Our Mission
Sharing ourselves and our faith with others...
St. James is a Christian community that welcomes all with respect for
the inherent dignity and value of every person.
We strive to enable spiritual growth through worship, education, outreach, and stewardship for
the purpose of restoring all people to unity with God and each other.
A Message from Father Mac
Rector's Blog
11/14/19
I was beginning to get worried. After the beautiful baptism we witnessed on All Saint's Sunday and after the wonderful welcome and celebration with Canon Curtis and Archdeacon Soukup, I was worried that the confusing and hard to hear Jesus we had been with all summer and early fall had gone.
Well, I am thankful for the reprieve, but it seems that the confusing and hard to hear Jesus is back with us this week. Jesus' words seem out of place. Here they are talking about the beauty and splendor of the Temple and Jesus goes off on persecutions and family strife and all sorts of calamities. I don't think that Jesus is really talking about the Temple, but instead our propensity to misplace our faith. Not to misplace as in losing our faith, but instead to put our faith into things that do not deserve our faith. I think Jesus is asking us why we think the beautiful stones and lovely decor of the Temple means anything. I believe Jesus is confronting our common belief that the physical well-being of a place, or the fiscal security of an institution or a family or a nation, is connected to the favor that institution finds from God.
I have fallen into this trap. When I walked into a beautiful place of worship and I thought, "God must be here." For when God is only present in the beautiful and clean and warm places then we deny the totality of God in all of God's Creation. For God is there at cross, where blood flowed like water, and there at the tomb as a broken body was hastily laid to rest, and God is there when the grief stricken return to the tomb that Easter morn. I think the point is that God is there, everywhere.
Mac+
Rector's Blog
11/14/19
I was beginning to get worried. After the beautiful baptism we witnessed on All Saint's Sunday and after the wonderful welcome and celebration with Canon Curtis and Archdeacon Soukup, I was worried that the confusing and hard to hear Jesus we had been with all summer and early fall had gone.
Well, I am thankful for the reprieve, but it seems that the confusing and hard to hear Jesus is back with us this week. Jesus' words seem out of place. Here they are talking about the beauty and splendor of the Temple and Jesus goes off on persecutions and family strife and all sorts of calamities. I don't think that Jesus is really talking about the Temple, but instead our propensity to misplace our faith. Not to misplace as in losing our faith, but instead to put our faith into things that do not deserve our faith. I think Jesus is asking us why we think the beautiful stones and lovely decor of the Temple means anything. I believe Jesus is confronting our common belief that the physical well-being of a place, or the fiscal security of an institution or a family or a nation, is connected to the favor that institution finds from God.
I have fallen into this trap. When I walked into a beautiful place of worship and I thought, "God must be here." For when God is only present in the beautiful and clean and warm places then we deny the totality of God in all of God's Creation. For God is there at cross, where blood flowed like water, and there at the tomb as a broken body was hastily laid to rest, and God is there when the grief stricken return to the tomb that Easter morn. I think the point is that God is there, everywhere.
Mac+