38John said to him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us." 39But Jesus said, "Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. 40Whoever is not against us is for us. 41For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.

42"If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. 43If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. 47And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, 48where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.

49"For everyone will be salted with fire. 50Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."

Mark 9:38-50

Healing Hands

McMURRY, Leonard

Sculpture, free-standing

1980

Oral Roberts University

Tulsa, Oklahoma

United States

 

https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/diglib-fulldisplay.pl?SID=20210924994042930&code=ACT&RC=56635&Row=6

 

 

 

 

 

… It is not only the living

who are killed in war.

~ Isaac Asimov

 

 

Never lose an opportunity to see anything that is beautiful.

It is God’s handwriting - a wayside sacrament.

Welcome it in every fair face, every fair sky, every fair flower.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ray Yoshioka enjoying his food in Kamakura, Japan.

 

 

Rowdy Rotarians at Center Stage

Tuesday, September 21, 2021

Brenda Jansen, Bob Bradley, Hanna Holt, Annette Bradley

 

 

We even had a sneak preview as the players rehearsed for FIDDLER ON THE ROOF.

 

 

Immersive Van Gogh Alive

Thursday, September 23, 2021

 

Anna Marie Nelson in Van Gogh’s room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sunflower Room

 

 

We had lunch at Cafe Mercato at Lowry

 

 

Holly and Jeff Brekke had a reception for new Rotarians

on their party deck Thursday evening.

 

 

Reception for our Painted Toe members at Foothills Art Center on Friday morning.

 

 

The elk have been busy keeping us awake during the nights!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things turn out best for the people who make the best

of the way things turn out.

~ John Wooden



 

 

 

 

 

 

September 26, 2021   Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost 

                        Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B

 

Previous OPQs may be found at:

 

 

13Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. 14Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. 17Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.

19My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, 20you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner's soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

James 5:13-20

 

Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein

Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org

 

 

 

 

 

(Presbyterians Sharing Sunday)

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22 and Psalm 124 

OR

Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29 and Psalm 19:7-14

James 5:13-20

Mark 9:38-50

 



 Psalm 124 puts it this way: If we rely on anything other than God, we are lost. God is on the side of the powerless, calling us to care for and to protect those who are in need.

Summary

Jesus’ response to John’s report of the wayward healer shows how he draws people to himself by encouraging the good in them instead of only rebuking the evil. This is a helpful example of how the church ought to approach the splintered traditions, spiritualisms, and false theologies of the modern world.

Those earnestly convinced of Jesus’ power, but who walk apart from his church, are to be commended for their fruits first which will open a way to inform them of their faults. This is the same spirit in which Prisca and Aquila mentored Apollos, who submitted to their instruction.

However, one should not read a casual attitude toward spiritual allegiance into Jesus’ advice. Augustine points out that verse 40, “he who is not against us is for us” ought to be read alongside Luke 11:23, “he who is not with me is against me.” The “us” vs. the “me” is significant, since it is not right to make use of the power of the name of Christ without submitting oneself to his person.

Ultimately, everyone must pledge allegiance to Christ, but this is no reason to make enemies needlessly among those who are inclined not to revere him.

 

 

First Reading Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22

1So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. 2On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, "What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled." 3Then Queen Esther answered, "If I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me — that is my petition — and the lives of my people — that is my request. 4For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace; but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king." 5Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, "Who is he, and where is he, who has presumed to do this?" 6Esther said, "A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!" Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.

9Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, "Look, the very gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, stands at Haman's house, fifty cubits high." And the king said, "Hang him on that." 10So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated.

9:20Mordecai recorded these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, 21enjoining them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same month, year by year, 22as the days on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor.

Psalm 124:1-8

1If it had not been the LORD who was on our side

— let Israel now say —

2if it had not been the LORD who was on our side,

when our enemies attacked us,

3then they would have swallowed us up alive,

when their anger was kindled against us;

4then the flood would have swept us away,

the torrent would have gone over us;

5then over us would have gone

the raging waters.

6Blessed be the LORD,

who has not given us

as prey to their teeth.

7We have escaped like a bird

from the snare of the fowlers;

the snare is broken,

and we have escaped.

8Our help is in the name of the LORD,

who made heaven and earth.

Second Reading James 5:13-20

13Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. 14Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. 17Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.

19My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, 20you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner's soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Gospel Mark 9:38-50

38John said to him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us." 39But Jesus said, "Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. 40Whoever is not against us is for us. 41For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.

42"If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. 43If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. 47And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, 48where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.

49"For everyone will be salted with fire. 50Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."