Sunday, October 31, 2021

Saints and Souls in a Community of Beloved

All Saints' Day B, October 31, 2021
Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9 Psalm 24
Revelation 21:1-6a John 11:32-44

Lectionary Link

The past and the present is absolute. Why? Because nothing can change that the past happened and the present is happening.

We may argue endlessly about why we happened and how we happened but that we happened cannot be denied.


We are like a brick in the wall of reality; the one brick cannot be removed from the wall of reality. On All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' and All Souls' days, we reinforce the reality that we and all people really existed and exist.


And that seems quite obvious, so what is the point?

Our existence is qualified by many factors. Like existing with and for whom? Like how did we live our lives with others? Like will our lives be like many of the lives of others before us, forgotten like most people who have existed in human history? And if we are forgotten and unknown by people of the future and if accessible records of our existence are extinguished, what happens to forgotten or unknown people?

So, we can be people very insecure in our mortality. And what do people insecure about their mortality do? They might want the drug of immortality called fame or glory. If I can be famous then I can create my own everlasting life in a way so that the memory of me might be registered by contemporary and future people.



The gist of All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' and All Souls' today centers upon how we sanctify the human need for fame, glory, recognition, and esteem. What is the best way to access personal esteem? How do we baptize the energy of wanting fame and glory?


It centers upon the difference between fame and excellence of the virtuous kind.

There are lots of famous people in history; many remembered people of whom have been deemed infamous: the Caesars, Genghis Khan, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and many more.

The great contribution of America to fame is Hollywood fame; glamor marketing value fame summarized in the proverbial Andy Warhol’s, "fifteen minutes of fame," for everyone. Today we have the tabloid effect; no publicity is regarded to be bad, just as long as one dominates the headlines for one’s constant fame.



How do we deal with the "wanting to be known and remembered" impulses of human life? How do we do this without being trapped in the psychologically determined state of narcissism?

I believe the Gospel secret to these questions has to do with the ultimate spotlight of fame and esteem which can be shone upon anyone. It involves the events and the continuous occasion of knowing that we are loved by God.



The events of heavenly fame occurred in the baptism of Jesus and on the Mount of the Transfiguration when the heavenly voice said, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased." This signified the coming out of Jesus as the saintliest of all the saints. This signified an event which could be known in the lives of every person who comes to the moment of deep familial identity: "You are my beloved son, my beloved daughter, with you I am well pleased."



This is the baptismal reality which we promote in the church for every person.



So, what do we do with this baptismal event? We accept ourselves as beloved and do so without getting what is called a "messiah" complex. It seems as though many of the vocal broadcasted preachers and other public figure blowhards get the "messiah complex," without truly understanding the blessed esteem of being beloved by God.



If coming to this occasion of knowing that one is loved by the greatest Being of all is the "saint-making" event of our lives. How do we live saintly lives? We become prism personalities refracting the beloving of God by letting others know that they are beloved with this same "God is love" energy of life. Easier said than done; why? This "God is love" energy has to have endless strategies within many situations to all of the people in our worlds.



The saints of All Saints' Day are the people who refracted the loving energy of God in such impactful ways that the memory of their lives went beyond their regions and their time. Why? Because we as a human community need living examples of how to live well, and how to refract the love of God in different ways in a multitude of settings. The saints are reminders to us that we need to be at the work of expressing strategies of love to reach the people in our lives whom God has brought to us to declare to: You are God's beloved child; and God is pleased with you. God did not make a mistake with your existence."



The Souls of All Souls' Day are the people who have been beloved in our lives and who helped to share with us that we too are beloved. And today is a great day of celebrating our connection with a beloved community of people who left us such a legacy, as a reminder that we are to be a living beloved community, who are still in the business of declaring the chief event in life for anyone is to know that one is beloved by God. If we have this spotlighting event, then it is enough.



But it didn’t always seem to be enough. Why? Become in the harshness of life and the cruelty of some imperfect nurture, we have been malformed about our own belovedness. This is why we need the saints and local mentoring souls to let us know a human love that can bring us to the big event of knowing that God in a profound way is a loving heavenly parent. The saints and mentoring souls in our lives help lead us to knowing ourselves as God’s beloved people in a community of the beloved.



So, why have All Saints' and All Souls' Days? With medical care, good health practice, and cosmetics, we try to preserve longevity of life or at least the appearance of healthy life. And what does death teach us? It teaches us that we will fail. And what do we do with this failure? We preserve the memories and the contributions of people as part of our community lore for as long as we can. We create our canonized saints as our Hall of Fame, and we have our own little hall of fames of our local family heroes. But we know that we who try to preserve the memories of others,  will also die.



And when all preservation has failed, which it surely will; we will have the ultimate act of faith, namely, to commit ultimate preservation to the active and profound memory of God, who better than Artificial Intelligence with endless terabytes of memory, can preserve with divine memorial units the reconstituted continuity of our existence into the future, something which we call in our faith, resurrection life.



All Saints and All Souls day, really are just another reason for us to say: Alleluia, Christ is Risen, the Lord is Risen, Indeed. Alleluia. They are days of being a part of the preservation of the belovedness that God has bestowed upon each person, now and forever.



We thank God for giving us the great succession of saints and souls, who like Jesus, accepted their status of the beloved of God. Let us accept today our ultimate fame and glory as being beloved by God. And as we sing the song of the saints of God, lets also pray: "God help me to be one too." Let us go forth and be and share this endless beloved community of Christ. Amen.




God, What Can I Do to Get into Where I Already Am?

23 Pentecost 26B October 31, 2021
Deuteronomy 6:1-9 Psalm 119:1-8
Hebrews 9:11-14 Mark 12:28-34







How can one agree with Jesus about the law and still just be near the kingdom of God and not in it?  Sounds like another word riddle of the Gospels; distinctions without difference or what?  Why the word games or is there some highly nuanced spiritual and religious point?

And the solution to the word riddle of Jesus is this.  How does one do better things, associate with the right people, have the correct religious pedigree so that I can get into the room where I am not standing?

What do I have to do Jesus to get into the room where I am already?

Jesus if I agree with you that loving God and loving my neighbor are the greatest of the laws, will that allow me to get into the room where I am?

Can we appreciate the wisdom of Jesus.  You can't get to somewhere that you already are, so what is the big problem?

The problem is our internal alienation, the lack of understanding regarding the extent of God's realm in space and time.

What is the internal alienation?  Why is it that I don't think God's realm is already my location?  If I am not living in God's realm, then whose realm am I living in?

I live and move and have my being in my house, in my city, in my state, in my country, in my hemisphere, on the earth, in the solar system, in the universe, and in God, in totality, within the edges of the expanding universe.

If we can conceive of the universe as as location, then what realm is beyond the universe physically and spiritually in complete inner space, the totality of the inner lives of all people who ever have or can exist; what realm is beyond?  And do I not live there?

There was a total realm which pre-dated my existence; there will be a total realm which will post-date my death in my body.

What kind of internal alienation prevails to believe that the lesser realms are final and determining of my entire life?

Jesus was trying to teach biblical cosmology.  "Sorry, you religious people, you cannot be more religious to attain the status of being made in God's image and belonging to God in God's realm."  You cannot erase the image of the divine from your life; you can deny your heavenly parentage, but your heavenly parent will not deny the divine genetics of your life and the location of your life in space and time.

You are God's and you live and move and have your being in God and you cannot doing anything to get and be what you already are.

The Gospel program of Jesus is to deprogram us from our alienation about who we are and about the telling and most significant realm of life, the kingdom of God.

Why do people need to be deprogrammed?  Because they have been alienated from reality.

One might characterize a large sector of our population today as being alienated from reality.  Many people have come to believe lies as truth, science as unbelieveable, and many religious people have re-defined the kingdom of God as their own little groups with Q-Anon like reality of existence.

There are religious people today who say you have to believe their politics and their predictions about political leaders to really be in God's kingdom and be the true believers.  Any program of exclusivity is false, because one can never make oneself more in the Realm of God.  That was done and established long before we came into this world.

So what is the point Jesus?  The point is accepting that one lives and moves and has one's being in God, and being contained in God, one has access to the Spirit of God to engage in the human vocation with excellence.

Being in the kingdom of God, what is our vocation?  To love God and our neighbor and to have the Spirit of God help us to do this well.

If one is trying to promote that one is more correct, of a better race, have a superior baptism, have more of the Spirit, belong to the largest group of correct believers, of the correct sexual orientation, as a marker of knowing God better, one has missed the point of Jesus.  One persists in alienation.

There are many superior religious people in our country who believe they are more in the kingdom of God than others, as if their little formula of asking Jesus into their heart got them into the kingdom.

No, you can't get somewhere, where you already are, and that is Gospel of Jesus.  Don't keep adding born again rules, salvation rules to try to prove you did the right thing to get where you already are.

God made you and the entire place where you reside; accept that humbly and then accept the flow through the arteries of the universe, the Spirit of God to go forth and love God and our neighbors.  Amen.


Aphorism of the Day, October 2021

Aphorism of the Day, October 31, 2021

All Hallows' Eve, a day that  witnesses to evangelical technique used with the ancient followers of the Druid way of life.  Christianity countered "ancestor worship" with ancestor "veneration," with the Triduum of All Hallows' Eve, All Saints', and All Souls. And biblically literal types who can't seem to find this Triduum in the Bible criticize this as a "paganism."  The entire Bible is in fact a tribute to our ancestors, on whose shoulders we stand and in the time since the Bible there have arisen other people of singular excellence who have left us the legacy of their good example to give direction and the hope of attainability of virtuous living in our lives.  In whomever excellence is found, one does not find a competitor with Jesus Christ; only another member of the team of God's love.

Aphorism of the Day, October 30, 2021

The world of words and language is a parallel inner world which accompanies the outer world of what we see, touch, hear, and smell, even though out world and our senses only have identity through the inner language we use to name them.  The knowing of "reality" always assumes at least one language user.

Aphorism of the Day, October 29, 2021

The biblical witness regarding God turns out to be quite a contrast with what prevails in our world.  The Psalmist proclaims that God cares for the poor and the widow and the reality of the world seems to falsify the power of God to make the care actual in the lives of the people.  The horrifying conclusion is that God leaves it to humans to expedite what caring for the poor means.  The Freedom this implies also indicts the human failure to be like God in taking care of all of the poor and lowly.

Aphorism of the Day, October 28, 2021

Do you want to be famous or excellent?  Fame is the drug which drives many and in wanting it, one might find one never gets enough, because wanting is evidence of ceaseless dissatisfaction with oneself.  Repentance is the wanting to be excellent and there is always the sense of being unfinished and one can love oneself as unfinished if one is still seeking future excellence.   The saints were those who became famous by accident; they were simply trying to be excellent.

Aphorism of the Day, October 27, 2021

Perhaps a chief teaching associated with Jesus was about coming into the ancient insight about living and moving and having being within God's Realm.  If we live by the insight of being "contained" in God, then we will seek insights for living well with all other beings that are "contained" in God.

Aphorism of the Day, October 26, 2021

How can one be "near" the kingdom of God but not in it?  Through the wrong location labeling of one's mind.  If I am in the USA an wanting to be in the USA, there is a lack of orientation within my mind about my location.  If we are located within God, and still wanting to be "in God's" realm, the alienation is an internal one.  I am in God and do not know it.  This is the alienation which Jesus was trying to address.  Too many people are near the realm of God; they are actually in it but do not know it.

Aphorism of the Day, October 25, 2021

One might dismiss the notion of God as incoherent when it comes to reconciling love and power with innocent suffering, even as one cannot deny that God words have come to human language and experience as a way of dealing with greatness and plenitude and one's relationship to the ultimate mystery of everything, always, already.  Perhaps an enlightened theism is a nano-element of agnosticism, the part of discovering the surprise of the joy and the sublime.  Enlightened theism should be humility about the same.

Aphorism of the Day, October 24, 2021

Sometimes conservatism can falsely mean returning to original and primative as being most valid.  But Joseph Campbell's saying, "yesterday's virtue can be tomorrow's vice" is insightful about the past.  Think about the foundational cultural word environments of the biblical times or early American times.   "All men are created equal" seems profound except at the time it was written it did not in practice admit women, non-property owner, indigenous people, and slaves as having equal personhood in the sight of God.  The word "men" in this famous phrase had to undergo expansion to include all humanity and we still have not achieve the goal of equality for all humanity within our borders.  We are still in need of being virtuous.

Aphorism of the Day, October 23, 2021

Bartimaeus wanted to see "again."  This is the metaphor for early Christian mysticism since they present the "natural life narrative of Jesus" as a shadow metaphor for the spiritual realm accessed by the experience of being born of the Spirit.

Aphorism of the Day, October 22, 2021

The assumption of structuralism and essentialism is stability, and stability is destabilizes when one admits the differences caused by the passing of time.  There can be continuity in identity in time but time means that everything including the meanings of everything surpasses themself in the future and such surpassing is difference.

Aphorism of the Day, October 21, 2021

In ancient times, the mythopoetic was resorted to for explaining mysteries. (Though mythopoetic did not come to being such until science as the common sense naive realism took over). And so the mythopoetic functioned in ways in which science has come to function.  When religious persons continue to assert the mythopoetic as scientifically true, they are confusing genres of discursive practice.  It is a nostalgia for a time when the mythopoetic had the same "truth function in societies" as science does today.  The mythopoetic has moved into the spheres of art and cinema today and the "new" genre of "science fiction" is a blend of the mythopoetic and science.  Science does not remove the mysteries created by an infinite number of things having causal connections with each other but its method of stating statistical approximations of interconnections observed makes science the best approach to actuarial wisdom.  To think that science excludes the truths of the mythopoetic for art, spirituality, faith, love, justice, inner personal being, and morality is limiting what can arise in language for the quality of life for language users attempting to live together.

Aphorism of the Day, October 20, 2021

The oft quoted, "Americans and British are people divided by having a common language," highlights the conflicts which can happen within an implied unity.  Christians within the many different faith communities might be those who are divided by having a common Savior and Scriptures.  There are divisions within the same faith communities:  Anglicans can be those who are divided by having a "common" prayerbook and the same Archbishop of Canterbury.  Catholics can be divided by have a common Pope and so-on.  Americans are so tribal that they are divided by having a common constitution, Congress, and President.  The postmodern informational age has challenged the older "myths" of unity through the proliferation of so many new identities and since people become so "identity-centric," they assume that their provincial identity is the great mythical unity, and if not, they think it should be.

Aphorism of the Day, October 19, 2021

A lesson from deconstructive postmodernism is whether one wants to dwell exclusively within language meaning traditions, or whether to accept that one is afloat on the entire ocean of omni-textuality and in such a plenitude of language the borders of language meaning traditions dissolve so that in the time of one's life such language traditions become the memory of once previously thought essential meanings.

Aphorism of the Day, October 18, 2021

The physical world is a shadow of the realm of forms, according to an understanding of the thinking of Plato.  One might think that New Testament writers are naive literalists as those who understood that the presentation of the Christ-message in a mode of a narrative of seeming empirically verifiable events rather than following the thinking of Plato in understanding the physical as a shadow for the spiritual and heavenly.  Decades after Jesus, the writings about him are more likely understood as spiritual meanings rather than literal.  It is amazing how easily people began to feel that spiritual meanings are inferior to physical literality.  This is true in our age of science; it is apparently a more superior truth to build bombs, literal bombs,  than to regard the interior spiritual and moral truth of not building bombs to harm each other.  Truth is not just what can be empirically verified; it is also how we spiritually and morally are stewards of our world towards values of love and justice for all.

Aphorism of the Day, October 17, 2021

The words of Jesus indicate that we cannot serve God and wealth.  So what does it mean when our economic system has resulted in one percent of the wealthiest persons owning more than the entire middle class?  Who is being served by the resulting distribution?  Can this system be called in anyway Christ-like?

Aphorism of the Day, October 16, 2021

It is quite evident that countries which are called "Christian" because of current or immediate past majority of those who in some way identify with the Christian faith have governments and economies which are not Christ-like at all as it pertains to poor and marginalized people.  Ironically, countries which have left their Christian identities provide Christ-like assistance to their entire populace, like health care and paid leaves and vacations.

Aphorism of the Day, October 15, 2021

From anthropomorphism to incarnation.  One might note that to speak of an invisible unknowable God, one has to speak with the human language and experience that one knows, since we are prisoners of human experience.  Has any person ever had a non-human experience of anything?  One can see that since we are unavoidably anthropomorphic when we speak about anything, including our projecting upon non-human beings like animals, plants, and God human-like attributes,  the wisdom of God appearing in a human being is an affirmation of what we do about God always, already: We accept the validity of human experience and language in affirming a relationship with God.

Aphorism of the Day, October 14, 2021

Where does the physical world most poignantly meet a person in a way that knowing is registered?  In the experience of something coming to language.  Language is co-extensive with the knowing consciousness of existence.  Having language brings into existence the non- or pre-language states since we are not aware of what we did not have until we come into possession or ability in what we have.

Aphorism of the Day, October 13, 2021

In history there seems to be a theological "ping pong" match in the perspective of people in power and people in oppressed conditions.  People in power tend to emphasize the blessing of being "triumphant" in the physical world, while people in oppression find solace in the "spiritual" space, of finding "spiritual blessing" being seated with Christ in the heavenly.  Both trends can be noted in the record of the people who generated Holy Scriptures.  God's will being done on earth as it is in heaven cannot be instantiated by people who want systems of enforced theocracies.  Such systems of enforced theocracies end up being "rotten with the perfection" of trying to rid those they deem as nonconforming "sinners" worthy of "oppression/elimination."  Be wary of how you appropriate your good fortune in life with a matching theology.  Use power, blessing, wealth, and knowledge to lift up the poor.  That is the Gospel of Jesus.

Aphorism of the Day, October 12, 2021

When the physical is viewed as a metaphor for the spiritual, the unseen, and invisible "forms," the metaphor is one of claiming equal or superior substantiality.  If David was a king of Israel in physical history, that is substantial.  But the inner kingdom of the Risen Christ is a different but real and meaningful kind of substantiality.  This was the metaphorical practice of the New Testament writers.  The "spiritual" was a super-substantiality.  If you can believe what you see; then there are things, inner forms, that you cannot see with your physical eyes which are just as substantial as the things which you see with your physical eyes.  One of the malpractices of such spirituality is to despise the actual physical world and pray for its end.  We see this kind of environmental neglect in the apocalyptic fatalism of many sects of Christians today.


Aphorism of the Day, October 11, 2021

Jesus was not a Levite and he was not a priest in his earthly life.  Most of the definitions of who Jesus was and how he was understood happened in the rise of the Jesus Movement and all of the literature available to Christian evangelists was used to speak about Jesus in the superlative.  So he became not just known as a priest, but a high priest, after the order of the pre-historic mysterious Melchizedek.  He was a High Priest in the linguistic parallel space (topos/topography) of heaven, which according to the letter to the Hebrews was like Plato's realm of forms with the physical world only being a shadow of the Realm of Forms.  The identity of Jesus and the identity of the Jesus Movement is what becomes evident in the New Testament writings.  Who was Jesus in the Realm of Forms, and how can these forms be inserted in a narrative presentation of Jesus as a lure for disciples to move from the physical interpretation to the spiritual one?

Aphorism of the Day, October 10, 2021

It would seem that the faith of Jesus in his words in the Gospel was predominately for poor people and Jesus would not let rich people claim that they were rich because they were specially favored or blessed by God.  In fact, he said that the wealth of wealthy people was a hindrance to knowing the inheritance in God's kingdom.  The camel through the eye of a needle gate was like a "dutch door gate" into the city and the top part of the gate was locked at night.  The bottom could be opened but loaded camels had to be unloaded and enter the gate on their "knees" to get into the city at night.  We can have way too much baggage that we have accrued which keeps us distracted and not knowing that we are created in God's image and belong to God.  And to get through the eye of the needle gate, we have to get rid of the baggage.

 Aphorism of the Day, October 9, 2021

One of greatest paradigm shift in Christianity has been adjusting a religion which was born for the persecuted into being a religion of the "Christian" empires.  One adjustment has been to de-emphasize the beatitudes and spiritualize them for individual piety while on the empire level resorting to the Hebrew Scripture story of God's people being God's ordained to conquer, take a Promised Land, and subjugate/slaughter indigenous peoples as God's will.  Empire Christianity has had to romanticize the beatitudinal faith of Jesus to an individual romantic piety for heroes like St. Francis.

Aphorism of the Day, October 8, 2021

We are where we are today because of the written word the Bible.  The Hebrew Scriptures were unique in being a textual tradition which was able to forge the identity of a people who kept the textual tradition alive as it continued to form their identity. Christianity derived from the textual tradition of the Hebrew Scriptures and many assorted writings of "intertestamental" times.  The genius of the Christian tradition is that it was more adaptable to more people in forming "community identity" and was able to use the institutional energies of the Roman Empire like a parasite for it future life, a life which eventually became co-mingled with Empire life.  The actual teachings of Jesus are more relevant to the people who are oppressed by Empire Christianity than by the Empire Christian personages.

Aphorism of the the Day, October 7, 2021

In the beginning was the Word, but such was only known because through words and language users became aware of being language users who in a reflexive way could acknowledge that language use was what defined what they called human being.  Having word/language was the foundation on which all knowing of being was activated.  And after eons of having language, many discursive practices and traditions of language have come to be and these traditions have become so prominent that language users have made fully developed language traditions as more basic than having word and language itself.  It is an error to forget from which we as language users have derived, namely having word itself.

Aphorism of the Day, October 6, 2021

The perception of the biblical record is that cause and effect events in history with God making a "last ditch" effort with Jesus to cause salvation in this life and the next.  Spiritual eyes can read the biblical records as an externalization of making things which just arise within the divine milieu seem like external events.  One can look at what might have always been being suppressed because of the language contexts of ignorance locking off persons from their true natures.  The biblical record could be seen as occasion of coming to insights about who we are in having a fullness because we are connected with everything that has been, is and will be.  Is there anything more everlasting than that fact?

 Aphorism of the Day, October 5, 2021

If one uses the "law" as a checklist of attainment for personal pride then one misses the teaching purpose of the law, which is, they are never finished or fulfilled until I or everyone is keeping them, which is never.  So they stand before us as a teaching invitation to further perfection, not as a place to stand on our laurels, especially if we use our attainments to think that we're better than others.  When the proud rich man told Jesus that he had "kept" the laws, Jesus gave him a "next" commandment:  "Sell all you have and give to the poor."  Remember there is always a next commandment for each of us in our journey toward the unattainable perfection.

Aphorism of the Day, October 4, 2021

On the feast of St. Francis, we romantically commemorate his life because we are glad that at least one other person was "Christ-like" and perhaps we worry that if Francis is the basic Christian standard not many others are Christian.  Francis would probably say that he was only doing what he had to do and most of us do not do "extreme" Christianity with the same driveness of Francis.  In our time of the mass inequity of world wealth we don't need examples of choosing extreme poverty; how about economies and governments make sure that everyone has enough to eat and drink, good health care, universal education and safety for all to develop their gifts?Rather than live in a world of extreme poverty and extreme wealth, why not live in a world of sufficiently enough of everything for everyone?

Aphorism of the Day, October 3, 2021

Being conditioned in the era of modern science, eye-witness journalism, and modern science, some Bible readers import our reading context in understanding the Bible.  The creation story for them is an actual chronological eye-witnessed event rather than simple the great mysterious "Before" which has to be the cause for what has come after.  And it is true that the "after" is always created by the "before."

Aphorism of the Day, October 2, 2021

The continual application of love means that new conviction is discovered regarding the ways in which people were formerly treated.  If we trap love into the standards of ancient cultures regarding slavery, treatment of women, divorced persons, children, foreigners, and persons of LGBTQ experience, we can absolutize and perpetuate cruelty in the name of God and Holy Scriptures.  

Aphorism of the Day, October 1, 2021

In contrast to the "divorce attorneys" of his time, Jesus is presented as a "love attorney."  He stood for the normalcy of love and its endurance even when many people seemed to have the Murphy's Law view about marriage.  If a couple can divorce, they probably will and so we have to be prepared.  The words of Jesus simply stated the standard and he could affirm the standard even while forgiving those who offended and learned repentance.

Quiz of the Day, October 2021

Quiz of the Day, October 31, 2021

What might the moral of Eutychus be?

a. Don't lie to the church about your property.
b. Don't sleep on open window sills during a sermon.
c. Don't try to bribe an apostle for a gift of the Spirit.
d. The love of money is the root of all evil.

Quiz of the Day, October 30, 2021

Why were Tobiah and Sanballat not popular in Jerusalem?

a. they were agents of the Assyrians
b. they actively opposed rebuilding of the Temple
c. they claim falsely to be of Levite lineage
d. they were agents of the Egyptians

Quiz of the Day, October 29, 2021

What was the job of Nehemiah for the king of Persia?

a. advisor
b. cup bearer
c. prophet
d. emissary to Judah

Quiz of the Day, October 28, 2021

Who is said to be the saint of "lost causes?"

a. Simon
b. Jude
c. Anthony
d. Herman

Quiz of the Day, October 27, 2021

What was an ulterior motive of King Darius to finance the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem?

a. the collection of taxes in the Province
b. the stationing of more soldiers in the Province
c. his marriage with a daughter of Jerusalem family
d. the offering of daily prayers in the Temple for him and his family

Quiz of the Day, October 26, 2021

What happened to the Temple vessels which were taken when the Babylonian army invaded Jerusalem?

a. they were carried away to Babylon
b. they were placed in Babylonian temples to their gods
c. they were returned to the Temple in Jerusalem by Cyrus
d. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, October 25, 2021

John the Divine, the writer of the Book of Revelations was where when he received his visions?

a. in the Spirit
b. Patmos
c. Laodicea
d. Ephesus

Quiz of the Day, October 24, 2021

The prophet Haggai prophesied when?

a. at the time of rebuilding of the Temple
b. during the reign of Saul
c. during the reign of Ahab
d. during the reign of Asa

Quiz of the Day, October 23, 2021

Which of the following James is called the brother of our Lord?

a. James the Great
b. James the Less
c. James the Just
d. James the son of Alphaeus

Quiz of the Day, October 22, 2021

How did the people respond to the laying of the foundation of the Temple?

a. shouts of joy
b. weeping
c. no expression, just kept on working
d. set up guards to protect from marauders
e. c and d
f. a and b

Quiz of the Day, October 21, 2021

Why was Cyrus the Great called a messiah?

a. because of his religious beliefs
b. he worshipped the God of Israel
c. he preserved the exiles from Judah 
d. he allowed and sponsored the rebuilding of the Temple
e. he was anointed with the holy oil of investiture
f. c and d
g. b,c, and d

Quiz of the Day, October 20, 2021

Jesus was criticized for working on Sabbath; which work was he criticized for?

a. forgiving a sinner
b. harvesting grain with his fingers
c. rescuing a sheep in a pit
d. healing a man
e. two of the above

Quiz of the Day, October 19, 2021

Who translated the Bible into Persian and Hindi?

a. Roberto Nobili
b. Richard Burton
c. Max Mueller
d. Henry Martyn

Quiz of the Day, October 18, 2021

Who were the books of Luke and Acts specifically addressed to?

a. the churchers
b. Theophilus
c. the church in Corinth
d. the church gathered in Rome

Quiz of the Day, October 17, 2021

What do the words of Jeremiah recommend to the exiles taken to Babylong?

a. resist the enemy
b. settle in and wait for a return to the homeland
c. change from a Temple based faith to synagogue gatherings
d. listen to all of the prophets who are with you

Quiz of the Day, October 16, 2021

Where in the Bible is found a verse to support vicarious baptism as is practiced by the Mormons,  the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints?

a. Hebrews
b. Revelations
c. 1 Corinthians
d. 1 Thessalonians

Quiz of the Day, October 15, 2021

What did Jeremiah say to King Zedekiah?

a. surrender to the Chaldeans
b. fight against the Chaldeans
c. give the gold vessels of the Temple to the Chaldeans
d. send the best craftsmen of Judah to Babylon

Quiz of the Day, October 14, 2021

Another name for the "Magnificat" is

a. the song of Mary
b. the song of Simeon
c. the song of Zechariah
d. the song of Miriam

Quiz of the Day, October 13, 2021

Which prophet was imprisoned in a cistern because he prophesied the success of the Babylonian armies against Judah?

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

Quiz of the Day, October 12, 2021

What does the New Testament term "glossolalia" refer to?

a. the polyglottic ability of Jesus
b. the tongues of angel spoken by the Spirit inspired
c. the oral traditions of Jesus
d. the language which Gabriel spoke to Mary in

Quiz of the Day, October 11, 2021

What did King Jehoiakim do to the scroll with the writings of Jeremiah?

a. cut them with a penknife
b. declared a public reading of the words
c. had them recopied and sent throughout the land
d. burned them
e. b and c
f.  a and d

Quiz of the Day, October 10, 2021

Who was Baruch?

a. a scribe for Jeremiah
b. a wisdom teacher
c. a son of Solomon
d. a Minor prophet

Quiz of the Day, October 9, 2021

What biblical person said, "I know in part...?

a. David
b. Nathan
c. Jeremiah
d. Jesus
e. Paul

Quiz of the Day, October 8, 2021

Who was King of Judah when Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem?

a. Josiah
b. Amon
c. Jehoiakim
d. Jehoiachin

Quiz of the Day, October 7, 2021

The writer of the Epistle refers to something sharper than a two-edged sword?  What was the writer referring to?

a. the law
b. the Hebrew Scriptures
c. the writer's own writing
d. the Word of God

Quiz of Day, October 6, 2021

Which of the following is not true about William Tyndale?

a. he did most of the work for the English Bible translation which became the Coverdale Bible
b. he was burnt at the stake
c. he was strangled 
d. his body was burnt at the stake
e. he was not in the favor of Henry VIII

Quiz of the Day, October 5, 2021

What is perhaps the most shocking discovery of the reign of King Josiah?

a. the temple in disrepair
b. the re-discovery of the Torah
c. the recovery of the Ark of the Covenant
d. the finding of an underground water aqueduct to the sea

Quiz of the Day, October 4, 2021

What was St. Francis' baptismal name?

a. Giuseppe
b. Leonardo
c. Giovanni
d. Francesco

Quiz of the Day, October 3, 2021

King Hezekiah gave visitors from which eventual conquering country a tour of all the treasure of Jerusalem?

a. Assyria
b. Babylon
c. Elam
d. Persia

Quiz of the Day, 

October 2,2021

Remigius is patron saint of which country?

a. Belgium
b. France
c. The Netherlands
d. Switzerland

Quiz of the Day, October 1, 2021

Which of the following conquerors sent a threatening letter to King Hezekiah?

a. Cyrus the Great
b. Darius
c. Nebuchadnezzar
d. Sennacherib

Monday, October 25, 2021

Sunday School, October 31, 2021 23 Pentecost B 26, Eve of All Saints'

 Sunday School, October 31, 2021  23 Pentecost B 26


Themes:

All laws are not equal in importance.  For example, it is more important not to kill than not to jay walk, even though both laws have special use. 
A religious man wanted to hear from Jesus about which laws of the 601 laws were the most important.  Jesus said, “Love God and love your neighbor as yourselves.”
If we work to please God and do what is fair to our neighbors all of the time, then we will be keeping the most important laws.

Some time we might like to replace religious laws for the more important laws.  For example, if some people made an animal sacrifice to keep a religious law, would that stand in place of having to tell the truth?
If we come to church because we think that it is a religious law for us, do we think that we can lie and steal because we have gone to church?

The practice of less important laws cannot replace the practice of the greatest laws.

The saints are those who became famous models for us because they were successful at keeping the law to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves.  If that is what we are doing in our lives, then we are learning how to be saints too.

Sermon

  Today is All Saints Sunday and in our lessons from Holy Scripture we have read about read about the law.  We read the charge that Moses gave to the children of Israel.  He told them that when they went into the Promised Land, that the Law was to be the crucial identity of their lives.  Today, we believe with the advent of the T-shirt, clothes became the billboard for textual messages of all sorts.  In our day, a T-shirt allows a person to literally wear their language.  But what is our relationship to the text that we wear.  What textual message could I wear that I could live up to?  My T-shirt could read, “I am a gray and balding older man.”  Well, that would be true.
  Long before textual T-shirts, the people of the Hebrew and Jewish faith have worn their texts.  Part of the prayer costume for Jews includes phylacteries.  These are leather boxes with the text of the Torah written within them.  They are strapped around the head and on the wrist.  They literally are the worn text of the Torah and they fulfilled this command of Moses:   “Bind the words of the commandments as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead.”  In a very symbolic way the writing of the commandments worn on the hand and the forehead state the principle that the commandment cannot remain a dead letter upon the page; the commandments has to take control of one’s thought life and the commandments have to be internalized into our hands, into our actions and body language.
  What can happen instead of the Torah living in our minds and in our actions?  We can replace justice and fairness by devising a series of religious ritual behaviors to stand in place of actually doing justice.  So, it became a practice to make the religious sacrifices of the prescribed animals and that kind of religious behavior was done, while the orphans and the widows went without food.  So prescribe religious ritual behavior became a substitute for living a life of justice, compassion and care.  Ritual behavior is easier than justice.  It is very messy business to try to bring justice to everyone.  Clergy are happy with ritual behavior; the ancient priests of Israel could get some of the best cuts of meat for their own tables with the prescribed animal sacrifices.  Clergy can fund the church and their jobs with prescribe obligatory religious and ritual behavior; okay so you’re not perfect and justice is not realized in society, but just come, give your tithe, make your confession, receive your absolution and go to Mass, and you get a clean slate.
 
 On All Saints Day, we confess Jesus to be the Saint of Saints.  Jesus is the Law of all Laws.  When one speaks in generalizations about faith communities, one would say that the Torah or the Law is central to Judaism.  But what is central to Christianity is Jesus Christ.  In Jesus Christ, the message of God does not come on stone tablets as written laws; in Jesus Christ, God comes as embracing the entire personhood.  What is greater?  Writing or Personhood?  Even though language and writing are what make human beings the unique creature, the appearance of God in a human being bespeaks a belief that human beings can only access that which is greater than human life, through human life.  Our belief in Jesus Christ is a belief that God does not just communicate through writing on stone tablets; God embraces the entire human experience as a way for us to know and celebrate the fact that being human, also means recognizing that life involves a recognition of life that is more than human.  It is the more than human life of God that comes to us in the Jesus Christ.
And what it reveals to us is that in a world of time, we are always invited to be More than we are right now.  We are always invited to surpass ourselves in excellence.  Believing in God means that we believe in the immensity of the quantity of future occasions of existence and those future occasions invite us to further invention, further creativity, further excellence.
  The future will likely change the details of human law of the past.  Why?  Because love always requires the details and strategies of love to be worked out in new situations.  We write laws and will continue to writer laws in new situations because love and justice are not fixed states of what can ever be permanently attained.  Practicing love and justice is never completed; we have to keep at it again and again.  As much as the founders of our country believed in their laws that “all people were created equal” they were blinded to achieve that in their actions as long as they accepted tacitly the practice of slavery and the subjugation of women.  Our founders preached a beautiful law and justice but at the same time, they did not fully realize law as a full completion of the work of justice.
  This never finished work of love and justice is perhaps the chief reason that Jesus settled for the summary of all of the law into just two laws; love God and love your neighbor as yourself.  St. Paul did a similar reduction when he said that love fulfills the law.
  Does this mean that love and law are opposed to each other?  Of course not.  Law is the strategy that love and justice need to be actually practiced.  We write laws as approximations of what good and just living means in actual practice.  And how do we know?  Well, you ask people; and people will tell you when they think something is fair or just in how they are treated. 
  All of the written laws can be reduced to love because love is not just having the law written as text on a T-shirt.  Love is not placing little boxes of Torah on your forehead and hand.  Love is when my hands perform deeds of kinds; love is when my thought think thoughts of kindness.  When our body language performs and acts deeds of love and kindness, then we become living law.  We become the law of love and justice.
  And who is it who was the perfect example in life of law and justice?  It was Jesus Christ.  He was the living law.  He was God’s law in Person.  He was love and justice personified.  And on All Saints Sunday, who do we call saints?  We call saints those who embodied love and justice in their very deeds.  These were not people who gave us legal texts on how we should live; they were people who showed how to live by the example of their lives.  They were “living laws.”
  So on All Saints Sunday, we are invited to personify the law and the justice of Christ.  We can be articulate and brilliant in legal reasoning, but law is most effective when we see it in practice.  Children are perhaps the most impressionable when they cannot speak and when they cannot read.  So in the first three years of their lives they are formed mostly by the people who model what it is to be human for them.  Parents and mentors are the living law for the impressionable children.
  But we never lose our childlike impressionability; we forever have this need to be impressed.  And what are we most impressed by?  By the living practice of love and kindness.  We are impressed when we experience justice and fairness.
  All Saints Sunday is a time to celebrate those who lived love and justice with their lives.  It is a time for us to embrace what is saintly in life.  It is time for us to internalize love and justice and let love and justice be lived through every word and deed of our lives.
  Today, we sing the song of the saints of God, and we pray, “God help me to be one too.  God help me to be love and kindness in word and deeds.”  Amen.
 



Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist
October 31, 2021: The Twenty-Third-Sunday after Pentecost and Eve of All Saints'

Gathering Songs: When the Saints; O Come Let Us Adore Him, Jesus Stand Among Us; God Is So Good

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.

Song: When The Saints Go Marching In
When the saints go marching in, when the saints go marching in.  Lord I want to be in that number, when the saints go marching in.
When the girls go marching in…..
When the boys go marching in….


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

Liturgist:  Let us pray
Almighty and merciful God, it is only by your gift that your faithful people offer you true and laudable service: Grant that we may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises; through 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 book of Deuteronomy
Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord
People: Thanks be to God
   
Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 119

5  Oh, that my ways were made so direct * that I might keep your statutes!
6  Then I should not be put to shame, * when I regard all your commandments.
7  I will thank you with an unfeigned heart, * when I have learned your righteous judgments.


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.
One of the scribes came near and heard the Saducees disputing with one another, and seeing that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, "Which commandment is the first of all?" Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." Then the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that 'he is one, and besides him there is no other'; and 'to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,' and 'to love one's neighbor as oneself,'--this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." After that no one dared to ask him any question.


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 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 for the Offertory: O Come, Let Us Adore Him (Renew # 1)
O come, let us adore him; O come, let us adore him; O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord.
We’ll give him all the glory.  We’ll give him all the glory; we’ll give him all the glory, Christ the Lord.
For he alone is worthy.  For he alone is worthy.  For he alone is worthy, Christ the Lord.
We’ll praise his name forever.  We’ll praise his name forever.  We’ll praise his name forever, Christ the Lord.

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.  Bless and 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,


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:  Jesus Stand Among Us (Renew # 237)
1-Jesus, stand among us in your risen power; let this time of worship be a hallowed hour.
2-Breathe the Holy Spirit into every heart; bid the fears and sorrows from each soul depart.


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: God is So Good (# 31 in  All the Best)
1-God is so good, God is so good, God is so good, He’s so good to me.
2-He cares for me, He cares for me, He cares for me, He’s so good to me.
3-I’ll do His will, I’ll do his will, I’ll do his will, He so good to me.
4-He is my Lord, He is my Lord, He is my Lord, He’s so good to me.


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

Prayers for Advent, 2024

Sunday, 4 Advent, December 22, 2024 God of Mary's Magnificat, let the lowly be lifted up and the proud, the greedy, and the oppressor be...