Wesley Hall (Heron Point)

Open to the Public

In Celebration of National Preparedness Month, the Local Emergency Planning Committee & Heron Point have partnered to offer many exciting displays:

Kent County Office of Emergency Services

Chester River Hospital Center

Heron Point, Massage Therapy

KARS (HAM Radio), CERT, Red Cross

Morrison Senior Living Nutrition

And much more ….

ALL are Welcome

For Information Contact Lulu Hurtt
410-778-8321

Save The Date
Thursday, September 16th, 2 – 5 pm.

From the Kent County Office of Emergency Services

What is a Hurricane?
A hurricane is a type of tropical cyclone, which is a generic term for a low pressure system that generally forms in the tropics. The cyclone is accompanied by thunderstorms and, in the Northern Hemisphere, a counterclockwise circulation of winds near the earth’s surface. Tropical cyclones are classified as follows:

Tropical Depression
An organized system of clouds and thunderstorms with a defined surface circulation and maximum sustained winds* of 38 mph (33 kt**) or less

Tropical Storm
An organized system of strong thunderstorms with a defined surface circulation and maximum sustained winds of 39-73 mph (34-63 kt)

Hurricane
An intense tropical weather system of strong thunderstorms with a well-defined surface circulation and maximum sustained winds of 74 mph (64 kt) or higher. Hurricanes are categorized according to the strength of their winds using the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. A Category 1 storm has the lowest wind speeds, while a Category 5 hurricane has the strongest. These are relative terms, because lower category storms can sometimes inflict greater damage than higher category storms, depending on where they strike and the particular hazards they bring. In fact, tropical storms can also produce significant damage and loss of life, mainly due to flooding.

Proper 16 — Luke 13:10-17

The Rev. Frank G. Adams

In Jesus’ time, when people mentioned “the Law,” they could be referring to any of four different things:

1. They used it to refer to the Ten Commandments.
2. They used it to refer to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, and to them the most important part of the Bible.
3. They used the phrase “the Law and the Prophets” to refer to all known Scripture, what we call the Old Testament, the Jewish Scriptures.
4. They used it to refer to the Oral or Scribal Law, which came to be called the Mishnah after it was written down.

In the time of Jesus, it was this last meaning — the Scribal Law — which was the most common. So what, we may ask, is the Scribal Law?

In the Jewish Scriptures, there are great broad principles which one must take and interpret under God’s guidance, and apply to the individual situations in life. In the Ten Commandments we find no rules and regulations at all. Each one is a great principle from which we must guide our lives. But to later Jews, these principles did not seem enough. They held that the Law — the Pentateuch — was divine, and in it God had said his last word, and therefore everything must be in it. If a thing was not explicitly in the Law, it must be there implicitly. So they argued that it must be possible to deduce a rule and regulation for every person in every possible situation in life. This gave rise to a group of men called Scribes, who made it their profession and their lives, to reduce the great principles of the Law into literally thousands of rules and regulations. Much like the Federal government and state agencies, our bureaucrats, do today. In Jesus’ time, the Scribes were working with 613 commandments, and had already subdivided them into countless thousands of more rules. For many generations Scribal Law was not written down; it was the Oral Law, and it was passed down through the Scribes. In later times it was written down as the Mishnah — covering almost 800 pages in English —with commentaries known as the Talmuds, consisting of up to 60 volumes.

Let’s examine one example. For instance: the Fourth of the Ten Commandments, the major ones, states that, “Thou shalt keep holy the Sabbath Day.” This is where the fun starts. The Jewish day does not start with sunrise, as ours does, but with sundown. So the Sabbath goes from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. In modern days this is from 6 PM to 6PM. But – and this was a big But for the observing community in biblical Palestine – the Scribes said that the Sabbath day is to be kept holy, and that no work is to be done. So people had to know when to precisely stop their work. So the Scribes came up with the definition that, “the day ends when you can see three stars in the sky.” But people also asked, “What is work?” Well, all kinds of things came to be classified as “work.” For instance, to carry a buden on the Sabbath day is to work. So they had to define what is meant by a “burden.” Here is the quote from the Scribal Law for the definition of a burden: “food equal in weight to a dried fig; enough wine for mixing in a goblet; milk enough for one swallow; honey enough to put on a wound; paper enough to write a customs-house notice upon; ink enough to write two letters of the alphabet…” and so on. So they spent endless hours arguing such things as to whether a man could or could not lift a lamp from one place to another on the Sabbath, whether a tailor committed a sin if he went out with a needle in his robe, whether a woman might wear a brooch, or if a man might lift his child on the Sabbath day. These things to them were the essence of religion. And their religion was a system, a legalism of petty rules and regulations.

More applicable to Jesus personally, to heal was to work on the Sabbath. Obviously this also had to be defined. Healing was allowed when there was danger to life, and especially in troubles of the ear, nose, and throat. But even then, steps could be taken only to keep the patient from becoming worse. No steps might be taken to make him better. So a plain bandage might be put on a wound, but no ointment. Plain wadding might be placed in an ear, but no medication.

Back to our Gospel story. This is the last time that we ever hear of Jesus being in a Synagogue. Jesus healed the woman who for eighteen years had not been able to straighten her body. And then the President of the Synagogue intervened. He didn’t even have the courage to speak directly to Jesus. Instead he addressed his remarks to the congregation, although his speech was meant for Jesus. The man was indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, and therefore violated one of the Scribal regulations. But Jesus countered him with the fact that they were less cruel to dumb animals than they were to the woman.

The President of the Synagogue, and those like him, were people who loved the system more than they loved people. They were more concerned that their own petty little rules and regulations should be observed, than that a woman should be helped and healed. One of the great problems of developed civilizations is the relationship of individuals to the system. An example in our lifetimes is the treatment of men for the two World Wars, Korea, and Vietnam. Their individualities vanished, and they became numbers to fulfill the requirements of the system. They were expendable, and were counted statistically along with the equipment being procured. In Christianity, the individual always comes before the system. We can consider it a truism that without Christianity there can be no such thing as a democracy, because Christianity alone guarantees and defends the value of the ordinary and individual person. We have seen, once again in our lifetime, that when Christian principles are banished from political and economic life, there is nothing left to keep at bay the totalitarian state, a state where the individual is lost in the system and exists only, not for his own sake, but for the sake of the system.

Strangely enough we find the worship of systems also in the church. There are church people — we won’t necessarily call them Christians — who are more concerned with the method of church government than they are with the worship of God and being of service to the people. It is tragically true — and we know this firsthand in the Episcopal Church — that more trouble and strife arise over legalistic details of procedure and process and control than for any other reason.

Jesus’ whole action in our Gospel story makes it clear that it is not God’s will that any human being should suffer one moment longer than absolutely necessary. If Jesus had postponed the healing of the woman until the day after the Sabbath, no one would have criticized him. But Jesus insisted that suffering should not be allowed to continue until the next day if it could be cured today. Over and over again, some good and kindly scheme is held up until this or that regulation is satisfied, or this or that technical detail worked out. No helpful deed that we can do today should be postponed until tomorrow.

As our Gospel concludes, “All Jesus’ opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things he was doing.”

Let us all rejoice with them! Amen.

Proper 15 – Luke 12:49-56

The Rev. Frank G. Adams

We live in a splintered world. Pick up any news magazine or newspaper and there you will find stories about revolution, violence, cruelty, and other expressions of our splintering, in many sections of the world: South America, Central America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia – not to mention the continuing sectarian killing in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. And then you turn on the local TV news, and you hear the same kind of things happening in the good old USA.

Additionally there is evidence of splintered families all around us, and among us. There was a cartoon strip showing a young woman talking to a minister. She said, “John and I are having a terrible time, and we need your advice. We’re trying to decide how to divide the furniture, who gets what of the money we’ve saved, and who gets custody of the children.” “Oh,” the minister asked, “are you contemplating divorce?” “Oh no,” she replied, “We’re trying to work out our prenuptial agreement.”

There are devout Christian parents who, as far as they know, have tried to maintain a Christian home, and serve as good Christian examples. However, one of their sons or daughters turns away from Jesus – to evil companions, to alcohol, to dope, or illegal pursuits – and brings all the related heartaches home. Such parents usually sorrowfully ask, “Where did we go wrong?” and they pray and love the prodigal child in the hope that the husks of the far country will bring that child at last to himself and to the Father’s home again. It’s a splintered world, indeed!

At Jesus’ birth the angels sang, “Peace on earth and goodwill to men.” So it comes as somewhat of a shock to worshiping Christians to be reminded by Jesus himself, as he does in today’s Gospel lesson, that the world was then – as it is now – splintered over Jesus.

“Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!” Jesus lived in the real world. He saw, with sorrow and compassion, the sunlight and the shadows of human nature. He did not delude himself that he would be universally accepted. Our world, from ancient Biblical times Palestine to modern America, is evidence of the clarity of his vision.

What are the divisions regarding Jesus? There are, of course, those who love him: Peter, Paul, Joan of Arc, Mother Theresa, Billy Graham – and many others who are here in church today. Then there are those who try to be neutral toward him. Like Pilate, who said, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” (Matt 27:24). Like Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night and called him “a teacher from God,” and received a sermon about commitment for his trouble. Like some moderns who try to say that Jesus is a good man – but only that and nothing more.

As Pilate discovered, neutrality toward Jesus is not possible. Every person must come down on one side or the other. Jesus said, “Whoever is not with me is against me.” (Matt 12:30). Jesus cannot be “just a good man.” Either he is God – as he claims to be when he says, “The Father and I are one” (John 12:30), and “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9) – or he is one of the greatest frauds history has ever produced. No matter how we try to delude ourselves, there can be no neutrality toward Jesus. Every person must come down on one side or the other.

Then there are those who despise and reject him – from the Pharisees who engineered his crucifixion, to the Muslims who are persecuting Christians in Islamic countries around the world, to the post-modern anti-Christian groups and persons. Today, many Christian churches, once open to every passer-by, are being kept locked between services because they are being vandalized and looted with vicious contempt.

Jesus said, “I come to bring division.” The important question for us is this: where are we in this division? How does the Gospel apply to us? At least three things apply:

First: Since we are here in church, we assume that we are those who love and serve Jesus. This is devoutly to be hoped, but we need to examine our attitude to see how true it is. Are we being faithful in our witness to him? Is our sometime-polite silence a front for a flabby neutrality? Is our occasional church attendance only a sop to social conformity? Is our anemic stewardship only a salve for an uncommited life? A man, whose wife and son attended church, while he did not, was asked, “As far as Christianity is concerned, whose side are you on?” He laughed and said, “I guess I’m not on anybody’s side.” But he was! Not to decide, is to decide!

How different that story is from the one about the totally-deaf man who went to church faithfully every Sunday. There was no interpretation in sign language, and he couldn’t hear a word that was said or sung. One day, one of his non-church acquaintances wrote him a note asking him why he went to church all the time when he couldn’t hear anything. The deaf man replied, “I don’t want there to be any doubt about which side I’m on.”

Secondly, we cannot force Christian life on others. But if we are true to our witness for Jesus, we can do our best to exhibit it and make it attractive to others. Our witness is not to condemn, but to invite – to tell in words, and show in deeds, what Jesus means to us – to tell and show with kindly conviction the strengthening power of our prayer and Bible study – and to let the Holy Spirit use it as he will. A man came to church and asked for instruction on how to become a member. He said, “A friend of mine has the joy and strength in his life that I need in mine. He says he gets it here. I need the Lord that he has.” Are people attracted to Christ by what they see in us, and hear from us? Only you can answer.

Lastly, if we are true to our witness for Jesus, there will be opposition, just as there was to our Lord himself. We can expect it. No one is asking for crucifixion, but there are those who will call us “goody two-shoes” and ridicule us and our Christian faith. A jokingly contemptuous man once said to a priest, “I use the same words on the golf course that you do in church, except in a different setting.” It was more than a

different setting, of course — it was a different attitude, a different way of life, a different side of the division which Jesus described. When we say, “Jesus Christ,” it can either be a devotion or an epithet — but it can’t be both. Neutrality toward Jesus is impossble.

Again I repeat Jesus’ words from our Gospel. “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!” When Abraham Lincoln was first introduced to Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, he said, “So this is the little lady who started the Civil War.” However true that incident may be, she wrote, not to bring peace, but division, and people had to decide where they stood.

So it comes right down to the personal question: in the division over Jesus, which side are you on? How does your witness, your way of life, your stewardship of time and talent answer that question? Think about it, pray over it. Your answer may change your entire life. Amen.