The Feasts of Saint Simon and Saint Jude

Today was the Feasts of Saint Simon and Saint Jude, which supercedes the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity. The fires across the county are almost all under control, the weather was cool and slightly overcast. The beautiful weather brought out 20 people.



Dying to Know?
Father Acker is nearing the end, so to speak, of his short series on Death from the Christian Perspective.

The Book of Common Prayer provides a lot of guidance and direction for our lives, it also provides for liturgies or services for almost everything we need and in the oder we need it. If you come to church on Sunday, you are familiar with the service of Holy Communion, many of you are not only familiar with, but actually use the Morning and Evening Prayer services. Near the front of the book and near the end, there are many prayers you can use in your daily life. But there is more. Each of us will go through most of the following, and hopefully mostly in the order presented:

• Joining the church through baptism;
• Learning more about the church;
• Confirming our commitment to the church through confirmation;
• Get married;
• Have children;
• Get sick
Lastly, leave this earth.

The Book of Common Prayer provides for each of these with the following services starting on Page 271:

The Ministration of Holy Baptism
The Offices of Instruction
The Order of Confirmation
The Solemnization of Matrimony
The Thanksgiving after Child-birth
The Visitation of the Sick
The Communion of the Sick
The Burial of the Dead

Take the opportunity to see what has been provided for you; for comfort, as well as edification and praise. You may be amazed.

What about heaven? What can I expect?

CS Lewis describes heaven as a contrast to the here and now, which he refers to as the Shadowlands. His understanding is that life here is merely a shadow of what is to come. “For now we see darkly, as through a glass.”

The most important thing to understand is that we will have everything we are in need of to be truly happy. God has made provision for all our needs and desires. We will be at one with Him. Much is said, much speculated and much read in to what Jesus has said. But remember, He has made the arrangements.

What of purgatory and limbo?

These are concepts not in the Bible, they are ideas and terms made up by people to rationalize what they could not grasp. Jesus tells us, “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”

The problem is I am not perfect, I just don’t measure up.

None of us do. In the Book of Hebrews, we hear, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:”

There will be a judgment, but for Christians when the Father looks upon us he sees the face of His Son—made in the image of Christ. We shall see God and either love what we see or hate what we see. We will enter into his arms or run away.

If you would like a great description of both the sorting process to get in and heaven itself, read The Last Battle, by CS Lewis

Jack Arnold read the Epistle for the Feasts of Saint Simon and Saint Jude, which comes from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, the Second Chapter beginning at the Nineteenth Verse. 

Although addressed to the church in Ephesus, it speaks to all of us. He talks of the unity of the Church. We should no longer view ourselves as of this part or that, but rather all in one brotherhood with our fellow Christians. Jesus built a Church whose foundation are the Apostles and Prophets, of which He is the cornerstone and we are the framing. For the Church to grow into a temple fit for God, we must all work together to hold it up.

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.













The Gospel for the Feasts of Saint Simon and Saint Jude comes from the Gospel of St. John, beginning at the Seventeenth Chapter of the Fifteenth Verse. Jesus tells us to be His follower, we must love one another. Regardless of how the world treats us, our duty is towards our neighbor. Jesus, the prime example, was persecuted to the point of a horrible death, because His goodness threatened the establishment of the Jews. Not because they were Jews, for He was also, but because their allegiance was to the Law, written of man, not to God at whose direction the Law was written. Those who persecuted Him did not want their sin unveiled, they were comfortable hiding behind the veil of the Law.

These things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

Sermon - Rule of Law or Life of Love?
Each of us is as today’s Epistle points out built as a holy temple, a habitation of God; we are, or should be, “fellow-citizens with the saints”, those faithful in Christ gone before.

Jesus is the “head corner-stone”, the perfect block from which the whole building was aligned—every brick, wall, window. From this perfect ordering came the foundation of the Church, the apostles and prophets. The apostles faithfully passed on the Truth, the prophets spoke for God.

Sometimes we think doing the right thing is hard. Sometimes doing something else seems easier. That is only because we do not have the foresight to see what results from doing right and what results from shirking.

When we think of doing right, with the recent fires, bravery comes to mind. Bravery is the term used to describe doing what must be done when you are scared. What must be done, must be done whether or not you are scared. Doing it constitutes bravery,

If you will follow the clear directions God has given us, you will have the Right Stuff to handle your problems:

• Loss of your home
Death of a loved one
• Abuse
• Drugs
Pornography
• Unplanned pregnancy
• Problems
o at home
o at work
o with friends
o with family

It should also be pointed out that a lot of God’s directions will keep you from the aforementioned problems. With His help, with Jesus as the cornerstone in your life—you’re not alone and you are not without direction.

In God’s family we help one another, we do the right thing

Propers for the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity – For those who don’t want to miss anything!
The Epistle for this Sunday (superceded by the joint feast) came from Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians beginning at the Tenth Verse of the Sixth Chapter. Paul asks us to get our strength from the Lord and accept His mighty power, to take all His protection as our armor against the power of darkness. For with His protection, we are truly and completely safe.

M
y brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: praying always with all prayer and supplica-tion in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perse-verance and supplication for all saints; and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

The Gospel was written in the Forth Chapter of the Gospel according to St. John beginning at the Forty-Sixth Verse. John tells the story of a nobleman of Capernaum, who like the faithful centurion, and unlike many in this world, was willing to accept His word.

T
here was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judæa into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death. Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die. Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house. This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judæa into Galilee.

Birthdays and Anniversaries
There were no reported anniversaries today. Today, we celebrated Jack Arnold’s 15th birthday.

After Church Hospitality
Today in honor of Jack’s birthday, Dru Arnold brought a birthday cake. The white cake with cheesecake mousse frosting is Jack’s favorite. Your Beadle also loveth it. The points impaired were reduced to eating nuts.

Command Master Chief Brewer Macauley is back from holiday in Hawaii with his lovely wife Jan and handled the barrista duties like pro he is. Once again, Father Acker got up early enough to make his famous low carb lemonade, a sacrifice much appreciated by your Beadle.

New Nametags
We no new nametags today.

People in our Prayers
If you are on our prayer list, or you have submitted a person for us to pray for, please update Father Acker in person, by telephone or e-mail. It helps to be able to pray specifically for these individuals including their specific needs; plus if they get better, it is good to give thanks!

Travel
Chris, Stephanie, Alex and Andrew are returning from travel this week.
Hap is on travel this week.

Sick or in need of healing
Diane Chase
Muriel Pappin
Fran Dexter
Martha Stevens

Betty Cooke has good days and some not so good. She occasionally gets picked up to go out to lunch from time to time. She and Shilo, her cat, are enjoying the sunshine streaming in her living room as she’s has a makeover going on in her front yard.

Victor – Donna Dingwall’s husband, is recently out of the hospital and is in need of prayer for increased strength. Please pray for his rapid recovery.

Marie “Rede” Acker – Father Acker’s mother broke her good shoulder on 14 July 2007. She is doing very well in her recovery. She is now in her 4th week of major muscle rehab for her shoulder. She and Jack (Father Acker’s dad) are planning to be with the Ackers for Thanksgiving; prayers of thanksgiving are in order.

Evelyn Hunt is doing very well. She was at church last week with her daughter Kathy.
 
Annie Springer did not make it to church this morning. She still has problems with her vision which preclude her from driving right now and Mike is on 12 hour shifts with no days off due to the fire. They are working on stabilizing her diabetes and blood pressure medications. Your continued prayers are asked for stabilization of her medications, as well as improvement of her vision to allow her to return to driving. In addition, please pray for strength for the Springer family.

Lona Walsh (Wanda Michaelis' mother) surgery has been put off.

Miney Farrell was in church week before last. She is doing great. Thanks to Greg Chase, she will in here at least once a month.

Lorraine Winkles is showing small increments of improvement with a prolonged case of shingles. She appreciates our praying for her on Sunday mornings.

Donna Dingwall is doing well enough that she and her family were able to do a bit of travel. Please keep her and her family in your prayers.

Fran has asked us to pray for Betty who had surgery last week. Norm passed away last week. He had been in the ICU the past two weeks. We still have his widow Uni on our prayer list.

Alex, Emilie, and Jordan who will be attending the Junior High Youth Weekend (Oct 26-28th). Alice and Father Acker will be attending as sponsors. Father Acker will be driving back for our Sunday Service.

Father Acker’s neighbor Ellie is doing better recovering from an auto accident that totaled her car. She had already been confined to bed with sever arthritis, back pain, and other medical complications.

San Diego County Fires October 2007
Four years almost to the day after the Cedar Fire of 2003, San Diego County had another series of fires. With about 300,000 acres burned and over half a million people evacuated, the county was widely affected.

As many of you know, Father Acker is a Chaplain with the San Diego County Sheriff’s office. In addition to taking care of his church flock and brokering help for them, he spent the week with the SDSO. He took the time to send out e-bulletins several times each day providing both pictorial and narrative updates of the fire and church members affected. As a congregation, we were very lucky, no one hurt, no homes lost (as of this writing). Marianne Lane seems to have been the only one actually evacuated. Muriel Pappin, Karen Dingwall, the Lizaks, the Macauleys and the Ackers were all close to evacuation one or more times, but the fires were turned back.

Great work Father Acker! Your work distributing information and keeping contact with the parish is much appreciated.

Back Door Lending Library
We have some new Amazing Grace books of several flavors, in addition, there are still several sets of the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis, as well as some background books on the series. There are plenty of sets, so don’t be shy. There are also Annotated Holy Communion Books. These books have the Prayer Book Holy Communion service on the left page and an explanation on the right page. They are a great way to learn about the service. Pick one up when you come in and use it for the service, if you like.

Personal 1928 Books of Common Prayer & Bibles
During his many travels and general rooting around, your Beadle has come across some very nice personal 1928 Prayer Books, including a couple with Hymnals attached and leather bound Bibles. If you would like one, please contact him directly.

Who are Simon and Jude anyway?
Today, 28 October is the feast of two of the apostles, Simon and Jude.

They are little mentioned in the Bible, Simon less than Jude. Their names appear on the various New Testament lists of the Twelve Apostles, the tenth and eleventh places are occupied by Simon the Zealot and by Judas of James.

Some ancient Christian writers say that Simon and Jude went together as missionaries to Persia, and were martyred there. If this is true, it explains, to some extent, our lack of historical information on them and also why they are usually put together.

Simon is not mentioned by name in the New Testament except on these lists. Some modern writers have used his surname as the basis for conjectures associating him, and through him Jesus and all His original followers, with the Zealot movement described by Josephus, a Jewish independence movement devoted to assassination and violent insurrection. However, there were many movements that were called Zealot, not all alike, and Josephus tells us the movement he is describing did not arise until shortly before the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.

Judas (often called Jude in English, but the Greek has Judas) is variously named, but this is not surprising. Before the Crucifixion, there would be a need to distinguish him among the apostles from Judas Iscariot, and after the Crucifixion there would be an additional reason for being emphatic about the distinction.

After the Last Supper it was Jude who asked Our Lord why he chose to reveal Himself only to the disciples. He received the reply: "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."

The ninth name on the lists of Apostles is that of James (the son) of Alphaeus. Although most modern translations render "Judas of James" as "Judas the son of James," there has been a tendency to understand it as "Judas the brother of James" and to assume that these two apostles were brothers. This assumption in turn leads to an identification of the two with the "brothers of the Lord" of the same name. The difficulty with this is that the brothers (at least some of them) did not believe in Jesus until after the Resurrection, and therefore could not have been part of the Twelve.

The New Testament Epistle of Jude was written by "Judas the brother of James," which could refer to either Jude.

In any case, we commemorate on this day (1) Simon the Zealot, one of the original Twelve; (2) Judas of James (also called Thaddaeus or Lebbaeus), also one of the original Twelve; and (3) Jude (or Judas) the brother of James and author of the Epistle, without settling the question of whether (2) and (3) are the same person.

The Epistle of Jude is a brief document addressed to the Church, and warns against corrupt influences that have crept in. It has some obscure and baffling references to old Jewish traditions, but it includes a memorable exhortation to "contend for the faith once delivered to the saints," and an even more memorable closing:

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding great joy, to the only wise God, or Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.


Question that only you can ask
What would you like to know about our history, what we believe, what we do or how we operate? Father Acker is looking for material for the continuing education class and the Beadle is looking for Thought for the Day material. Help us help you. Please send your question to the Beadle so we all can get an answer. Just because you don’t know the answer to your question doesn’t mean you are the only one who doesn’t know. But, if you don’t ask, no one will know.

Missionary Diocese of Viet Nam
If you did not get the initial briefing on the Anglican Missionary Diocese of Vietnam, please look at the Beadle’s Report for 22 July 2007.

Funding for the initial phase is complete. The operation is underway. Bishop Boyce and Father Mai have returned from their meeting in Vietnam with potential candidates.

Father Mai filed this report:

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
 
Thank you for your concerned by pray and support our trip to mission for Vietnam from Oct 4 to 14, 2007. Thank’s God everything’s great; glory to God and bless Vietnamese Christians of House Churches
 
The seminar ran from Sunday 7 October 2007 through Thursday 11 October 2007 at the request of the attendees as they wanted to get back home on Saturday to allow them to take care of their churches on Sunday. Instead of our original 8:00 am to 5:00 pm schedule, we ran a 7:00 am to 8:30 pm. schedule with 15 people participating.
 
The following people full-time attended the program, and interested in applying to with APA are:
 
1. Tan Le M 41 Pastor for 40 Christian members
2. Hue Pham F 52 Student Bible College, Asst Pastor
3. Thien Huynh M 52 Pastor for 1,201 Christian members
4. An Huynh M 38 Asst Pastor
5. Binh Nguyen M 36 Asst Pastor
6. Hoa Nguyen M 40 Asst Pastor
7. Huynh Thang M 22 Asst Pastor
8. Sieu Nhun M 40 Pastor for 220 Christian members
9. Minh Nhay M 32 Pastor for 70 Christian members
10. Hung Nguyen M 51 Pastor for 50 Christian members
11. Trang Nguyen M 22 Asst. Pastor
12. Dieu Binh M 34 Pastor for 270 Christian members
13. Dieu Nua M 56 Asst Pastor
14. Dieu Chot M 39 Asst Pastor
15. Dieu Nghinh M 24 Asst Pastor
16. Thang Phan M 53 Pastor for 200 Christian members; and his 3 Asst Pastor are evangelists in Da Nang (Central of Vietnam)

Total 19 workers who lead 2,811 Christian members would like to join with the APA.

Pastor Ynien Kpor with his Associates are pastoring for 540 Christiansmembers. May not qualified to join with APA.  Because his purpose seems to be financial support more than denominational partnership.     
 
In Christ service,
JBMai+

Now that Bishop Boyce and Father Mai have returned from Vietnam, we will be working on a plan for Phase II. If we it looks like we can move further forward, we will start solicitations for funding this second phase. We note that there is no Book of Common Prayer currently available in Vietnamese. This will be a priority, in addition to funding the new priests and deacons.


Archbishop Chew, of the Province of Southeast Asia, and Bishop Ackerman are planning to meet in November to discuss possible cooperation on the Missionary Diocese of Vietnam.

We invite you to join in the prayers we have been praying each night that:

• The people of Vietnam will not lose their ardor for the church;
• The people here will provide the support they can;
             and where prayer is most needed:
• The church hierarchy will not place roadblocks in the way of the Lord's Work.

Epistle Readers
In response to requests from the congregation and the readers, we will be posting the list of Epistle Readers in the Beadle’s Report from henceforth. This way, you can either plan your attendance or your pre-reading as the spirit so moves you.

Date Reader

4 November 2007 Ben Lizak
11 November 2007 Greg Chase
18 November 2007 Stephanie Boyd
25 November 2007 Jan Macauley
2 December 2007 Dru Arnold
9 December 2007 Hap Arnold
16 December 2007 Jack Arnold
23 December 2007 Alice Acker
30 December 2007 Alex Boyd

Next Sunday
Next Sunday would normally be the Twenty-Second Sunday after Trinity, but it is superceded this year by All Saints Sunday. The pre-service class is back. Father Acker still seems to be dying to get on with Death from the Christian Perspective. If you talk to anyone at today’s service, you will find out the class was fun, hardly expected! Death has no hold over a Christian, death is not to be feared. Through Christ we conquer death. This is an interesting class series. Don’t miss it! Come to church so you won’t want to wait for the Beadle’s Report to find out what happened.

See you next week on Sunday!

Father Acker posts a .pdf version of the current Beadle’s Report on the church website:

http://alpineanglican.com/BeadleReports.htm

An alternative version of the Beadle’s Report without photographs is available at:

http://web.mac.com/thebeadle/iWeb/BeadleBlog/Blog/Blog.html

All back issues of the Beadle’s Reports are available on request from:

thebeadle@mac.com