• ABOUT
    • Mission and Core Values
    • Progressive Christianity
    • History
    • Mission Board
    • Church Staff
    • Contact Us
  • Weekly Sermons
    • Schedule of Services
    • Jazz Vespers
  • OUR MINISTRIES
    • Social Action Ministries
    • Liturgical Ministry
    • Music Ministry
    • Hospitality Ministry
    • The Cyprian Center
    • Compassionate St. Aug
  • NEWS & EVENTS
    • Events Calendar
  • WEDDINGS
  • Donate

St. Cyprian's Episcopal Church


JAZZ VESPERS: November 13, 2013

11/17/2013

0 Comments

 
Printer-Friendly Version
The lessons for this evening’s service are taken from the lectionary for Thanksgiving Day. They are about God’s bounty that has been bestowed upon this Creation. With that bounty comes a responsibility ... to give thanks by praising God ... and by sharing that bounty with those in need ... sharing this bounty because we don’t own the bounty ... we are just its stewards.
The author of the Book of Deuteronomy tells us in three short verses:

For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. You shall eat your fill and bless the LORD your God for the good land that he has given you.

And then Paul in his second letter to the Christian community in Corinth offers this:

God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. ... You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us.

All too often it is our anxiety about whether there will be enough for ourselves that keeps us from sharing what we have with the world around us. And then we justify this position by looking upon those who are in need as less than us ... and less deserving.

The fact is that we are all created in the image of God, regardless of station in life; wealth or talent ... or lack of wealth or lack of talent; education or lack of education, or the color of our skin, or our ethnic background, or any of the many other factors that are used to separate one from another. The fact is that we are all created in the image of God, and we are all blessed by God in one way or another.

Those who are blessed with much ... of them more is required. Our thanksgiving for the blessing and bounty that has been bestowed upon us is expressed in our actions, not just our words. It is expressed in our sharing of that with which we have been blessed, not just our sympathy for those who have less.

In a just a week and a half we will be celebrating our national holiday of Thanksgiving. “It is the outward sign of an inward and spiritual grace.” Let us remember on Thanksgiving that we have been blessed ... and remember by sharing that blessing and our bounty with those who have less and are in need. And then let us remember that giving thanks to God for the blessing and bounty that is bestowed upon us is not just reserved for one day a year ... it is to be remembered and acknowledge at all times in all we do.

This Thanksgiving season I invite you to listen to Paul again:

God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.

And then find a way to “share abundantly” with another ... possibly someone that you don not even know ... so that they may have something to be thankful about. Do a “random act of kindness.” Share compassion with “one of the least” of God’s children. Don’t be stingy ... don’t be selfish ... “sow bountifully” as Paul puts it. Make a difference in another’s life so that they truly have something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

According to Paul: You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, I close with a short piece from my wife Caren’s book Healing words ... this is from Gratitude:

"Several years ago, the phrase “random acts of kindness” became popular. Many of these acts were very small, simple ones that made a difference in the recipient’s life. Professor Rudolph Arnheim tells this story about his lasting gratitude for one such kindness: “At a faculty reception, a British lady taught me how to tie my shoes with a double knot so that they keep tied more securely and still come apart in a jiffy,” he said. “Kneeling on the floor in the midst of chattering sherry-sippers, she tied my shoes. I remember her twice a day ever since.”

Amen.



0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    REV. TED VOORHEES
    Vicar Emeritus

    The Rev. Ted Voorhees retired as the Vicar of St. Cyprian’s on September 25, 2022.
     

    PAST SERMONS

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013

GET IN TOUCH


37 Lovett Street
St. Augustine, Florida 32084
904.829.8828
Email Us

ABOUT


DIOCESE OF FLORIDA
MISSION BOARD
CHURCH STAFF

CONNECT


THE LATEST NEWS
​FACEBOOK
BREEZE