Is Anyone Up There?

There is this story — you probably know it — of a man who falls over the edge of a cliff and grabs on to a branch for dear life to keep from falling to the bottom of the ravine. In desperation he cries out for help, “Is anyone up there?” But no one answers. His desperation increasing, he calls out to God: “Oh God, are you up there? Send someone to save me!” And a voice from heaven says, “Let go of the branch.” The man hangs there over the ravine in fear and in silence, looking up to the edge of the cliff just out of reach and down to he yawning abyss below him. At last he takes a deep breath, looks up... and yells, “Is there anyone else up there?!”

We smile, we chuckle, with a knowing shake of the head because we have just heard an apt description of how often our own absolute trust in God actually hangs in midair.

True, there are some remarkable souls with great trust borne of mature faith in God. But for most of us mere mortals, our trust is limited — limited by our understanding of what trust in the Lord really is, what trust in the Lord is meant to accomplish.

When Jesus hung on the cross, taunting words were hurled at Him. “He trusted in God. Let God deliver him!” That caustic cynicism exposes a belief that a trustworthy God would keep God’s belovèd from all harm or failure.

Is that our definition?

Our Lord trusted that God would be present fully in times of joy, times of shattering suffering, and ultimately in the time on the other side of suffering as well. Such trust led our Lord to live a fearlessly full life as something held in hands other than His own. Do we likewise trust in the hands that will bear us all up through the best and through the most trying of times? Hands that will never let us down, but will gently set us down in place of peace and beauty at the last?

My go-to psalm in a myriad of circumstances in Psalm 131:

 
“O Lord, I am not proud;
I have no haughty looks.
I do not occupy myself with great matters,
or with things that are too hard for me.
But I still my soul and make it quiet,
like a child upon its mothers breast;
my soul is quieted within me.
O Israel, wait upon the Lord,
from this time forth for evermore.”
 

The Psalm quells the question, “Is there anyone else up there?” The Psalm in poetry says, “Let go of the branch.” These sacred verses are given to us so that we might live fully and fearlessly and abundantly. I commend them to you in trust that they will serve you well.

 

Yours in Christ,

 

The Rev. Joanne Epply-Schmidt, Associate Rector

 

Imputed and Infused Righteousness

 

This semester, I've been teaching an online class in Anglican Theology and Ethics at Bexley-Seabury Seminary. We recently dealt with the question of what holiness means in light of different theological models developed before and after the Reformation. One way to think of holiness is what's called infused righteousness: God works a change in us in our baptism and through the sacraments. This is a historically catholic perspective that dates to the early church. Imputed righteousness in associated especially with Martin Luther, but it emerged in several streams of Reformation thought. Under imputed righteousness, what changes is how God sees us - and then we respond to that change by living as forgiven people. The Prayer Book includes both models as part of its via media approach to theology and practice. I made a little video to illustrate the difference between the two, and I hope you enjoy it!

 
 

Do you have a question about the Bible, theology, or the church? Email me!

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

 
 

Put your trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and feed on its riches. — Psalm 37:3

Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4

Why? by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (PreK+)
& Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (Grade 5+)

2 Timothy 1:1-14

Who Will I Be Lord? by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson (K+)

Luke 17:5-10

If You Plant a Seed by Kadir Nelson (K+)

 

How can we pray when we are experiencing devastation? What words can we use to express our confusion, disappointment, and anger to God? What if we have to wait a really long time before anything gets better? These are really hard questions. In this week’s lectionary text from the Hebrew Scriptures, Habakkuk confronts God with his confusion over the evil he sees around him. He asks how long he will have to wait for wrongs to be made right. He gives us words to speak to God when our own words fail. His prophecies demonstrate that questioning God can be a faithful action.

One of the questions Habakkuk asks God is “Why?” This is a familiar question for parents. We have probably endured a car-ride or two with a child who just got bitten by the why-bug. However you answer their questions, whatever explanation you give, the child just keeps asking, “Why?” This is Laura Vaccaro Seeger’s theme in her book, Why? Rabbit keeps asking because he trusts that Bear will answer, and Bear does. As you encourage your children to ask God questions, you might try to come up with some questions for God together. You can incorporate these questions into your family prayer time. Remember, God might take a long time to respond, but you can keep asking anyway.

Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a vivid and carefully researched historical fiction written for middle grade readers. This story connects to the theme of waiting and watching for justice in Habakkuk’s prophecy. Habakkuk laments as he endures injustice. Anderson’s story centers on Isabel, an enslaved African girl in New York before the American Revolution. Isabel experiences the evil of slavery, and laments the suffering she endures, at the same time as she refuses to give up hope for freedom. As you read this story, look for the ways Isabel keeps her hope alive. What difficult decisions does she face? What obstacles must she surmount? How does her story fit with the things you have already learned about this time period? How does her story change and enlarge your own perspective?

In this week’s epistle text, Paul encourages Timothy by reminding him that his faith is part of a legacy. Paul knew that Timothy’s mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois both had deep faith in God. He sees their faith living in Timothy. Last week, we had a baptism at church—we welcomed Charles Russin to our church family. Baptism is the first step in his life of faith. His parents will encourage him as he grows, and we at Trinity will get to be part of his journey as well! As a community, we are engaged in building a legacy of faith in our children. Vaunda Micheaux Nelson’s story, Who Will I Be, Lord?, depicts a young girl who sees the other members of her family living out their faith in the world. Watching them sow their seeds of faithfulness inspires her to live out her own faith. This book is a wonderful portrayal of a legacy of faith. What kind of legacy do we have in our church family? What about in your immediate family? You might construct a family faith album

together with stories of faith from across generations. Working on this kind of project can be a great opportunity to ask extended family members to share their own stories of faith, and to record the many ways that God has worked in each of your relatives’ lives.

In this week’s text from Luke’s gospel, the disciples are worried about having enough faith. Is this something you ever wonder? I know I do. But if we ask for more faith, do we even know what we are asking? What does “big faith” look like? We might imagine that big faith can accomplish dramatic things. What if it is the small, everyday acts that express our faith best? Kadir Nelson plays with this idea in his book, If You Plant a Seed. Rabbit and Mouse plant seeds and wait for the food to ripen for their feast. Nelson includes other kinds of seeds in his story as well – when the food is ready to harvest, other hungry animals gather. Will Rabbit and Mouse plant seeds of selfishness and fight over the food with the other animals, or will they plant seeds of kindness and share the bountiful harvest? What kind of seeds will you plant? If you have a chance, this is a good time to go to a farmer’s market for fall crops. There are lots of delicious things in season, like green beans, squash, brussels sprouts, apples, and pumpkins. Planning a pot-luck feast with friends, family, or neighbors is a great way to practice what you are learning about faith by sharing the bounty and sowing seeds of kindness. Because so many people are experiencing food insecurity right now, another way to plant and nourish seeds of faith is to bring a load of groceries to Arm-in-Arm’s food pantry, or to volunteer there if your schedule allows.

PUBLISHER’S PAGE (VARIOUS SELLERS)

 

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Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

 
 

You are my refuge and my stronghold, my God in whom I put my trust. — Psalm 91:2

Jeremiah 32:1-3; 6-15

Grow, by Cynthia Platt (PreK+) & Pictures of Hollis Woods, by Patricia Reilly Giff (Grade 4+)

1 Timothy 6:6-19

What Is Given from the Heart, by Patricia McKissack (K+) & Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin (Grade 3+)

Luke 16:19-31

The Greedy Python, by Eric Carle (K+)

 

Note: This week’s resource corner includes texts from both Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) tracks. Typically, we read the RCL Track 2 texts at Trinity on Sundays.

Let’s set the scene for this week’s text from Jeremiah. The armies of Babylon are invading and laying siege to the city of Jerusalem. Things are looking dangerous and bleak. In the middle of all this, Jeremiah hears God’s word tell him to buy some land from his cousin. This is confusing – while most people are preparing to lose their land and their homes in the invasion, Jeremiah acquires land. His prophetic action is intended to be a sign of hope for the future – one day, the siege will be over, and God’s people will tend their land in peace. Cynthia Platt’s story Grow can help us to imagine what it is like to plant a garden in the middle of devastation. Her story is set in an urban landscape of abandoned lots, concrete, and steel. She shows how one girl’s decision to plant seeds is the act of hope that transforms an abandoned lot into a flourishing garden.

If you would like to learn about the power of urban community gardens, you might want to find out about the work of organizations like Harlem Grown, an urban organization which has acquired and transformed ten abandoned lots in Harlem NYC into thriving urban farms. Visit their website to learn more, volunteer, or donate at https://www.harlemgrown.org. To see how some churches are using their urban and rural land to promote food security and health, check out the Black Church Food Security Network at https://blackchurchfoodsecurity.net.

Patricia Reilly Giff’s Newberry Honor book, Pictures of Hollis Woods is written for middle grade readers. Giff tells the story of Hollis Woods, a foster child named for the place where she was abandoned as a baby. Her life in foster care has been one of upheaval, but she refuses to give up hope of one day finding a place to belong. Her tenacious hope echoes Jeremiah’s hope for future flourishing. The art she creates expresses her hope and allows her to dream.

In his letter to Timothy, Paul exhorts his friend to pursue contentment in following God, not in accumulating wealth. In turn, Paul advises Timothy to encourage the rich people in his church to “be generous and ready to share” instead of selfish with their riches. In Patricia McKissack’s book, What Is Given from the Heart, the Temple family loses everything they have in a fire. James Otis and his family want to help, but they are very poor themselves. James gets creative – he writes a book for Sabrina Temple, who is his age, and adds it to the love basket his church is preparing for the Temple family. He shows one way we can practice generosity even if we do not have many resources ourselves. Can you think of other ways to practice generosity as a family?

Grace Lin’s Newberry Honor winning book, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, approaches the connections between wealth, generosity, and happiness from another perspective. Lin’s main character is Minli, who lives in the valley of the Fruitless Mountain. Minli embarks on a quest to restore her family’s fortunes. This story combines elements of fantasy with Chinese folklore and is stunningly illustrated by the author. If you like this book, you might want to explore companion books in this series by Grace Lin—Starry River of the Sea and When the Sea Turned to Silver. Has your family ever been in poverty? What did you take with you from that experience? How did it shape your family? Or, has your family enjoyed stability and wealth? How do you think that experience has shaped you all?

Both wealth and poverty have a profound capacity to shape us and our children. Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus is starkly direct about how wealth might misshape us, spiritually. Lazarus lies at the rich man’s gate, hoping to get a few crumbs from his sumptuous table. Meanwhile, the rich man does not even notice Lazarus. The Greedy Python, by Eric Carle, depicts a ravenous snake intent on devouring everything he sees. He seems a bit like the rich man – he does not even notice that his greed has made him eat his own tail! Eric Carle’s signature colorful collage art bring the story to life. You might wonder together: what does greed do in the lives of the rich man and the python? Do they ever change their ways? If you’d like to engage the gospel text in more depth, you might wonder why the rich man is unnamed, but Lazarus is named. What does this detail tell you? If you’d like to do some detective work, you might find where else Lazarus appears in the gospels.

 

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The Robert W. Jenson Papers

 

On October 5, the Center for Barth Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary is hosting an event to showcase The Robert W. Jenson papers. Reflections will be offered to celebrate the life and legacy of Trinity's own Robert W. Jenson, who has been called

“the greatest American theologian since Jonathan Edwards.”

The event will take place on Wednesday, October 5 from 3–5pm in the Theron Room (First Floor) of the Theodore Sedgwick Wright Library at Princeton Theological Seminary. A small reception will follow. This gathering is free and anyone can attend in-person or online. Please register in advance so the Barth Center will know how many to expect. If you plan to attend online, you should register prior to the event to receive a Zoom link on the morning of the event.

Yes, Me Too

In church growth and vitality circles, you can often hear the adage that the AA meetings that happen in our church buildings do church better than many churches do. Oftentimes, I’ve heard that framed in terms of welcome. It’s true that everyone who walks through the doors of a 12-step meeting is welcomed, quickly connected to the group, and given a role from setting out chairs to making coffee.

But there’s more than welcome going on here. 12-step groups aren’t filled with people whose lives are going pretty well, people who want to reach a hand out (and perhaps also down) to include people out of a sense of magnanimity. Instead, it’s about people gathering around the shared recognition that their lives are completely unmanageable without God, and that people who have turned their lives and their wills over to the care of God are always in the process of repeating the steps of surrender, self-examination, repentance, and making amends. It’s about people gathering around a shared honesty about our human weakness — and yes, about our capacity for sin — and saying to each other “yes, me too. You aren’t alone in your struggles.” In doing so, there is always a return to the beginning. Self-offering to God isn’t a one-and-done act, it’s a continuous process. When we say the confession each week before communion, we say to each other as well as to God, “yes, me too.”

In a little essay called The Return to Baptism, Robert Jenson reminds us that “What we do between baptism and the kingdom… is not to march forward from baptism into something else but rather again and again to return to baptism — indeed, to creep back into it. Once it has been said, it is clear that this is the only answer that Christianity can give” about the character of the Christian life.

At Trinity, we’re blessed to have far more baptisms than the average Episcopal parish. Every time we do, we all are given the opportunity to return to our own baptism, to give ourselves to God all over again. One of the questions asked at baptism, and which we all answer as we reaffirm our baptismal covenant, is:

 
“Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?”
 

When we say as a congregation, “I will with God’s help,” that’s another way of saying “yes, me too.” And when we do so, I pray that we are all reminded that we aren’t alone in our struggles.

 

Yours in Christ,

 

The Rev. Cn. Dr. Kara N. Slade, Associate Rector

 

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

 
 

I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone. — 1 Timothy 2:1

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

Whimsey’s Heavy Things, by Julie Kraulis (PreK and up)

1 Timothy 2:1-7

I’m Your Child, God, by Marian Wright Edelman (4th grade and up) & The Story
of Ruby Bridges, by Robert Coles (Pre-K and up)

Luke 16:1-3 and Amos 8:4-7

A Bargain for Francis, by Russell Hoben

 

Note: This week’s resource corner includes texts from both Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) tracks. Typically, we read the RCL Track 2 texts at Trinity on Sundays.

In this week’s text from Jeremiah, the prophet is so full of grief that he wishes his eyes were fountains so that he could cry without stopping, all day and all night. He is not just being melodramatic. He is lamenting, in the form of a poem, to God, because of the desolation that has struck Jerusalem. Possibly, in the past few years, your family has had to navigate tragedy and desolation. Others around the world are in the throes of desolation right now. Grief over deep suffering is heavy. It weighs us down as adults, so we can imagine how heavy it feels to children when they suddenly feel the full weight of grief. Hopefully, texts from Jeremiah and elsewhere in the Bible (such as throughout the Psalms) can offer you and your loved ones resources for taking this grief before God. Julie Kraulis provides a story which also explores the theme of grief, and its heaviness, in her book, Whimsey’s Heavy Things. This book is accessible for preschoolers and above and communicates the emotional impact of grief through the greyed tones of the illustrations and through the idea of heavy rocks. If you want to extend this story in an embodied prayer, you might try finding a few heavy stones in your yard to hold together with your children as you name what grieves you out loud. Then, place the stones in a small pile together. Notice how it feels to let go of the stone, to release its weight. Offer the weight of your grief to the God.

In his letter to Timothy, Paul encourages his friend to pray for everyone, all the time, always. Sometimes, we want to pray, but we do not know what to say. As adults, we might turn to the Psalms, or to the prayers in the BCP. If you are looking for an additional resource, Marian Wright Edelman has written a beautiful collection of prayers, illustrated vividly by Bryan Collier. For a story in which prayer plays a powerful role, try The Story of Ruby Bridges, by Robert Coles. This book is a non-fiction, illustrated retelling of Ruby Bridges’ bravery and perseverance during the struggle to desegregate public schools following the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision. Each day, before she walked to school past angry and violent protestors, Ruby prayed for the people in the mob. One day, she forgets to pray until she is in the middle of the mob. She stops walking until she has offered a prayer to God. This is a complex story and provides many opportunities to discuss how prayer works in our lives and connects us to God.

In this week’s text from Luke’s gospel, Jesus offers a parable about a shrewd, clever business manager. A Bargain for Frances, by Russell and Lillian Hoban, offers a similar vantage point on the concept of shrewdness, by focusing on Frances’ friendship with Thelma. The Hoban’s story translates Jesus’ parable into terms familiar to children. Because Thelma has tricked Frances in the past, Frances’ mom warns her to be careful when she goes to a tea party at Thelma’s house. Frances wants to be friends, though, and she forgets to be careful. Thelma manages to trick her again – this time, she convinces Frances to trade the money she had been saving to buy her own (brand new, real porcelain) tea set for Thelma’s old (plastic) tea set instead. When Frances realizes that Thelma used the money to buy herself a brand new, real porcelain tea set, Frances decides to trick Thelma in return. What happens when we get tricked by a friend? The Hoban’s gentle wit and insight into playdate ethics are a treasure. After reading the story, wonder together about resolving conflicts with friends when trading and “backsies” are involved. Have you ever been in Frances’ shoes? Have you ever been in Thelma’s position? What did you learn from those experiences?

 

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Whenever possible we’ll share links to independent to booksellers. Please consider supporting local and other indepedent bookstores.

Rummage Needs You!

PLEASE CONSIDER HELPING AT

 

Volunteers are needed for all aspects of the sale!
Help as much or as little as you can!

 
 

Set-up

Monday–Wednesday,
October 10–12,
9am–2:30pm 

Help set-up tables and racks, unpack boxes, and price and place merchandise!

 
 
 

Sales

Thursday & Friday,
October 13 & 14,
1–5pm

Saturday
October 15
9am–1pm

Be part of the sale! Run the cash register or sell in a department helping customers find their special rummage treasures!

 
 
 

Clean-up

Saturday
October 15
1–4pm

Many hands lighten the load!

 
 
 

To Volunteer, please see any member of the Rummage Team or

Teenagers, we want your help!  We’ve got flexible hours and give community service hours generously.  Come join the fun! 

We cannot conduct the sale without your help! Please consider volunteering for this wonderful church community event where 100% of the proceeds fund Trinity Church’s Loving Our Neighbors efforts!

Thank you for your support of the Rummage Team!

 

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