Hosted by the Faith To Go team in the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego, David Tremaine and Charlette Preslar, and joined the each week by a special guest, the Faith To Go Podcast highlights themes from the Sunday Gospel reading for you to take into your faith discussions and reflections throughout the week.
by NPR
Questions:
1) What is causing you stress this week?
2) What are some of the things you are doing to decrease the stress of this moment?
3) How is this stress a distraction from what you want to be doing in your life?
4) How might this stress be an indicator of God's movement in your life?
5) What family practices could you do to help one another move through this stress?
Views and Qs: An Open Letter to the Episcopal Church
Watch this video together and then use the discussion questions below to reflect as a family.
Discussion Questions:
1) What struck you the most about this open letter to the church? 2) What are Rev. Varghese, Canon Spellers, and Dean Douglas asking us to do?
3) What actions have you taken in your own life to do this work? What about your church? 4) What are the things that distract us from this important work? 5) Why do you think we haven't done this vital work of addressing systemic racism in our institutions and churches yet? What is holding us back?
Feast and Faith: Feeling God's Calling
For this week's dinner discussion we will focus on Jesus' parable of the weeds and the wheat.
Prayer -
Heavenly Father, we thank you that by water and the Holy
Spirit you have bestowed upon us your servants the
forgiveness of sin, and have raised us to the new life of
grace. Sustain us, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit. Give us
inquiring and discerning hearts, the courage to will and to
persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy
and wonder in all your works. Amen.
(Prayer During Baptism from the Book of Common Prayer, pg. 308)
Discussion -
This week are discussing Jesus' parable of the Weeds and the Wheat, where he highlights for his disciples that there are things in our life that take energy away from those things that we feel most called to work on:
Questions -
1) What do you feel God calling you to work on most in your life?
2) How do you think you could go about doing this work today, or this week, or this month?
3) How much energy do you think this work will take to do?
4) What are the things distracting you from this work? How are these things taking away energy for the work you feel most called to do?
5) Where do you see people being distracted from doing God's work in the world around you? What are the major distractions for the world right now? What is the most important work to do?
Final Nugget -
How might you become more aware of those things distracting you from bringing about justice and equity in our world? How can you redirect energy toward this mission?
Stay and Pray: A Devotion for Families at the Close of the Day Each week we feature a way for your family to reflect and pray together. For families with older children this is an at home liturgy for your family to participate in together. It is a daily devotion for families adapted from The Book of Common Prayer.
Before you begin, take a few moments to decide who will read the scripture reading and who will read the collect and closing.
Read the Psalm and Lord's Prayer in unison.
After a moment of silence, begin with the Psalm.
Psalm 139: 1-11, 22-23
(read in unison)
1 Lord, you have searched me out and known me; *
you know my sitting down and my rising up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
2 You trace my journeys and my resting-places *
and are acquainted with all my ways.
3 Indeed, there is not a word on my lips, *
but you, O Lord, know it altogether.
4 You press upon me behind and before *
and lay your hand upon me.
5 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; *
it is so high that I cannot attain to it.
6 Where can I go then from your Spirit? *
where can I flee from your presence?
7 If I climb up to heaven, you are there; *
if I make the grave my bed, you are there also.
8 If I take the wings of the morning *
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
9 Even there your hand will lead me *
and your right hand hold me fast.
10 If I say, "Surely the darkness will cover me, *
and the light around me turn to night,"
11 Darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day; *
darkness and light to you are both alike.
22 Search me out, O God, and know my heart; *
try me and know my restless thoughts.
23 Look well whether there be any wickedness in me *
and lead me in the way that is everlasting.
Reading
(read by assigned person)
Matthew 13:24-30,36-43
Jesus put before the crowd another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”
Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!”
Prayers for Ourselves and For Others (take this time to each offer one person/event that you would like to hold in prayer as well as one thing you are thankful for)
Dear God, tonight I ask your prayers for.......
and I give you thanks for ..........
Amen
The Lord’s Prayer
(read in unison)
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen
The Collect
(read by assigned person)
Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Share some of your conversations in the comments below: