Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community Inc

The Pumpkin Patch at Grace Episcopal Church in North Asheville is always a sign of the season! THU, OCT 1 Pumpkin Patch for Consider Haiti

Deerfield Family and Friends: Welcome to worship at St. Giles. Please find below the YouTube link, which will connect you to the service for this week. It is a full Holy Communion service with music, Scripture and an excellent sermon from Tonya, based on authority: where it comes from and how we can recognize true authority from false. In this email, you can find below the requested manuscript from last week’s sermon as well. As ever, keep safe and be well in all ways; yours in faith ~ Lin Lwalton@deerfieldwnc.org Thill@deerfieldwnc.org stuartl28803@aol.com St. Giles Worship for September 27, 2020: https://youtu.be/9pkZInvytsY YOUTUBE.COM St Giles Chapel Sept. 27, 2020

There's a new tool to help us slow the spread of COVID-19! Learn how to use it here: https://deerfieldwnc.org/slowcovidnc-app-is-available-now/ DEERFIELDWNC.ORG NCDHHS SlowCOVIDNC App is Now Available | Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community

Food Connection is at Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community. September 21 at 7:12 PM · Ribs, zucchini and squash, fried rice, orzo, pasta, collards, stir fry veg, baked beans, tuna salad, baked beans, gazpacho, carrot soup... Thank you, Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community! All of this surplus food was just dropped off at the Veterans Restoration Quarters by our volunteer, Hope. We continue to believe no fresh food should end up in the trash while people go hungry. Learn more at Food-Connection.org

Deerfield Family and Friends: Welcome to worship at St. Giles. Please find below the YouTube link, which will connect you to the service for this week. It is a full Holy Communion service with music, Scripture, and a sermon based on the Manna in the Wilderness story from Exodus, and the ways in which Jesus used that exodus history to speak further about the power of grace. Enjoy and let us know what is most meaningful for you. (A word of advice: if you watch to the end you will surely be blessed by Stuart’s postlude!) What’s more, the manuscript of Tonya’s sermon from last week can be found below too. And thank you to Dr. Bernard Coleman for his help in making the recording available. Unfortunately, we recorded the service before the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, so no mention is made of her or thanksgiving offered for her life. However, as Rosh Hashanah comes to an end, but the high holy days leading to Yom Kippur continue, may we all take the time to reflect on her truly extraordinary legacy. She had a brilliant, disciplined, and focused mind; was a committed and wise parent of two, and was a loving and devoted spouse. It still absolutely amazes me that she was able to be one of the first women admitted to Harvard Law School, was the mother of an infant while doing so, and then cared for her husband Marty who was severely suffering from cancer, and still performed at the top of her class, and helped Marty to do so as well. There are very few people in the history of the world who could have achieved such a feat. And yet still she could not find a job in a New York law firm because of her gender. But instead of being bitter, she used that personal instance of discrimination as the catalyst to change American law concerning equal rights for women, developing the legal argument that would then be the basis of the fight to extend equal rights to all others in society (racial minorities, gay men and women, etc.) both in America and throughout the world. Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s legacy is unlike any other in American history and we are privileged to both benefit from it and continue to celebrate it! As ever, keep safe and be well in all ways; yours in faith ~ Lin Lwalton@deerfieldwnc.org Thill@deerfieldwnc.org stuartl28803@aol.com St. Giles Worship for September 20, 2020: https://youtu.be/WmZJPeaSUOs Debatable Matters and Forgiveness, September 13, 2020 Romans 14:1-12; Matthew 18:21-35 Rev. Tonya D. Hill JD was a Master of my Home for almost 17 years. Such a love...such a presence. He was born to a feral cat back in the barn at home in 2003. A pack of unruly dogs tried to attack the kittens when they were just a few weeks old. Daddy was able to intervene and run the dogs off. JD was badly injured with his intestines hanging out. At that time, I was not aware of any Veterinarian practice open on Sundays, so I carefully arranged him in a box, hoping this beautiful golden kitty would live through the night. I left him with Dr. Pam the next morning and I'll never forget the phone call an hour later: "Ms. Hill...how much money do you want to spend on this little Kitty????!" Suffice it to say, JD’s presence could never have a price tag attached to him! He was one of those unusual cats who would climb up on you and wrap his front paws around your neck and love on you with purrs and head rubs. However….. JD was not one for compromise. He wanted things his way and he was not up for debates or compromise! And - JD was not the most forgiving cat. A swift….severe…stroke of retaliation from him could be expected if you made him mad. Sometimes the retaliation immediately, or it came in 30 seconds…But most often, his retaliation would come 5 minutes or 15 to 30 minutes later. But trust me! It would come….and then, his anger was over. JD would ultimately forgive, but punishment came before forgiveness was granted! - Pray with me – When Paul talks about whether people eat meat or not, it was nothing to do with today’s issues over whether vegetarianism verses eating meat as a healthier and more ecologically sustainable option. It had nothing to do with animal rights. It had become an issue of religious tradition and faithfulness. Most of the meat available in the markets in Rome came from the Pagan temples. In the temple an animal was slaughtered on the altar as an offering to the gods, hauled out the back door, butchered and sold to the public. Quite often, butcher shops were conveniently located next to a pagan temple. Whether to eat meat that had been dedicated to a pagan god had become a source of debate that had escalated into a full onslaught of conflict. Some history facts probably may help to shed some light on how this fierce debate developed and grew. Five or six years before Paul wrote this letter, the Emperor Claudius had expelled the Jewish population from the city of Rome. Many of the early Christians, including founding leaders, were among those banished from the City. When Claudius was replaced by the Emperor Nero, the Jews came back. The Christian Church in Rome had five years of growth and development without any traditional Jewish influence. To those reared on the strict moral and ritual purity codes of Judaism… the dietary guidelines were an important part of the Jewish life. When the founding leaders and teachers returned to Rome, imagine what they were thinking! What they perceived as acceptance of untraditional customs and guidelines and religious laws were seen as… ‘no big deal’ by Gentile Christians. In the heat of the arguments, the differing opinions….the debatable matters….were turned into questions of moral standards and allegations of spiritual decline. Evidently, the disputes regarding eating and judging one day to be better than another had become rather intense. Paul uses the exhortation to ‘not despise’ those who differ in opinions. Later he asked, ‘why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister?” I have tried to imagine the gossip rounding in the streets. I wonder if the heated arguments escalated into physical actions…perhaps even riots? I wonder if families were divided, friendships were dissolved, and Christians were hesitant to go to corporate worship, because…well, who wants to associate with those people?! We often hear the phrase: history repeats itself. Does this history sound like anything in modern times? Differing politics – differing cultures – differing races – differing social and financial statuses – differing religions – differing denominations – all with natural clear-cut differences of perspectives and guidelines, yet all with debatable issues as well. For many people, we still live in the light of an ‘Us versus Them’ mentality. Abdu Murray author of, Saving Truth: Finding Meaning and Clarity in a Post-Truth World, wrote these words: “We confuse disagreeing with someone's beliefs with disrespecting the person. In fact, we have confused the difference between people and ideas altogether. Where we once used to be able to challenge a person's beliefs without necessarily denigrating that person, we now think that challenging certain beliefs is the same thing as denigrating the person who holds them.” Eugene Peterson offered these questions in thinking about the passage from Romans: Why do people insist on their own way about ‘debatable’ matters? When you are critical, what words and tone do you usually use? When you are being condescending, what facial expression and arm gestures do you use? What does this passage say about why moral superiority is simply silly? I think the scriptures are noticeably clear about some things. Noticeably clear about right and wrong on some things. Noticeably clear on boundaries on some things. And in my opinion, those things can be traced back to the original 10 Commandments….and ultimately to the words of Jesus when he said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind. And the second is, to love your neighbor as yourself. But….my friends, I do not think every issue and every question can be reduced to a right or wrong answer. Many things are debatable. Paul is reminding his readers that God is the judge in these debatable matters. Don’t get caught up in the disagreements so that you lose sight of who you are and more importantly, Who you belong to. You are a forgiven child of God who is called to welcome and love others as God has loved and welcomed you. Is Paul asking everyone to sit around a campfire and sing “Kumbaya”? (I do not think so.) Neither did Paul say anything about forgiving each other, but it seems to me like forgiveness was needed by both sides. Perhaps they needed, as we need today, to be reminded of the lesson on forgiveness that Jesus gave Peter. Forgiveness is not inherently built into our DNA. But I starting t believe that forgiveness, couched in compassion, mercy and love, is God’s DNA. Paul knew that when we understand that all people will eventually stand before the judgment seat of God, we will be able to live with our debatable matters and find solutions to move forward. Paul knew that when we understand that every knee shall bow – every tongue shall give praise to God – and that each of us…not just some of us…each of us will be accountable to God….we will not be so fixated on having our own personal agendas rise above those of others. And in that place of understanding, love will be genuine. There will be no “us vs. them”. In that place of understanding and forgiveness, people will listen to each other. There will be no “my way or the highway”. In that place of understanding and forgiveness, there will be disagreements, but there will be honor and respect for each other. Are we willing to find those places of understanding and forgiveness? They are not just for our political and religious leaders. Those places of understanding and forgiveness are waiting for us every day in our own lives. Like JD, our reactions to debatable matters can be harsh and retaliatory, and then we for a time can be loving and caring and filled with peacemaking. But….I believe the real work – the hard work of forgiveness - is to stay forgiving. I close with these thoughts from Shane Claiborne: “Peace is not just about the absence of conflict; it’s also about the presence of justice. Martin Luther King Jr. even distinguished between “the devil’s peace” and God’s true peace. A counterfeit peace exists when people are pacified or distracted or so beat up and tired of fighting that all seems calm. But true peace does not exist until there is justice, restoration, forgiveness. Peacemaking doesn’t mean passivity. It is the act of interrupting injustice without mirroring injustice, the act of disarming evil without destroying the evildoer, the act of finding a third way that is neither fight nor flight but the careful, arduous pursuit of reconciliation and justice. It is about a revolution of love that is big enough to set both the oppressed and the oppressors free.” + In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, AMEN! YOUTUBE.COM StG 200920

This view is from the Blue Ridge Parkway, not far from Deerfield. We're so grateful for the beauty of the mountains!

Deerfield Family and Friends: Welcome to worship at St. Giles. Please find below the YouTube link, which will connect you to the service for this week. It is a full Holy Communion service with music, Scripture and a sermon based on Jesus’ parable of the Wedding Banquet, and God’s open invitation of amazing grace and real expectation. Also below you will find the Order of Worship for this week’s service, which includes the Prayer for Spiritual Reception, as well as the lessons and hymns for those who are fully able to participate. And finally you will find below the requested sermon manuscript from the previous week. As ever, keep safe and be well in all ways; yours in faith ~ Lin Lwalton@deerfieldwnc.org Thill@deerfieldwnc.org stuartl28803@aol.com St. Giles Worship for October 11, 2020: https://youtu.be/ZR0hqjs_Hsk The 19th Sunday after Pentecost: September 27th, 2020 Prelude & Procession Welcome Hymn 556 (vss 1, 2 & 7) Opening Acclamation and Prayer: BCP 355 Song of Praise: Hymnal S-236 Collect of the Day First Reading: Exodus 32:1-14 Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23 1) Hallelujah! Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, * for his mercy endures forever. 2) Who can declare the mighty acts of the Lord * or show forth all his praise? 3) Happy are those who act with justice * and always do what is right! 4) Remember me, O Lord, with the favor you have for your people, *and visit me with your saving help; 5) That I may see the prosperity of your elect and be glad with the gladness of your people, * that I may glory with your inheritance. 6) We have sinned as our forebears did; * we have done wrong and dealt wickedly. 19) Israel made a bull-calf at Horeb * and worshiped a molten image; 20) And so they exchanged their Glory * for the image of an ox that feeds on grass. 21) They forgot God their Savior, * who had done great things in Egypt, 22) Wonderful deeds in the land of Ham, * and fearful things at the Red Sea. 23) So he would have destroyed them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach,* to turn away his wrath from consuming them. Second Reading: Philippians 4:1-9 Sequence Hymn 679 The Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14 Sermon The Nicene Creed: BCP 358 Prayers of the People The Great Thanksgiving Prayer A: BCP 361 Sanctus: S-129 Fraction Anthem: Christ our Passover: S-154 Prayer of Spiritual Reception Celebrant: Be present, Lord Jesus, as you were present with your disciples; be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts and awaken hope. All: In union with your faithful people gathered at every altar where the Holy Eucharist is now being celebrated, I desire to offer to you praise and thanksgiving. I remember your death; I proclaim your resurrection; I await your coming in glory. Since I cannot receive you today in the sacrament of your Body and Blood, I beseech you to come spiritually into my heart. Cleanse and strengthen me with your grace, Lord Jesus, and let me never be separated from you. May I live in you, and you in me, in this life and in the life to come. Amen (From The Prayer Book for the Armed Forces, 2008 Edition) Post Communion Prayer: BCP365 Recessional Hymn 618 (vss 1, 3 & 4) Postlude Doing the Right Thing, When No One Else Is Looking Fr. Lin Walton Almost everyone is at least familiar with the 10 Commandments. But it never hurts to hear them again. You shall have no other gods before the Lord your God. You shall not make for yourself an idol. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God. You shall remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy. You shall honor your father and your mother. You shall not murder, commit adultery, steal, lie or covet your neighbor’s possessions. And then finally, you shall do to the rest of creation, only that which you would wish done to you. (Actually, that last one is my own commandment, which I am presently in discussion with higher authorities to be included as the 11th!) But the question you might be wondering about is: What made the original 10 Commandments so unique in their own day, that we would still hold them in such high regard in our own? Certainly the prohibition against worshiping images would have seemed quite strange in the ancient world, as prolific as the little carvings were. Keeping the Sabbath as a holy day on which not even servants or farm animals or non-citizens were allowed to work, would have been equally unprecedented in its time and place. And perhaps strangest of all would have been the final prohibition against desiring another's property. But what may have been most unique when making a covenant in ancient societies, or laying out a set laws to govern a people by, was that of all these demands, these 10 commandments, there were no concomitant punishments set forth if the commandments were violated. At least they weren’t to begin with. The 10 commandments simply begin by reminding the people of what God had already done for them, and therefore surely they would want to follow them in return. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.” In other words, to my interpretation, the heart of the law is focused on life and redemption, and not on retribution and death, and that makes an enormous difference, at least it should. So no wonder this unique set of commandments is still so prominent today. But did you know the most prominent may be right here in North Carolina? I doubt many of you are familiar with Ambrose Jessup Tomlinson, the Smokey Mountains very own modern day saint. Tomlinson went to the Smokies to hand out Christian tracts to the local people, hoping to convert them. Instead, Tomlinson himself was changed after he experienced a vision on a mountaintop. He then took over the fledgling Church of God of Prophecy, which today boasts more than 700,000 members. Curiously, Tomlinson chose to commemorate his vision of the Church of God of Prophecy, by founding the successful religious theme park called, Fields of the Woods, which is one of the oldest theme parks of its kind in the country, and one of North Carolina’s most lucrative tourist attractions. The main draw of the park is no doubt the massive 10 Commandments, the world’s largest, built on a hillside with concrete letters five feet tall and four feet wide. Among the other attractions are “the world’s largest altar, a concrete structure 80 feet long erected where Tomlinson prayed, and the world’s largest New Testament, an open concrete Bible 30 feet tall and 50 feet wide.” Besides just enormous religious symbols, though, the park also boasts a baptismal pool available to be used for summer baptisms, a re-creation of Golgotha, “the place of a skull,” where Jesus was said to be crucified, and a re-creation of Jesus’ tomb. And just in case all this hiking up huge religious monuments, and exploring replicas of sacred burial sites, gets the visitor hungering for righteousness, or something else, nearby is the Burger Mountain Cafe where a visitor can snack on homemade fudge and all other sorts of delights (https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/fields-woods). Well, I suppose the point is, how strange that the concluding commandment of the 10 is not to covet another person's property, or the wealth they somehow are able to accumulate, when so much of American capitalism and consumerism is based on and encourages just that. It still seems we have a long way to go in following these commandments. So perhaps it's a good thing that they are still so prominently displayed. On a more serious note though, while it's not exactly a commandment, I'm sure you've heard the proverb, “When the cat's away the mice will play,” which like any good proverb or commandment is just as relevant today as it ever was. The saying actually goes back to medieval times, when it was known in Latin, “When the cat sleeps the mouse leaves its whole rejoicing.” But it could just as easily be put today, “When the parents of teenage children go away on a trip, the children call their friends to throw a party.” Or, “When the boss is away, the workers come in late, take twice as long at lunch, and stay late to finish their game of solitaire.” Or, “When the teacher steps away from the lunchroom, the children start a spit ball fight.” Yes, we all know the truth of this proverb. But it's a little strange when Jesus uses a version of it in this morning's Gospel parable, saying in essence, when the land owner is away the tenants play and much worse. Because clearly the parable is an allegory, and the vineyard owner is meant to be understood as God. But the question that keeps coming to my mind is, why would God be away? And I'm not sure there is a sufficient answer. But, the truth is, sometimes God does feel distant. Sometimes God feels distant personally, like when we're going through our own crisis. Sometimes God feels distant when our society is struggling with something like a pandemic, or a natural disaster, or even the transfer of power by its supposed leaders. And sometimes God feels distant because the people, who claim to be closest to God, are the very ones acting the most reprehensibly. And so whether or not God really is distant, or it is just our perception, the question is how will we respond? How do we respond when there is no one watching whether we are following the 10 commandments or not, or being faithful to the covenants we have made, the parable seems to imply? We have to remember that the key to the context of the parable of the Wicked Tenants, is that Jesus is not speaking to the people in telling them this parable. He is speaking to the authorities, both religious and civil, which were usually one and the same in that day. And it is so important to notice that Jesus finishes his allegory of the wicked tenants, and then asks the authorities themselves, “Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” And it is those authorities who resort to the answer, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.” This is their answer and not Jesus’. In fact, right after this Jesus himself will not simply speak but demonstrate with his life what he believes the answer is, as he suffers at their hands as predicted. His freedom will be stolen from him, false testimony will be made against him, and he will be murdered. He will be rejected in the worst imaginable way and there will be punishment. A punishment of their own making. For those who live by the sword die by the sword. Those who answer violence with more violence will get an endless cycle of violence. Yes, those who reject Jesus and the way of love, will suffer the kingdom of God will be taken away, and given to a people that produces the fruits of the peaceable kingdom. The one who falls on this stone of justice will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls. Yes, this will all quite organically occur, and perhaps it seems presently to be happening now. But as Jesus's people all these years later, with all our experience, can we not do better? Do we really require the threat of punishment? Is eternal damnation really necessary? Yes, TS Eliot prophetically wrote, the greatest act of treason is to do the right thing for the wrong reason. But can we ever do the right thing for the right reason? Can we simply do the right thing because God has liberated us too, like God freed the Israelites, and has brought us into the Promised Land as well? Because God gave God’s only son to the end that all that believe in him and his way of love should not perish but have everlasting life. In other words, can we do the right thing when no one else is looking, even when God seems to have gone off somewhere? Even when God is distant? Do we possess that kind of religious, moral, and spiritual integrity? As CS Lewis put it, “Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching.” Or I would put it this way. May we be persons of integrity because the Lord our God has brought us out of the house of bondage, and has freed us from our own self-destructive sins, and freely given us the Promised Land. Because God has made a covenant with you, a covenant that is something like a marriage. A covenant based on mutual love and not fear or coercion. As Moses said to the people in this morning’s reading, Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you. And to put the awe of him in your heart. So that you do not sow your own destruction. Yes, my friends, awe for God, and not fear of God, are two very different things. And I believe that different view of God is what allows us to freely walk forward in faith and not in fear. And is there anything more needed today, just as it was in years past, than that? I for one cannot imagine a single thing more important now! ATLASOBSCURA.COM Fields of the Woods

Looking for a New Career? Look no further, apply today, and join a winning team! $2000 sign-on Bonus and other Incentives for Full & Part Time RN/LPN’s $1000 sign-on Bonus and other Incentives for Full & Part Time C N A’s Low patient ratio per employee We offer a generous benefits package including Medical, Dental, Pharmacy, 403b & PTO Plus, other great benefits! Healthcare, Maintenance, Housekeeping, and Dining positions are now available. https://deerfieldwnc.org/careers/ DEERFIELDWNC.ORG Job Opportunities | Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community

Celebrating #Oktoberfest at Deerfield captured by Senior Dining Association! Read more here: https://seniordining.org/senior-dining-news/f/a-taste-of-germany%E2%80%A6to-go

We're "virtually" brimming with determination! Stay tuned as we get ready for our Holiday Craft Market (online). We'll keep you posted. See more details here: https://deerfieldwnc.org/a-virtual-holiday-craft-market/

Smoky Mountain Brass Quintet Traveling around to our apartment buildings today for mini concerts. 

Jason Boyer WLOS October 2 at 12:48 PM · This morning’s (chilly) view from Clingmans Dome, Smoky Mountains. It’s 29 degrees there (as of 8am). Many in #WNC will experience frost tonight! #wncwx #tnwx #ncwx #news13

Today is a gorgeous day for #pickleball! We have some first-timers out here with great instruction.

Jose Duarte strikes again with his awesome carving talents. Check out his latest creation in the Community Center lobby.

All Saints’ Sunday, November 1st, 2020 Receiving Names until This Thursday, Oct. 29th, 5:00pm Annually on All Saints’ Sunday, we take the opportunity to remember family and friends at Deerfield who have passed on in the previous year, by lifting up their names and memories in the Sunday service. In addition, we are also happy to include the names of loved ones who have died outside the Deerfield community – those still near to our hearts from years past. All names, memories, and stories are welcome! If you have a loved one you would like to have included, Please reply to my email address: Lwalton@deerfieldwnc.org

Looking for a New Career? Look no further, apply today! Maintenance, Housekeeping, and Dining positions are now available. Healthcare offers: $2000 sign-on Bonus and other Incentives for Full & Part-Time RN/LPN’s and $1000 sign-on Bonus and other Incentives for Full & Part-Time C N A’s We offer a generous benefits package including Medical, Dental, Pharmacy, 403b & PTO Plus, other great benefits! Low patient ratio per employee https://deerfieldwnc.org/careers/ DEERFIELDWNC.ORG Job Opportunities | Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community

It's such a beautiful time of the year!

The beacon of hope has arrived at Deerfield! We are vaccinating residents!

Good-morning Deerfield Family and Friends: Please use this YouTube link (https://youtu.be/_6U3hWGPsxU) to be connected to the Sunday service, which is also available on Deerfield Channel 900 beginning at 10:00am. It is a full Holy Communion service with music, Scripture and sermon. Also below you will find the Order of Worship. And finally please find the sermon manuscript for this week’s sermon, which speaks about what genuine leadership should look like, and the COVID vaccination as a form of faith and love. Continued blessings for a happy New Year, Lwalton@deerfieldwnc.org Thill@deerfieldwnc.org stuartl28803@aol.com The First Sunday after the Epiphany (YouTube link) for January 10th, 2021: https://youtu.be/_6U3hWGPsxU The First Sunday after the Epiphany, Jan. 10th, 2021 Prelude, Procession & Welcome Hymn 119 (vss 1-3) Opening Acclamation and Prayer BCP 355 The Gloria: S-280 Collect of the Day First Reading: Genesis 1:1-5 Psalm 29 1 Ascribe to the Lord, you gods, * ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. 2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his Name; * worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. 3 The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders; * the Lord is upon the mighty waters. 4 The voice of the Lord is a powerful voice; * the voice of the Lord is a voice of splendor. 5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedar trees; * the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon; 6 He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, * and Mount Hermon like a young wild ox. 7 The voice of the Lord splits the flames of fire; the voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; * the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. 8 The voice of the Lord makes the oak trees writhe * and strips the forests bare. 9 And in the temple of the Lord * all are crying, "Glory!" 10 The Lord sits enthroned above the flood; * the Lord sits enthroned as King for evermore. 11 The Lord shall give strength to his people; * the Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace. Second Reading: Acts 19:1-7 Sequence Hymn 448 (vss 1-3) The Gospel: Mark 1:4-11 Sermon The Nicene Creed BCP 358 Prayers of the People The Great Thanksgiving: Prayer A BCP 361 Sanctus: S-129 Fraction Anthem: S-154 Prayer of Spiritual Reception Celebrant: Be present, Lord Jesus, as you were present with your disciples; be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts and awaken hope. All: In union with your faithful people gathered at every altar where the Holy Eucharist is now being celebrated, I desire to offer to you praise and thanksgiving. I remember your death; I proclaim your resurrection; I await your coming in glory. Since I cannot receive you today in the sacrament of your Body and Blood, I beseech you to come spiritually into my heart. Cleanse and strengthen me with your grace, Lord Jesus, and let me never be separated from you. May I live in you, and you in me, in this life and in the life to come. Amen Post Communion Prayer BCP365 Recessional Hymn 135 Postlude To Be Loved and Be Love as God’s Beloved Fr. Lin Walton 1 Epiphany 2021 As a priest, when I am moving around the Asheville community, people often ask me how I like working at a place like Deerfield? Actually, sometimes people ask me that right here in our community too. And what they really mean to ask is: don't I get tired of it? Don't I get tired facing death all the time. Don't I get tired of all the memorial services. Don't I miss parish ministry. Working with people of all ages, the chance to celebrate weddings, listen to a children's choir, and of course do baptisms. And my answer is, yes, sometimes I do get tired. Sometimes I miss parish ministry. But for me there is something more important. And if they truly seem interested I usually explain it something like this. Church ministry, regardless of where it takes place, whether a small church or large church or a cathedral, in a rural setting or urban or suburban, is often very isolating. It can be awfully lonely. People simply treat clergy differently, as something other, with a lingering sense of ambiguity. But at Deerfield it isn't that way usually. Here I get to be on a team. I am just one of 10 department managers or senior staff. And in better days before the pandemic, we all sit around the board room table on Tuesday afternoons at three o'clock, with Bob Wernet as our leader, and we really do resemble a band of disciples, minus Judas of course! But, my point is this morning is, each one of us understands that when Bob calls on us we had better be ready to respond. When Bob calls to tell us that bad weather has moved in and not all the supporting staff has been able to make it to work, can we come to help out, we are expected to go. If we are short on grounds keeping staff, we better be ready with our snow shovel. If short on dining services, then we better be ready to grab our aprons. If short on housekeeping, then we better be ready with our toilet bowl brush, or plunger, or whatever the job requires. That is what it means to be part of a team. And what’s more, we know that Bob himself will be out there doing it too. That's what true leadership looks like, in stark contrast to what we have been witnessing elsewhere in our society I’m afraid. So when we come to this morning's gospel lesson, there we find Jesus waiting in line with everybody else; waiting in line with all of the unclean, the outcast, and the sinners; waiting to be baptized by John. Now, this is no scene of religious purity. This isn't a sparkling clean baptismal pool in a beautiful church sanctuary. This is the Jordan River. One of the dirtiest, muddiest, rivers around, which today because of the way we have treated God’s creation, is also drought stricken area and nearly runs dry in some places. And yet here we find Jesus. Not because he needs to be baptized. But because we need it. Because we need him to show us what ministry truly looks like. And yet getting one’s hands dirty with everyone else, or body as the case may be, isn’t all there is to genuine leadership or true ministry. There must be more. As Archbishop Becket said to the king’s soldiers, in TS Eliot’s play Murder in the Cathedral, just as the soldiers were about to carry out their orders to kill the Archbishop for standing up to the king’s acts of injustice: “The greatest act of treason, is to do the right thing, for the wrong reason.” * * * Now, allow me to switch gears for a moment and steer things back around in the end. Think, if you will, about the best opening words that have ever written, or first lines of literature, which of course are meant by the author to set the tone for the entire piece of work to follow, to be both evocative and provocative at the very same time. Simple to say but very difficult to achieve. And yet you already know the most successful ones, at least in the so-called Western tradition, because they have imbedded themselves in your consciousness. See if these words don’t still ring eerily true. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities Or these prophetic opening lines from George Orwell’s 1984: “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” Or the most amusing opening line I know of: “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Or the fabulous: “Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board.” Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God So how much more vital for our lives, then, are the opening words of our own sacred text, not only when written years ago but still living today, which we heard read as our first lesson for Epiphany Sunday. “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good…” In actuality, however, the Hebrew doesn’t say that the earth was a “formless void.” Instead the Hebrew says that the earth was literally “tohu va vohu;” tohu va vohu which is a nonsensical play on words meaning the earth was a mish-mash; a hodge-podge; or in one of my favorite phrases, it was cattywampus. The original Hebrew could be read… First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see. And Earth was a soup of wild and waste, tohu va-vohu, a bottomless emptiness, an inky nothingness…And God’s breath brooded like a bird above the watery abyss (paraphrase of multiple translations). In other words, it was utter chaos. And so it was the light of God which brought form and order and meaning to things. And God's order, as revealed in the Christian tradition through Jesus, is love. Yes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were created through him, and without him not one thing was created. What was created in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the tohu va vohu, and the chaos will not overcome it.” But God’s created order is not just any kind of love. With Valentine's Day a little over a month away, I oftentimes say, we follow not the heart-shape love of popular culture. We follow the cross-shaped love of Jesus Christ. It is the kind of love based on self-sacrifice. The kind of love that stands in line with everybody else. But even more the kind of love that lays down one's life for one's friends. And you and I have the opportunity to show this kind of love right now. * * * Yes, I do mean to say, the way we can follow this form of love today is by continuing to be vigilant. To think of others before we think of ourselves. To give up our independence for the sake of others’ health. To continue to wear our masks, to wash our hands, to keep our social distance, and now to get vaccinated. It is not always easy in the life of faith to understand how to be God's love to others. But sometimes we are given very clear opportunities. This is after all the season of Epiphany, the season of light, the season of revelation, the season of clarity. And I believe in this season we have been given a very clear opportunity by God to be that kind of love to ourselves and those around us and it should not be missed. There may be a very small number who can't be vaccinated for medical reasons. But by far the majority of us can. And we need to encourage those around us to get vaccinated as well. It only works when we all do it together as a team. If Jesus can stand in line with everyone else then so can we. It is a very clear form of ministry that we can follow. It is a type of love. So hearing again those words from God, as Jesus came up out of the waters of the river, “You are my son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Yes, we too have been created, baptized, and blessed with the Spirit, and you are God’s beloved, with whom God is well pleased. So be loved, and be love, to your loved ones and all those around you!

Good Morning from the Butterfly Garden in Healthcare. Thank you Cindy Clampett

Happy New Year Deerfield Family and Friends! Please use this YouTube link (https://youtu.be/jHYTlndZeVw) to be connected to the Sunday service, which is also available on Deerfield Channel 900 beginning at 10:00am. For this Sunday, it is a simplified service with Scripture, sermon, and prayers only. We will be back to full strength next Sunday. As ever, keep safe and be well, and let us hear from you ~ Lwalton@deerfieldwnc.org Thill@deerfieldwnc.org stuartl28803@aol.com The Second Sunday after Christmas (YouTube link) for January 3rd, 2021: https://youtu.be/jHYTlndZeVw YOUTUBE.COM St Giles Chapel 1.3.21