Showing posts with label B proper 11. Show all posts
Showing posts with label B proper 11. Show all posts

Sunday, July 18, 2021

The Shepherd Metaphor for God and the Healing Ministry of Christ

8 Pentecost P.11 July 18, 2021
Jeremiah 23: 1-6. Psalm 23
Ephesians 2:11-22 Mark 6:30-34, 53-56





One of the best known metaphors for God is the found in Psalm 23 where the Psalmist declares, "The Lord is my Shepherd."

To know that one is cared for by God is the ideal spiritual state of humanity.

The attributes of God as a good Shepherd can also be seen in the presentations of the healing ministry of Jesus as these stories are used to illustrate that Jesus, like God his Father, was a Good Shepherd.

And we in the metaphor, are represented by the sheep as those who can have "sheep-like" behaviors.  What do sheep do?  They wander from the herd, going it alone in search of experiences beyond the heard.  But sheep get lost and alienated from the herd and the shepherd.  People live in states of alienation and separation from God and from each other.  Sin is being alienated from God and from each other, even to the point of hurting each other or exploiting each other.

Sheep also get sick; they have birthing events.  Sheep can get attacked, get hungry and be in need of water.  The shepherd has to be also a lay veterinarian in applying oil and medicine to the wounds and tend to the illnesses of the sheep.

The Shepherd has to be a protector and rescuer for the sheep because there are predators and thieves.  A Good Shepherd is also an animal psychologists and attends to the moods of the sheep to cheer them up and keep them playfully involved.

One of the chief presentations of Jesus by the Gospels of the early Christ-based communities in the ten decades after Jesus left this earth, is Jesus as a healing shepherd.

We sometimes get hung up on the scientific efficacy of the healing miracles of Christ.  We forget that health and healing and medicine is different in each society at different times.  We should be understanding medical anthropologists as we regard the healings of Christ in the salvation message of the Christ-based communities.  We might get trapped into worry about healing.  Why did Jesus just heal a few people and not everyone?  Why doesn't everyone get healed who is sick today?  Doesn't Jesus and the Risen Christ want everyone to be completely healthy all of the time?  Because these questions are troublesome to us regarding who gets healed and who does not, it is better to ponder the message of healing Salvation which the Christ-based Gospel communities presented to their members.  The long and short of it is that the Risen Christ is present in sickness and in health, in all life situations and at our deaths and beyond.  If the Risen Christ is present in all life situations, then we can bear the fact that some people get healed and some don't, simply because of the free conditions of the world.

In the healing stories of Jesus we can find some crucial features of Jesus as the Good Shepherd offering the healthful salvation to our world.  Many of the healing stories of Jesus are associated with the forgiveness of sin.  This does not mean that a person's sin necessarily causes sickness.  Sin is the general condition of alienation from God.  When Jesus declares forgiveness of sin, Jesus is trying to say "little lamb, do not run away from God's fold, you belong to God the shepherd."  Forgiveness is the declarative knowledge to a person that he or she belongs to God's fold and is included in the family of God.

The second aspect of health and salvation in the healing ministry of Jesus, is the declaration that because each person is created by God, they are not "dirty, impure, defiled, or mistakes" and thus to be shunned and separated from the community; rather they are declared clean, pure, and righteous as people with clean hearts and right spirits renewed within them.  Many of the healing stories of Jesus involve getting rid of the notion of person being one with an unclean spirit and being put into a right spirit.  The healing of Jesus is deep and it is spiritual because the Indwelling Holy Spirit is the clean heart and right spirit renewed within us.

The third aspect of health and salvation in the healing ministry of Jesus, is distinctly social and communal.  Jesus restores wandering and shunned sheep to the herd, the community of faith.  Religious communities often shun and segregate for very biased reasons.  Sick persons, declared as such by the religious public health authorities, were quarantined and shunned.  Health is always communal and social.  You might say that a person who dies in the loving embrace of family, church and friend is sickness, but it is not; it is the holy health of dying because being loved and accepted by a community of people within all of the conditions of life that any of us must face, is the greatest expression of the salvation and health of Christ.  Jesus did not come to stop time and aging; otherwise no one would ever get sick and die.  The health of Jesus is the salvation of people knowing they are God's children, knowing that God declares them clean and righteous, and knowing that God's people fully include them within the love fellowship of the community.

My cup flows over; surely your goodness will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

This is the Eucharistic church, at banquet, feasting on the salvation of Christ, together, in communion and fellowship and knowing that we belong to God forever.  Amen.

The Continuum of Health and Sickness

8  Pentecost P.11     July 18, 2021
Jeremiah 23:1-6  Psalm 23
Ephesians 2:11-22   Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
Lectionary Link
Health and Sickness is a continuum that each of us lives on in the time of our lives.  At one end is our birth and at the other end is the complete loss of health which we call death.

We have to live always within the relative states of health and sickness within our societies.  And certainly the pandemic has pressed upon us the important social dimension of health; the denial of the social dimension is still causing people to die.  We have had to practice quarantine, sheltering in place, quarantining our faces with masks and we've had to practice social distancing, because the scientists of epidemiology have told us that we can literally kill each other.  Some have treated this health crisis rather fatalistically: "If it's my time to go, what's the big deal?"  The rejoinder is: "Well you may be okay to hasten your death, but don't force that fatalism on others whom you could infect."

We share a common obsession with health and sickness with people of every age.

In the time of Jesus, there were wonder workers, people who were seen to have the gift of healing, and Jesus was one who was such a wonder worker.  To adopt a Yogi Berraism, we might say that health and illness are 90 % mental half of the time.  So much of health and vulnerability to disease has to do with how we eat, drink, and sleep, stress in our lives, and whether we have regular good social bonding with a group of friends who nurture us with esteem and dignity.  We cannot separate mental health, social health, financial health, dietary health, from physical health.  We are holistic being in society.

From our Gospel for today, one of the insights is that sickness never goes away.  It has its own schedule.  Even when you want to take a rest and vacation, healing is needed somewhere.  I've often noticed that when I was taking a schedule vacations, that did not stop parishioners from getting sick or even dying.  Couldn't you just wait until I finish my vacation.  Sickness and disease and mental health and stressed out people do not schedule their conditions with anyone's time preference.

Jesus and the disciple could not take a rest; the work of health and healing is always and on-going both for ourselves and for those to whom it is given for us to attend.  What does this mean for the human community?

It means human community has to be established to be a shepherding and caring community, because in time we all are living on various manifestations of health and illness.

Retelling the stories of Jesus as a healer, within the community of the Risen Christ where the Gospel of Mark was written, means that the Risen Christ exists along side of us on the continuum of illness and health from birth through the grave and then beyond.

Sickness and death will never let us take a vacation from being a shepherding community.  We may not feel like were much use against various types of cancer or physical maladies, but as a faith community, we know that faith and fellowship are the most powerful placebos which in psychosomatic ways make people better and improve our well-being as we careen to the state of death, of having lost the living health of the physical body.

The reason that we have the sacrament of the prayer for the sick is because we are a Shepherding, Caring and healing Community.  Jesus healed, first the mind by admitting the quarantined sick into the actual touch of the community.  Touching the fringe of his garment is all they dared to do; but he did more and he turned and touched them as a way of saying you are not quarantined from God's love and care, or my care, nor from the care of those who are in my community.  The community of Christ is to be a community of orientation towards health so that people practice the care of health toward each other.  Some people treat Jesus as a magic healer and seem to indicate that we really had faith in Jesus, we would not get ill, we would get instantly cured when we were ill.  This is not true to the fact of time and living on a continuum of health and illness.

Today, let us be a community of health and healing.  We can be a powerful placebo by offering the dignity of care to people so that they don't feel alone or neglected.  We can make sure that everyone has the most basic medicine of all.  Food.  Food and eating the right food in the right amounts is the most basic medicine of all.  Justice and dignity are the most important ingredients of good mental health.  Do you think that we would ever have any protests or riots, if poor people and people of color had plenty to eat and had the same economic rights which most of us have enjoyed?  Economic health and economic advantage for everyone in our society is a health issue and we as the church of Jesus Christ should call our society to the shepherding ministry which we have for the common health of everyone.

Too often, we are fatalistic people willing to put off general health until after everyone is dead.  Do we think that believing in eternal life lets us off the hook from bringing general health to as many people as we can in as many ways as we can?

Because we have have the eternal life of the Spirit in us now, we have the force which impels us to do the shepherding work of health while we live to improve the health of everyone so that they are in the state of mind to be thankful for the goodness of God for the gift of humanity community.

Please do not limit the work of healing to fantastical healing stories of Jesus of Nazareth; let us get to work and become the powerful placebo of faith to promote the common good health of all today.  Salvation in the afterlife is wonderful; salvation health for as many a possible in this life is equally valuable.  Let us get to work in our healing ministry today.  Amen.




When one reads the Gospel accounts one can often get the impression that the ministry of Jesus was something like the resident doctors in a large city ER hospital.  One gets impression that Jesus is constantly being thronged by sick people who want to be healed.  It sometimes seem like his healing role is even greater than his teaching roles in the Gospel.

The prominence of sick people that are part of the Gospel record invites us to understand sickness in the time of Jesus.

One could say that "sick people" were an entire demographic group of people during the time of Jesus.  When you and I think about sickness, we think about medical diagnosis of a condition that deviates from what we regard to be our normal condition of health.  We live in a world of rhetoric about medical and pharmacological interventions; every other television commercial invites to a medication to suggest that our doctors prescribe.  With all of advances in medical knowledge, it does not seem that we regard ourselves to be any healthier than the people of any other period.  We are obsessed with being healthier, even while we break the obvious rules of health which involve eating right, exercising and avoiding stress.

The general aging process of life means that everyone is always already sick and careening toward the entropy of death.  Health therefore is relative; but it probably means that we are comfortable enough to at least be on our way to living the age of life expectancy in our place and time.

During the time of Jesus, the class of sick people was a religious and public health designation.   The purity code of the time classified life situations into categories of being clean or unclean, pure or defiled.  People with sickness were designated as ritually impure.  This designation would keep one from the being a part of the community as long as the symptoms persisted.  Sickness is always communal; when one person is sick, a host of family members are also involved and so the effects of someone being designated as unclean because of their condition left lots of people and their relatives in the state being ritually impure or they would be unobservant in their religious practices because they had to support their "sick" relative.

There were also theological overtones that went with being sick, including blaming the victims.  A person must be sick because he or she or their family member must have done something wrong to incur such a condition.  In the time of Jesus, it was very important to be lucky or able or well, because if you weren't you could be marked.  You had to bear the mark of being unclean and therefore not worthy of certain religious society because you did not want to infect the community with one's curse exemplified by the symptoms of one's illness.

The throngs of "sick" people that went after Jesus is an indication of a large number of the populace who had no religious standing because of their condition.  The other class of unclean persons, were the publican and sinners, those who had to interact regularly with the Roman Gentile officials and soldiers for their livelihood and so did not observe the ritual purity rules.

Sick people and sinners were a large class of people in the time of Jesus.  And what did Jesus do?  He usurped the role of the priests by ipso facto declaring sick people clean and pure and by declaring sinners, forgiven by God and therefore made clean by God.  Jesus noted that the classification of so many people in his locale as unclean sick people and sinners, did not truly represent the God of the prophets who said that good news meant the inclusion of the blind and the sick and the oppressed and the broken-hearted.  The healing salvation of Jesus primarily involved the declaration of God's love and mercy for all people, especially the sick and the sinners.  The salvation and healing presence of Jesus essentially meant the proclamation of the accessibility of God to all.

King David desired to build a house for God; his son Solomon was the one who built the famous Temple in Jerusalem.  The prophets reminded their people about God's House.  God's House was to be a house for all people.  People could not be segregated or separated from God's presence because of sin or sickness.  We come to God because we need God and want to clean up our act.  If God is only available to the people who have already cleaned up their act, lots of people are missing out on access to God.

The sinners and sick people of the time of Jesus believed that if they could touch the fringe of the clothes of Jesus, they could be forgiven and healed by being declared as clean and acceptable to God.  In the Jewish wardrobe  the fringes or hem of a garment had special significance.  Some included decorative tassels and often the special fringes (tzitzit) were worked into a rounded hem of the robe.  The shawl with the fringes signifying the commandments of God were a sign of the mantle of a prophetic office.  People in faith, paid tribute to the prophetic office of Jesus in reaching out to touch the symbols of his office.  But Jesus did them even better; he touched them; he placed his hand on them thus granting them full accessibility to him and his message about the declaration of the cleanliness of those who once had to live under the classification as unclean sinners and sick people.

During the time of Jesus and Paul, one's group identity was an issue.  One could be observant Pharisees and Sadducees in good standing.  One could be a follower of John the Baptist.  One could be Gentile.  Who am I?  Am I a member of the synagogue?  Am I a Gentile not allowed in the synagogue?  Am I a person victimized as unclean because of sickness or my failure to attain ritual purity?  Am I disqualified from ritual purity because my job requires me to interact with Gentiles?  Paul solved the citizenship issue; he wrote that our citizenship is in heaven.  The new temple is the temple of the connection of believers in God's grace and mercy.  People, not a building is what makes up the universal household of God.

Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the new temple, the church, the body of Christ and everyone is welcome into the body of Christ.  Jesus Christ is a universal presentation of God who lets everyone know that by the virtue of being human, they are declared to forgiven and healthy to know access to God's grace.

To be human is to live within communities which define sickness and sin.  Each of us have our own classification of what it means to be clean or unclean, acceptable of unacceptable.  Jesus Christ is a reminder to us to be careful about implying that God has a bias against any person because of the conditions of life of any person.  Jesus Christ came to declare the unclean sinner as forgiven and thus made clean; he came to declare the sick person as clean and therefore able to live in the healthy regard of God and one's community.

Today let us accept that Jesus Christ has forgiven us and made us clean and acceptable.  Jesus Christ has declared us clean and healthy, even as our aging bodies often tempt us not to believe this.  And if Jesus has declared us clean and healthy, this is how when should live with each other; with grace, love, mercy and forgiveness.  Amen.






   

Sunday, July 22, 2018

What Does Sickness or Health Mean?


9  Pentecost P.11     July 22, 2018
2 Samuel 7:1-14a Psalm 89:20-37
Ephesians 2:11-22   Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
When one reads the Gospel accounts one can often get the impression that the ministry of Jesus was something like the resident doctors in a large city ER hospital.  One gets impression that Jesus is constantly being thronged by sick people who want to be healed.  It sometimes seem like his healing role is even greater than his teaching roles in the Gospel.

The prominence of sick people that are part of the Gospel record invites us to understand sickness in the time of Jesus.

One could say that "sick people" were an entire demographic group of people during the time of Jesus.  When you and I think about sickness, we think about medical diagnosis of a condition that deviates from what we regard to be our normal condition of health.  We live in a world of rhetoric about medical and pharmacological interventions; every other television commercial invites to a medication to suggest that our doctors prescribe.  With all of advances in medical knowledge, it does not seem that we regard ourselves to be any healthier than the people of any other period.  We are obsessed with being healthier, even while we break the obvious rules of health which involve eating right, exercising and avoiding stress.

The general aging process of life means that everyone is always already sick and careening toward the entropy of death.  Health therefore is relative; but it probably means that we are comfortable enough to at least be on our way to living the age of life expectancy in our place and time.

During the time of Jesus, the class of sick people was a religious and public health designation.   The purity code of the time classified life situations into categories of being clean or unclean, pure or defiled.  People with sickness were designated as ritually impure.  This designation would keep one from the being a part of the community as long as the symptoms persisted.  Sickness is always communal; when one person is sick, a host of family members are also involved and so the effects of someone being designated as unclean because of their condition left lots of people and their relatives in the state being ritually impure or they would be unobservant in their religious practices because they had to support their "sick" relative.

There were also theological overtones that went with being sick, including blaming the victims.  A person must be sick because he or she or their family member must have done something wrong to incur such a condition.  In the time of Jesus, it was very important to be lucky or able or well, because if you weren't you could be marked.  You had to bear the mark of being unclean and therefore not worthy of certain religious society because you did not want to infect the community with one's curse exemplified by the symptoms of one's illness.

The throngs of "sick" people that went after Jesus is an indication of a large number of the populace who had no religious standing because of their condition.  The other class of unclean persons, were the publican and sinners, those who had to interact regularly with the Roman Gentile officials and soldiers for their livelihood and so did not observe the ritual purity rules.

Sick people and sinners were a large class of people in the time of Jesus.  And what did Jesus do?  He usurped the role of the priests by ipso facto declaring sick people clean and pure and by declaring sinners, forgiven by God and therefore made clean by God.  Jesus noted that the classification of so many people in his locale as unclean sick people and sinners, did not truly represent the God of the prophets who said that good news meant the inclusion of the blind and the sick and the oppressed and the broken-hearted.  The healing salvation of Jesus primarily involved the declaration of God's love and mercy for all people, especially the sick and the sinners.  The salvation and healing presence of Jesus essentially meant the proclamation of the accessibility of God to all.

King David desired to build a house for God; his son Solomon was the one who built the famous Temple in Jerusalem.  The prophets reminded their people about God's House.  God's House was to be a house for all people.  People could not be segregated or separated from God's presence because of sin or sickness.  We come to God because we need God and want to clean up our act.  If God is only available to the people who have already cleaned up their act, lots of people are missing out on access to God.

The sinners and sick people of the time of Jesus believed that if they could touch the fringe of the clothes of Jesus, they could be forgiven and healed by being declared as clean and acceptable to God.  In the Jewish wardrobe  the fringes or hem of a garment had special significance.  Some included decorative tassels and often the special fringes (tzitzit) were worked into a rounded hem of the robe.  The shawl with the fringes signifying the commandments of God were a sign of the mantle of a prophetic office.  People in faith, paid tribute to the prophetic office of Jesus in reaching out to touch the symbols of his office.  But Jesus did them even better; he touched them; he placed his hand on them thus granting them full accessibility to him and his message about the declaration of the cleanliness of those who once had to live under the classification as unclean sinners and sick people.

During the time of Jesus and Paul, one's group identity was an issue.  One could be observant Pharisees and Sadducees in good standing.  One could be a follower of John the Baptist.  One could be Gentile.  Who am I?  Am I a member of the synagogue?  Am I a Gentile not allowed in the synagogue?  Am I a person victimized as unclean because of sickness or my failure to attain ritual purity?  Am I disqualified from ritual purity because my job requires me to interact with Gentiles?  Paul solved the citizenship issue; he wrote that our citizenship is in heaven.  The new temple is the temple of the connection of believers in God's grace and mercy.  People, not a building is what makes up the universal household of God.

Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the new temple, the church, the body of Christ and everyone is welcome into the body of Christ.  Jesus Christ is a universal presentation of God who lets everyone know that by the virtue of being human, they are declared to forgiven and healthy to know access to God's grace.

To be human is to live within communities which define sickness and sin.  Each of us have our own classification of what it means to be clean or unclean, acceptable of unacceptable.  Jesus Christ is a reminder to us to be careful about implying that God has a bias against any person because of the conditions of life of any person.  Jesus Christ came to declare the unclean sinner as forgiven and thus made clean; he came to declare the sick person as clean and therefore able to live in the healthy regard of God and one's community.

Today let us accept that Jesus Christ has forgiven us and made us clean and acceptable.  Jesus Christ has declared us clean and healthy, even as our aging bodies often tempt us not to believe this.  And if Jesus has declared us clean and healthy, this is how when should live with each other; with grace, love, mercy and forgiveness.  Amen.






   

Friday, July 20, 2018

Sunday School, July 22, 2018 9 Pentecost B, proper 11



Sunday School, July 22, 2018   9 Pentecost  B, proper 11


Sunday School Themes

The lesson from 2 Samuel
Remind students that the second book of Samuel is most like the writing which we call history
The most important building in Israel was the Temple
The most important King of Israel David did not build the most important building, the Temple, though in the lesson today, we read that King David notice that he was living in a nice palace home and he thought God should have a good place as well.  But God told David that he would not build the Temple but one of his sons would.  His son Solomon built the first Temple and so it is often called Solomon’s Temple.

What was the traveling “Tent Temple” called?  The tabernacle


Another theme from Jeremiah, Psalm Twenty 23 and the Gospel is the frequent theme of Sheep and Shepherd.
You might let the children know that Psalm 23 is perhaps the best known and use writing in the Bible and it is poem about how someone knew God to be like a very caring shepherd.

Good leaders are like good caring shepherds.
Jesus in his time, noticed that so many people were like sheep who did not have shepherds.  Like children who did not have caring parents.  The mission of the life of Jesus was to help us to bring together the  people who were needy and the people who had the power and strength to take care of the needy.

Today, we need to be shepherds when we are given wealth, power, and education to take care of others.  Why?  Because we are often like sheep who need to be cared for.

Here is a sermon which asks us to play the sheep or shepherd game:


  Today we have read about sheep and shepherds.  In the Psalm we read, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.”
  So God is a like a good shepherd who takes good care of us.  And sometimes we do need care.  But we also can be shepherds too, because we can give care to others as well.
  Let’s play a game, sheep or shepherd.
  When your mom fixes you dinner, who is the shepherd?  Who is the sheep?
  When you take feed and brush your dog, who is the shepherd?  Who is the sheep?
  When you help your little brother put on his shoes; who is the shepherd?  Who is the sheep?
  When the doctor helps me get better from my sickness; who is the shepherd?  Who is the sheep?
  When the nurse helps the patient; who is the shepherd and who is the sheep?
  When a fireman helps to put out a fire at a family’s house; who is the shepherd?  Who is the sheep?
  So sometimes we get to be the shepherd when we can help others.  And sometimes we get to be sheep when we receive help from others.
  Sheep and shepherd.  Giving care and receiving care.  That is how this world works.
  Why do you think God made the world this way?
  I think God made the world this way to let us know that we need each other.  And the only way that we are going to be successful in life is to be successful together.
  God does not make us perfect alone.  We can only be perfect and complete as we help each other.
  And so God made this world like sheep and shepherds.  If we have strength and power and wealth and knowledge, we need to use it to help others.  And when we need something, we want someone to be like a good shepherd to us and help us.
   When you think about sheep and shepherd, just remember that God has made us to need each other and to help each other.


St. John the Divine Episcopal Church
17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037
Family Service with Holy Eucharist
July 22, 2018: The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: The Lord is My Shepherd, Michael Row the Boat Ashore, Alleluia, Awesome God

Song: The Lord is my Shepherd, I’ll walk with Him Always.   
The Lord is my Shepherd, I’ll walk with Him always
He leads me by still waters, I’ll walk with Him always
Always, always, I’ll walk with Him always.
Always, always, I’ll walk with Him always.


Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and for ever.  Amen.

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
Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Litany Phrase: Alleluia (chanted)

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  Letter of Paul to the Ephesians
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord
People: Thanks be to God
 
Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 23

The LORD is my shepherd; * I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures * and leads me beside still waters.
He revives my soul * and guides me along right pathways for his Name's sake.

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 Mark
People: Glory to you, Lord Christ.
The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, "Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.
People: Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon:  Fr. 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. (chanted)

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.

 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: Michael, Row the Boat Ashore (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 164)
Michael, row the boat ashore, hallelujah.  Michael, row the boat ashore, hallelujah.
Sister help to trim the sail, halleluah.  Sister help to trim the sail, hallelujah.
Jordon River is chilly and cold, hallelujah.  Kills the body but not the soul, hallelujah.
River is deep and wide, hallelujah.  Milk and honey on the other side, hallelujah.


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.
Baptism is a celebration of 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.

The Prayer continues with these words

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.  Sanctify 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,
(Children rejoin their parents and take up their instruments)

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:  Alleluia (Renew! # 136)
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.  Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.
He’s my savior, alleluia…
He is worthy, alleluia…
I will praise him, alleluia..
Maranatha, Alleluia….

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: Awesome God (Renew! # 245)
Our God is an awesome God, he reigns from heaven above, with wisdom, power and love.

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

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Enjoying Summer Vacation, While People Are in Dire Need?


8 Pentecost P.11     July 19, 2015
2 Samuel 7:1-14a Psalm 89:20-37
Ephesians 2:11-22   Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
   We may have the habit of being compartmental eaters in our table habits.  You know, you eat all of one item before moving on to the next.  So things don't get mixed in our mouths even though we know that everything eventually gets mixed together.
  We cannot always be compartmentalists in life experience even though we try to exert control on the kinds of things that we want to happen to us at any given time.  If modern life requires us to be multi-taskers, the life of faith requires us to be faith managers of varieties of human experiences.
  Jesus told his disciples to take a vacation even though there was a crowd of needy people who wanted to follow them to get help.  When you want to take a vacation, people still get sick, accidents still occur and death is no respecter of vacation time.  As Jesus and the disciples went on vacation, Jesus saw the crowd and there is the commentary upon the crowd of needy people: They were like sheep without a shepherd.  And so Jesus began to teach them and heal them and the vacation had to wait.
  Sheep without shepherd might sum up what we often observe in the failure of humanity to   take proper and adequate care of everyone.  In another Gospel, Jesus is quoted as saying, "The poor we always have with us."  And he said this to justify the woman who anointed his feet with expensive perfume when she was criticized for her excess.
  King David was worried that he had such a nice place to live in but there was not a Temple to be a beautiful sacred space for the worship of God.  God told David that it would have to wait for his son Solomon to build the Temple.
  St. Paul was finding success with the message of Christ but mainly within the Gentile populace and he was having a difficult time blending Jewish and Gentile followers of Christ.   The different communities had lots of cultural baggage to over come.
  Poor people, ignorant masses, sick people without care, community disagreements, and a King who wants to build a nice house for God:  these are only portions of what get juxtaposed in the diversity of life experience.
  Faith means that we learn how to live with the diversity of life experience and not get cynical, or misanthropic or escapist or denying and fatalistic or become an isolationist.
  The crowd was like sheep without a shepherd.  This is the great dilemma in life.  Many people fall through the cracks and do not get care.  We can wax eloquent about why it is happening and who is the blame and what everyone should be doing about it and all of this may just be our own denial or our own tendency to blame others when faced with the insurmountable.
  The sheep do not have enough shepherds.  People who have the education, power and the wealth do not get matched properly with people who can benefit from them.  The sheep do not have enough shepherds.   This is not a problem that can be solved like the plot of an action adventure movie.  There is no Super Shepherd to arrive on the scene and fix the situation.
  People become dependent sheep through ignorance and neglect.  In our world we do not have rational procreation with every child being brought into a world of caring shepherds who know they have the ability to ably provide for and take care of their children.  We have many, many kleptocracies in our world consisting of those who have the power and wealth and knowledge to exploit the needy and completely neglect them.  We have lots of comfortable people who throw up their hands and say, "It's not my responsibility."  We have prophets on behalf of the poor who make the poor into saints; and the poor and ignorant are not automatic saints.
  And we still have to take vacations.  We go to concerts.  We build expensive stadiums and churches.  We buy pipe organs.  We exercise manifold activities in our leisure time.  And we know that leisure time can be expensive.  And we justify using leisure money for such purposes even while we know that there are many sheep without shepherd.
  It is the human condition of freedom that there are not perfect matches of befriending for all of the people in this world which would allow for adequate care always to be experienced. Sometimes liberals and conservatives use the Bible to blame others or simply establish a political position.  I believe the truth of the meanings of the Bible is to present a full variety of the ambiguity of the human condition to us, and then challenge us to accept the life of faith as the best way to live given the hodge podge of all that freedom allows to occur in human experience.
  Are we going to solve all of the problems of the sheep without shepherds in our world?  No, we're not.  Should we take vacations even though there always will be sheep without shepherds?  Yes.  Should we honor the aesthetic dimension of our human lives through music and art and worship?  Yes.  Should we activate our capacity to play and enjoy the play of others?  Yes.  And we have to do all of this while living with the dire conditions of human need in  this world.
  This requires of us a life of faith which is versatile and finessed.  It requires of us to have wisdom to "pick our battles" in how we prioritize what we can do and what we need to do to maintain ourselves so that we can be effective shepherds of others.
  Our lives of faith need to be dedicated in part to shepherding the people in need in our world.  Our faith needs to be prophetic?  We need to be prophetic about waste.  We are told that 4-6 trillion dollars or more have been spent on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Have these effort improved the conditions for their people or for us or have they created more human need?  We have had recent financial fraud in our country of incredible magnitude?  Such debacles have harmed pension funds and more.  In our lives of faith we need to be more creative in solving the problems of human need than we are at developing schemes for promoting the further financial wealth of but a small group in society.
  The life of faith has to be able to diversify to advance the call to be shepherds in a world full of needy sheep, and we have to do it while acknowledging all of the other facets of our intellectual, educational, cultural, aesthetic, religious and spiritual lives.  The life of faith needs to be embraced as the ability to juggle the incredible ambiguity of the free conditions of life without succumbing to isolationism and escaping from the true problems of a world of need.
  The Gospel today is this: by faith you and I are challenged to do it all.  We develop strategies of shepherding for the sheep of this world even as we maintain the full balance of the things which we need to enrich ourselves and keep us effective in human fellowship to do the work of the church together.
  So, I hope you enjoy your vacations, your leisure time, your aesthetic events, your play even while we hope that having balanced lives of faith will help us be strong and resist the despair that we could know if we focused only upon human need.
  May God grant us the rest and the leisure to become more effective shepherds in our world of needy sheep.  Amen.
  

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