Weekly Words

“Truly I Tell You…”

Whenever you see this phrase, you can think of it as a divine underlined sentence: listen carefully, because what I am about to tell you is an absolute, unshakable truth. Jesus uses it to command his listeners to pay close attention to a highly significant, divinely authoritative statement.

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This summer, we’re going to spend time listening to many of the highly significant, divinely authoritative words of Jesus.

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From the parables and the Sermon on the Mount, we’ll hear what Jesus says about faith, love, forgiveness, humility, obedience, and most importantly the Kingdom of God. A Kingdom that calls us toward an alternative life, a human life and human community under the gracious rule of our Creator.

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Pantry Provisions Provided

LDS Charities will be in Cody on June 26th distributing food to local food delivery organizations. For the third year in a row, we are fortunate enough to be on their list as an organization that helps feed the Powell community. As food prices rise and the number of our visitors increases, this contribution helps us to significantly stretch our budget. And our visitors have mentioned that the food is really good quality.

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We need two people with pickup trucks to go to Cody and pick up food from City Park on Beck Street, right across from the high school between 5:30 PM and 6:00 PM. Deb Ross will be at the front doors of the church with drop off instructions. Please let Sue Woods know if you can help.

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Songwriter Sunday

Ann and Andy Lowe perform their original music at the Chamberlin Inn in Cody, Sunday, June 21, 4:00 to 5:30 PM.

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The Anglican Tradition: Parables

In The Episcopal Church, parables are understood as transformative "word events" rather than simple moral stories that point to right living. Grounded in the Gospels, Episcopalians view these stories as encounters with divine mystery that challenge listeners to shift their perspective, confront societal assumptions, and actively experience God's grace.

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Here is an insight on this from N. T. Wright, an English New Testament scholar, Pauline theologian and Anglican bishop. “As part of his campaign, Jesus told stories…. They were, for the most part, not simply ‘illustrations,’ that is, preachers’ tricks to decorate an abstract thought or complicated teaching. If anything, they were the opposite. Jesus’ stories are designed to tease, to clothe the shocking and revolutionary message about God’s Kingdom in garb that would leave the listeners wondering, trying to think it out. They were stories that eventually caused Israel’s leaders to decode his rich message in such a way as to frame a charge against him, either of blasphemy, sedition, or ‘leading the people astray.’ Whatever the parables are, they are not, as children are sometimes taught in Sunday school, ‘earthly stories with heavenly meaning.’ Rather, they are expressions of Jesus' shocking announcement that God’s Kingdom was arriving on earth as in heaven.” – N. T. Wright, Simply Jesus, 87-88.

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Instead of reading a parable and asking, “How is this parable about me and my relationship to God?” We might ask, “How is this about Jesus and his inauguration of God’s Kingdom?”

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Sum-Sum-Summertime

• June 21 is the first day of summer (this year the summer solstice technically will happen at about 4:24am Eastern). What makes summer’s heat is the tilt of Earth’s axis. Since the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the sun, we spend more time each day on the sunlit half of the planet, receiving more direct rays of light.

 

• June 21 is also Father’s Day, a holiday with roots in two early-twentieth-century occasions: a commemoration for fathers killed in the December 1907 explosion at a West Virginia coal company, and a 1910 celebration inspired by a Civil War veteran and widower who raised six children on a farm in Washington State.

 

• June 23 is Midsummer Night or “Midsummer Eve” which celebrates the night before summer solstice, the longest day of the year. Rooted in ancient pagan and agrarian traditions, it is widely celebrated across Northern Europe with bonfires, dancing, and folk magic. In New York City, the solstice window aligns with the "Manhattanhenge" sunset, where the setting sun perfectly aligns with the east-west grid of the city streets.

• It’s a time of revelry also known as St. John’s Eve, the day before John the Baptist’s birthday. St. John is the patron saint of beekeepers, and this time of year, many beehives are brimming with honey. In fact, this month’s full moon (June 29) has historically been called “the Mead Moon,” since honey was gathered and fermented to make mead. In a time when the essential work of bees and other pollinators is increasingly appreciated, even as insect populations are in alarming decline, celebrating St. John, who lived in the wilderness, preaching justice and eating “wild honey” is more important than ever.

 

Pride Month

St. John’s will fly a pride flag from the bell tower through June to publicly declare that LGBTQIA+ individuals are fully welcomed, loved, and spiritually affirmed in our congregation. It signals that the church is a safe haven for them, and just as significantly, their friends and families who love them.

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For many Christians, the rainbow flag holds dual meaning. While symbolizing LGBTQIA+ pride, it is also deeply rooted in the Genesis narrative as a "Rainbow Covenant," God's sacred, eternal promise of mercy and protection for all living things.

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Many LGBTQIA+ individuals have experienced spiritual trauma or condemnation from religious institutions. St. John’s provides a healing space where faith and authentic identity valued.