on arthritis got me thinking about the value of this kind of publication, of the utility of “news” and “Good News.”

From Father Smith: The Love of God

“The love of God.”  We read those words and maybe they make us sit up straight and pay attention. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart…”  The love of God: a duty, a responsibility, a commandment, the commandment.  “The love of God.”  We hear those words and maybe we recall an experience that made all the difference, gave us hope, brought us back to life, changed us, converted us.  

From the Rector: Joining the Mission

When people ask about the number of members at Saint Mary’s it’s not always easy to give an answer that tells the whole story.  In the parish office we discuss with some regularity how we group the many different kinds of members and friends that we have.  The whole story is more than the parts. 

From the Rector: Looking Forward

We have in the parish archives the first page of a letter from Edwin S. Gorham, a member of the Board of Trustees, addressed to Howard Dohrman, another member of the board.  The first two paragraphs are about the actions of another member of the board, Elliott Daingerfield.  The letter is dated October 10, 1914.  I quote the first two paragraphs in full, after which the letter continues with a different subject: