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St
Alban’s (Grand Cayman) & St Mary’s (Cayman Brac) | ||
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21
June 2009 Welcome
to
St
Alban's Anglican Church
Today's
Scripture
:
Job 38: 1-11
2 Corinthians 6: 1–13
S. Mark 4: 35-end
Today:
8.35 a.m. Matins; 9.00 a.m. Ch /Script Study;
9.30 a.m. Holy Eucharist;
6.00 p.m. EP. This Week: Tues, Thurs-Fri 12.30 p.m. Midday
Pray. Wed (Birth S. John Baptist) 12.30 p.m. HC 2nd Sunday after Trinity and Patronal of St. AlbanO Lord, who never failest to help and govern them whom thou dost bring up in thy stedfast fear and love; Keep us, we beseech thee, under the protection of thy good providence, and make us to have a perpetual fear and love of thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Almighty
God, by whose grace and power thy holy martyr Alban triumphed over
suffering and was
faithful even unto death: Grant to us, who now remember him with
thanksgiving, to be so faithful in our witness to thee in this
world, that we may receive with him the crown of life; through Jesus
Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy
Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
FAITH
IN FOCUS: A HERE-AND-THERE GOD Job
is often credited with being a patient man. We talk of the patience
of Job perhaps because so many awful things happened to him and yet
he kept his faith in God. Yet it didn’t stop him from having a go
at God and complaining about his circumstances. In today’s reading
God comes back at him and says, “Where were you when I was
creating the world?” The
idea that God is up there in heaven and completely beyond our
fathoming is called God’s transcendence. The idea that he is very
much present here on earth, accessible in Jesus and made visible in
the lives of other people is called God’s immanence. Today’s
scripture reveals that our God is both transcendent and immanent.
He’s both here and there. When
Jesus and the disciples are in the boat and it’s in danger of
sinking their natural reaction is to turn to Jesus who calms the
storm. This teaches us a number of things. Firstly, it teaches us
that God hasn’t just made the world and then left it to its own
devices. Jesus uses the power given by his Father to intervene. God
is not simply transcendent, not simply up there. He’s here as
well. And secondly it shows us the closeness of Jesus’
relationship with the Father that he could rebuke nature and it
would obey him. This story is perhaps one way in which St Mark tries
to let us know how the disciples gradually learned Jesus’ secret:
that he was the Messiah of God. If
you were looking for God today, would you look up there or down
here?
WORD OF GOD Who
can this be? Even the wind and sea obey him. (Mark 4:41) WORD
FOR TODAY Such
is the God that we have that, although he has mastery over all
creation, he does not keep us in captives in fear but offers us the
fullness of life and love. Any other idea of God that we might have
would be far too small. YOU
CAN TELL THE SIZE OF YOUR GOD by looking at the size of your worry
list. The longer your list, the smaller your God. (Max Durnell)
AND
GOD SHOWED ME A LITTLE THING in the palm of my hand, round like a ball
no bigger than a hazelnut. I gazed at it, puzzling at what it might be.
And God said to me, “It is all of Creation.” I was amazed that it
could last and did not suddenly disintegrate and fall into nothingness,
for it was so tiny. And again God spoke to me, “It lasts, both now and
forever, because I cherish it.” And I understood that everything has
its being owing to God’s care and love. We need to realise the
insignificance of Creation and see it for the emptiness it is, before we
can embrace the uncreated God in love. (Julian of Norwich) THIS
WEEK’S BIBLE READINGS
Mon: Job 19, Rom 9: 1-18, Luke 13: 1-9 Tues: Job 21, Rom 9: 19–end, Luke 13: 10-21 Birth S. John Baptist: Isa 40: 1-11, Acts 13: 14b-26, Lk 1: 57–66, 80 Thurs: Job 23, Rom 10: 11-end, Luke 14: 1-11 Fri: Job 24, Rom 11: 1-12, Luke 14: 12–24 Sat: Job 25 & 26, Rom 11: 13-24, Luke 14: 25-end NEXT
SUNDAY :
Lamentations 3: 22-33, 2 Corinthians 8: 7–end, S. Mark 5: 21-end
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