Aphorism of the Day, May 2023

Aphorism of the Day, May 31, 2023

Christians try to reduce Total Synchronicity to linear space time unfolding; hence the Trinity.  Let trinitarian thinking lead us back to incomprehensible Synchronicity.

Aphorism of the Day, May 30, 2023

Personhood is known to be significantly meaningful in human experience because of language.  Language and personhood go together.  Everything which comes to language is personal, including the divine.

Aphorism of the Day, May 29, 2023

Language is evidence of relationality within which personhood resides.  Personhood is a superlative of relationship.  It has become obvious to many to project personhood on "that which none greater can be conceived."  Why would greatness not possess supreme personhood?

Aphorism of the Day, May 28, 2023

Spirit is the name we give to the impossible task of harmonizing diversity not to erase the immense differences but to celebrate the wholeness of peaceful functioning togetherness.

Aphorism of the Day, May 27, 2023

Sometimes the stories and the poetry get old and do not speak in the say way in which they used to.  When the poetry gets old, write your own.

Aphorism of the Day, May 26, 2023

The space between us is not empty, it is like a copper wire which conducts electricity, it is Holy Spirit Being conducting dynamic mutual reciprocal experience between beings.

Aphorism of the Day, May 25, 2023

How can mutual experience happen in separating distances between beings?  The space between beings is not empty, it is a Reality that enables the conducting of mutual experience.  That Reality might be named Spirit.

Aphorism of the Day, May 24, 2023

Is Spirit another Signifier of explaining the omnipresence of Word in all that can be known?

Aphorism of the Day, May 23, 2023

The Jesus Movement was founded upon the resonance of the poetry of the Risen Christ within the hearts of so many, resonant enough to create social identity and cohesion.

Aphorism of the Day, May 22, 2023

A meaning of Pentecost?  Turning the once held belief of polyglottic humanity into the blessed state of harmony amid diversity.

Aphorism of the Day, May 21, 2023

The main relic of human existence is language.  It purports to carry traces of the past to the present with stability of meanings even when we know that what is stable is that all meanings evolve and change as they get altered with new contexts in time.

Aphorism of the Day, May 20, 2023

The place to locate biblical discourse is mainly in aesthetic discourse, a language to move the heart.  If one is led to believe that only scientific discourse is meaningful, then one has to present biblical discourse as scientific discourse, or one can maintain the meaningful truths of beauty in its many discursive forms.  Religionists have been fighting wrong battles with science for years; there need not be a battle if multi-discursive being can walk science and chew aesthetic discourse at the same time.

Aphorism of the Day, May 19, 2023

Persons who have had biblical words form their vocabularies from their childhood can go through adjustments of how to process those words.  Most of the words get relegated to poetic status as language of the heart rather than words which report empirically verifiable events.

Aphorism of the Day, May 18, 2023  (Ascension Day)

The Ascension is the explanation for the absence of the historical Jesus and the transition to the mode of knowing the Risen Christ through inward "spiritual" experience.  The outer Jesus became the inward Christ within the Jesus Movement and the Ascension is the transition story from the particularly located Jesus in space and time to the Christ of being All and in all.  This is a crucial poetic explanation in Christian mysticism.

Aphorism of the Day, May 17, 2023

The prayer of Jesus in John's Gospel comes from a liminal location as Jesus says, "I am no longer in the world."  It could be the inner world is always a liminal location since the inner world is a world of multiverses.  The words of the Gospel derived from the multiverses experienced by Gospel writers.

Aphorism of the Day, May 16, 2023

Johannine belief was that Jesus was one with his Father-God.  In the prayer of Jesus as written by the Johannine writer, Jesus asks that his followers might be one with the Father-God too.  This might be called the ever emptying of the divine within the order of existence, the All that is within all.

Aphorism of the Day, May 15, 2023

The Gospels mix the Risen Christ experience of the Jesus Movement decades after Jesus lived with a narrative of the life of Jesus.  It mixes the past life of Jesus with the present life of the Risen Christ.  In old film life, one would call it double exposure.

Aphorism of the Day, May 14, 2023

For around nine months, in our pre-birth states, we lived, and moved, and had our being within our mothers.  If we live and move and have our being in God, we can never leave the God-womb.

Aphorism of the Day, May 13, 2023

If we live and move and have being in God, we are contained.  And God as greatest conscious container perceives all that is contain with care, but an extremely mature care which does not violate the freedom which makes moral significance.  You and I contain in limited ways all that we perceive and yet we can't control all that we perceive.  We, too, are vulnerable, like God, to the genuine freedom which we perceive to be happening.  Perception as containment does not mean strict and coercive control.

Aphorism of the Day, May 12, 2023

Can we accept the superiority of freedom with an entire field of probable occurrences even when specific events of freedom do not seem to favor us?

Aphorism of the Day, May 11, 2023

When we forget time and process, we can present being bereft of becoming and assume a synchronous everywhere, everything, in an all at once fatalism.  Time and newness needs to be honored.  We need to understand "last days" as merely "latest days."

Aphorism of the Day, May 10, 2023

In the account of St. Paul's response to the inscription "to an unknown God," Paul expounds his belief in a personal God, One who contains all, and One who can be a personal presence to all.  That language is the personal medium, means that all things including the Greatness of All is personally perceived.  Having language, in our anthropomorphic prison, we cannot help but project the personal on everything.  The degree of projecting reciprocal personal divine response toward us is to answer Einstein's question of "Is the universe friendly?" with a resounding "yes."

Aphorism of the Day, May 9, 2023

If as St. Paul of the Acts of the Apostles is cited saying, "We are all God's offspring," the Jesus unique divine offspring serves as the one who calls us to realize our divine familial likeness.

Aphorism of the Day, May 8, 2023

St. Paul understood God as being the outer most horizon creating the ultimate environment as expressed in a saying attributed to him in the Acts of the Apostles: "In God we live, and move, and have our being."   In the processive mode it would be stated as this: In omni-Becoming, we are all becoming.  This mode acknowledges continuous expanding creation.

Aphorism of the Day, May 7, 2023

How could Jesus promise that his disciples would do greater things?  An endless future is quantitatively greater than the three years of his earthly ministry.

Aphorism of the Day, May 6, 2023

"If you have seen me, you have seen the Father."  These words of Jesus in John's Gospel are model words which reflect the incarnational theology of Genesis of humanity being made in the image and likeness of God.  This likeness is the foundational basis for the validity of being anthropomorphic regarding the divine.

Aphorism of the Day, May 5, 2023

John's Gospel presents Jesus as preparing his disciples for his eventual absence.  An orphan is one who might worry about having a future home.  Not only do the words of Jesus indicate that the disciples would not be left as "orphans," perhaps spiritual orphans and parentless; rather God as heavenly parent will continue to have many places for all to dwell.

Aphorism of the Day, May 4, 2023

In Johannine metaphors, Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  These correspond to the signs in John's Gospel, of making a man ambulatory to walk in the way, of healing a blind man to see truth, and of raising Lazarus to life.  Reading John's as a self-referential work is crucial to understanding implied meanings.

 Gospel Aphorism of the Day, May 3, 2023

The "fatherization" of God is most pronounced in the words of Jesus channeled in the Gospel of John.  "Show us the Father," says Philip.  As a child bears the genetic likeness of the parents, so the Jesus of the writer of John uses the Father/Son metaphor to indicate that the divine likeness can be seen in all that has being.  If we see anything, we see it in the context of Plenitude.

Aphorism of the Day, May 2, 2023

Another name for God's house is time.  Everyone and everything always already lives in time.  Time is cumulatively everlasting making past and present synchronically equal in existence.  The present can never make the past to never have existed.

Aphorism of the Day, May 1, 2023
The Johannine words of Jesus about his Father having dwelling places is the poetry of a homing God who indwells the people of this world. 

Quiz of the Day, May 2023

Quiz of the Day, May 31, 2023

Who was Elkanah's wife?

a. Ruth

b. Naomi

c. Hannah

d. Gomer

Quiz of the Day, May 30, 2023

What was the year of the First American Book of Common Prayer?

a. 1789

b. 1778

c. 1928

d. 1795

Quiz of the Day, May 29, 2023

The command of Jesus to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is found where?

a. Acts of the Apostles

b. Luke

c. Matthew

c. Mark

d. John

e. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, May 28, 2028

Which of the following is not a metaphor for the Holy Spirit?

a. Paraclete

b. Advocate

c. Dove

d. Redeemer

e. Comforter

f.  Wind

g. Breath

Quiz of the Day, May 27, 2023

Which biblical writing present Christ as a heavenly High Priest, officiating at a heavenly altar?

a. John

b. Revelations

c. Hebrews

d. 2 Peter

Quiz of the Day, May 26, 2023

Long after David had died, what prophet experienced an oracle about David becoming the shepherd of the sheep?

a. Isaiah

b. Zechariah

c. Ezekiel

d. Jeremiah

Quiz of the Day, May 25, 2023

Of the following, who would not be considered a "church historian?"

a. Bede

b. Eusebius

c. Thomas Aquinas

d. Jaroslav Pelikan

e. Roland Bainton

Quiz of the day, May 24, 2023

About what biblical figure was it written as one without father, mother, or geneaology?

a. Jesus

b. Wisdom, Sophia

c. Logos

d. Melchizedek

Quiz of the Day, May 23, 2023

In the account of the Day of Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles, who heard the Gospel in their own languages?

a. Jews of the Diaspora who were in Jerusalem

b. Gentiles who were friendly to the Jews

c. All Gentiles living in Jerusalem

d. All of the above

Quiz of the Day, May 22, 2023

Which of the following is not true regarding St. Helena of Constantinople? 

a. she was Queen with the Emperor Constantius

b. she was Constantine I's mother

c. she made a pilgrimage to the Holy Lands

d. she purportedly found the true cross

e. she became a protector of the holy sites

Quiz of the Day, May 21, 2023

The longest prayer of Jesus is found in which Gospel?

a. Matthew

b. Mark

c. Luke

d. John

Quiz of the Day, May 20, 2023

What offices pertain to Alcuin of York?

a. Bishop

b. priest

c. deacon

d. abbot

e. a and c

f. a,b, and d

g. c and d

Quiz of the Day, May 19, 2023

God told persons to literally eat words, the words written on scrolls.  Who were these persons?

a. John the Divine

b. Jeremiah

c. Ezekiel

d. Daniel

e. David

f.  a,b, and c

g. b,c, and d

Quiz of the Day, May 18, 2023

Where is the vision of the four living creatures with four faces of human, lion, ox, and eagle appearance found in the Bible?

a.Revelation

b.Daniel

c. Ezekiel

d. Jeremiah

Quiz of the Day, May 17, 2023

Which Supreme Court Justice is on the Episcopal Calendar of Saints?

a. John Jay

b. John Marshall

c. Thurgood Marshall

d. John Rutledge

Quiz of the Day, May 16, 2023

Versions of the Lord's Prayer are found in which Gospels?

a. Matthew and Mark

b. Matthew and Luke

c. Matthew and John

d. Mark and Luke

e. Mark and John

f. Luke and Mark

g. Luke and John

Quiz of the Day, May 15, 2023

To whom was the epistle of James addressed?

a. to the Gentile Christians

b. to the twelve tribes of the dispersion

c. to church leaders

d. to the church at Antioch

Quiz of the Day, May 14, 2023

Of the following, who had the most likely birth of mothers in the Bible?

a. Mary

b. Jochabed

c. Hannah

d. Sarai

e. Elizabeth

Quiz of the Day, May 13, 2023

Architect of Social Security on the Episcopal Calendar of Saints.

a. Franklin Roosevelt

b. Elizabeth Seton

c. Dorothy Day

d. Frances Perkins

Quiz of the Day, May 12, 2023

Of the following rules, which one did St. Paul not dispense of for Gentile converts?

a. prohibition of eating pork

b. circumcision

c. adultery

d. observing the liturgical calendar of Judaism

Quiz of the Day, May 11, 2023

Of the following, which is not associated with Gerasenes?

a. demoniac

b. demon possessed swine

c. an inner entity call Legion

d. exorcism

e. purity rituals

Quiz of the Day, May 10, 2023

In which city did Paul quote non-Christian poets who spoke of humans as being "offspring of God?"

a. Corinth

b. Rome

c. Athens

d. Philippi

Quiz of the Day, May 9, 2023

Of the following, who was not a member of a famous Cappadocian family?

a. Basil

b. Gregory of Nyssa

c. Gregory Nazianzus

d. Macrina

e. Peter Sebaste

 Quiz of the Day, May 8, 2023

Of the following, who is not canonized by the Roman Catholic Church?

a. Teresa of Avila

b. Julian of Norwich

c. Hildegard of Bingen

d. Catherine of Siena

Quiz of the Day, May 7, 2023

What famous apostle to part in the stoning of Stephen?

a. Peter

b. Saul

c. Silas

d. Barnabas

Quiz of the Day, May 6, 2023

Who was the first martyr of the Jesus Movement?

a. Stephen

b. James

c. Matthew

d. Peter

Quiz of the Day, May 5, 2023

According to the Book of Wisdom, what is the assurance of immortality?

a. adherence to the laws of wisdom

b. the Torah

c. Love

d. the giving of alms

Quiz of the Day, May 4, 2023

Monica was the mother of what famous saint?

a. Augustine of Canterbury

b. Augustine of Hippo

c. Francis of Assisi

d. Benedict of Nursia

Quiz of the Day, May 3, 2023

In the Pauline writing, what is the mystery of the ages?

a. the Eucharist

b. the faith of Abraham

c. the calling of ministry

d. Christ in you, the hope of glory

Quiz of the Day, May 2, 2023

Which of the following is not true?

a. Athanasius of Alexandria has a Creed with his name

b. The opponent of Athanasius at Nicaea was Arian

c. Athanasius attended the Council of Nicaea as the bishop of Alexandria

d. Athanasius wrote at biography on the founder of monasticism

Quiz of the Day, May 1, 2023

Who told Nathaniel about Jesus?

a. James

b. Peter

c. Andrew

d. John the Baptist

e. Philip

Invisible Omnipresence Given a Name

Day of Pentecost A  May 28, 2023
Gen. 11:1-9Ps. 104: 25-32

Acts 2:1-11 John 14:8-17, 25-17

Lectionary Link

To see if one is still alive, one can place a mirror under the nostrils of the one near death.  If there is breath in that person, the mirror may cloud and that cloud is an effect of the breath and life of the person.

When we see tree branches and leaves rustling, but we don't see a visible material pushing against them, we name the invisible wind as the cause of such movements.

And we understand how the ancients arrived at breath, wind, ruach, pneumatos, Spiritus, as metaphorical words to speak about great Life itself.

How do we come to name what is invisible?  Why do we name the invisible when the invisible cannot be made visible by the sheer act of naming?

First of all, we name everything that is visible and invisible by what is invisible.  Words are invisible.  They have sensorial products of speech sounds and writing, but words themselves are invisible phenomenon.  Words also have the products of body language deeds.

Is that which is visible or sensorial the only criteria for something to be meaningful?  Using words and naming things is also psychological, in that it occurs from the constitution of our inner invisible being.

The biblical story purports to be writings about events when the effect of the invisible Spirit became known in meaningful ways to the people who experienced these events of the Spirit.

The naming of the Spirit was found in the creation story.  In this story, the words of God spoke things into existence and the Spirit moved over the un-worded chaos and brought the incredible diverse world into being.  Diverse things which came to have names.

The world is experienced as both an ordered cosmos but also as internally competitive cosmos experienced as chaos in the clash of systems which the reality of genuine freedom requires.

It is very difficult to detach Spirit events from Word Events.  The Bible itself is a conglomeration of textual word events spanning the hundreds of years of its compilation.  The Bible includes words about word events, events of the effects of God's Spirit being made evident to people.

The crowning Word and Spirit event of the Hebrew Scriptures was the arising of the Law and the attending writings and stories of the people who were inspired to create such milestone remembrances.

The Law was words about how to live best case scenario lives given the limited experience of the contexts of the biblical writers.

Word and Spirit have never been finished in the visible world.  Words always have subsequent interpretations into the new contexts in which they are read.  As such, the Torah, and the Hebrew Scriptures were still growing and becoming during the time of Jesus.  Jesus was living Word and Living Spirit in human form; Jesus was a Spirit event both for Mary and for humanity.  He intertwined the meaning of his life with the great words of the Hebrew Scriptures.  As the Word made flesh, he instantiated the Spirit in human flesh.  He as the Word made flesh, said that his words were Spirit and life, and so united word and spirit.

If Jesus is the fullest visible effect of God's presence, what does most of humanity have to experience who were not privileged to experience such a full visible effect of God's presence in the life of Jesus of Nazareth?  Are we indeed divine orphans because God only blessed a few people with the visible presence of the Spirit made flesh in Jesus of Nazareth?

The feast of Pentecost is a feast of word, language, and Spirit.  The Feast of Pentecost is the celebration of what the followers of Jesus discovered after he could no longer be seen, namely, the discovery of his continued presence by the Great Force of Life Itself, the Holy Spirit.  And just as Jesus was the Holy Spirit life in the flesh, the followers of Jesus understood themselves as Holy Spirit life in the flesh which would effect their lives in word and deed such that the effects could be known and transmitted to other people.

The Day of Pentecost is when in our story,  God's Omnipresence is given the name of Holy Spirit.  Naming is what people do because we have language ability.  Our very lives are organized by language, and so we too are word and language made flesh.  The Day of Pentecost is a day to celebrate that God can be translated into the lives of people of all languages.  God can be known as relevant to everyone.  And the Holy Spirit is the great translator of the life of God into anyone's language.

The Day of Pentecost is a day to celebrate that Word and Spirit in human experience means specific direction toward the life of love and justice that has been exemplified in Jesus Christ.  It is not enough to know words and life force;  Christ as the Eternal Word of God and Holy Spirit as the life force of God give superlative direction to the words and the energies of our lives which are ever in need of having God's love translated into the words and deeds of our lives.

Let us observe this day in our corporate story when God's Omnipresence has been named as the Holy Spirit.  And let us accept the Holy Spirit as the direction of our lives toward the love and justice of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Prayers for Easter, 2023

Saturday in 7 Easter, May 27, 2023

God who is every where, help us to realize being in the Spirit as a way to live and move and have our being.  Amen.

Friday in 7 Easter, May 26, 2023

Gracious God who is Plenitude; like fish in water, we live in you and a connection with you and everything else; give us grace to work on the best possible connections especially with other people with the excellence of actualized love and justice. Amen.

Thursday in 7 Easter, May 25, 2023

Invisible Spirit, as the wind blows the branches on a tree, let your visible effects be known today in and through us as the words and deeds of love and justice.  Amen.

Wednesday in 7 Easter, May 24, 2023

Holy Spirit, conductor of all experience for mutual and reciprocal living; give us grace to submit to your gentle orchestrations so that we might play the harmonies of love and justice.  Amen.

Tuesday in 7 Easter, May 23, 2023

Holy Spirit, you are the life force enabling us to be instruments of the divine; blow your breath through us to achieve the love and justice which is needed for our survival and hope for the future.  Amen.

Monday in 7 Easter, May 22, 2023

Creator God, whom we believe to have called creation good; give us the same appreciative care for the diversity of creation and let mutual care be the unifying Spirit of our lives.  Amen.

Sunday, 7 Easter, May 21, 2023

Gracious God, you encourage us to prayer so as to acknowledge at all time the larger context; we know that our specifically located context resides within many unknown causative details; give us grace to accept the mystery of what we do not and cannot know, but give us courage to trust the best of our instincts toward a loving and just world.  Amen.

Saturday in 6 Easter, May 20, 2023

Christ who is the sign of divine-human bi-linguality; you lived and spoke human experience divinely so that we might have the best pattern to follow not in trying to emulate all the features of the time of Jesus, but to interpret the message of love into our time and place.  Let our interpretations of your life be known as the practice of justice in our lives.  Amen.

 Friday, in 6 Easter, May 19, 2023

Lord Jesus Christ, in your priestly prayer you ask that we might be one as you are one with the Father; give us grace to be the answer to that prayer as we accept our unity with our heavenly parent.  Amen.

Ascension Day, May 18, 2023

Eternal Word of God, you were emptied into the limitations of being a human being in time, but you returned to your pan-linguistic all in allness in the Ascension; grant us an awareness of your presence wherever we go today.  Amen.

Wednesday in 6 Easter, May 17, 2023

Eternal Word of God, you are essence of communication and encourage us to use prayer discourse as a way of relating our inner world of mystery with the outer world of sensorial objects; let us exalt our use of language with the habit of prayer and so invoke the angelic messengers of the divine on the ladder between the inner and outer world.  Amen.

Tuesday in 6 Easter, May 16, 2023

God who is ever emptied into the created order, and yet remains the fullness of being the All; help us to activated the "emptied" portion of divinity with our lives so that we might had to the harmony of justice and love which is the divine score of the universe.  Amen.

Monday in 6 Easter, May 15, 2023

Gracious Jesus, we have lived without the majority never having seen or touched you, yet we have in faith claimed access to your inner life of word and spirit; keep bringing the effects of love and justice to his world even in your hidden presence.  Amen.

Sunday, 6 Easter, May 14, 2023, also U.S. Mother's Day

God, in you we live and move and have our being so that we can never be birthed outside of you; we remain ever within the God-womb of being and becoming.  Give us grace to live together well as ever your family with hopes of maturing in love and justice.  Amen.

Saturday in 5 Easter, May 13, 2023

God who contains all and lovingly cares for all, you still allow a challenging and oft baffling freedom of occurrences to make life an ordeal and a maze, interspersed with incredible delight and joy to buoy us to continue as we seek to be lured by love and justice as the best way to live in free conditions.  Amen.

 Friday in 5 Easter, May 12, 2023

God, help to accept your immanence even when kindness does not seem to rule the events of life; give us courage to honor the moral significance which arises from the genuine freedom in our world.  Amen.

Thursday in 5 Easter, May 11, 2023

God who ever is creative freedom, we are grateful for having the genuine freedom of agency to contribute to what actually becomes, even as with fear and trembling we honor the awesome task of freely making this world better.  Amen.

Wednesday in 5 Easter, May 10, 2023

God, the expanding Container of All in time, let our contribution to the expansion of All be the creative acts of love and justice and so build a better future.  Amen.

Tuesday in 5 Easter, May 9, 2023

God who is the Parent of All, we acknowledge that there are many who feel like orphans in our world; give us grace to be active in the work of Jesus who said that he would not leave us as orphans.  Amen.

Monday in 5 Easter, May 8, 2023

God of expanding horizon, we can never reach your outermost edge, even as you contain us who live and become within you; give us grace to be good stewards of the existential territory where we find ourselves located within the overarching divine milieu.  Amen.

Sunday, 5 Easter, May 7, 2023

Lord Jesus Christ, we are part of the greater works of the future which you promised would happen after you left; give us your Spirit to keep filling the future with the greatness of love and justice.  Amen.

Saturday in 4 Easter, May 6, 2023

Lord Jesus Christ, you are the way, the truth, and the life; we seek to follow your way in honesty with the hope of abundant life.  Amen.

Friday in 4 Easter, May 5, 2023

Gracious Christ, you promised not to leave us a orphans and to teach us access to our heavenly parent who has a dwelling place for us; let our bodies be made fit dwellings for the presence as we honor our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Thursday in 4 Easter, May 4, 2023

God of creation, from your Plentitude we have a home to live in and from the words of Jesus we will have future places prepared for us; give us grace to take good care of the our earthly home and to be those who provide homes for those who do not have a place to live.  Amen.

Wednesday in 4 Easter, May 3, 2023

O God, the vastness of Plenitude persuades us about the vastness and our connection with all being; give us grace to join with others who are persuaded about the superior values of love and justice coming to all people.  Amen.

Tuesday in 4 Easter, May 2, 2023

God, because we have language, we confess ourselves as smart parts of Plentitude.  Because we have language, we are persons who see everything as personal, and so we confess you as a personal Plenitude with relational regard for everything.  Give us secrets to good relational behaviors today.  Amen.

Monday in 4 Easter, May 1, 2023

God, you are the dwelling of the universe itself and you send your homing invitations to us as the Hospitable One who has made a place for us and we recognize ourselves today as a dwelling place for You.  Amen.

 Sunday, 4 Easter, April 30, 2023

Gracious and Shepherding God, bring to an end those who use power and position to exploit the vulnerable who do not have the capacity to fend for themselves.  Amen.

Saturday in 3 Easter, April 29, 2023

God of Easter, who renews the world through loving service; give us grace to follow the Good Shepherd Jesus who came to lay down his life for his friends.  Amen.

Friday in 3 Easter, April 28, 2023

Holy God, we are so lost in your All-ness, that we cannot but humbly be but short occasions within your constant expanding creating environment; give us grace to pursue enlightened togetherness in your All-ness today.  Amen.

Thursday in 3 Easter, April 27, 2023

God of everything circumstance, we can know plenty and we can know need; let the situations of plenty and need be matched today to balance human living with wise reciprocity for the common good.  Amen.

Wednesday in 3 Easter, April 26, 2023

God, we confess you as our shepherd, because you are more than the exploitive shepherds of this worlds; you care for us not for our potential products but for the delight of friendship.  Grant us courage to oppose the exploitive relationship in our world so that we may lovingly delight in you and each other.  Amen.

Tuesday in 3 Easter, April 25, 2023

God, whom we assume is a Language User, because we confess you as language users to be Word made flesh; give us the humility to avoid limiting you to but our words about you since they necessarily must be mixed with every possible word that could be.  Amen.

Monday in 3 Easter, April 24, 2023

Gracious God, we are given the image of Christ as the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his friends; give us grace to lay down our lives with the redirection of our life energy for the good of others.  Amen.

Sunday, 3 Easter, April 23, 2023

Gracious God, we cherish the surprises when the Sublime meets and encourages us with hope; we asks for adequate surprises to be discovered today to motivate plentiful survival for the manifold peoples of this world.  Amen.

Saturday in 2 Easter, April 22, 2023

God who is mostly incognito in the world in any specific way you are best known in the plenitude of everything, altogether, all at once; give us grace to live with the mystery of everything, altogether, all at once while being diligent to make particular the meaning of your best Name of Love.  Amen.

Friday in 2 Easter, April 21, 2023

God we live in the unknowing of things happening in ways that we didn't hope for and we live with the resolutions of past uncertainties becoming present certain knowledge; give us the faith in the now to assume hindsight certainty as present trust based upon our knowledge of your loving heart for us.  Amen.

Thursday in 2 Easter, April 20, 2023

God who has been unveiled in serendipitous moments to many; thank you for the surprises of your apparent favor and let these surprises help us to highlight the general sustaining presence of the divine milieu in which we live and move and have our being.  Amen.

Wednesday in 2 Easter, April 19, 2023

God whose presence is experienced by us as apparent or non-apparent; give us grace to retreat to your omnipresence even when you don't seem so obvious in the manifestation of seeming negative outcomes of freedom in our lives.  Amen.

Tuesday in 2 Easter, April 18, 2023

Christ of the resurrection, you have become the one proclaimed as All and in All; let this general omnipresence be made known as specific presence to us in our efforts to become more Christ-like in our behaviors.  Amen.

Monday in 2 Easter, April 17, 2023

Omnipresent God who is also known as Christ as All and in All; surprise us today with the sublime presences which we need to live and promote the love and justice needed to sustain the people of the world today.  Amen.

The Second Sunday of Easter, April 16, 2023

Gracious God, teach us holy doubting when inappropriate interpretations of life do not fit; give us open minds to be renewed in what is appropriate to love and justice in each situation.  Amen.

Easter Saturday, April 15, 2023

God of surprise, the introduction of resurrection gave a new narrative for hope; give us grace to ever keep hope alive in the lives of as many people as we can today.  Amen.

Easter Friday, April 14, 2023

Gracious God, give us wisdom to recognize the many resurrection appearances of Christ in our lives today, and help us to enable others to see these appearances tailored to their own life experience.  Amen.

Easter Thursday, April 13, 2023

Enlightening God, you have let us know that having language allows us to know and name things in our inward and outward lives; help us to name things aright so that justice for each person and each occasion might be pursued with greater clarity each day.  Amen.

Easter Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Christ who is All and in All, forgive us when we limit the ways in which you can become known to those who seek to do good.  Give us joy when others find you in unsuspecting places.  Amen.

Easter Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Gracious God of the future, we doubt because of tentativeness of all things, and because what we do now depends upon an endless future to be fully known; give us hope for future on future today.  Amen.

Easter Monday, April 10, 2023

God of resurrection; death happens in the context of everything else having happened; teach us to not separate death from everything else including us never being ready for the changes of death on personal relationships and community.  Amen.

Easter, April 9, 2023

Gracious God, on this day we celebrate that Jesus knew himself again after he had died and his disciples knew him too; help us to live in the hope of being preserved for having lived because nothing can ever be subtracted from having been.  Amen.

Sunday School, May 28, 2023 The Day of Pentecost A

 Sunday School, May 28, 2023    The Day of Pentecost  A

Theme:

Pentecost is the Holy Spirit’s Day

Pentecost is also called the Birth Day of the Church

What is the Bible Story about the Spirit?

In the Creation Story of the Book of Genesis, the Hebrew word for Spirit (ruach) means Wind or Breath.  We know that breathing is a sign of life.  

Wind can erode and shape rocks and mountains and cause waves.

In the Creation Story, the Spirit created by moving over unorganized  stuff and began to bring light, darkness, land, sea, plants, animals, human into being.

Something of Spirit life is found in all of creation

In the Bible story, the Spirit is kind of forgotten for many years even though the Spirit was seen as responsible for anointing leaders, kings, judges, prophets and wisdom teachers for teaching about God.

On the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit begins a new era.  We know that we cannot see God and yet God is everywhere.  We may not see the wind but we can see the effects of the wind.  This is what the Holy Spirit is like.  We can’t see the Holy Spirit but we can know the effects of the Holy Spirit.

What are the effects of the Holy Spirit that we can know?  Love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, self-control, faith and justice.

If we know the effects of the Holy Spirit we should spend our entire lives in learning how to gain more of the effects of the Holy Spirit, by knowing love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, self-control, faith and justice.

If we allow the fruits of the Holy Spirit to be expressed in the deeds and words of our lives we will be letting the life and the personality of God the Holy Spirit be known in our lives.

This is what we celebrate on the Day of Pentecost

Sermon (using a harmonica)

Do you know what kind of instrument I have in my hand?    It’s called a harmonica?  And do you know how this instrument is played?    It’s played by putting it up to my mouth and blowing.

  How is this instrument different than a whistle?    A whistle usually makes just one sound, but this harmonica can make many different sounds.

  It is a reed instrument.  If we open up the harmonica, we can find many differ little pieces of thin metal and they are different sizes.  Some are short and some are long.

  When I blow air across the short ones a high sound is made.  When I blow air across the long ones, a lower sound is made.

  So if we blow in the correct way, we can play many different notes and different kinds of music.  A harmonica is not like a whistle because a harmonica can make many different sounds.  And we can play many different songs with the harmonica.  We can even bend the notes and make it cry….or we can make it sound like a train.

  What is it that makes the harmonica play?  It is blown air or wind that comes from the lungs.

  Did you know that one of the ways that we talk about God is to call God, the Holy Spirit.  The Special Spirit.  The Special Wind or Breath.  Can you see Wind or Breath?  Well we can see clouds or we can see our breath when it’s cold.

  But we don’t actually see the Wind or Breath.  We know Wind and Breath are here because we can feel and see the movement that is caused by Wind and Breath.  When you blow on a Wind mill, you can see the wind mill turn.

  So today in when we celebrate the Invisible presence of God who is everywhere, just like wind and breath.  

  And we celebrate the fact that God’s wind or breath is within us blowing us…or playing us, just like I blow air into this harmonica to play the different sounds to make music or noise.

  We cannot see God Spirit…But God’s spirit is blowing through us and playing us as music.

  So we need to see ourselves as God’s musical instruments.  All different sizes and shapes, ages, with different appearances, different abilities and gifts.  God enjoys that we are all so different.  Because we’re different God can play lots of different songs through us.

  And what kind of music does God’s breath or Spirit play through us?  We call that music love, joy, peace, faith, self-control, gentleness, patience and all of the other good things that God wants to do through us.  How many of you want to be God’s instrument today?  Do you want the Wind or Breath of God to be blown through you today?

  Today, we remind ourselves that the Breath or Wind of God, the Holy Spirit is filling us today to help our lives be like a beautiful song for God today.  So today we let God the Spirit play a beautiful song through us.  Amen.

Intergeneration Family Service with Holy Eucharist

May 28, 2023 The Day of Pentecost 

Gathering Songs: Every Time I Feel the Spirit;  We Are One in the Spirit, Lord, Be Glorified

 Liturgist: Alleluia, Christ is Risen.

People: The Lord is Risen Indeed.  Alleluia.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.

And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.

Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Song: Every Time I Feel the Spirit, (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 48)

Refrain: Every time I feel the spirit moving in my heart, I will pray.  O every time I feel the spirit moving in my heart I will pray.

1-On Pentecost day, the Spirit came.  The people praised with joyous tongues.  The Spirit came to everyone.  Jews and Gentiles, all the same. Refrain

2-God’s Spirit lives, within the church.  He gives us gifts to build us up.  God’s Spirit fills us with his love.  O blessed Spirit, heavenly dove.  Refrain

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Alleluia

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Alleluia

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Alleluia

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Alleluia

A reading from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 104

You send forth your Spirit, and they are created; * and so you renew the face of the earth. 

May the glory of the LORD endure for ever; * may the LORD rejoice in all his works.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:

For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!

For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.

   Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, `Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water.'" Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father Phil 

Children’s Creed

We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.

Since God is so great and we are so small,

We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.

We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and 

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.

We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is 

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.

And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever.  Amen.

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy. 

For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.

For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.

For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.

For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.

For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.

For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.

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

People:                        And also with you.

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

Offertory Song: They’ll Know We Are Christians,  Worship and Rejoice, # 595

1-We are one in the Spirit; we are one in the Lord.  We are one in the Spirit; we are one in the Lord.  And we pray that all unity may one day be restored.  Refrain: And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.  Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

2-We will walk with each other; we will walk hand in hand.  We will walk with each other; we will walk hand in hand. And together we’ll spread the news that God is in our land.  Refrain

3-We will work with each other; we will work side by side.  We will work with each other; we will work side by side.  And we’ll guard each one’s dignity and save each other’s pride. Refrain

4-All praise to the Father, from whom all things come.  And praise to Christ Jesus, his only Son.  And all praise to the Spirit who makes us one.  Refrain

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 God.”

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.

(All may gather around the altar)

Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;

You have made us in your image

And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:

Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.

And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph

And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.

Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat 

  the bread and drink the wine, we can  know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as   

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Bless and 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 Shall Reign,   arr. Linda Lamb

                                        Divine Joy Handbell Choir

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: Lord, Be Glorified (Renew!  # 172)

1- In our lives, Lord, be glorified, be glorified, in our lives, Lord, be glorified today.

2- In our homes, Lord, be glorified, be glorified, in our homes, Lord, be glorified today.

3- In our church, Lord, be glorified, be glorified, in our church, Lord, be glorified today.

4- In your world, Lord, be glorified, be glorified, in your world, Lord, be glorified today 

Dismissal:    

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

People: Thanks be to God!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!