St. James' Episcopal Church

Downingtown, Pa.

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You are here: Home / News / Readings and stuff for Sunday (Oct 24)

Readings and stuff for Sunday (Oct 24)

10/22/2010 by Luann McIlvaine

Hi everyone.
 
Back to the normal service schedule this Sunday.  The next "joint service" will be on December 5 (2nd Advent) when we celebrate the end of the capital campaign.
 
The first reading for this Sunday is from the Book of Sirach, and I'll bet a week's pay that most people have never heard of this book of the Bible.  The more common name for the book is "Ecclesiasticus", but in recent years the Church has tried to avoid calling it that because it's often confused with the similarly-named "Ecclesiastes" – see? 
 
Ecclesias is a Greek word that means "church"
 
Ecclesiastes means "preacher"
Ecclesiasticus means "book of the church"
 
Aren't you glad we've finally got that straightened out.  Both of these books are part of the "wisdom literature" of the Hebrew Bible. 
 
The Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament,  is divided into four categories.
 
The oldest part of the Bible, the first five books of Moses, is called the "Torah" or "the Law".
 
Next come the writings of the Prophets.
 
This is followed by the Histories (like Chronicles or First and Second Kings)
 
Finally comes the Wisdom Literature (Psalms, Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiastes).
 
The Puritans of New England used to teach that the Torah tells us what God wants us to do; The Prophets tell us what happens if we don't; The Histories tells us what happened when we didn't; The Wisdom Literature tells us what happens when we do.
 
Thank you and God bless you for all you do for our parish family. 

Tim.

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409 E. Lancaster Ave
Downingtown, PA 19335
610-269-1774

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About Saint James

There are a number of Saint Jameses in the New Testament – Saint James the brother of Jesus (‘St. James the Just’), Saint James the son of Zebedee (‘St. James the Great’) and Saint James the son of Alphaeus (‘St. James the Less’). The shells that adorn the outside of the parish hall (a symbol of St. James the Great) suggest that our parish is named for this St. James.

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This site was made possible by, and is dedicated to, the Loving Memory of Judy Dress.

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