Showing posts with label 6 Easter B. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 6 Easter B. Show all posts

Saturday, May 8, 2021

Graduating to be Friends of Christ to Make More Friends

6 Easter B         May 9, 2021
Acts 10:44-48    Ps. 33:1-8,18-22
1 John 4:7-21      John 15:9-17     




The Gospel of John presents Jesus in the most ideal parent-child relationship.  In fact, Jesus, in the Gospel of John is proposing that we know ourselves as children of God and experience this ideal relationship to God.

A happy Mother's Day to all mothers today and we offer thanksgiving to the only person in whom we ever literally lived.

Jesus said: Abide in me.  Our birth mothers did not have to say that to us; we were in them from our beginnings.

In our Gospel today, Jesus clarifies what he meant by the notion of abiding in him.  Abide in my love as I abide in my Father's love.

Obviously we were doubled blessed by literally abiding in our mothers from before birth and when we were born, we were blessed if we could abide in our Mother's love.

One might say the profound effect of Jesus of Nazareth is that he cast an aura of love, so profound that he created a "love environment" within which people were invited to abide and live and dwell and develop their own ability to have a love aura for the befriending of others in this world.

And that is what the church is to be today; a befriending society creating a love aura, a love environment where people can find acceptance and nurture and peace for growth into their full personhood.

In the history of the church, it is sometimes hard to find the original genius of our foundation; we were made to be a society of friends, who befriend others because of the good news about a love relationship with God.

We can note that the institutional structures of the church have often functioned, not for befriending but for separating us from each other as exclusive clubs with tight boundaries.  Sometimes the boundaries have been seen in doctrinal wars between people who are Christian or other people who profess a different belief in God.  Sometimes the boundaries have been ethnic and racial.  Apparently colonial powers of European and American Christians were happy to convert people of color to the love of Jesus, without ever truly practicing the justice of the love of Jesus with such people.  We, white people, have taken a Middle Eastern religion and made it into a "white empire" of privilege, admitting people of color as long as they did not insist on interacting with us with the same kind of privilege.

We who have been glad about the success of Gospel among people of color, need to pray for the success of the Gospel to attain the fullness of loving practice in our own communities.

Befriending is perhaps the major issue in our world today.  Befriending can only happen between people who are willing to live out equality with each other.  Jesus of Nazareth wanted his students to graduate, from being mere pupils and disciples with diminutive status to become full blown friends with him.

Jesus said, "I now call you friends; you have graduated because you now have become the teachers to others and I send you to befriend other people as I have befriended you.  You have learned the curriculum well; the curriculum of my commandments of love."

One of the goals of motherhood is to have one's children grow up and become parents too.  Once a parent, one reaches a new type of equality with one's own parent, an equality of identity.

Let us remember the graduation ceremony of Jesus for his disciples. "Peter, James and John, and the rest, I confer upon you the certificate of friendship.  You are my friends, because you have learned to befriend other people to be able to find their friendship with God."

My friends, we can in the middle of being an institution with property, and lots of other baggage, forget about the core reason of why we exist.  We exist to befriend each other and our world with the love of God in Christ.

Befriending happens when we cast an aura of love from God's Spirit of love which creates an environment for people to abide in the wonderful friendship community founded because of God in Christ.  Let us go forth in love to befriend and heal our world trapped in broken relationships with each other and God.  Amen.

 
 

Wednesday, May 5, 2021

Sunday School, May 9, 2021 6 Easter B

 Sunday School, May 9, 2021      6 Easter B


Theme:

Jesus came to start a friendship organization.

Jesus called his disciple friends.
His disciples were his students.
When they reached at certain level of training, Jesus gave them a graduation ceremony.
He told them, “You are no longer a servant or student, you are my friend.”

Why is this important that the disciple/students received their friends diploma?

As friends of Jesus, they were going to stay around after Jesus was gone.  Jesus knew that he was leaving and he trained his disciples to become his trusted friends.  As friends, they would be the teachers in charge of training new students.

Jesus called his disciples “friends” because he believed him them.  He knew that he could trust them to help build the friendship groups called the church.

All of us are to be students of Jesus.  We are supposed to learn and grow and we are supposed to be the friends of Christ who he can trust to become teachers for others.

When you study you follow rules.  Jesus gave his disciples rules or commandments to follow so that they could graduate from his class and become teachers who were his trusted friends.

Let us remember that we are disciples of Jesus and we are following the commandments and rules of Jesus because we love him and we want to learn from the rules and the commandments of Jesus.  Why?

So we can be the trusted friends of Jesus and we can graduates and become teachers for other people to follow the rules and commandments of Jesus.

Sermon on the kinds of Love

In our reading from the Bible today we have read the best definition of God.  How do we talk about?  What do we say God is like?
  The best definition of God is to say: God is love.  Can you say that?  God is love?  Do you know what love is?  Yes, you do.  You know that your parents love.  And they will love you no matter what you do.
  But we need to understand what love is.  Did you know that in the Greek language, there are four words for the one English word love?
  The first word is storge.  Can you say that? Storge  means to like the things and people that are familiar to us.  We tend to like what we do everyday because if we didn’t,  we would stop doing it.
  The next word for love is eros.  Eros means desire.  And desire is a very important love.  We know desire because it is like when God made the world, God plant something in us like magnets.  And some thing like a magnet within us makes us need and like some things and some people.  When you are thirsty?  Some thing like a magnet within you attracts you to what?  Water. When you are hungry, some thing in you attracts you to what?  Food.  What you and I need is like a magnet within us and it attracts us to what can satisfy our need.  And people like all animals need to survive, and so we also need to be married and create babies so there will always be enough people.  That is the love call eros.
  Another love is phileo.  Can you say that?  Phileo is a kind of love that we have for our friends.  It is the kind of love that we have in our play and in our hobbies.  Why do some people like sports but not gardening?  Why do some people like to play with dolls and not trucks?  Why do some people like princesses and not super-heroes?   Why do you choose to play with some children and not others?  Why do some people like horses, but not snakes
  Storge, Eros and Phileo love are good loves.  But they need another love to help them work best.  How are you going to treat the people that you don’t like?  Some times our liking does not last very long.  We may like our friend, but if we get in an argument with them…we may say, “I don’t like you anymore.”  What happens to our love when we say that?  Why does our love go away so suddenly?  And how do people get treated when our love goes away?
  That is why, we need another kind of love.  We need a love that is called agape.  This is the love that is inspired by God.  This is the love that God has for us.  And this is love that God gives to us, if we will receive it.
  God loves people that we don’t like.  God loves things in this world that we don’t like or don’t think to take care of.
  God commands us to love our neighbor.  When?  Not just when we feel like it.  We have to love our neighbor even when we don’t like them, and they have to love us even when they don’t like us.  Why?  Because this kind of love protects us.  It protects everyone equally.  This kind of love is more than a feeling. Jesus commanded this kind of love because he wanted us to practice  respect and fairness for everyone.  And this is kind of love that God wants us to know.  Sometimes it is hard to love someone that you don’t know or like, but we need to love in this, because this kind of love protects us and everyone.  This is the love that God asks us to learn.  Are you willing to learn this kind of love today?
God will help us.  Today we celebrate special people in our lives who have a special love for us.  We celebrate our mothers.  Their love is special because they love us even when we do not behave our best.  The love that God has for us is like the love that our mothers have for us.  Amen.



Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist
May 9, 2021: The Sixth Sunday of Easter

Gathering Songs: Sing a New Song, Peace before Us, What Wondrous Love, I Love You Lord

Song: Sing a New Song (Renew!  # 21)
Refrain: Sing a new song unto the Lord; let your song be sung from mountains high.  Sing a new song unto the Lord, singing Alleluia.

Yahweh’s people dance for joy; O come before the Lord.  And play for him on glad tambourines, and let your trumpet sound.  Refrain
Rise, O children from you sleep, your savior now has come.  He has turned your sorrow to joy, and filled your soul with song.  Refrain
Glad my soul for I have seen the glory of the Lord.  The trumpet sound; the dead shall be raised.  I know my Savior lives.  Refrain

Liturgist: Alleluia, Christ is Risen.
People: The Lord is Risen Indeed.  Alleluia.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.
And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.
Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.
People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray
O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia
O God, you have made us! Alleluia
O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Alleluia
O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Alleluia
O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Alleluia
O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia
O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Alleluia


A reading from the First Letter of John
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord
People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 98

Sing to the LORD a new song, * for he has done marvelous things.
Shout with joy to the LORD, all you lands; * lift up your voice, rejoice, and sing.
Sing to the LORD with the harp, * with the harp and the voice of song.
With trumpets and the sound of the horn * shout with joy before the King, the LORD.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:
For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!
For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!
For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!
For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!
For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!
For work and for play. Thanks be to God!
For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!
For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!
For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.
   Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John
People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus said to his disciples, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.
People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.
Sermon – Father Phil

Children’s Creed

We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.
Since God is so great and we are so small,
We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.
We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and
     resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.
We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is
     welcome.
We believe that Christ is kind and fair.
We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.
And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever.  Amen.


Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.

For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.
For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.
For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.
For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.
For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.
For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.
For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.
For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.
For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.
For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.

Youth Liturgist:          The Peace of the Lord be always with you.
People:                        And also with you.

Song during the preparation of the Altar and the receiving of an offering

Song:  Peace Before Us (Wonder, Love and Praise, # 791)
1          Peace before us.  Peace behind us.  Peace under our feet.  Peace within us.  Peace over us.  Let all around us be Peace.
2          Love, 3 Light, 4 Christ

Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist
Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of heaven.”
All become members of a family by birth or adoption.
Holy Baptism is a celebration of our birth into the family of God.
A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.
The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you
And also with you.

Lift up your hearts
We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.
It is right to give God thanks and praise.

It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.  Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we forever sing this hymn of praise:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might.  Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 
Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

(All may gather around the altar)


Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;
You have made us in your image
And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:
Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.
And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph
And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.
Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat
  the bread and drink the wine, we can  know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as  
  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.


And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Bless and anctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbor.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.

Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ.  May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory
 is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. AMEN.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,


Our Father: (Renew # 180, West Indian Lord’s Prayer)
Our Father who art in heaven:  Hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.
Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

And forgive us all our debts: Hallowed be thy name.
As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.
But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory: Hallowed be thy name.
Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.
Amen, amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread
Celebrant:       Alleluia! Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!


Words of Administration

Communion Song: What Wondrous Love (Renew! # 277)
What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul.  What wondrous love is this O my soul.  What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss to bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul. To bear the dreadful curse for my soul.
When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down, when I was sinking down sinking down.  When I was sinking down beneath God’s righteous frown, Christ laid aside his crown for my soul, for my soul, Christ laid aside his crown for my soul.
To God and to the Lamb, I will sing, I will sing.  To God and to the lamb I will sing.  To God and to the lamb who is the great I AM—while millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing, while millions join the theme I will sing.
And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on.  And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on; and when from death I’m free, I’ll sing and joyful be, and through eternity I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on, and when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on.

Post-Communion Prayer
Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;
We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.
And His Presence has been known to us.
We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers
    and sisters in Christ.
Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the
     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,
As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Closing Song: I Love You Lord (Renew! # 36)
I love you Lord, and I lift my voice to worship you, O my soul, rejoice. 
Take joy, my King, in what you hear:  May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear.
Repeat

Dismissal:   
Liturgist: Alleluia!  Alleluia!  Let us go forth in the Name of Christ.
People: Thanks be to God! Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Sunday, May 6, 2018

Goal of Life: Friendship with Christ

6 Easter b         May 10, 2015
Acts     Ps. 33:1-8,18-22
1 John 4:7-21      John 15:9-17      

Lectionary Link What is the official name of the Quakers?   The Religious Society of Friends.  And certainly such a designation would find some basis in the Gospel of John.

We have read the words of Jesus to his disciples:  "I have called you friends."  This comes immediately after the discourse on the Vine and the branches and the injunction to "abide" in Christ.

I think one of the ways that we can understand this Gospel lesson today is something like a "graduation" ceremony.  What happens when one gets a diploma?  One receives certification from a governing body.  The diploma gives a person the permission and privilege to begin to practice a career or a profession.  Why does one receive a diploma?  One has followed the rules and the requirements for the particular degree.  One learns the rules and the requirements of a profession so that one can teach others to do the same and so that one can model the rules and requirements by the practice of one's life.

Jesus said to his disciples, "I no longer call you servants or students subject to teaching conditions of rules and regulations.  Your status has changed, you have graduated and now I call you friends, fellow teachers of our program to promote a loving friendship with God and a loving friendship with each other.

The early Jesus Movement was all about friendship and befriending.  One can understand the Gospel of John as a discipleship manual within the Jesus Movement.  The goal of Christian spirituality was to come to know Christ as one's friend.

The friendship experience with Christ represented a break through event in discipleship, in mystical training.  At first one can seem like a servant in the process of discipleship.  Training oneself to learn new behaviors can seem at times to be very difficult.  It is like discipline in any path of excellence.  Like learning to play the piano.  One practices and practices and struggles with endless scales and it can seem boringly repetitive but suddenly there is a break through; it's as though the piano chooses you and all of the rules of practice become automatic and suddenly one is possessed with lyricism and the piano seems to say, "you are my friend."

In the mystical practice of the early Christians, the members were attracted by a spiritual path of realizing a special friendship with Christ.  There was the camaraderie with fellow devotees on the spiritual path.  There were teachers who encouraged disciples and students to keep on the path.

Becoming a friend of Christ is to arrive at lyrical spiritual experience.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.  How can love and commandment be mentioned together?   St. Paul wrote that to love is to fulfill the commandments of the law.  Love is lyrical living and it is when following the commandments have become so internalized that they have become the habit of one's life.

One could say that they main reason that the Gospel of John was  written was so that people could come to know a friendship experience with Christ.  In friendship there is a permissive freedom that does not happen when one is not a friend.  In friendship there is such a mutual regard without divisive rigid egos.  It is not difficult to lay down one's life for one's friends.  The life referred to here is the "pseuche" life/soul life, or the particular ego state in how one's emotions, mind and will are constituted.  With one's friends one does not worry about hurt feelings, or having different opinions of the mind or freedom of choice.  In friendship love, there is mutual regard of being in the peak state of relationship.

Jesus spoke about an intimate friendship.  John's Gospel presents a dynamic Trinitarian friendship.  Friendship begins within God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The image of divine friendship spills into the created order.  Jesus told his non-mystical literal disciples, "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.  The Father and I are one."  Jesus had arrived at a place of never seeing himself as being apart from the Plenitude of God.  He was always, already one with God."  And this is the kind of friendship energy and relationship which he offered to his disciple students.  This befriending tradition is what built the early church.

The Gospel of John is a mystical manual for us today.  We are offered the experience of being a friend of Christ.  We are invited to let God's Holy Spirit energize the Christ nature within us so that we too can know ourselves as being one with God the Father.  How so?  Because we are learning to live our lives as never being seen as living in separation from All that Is.

Even though John's Gospel does not include an explicit reference to the Trinity, it is a teaching about the holy friendship within God that becomes known and shared with us.

You and I are to come to know this dynamic friendship with Christ as the foundation of our personal esteem.  If we know this holy friendship with Christ, we cease to be people who seek constant affirmation and adoration from others.  As we come to a friendship experience with Christ, we can be those who model friendship as the way life should be lived.  We arrive at allowing the nature of Christ to be known through us with the behaviors of friendship love.

Today, you and I are invited to friendship with Christ because he said that the dynamic friendship that is found within God, is also shared with us.  Everything that we do in the church and in our liturgy is to support the quest to know this friendship with Christ.  Amen.


Jesus Calls Us Friends

6 Easter b         May 6, 2018
Acts     Ps. 33:1-8,18-22
1 John 4:7-21      John 15:9-17      
Lectionary Link
What is one of the greatest gifts of life?

Is it a new bicycle?  Or a new doll?  Or some new clothes?  Or a new car?  Or a new house?  Or a new job?

All of these things might be good things and good surprises, but can you guess what the very best gift in life is?

The best gift in life is friendship.  When one discovers a friend one finds the best gift of life.

Jesus told his disciples.  You are my friends.  And as my friend, I will share with you everything.  And the best thing that Jesus shared with them was to have a relationship with God his father.

Jesus as the best friend of all, shared what was best.

He said that he would share his relationship with God as his Father.  So, Jesus told his friends; I'm like your brother, because you are sons and daughters of God too.  We are all members of God's family.

But you know what is said?  Not everyone knows that they are members of God's family.  Not everyone knows that Jesus is their friend.

Do you know what Jesus did to solve this problem?

Jesus told his students; you are my friends.  You have graduated from my school and now you have to go into all the world and tell and show all people that God is their Father and that I am their friend.

And so gather here today.  We gather today because Jesus has made us his friends.  And he has let us know that we are sons and daughters of God.

He has let us know that his life can be known within us by God's Holy Spirit.

God is pure friendship.  God is the Friendship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  And the friendship of God has been given to us when God's Son, Jesus came to show us how to be special friends of God and friends with each other.

Today, we celebrate our friendship with God and with Jesus and with each other.  And we celebrate the Friendship energy that is in us and around.  That friendship energy is the Holy Spirit.

Let us be thankful today for the gift of friendship with God and let us be thankful for the friendship that we have with each other.  And let us not forget to share this friendship news to more people and invite them to be with us as our new friends.   Amen.

Friday, May 4, 2018

Sunday School, May 6, 2018 6 Easter B

Sunday School, May 6, 2018      6 Easter B

Theme:

Jesus came to start a friendship organization.

Jesus called his disciple friends.
His disciples were his students.
When they reached at certain level of training, Jesus gave them a graduation ceremony.
He told them, “You are no longer a servant or student, you are my friend.”

Why is this important that the disciple/students received their friends diploma?

As friends of Jesus, they were going to stay around after Jesus was gone.  Jesus knew that he was leaving and he trained his disciples to become his trusted friends.  As friends, they would be the teachers in charge of training new students.

Jesus called his disciples “friends” because he believed him them.  He knew that he could trust them to help build the friendship groups called the church.

All of us are to be students of Jesus.  We are supposed to learn and grow and we are supposed to be the friends of Christ who he can trust to become teachers for others.

When you study you follow rules.  Jesus gave his disciples rules or commandments to follow so that they could graduate from his class and become teachers who were his trusted friends.

Let us remember that we are disciples of Jesus and we are following the commandments and rules of Jesus because we love him and we want to learn from the rules and the commandments of Jesus.  Why?

So we can be the trusted friends of Jesus and we can graduates and become teachers for other people to follow the rules and commandments of Jesus.

Sermon on the kinds of Love

In our reading from the Bible today we have read the best definition of God.  How do we talk about?  What do we say God is like?
  The best definition of God is to say: God is love.  Can you say that?  God is love?  Do you know what love is?  Yes, you do.  You know that your parents love.  And they will love you no matter what you do.
  But we need to understand what love is.  Did you know that in the Greek language, there are four words for the one English word love?
  The first word is storge.  Can you say that? Storge  means to like the things and people that are familiar to us.  We tend to like what we do everyday because if we didn’t,  we would stop doing it.
  The next word for love is eros.  Eros means desire.  And desire is a very important love.  We know desire because it is like when God made the world, God plant something in us like magnets.  And some thing like a magnet within us makes us need and like some things and some people.  When you are thirsty?  Some thing like a magnet within you attracts you to what?  Water. When you are hungry, some thing in you attracts you to what?  Food.  What you and I need is like a magnet within us and it attracts us to what can satisfy our need.  And people like all animals need to survive, and so we also need to be married and create babies so there will always be enough people.  That is the love call eros.
  Another love is phileo.  Can you say that?  Phileo is a kind of love that we have for our friends.  It is the kind of love that we have in our play and in our hobbies.  Why do some people like sports but not gardening?  Why do some people like to play with dolls and not trucks?  Why do some people like princesses and not super-heroes?   Why do you choose to play with some children and not others?  Why do some people like horses, but not snakes
  Storge, Eros and Phileo love are good loves.  But they need another love to help them work best.  How are you going to treat the people that you don’t like?  Some times our liking does not last very long.  We may like our friend, but if we get in an argument with them…we may say, “I don’t like you anymore.”  What happens to our love when we say that?  Why does our love go away so suddenly?  And how do people get treated when our love goes away?
  That is why, we need another kind of love.  We need a love that is called agape.  This is the love that is inspired by God.  This is the love that God has for us.  And this is love that God gives to us, if we will receive it.
  God loves people that we don’t like.  God loves things in this world that we don’t like or don’t think to take care of.
  God commands us to love our neighbor.  When?  Not just when we feel like it.  We have to love our neighbor even when we don’t like them, and they have to love us even when they don’t like us.  Why?  Because this kind of love protects us.  It protects everyone equally.  This kind of love is more than a feeling. Jesus commanded this kind of love because he wanted us to practice  respect and fairness for everyone.  And this is kind of love that God wants us to know.  Sometimes it is hard to love someone that you don’t know or like, but we need to love in this, because this kind of love protects us and everyone.  This is the love that God asks us to learn.  Are you willing to learn this kind of love today?
God will help us.  Today we celebrate special people in our lives who have a special love for us.  We celebrate our mothers.  Their love is special because they love us even when we do not behave our best.  The love that God has for us is like the love that our mothers have for us.  Amen.


St. John the Divine Episcopal Church
17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037
Family Service with Holy Eucharist
May 6, 2018: The Sixth Sunday of Easter

Gathering Songs: Sing a New Song, Peace before Us, What Wondrous Love, I Love You Lord

Song: Sing a New Song (Renew!  # 21)
Refrain: Sing a new song unto the Lord; let your song be sung from mountains high.  Sing a new song unto the Lord, singing Alleluia.

Yahweh’s people dance for joy; O come before the Lord.  And play for him on glad tambourines, and let your trumpet sound.  Refrain
Rise, O children from you sleep, your savior now has come.  He has turned your sorrow to joy, and filled your soul with song.  Refrain
Glad my soul for I have seen the glory of the Lord.  The trumpet sound; the dead shall be raised.  I know my Savior lives.  Refrain

Liturgist: Alleluia, Christ is Risen.
People: The Lord is Risen Indeed.  Alleluia.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.
And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.
Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.
People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray
O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia
O God, you have made us! Alleluia
O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Alleluia
O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Alleluia
O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Alleluia
O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia
O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Alleluia


A reading from the First Letter of John
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord
People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 98

Sing to the LORD a new song, * for he has done marvelous things.
Shout with joy to the LORD, all you lands; * lift up your voice, rejoice, and sing.
Sing to the LORD with the harp, * with the harp and the voice of song.
With trumpets and the sound of the horn * shout with joy before the King, the LORD.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:
For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!
For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!
For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!
For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!
For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!
For work and for play. Thanks be to God!
For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!
For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!
For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.
   Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John
People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus said to his disciples, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.
People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.
Sermon – Father Phil

Children’s Creed

We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.
Since God is so great and we are so small,
We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.
We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and
     resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.
We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is
     welcome.
We believe that Christ is kind and fair.
We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.
And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever.  Amen.


Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.

For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.
For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.
For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.
For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.
For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.
For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.
For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.
For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.
For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.
For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.

Youth Liturgist:          The Peace of the Lord be always with you.
People:                        And also with you.

Song during the preparation of the Altar and the receiving of an offering

Song:  Peace Before Us (Wonder, Love and Praise, # 791)
1          Peace before us.  Peace behind us.  Peace under our feet.  Peace within us.  Peace over us.  Let all around us be Peace.
2          Love, 3 Light, 4 Christ

Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist
Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of heaven.”
All become members of a family by birth or adoption.
Holy Baptism is a celebration of our birth into the family of God.
A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.
The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you
And also with you.

Lift up your hearts
We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.
It is right to give God thanks and praise.

It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.  Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we forever sing this hymn of praise:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might.  Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 
Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

(All may gather around the altar)


Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;
You have made us in your image
And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:
Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.
And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph
And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.
Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat
  the bread and drink the wine, we can  know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as  
  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.


And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Bless and anctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbor.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.

Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ.  May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory
 is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. AMEN.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,


Our Father: (Renew # 180, West Indian Lord’s Prayer)
Our Father who art in heaven:  Hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.
Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

And forgive us all our debts: Hallowed be thy name.
As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.
But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory: Hallowed be thy name.
Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.
Amen, amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread
Celebrant:       Alleluia! Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!


Words of Administration

Communion Song: What Wondrous Love (Renew! # 277)
What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul.  What wondrous love is this O my soul.  What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss to bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul. To bear the dreadful curse for my soul.
When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down, when I was sinking down sinking down.  When I was sinking down beneath God’s righteous frown, Christ laid aside his crown for my soul, for my soul, Christ laid aside his crown for my soul.
To God and to the Lamb, I will sing, I will sing.  To God and to the lamb I will sing.  To God and to the lamb who is the great I AM—while millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing, while millions join the theme I will sing.
And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on.  And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on; and when from death I’m free, I’ll sing and joyful be, and through eternity I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on, and when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on.

Post-Communion Prayer
Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;
We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.
And His Presence has been known to us.
We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers
    and sisters in Christ.
Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the
     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,
As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Closing Song: I Love You Lord (Renew! # 36)
I love you Lord, and I lift my voice to worship you, O my soul, rejoice. 
Take joy, my King, in what you hear:  May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear.
Repeat

Dismissal:   
Liturgist: Alleluia!  Alleluia!  Let us go forth in the Name of Christ.
People: Thanks be to God! Alleluia!  Alleluia!

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