To the families and friends of St. Mark’s.
Summer Sermons: I wrote last month about the deep season of Pentecost and what that means for our discipleship. To support this season of learning, you will have noticed that I am preaching through the Letters, or Epistles, of the Bible. These letters are rich with instruction, pastoral advice, and even some admonition to a Church trying to find its own way after Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father. Further, these letters help Christians today see the Trinity at work in the world.
Hearing sermons from this portion of the Scriptures can be difficult simply because the material may be less familiar than the Gospel readings. In your devotions during the week, it might be helpful to review the readings from Sunday so as to get a sense of the issues and solutions that the authors are offering. It is important to realize that it is not only the Gospels that are the inspired Word of the Lord. I hope you will find these portions of Holy Scripture to be very relevant to us today.
Our Cool Church, went through a spell of not being so cool, as you no doubt remember. As of now, we still are not completely sure what caused at least three of our air conditioning units to fail and one other unit to reduce its efficiency but we are working on the issue with the proper professionals. I am so grateful for the ministries of our Jr. Warden, Bill Martichuski, Dave Brudi, and not least of all our own George Watson (who did the hot roof top work for us). None of these men would want recognition but I want each of you to know how much our parish relies on them.
Please remember your parish as we move through this summer season. With so many people taking time off, large expenditures must be paid for out of church savings. If you can, please consider adding to your regular pledge to help us meet our budget and replace our savings account.
May God bless you and keep you.
Fr. Greg+
"Well, the last few Sundays we have been moving through Paul’s letter to the Galatian churches, and we continue today in that letter. Joyfully, we come to the portion to which the writer has been leading us toward. There are many, many rich passages and phrases in this particular portion of scripture that we have heard today, but especially this one where Paul writes to the Galatians, ‘Live by the Spirit, but do not gratify the desires of the flesh, for the Spirit and the flesh are opposed to each other to prevent you from doing what you want…’"