V Easter – May 22, 2011 – Year A (RCL)
A year or two ago, when I was more active in the science & religion dialogue that the DePauw Spiritual Life Center sponsors on campus than I was this year, I found myself having to answer a challenging question.
It was put to me rather suddenly by one of the young skeptics in the group, someone who clearly had rejected long ago whatever brand of the Christian faith he had grown up ...
Continue Reading → ShareIV Easter – May 15, 2011 – Year A (RCL)
What’s all this fuss about shepherds?
We only talk about them in church, anyway, and then it’s pretty much once a year—right?
Is the Twenty-Third Psalm one of our favorite psalms (assuming it is) because it’s encouraging and describes the ideal human condition, or is it one of our favorite psalms because someone taught it to us as a child and it’s familiar?
I can remember seeing the picture of two sheep dogs guarding the ...
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Now that Father Bill Wieland has officially announced his retirement, St. Andrew’s and the greater Greencastle community can celebrate his 23-year-ministry as Rector.
In the weeks leading up to his final service on Pentecost Sunday, June 12, 2011, we will honor Father Bill’s love of music with special performances during weekly Sunday services. We will also be creating a communal timeline in the Hamilton Hall. It is our hope that this simple timeline will ...
Continue Reading → ShareIII Easter – May 8, 2011 – Year A
So our celebration of Easter continues.
Today’s story from the Gospel according to Luke offers us still more testimony: The Lord is risen indeed!
Two of Jesus’ followers meet a stranger on a road outside Jerusalem.
It is Jesus, but they do not know it is Jesus, and they proceed to tell him everything that is weighing on their hearts: how the one they had hoped would be the Messiah was handed over to the ...
Continue Reading → ShareII Easter – May 1, 2011 – Year A
“Receive the Holy Spirit,” Jesus says, breathing upon his disciples. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven…; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
The day of resurrection was not yet over, and already their risen Lord had work for them to do.
The disciples were still reeling from the events of the past three days—the days the Church calls Maundy Thursday and Good Friday and Easter Day—trying ...
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Dr. Carla Edwards’ recital, Sunday, May 15th at 4:30PM, will include works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Vincent Luebeck, Paul Hindemith, Daniel Pinkham, & Felix Mendelssohn. Dr. Edwards, formerly organist of St. Andrew’s, is a member of the faculty of the DePauw University School of Music, where she is Professor of Music and University Organist.
[simage=18,200,n,left,]On Sunday, the people of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 520 E. Seminary St. in Greencastle, will host a service of Choral Evensong in the church at 5 p.m. in observance of the arrival of the Easter season.
A select choir of DePauw students, under the direction of Bradley King, will sing the traditional Anglican service, assisted by organist Billy Scharfenberger, using service music and anthems by William Byrd, C.V. Stanford and Herbert Howells.
The service of Choral Evensong, the ...
Continue Reading → ShareEaster Day – April 24, 2011 – Year A (RCL)
Easter is the event that nobody expects, nobody is ready for.
Jesus’ resurrection takes everybody by surprise.
We who have come to take the idea more or less for granted cannot begin to imagine how astounded Jesus’ disciples were when they realized that Jesus had been raised from the dead.
Resurrection was something they hadn’t counted on.
The story of the disciples’ experience as we have it in the Gospel according to John proves this ...
Continue Reading → SharePalm Sunday – April 17, 2011 – Year A
Even though a sermon is listed in the bulletin, it isn’t going to be a very long sermon.
In the first place, when there is a sermon, the kids almost always have the option of walking out on it, and that just isn’t possible today.
In the second place, starting the service in the parish hall with the blessing of the palms, processing through the Memorial Garden, then reading aloud the entire account of ...
Continue Reading → ShareV Lent – April 10, 2011 – Year A (RCL)
Mortal, can these bones live?”
God’s haunting question greets Ezekiel, as the prophet casts his eyes over a valley of dry bones.
What Ezekiel sees before him is a battlefield covered with the sun-bleached bones of slain warriors.
It may be the site of the final struggle, when Jerusalem was overrun and the people of Judah were carried off to Babylon.
The bones are a reminder of what it means to be a conquered people ...
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