Dear Visitor,

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt (tabernacled) among us full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14).

Already when God began to create, the Word was with God and was God. We call Him, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. When He became incarnate (conceived) in the Virgin Mary’s womb, the Word became flesh. Matter is not evil. The Father made everything good through the Word. The Holy Spirit was eternally present and temporally present when God began to create. The Christian story is not that matter is evil. The Christian story is not that flesh is evil, for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, is the Word made flesh. The Christian story is not the evil is as powerful as God. No, evil is rebellion against God, who is the definition of Goodness and Mercy.

Having celebrated the Feast of the Holy Trinity on May 30, we continue in ordinary time for the rest of the liturgical year. Green, the color on paraments and vestments, signifies growing in the grace and knowledge of the one true God: our Lord Jesus Christ, His Father, and the Holy Spirit. Occasionally, during the second half of the church year, we celebrate certain lesser feasts including, this summer, those of St. James the Elder (July 25), St. Mary, the Mother of God (August 15), and the Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist (August 29). Our preaching texts for the summer Sundays will be primarily from St. Paul’s 2nd epistle to the Corinthians and his epistle to the Ephesians.

We Christians are neither polytheists nor like those who are non-trinitarians. To the unbelieving wider culture we confess: The Holy Trinity is not one among many gods, not a manufactured Middle Eastern deity like those unearthed by archaeologists. He is the One eternal God, a community of persons within Himself, with no beginning and no ending. That God, the Maker and Owner of the heavens and the earth, is the One to whom all history is proceeding. At the end of time as we know it, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus is LORD to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11).

If you know and love this God, we invite you to worship with us in person or online. If you have been away from Church for a long time, we invite you to come home. If you are curious and your heart and mind are open, we invite you to come and see. If you are indifferent or even hostile, we invite you, nevertheless, to leave your heart and mind open enough to worship online with us if not in person. If you are on vacation in the area, we offer you a special invitation to be refreshed and renewed by joining in worship of the Triune God with us.

With angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, we exclaim: “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the Highest!”

Thanks for stopping by!

Pastor Sam Zumwalt+
szumwalt@bellsouth.net