 St Alban’s Episcopal Church Bolivar, Missouri Thursday, June 16, 2022 Psalm 22:18-27 Galatians 3:23-29  Increasing COVID numbers In Polk County, the numbers of positive COVID tests have again increased. We do have people in our town and county who have become sick with COVID. If you have any symptoms, please do not assume you only have a cold or summer allergies. Get tested. In the meantime, please make sure you are vaccinated boosted and if you are old enough or have immune system concerns, that you get the second booster as well. If you are comfortable coming to church without a mask, and are fully boosted, feel free to do so unless you have ANY symptoms. However, we urge anyone who is at all uncomfortable to wear a mask indoors at church as well as in grocery stores or anywhere else where you will be in close contact with others.  Galatians 3:23-39 Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. This will be Paula Shepard’s sermon text. You might think about this some before Sunday. Who are the, “all of you?” And what does it mean to say that “there is no longer Jew or Greek…slave or free…male or female?”  Psalm 22:18-27 Be not far away, O Lord; you are my strength; hasten to help me. Save me from the sword, my life from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion’s mouth, my wretched body from the horns of wild bulls. I will declare your Name to my brethren; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you. Praise the Lord, you that fear him; stand in awe of him, O offspring of Israel; all of you of Jacob’s line give glory. For he does not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty; neither does he hide his face from them; but when they cry to him, they hear him. My praise is of him in the great assembly; I will perform my vows in the presence of those who worship him. The poor shall eat and be satisfied, and those who seek the Lord shall praise him: “May your heart live for ever!” All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall bow before him. For kingship belongs to the Lord; he rules over the nations. Notice this The psalmist is in trouble. He is suffering. He is begging God for rescue, for deliverance. But he does not withhold his trust until God acted; “My praise is of him in the great assembly; I will perform my vows in the presence of those who worship him.”  |
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