Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Aphorism of the Day, January 2017

Aphorism of the Day, January 31, 2017

Jesus called his disciples to be "salt of the earth" and further said that if salt loses its taste it is thrown out.  If salt is "degraded" by the removal of one of its chemical components, it effectively loses its identity as salt. (The substance formerly known as salt?)  There can be the appearance of salt and "salt substitutes," but it is no longer salt if it loses the chemical composition to fulfill its function as salt.  There is no such thing as an unsalty salt.  There is no such things as an "unSpirited" follower of Jesus.  It is an either/or matter and though one may have the outer appearance of being a "follower" one loses the identity and function of being a follower of Jesus without the authentic Spirit which is the essence of the taste and function of being a follower of Christ.

 Aphorism of the Day, January 30, 2017

In the words of Jesus, his followers are called to be the salt of the earth.  Salt preserves and adds taste.   We are called to preserve this earth as a gift even though we know time and change naturally contradict the maintenance of any "static" state of being.  Goodness preserves the world through cherishing the goodness of the creation while evil often is an expression of not cherishing the state of things and so through violence hastens endings before their "natural" passing through the processes of time.  Salt flavors and can change the dullness of food to cause delight.  Our lives are meant to have collateral effects as they add flavor to the "apparent" dullness and tedium of living.  Apparently Jesus did not want this world on a "low sodium" diet; he wanted it enhanced to be tasty with the knowledge of the divine presence.

Aphorism of the Day, January 29, 2017

"Blessed are the peace makers..."  This was recommended when the Jesus Movement was separating from the synagogues and when diverse Gentile peoples of the cities of the Roman Empire were coming under the effect of the message of Christ.  Peace making was needed for the survival of a diverse community of people who were perhaps gathered unattached people in new cities looking for new local identities and the home churches were perhaps the most open and flexible social gatherings to receive "new" people.  Making peace and knowing oneself to be a child of God were matched in the beatitude.  Knowing oneself as a child of God with a new Christian family was perhaps a chief social dynamic of the Jesus Movement since in the movement of people, many become unmoored from flesh and blood ties.  The parish church as a new extended family in our "I've Been Moved" (IBM) society is an important peaceful function in our world.  In our world of refugees, the church as the peaceful and welcoming family of God has new importance.

Aphorism of the Day, January 28, 2017

"Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God."  Jeremiah: "Above all thing the heart is exceedingly deceitful."  Jesus: "From the heart comes all manner of evil."  Freud: "The unconscious is polymorphously perverse."  The Psalmist: "Create in me a clean heart O God."  John: "No one has ever seen God."  So what would be the solution to the apparent contradictions raised by the beatitude?  If the purity of heart is the Holy Spirit, then the Holy Spirit being God could see God and we can be attendants of God's self-seeing as we derive relative divinity from God's absolute divinity.  A frail attempt to evoke insight on an inscrutable beatitude "koan."

Aphorism of the Day, January 27, 2017

"Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy."  Can this be empirically verified?  One could understand this in various ways.  Being merciful is self-authenticating, meaning that if one is so possessed to act in mercy means that one has already received mercy to be able to do so.  The reward of mercy is that one in fact is merciful and that is the blessed state to live in.  History proves that lots of merciful people have not received a tit for tat mercy reciprocity for each merciful deed; chief proof of this is Jesus the merciful one rewarded with death on the cross.  The reciprocity of mercy in actual time/space sequence may need to be perceived as eschatological mercy, meaning that in the end the one with mercy will prove to be amply rewarded with merciful outcomes even if they are posthumously realized.  Resurrection mercy came to Jesus and if we believe in a merciful God who is also the most enduring Being of all then we believe that a merciful enduring God has the restorative ability to providentially rewrite the "apparent" unmerciful deed against a merciful one with a merciful winning outcome in how the evil eventual became overcome with good because of mercy being inspired in the lives of people by a merciful God.

Aphorism of the Day, January 26, 2017

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled."  Hunger and thirst are expression of natural desire for food and drive necessary to life.  These natural desire are used as a metaphor for desire with a different object than food and water in the beatitudes.  Too much food and drink is not good for us and each person has to find the right food/drink equilibrium for maintaining bodily life ideal to one's own constitution.  To desire righteousness in a similar way would be to seek what one might call being in "appropriate" relationship to all parties and situations in life: Appropriate to God, to self, to other people, to vocation, to environment, to all things.  The promise that we can be "filled" means that we can know the blessing of contentment if we achieve what is appropriate in our relationships vis a vis all other agents and elements in our environmental settings.  Hunger and thirst for exquisite "appropriateness;" this is a worthy goal of life and a blessed state if one can achieve it.

Aphorism of the Day, January 25, 2017

"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."  O really!  It seems apparent that the takers, hoarders, the greedy and the plutocrats have already taken the majority of the earth and its resources.  Frankly, the hoarders and the takers do so because they have no interior sense of the Plenitude of God in time and space.  They do not grasp God as their heavenly parent who has them in the divine inheritance.  They take what they can while they can because of their inner sense of poverty.  Taking and having gives them the apparent sense of worth and we live in a world where the takers and hoarders are rewarded as public heroes.  They are like the Caesar who crucified the meek Jesus for seeming to make a quixotic claim about his own divine kingship.  The kingship of Christ was hidden and not apparent so how could such meekness in his death on the cross be regarded to be anything but poverty, loss and failure?  The meek know that they are in Daddy's will and everything is already theirs and is meted out to them in appreciative joy to own through the profound contemplation of the divine Plenitude.  Seeming to "possess" things does not make it a reality when death can happen to anyone anytime.  In death, what does one possess or inherit?  The hoarders and the greedy and those who want to boast about their riches have their very shallow reward for now.  Blessed are the meek who know through blessed enjoyment of true wealth that they already have everything because of their participation in the Divine Life.

 Aphorism of the Day, January 24, 2017

"Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted."  What is the comfort of mourning?  It could be that the comfort is the gift of empathy when one's mourning allows one to come alongside a future mourner and be with them in an effective way to give them hope.  The gift of empathy is truly to know comfort after mourning and when the energy of empathy goes out of one, then one's mourning attains a providential meaning and purpose.

Aphorism of the Day, January 23, 2017

The Sermon on the Mount Beatitudes describing the "fortunate" spiritual state of being seem to counter to what is generally regarded to be successful.  Blessed are the poor in spirit.  Why?  One attains a sense of poverty of spirit when one is overwhelmed by God's Holy Spirit.  Then one relies upon the wealth of God's Spirit instead of one's own.  People who are very rich in their own spirit do not know or express any need of God.  They don't know the kingdom of heaven because they are very proud of their ownership in the kingdom of earth.

Aphorism of the Day, January 22, 2017

Epiphany season highlights the call of God as it became manifest in Christ.  The Christian political tendency is to reduce evangelism to getting people to agree with one's views and join one's religious group.  Indeed there may be a common elements in the call of Christ and joining a particular manifestation of fellowship.  The call of Christ cannot be statistically reduced to how many people are in one's church.  The call of Christ is an invitation of "personal spiritual mobility" to every person to surpass oneself in a future state in the Christward direction of moral and spiritual excellence.


Aphorism of the Day, January 21, 2017

As significant as social conditions are for determining the success of social and economic mobility, social conditions must be complimented with the personal spiritual mobility that comes from answering the call of Christ.  Historically, it has often been proven that the discovery of personal spiritual mobility in the call of Christ results in the heroic overcoming of social conditions which do not support social and economic mobility.  The Jesus Movement comprised of people who discovered upward spiritual mobility ended up having the social consequences of "taking over" the Roman Empire.  Once Christianity became the Empire, there has been the continuous need not to lose the sense of the personal spiritual mobility since in "empire Christianity" people can get swallowed up to be rubber stamped facsimiles of "group" think and it is often forgotten that each person needs to be rekindle by the spiritual mobility of the call of Christ.  Empire or group Christianity can actually be a hindrance to the individual and person spiritual mobility known in the call of Christ.

Aphorism of the Day, January 20, 2017

Sometimes it is presented as an amazing work of God that "lowly" fishermen could be transformed into evangelists and preachers even though we don't really know the degree of literacy which they had or achieved.  It might be more important to note that a call from God releases gifts and bondage to social strait jackets which forced people into occupations that they really did not choose because they were family legacy businesses.  Later in the history of the "Christianized" Roman Empire, men could avoid the army by going to the monastery.  One could say that the call of Christ provides the freedom for other choices.

Aphorism of the Day, January 19, 2017

"Follow me and I will make you fish for people."  Jesus converted fish-people to people persons.  There is skill and serendipity involved in fishing.  There is skill and serendipity involved in evangelism.  For both, "showing up" is required.  Being a disciple of Jesus may seem really "romantic" but it mostly conforms to the wisdom, "80 % of life is showing up."  80 % of evangelism and the call of the God is showing up.

Aphorism of the Day, January 18, 2017

One could imagine Peter thinking as he was bound upside down on his cross: "I still could be fishing in Galilee; I've come a long, long way and had some amazing experiences only to die in the great city of Rome."  This is the kind of spiritual "upward" mobility that the call of Jesus offered the fisherman from Galilee.  Peter probably thought, "Too much has happened in and through me to ever regret it."  The call of Christ is a call to a "upward" mobility.  It might upset whatever one thinks one's occupation is.

Aphorism of the Day, January 17, 2017

One can be amazed about the transformation of fishermen into disciples of Jesus.   We might be surprised that these uneducated fishermen without the benefit of rabbinical training would have the aptitude to become "preachers."  One of the outcomes of a spiritual calling is a kind of "omni-mobility" or the freedom to become released into gifts and experiences that one never would have imagined.  Sometimes one can feel stuck in the profession that mom and dad wanted for us or what seemed most socially and economically feasible and yet feel trapped in the boredom of the repetitive.  Then comes the call of Christ and one experiences the freedom of "mobility" of all sorts and it is a spiritual mobility which can happen even if one does not seem to change anything in one's external settings.  The humble fishermen of Galilee ended up being travelers throughout the cities of the Roman Empire.  Their answer to the call of Christ brought them glorious mobility.

Aphorism of the Day, January 16, 2017

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day it is good to watch, listen or read some of his moving sermons and ponder the break through and wake up call that his life and witness was to us.  It is also good to ponder how we use individual responsibility and social cause for justification of existing conditions.  Sometimes one gets impression that once slavery was "defeated" in America that some of the populace adopted the position that "now that it is over, you are on your own and you are responsible as an individual freed slave for your own social and economic destiny."  The failure to understand and embrace responsibility for the long time after-effects of slavery continues today.  We fail to appreciate the cumulative effects of social conditions upon individuals and because some individuals seem to "heroically" rise to the top, we use that to imply everyone can equally have the same mobility.  The Hebrew Scriptures describe the long lasting determining effects of sins in this way:  The sins of the father are visited upon the second, third, fourth...generations.  The work of faith is understanding individual responsibility within social context even while we hope that our laws are providing a corrective path to socially re-engineer our context to the practice of genuine justice for all.

Aphorism of the Day, January 15, 2017

The Gospel of John does not include the genealogy of Jesus or an account of his birth.  It does refer his being the Pre-existent Creating Word of God.  It does show the spiritual lineage and succession of the church.  Word from the beginning, John the Baptist and his community, and Jesus and his disciples.  The community of John the Baptist might be called the "proto-church" in the arising identity of the church since it does not derive as being direct from any other sect within Judaism.

Aphorism of the Day, January 14, 2017

One might call the community/movement of John the Baptist, the proto-church because it seems as though many followers of John became followers of Jesus.  Though conversion was uneven and not in one fell swoop, the followers of John the Baptist of all Jewish sects seem to be those most likely to become followers of Jesus.  It could be that John's emphasis upon "individual" repentance for valid faith as opposed to passive group identity in faith provided the impetus for the Jesus Movement to adapt to the more diverse settings of the cities within the Roman Empire.  Charismatic evidence of the Holy Spirit upon the life of the individual became the "marker" of Christian faith rather than adherence to purity codes.

Aphorism of the Day, January 13, 2017

One should note the reciprocity between the general sense of a "calling" from God and the specific occasions when it becomes made apparent.  Epiphany season is a season of "specific" callings of the disciples by Jesus.  Sometimes specific and apparent sense of calling result in the building a "historical" shrine and one returns to the shrine on the mountain top because the current apparent sense of call is lacking.  Living in the state of the serendipity of the call means one can attain the faith ability to understand how the general sense of the call is made specifically apparent each day.  It is like being swept out to sea in the great ocean but having daily beachings.  The beach gives apparent location of the great ocean.  But then one can let a specific call get erased in the vastness of the greater call, not to diminish the specific but rather to soften the ego which has a tendency to make an idol out of specific and apparent call.  Shore and ocean go together; general call and specific and apparent call also go together.

Aphorism of the Day, January 12, 2017

In the first chapter of John's Gospel in the "calling" of Peter event, it is evident that evangelism takes place with recommendations from people whom are trusted.  Andrew and Peter respected John the Baptist;  John the Baptist was convinced about Jesus and recommended him to Andrew and Andrew recommended Jesus to his brother Peter.  Evangelism is natural in the context of having trusted relationships.  People honor the recommendation of Jesus from those who find him to have telling significance in their lives. 

Aphorism of the Day, January 11, 2017

Recently, a politician in his biography has had his method of speaking called "truthful hyperbole."  This sounds like an oxymoron.  It maybe begs the question, "Truthful to whom?"  It may mean that anything can be said to "close the deal" as a business person and therefore what is generally referred to in speech as "facts" does not serve the truth of closing a deal which is beneficial to the one who is making the deal.  Is this a way of dressing up what we call "lying?"  Is every statement made by every person, made for the benefit of the speaker's self interest?  Perhaps the commandment of not bearing "false witness," means that one should try in life to bring one's self interest in alignment with what is also factual.  That might be a good goal for politicians and business people as well.

Aphorism of the Day, January 10, 2017

In the Gospel of Mark, we read that Jesus called Andrew and Peter while they were fishing, presumably in the Sea of Galilee.  In the Gospel of John, Andrew was with John the Baptist as one of his disciples and Jesus called him and he in turn went and got Peter.  Why the differences and does it matter?  For those who believe that truth is only detailed correct eye-witness journalistic reporting it becomes a problem.  For those who understand that the Gospels were written by different people in different phases of the development of the traditions of the community, it is no problem since a general sense of how Peter and Andrew came to follow Jesus is just fine.  Persons who defend the Gospels for being "true" in the wrong way end up having to do contortionist interpretive gymnastics.  They are trying to dance to the tune a "modern" notion of what is true rather than accept the truth that the art of Gospel can change one's life.  The Gospels are literature of mystagogic transformation and we verify their truths with changed lives.


Aphorism of the Day, January 9, 2017

Epiphany means manifestation and such may be a description of the media and the message in trying to describe why the Gospel became as popular as it did.  Jesus was the root event who like a pebble on the pond of humanity created a concentric circle ripple effect as described in the Acts the Apostles: Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the world.  The Gospels started with the willing members of Judaism who formed a rather informal movement within Judaism even as the effort to be the successor movement of John the Baptist.  What was more startling was the impact of the message to the non-Jewish populace in the cities of the Roman Empire.  The acceptance of the Gospel message outside of Judaism forced the paradigm change which resulted in the ultimate separation from the synagogue.  The social conditions were ripe for Gentile Christianity and to justify the appeal, the Christian apologists used the elements of the Hebrew Scripture which proclaimed the relevance and appeal of the God of Israel to all of the peoples of the world.

Aphorism of the Day, January 8, 2017

Baptism may be liken to a seed that include within it the full possibility of endless growth and fruitfulness.  A seed forgotten and unplanted is not activated.  Baptism may be forgotten and left in pictures of babies in cute white gowns or baptism may attain many meanings in the ministries which are possible in the lives of the baptized.  Baptismal grace has to be released to know the full meanings of baptism.  How is your baptism growing today?

Aphorism of the Day, January 7, 2017

Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols and their use in interpretation.  In the Gospel of John the word "sign" or "semion" is used to describe the uncanny life transforming events of Jesus.  John's Gospel is built around the notion of God being named as the "Word" from the beginning which created all things.  The words of Jesus are called "Spirit and Life."  The written word of John is touted as the occasion to believe and is as blessed or if not a more blessed state of faith than actually being physically present with Jesus (see doubting Thomas story).  The stories of Jesus are "signs" and they mark the occasions in the life of the reader to initiate a corresponding inner experience of faith in the transformation of life for those who have embraced the Christian tradition found within the community which read John's Gospel.  The book of "Signs" found within the Gospel of John pertain to the traces of where the holy interact within the human life cycle.  The Holy for the early Christians was defined as occasions of the effects of encounters with the Risen Christ.  Something transformative happened in lives and the Risen Christ was the interpretive Sign for why it had happened.  The endurance of the Risen Christ being the interpretive Sign for why transformation occurs accounts for the long success of Christianity.

Aphorism of the Day, January 6, 2017

The writing of history, re-contextualizes the past; a past event is placed within the context of subsequent events and when the earlier event is recounted it is tinged with the meanings that arose later than the event itself.  Essentially the entire New Testament is the story of Jesus retold because of the subsequent events of experiences of the Risen Christ.  The experiences of the Risen Christ, the ability for people to believe an experience of Christ being born within their lives through the mysterious presence of the Holy Spirit, re-contextualized all of the recounted events in the life of Jesus.  The baptism of Jesus, perhaps without any "re-contextualization" meant that Jesus regarded John the Baptist to be his mentor and that in his baptism he accepted solidarity with John and his community in their "reform" of Jewish religious traditions.  The community of John the Baptist did not have the same success as the community of Christ within the cities of Roman Empire.  This historical outcome brought about a reappraisal and a re-assignment of the role of John the Baptist and his community in the transition to the full-blown Gentile church.

Aphorism of the Day, January 5, 2017

The magi visiting the Christ child came to be kings in fulfillment of the Psalm which stated, "May all kings fall down before him."  Early Christians had to unite the notions of the Messiah as a suffering servant and as king who was recognized by other kings.  The magi/king story fulfilled this need of presenting Jesus in a Davidic mode rather than in the suffering servant mode.  Obviously the conversion of Constantine and other kings of the world fulfilled this presentation as well, even while the Davidic Messiah appearance is delayed until a future which no one knows about.  So the future means that any event is open to being verified or falsified.  Finality is very hard to verify or falsify as long as there is time.  Time will be as long as there is the atomic and sub-atomic where particles are in motion creating a before and after.  One of the most logical functions of the magi story was to present the early foreshadowing of Gentile interest in Jesus Christ.

Aphorism of the Day, January 4, 2017

One of the most obvious conclusions of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist without taking into account of what happened with the success of the Jesus Movement, is that Jesus identified with the John the Baptist interpretive strain of Judaism.  So John was an older mentor of Jesus and Jesus was willing to identify with the community of John the Baptist as seen in his submitting to the baptism of John.  One could then posit that the antagonism that is shown in the Gospels between John and the other Jewish religious parties foreshadowed the eventual split of the church and the synagogue as Gentile Christianity freed from Jewish purity codes pertaining to food and circumcision et al., moved into a completely different interpretive paradigm in how the Hebraic-Judaic Scriptures and traditions were used as precedence for the Jesus Messianic Movement.  John the Baptist as "preparing" the way for Christ, could also be seen as the community of John the Baptist being seen as promoting a kind of "individual" faith which prepared the way for leaving the notion of faith as a "group/ethnic" automatic tacit heritage.

Aphorism of the Day, January 3, 2017

The Epiphany Gospel reading is about the quest of the magi to find the birth of a king.  The story presages the appeal of the Risen Christ to the Gentiles and is consistent with the New Testament being an apology for a Christo-centric Judaism finding an appeal beyond the synagogue communities which required adherence to the ritual purity of Judaism.  Christians have not always been graceful about understanding and accepting their departure from Judaism.  People with subsequent "revelation" redefine the previous revelation in light of their new revelation.  For those who do not find the relevance of the new revelation to their own continuity within their revealed tradition part company for practical community reasons with those who are persuaded by the new revelation.  As the globe has grown smaller with more mutual knowledge of each other of people from diverse communities, it would behoove us to embrace the universal Word at the heart of humanity, while embracing the perpetual work of translating among "word paradigms" of diverse people toward mutual appreciation resulting in peaceful living together.  Magi, wise people often find wisdom in sites far from their own familiar upbringing.  What is familiar often has been received in repellent ways because of the way in which the familiar has been lived by those who passed on the familiar.  Contempt for the familiar often leads to those seeking afar for new occasions of persuasion from "foreign" sources.  The history of faith is the history of pilgrimage of people in search of the new source of enlightenment.

Aphorism of the Day, January 2, 2017

We head toward the Epiphany or the Manifestation of Christ to the world.  We need to be delivered from viewing the manifestation of Christ to the world as an expression of the administrative control of religion throughout the world by Christian organizations.  Manifested by a star, would imply a greater accessibility to the "Christ-nature" than simply having the accident of being born in societies which give accessibility to the sacramental activities of churches.  If the eternal Word was from the beginning which creates all things, then the fact that everyone has "word" means that the "Word-nature" inhabits every human being whether they want it or not.  The "Word-Nature" is the "Christ-Nature" which is the universal "metaphysics" of humanity, since it is unavoidable.  Word-Nature as Christ-Nature is the essence of a universal Epiphany.

Aphorism of the Day, January 1, 2017

Having a holy name on the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus.  Each snowflake is unique but we don't give names to snowflakes because they are unique.  They are too transitory and lack sentient existence to be worthy of a name for their unique.  Human beings and pets get personal and specific names because they are important within a community of people and even though human beings go through life cycles of changes which in isolation make a person seem to be completely different from the appearance at the time of birth to later phases of life, within a community of knowing people a person has a "unity" of existence within the changes which happen in time.  A name is the confession of the unity of existence in time for an individual within the community which knows the individual.  We have today, the method of identifying DNA to "prove" identity of existence of the individual.  The Feast of the Holy Name reveals the social method of the church in telling the importance the Jesus came to have in the life of the world.  After the post-resurrection success of Jesus, the early Christians exercised a retroactive future interior tense.  When Jesus was born it will have been proven that he represented in his special name, the meaning of God for humanity: Jesus, God is our salvation.  The Holy Spirit is the continuing proof of the "DNA" of the life of Jesus still accessible to humanity in knowing that God is our salvation, our ultimate source of preservation, even in the profound changes which take place in the transition from life to the afterlife.

Quiz of the Day, January 2017

Quiz of the Day, January 31, 2017

The following quote from Isaiah is found in what others books of the Bible: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,  who brings good news..?"

a. Matthew
b. Luke
c. Romans
d. Hebrews
e. Psalms

Quiz of the Day, January 30, 2017

The theology called "Thomism" derives from which Thomas?

a. Becket
b. Thomas, the apostle
c. Aquinas
d. Thomas Merton

Quiz of the Day, January 29, 2017

Where does the word "beatitude" come from?

a. Greek for "blessed"
b. Vulgate title for the Sermon on the Mount
c. Latin for happiness
d. Greek for favored
e. a and d
f. b and c

Quiz of the Day, January 28, 2017

Of the following, who is the most prolific writer?

a. Thomas Aquinas
b. Anselm of Canterbury
c. Peter Abelard
d. Albert Magnus
e. Bernard of Clairvaux

Quiz of the Day, January 27, 2017

Match the person with her biographic facts:

a. Lydia
b. Dorcas
c. Phoebe
1- Joppan, helper of widows, healed by Peter
2- Paul's first European convert, business woman, seller of purple
3- minister in church in Cenchreae

Quiz of the Day, January 26, 2017

Timothy, Titus and Silas are associated with what mentor and companion?

a. Peter
b. John
c. Paul
d. Barnabas

Quiz of the Day, January 25, 2017

The week from the Feast of the Confession of Peter to the Feast of the Conversion of Paul is called what on the Episcopal liturgical calendar?

a. Ember Days
b. Rogation Days
c. Candlemas
d. Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Quiz of the Day, January 24, 2017

Who was the first woman priest ordained in the Anglican Communion?

a. Carter Heyward
b. Li Tim-Oi
c. Alla Bozarth-Campbell
d. Jeannette Piccard

Quiz of the Day, January 23, 2017

The Beatitudes are found in which Gospel(s)?

a. Matthew
b. Mark
c. Luke
d. John
e. a and c
f. a and b
g. c and d
h. a and d

Quiz of the Day, January 22, 2017

Who in the New Testament was named "Legion?"

a. no one, that was the an army size
b. a disciple of Paul
c. Philemon's slave
d. the name spoken through the Gerasene demoniac


Quiz of the Day, January 21, 2017

Who are the "patron saints" of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.?

a. St. Alban and St. Peter
b. St. Peter and St. Paul
c. St. John and St. James
d. St. Andrew and St. Peter

Quiz of the Day, January 20, 2017

Which of the following is not true about George Washington's inauguration?

a. It was held in New York city
b. They forgot the Bible for the oath and had to get one from the Masonic Lodge
c. The oath was administered by the Supreme Court Justice
d. Samuel Provoost, chaplain of the senate, led a prayer service at St. Paul's Chapel, following the inauguration

Quiz of the Day, January 19, 2017

To whom did Jesus say the following: "But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go?”

a. James
b.  John
c. Peter
d. Paul

Quiz of the Day, January 18, 2017

What could be said to be ironic about the confession of Peter accounts in the various Gospels?

a. Peter did not understand what he confessed
b. Jesus rebuked Peter by saying, "Get behind me Satan."
c. Jesus told Peter he would build the church when it did not exist
d. all of the above


Quiz of the Day, January 17, 2017

Antony of Egypt is regarded to be Father of the Monks and a Desert Father.  Which of the following is not a desert father?

a. Paul of Thebes
b. Pachomius
c. Shenouda the Archimandrate
d. Amma Syncletica of Alexandria.


Quiz of the Day, January 16, 2017

What is unique about the names "Peter" and "Boanerges?"

a. They are Simon, James and John
b. They were names given by Jesus
c. They are Galilean in origin
d. The names were given at the Transfiguration

Quiz of the Day, January 15, 2017

Which of the following books of the Bible make reference to Melchizedek?

a. Genesis
b. Joshua
c. Psalms
d. Hebrews
e. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, January 14, 2017

Who said, "The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath?"

a. Paul
b. Hillel
c. Jesus
d. Peter
e. Moses


Quiz of the Day, January 13, 2017

"Apple of one's eye" might refer to the sensitive pupil in the eye and in Hebrew can be literally translated as "Little man of the eye 'iyshown 'ayin (אישון עין).  It is used as a phrase of intimate endearment and can be found in all but one of the following?

a. Deuteronomy
b. Shakespeare
c. Bruce Springsteen
d. Psalms
e. Proverbs
f.  Lamentations
g. Zechariah

Quiz of the Day, January 12, 2017

Which of the following is not pertinent to the life of Aelred Rievaulx?

a. Patron of gall bladder stone sufferers
b. author of "Spiritual Friendship
c. was known by Bernard Clairvaux
d. strong proponent of the Crusades

Quiz of the Day, January 11, 2017

Archbishop William Laud served during the reign of what monarch?

a. Elizabeth I
b. Henry VIII
c. Charles I
d. James I

Quiz of the Day, January 10, 2017

Which prophet wrote the following: those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."

a. Jeremiah
b. Ezekiel
c. Daniel
d. Isaiah

Quiz of the Day, January 9, 2017

What Episcopal organization is known for its little blue "mite" boxes?

a. ERD
b. UTO
c. SPG
d. ECF

Quiz of the Day, January 8, 2017

Which of the following is not a mode of baptism?

a. immersion
b. intinction
c. affusion
d. submersion
e. aspersion


Quiz of the Day, January 7, 2017

What does the Gospel of John call the changing of water into wine at the wedding in Cana of Galilee?

a. a miracle
b. a work of wonder
c. the first sign
d. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, January 6, 2017

Which of the following is not a traditional theme of the season of the Epiphany?

a. Visit of the Magi
b. Baptism of Jesus
c. Multiplication of the loaves and fish
d. Miracle at a wedding in Cana

Quiz of the Day, January 5, 2017

What was the eastern boundary of the land that God promised to Joshua as he took over for Moses?

a. Jordan River
b. Damascus
c. Euphrates River
d. Syrian Border

Quiz of the Day, January 4, 2017

The following is a quite anachronistic sentiment in a quote from the Epistle to the Hebrews: "He considered abuse suffered for the Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt."  Whom does this refer to?

a. Joseph, husband of Mary after the flight to Egypt
b. Joseph son of Jacob
c. Moses
d. Jacob, when he resided in Egypt

Quiz of the Day, January 3, 2017

What did Jacob call the place where he had his famous dream about the ascending and descending angels from heaven?

a. Mamre
b. Zion
c. Bethel
d. Shechem

Quiz of the Day, January 2, 2017

The eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews revisits the deeds of the heroes of the Hebrew Scriptures by highlight one particular virtue in their lives.  What is that virtue?

a. Love
b. Hope
c. Peace
d. Faith

Quiz of the Day, January 1, 2017

The practice and rite of circumcision for males on the eighth day derived from what person of the Hebrew Scriptures?

a. Adam
b. Moses
c. Jacob
d. Aaron
e. Abraham

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Blessed As What Is Most Appropriate

4 Epiphany A      January 29,2017
Micah 6:1-8       Ps. 37:1-18
1 Cor. 1:18-31    Matt. 5:1-12
What kind of advice for living would you give people in a growing Jesus Movement?  These were people who if they were Jews were being excommunicated from the synagogue.  Synagogues could be known gatherings and communities for Jews who lived in the cities of the Roman Empire, so even though Palestine had been occupied and every rebellion had been put down by the Roman armies, the Jews had a long history of living as a minority community within the great Empires, the Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Parthian, Seleucid, and the Empires of the three generals of Alexander the Great and then the Roman Empire.  The Jesus Movement did not have the advantage of being a community of people who had established ties throughout the Roman Empire as part of the Jewish Diaspora.  The members of the Jesus Movement had to find a way to survive within the Roman Empire and not being an established institution like the synagogue gave the Movement a stealthy presence within the cities of the Roman Empire.  The Jesus Movement was a movement which met in private homes and as such it could "as it were" fly under the radar.  The fact that we have so little "secular" historical records of early Christianity means that it must have been surviving and growing under the radar.  How could one live the lifestyle of guerilla Christianity?  One needed a recommended way of life appropriate to the conditions and setting.  Successful living in a given situation might be called finding how to live, think, feel, act and speak in appropriate ways.  Such discovery of the appropriate way to live in life might be called living the blessed life.  We probably like to think that a blessed life means being successful in health, material possessions and general conditions of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 
I think that the beatitudes are modes of the blessed state of recommended attitudes for appropriate survival for the early Christians.

First of all they needed to believe in a larger world and a higher power than the ones which affected their every day lives.  For their lives, they lived in the kingdom of the Caesar.  That was their every day reality.  All of the Caesar's local armies and governors enforced the rules of the Empire.  One of the reasons Christians were removed from the synagogue is that they were no longer active opponents of the Caesars.  Since the followers of Christ were increasingly non-Jewish persons, they would have less of a bone to pick with the Caesar since they were already accustomed to living with the Roman authorities.

How does one live in Caesar's kingdom while at the same time acknowledging a higher power and a higher kingdom?  One lived cosmically and locally at the same time.  One lives spiritually even as one lives fully within one's body.  The faith Christians were asked to live by made them very presumptuous about their status.  They lived as children of God, they were citizens of a heavenly kingdom, not just a Roman kingdom.  They had the special vision to see God because their seeing and vision was made clear from the conditions of their hearts.  They could live in the Roman Empire in Christian camouflage; appearing to be very poor in spirit.  They weren't full of themselves and didn't have to make waves in the Roman Empire because they presumptuously believed that they were citizens of a greater kingdom.  They believed in the very difficult work of making peace.  The Christians had to learn to live together as a diverse group of people within the urbanization processes of the Roman Empire.  They had to live in peace with each other and then as a local group of Christians they had to negotiate their secret and private status within the Roman Empire without raising political suspicion.  Their situation required high levels of trust.  It also could be easy to fail one another because of the pressure.  They had to practice mercy and forgiveness with each other and they found that mercy and forgiveness were reciprocal.  One could know mercy for oneself as one offered it to other.  This quality of living was required for being a successful community.  The Jesus Movement survived by losing reliance upon the nuclear family or the clan or the tribe.  The Jesus Movement was a mix of perhaps "unattached" people who were nomadic and relocated.  If people did not share blood relationship how could they live together?  Accepting themselves as children of God meant that they had another basis for family relationship.  The early home churches would function like social clubs where people could meet and support each other and find spouses who would share common values.

One of the most challenging tasks of the members of the Christian community was to teach their member how to suffer and survive.  They had to be strong enough for non-violent maintenance of their community.  They had to learn how to deal with persecution.  They had to deal with the fact that people would lie about them and what they believed and how they lived.  Those in the early Jesus Movement could not live totally under the radar and so when they were sold out as being a threat to people in authority they could experience suffering and persecution.  They were taught the non-violent maintenance of their community.

They were like Jesus; they did not believe in armed resistance to the Roman authorities.  They knew that the message of Christ had done an inside job of persuasion in their lives.  No one forced them to believe in Jesus Christ.  They believed because the message got inside of them and changed their lives.  And this is how the kingdom of heaven occurred, not with the force of armies but through the inward persuasion which came through the message delivered by a dynamic loving community.

The wisdom of the Roman Empire was that a kingdom existed by the force and might of armies.  The method of the church in contrast was what was called the foolishness of the message of the Cross of Christ.  The Cross of Christ, an event proving a powerless Jesus of Nazareth, became a powerful interior event for people to die to what was unworthy in their lives and bring them to the recommendable behaviors needed for the maintenance of loving community. 

The prophet Micah of old criticized his people for replacing the basic required practice of life with religious cultic behaviors.  Burnt offerings and keeping religious rules could not replace what the Lord required:  Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly before God.  These are the recommended behaviors expressed in the beatitudes and they were successful behaviors of the members of the Jesus Movement as they formed these stealthy new social clubs called churches in the cities throughout the Roman Empire.  They practiced the non-violent maintenance of their communities in the Roman World which would not have accepted them as open and public competitors with the Roman Emperors.

How do you and I find "appropriate" beatitude behaviors for us today.  We are no longer a movement.  We are an institution.  We have the favor of the great Empires of the world.  It is both easier and harder to be a follower of Christ today.  It is easier because we have so many freedoms to believe and act in so many ways without people oppressing us.  Since it is so easy to be a public Christian today, it is rather easy to be less than committed to the very values of Jesus and the values of those early Christians who had most challenging settings.

We still need the values of the beatitudes today.  We need to believe in higher powers than America, Russia, Germany and England.  We need to believe in higher powers than democracy, capitalism and socialism.  We need to believe in a greater family than just our blood relatives or our ethnic community; we need to believe that all are children of God and so we have the basis for the family of the church which will continue to welcome everyone.  We need to be sure of God's actions in our interior lives so instead of projecting pessimism on the outer world, we will be able to project and see the life of God in our world.  We need mercy and forgiveness for successful Christian community.  We need the grace not to over react when people criticize us for what we believe.  We need to believe in a future beyond our own limited life where the problems of today will be resolved and viewed from a different perspective and where our fears and anxieties will prove to have been wasted energy.

The beatitudes were the oracle of Christ which were recommended for the church responsible for writing the Gospel of Matthew.  They were blessed because they were successful appropriate ways of living for survival of the Jesus Movement in the decades after the destruction of Jerusalem.  The beatitudes had their own relevance and significance for the ancient churches and they can have corresponding relevance for us as we live each day by faith in trying to find the most appropriate way to act and speak in our lives and build up the church and honor Christ.  Amen.

Bee Attitude?


4 Epiphany A      January 29, 2017              Youth Sunday Dialogue Sermon

Micah 6:1-8       Ps. 37:1-18   1 Cor. 1:18-31    Matt. 5:1-12


Alex:         In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.  You may be seated.    Today we’ve read a speech that is more famous than Lincoln’s Gettysburg address.


Rylie:        What’s that?


Alex:         t’s the Sermon on the Mount delivered by Jesus Christ.  It is also called the Beatitudes.  Do you know what Beatitude means?


Caroline:  I do.  A Bee Attitude is how a bee behaves.  For example, collecting pollen is a Bee Attitude.  And buzzing is a Bee Attitude.  And making honey is a Bee Attitude.  And stinging people is also a Bee Attitude.


Rylie:        Caroline, that does sound correct, and it does make for an interesting pun.  But beatitude means something else.


Caroline:  Like what?


Alex:         I think the word comes from the Latin word “Beatus”  BEE  AT US. 


Caroline:  And was does that mean?


Alex:         Beatus means “Blessed.”


Rylie:        That’s it!   All of the beatitudes begin with the words “Blessed.”  So that is why this speech of Jesus is called the Beatitudes.


Caroline:  Now that we’ve got that settled.  Can we talk about some of the meanings of the beatitudes?  Some of the meanings are kind of hard to understand.


Alex:         What do you mean?


Caroline: Well like, “Blessed are you when people persecute you and when they speak falsely about you.”  How can that be happiness or good luck?  How can we say that we would be lucky if someone lied about us and how could we say that we are blessed and happy?

Rylie:        I think that Jesus was teaching his followers about what he valued in life.  Jesus valued telling the truth.  He said that anyone who lied would be living in a cursed state.  So it is much better to be the one who lives in truth and who is lied about than the one who tells lies to hurt other people.


Caroline:  So we are happy and blessed if we get to be the people who tell the truth; the people who tell lies are cursed and they hurt other people when they lie.


Alex:         It can really be hard to stand up for the truth sometimes.  And it is really hurtful when people lie and hurt the reputations of other people.  But Jesus said, if you want to follow him you must be willing to stand up for what is true no matter what people say about you.


Rylie:        What about the so called lucky conditions of life in beatitudes?  Like blessed are the meek, blessed are those who mourn?  Why would being meek or mourning be good at all?


Caroline:  Meek means to be humbly patient. This is the opposite of being proudly impatient.  People who are proudly impatient are people who trample all over the feelings and rights of other people. People who act that way are living a cursed life. The people who are humbly patient are those who have the Spirit within them giving them self-control. But how do humbly patient people inherit the earth? It appears that proudly impatient people just go ahead and take as much as they want.


Rylie:        Inheriting the earth means we get something free from our parents. And people who know God as their heavenly parent know that God has given them the blessing of the created world. This does not mean having lots of money and big houses. It means God has given us the world as a gift for us to enjoy. It is much better to have the gift of enjoying the world than just to own property. But why do you think mourning is a blessed condition of life?


Alex:         I think that mourning can be a blessed condition of life not because we always like to feel sad and cry. What Jesus probably means is that people who have mourned in their lives will know how to comfort and be with people who are sad. It is the gift of empathy. Empathy is knowing how other people feel and so you know how to comfort them. When you know how to comfort other people you can also know comfort for yourself and you can be thankful that you learned how to mourn.


Rylie:        That is a different kind of mourning than being a cry baby. Not that I would ever call anyone that!  But what is good about being poor in spirit? Isn’t is better to be wealthy and rich in Spirit.

Caroline:  I think what that means is that God’s Holy Spirit is the wealthiest Spirit of all. And if we think our own little spirits are the greatest and wealthiest then we will not make room for God’s Holy Spirit. So we have to learn how poor our spirits are to find out how much we need to ask the Holy Spirit to be strong and rich at the center of our lives.  When we discover the Holy Spirit within us, then we truly know that we are living in the kingdom of heaven.


Alex:         Quiz time!  How can you and I know for certain that we are children of God?


Rylie:        If we are peacemakers then we will know that we are children of God?


Caroline:   I think that is why we pass the peace every Sunday in church.  We practice the greeting of peace so that we take this as the way that we’re supposed to live with all people.  I know that my mom and dad are happy with me as their child when I live at peace with my dear sister.  So God is really happy with his children when they also live at peace with each other and when they help to bring peace to everyone.  But there is something important needed to make peace happen.


Alex:         What is that?


Caroline:  Since we are not perfect people and we have to live together, we need to practice forgiveness.


Rylie:        Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy.”  Everyone who is not perfect needs mercy.  And the best thing that an imperfect person can do is to have mercy.


Alex:         And it just so happens that people who have mercy also receive mercy.  When we pray the Lord’s Prayer we say, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”


Caroline:  Yes, we should treat other people the way that we want to be treated.  So if we want mercy for ourselves, we need to practice forgiveness.  Well, this preaching makes me hungry.  I hope we have some good snacks in coffee hour.


Rylie:        Hold it Caroline.  Jesus said you should hunger and thirst for righteousness.


Caroline:  I’m sorry but my growling stomach tells me that hunger is not a metaphor. It’s how I really feel.


Alex:         That’s the point Jesus is trying to make.  He is saying that we should have a longing and a desire to do what is right.  And if we do what is right, then we will be filled.  We will be satisfied and contented.  But I think one of the hardest sayings of Jesus is when he said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”


Rylie:        Doesn’t it say in other places in the Bible that no one can see God?  Isn’t this like saying if we were birds then we would be able to fly; but since we’re not birds, we will never be able to fly?


Caroline:  It might mean that when we learn to have the correct motives in life that we will begin to see how God is involved in our lives.  The Holy Spirit is working to create in us a clean heart and as our heart become pure, then we can better understand what God is doing in our lives and in our world.


Alex:         So we’re never going to be perfect, but we can always become “more perfect” today than we were yesterday.


Rylie:        As we find the good and right reason for doing everything then we will understand or see God more clearly.


Caroline:  Well, these beatitudes are not for the bees, they are for us.  And they are some very difficult habits of living for us to succeed at.


Alex:         Yes, Jesus set a very high standard for us, but this is good because it is better to have very high standards and fail than to have very low standards and not achieve much.


Rylie:        People of St. John’s, Jesus invites us and the entire world to learn to live by the beatitudes.


Caroline:  We are lucky, happy and blessed people if we are learning to adjust our lives to the beatitudes.


Alex:         Let us thank Jesus today for the high standards that he gives to us.  It means that we need God’s mercy and help as we try to follow the high standards that have been given to us.


Rylie:        Jesus gave us the beatitudes.  And now all I’ve got to say is, “Let’s get to work and follow Jesus towards the beatitudes.”  Amen.

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