We are St. Bede’s

God loves us all – whatever – so join us in the celebration!

St. Bede’s is a lively Episcopal church located in west Menlo Park, between Stanford University and Interstate 280.  We love and treasure all those who come through our doors, whatever the age, stage, and inclination.  We enjoy grace-filled liturgy and fine music.  We care about social justice issues, and involve ourselves locally.  We love theological discussions and, in particular, asking interesting questions.

You have questions – well, so do we!   We’d love to meet you!  Why not come by some Sunday morning?

Sundays:
Holy Eucharist at 8:00am & 10:15am, with coffee social following each
Adult Education “Soulwork” at 9:00am
Children’s Sunday school & Nursery at 10:00am

During the week:
Tuesdays, 8:00am Holy Eucharist
Wednesdays, 6:30pm Adult Ed. Soulwork (with optional Simple Supper at 6pm)
Thursdays, 11:00am Adult Ed. Soulwork Circle
Thursdays, 12:10pm Holy Eucharist with Healing Rite

Sermon: The sticky weed of sentimentality – May 6 – Rev. J. McDougle

I don’t know about you, but whenever I find myself facing one of these gospel pruning stories with branches being cut off and thrown into the fire, I find my sensibilities twitching a little:  it all seems so harsh.   My belief in love, hope and reconciliation is troubled by such seemingly heartless judgment and destruction.

Sermon: Love, love love – April 29 – Rev. J. McDougle

Acts 4:5-12; Ps 23; 1John 3:6-24; John 10:11-18

However you might feel about sheep, there’s no getting round the fact that we have a whole bunch of them here with us in our readings this morning.    And I’m not sure the analogy works quite as well for us today as it did during biblical times.   Now we tend to look at sheep rather disparagingly.  I don’t know about you, but for me the Gary Larson cartoons spring to mind, particularly the one with the sheep standing on its back legs in the midst of a sleepy flock shouting, “Wait, wait, we don’t have to be sheep!”

Sermon: Alleluia! Christ is risen! Easter Sunday, 2012 Rev.J.McDougle

Acts 10:34-43; Ps 118:1-2, 14-24; 1Cor 15:1-11; John 20:1-18                          

They had no idea.  Those men and women who had accompanied Jesus so closely:  walking with him, talking with him, eating with him, listening to him.  They had seen his effect on the crowds: seen the captivated crowds following him, gathering around him wherever he went.  Again and again they had watched him reaching out into the fringes of society, reaching, touching, healing, reincorporating the lost lambs. They didn’t believe his death coming. They had no idea that any kind of resurrection was possible.

Sermon: Really Living – Good Friday, 2012 Dr. Irene Lawrence

Once upon a time, there was a rich Texan who died.  According to his wishes, he had a lavish funeral.  His body was dressed in his finest boots and Stetson, with his twenty-pound solid silver belt buckle, and placed in his huge Cadillac with the solid gold hubcaps.  As this assemblage was being slowly and reverently lowered into its enormous grave pit, one of the funeral attendees remarked in awe:  “Man, that’s really living.”

None of the Gospels mention a Texan present at Jesus’s funeral, which seems to have been a rather hurried and even furtive event.  Certainly nobody said, “Man, that’s really living.” But if someone had, it would be only the truth.

Sermon: Going into the dark – Palm Sunday, 2012 Rev. J.McDougle

Mark11:1-11; Ps 118, 1-2, 19-29; Isaiah 50:4-9; Philipp 2:5-11; Mark14: 32 – 15:1-39

And so we go, into the dark.  Not the rather comfortable ‘vast expanse of interstellar space’ that begins the Eucharistic Prayer we’ve been using through Lent this year, but rather the empty, the vacant, the dark interstellar spaces.

Sermon: Living into our truth – 2 Lent Rev. J.McDougle

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16; Ps 22:22-30; Romans 4:13-25; Mark 8:31-38

Poor old Peter – just last week we heard him getting it splendidly right, but today things don’t go so well.   He just can’t handle hearing Jesus taking him and the rest of the disciples through the projected plans for the next couple of weeks.  Jesus is the long awaited Messiah, the savior of the Jews who will lift them up and drive the Romans out.  No way is he going to be…killed?   What sort of a savior gets himself killed? 

Community Service is discussion topic at St. Bede’s beginning March 4, 9:15am

The Dalai Lama calls compassion a “global staple” — something we all need. In the Bible, God is described as having the kind of compassion and loving kindness towards humanity in words that suggest “gut feelings.” But what does this compassion look like when we share it with others, and what do we receive when we give of ourselves?

St. Bede’s Episcopal Church invites all those involved or interested in community service to explore those questions in Being the Hands of Jesus: Lenten Conversations, a month long discussion series led by volunteers and staff of local and international nonprofits. Parishioners active with Ecumenical Hunger Program in East Palo Alto and other  agencies working with the needy in our area will lead the inaugural  session  at 9:15 a.m. Sunday, March 4, while Lesia Preston, Ecumenical Hunger Project’s executive director, will continue that focus with a special presentation at  6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 7.

Upcoming topics include working abroad, working with “the other” and working with the sick and dying. All discussions are 45 minutes long, free and open to the public. For the Wednesday gatherings, an optional simple supper starts at 6:00 pm. ($5 donation requested.) The sessions take place in Lehman Hall, to the right of St. Bede’s parking lot at 2650 Sand Hill Road (off Monte Rosa). For more information, or to reserve a simple supper, call  the parish office at 650-854-6555.

Sermon: Take us by the hand and lead us – Ash Wednesday – Rev. J.McDougle

Isaiah 58:1-12; Ps. 103:8-14; 2Cor 5:20b-6:10; Matt 6:1-6, 16-21

And so the forty days of Lent begin.   Lent, the lengthening and greening of the year, as our world tips in its delicate orbit around and toward our warming sun.  Lent, that season of the church’s year when we have an opportunity to take stock of things, when we are reminded that our lives here on this beautiful planet are short.

There are very few certainties in this life, but we can be sure of one thing: we will all, sooner or later, die.    At some time or other, don’t all of us wish that weren’t so, but it is.  If it were not so, life would be unbearable: there would be none of the freshness and beauty of the newly created: everything would just ‘be’, with no sense of wonder and adventure.  Imagine not even noticing an exquisite fiery sunset, or the magic of the soft unfolding of the magnolia buds by the Sharon Heights Park.

Here we are today:  peering into the desert sands of the next forty days.   What will we do with them?  Business as usual, or something different?  

Sermon: Shabbat Shalom – 29 Jan, Rev. Dr. Katherine M. Lehman

This is annual meeting Sunday, which is all about good governance, how we exercise authority responsibly. We also use the word stewardship to convey our care for the gifts God gives into our charge. The collect affirms that God governs all things. The image is of a petitioner coming before a governor in an official audience, requesting the benefit of peace. This request is more profound than we may realize.

We live in a world thirsting for peace. In a world in which the nations have not yet learned to live and let live, political peace would be a blessed alternative. But God’s response to our petition is more by far. God’s response is what faithful Jews call Shabbat shalom, Sabbath peace.

Sermon: It’s all about the Kingdom! – February 5 – Rev. J. McDougle

Isaiah 40:21-31; Ps147:1-12, 21c; 1Cor 9:16-23; Mark 1:29-30

Jesus is at the very beginning of his ministry.  He’s been baptized by John.  He’s spent those forty days in the wilderness discerning God’s will for him, even though we’re saving that part of the story until we reach Lent in a few short weeks.  A group of disciples is forming around him.  And they have moved away from the river Jordan, around which John’s ministry of renewal through baptism has focused.  They have traveled to the small but lively town of Capernaum on the north shore of the landlocked Sea of Galilee.   A very good choice, as I’m sure they knew. 

Sermon – Extremists in Love – January 15 – Rev. J.McDougle

1Sam 3:1-10; Ps 139:1-5, 12-17; 1Cor 6:12-20; John 1:43-51

There is a bumper sticker that I’m particularly fond of.  I’m sure you’ve seen it. It reads: Well-behaved women rarely make history.   And it’s so true: although the concept can be expanded to include children, men, dogs and horses.  The bottom line is that while good behavior allows at least some people to get on comfortably with their lives without interruption; good behavior demands we live our lives by other people’s rules even though they may not be the wisest, or in the best interests of the planet. 

Sermon: Hope’s Gem – 24 Dec, Rev. Dr. Katherine M. Lehman

Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Christ (fresco), 1477.

Christmas is a mystery. It’s the mystery of the incarnation. It’s not that it makes no sense. It’s more that it makes an uncanny kind of sense. Or perhaps, the nonsense that it makes continues to arrest and engage us, until we are more capable of ambiguity and ambivalence, more open to multiple meanings. To entertain the mystery of God’s relation to humanity requires a willingness, to venture into what Yeats calls the land of unlikeness (H 464), and as John the Evangelist says, there to find ourselves at home (John1:11).

Christmas Lessons & Carols, Sunday, 12/18, 4pm

We invite you to join the clergy, the choir, and harpist Annie Clark, for a lovely, candlelit service for all ages. We will retell the Christmas story in poetry and scripture, with congregational carols and the inspired Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten.

Following the service, there will be a festive reception in the parish hall.

Sermon: Nov 13 – A parable for our times Rev. Jane McDougle

Judges 4:1-7; Ps 123; 1Thess 5:1-11; Matt 25:14-30

Bankers, trading, investing, and turning a profit?  Now, here’s a parable for our times!  Farming and agricultural practices in first century Palestine may stretch us a bit, but this one? No problem!

Sermon: We the People – Oct 23 – Rev. Jane McDougle

Deut 34:1-12; Ps 90:1-6, 13-17; 1 Thess 2:1-8; Matt 22: 34-46                                              

You know, I think there must be something in the air: in the Middle East, in Europe, and here at home, in the US.   The people are finding their voice.  They’re gathering in large groups:  sometimes peacefully, sometimes not.   There’s questioning.  There’s complaining.   There’s resistance.  Some oppressive regimes have toppled; others have not.  Some are reshaping themselves as they becoming more responsive to the prevailing mood.   

Sermon: Lifegiving Rule – 2 Oct, Rev. Dr. Katherine M. Lehman

We designate the Sunday closest to the feast of Francis of Assisi, as a celebration of the patron saint of our see city, San Francisco, the site of Grace Cathedral. We also set aside the month of October, to focus on stewardship. Francis’ witness grounds our theme in the care of creation, our planetary ecosystem.

Today we will dedicate the courtyard renovation, the design of which was meant to provide a space that reflects our appreciation of the great outdoors, our elemental home and our primal sanctuary. The psalm says it lyrically, and Francis preached it eloquently, that creation is the proclamation of its Creator.

Sermon: Glimpses of God – 11 Sep, Rev. Dr. Katherine M. Lehman

Today is a solemn feast. Every Sunday celebrates the resurrection, the new lease on life we are given by God in Christ. Today also marks the decade anniversary of the destruction wrought by terrorists on the east coast, in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. Both disasters, the crucifixion and the 9/11 attack, were designed to strike terror into hearts, and  changed the world. And one of the gracious ways they have changed the world is in our response to them. Faithful people learn from tragedy as well as from blessings.

For example, on the news this weekend, they interviewed the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald. Since their offices were on the highest floors of the north tower of the World Trade Center, they lost about six hundred and fifty people that morning. About nine hundred children lost a parent in that company alone. Since that time, the company has directed a significant percentage of its profits to the families of those victims. The CEO says the support will continue until every one of those children completes college. Such a shining example of compassionate responsibility flies in the face of blatantly unethical behavior by others in the investment industry.

Sermon: The Son of Man, 21 August, Rev. Jane McDougle

Exodus 1:8 -2:10; Psalm 124; Romans 1:1-8; Matthew 16:13-20

There is an old joke about four eminent contemporary theologians meeting with Jesus who asks them this very question:  “But who do you say that I am?”  They sit down, and respectfully take their turn, expressing their well-thought out opinions in tightly constructed rhetoric.  After they have finished, Jesus pauses for a moment, then writes in the sand, “Huh?”

Sermon: Favorite Son – 7 August, Rev. Dr. Katherine M. Lehman

In the nomadic patriarchy of the ancient Mideast, there were customs and expectations about authority, obligation, and inheritance. There was frequent contention among wives and sons, about privileges, and friction with daughters usually about marriage rights. Such family dynamics are still in play across centuries and cultures. We do well to consider them, in the news and in our families.