 St Alban’s Episcopal Church Bolivar, Missouri Friday, August 25, 2023 There’s a mess in the church -Be careful! Sunday’s readings – Isaiah 51:1-6, Psalm 138, Romans 12:1-8, Matthew 16:13-20 A MESS in the building! Last Monday Kristi Webb, the children’s therapist arrived to see clients and found the office carpet wet, the light cover on the floor and broken, and water dripping from the ceiling. The ceiling in the women’s bathroom was also leaking. That’s how we discovered that the air conditioning unit on this side of the church was faulty, and then found that there was water on floor upstairs, too. The Church Insurance Company sent a restoration company right away. And they have been hard at work every day this week. We don’t know exactly when the leak started, since the room hadn’t been used in a week before it was discovered, and water was likely seeping into the insulation in that ceiling for some time before that – unnoticed, since the a/c was still working. This is what it looks like now. Furniture is in the parish hall. Carpet has been torn out. Ceiling is gone. All insulation in that office and the women’s bathroom has been pulled out – moldy and that area from the women’s bathroom to the exit has been blocked off by plastic sheets and a huge hot fan is still drying the area. There’s going to be a lot to repair. The main part of the church is fine and cool – but don’t plan to come back towards the church office either! It’s hot as blazes in here! Grateful for insurance… grateful that it happened this week and not next week as we have events coming up. And grateful for Janet Wray who was the first person to arrive with her shop vac after I asked for help, before we knew how really bad it was – and for Becca Cox who has been the cheerful point person for insurance, restoration company and the a/c company which will send men to come on next Tuesday to figure out what to do about the aging and ailing air conditioner.  That office is currently unusable – as is the women’s bathroom.   DO NOT USE the side door to enter the building – You wont be able to go anywhere!  Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness, you that seek the Lord. Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, but I blessed him and made him many. For the Lord will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song. Listen to me, my people, and give heed to me, my nation; for a teaching will go out from me, and my justice for a light to the peoples. I will bring near my deliverance swiftly, my salvation has gone out and my arms will rule the peoples; the coastlands wait for me, and for my arms they hope. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and those who live on it will die like gnats; but my salvation will be forever, and my deliverance will never be ended.  I appeal to you, therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable – and perfect. For my the grace give me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one in the body of Christ, and individually we are members of one another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophesy, in proportion to faith; ministry in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.  When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. “He said to them, :But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah! For flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but my father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.   |
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