Sixteen

4:14 and curtain open to watch the T-storm that's just starting according to the storm radar on my phone. We're to get only a thin line of the nightmare weather sweeping the South yesterday and today.

Say and do what you will, yes, it's linked on the parish website, but it's still my blog all and anyway. And not only do I not perceive myself as a spiritual person, for a Holy Man, I'm not very holy either. Reverend, Very Reverend, Right Reverend, Most Reverend, if the church had proper titles, mine would be Not So Reverend or Somewhat Reverend. My earliest interest was cars, and it's held on for eight decades and more. My earliest excitement was not an image of the BVM in the fireplace flames, but the 1930s Packard that overtook and passed us on Hwy98 that evening coming home from Pensacola during WW2, and my excited shout "a Packard with a trunk rack!" Cars with trunk racks still do it for me in ways that others may experience at a holiness tent revival. 

The car above is a 1930 Marmon straight eight. My sense of Marmons is Sixteens, basically two straight eights melded into a single crankshaft, and my total memory of Sixteens is of Gypsy cars, mainly Cadillacs, back in the late 30s and early 40s when they camped out in the large stand of scrub oaks that is now Oakland Terrace. 

The memory is there because their encampment was a few blocks north of StAndrew's Episcopal Church, and our parents took us up there to see them after church one Sunday, long ago in human time. The gypsy folk are vague in my memory, but their long, huge cars are clear in my mind after all these years. Packard Eights and Twelves, Lincoln Twelves, a Cadillac V-16, and Cadillac Twelves and V-8s. Why? The Great Depression: when bought used, such cars were cheap, large, comfortable, and flashy. 


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The Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ's Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The First Lesson
Acts 2:14a,22-32

Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd, “You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know— this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power. For David says concerning him,

‘I saw the Lord always before me, 
for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken; therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; moreover my flesh will live in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One experience corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’

“Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would put one of his descendants on his throne. Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying,

‘He was not abandoned to Hades, 
nor did his flesh experience corruption.’
This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.”

The Response
Psalm 16

Conserva me, Domine

1 Protect me, O God, for I take refuge in you; I have said to the Lord, "You are my Lord,
my good above all other."
2 All my delight is upon the godly that are in the land, upon those who are noble among the people.
3 But those who run after other gods shall have their troubles multiplied.
4 Their libations of blood I will not offer, nor take the names of their gods upon my lips.
5 O Lord, you are my portion and my cup; it is you who uphold my lot.
6 My boundaries enclose a pleasant land; indeed, I have a goodly heritage.
7 I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel; my heart teaches me, night after night.
8 I have set the Lord always before me; *
because he is at my right hand I shall not fall.
9 My heart, therefore, is glad, and my spirit rejoices; my body also shall rest in hope.
10 For you will not abandon me to the grave, nor let your holy one see the Pit.
11 You will show me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy,
and in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.

The Epistle
1 Peter 1:3-9

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith-- being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire-- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

The Gospel
John 20:19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe."

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

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The Marmon pictured above is a 1930 Eight, this is a Marmon Sixteen, which is more what folks think of as a Marmon. And my collection of tiny scale model cars includes a Marmon Sixteen sedan, a lovely car.

But sixteen cylinders. I'm a GM person anyway. Cadillac offered two different V-16 engines during their era, the first (1930-1937) 

was a flat head engine, two straight eights linked. 

The second, from 1938, 

was a valve in head motor that they discontinued with the 1940 Series 90

and did not pick up again after the War. My only trip in one was a Youtube ride in a 1931 Cadillac https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXzepgUoXhA sedan with trunk, looks to be "close-coupled" style & design, an enormous and incredible machine. 

Anyway, printed above as promised is the set of lectionary readings for next Sunday, April 19, 2020, Easter 2A. As always, the Second Sunday of Easter is Doubting Thomas Sunday, as the gospel lesson shows. By expectation if not tradition, it's also Low Sunday, meaning low attendance, along with the First Sunday after Christmas Day when Holly and Egg Christians are no-see-ums. No matter, this year nobody will be there anyway except perhaps in love and spirit. 

RSF&PTL
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