Friday, July 31, 2020

Aphorism of the Day, July 2020

Aphorism of the Day, July 31, 2020

The Eucharistic church presented the multiplication of loaves event with lots of left over food.  The implication would be that it was available for those who were not at the original feeding event and so it was food looking for more hungry people.  The abundance of leftovers in our world in the supply chain indicates that there is plenty of food for everyone.  The moral issue is having the motivation to implement strategies of delivery to see that the abundant leftovers get to those who need it.  The frightening alternate is more often the case: spoilage.  Lots of leftover food never finds the hungry and that is an indictment of human creativity in our delivery system.

Aphorism of the Day, July 30, 2020

The multiplication of the loaves stories in the Gospel should be a reminder that the Eucharist as a multiplication of the events of Christ-Presence through history should not be divorced from making sure that everyone gets enough food.  To make Eucharist a disconnected liturgical spiritual event from the hunger of the world is to not understand the intent of Jesus who saw a multitude and said, "You give them something to eat."

Aphorism of the Day, July 29, 2020

St. Paul says he wished that he was accursed (could go to hell) if only the Jews who couldn't go along with the message of Jesus as the Messiah would change their minds.  When we wish to share what has been insightful for us with people who do not and cannot appreciate the insights in the ways in which we do, we can bemoan the lost fellowship, even while those who have previous and other insights might mourn the loss of our departure from a previous paradigm.  Paradigm change results in a whole range of reactions, some emotional and deeply personal.  People in different faith paradigms need to remember the winsome ways in which they came to insights and new persuasion and appreciate that one's insights cannot be forced on others.

Aphorism of the Day, July 28, 2020

The disciples wanted to send the hungry crowd away.  Jesus said to them, "Give them something to eat."  This is still the divine command to everyone who has an abundance, "Give them something to eat."

Aphorism of the Day, July 27, 2020

Ever notice how people like to be conservative and progressive at the same time.  St. Paul had progressed with his new experience of God in Christ, yet he wanted to "conserve" the Hebrew Scripture tradition as belonging to him in an enlightened way and he wrote that he was very sad that many of his fellow Jews could not get with the new program.  Being a progressive conservative in the Christo-centric Judaism of Paul meant retaining the Hebrew Scriptures, whereas more "progressive" Christians who expressed Christ traditions with more Hellenistic influence later came to be called heretics and gnostics.  "Orthodox" Christianity considered itself moored in the Hebrew Scriptures tradition while those who continued in the synagogue believed the church had "innovated" itself completely out of the Hebrew Scripture tradition.  It is easy to see how one's image is "deconstructed" by someone living in a different paradigm with a different hermeneutic circle of meanings for shared words.


Aphorism of the Day, July 26, 2020

How can Paul writer, "all things work together for good for those who love the Lord?"  He suffered incredible hardship and eventually was martyred.  He like everyone resorted to a rhetoric of "totality" not because he could actually know totality as totality, but because he believed that he was a pebble in a pond rippling endlessly, always, already and he expressed the attitude of faith in thinking that everything would eventually have it place in the community of all occasions happening.  He had in interior experience which allowed him to be an optimist without being a masochist.  It is good to arrive at the sense of goodness of existence itself.

Aphorism of the Day, July 25, 2020

The writer of John's Gospel was a scribe of the kingdom of heaven and was as such a grammatologist in that he declared WORD as co-extensively equal with every thing that has come to being and with the divine Being.  The grammatologist of John was saying that one cannot know anything, including knowing itself without the positing of the prior condition of "having words."

Aphorism of the Day, July 24, 2020

One might find some correspondence in Derrida's deconstructive grammatologist and the scribe of kingdom of heaven spoken of by Jesus in Matthew.  Such a scribe was like the owner of an estate who would bring forth treasure (insightful meanings) from the old and the new.  The old is always presented as new because time always keeps us completely current, living not in the latter days, but in the latest days.  Deconstruction of so called "stable" meanings which written texts seem to "fix" happens because of the interplay of what is called old and what is called new.  The new always reinvents the old because the old as old does not exist until the new arrives to create the contrast and the new identity of the old.  Such is the process of deconstruction for all who embrace being a scribe of the kingdom of heaven.

Aphorism of the Day, July 23, 2020

The meanings of the Torah were not "closed" in the sense of their being a final interpretation.  The Torah was a living document and the commentaries were evidence of the Torah living into new situations of application.  Jesus said that a scribe of the kingdom of heaven was able to be like a master who brings out treasure, old and new.  This image befits the notion of Word of God as creating living word products in a never ending stream of new applicable meaning in the new life situations the stream of life.  

Aphorism of the Day, July 22, 2020

The kingdom of heaven includes the sequence of events in the discovery of what is valued and worshipful such that one reorganizes one's entire life to serve the supreme value discovered.  It is the discovery of the One, who can allow one to leave competitors behind because one is won over.

Aphorism of the Day, July 21, 2020

Kingdom of heaven parables indicate that God as unseen is uncanny in how the divine becomes known.  Small and almost unnoticeable like a mustard seed or yeast and yet becomes manifests in the lives of people in significant ways.  Yeast or leaven was regarded in its time to be a negative; Jesus used a negative to illustrate the hidden way of the Spirit in propagating the Gospel kingdom.  If Jesus was here today, he would probably said, the kingdom of heaven is "like the Covid-19 virus."  Really invisible but the disease can really spread.  We can hope that the kingdom values of love and justice for all will be spreading like the Covid-19 virus.

Aphorism of the Day, July 20, 2020

A scribe of the kingdom brings out of one's treasure, that which is old and new.  A writer is imbued with the "oldness" of language but also with the new occasion of language in the writing event.  Time means that the traces of the old morph into new traces-to-be as language co-exists with the being of Time.

Aphorism of the Day, July 19, 2020

In the presentation of the parables, there is a parable and then an "insider" interpretation for the disciples.  A difference between the parable and the immediate interpretation is that the parable lives time as open and cyclical whereas the interpretation seems to indicate that time as we know it will end.  I'm sure time as I know will end at death even as my death and the deathly me will still be subject to the time.  Apocalyptic people seem to posit the end of time without really being able to think about a situation of not ever being a continuous before and after.  

Aphorism of the Day, July 18, 2020

Much of biblical writing was written under the conditions of general oppression or suppression of the communities for whom the writings were intended.  They are kind of like a "faith martial" arts for surviving tough times.  For people of faith who have always lived with the privilege of social power, it is hard to identify truly with the "biblical situations of oppression."  It is easy to salve our consciences with "bandaid charity," while systemic poverty and racism happen around us.  Many people of faith use the injunction, "Come out and be separate," as a way to practice segregation from the harsh realities which are faced by so many people.

Aphorism of the Day, July 17, 2020

St. Paul called the conditions of freedom, being subjected to futility.  What is the futility?  Lots of time it seems like evil is winning.  It's obvious that death seems to be winning, eventually for everyone.  The sense of futility occurs because St. Paul partook of hope which gave him the imagination of not dying even while he was dying.  Hope gave him the vision of things which were "utopian," no such place.  The experience of time and hope means that the future is always before us as the "not yet" escape from the play of good and evil conditions in the field of freedom.

Aphorism of the Day, July 16, 2020

Patience involves the kind of faith to live with the co-existing conditions of wheat and weed, pleasure and pain, agony and ecstasy, light and darkness, wellness and sickness, and good and evil.  One lives with faith in asserting the normalcy of the favored while accepting the deprivation of the opposition as having a time and season under the sun because freedom is what assures us that we are not pre-determined robots, as mere play things for the divine.

Aphorism of the Day, July 15, 2020

Weeds in the Bible are symbols of Nature working against our agricultural efforts in the post-Edenic world of lost innocence.  Weeds might be useful to prevent erosion on the hillside and even produce some lovely "wild flowers," but when they compete with the deliberate gardening efforts they are considered to be an enemy.  When weeds and wheat grow together, one hopes the preponderance of wheat will rival the weeds and not result in a significantly diminished wheat harvest.  The parable of the wheat and the weed is an allegory about the permission of freedom in the world where good and evil co-exist and are so interwined because relative perspectives pit my good against your evil.  The rain that hinders my baseball game is the rain that waters your crops.  Lots of things in Nature are good or evil simply based upon relative timing of events and the resulting competition of systems.  God is seen as the one who is Patient because of the greater Good and in knowing God's kingdom as a result of living in the faith realm is to also receive the fruit of patience.  But such patience does not keep us from doing lots of weeding in our garden in the meantime, since we must try to remove the weeds of hatred and injustice always.  Such weeding is always context specific because one cannot take the entire system of Freedom away.

Aphorism of the Day, July 14, 2020

Life as it has been and is, is permissive of all that has been and is and one cannot surgically remove what has been or is or smart bomb out of existence what has been and is.  Permissive endurance of the order of all things might attain the designation as the fruit of patience.  We with our "smart bombing" impulse to rid the world of what we think is evil and bad are trying to do something that Permissive Plenitude is not.  How do we "smart bomb" what we think is evil in the world?  How do we overcome evil with good without the "goodness" partaking of the destructive cruelty of evil.  The parable of the weed and the wheat provides some insights upon the patience that is needed to tolerate evil as the deprivation of good within the order of things.  And each as a microcosm of all can know how one is a mixture of good and evil such that to try to completely remove the engine which generates one's evil, would be to remove the engine which empowers good as well.  Can we have faith to live with extremes of good and evil without committing a wicked rage of the cure being worse than the disease?

 Aphorism of the Day, July 13, 2020

One can note that in the editorial process of the parables in the Gospels, that they editors are not comfortable with the mysteries that are not resolved by the actual parable and so specific application have to be tagged on.  Many people are uncomfortable to admit that we will always live in the condition of the mystery of not having everything accessible to us.

Aphorism of the Day, July 12, 2020

To be free is the freedom to evolve and surpass oneself in a future state.  One of the ways in which some biblical interpreters use the Bible is to use the biblical text to "as it were" fix something in time and presume that time and evolving should not occur especially in the realm of thought and interpretation.  So those who say one cannot change in how one interprets and applies the words of the Bible, is patently false, if one has in practiced overturned many of the ancient practices of biblical people, e.g., slavery et. al.  The Spirit is "against" the letter if better approximation of love and justice are shown to us for more people, than what was actually practiced in the biblical witness.  The great principles of love and justice are always in need of better application for more people.

Aphorism of the Day, July 11, 2020

A parable is like a cluster metaphor; one can violate the parable by presuming to make it solve mysteries rather than to provide some insights about how to live with mysteries.  Parables bring us to the liminal place of what we cannot know because so much of the universe is out of our reach and such liminal space is a threshold from the quantifiable stuff which we think we do know.  Poetry and faith discourse partakes of this liminal realm and so does the parable.

Aphorism of the Day, July 10, 2020

The parable of the sower give a very imprecise reason for the success and failure of the Gospel message in a person's life: The conditions have to be right.  Well, duh.  What one can appreciate in this answer is the realization that conversion to a paradigm is governed by things that one can recognize but also by many mysterious negligibles, many flapping butterfly wings affecting weather patterns around the globe, i.e., the mystery of the collateral effects of everything we don't and can't know.   In our probability thinking it is enough for us to measure what is relative to our immediate perceptual environments but we should not be over confident about any conclusions be the final word about anything.

Aphorism of the Day, July 9, 2020

For gardening and farming, one wants to control the conditions which will guarantee maximum yield.  The parable of the sower is not about highly controlled farming methods.  One can have a hybrid seed but if the location of planting is not ideal, the hybrid seed cannot produce.  The parable of sower is a "market" assessment about the success of the Gospel and the answer is the vagueness of the mystery of the mix of free conditions: Success depends upon the conditions.  The Gospel occurs within sociological and psychological conditions of people and so interior and exterior factors influence how and when the Gospel is successful in becoming the motivating idea of one's life.

Aphorism of the Day, July 8, 2020

The parable of the sower is an effort to account for the obviousness of difference of people in what and how they believe.  Why isn't the way in which I believe universally irresistible?  Differences are contextually specific to the situation of each person's life experience and the freedom of difference due to change as a product of time, means that people are not robots in lock step with one exact belief system and expressions of the same at any given time.  If one is universally irrelevant, one is pretty lonely; if one is omni-relevant, such could only come with totalitarian control.  A seed is planted and is subject to all of the exigent factors which affect the success of the eventual fruit produced or its failure.  The parable is an exercise in probability thinking about the success of the Gospel.  The parable presents the mystery of outcomes due to the freedom of what may happen.

Aphorism of the Day, July 7, 2020

The parable process in the Gospel writings often involve the presented parable and a follow up interpretation for the "insiders."  The interpretation presumes to direct specific meaning to the items in the allegory in real life.  And yet a parable resists specific interpretation since the purpose of a parable is to be an engine of continuing insights about Mystery which cannot be put in a bottle and corked off, as if one could control the meaning of Mystery.

Aphorism of the Day, July 6, 2020

In the art of persuasion, there is an interest in the anatomy of why things seem rhetorically successful in the response gained from the various audiences.  Advertisers and political analysts are interesting in why things, ides, products are successful.  The Gospel communities were interested to know why Jesus Christ was not universally irresistible.  Why do some people just don't "get" Jesus Christ and his obvious genius, the way in which we do?  The parable of the sower is an analysis of why persuasion happened for some and not for others.  Why are some persuaded by the paradigm and get fully into the logic of the hermeneutical circle of the Jesus Movement?  The parable of the sower concedes that it is the element of organic randomness and freedom as to why some are at the psychological and sociological state of receptivity to be fully persuaded.  Remember, "pistos" or koine (NT) Greek for faith or belief, means persuasion in the Greek of Aristotle.  How does one become so persuaded about something that it becomes what one believes or has faith in?


Aphorism of the Day, July 5, 2020

Cryptic quote of Jesus channelled within the Jesus Movement and coming to text in the Gospel:" I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. "  This is consistent with the hyper child motif for spiritual break through: being "born again, anew, from above."  But such an event may actually be the psycho-depth access of one's only birth into the world unshackled by the hyper-coding of the language of one's culture.  Such first event of birth is in our memories and yet one has no conscious access to it even while we can see that in the depth psychology of Jesus/his Movement, they had come to believe that awareness of inner life aka one's spirituality, gave one a different view of one's life.  We need to continually appraise the outcome in thinking and behaviors which such psycho-depth experiences produce within the communities which provide the hermeneutical framework to specify what the valid behaviors and thinking attend such psycho-depth experience.

Aphorism of the Day, July 4, 2020

"Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds."  This is another way of say the best way that Word is made flesh is when love and justice and kindness are made body acts within human community.

Aphorism of the Day, July 3, 2020

It is always good to review what is proclaimed in our name as "self evident" truths.  The Black Lives Matter Movement is provoking Americans to ponder whether the "self evident" truths of the Declaration of Independence are evident in social practice for everyone equally.  It is a good day to reflect upon the "self evident," the tacit, the background beliefs of our lives to see if we are really "foregrounding" the self evident with integrity and congruence.  We may need to consciously work on "trueing up" our background self evident with our foreground behaviors.

Aphorism of the Day, July 2, 2020

Jesus said that things had been hidden from the wise and intelligent but revealed to infants.  This is kind of like the Arab proverb regarding the hundred names of God but only 99 of the names are known to human beings.  So why does the camel have the silly grin?  He knows the 100th name of God but he is not telling.  A babe lives close to the original blessing of birth and is not yet "polluted" by language use that has to place names as mediation with Immediacy, so the inability to use any signifiers for the Signified is a blessed state and remains as always already but as adults we are condemned to have it die the death of a thousand qualifications with a never ending stream of signifiers about signifiers hoping to feign identity with the Signified.

Aphorism of the Day, July 1, 2020

The words of the Bible can sometimes be so inscrutable that one ends up projecting the words derived from one's own word tradition to create a dialogue with a range of possible meanings.  Part of the inscrutable experience is due the fact that we weren't there and there is not an unbroken continuously specific chain of interpretation to specify the intended meaning of the agents and speakers in the original contexts of derivation.  One can be stuck within a "tradition" of interpretation such that anyone outside of that tradition is a godless heretic or one can accept the play of the clash of hermeneutic circles as contributing to the continuous deconstructions of meanings, and in this play there occurs "aha" insights which catch one's attentions and which please.  But rather than try to hammer one's insight into syllogistic logic of a final propositional truth, one simply lets the insights go as a flickering aesthetic moment which inspires one in significant ways, even to the point of sharing the insight with others to see if the insight works for  or is pleasing to others too.  The vast field of the universe of all discourse should make us very humble about or very limited participation is the small personal linguistic field of our insights.

Quiz of the Day, July 2020

Quiz of the Day, July 31, 2020

"The Spiritual Exercises" was written by whom?

a. Teresa of Avila
b. John of the Cross
c. Ignatius Loyola
d. Benedict of Nursia

Quiz of the Day, July 30, 2020

What was Deborah, the prophetess, in Israel?

a. a Queen
b. a dancer
c. a Judge
d. a Warrior

Quiz of the Day, July 29, 2020

Which of the following in not true about Mary and Martha?

a. one of them washed the feet of Jesus
b. they had a brother named Lazarus
c. they are mentioned in all four Gospels
d. Mary is the model for contemplative monastic orders
e. Martha is the model for active religious orders

Quiz of the Day, July 28, 2020

Bach, Purcell and Handel were not members of which of the following faith communities?

a. Roman Catholic
b. Anglican
c. Lutheran
d. Presbyterian

Quiz of the Day, July 27, 2020

Who had a father named Nun?

a. Rebekah
b. Joshua
c. Samuel
d. Ruth

Quiz of the Day, July 26, 2020

Who said, "as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord?"

a. Aaron
b. Moses
c. Joshua
d. Samuel

Quiz of the Day, July 25, 2020

James, son of Zebedee is not known as

a. James, the greater
b. Boanerges
c. the Just
d. brother of John the Apostle

Quiz of the Day, July 24, 2020

When did the king of Jerusalem fight against the people of Israel?

a. when it became separated in the battle between Saul and David
b. when Jerusalem was part of a Amorite confederation
c. when the kingdom was divided between the North and the South
d. when Hebron was the capital for the people of Israel

Quiz of the Day, July 23, 2020

How did the people of Gibeon attain safety among the conquering people of Israel?

a. they fooled Joshua into making a treaty in the name of Israel's God
b. they promise to be servants
c. they laid down all of their battle weapons
d. they inter-married with the people of Israel

Quiz of the Day, July 22, 2020

Who of the following was not a witness to the crucifixion of Jesus?

a. Mary Magdalene
b. Peter
c. Salome
d.Mary, mother of James and Joses

Quiz of the Day, July 21, 2020

A "Millerite" would be a forebear of which community?

a. Nazarenes
b. Seven Day Adventists
c. Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints
d. The Amish

Quiz of the Day, July 20, 2020

Who was Laban?

a. father of Leah
b. father of Rachel
c. father-in-law of Jacob
d. all of the above


Quiz of the Day, July 19, 2020

Of the following, which was not a High Priest?

a.  Aaron
b. Eli
c. Caiphas
d. Zachariah
e. Annas
f. Ananias

Quiz of the  day, July 18, 2020

Which of the following is not true about Bishop William White?

a. first and fourth Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church
b. Chaplain to the Continental Congress
c. first American bishop to be consecrated
d. first bishop of Pennsylvania

Quiz of the Day, July 17, 2020

Who was involved in Joshua's theophany?

a. the reappearance of Moses
b. three angels
c. the commander of the army of the Lord
d. a vision of Abraham

Quiz of the Day, July 16, 2020

The meaning of the name given to the place where Jacob had his famous dream is what?

a. house of light
b. ladder to heaven
c. angels' path
d. house of God

Quiz of the Day, July 15, 2020

What was the last obstacle for Israel before entering the Promised Land?

a. fighting the battle of Jericho
b. fighting the Moabites
c. fighting the Jebusites
d. fording the Jordan River

Quiz of the Day, July 14, 2020

Who referred to the Gentiles as a wild olive tree grafted into the natural olive tree?

a. Peter
b. Paul
c. Timothy
d. Luke

Quiz of the Day, July 13, 2020

Rahab is associated with what city?

a. Sodom
b. Jericho
c. Jerusalem
d. Shechem

Quiz of the Day, July 12, 2020

Why did the prophet Agabus  bind the hands and feet of Paul with Paul's belt?

a. to turn him over to the Roman guards
b. to allow Paul to demonstrate his powers of escape
c. to predict Paul's arrest in Jerusalem
d. to indicate the disagreement with the party of circumcision

Quiz of the Day, July 11, 2020

What happened on Mount Nebo?

a. Benedict founded his monastery
b. Jesus went to fast and pray
c. Moses died
d. David played the harp to his sheep

Quiz of the Day, July 10, 2020

From which book of the Bible does "Son of Man" derive?

a. Matthew
b. Mark
c. Luke
d. John
e. Daniel

Quiz of the Day, July 9, 2020

Who gave birth to the most famous twins in the Bible?

a. Sarah
b. Hannah
c. Rachel
d. Rebekah
e. Bathsheba

Quiz of the Day, July 8, 2020

Who said that Jerusalem was the city that killed the prophets?

a. Isaiah
b. Jeremiah
c. Nehemiah
d. Jesus

Quiz of the Day, July 7, 2020

What was a city of refuge to be used for in the Promised Land?

a. a place for aliens to reside
b. a place for those who accidentally killed someone to avoid retaliation
c. a place for widows and orphans
d. a place for the families of the Levites

Quiz of the Day, July 6, 2020

What is the significance of "fringes" on the garments of adherent Jews?

a. a reminder to be clothed in God's righteousness
b. a reminder of the commandments
c. a member of the Pharisees
d. a member of the priestly family

Quiz of the Day, July 5, 2020

Why wasn't Moses allowed to go into the Promised Land?

a. Joshua was voted as the leader
b. Moses died before entrance
c. God said Moses rebelled against him
d. Aaron's successor prophesied that Moses was not allowed in the Promised Land

Quiz of the Day, July 4, 2020

Which Book of Common Prayer designates Independence Day as a Major Feast?

a. 1789
b. 1928
c. 1979
d. none of the above

Quiz of the Day, July 3, 2020

Why wasn't Independence Day a feast day in the first American Book of Common Prayer?

a. it was issued before the end of the war
b. Bishop Samuel Seabury opposed it
c. Bishop White was sensitive not to embarrass the "former" Tory clergy
d. Bishop White did not want to mix church and state

Quiz of the Day, July 2, 2020

What was the most important task that Abraham gave to his servant Eleazar?

a. rescue his nephew Lot from Sodom
b. take Hagar and Ishmael into the wilderness
c. find a wife for his son Isaac in Abraham's homeland
d. escort his wife Sarah to the Pharaoh house

Quiz of the Day, July 1, 2020

Which of the following apply to the prophet Balaam?

a. a true prophet cannot be bought off 
b. an angel and an ass opposed him
c. Balek got his money's worth from Balaam
d. a and b
e. none of the above

Thursday, July 30, 2020

Sunday School, August 2, 2020 9 Pentecost, A Proper 13

Sunday School, August 2, 2020 9 Pentecost, A Proper 13



Themes:


The most famous wrestler in the Bible?  Jacob.  Jacob, when he was going home and when he was afraid of meeting his brother whom he had run from in fear many years ago, wrestled one night with an angel.  The angel was a better wrestler, but Jacob was good at just hanging on.  He would not let the angel go until the angel blessed him.  And Jacob was successful at holding on for his blessing.  And what did Jacob receive as a blessing?  He received a new name.  What was that name?  Israel, which means the one who wrestles with God and is successful.  Jacob the wrestler became Israel, the father of the sons who would be the head of the tribes of Israel.


When we are afraid, we sometimes need to use our prayer as a way of holding on to God for a blessing so that we can receive from God a plan for our lives.  We don't have to be given a new name, but we can receive new important work to do in our lives.


The Gospel:  When Jesus saw a multitude, he told his disciples and helpers:  "You feed them."  This means that if we are followers of Jesus, we need to make sure that all people receive the best medicine in the world.  What is the best medicine in the world?  Enough food to eat.


We are like doctors when we make sure that all people of the world have enough food, which is the most basic medicine of life.


We come to church to receive bread at communion.  We need to remember that the bread of communion is not just for a special religious meal; it is also to remind us that everyone needs enough food.  And we need to hear Jesus say to us: "You feed them."



Sermon:


   One time upon a time there was a bus trip that had to travel on a road that went through the desert.

   And there were sixty people traveling on the bus.  And there was not place to stop and get gas and not restaurants in the desert, because no one lived there.  There was only one bus that came on the road every two days.

  Well, on this particular the bus broke down.  The bus had engine trouble, and here they were stalled in the desert with no place to go for food and shelter.  And there was no bus coming for more than a day.  And the cell phones would not work.

  So the people got off the bus…and they were worried about having enough food and water for the babies and the older people.

  So the bus driver announced that everyone would have to be calm.  Find some shade and help each other.

  Some people were very worried and they complained about being hungry and thirsty.

  The bus driver said, “Let see how much snack food everyone has brought.  Let see how much food we can gather together for a meal.  And many people complained that there was not enough food.  But the driver said, “Let us meet under that one big tree by the side of road in about an hour and see what kind of meal we can put together.

  The driver also open the storage area under the bus where all of the suitcases were, so people could get into their suitcases.

  And in an hour, they all gathered for their meal.  And it was surprising to see how much food people had brought.  All kinds of chips and drinks.  Lots of bottles of water.  And when the suitcases were opened, some people brought canned hams and boxes of fruit and nuts that they were taking to their families.  And when all of the food was shared, the driver was amazed.  He said, “We have plenty of food to last us until the next bus arrives to rescue us.”

   And so the people, who at first thought that they had nothing, when everyone shared, they found out that they had more than enough to go around.

  When Jesus was teaching a large crowd followed him far from the city.  And it was time to eat.  And his disciples did not think that there was enough food outside of the city to feed this large crowd.  But someone donated five loaves of bread and two fish.  And Jesus took this bread and blessed it.  And he thanked the little boy who shared his lunch.

  And after he prayed, suddenly there was enough food to go around.  It could be that when this little boy shared his lunch, everyone else decided they could share their lunches too, and so there was more than enough food to go around.

  And what we need to learn is that when we all share together, we will find that we have enough to go around.

  Jesus came to teach us to share with one another, so that all might have enough to eat.  And that is a good lesson for us to learn.  Amen.

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

August 2, 2020: The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost 

 

Gathering Songs: 

 

Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

People: And Blessed be God’s kingdom, now and forever.  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.

Song: 

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; 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: 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 Book of Genesis

The same night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, "Let me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me." So he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." Then the man said, "You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed." Then Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved." The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

 

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 17

 

I call upon you, O God, for you will answer me; * incline your ear to me and hear my words. 

Show me your marvelous loving-kindness, * O Savior of those who take refuge at your right hand

from those who rise up against them.

 

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 Matthew

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves." Jesus said to them, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat." They replied, "We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish." And he said, "Bring them here to me." Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

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. (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

Offertory Song: 

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 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.

 

(Children may gather around the altar)

The Celebrant now praises God for the salvation of the world through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

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.

 

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:  Something in the Way God Loves  (song sheet)

 

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: O Lord, You Are My God   (song sheet)

Dismissal:    

Liturgist:    Let us go forth in the Name of Christ. 

People:      Thanks be to God!  

 

 

Sunday, July 26, 2020

Use Your Words

8 Pentecost, Cycle A Proper 12, July 26, 2020
1 Kings 3:5-12 Psalm 119:129-136
Romans 8:26-39   Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

 

Teachers and parents tell their toddlers and preschoolers to "use your words."  This is a diversion technique because kids from sheer instinct use their body language words to hit, bite, scream and show all manner of frustrated chaos.  "Calm down, use your words."   But we know that just using words should not give license to use our words in terrible ways.  We have lots of public figure using their words all of the time, and some in  badly ways meant to hurt other people.

 

One could say that the coming of the Torah, the law to humanity was God's way of saying to humanity, "Use your words; you cannot just live from impulse to impulse.  You need to have some words that provide the best recommended behaviors to bring order and impulse control.  You need the language of the law to train your body language to do the very best deeds for living."

 

And just because humanity was given the good words of the law, it did not mean successful behaviors prevailed in the lives of God's people.  They forgot and needed continually to be reminded to "Use their words, God's words in good and right behaviors."

 

What do we call using good words in political governance?  When Solomon became king of Israel, he asked God for good judgment and wisdom in governing the people and discerning between good and evil.  Certainly this is still what all political leadership needs; wisdom to serve people with profound discernment.  If Israel was supposed to be the kingdom of heaven on earth under their kings, we know that it failed.

 

In the time of Jesus, One might say that the words of the law, the Torah, were not that successful in the world at large.  In actual practice, they became the way in which an oppressed and occupied nation kept their separate identity.  They became the words which kept Jews living throughout the world of the Roman Empire, maintain a very separate identity.  How could God's best words be shared and given to the entire world, if they were locked within a very small community of people to keep them as separate like perhaps the Amish are in our country today?

 

God's word came into a different kind of mission in Jesus Christ.  The written words of God of the Torah in their practice were not successful enough to enough people to satisfy a more universal mission.

 

John's Gospel proclaims that Word was in the beginning of human life as we know it.  And the Word was with God and the Word was God.  And the Word did not just become writing.  The Word became flesh in the person of Jesus.  And Jesus spoke words and he said that his words were spirit and life.

 

And many of his words came in parables and metaphors about the kingdom of heaven, the nuance of the realm of heaven that can be known in our human and earthly experience.

 

What do earthly kings and presidents want to do?  They want to make a big flashy show.  They want popularity; they seek popularity for their own legitimacy.  What did Jesus say?  God's heavenly kingdom is accumulatively subtle; it like a tiny mustard seed, insignificant alone and unplanted, but when planted it slowly takes over the landscape.  The kingdom of heaven is the accumulation of each deed of faith and kindness which grows to become a knowable presence of God's uncanny love and goodness.  Don't worry about the big show of your faith; do the small deeds, one by one, kindness upon kindness and know that the survival of this world actually happens because it is supported by the hidden scaffold of all of the deeds of kindness done by people who don't do things for show or politics or money or power.  Believe in the profound preserving effect of this hidden and subtle kingdom of kindness.  

 

Leaven or yeast is small and tiny but with a little time it can double, triple and quadruple the size of dough.  Why can we still smell the wonderful aroma of fresh yeasty bread out of the oven in the midst of the woes of this world of war, fighting, injustice and pandemic?  Because the aroma of the kingdom of heaven calls out the winsome normalcy of health, of life, liberty, happiness and kindness.  The suffering of the world seems so severe because the aroma of the kingdom of heaven is so wonderful.  And we as people need to follow the wonderful aroma of the kingdom of God.

 

The kingdom of heaven involves having the wisdom to sort out lives in retrospective.  We haul in the net of the occasions of our experience and we sort out meaning and value.  We retain what is worthy and we discard what is not even as we have to give up some bad things that we've loved too much in our bad habits.  The kingdom of heaven is the promise of the ultimate success of justice and clarity about our human experience.

 

The kingdom of heaven is like having delicious insider information.  Like finding a gold mine in a garage sale because the seller does not really know what value of what just seems to be ordinary.  The kingdom of heaven is akin to finding supreme value in the middle of what seems to be so natural and ordinary.  It is to find the deep groaning and sighing Holy Spirit within oneself co-existing with our lives surviving everything that can possibly happen to us, and experience the seeming impossible, the experience of feeling loved by Christ through the presence of God's Spirit.

 

Further the kingdom of heaven is the discovery of the gift of finding something so important that it is worth living and dying for.  For me the value of the Word as God, is the supreme value discovered because it will accompany everything that I ever will do, be, know, speak and write.  A person who knows the kingdom of heaven is the person who has discovered the telling value of one's life, the image of God upon one's life.

 

And to sum it up, Jesus tells us that the kingdom of heaven is knowing how to "use our words best," by being good scribes.  What is a scribe?  A scribe is a writer.  Writing is the expression of facility in using words in the very best way, not just being literate and able to scribble characters upon the page.  A scribe of the kingdom is one who has learned to use one's words best.  And how does one do that?  Each person seeking to be this scribe of the kingdom of heaven, is one who strives to find one's unique voice, to live, speak, write, and behave the wonderful kind values of the kingdom of God, and do it as it can only be done through each person's unique gifts.

 

In the Hebrew tradition of the Torah, the Torah was regarded to be a living word tradition, because the Torah travelled through time and had to be interpreted again and again to new situations.  The work of interpretation as scribes of the kingdom of heaven is to bring forth the treasures of the kingdom to the people in our lives.  Christ, as the living Word of God, commissions you and me to be scribes, becoming totally literate in the kingdom of heaven.

 

You and I have been given the Risen Christ as the Word who is God within us.  We are to be scribes of the kingdom of heaven, learning to use our best words, in saying, teaching and doing the kind deeds of God's love and justice and kindness to all.

 

May God give us the grace to be wise scribes of the kingdom of heaven as we do the work of interpreting all of the words of our lives so that we can bring forth the goodness of what is both old and new.  And you know what?  Love, justice and kindness are always old and they are always new.  So let these be our best use of our words.  Amen.


The Spirituality of the Passion

Good Friday   March 29, 2024 Gen 22:1-18 Ps 22 Heb.10:1-25 John 18:1-19:37 Lectionary Link On Good Friday, it is a good time to remind ourse...