I left Arizona in the fall of 1989 to go to school in Bronxville, NY. I kissed my Mom good bye, picked up my two suitcases and my pillow, and I boarded a plane for a new life. I didn't know what was ahead of me. I didn't really even know how to get from the airport to the college, and no one was waiting to pick me up. I did know, however, that I would never go back to Arizona.  Oh, I went back to visit, but I didn’t have a home there anymore. I had moved on to something new, and I knew, I trusted, that God was leading me, guiding me, making a way for me.

By the end of this Gospel, God has gathered to Jesus, the people who become the inner circle of Jesus' disciples, particularly Simon, whom Jesus calls Cephas, or Peter, or The Rock. There can be no doubt that God is at work here drawing people to Jesus.

“The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat” Mark 6:30-31

Worship, First and Last
At Saint Paul’s, our week begins and ends with worship. Now, when we talk with our people about St. Paul’s we might say, “We have service on Saturday night at 5:30 p.m. and on Sunday morning at 10 a.m,” as if the week ran from Monday to Friday and the week culminated in a weekend of Saturday and Sunday. Yet, Sunday is the first day of the week, and Saturday is the seventh. So, when we gather for worship on Sunday morning and Saturday evening we are gathering at the beginning and end of the week. Now, since we begin and end each week in worship, it would also be safe to say that worship is the most important thing we do each week.

About the middle of January each year, people's new year resolve is starting to break down. Old habits and old ways die hard. The vows we make at baptism signal our promise to continue in the promises of God in Christ, and our resolve to change our old ways and old habits and to replace them with a new way of living.