St. Joe's Dispatch | May 2, 2025
I. From the Desk of the Vicar
Dearests -
Most Sundays of the year, we read two Old Testament readings in church: a psalm, and, before the psalm, a reading from another Old Testament book — from Genesis, say, or from Isaiah, or (very occasionally) from Song of Songs. But during the fifty-day season of Easter, the lectionary replaces the first Old Testament reading with a reading from Acts of the Apostles, which is an intimate record of God’s leading of the followers of Jesus in the first years after the resurrected Jesus ascends to heaven.
Every year, I struggle to receive the lectionary’s decision to give us Acts during Eastertide. I don’t love the move to Acts for two reasons. First, I regret losing an Old Testament reading. Second, given that most of Acts is set after Pentecost — after the day on which the Holy Spirit comes to the early Christians in a particularly focused way and thereby confects the church — I wish we would read Acts, annually, after our own celebration of Pentecost. During the Easter season, we are focused on dwelling with the resurrected Lord. It doesn’t make much intuitive sense to me to read during Eastertide about the life the early Christians lived after the resurrected Lord ascended into Heaven. Or put differently: Acts considers how to live without the embodied presence of Jesus and with the presence of the Holy Spirit, so why not read Acts after Ascension (which we celebrate on the fortieth day of Easter) and after Pentecost (which we celebrate on the fiftieth day after Easter Sunday — the word “Pentecost” just means “fiftieth”)? It seems like, with these Eastertide Acts readings, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
So every year I feel displeased by the lectionary’s shift to Acts, and every year, given that we’re stuck with Acts during Easter, I try to find some meaning in it.
Here’s this year’s best stab at feeling edified, and not only irritated:
It’s traditional to baptize people at the Easter Vigil. This year, Izzy was baptized at the St. Joe’s Vigil—and I found myself thinking, after Fr. Lachlan doused Izzy with baptismal water, about the leap we’d make, during Eastertide, into Acts. There’s something appropriate about reading Acts in the weeks following a church’s celebration of baptism — for at a baptism, people are made new Christians and brought into the church (and the rest of us, through the renewal of our baptismal vows, are liturgically reinscribed into the beloved community). Acts shows the first Christians’ learning to share material possessions and to heal in Jesus’ name; it shows their proclaiming the Gospel to anyone who wants to hear it; and Acts generally shows their learning how to be Christians in a world in which Jesus no longer fleshly is — which is all to say that with Acts, we refresh our imagination of what it means to be part of the church. I wonder what St. Joe’s might listen for and hear in Acts — about the church that we are, and the church we are to be.
This thought — that it’s appropriate, after Easter Vigil baptisms, for us to read Acts, and rediscover what belonging to the church might come to — helps me feel more at ease about the timing of our Sunday Acts-attentions.
What helps me feel (marginally) better about the temporary loss of an Old Testament reading is a redescription of our first Sunday reading: rather than my saying “on Sundays, we usually read the Old Testament, but sometimes we replace it with Acts,” I might say “on Sundays, our first reading typically offers a narrative depiction, an intimate depiction, of how God is with God’s people — how God is with Israel, and then how God is with the church.” This redescription helps me see continuity in our annual reading cycle, and helps me approach Sunday’s first Scripture reading — whehter it’s from Acts or from Genesis — with curiosity about how God is with God’s people — and that curiosity is not merely historical (how was God with the children of Israel when they wandered in the wilderness? how was God with the first Christians as they tried to figure out how to be Christian community?) but also lively and present-day: how is God with us?
In our upcoming readings from Acts, we’ll hear, among other things, about people who have experienced conversion — people who have been turned toward Jesus, or turned toward the God of Israel through and in Jesus: this Sunday, we’ll read the famous story of Paul’s encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus; on later Sundays of Eastertide, we’ll hear of the baptism of Lydia and her whole household, and the conversion of a jailer. And we’ll hear of Peter, not newly converted to the faith, of course, but having his vision of what the faith comes to dramatically expanded. All these stories show people offering themselves to new understandings — of God, of the world, of what God is calling them to in the world. To what new understandings will I open myself this Easter season? To what new understandings will you open yourself? To what might we be opened as a community?
I await the discovery of those openings.
With love,
Vicar Lauren
II. Announcements
Sampler of Sermons from St. Joe’s * Some of our sermons will now be available on our website.
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Three-part discussion of Spiritual Practices for Resilience and Resistance * at the vicar’s house, May 26, June 5, and June 16, from 7:00 to 8:30 pm.
Weeping. Praying for those in peril. Lamenting. These are practices that Christians have taken up, especially in times of violence or political unrest, for centuries — and they are practices that many of us have been moved toward in recent months. This May and June, the Vicar will lead three conversations about spiritual practices that connect us and our concerns to God, that nourish us to endure long seasons of disquiet, and that empower us to be agents of resistance in the world. We’ll consider what the deep tradition of Christian fasting has to say about how we manage our news intake. We’ll consider what the psalmist shows us about weeping, lamenting, and praying about our enemies. And throughout all these discussions, we’ll be trying to thread connections between practices of social and political resistance and more interior practices of Godward attention.
Only three sessions have been designated for this discussion, but it is the Vicar’s hope that these three sessions will deepen relationships among us so that some core group of people may find itself coalescing around the questions “How, then, do we want to continue in a path of deeper spiritual practice?” and “To what practices of resistance in the world might God be calling us as a community?” and “How can we support one another in a season when resilience feels scarce and exhaustion threatens?”
You are welcome to join into one, two or all three sessions in May and June. Questions? Email Vicar Lauren.
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Newcomers’ Soiree * Tonight, 5:00-7:00, at the vicar’s. We hope anyone is new or newish to St. Joe’s will join us, and we also hope many who are not so new will join — exactly so that newer folks can meet some people who have been part of St. Joe’s a bit longer. All are welcome! Questions? Email Lauren Norton.
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Spring Family event * Tuesday, May 6, 4:30-6:00 pm at the Barton-Philips home. All families with young children are invited to a time of fellowship, play, breaking bread, and conversation about children’s ministry. RSVP to Deacon Kelly.
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Casserole bake * Wednesday, May 7, 6:30 pm in the Parish House. Questions? Email Fr. Lachlan.
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Prison Visitation, North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women * Friday, May 9, 10:35-12:45 pm. Interested in learning more about how St. Joe’s is involved in prision ministries? Email Deacon Jan.
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Parish Workday * Saturday, May 24, 10:00 am-2:00 pm at the church. Questions? Email Isaac Lund.
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Migrant God book conversation with Isaac Villegas * Tuesday, June 10, 7:00-8:30 pm at Vicar Lauren’s home. Questions? Email Vicar Lauren.
III. Art
IV. April Vestry highlights
Behind-the-Scenes Endeavors: mold remediation project, recording sermons for website, property inventory for insurance, safety committee, recouping of sales tax, new software for parish administration
Staff Summer Vacations: Our entirely part-time staff will be taking well-earned time off this summer. As a result, temporary folks may be stepping in to fill the gaps. Please be patient and understanding as St. Joe's operates with less than a full crew during the summer.
Care and Support Ministry: Vestry identified the need for a system to support each other during challenging times (illness, grief and loss, family support, etc), and to increase our ministry of lay eucharistic visitation, taking communion to individuals unable to attend church.
V. Community Events
Spring Fling at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church * Saturday, May 3, 7:00 am- 12 pm. Beautiful plants, and many other treasures. All proceeds go to Durham nonprofits.
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Grace Community Farmers Market * Saturday, May 10 from 1:00-4:00 pm at Grace Lutheran Church (906 N. Buchanan Blvd). Grace runs the market to support Black farmers, and provide free fresh food to the food-insecure of Durham’s Walltown neighborhood and the Durham Early Head Start. Eight vendors will be selling vegetables, meats, teas, mushrooms, baked goods, jams, honey.