Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost | August 4, 2024

This Sunday, all are welcome to join us for a morning of worship and fellowship. Whether you are with us in the sanctuary or joining from afar, your presence strengthens our community. Our services are at 8:30 & 10:00 a.m. We warmly welcome those who cannot attend in person to join us via our live stream for the 10:00 a.m. service.

About 15 years or so ago I used to listen to a Detroit-based Gothic country band called Blanche. They had two great records back in the 2000s and then kinda faded away. You can still find their music various places online, but they haven't released an album since 2007, and as far as I know, they are defunct. It's a shame, because they had some really great songs. One line from one of their songs -- I couldn't tell you which anymore -- has really stuck with me though, and the sentiment behind it speaks directly to our discussion topic this week. The line goes something like this: "I dream in sepia." I hints at dreams and thoughts of days gone by, our memory of them faded and obscured but sweetly nostalgic. It's a dream of life as it used to be. In short, the good old days. But when exactly were those? And who exactly were those days good for? Why do we pine for some idealized vision of the past? Not surprisingly, scripture has something to contribute to this conversation. In Ecclesiastes 7:10 the writer (tradition attributes authorship to King Solomon) advises: "Do not say 'Why were the former days better than these?' For it is not from wisdom that you ask this." Why do we often hold this sentiment that the old days were better? Is it sometimes true? Why might the writer of Ecclesiastes suggest that this is not a wise question to ask? And what do you think of when you think of the good old days? That's the focus for our conversation this evening. Join us for the discussion starting at 7pm at Casa Real in downtown Oxford and tell us what you think.

This Sunday, all are welcome to join us for a morning of worship and fellowship. Whether you are with us in the sanctuary or joining from afar, your presence strengthens our community. Our services are at 8:30 & 10:00 a.m. We warmly welcome those who cannot attend in person to join us via our live stream for the 10:00 a.m. service.

Hurricane Helene brought devastating wind and flood damage to several Southeastern states last week. Especially hard hit were communities in the mountains of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina, including the city of Asheville. As of this writing, nearly 90 people have been reported killed across six states, with thousands more displaced. Entire towns have reportedly been "erased" by the power of floods and mudslides, and much of the region remains inaccessible due to destroyed roads and rail lines. With this in mind, it's worth thinking about one of the great stories of suffering that appears in Scripture. Of course, I'm referring to the Book of Job, which we will start reading next week as part of the Sunday lectionary at St. Mary's. As writer and United Church of Christ pastor Bruce Epperly puts it , the Book of Job is "one of the greatest and most challenging descriptions of both God and the human condition. Job is every man, every woman, and every person who faces unexpected and unanticipated life-changing suffering." The Book of Job, Epperly suggests, represents an opportunity for us to think about the phenomenon of suffering -- not just ours but that of others as well -- and what that means for our understanding of our relationship with God. Epperly continues: "Life is difficult. Pain happens. We don’t know its source but we must endure or make the best of it. ... Job invites [us] to reflect on the universality of suffering. ... No one is immune from suffering of body, mind, spirit, or relationships. It’s only a matter of time. Suffering can ennoble or destroy us. We never fully know our character until we face unwarranted and unexpected suffering. As Viktor Frankl suggests, however, we are called to be worthy of our suffering, and that’s one of the themes of Job. Despite his pain, he must seek to be as moral and noble as possible. For Job, this will mean challenging God’s own justice." So what are we to take away from all of this? Is God capricious and arbitrary in his omniscience? We might fear such a God, but how on earth could we love or worship him? What is God's role in the suffering we, and others, experience? This is all worth thinking, and talking about, as Epperly notes, "suffering challenges our vision of God and the goodness of the universe." Join us for the conversation this Tuesday, Oct. 1, beginning at 7pm at Casa Real in downtown Oxford.

This Sunday, all are welcome to join us for a morning of worship and fellowship. Whether you are with us in the sanctuary or joining from afar, your presence strengthens our community. Our services are at 8:30 & 10:00 a.m. We warmly welcome those who cannot attend in person to join us via our live stream for the 10:00 a.m. service.

This Sunday, all are welcome to join us for a morning of worship and fellowship. Whether you are with us in the sanctuary or joining from afar, your presence strengthens our community. Our services are at 8:30 & 10:00 a.m. We warmly welcome those who cannot attend in person to join us via our live stream for the 10:00 a.m. service.

All are welcome and invited to worship with St. Mary’s this Sunday. We have two services, an 8:30 a.m. service in the Church building, and a 10 a.m. service in the Outdoor Chapel. While we would love to see you at the church this morning, we also invite you to participate via our live-stream for our 8:30 service.

All are welcome and invited to worship with St. Mary’s this Sunday. We have two services, an 8:30 a.m. service in the Church building, and a 10 a.m. service in the Outdoor Chapel. While we would love to see you at the church this morning, we also invite you to participate via our live-stream for our 8:30 service.

All are welcome and invited to worship with St. Mary’s this Sunday. We have two services, an 8:30 a.m. service in the Church building, and a 10 a.m. service in the Outdoor Chapel. While we would love to see you at the church this morning, we also invite you to participate via our live-stream for […]