Lent: Taking Time to Correct Mistiming

1 Lent B      February 18, 2018
Gen. 9:8-17           Ps    25:1-9  
1 Peter 3:18-22         Mark 1:9-13
Lectionary Link

One of the things that I am sensitive about is when people criticize the church and the practices of the church as a bunch of rules to herd the sheep to require them to do things for the benefit of the institution and for the convenience of the church.

Why get baptized, confirmed, go to confession, Eucharist and get married in the church?  Because that is what the Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury say that we have to do.

So as a clergy person, I hold the proverbial hoops that I require all of you to jump through for the benefit of the church and this parish.

In seminary, I learned a fancy phrase: The Sacraments are anthropologically sound.  This is the arcane academic way of saying that what we teach and practice is normal, natural and unavoidable to reasonable human experience.

The goal of my ministry is to articulate how what we do and teach is "anthropologically sound," that is how it is natural and normal to human experience but human experience as it is informed about the knowledge of God in Christ.

And this brings us to the Season of Lent which we began on Ash Wednesday.  Why the season of Lent?  Is it anthropologically sound?  Is it a reasonable human practice?

I would argue that the idea behind the practice of Lent is unavoidable in human experience.  I would like for us to explore some of the features of our practice of Lent that might encourage us to value it.

Lent is on the Church Calendar each year.  It is an annual period of special discipline that the church asks her members to embrace.  So, first of all it is communal; it is something that we do together.  In this season we are invited to give special emphasis to the practice of self control by strategies of delayed personal gratification.   Why is self control good for us and how do we learn to practice self control?

Temptation and sin are mainly about mistiming in the deeds of our lives.  There is a proper and an appropriate time to do everything in our lives but how do we achieve proper timing for everything?  As babies we come into the world governed by the instincts of desire and we feel that we have freedom to instantly gratify anything that occurs for us to do.  Our parents and our societies, in part, provide us the interdiction to teach us delayed gratification of desire.  We cannot have everything that we want when we want it and that is for our own health and safety and for the appropriate sharing with all of the other people in our lives.

The rules of parents and our societies are laws and sometimes they are accompanied with the power to enforce these laws which force us to delay gratification.  It is what we call the force of suppression.  Suppression works and it can teach habits but it does not always result in personal contentment.

What is the answer for delaying immediate gratification and being content in doing so?  The answer lies in learning voluntary self control in a program of discipline guided by what is good for us and for the people with whom we live and share this world.

This is not always easy because our desire and the impulse for immediate self gratification is often profound.

This is why we need help.  Self control is regarded to be a fruit of the Holy Spirit.  It is a gift of God.  We learn to attain self control by having good models of self control in our lives.  The best model of all was Jesus Christ.

The temptation of Jesus for 40 days in the wilderness by Satan is given to us an example of the heroic Jesus taking up a fast.  Fast is the delay of gratification.  Fasting is needed as practice to learn how to delay immediate gratification for the good stewardship of our lives and our community.  Jesus had the power of self control.  He had the power to acknowledge the timing of God his Father in his life.

The early church presented Jesus as a person who was tempted as we are but without the sin of mistimed deeds.  Jesus was on the time schedule of God, his Father.  The early church believed that the Jesus who was tempted in the wilderness became the Risen Christ to become present within the lives of all who wished to know the nature of Christ within themselves.

The Risen Christ within us is the power to attain self control; the power to delay and time our gratification for our own health and safety and for the health, safety and benefit our community and our world.

And even though Lent is on our church calendar as a corporate practice of the church when we do and learn penitential things together, each of us needs to personalize Lent.

How do we do this?  First, we acknowledge our need to learn further self control.  We need to learn better timing is what we do and say in our lives.  And we learn self control as a way of sharing what we have with people who have the involuntary fasts of hunger, thirst and poverty forced upon them by the sad circumstances of their lives.

Lent is a season of reflection and practice of what better stewardship can mean for our lives, the lives of our families, our parish, our community and our world.

Let us embrace the discipline of the season of Lent by looking to the model of Jesus.  Where the timing in our lives show patterns of selfish and lack of control, let us seek the higher power of the Risen Christ within us to help us avoid addiction and make advances in self control.  And let us accept the fruit of the Holy Spirit, self control, to be the enduring character of our lives.

May God help us follow Jesus who did forty hard days of extreme Lent and now is the Risen Christ within us to teach us the way to find the perfect timing of God in our lives.  Amen.

Sunday School, February 18, 2018 1 Lent B

Sunday School, February 18, 2018   1 Lent B

Themes:

The temptation of Jesus

What is temptation?

Temptation is about being tricked into doing things at the wrong time.

If you see a piece of chocolate cake in the kitchen and it is only an hour before dinner, you may want to eat the lovely piece of cake.  But you also know that your mom wants you to wait until it is time for dessert after you eat a good healthy meal.

But you really want to eat the chocolate cake right now.  And so you do and when it comes supper time, you are not hungry to eat good food.  And your mom wants to know about the missing cake.

We are tempted all the time.  We are tempted to have lots of mis-timing in life.  We desire things, right now and we don’t want to wait, even though by not waiting we get into trouble.

So we need to practice doing the right things at the right time.  The church has an entire season for learning how to practice doing things at the right time.  We fast.  That is, we say no to certain foods and things so that we can develop our muscles of choice to be strong enough to do the right things at the right time.

We don’t like to say “no” to ourselves.  But we need to learn how to practice self-control.  The season of Lent is a season to build our muscles of self control.  How do we do this?  One way is to say no to some of our favorite pleasures and to use our time and our money to share with people who do not have as much as we do.  We do more community service.  We take on projects to help others because we are using the energy that we used to use for ourselves for others.

The season of Lent helps us to learn self control so that we can practice good timing in our lives, do the right things at the right time.

Exercise:

Think about things that you really like to do but that may not be good for you if you do too much or do them at the wrong time.

Then develop a strategy, a plan during Lent to practice self control so that you can learn the very best timing for doing everything in your life.

Sermon

What season of the Church are we in now?  Lent.  And what is the color for Lent?  For the season of Lent we make some changes.  We change colors.  You noticed that we changed candle holders on the altar.  We have changed our collection plates from silver to basket.  We have change our wine cup and bread plate from silver to pottery.  And we have dropped a very, very happy word that means “yeah God” out of the service.  And we won’t say it during Lent, at least not on purpose.

  Why do we do all of this?  Because the season of Lent is not a season of celebration.  It is a season of hard work and preparation.  And it lasts 40 days, not including Sundays.   And when does it end?  It ends on the biggest celebration of the year, on Easter Sunday.

  Why do we have Lent?  Why does a baseball team have spring training?  Why does a football team have training camp?

  To get ready for the real games.  What are the baseball players doing right now?  They are in spring training.  They are do lots of exercises.  They are practicing fielding and throwing the ball.  They are practicing making double plays.  Over and over again.  Why?  So, their team can be ready when the real games start.  And why do they want to be ready?  Because they want to win as many games as they can and go to the most important game of all, the World Series.

  Lent is a Season of Practice.  And there are lots of things that we need to take time to practice.  We need to practice taking care of our health and our bodies.  So, we try to practice something new in health and safety.  Eating good food.

  We practice helping other people.  We might do something to help people in our world who are in need.

  We practice loving God.  How do we do this?  We learn how to pray a little bit more.  We spend more time talking to God.  And we learn more about the Bible and we learn more about God.  Why do we do this?  Because, we need to have faith.  Why do we need to practice our faith?  Because there are things in life that are hard and difficult.  There are things that might make us afraid.  Things that might make us worry.  And so we have to build our faith to help us be prepared for some of the difficult things that we might have to do.

  During Lent, we try to spend more time together.  We are a church family.  We are like a team.  And if we are going to be a good team, then we have to spend some time together, getting to know each other so that we can work together.

  So we have the season of Lent as a season of training and preparation to become better Christian.  Sometimes practice is hard work and sometimes it is not fun.  Most baseball players would rather play games than practice.  But if we want to do well in the game, we must practice.  So, too, if we want to be better Christians, and a better parish team, we need to practice.  In the season of Lent, we work on practicing our Christian faith.   Are you ready for practice?  I hope you and your family can find some things to practice during the season of Lent.  Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

February 18, 2018: First Sunday In Lent

Gathering Songs: Yield Not to Temptation, Change My Heart, O God, Eat This Bread, Peace Before Us

Liturgist: Blessed the Lord who forgives all our sins.

People: God’s mercy endures forever.  Amen.

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

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

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

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Opening Song: Yield Not to Temptation (LEVAS # 170)

Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin, each victory will help you some other to win.  Fight pressing onward, dark passion subdue.  Look ever to Jesus, he will carry you through. 

Refrain: Ask the Savior to help you. Comfort, strengthen and keep you.  He is will to aid you.  He will carry you through.

Shun evil companions, bad companions disdain.  God’s name hold in reverence, nor take it in vain.  Be thoughtful and earnest, kind-hearted and true.  Look ever to Jesus, he will carry you through.  Refrain

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Litany phrase: Praise the Lord (chanted)

O God, you are Great!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have made us! Praise the Lord

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Praise the Lord

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

A Reading from the Book of Genesis

God said to Noah and to his sons with him, "As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." God said, "This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth."

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 25

Show me your ways, O LORD, *and teach me your paths.

Lead me in your truth and teach me, * for you are the God of my salvation;

in you have I trusted all the day long.

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.

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father Phil

Children’s Creed

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

Since God is so great and we are so small,

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

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

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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

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

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

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

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

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy (chanted)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

People:            And also with you.

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

Offertory Anthem: Change My Heart O God,   (Renew! # 143, gray paperback hymnal)

Change my heart, O God.  Make it every true.  Change my heart, O God, may I be like you.  You are the Potter, I am the clay; Mold me and make me, this is what I pray.  Change my heart, O God, make it ever true; change my heart, O God, may it be like you.

(Repeat)

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 neighbors as our self.

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 by 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:       Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.   

Words of Administration.

Communion  Song: Eat This Bread, (Renew! # 228)  

    Eat this bread, drink this cup, come to me and never be hungry.  Eat this bread, drink this cup.

    Trust   in me and you will not thirst.

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: Peace Before, (Wonder, Love and Praise # 791) 

Peace before us, peace behind us, peace under our feet.  Peace within us, peace over us, let all around us be peace.

Love before us…

Light before us..

Christ before…

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Conducting the Inner Voices

1 Lent B      February 22, 2015

Gen. 9:8-17           Ps.    25:1-9   

1 Peter 3:18-22         Mark 1:9-13

Lectionary Link

   You have gotten used to me when I preach being the "father of all digressions," and you often are thinking before your sermon nap, "surely he digresses." I digress  usually as way of building a temporary context within which we might find current and relevant insights from the biblical writings which in their face value presentations are often distant and inaccessible to our modern patterns of life and thought.  The modern Enlighten and Modern science has taught us to divide up all knowledge and life experience into disciplines, "ologies", and many other compartments.  Religious faith and Sunday Church stuff has unwittingly been relegated to the equivalence of a most important sub-category of art and entertainment.   And so when we do our religious faith, we detach from our scientific mind and enter a Disneyesque sort of kingdom of Magical Realism.  The stuff of the Bible does not comport with our scientific lives and our commonsensical lives which we live outside of the Disneyesque Magic Realism of the Sunday Eucharist.  And so here we are again in the magic kingdom on this First Sunday in the Magical season of Lent.

  In my digression, I would want to set up the possibilities of coming to some insights about the forty days of the Temptation of Jesus by Satan in the wilderness.  The Gospel account of the temptation of Jesus is the one of the inspirations for how the season of Lent has come to be understood and practiced.

  Could I get us all to agree that we are limited to having just human experiences?  So by necessity we are anthropocentric, that is we can only understand and see things from a human centered way.  Even if we think we have special empathy with animals or with God, we still have but varieties of human empathy.  Could I also get us to agree that what defines humanity in Western culture is what we call personhood?  So here is a new word, personocentric.  We most often treat everything in personal terms.  Since we regard God to be greater than humanity, we assume God is also superlative personhood.  To deny God's personhood would be to say that God is less than what we regard to be a the most important aspect of humanity.

  We as personocentric human beings, assume God is also a person in the superlative sense.  But there something else about human behavior.  We use a figure of speech called synecdoche when we let something partial stand in as representing a whole.  A person makes little people out of all of the parts of his or her being.  I say my "toe hurts" as though my toe were a little independent person within myself.  Or my heart aches or my heart feels sad.  We say that our body talks and in our speech we give personal identity to interior parts like soul, spirit, mind,ego, superego, id, heart and gut.  We as personocentric beings cannot help but bestow personhood on all sorts of fragments of ourselves.

  We cannot help but confer personhood on almost everything and we also have inherited the tradition of personalizing the shadow and counter being of God, also known as Satan, the serpent, Beelzebul, Lucifer and the Devil.  If God is Holy Personhood, God's deprived counter-part is the personalize force who has come to be known as the devil and he has his fallen angels and demonic personal messengers.

 The spiritual and faith tradition in which we live teaches us that we are involved in this great cosmic battle between the Holy and Special Personhood of God and the deprived personhood of the divine counter-part, the devil.

  To live is to be in this cosmic epic adventure.  How do we martial our internal forces when our minds and our interior lives become the proverbial "devil’s playground?"  We have in literature the figure Faust and Mephistopheles who are figures who became "evil" geniuses because they supposedly sold their souls to the devil for the kind of public recognition which they wanted.

  The temptation of Jesus presents to us Jesus as the hero of the interior life who re-enters the Garden of Eden long after human eviction and it has become the wild and dangerous wilderness.  The serpent is presented under the guise the devil, the accuser and like a crooked prosecuting attorney.

  The devil and accuser attains personal identity in the same way all of our interior energies and forces do and the devil like a ventriloquist is borrowing of  the voices of the worst tormentors in the memories of our lives.  Everyone who suggested that we could not do something or that we were not valued, not good enough, not beautiful enough or didn't have the perfect body is able to come to be the devil's interior accusing voice.   The personal voices of our inward accusers can be many to which we are particularly vulnerable in times of crises.  The devil as an interior voice is the voice of the trickster appears to Jesus as the once  serpent in the Garden of Eden.  The trickster's voice within us tries to throw off our timing; tries to get us to do good things at the wrong time and for the wrong number of times even to make us addicts.  The voices are tailored to our own history and so we are vulnerable.  The voices invite us to misuse religion and even misinterpret the Bible.  The satanic voice told Jesus that he could jump from a high place because the Psalmist wrote some poetry about angels catching someone in a fall.  The voices tried to get Jesus to replace his interpretation of gravity with a poetic safety net of angels.  The voices told Jesus to sell his brilliant soul and his talents and gifts to become the ruler of the world.  We have megalomaniac voices which falsely inflate our egos.  We can have paranoid voices and all sorts of voices within us.  We have voices that tempt us to worry obsessively about what someone else might be thinking about us.

  The story of Jesus meeting the great accuser is a story about there being a hero of the soul who is the model for us to become heroes when we take up the task of mediating our interior lives into thinking, emotions, choices, speaking and actions in our lives.  To grow mature in our lives is to learn to be the conductor of the orchestra of voices within us, some of which can at times seem to push us to things that are not good or healthy for us.  Jesus spoke words of rebuke to the voice of the devil who confronted him.  Jesus asserted himself as the author and playwright of the voices within his life.  He silenced the voices of the accuser with the authority of a conductor cutting off a cacophonous section of the orchestra.

  It is good for us to know that there is a hero of the interior; someone who has faced the inner voices, those fragments of personalities.  Jesus  brought them into rebuke and order, and who can now be known in us as the Higher Power of the Risen Christ to do the same.

  The Risen Christ in our lives stands as the invitation for us to come to this same soundness of mind.  I am not suggesting that we are called to be such solitary heroes as Jesus seemed to be.  I would suggest that young people or people in times of crisis seek out those who help them to rebuke the accusing and destructive voices of the interior and let the angelic voices of positive affirmation come to prominence.  This is why counseling and spiritual direction is a good personal habit.  Inner voices can be seductive and misleading and this why one should seek help from a seasoned friend of souls to help one advance in the goal of becoming the free conductor and author of one's own life.

  It is now Lent.  It is a time to become better conductors of the all of the voices of the fragments of personalities which arise within our interior world.  I present to you, Jesus Christ, as the one who was honest about the great shadows voices which arise from within, but as one who attained a self-understanding and an understanding of God as his Father. Jesus as God's beloved Son exercised the authority to conduct his own interior life.

  My prayer for each of us is that we would seek the authority of Christ in the conducting of all of the elements of our interior lives so that we may during this season of Lent make further progress in the art of living.  As we become skillful conductors of all of the personified inner voices of our lives, we can know hope and joy, and also give that hope and joy to others.  We are called to be successful resisters of temptations of the satanic voices just like Jesus, and in learning to do so, we are to help others do the same.  Amen.

Sunday School, February 22, 2015 First Sunday in Lent

Sunday School for February 22, 2015   First Sunday in Lent

Themes:

The beginning of Lent.

Present the Church calendar as a curriculum strategy of the church to divide up Christian knowledge and practice into units and each  Church season has a little bit different emphases.

Talk about the various emphases of the season of Lent.

Use the analogy of training camps or pre-season training as a special time of disciple to get ready for the official season.

Lent is about penance and repentance.

  Repentance is education, it is the renewing of our minds so that we might behave and perform better.

Lent sometimes means changing habits so that we can devote our time and our resources somewhere else.  We may want to stop eating fast food during Lent and use the money for the food bank.  We don't give up things just to give things up; we give up things because we are taking up better things which will benefit our community and world.

We may want to take on a re-cycling project during Lent or do something good for the environment.

The Scripture lessons:

The meaning of the number 40 in the Bible

The number 40 is a symbol of the time of test and trials in the Bible

The rain of the great flood lasted 40 days and nights, the people of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years before entering the Promised Land.  Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days.  The church has adopted forty days, excluding Sundays, as the season of Lent before Easter.  It is a time for us to "put ourselves to our own tests of special discipline" so that we might live better lives.

The biblical meaning of the rainbow

Noah received it as a promise from God that God is not involved in the destruction of the world.

After the flood, the rainbow was a sign from God that people no longer needed to believe that God used acts of nature like storms, floods and earthquake as a way of punishing or destroying people.

The rainbow is an important sign to remember when great disaster occur.

The Gospel:  The temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.

 Some times Native American braves would go on a Vision Quest.  They would fast and spend time alone and they would expect to receive a special vision which would lead them into the next phase of their lives.

After the baptism of Jesus, he went on his own vision quest.  He spent time alone for 40 days and he did not eat food.  We are told that he had an encounter with the great accuser Satan who tried to get him to do things that God his Father did not want.  Jesus resisted the accuser and he became a hero.  He went on to complete the vision of what God the Father gave him to do with his life.

Puppet Show

Noah 

Seth

Seth: Dad come look outside.  I see a UFO in the sky?

Noah: A UFO?  What do you mean?

Seth:  There is this beautiful round arch in the sky.  And it is make up of many colors.  Why is it there?

Noah:  Well, Seth, we just finished the great flood.  And God told me that he  was going to give me a sign that God does not punish men and women with natural disasters.  God let me know that some things just happen because there is freedom for lots of things to happen in this world.

Seth: So the rainbow is a gift of God and a promise from God.

Noah:  Yes, it is.  It is a promise of God's love to us.

Seth: I'm glad that all of the colors are together in the rainbow.  They look so pretty when they are all together.

Noah:  You can play a game and make a prayer for each color.

Seth:  Red, thank you God for the beautiful red birds, the Cardinals.  I love to see red birds.

Noah: Orange, thank you God for the fruits called oranges.  They are sweet to eat and they make good juice and they give us healthy vitamin C.

Seth: Yellow:  Thank you God for the big yellow sun in the Sky.  It provides us with light and warmth.

Noah: Green.  Thank you God for all of the green plants and trees.  We eat green vegetables for our health and green makes us feel so fresh.

Seth: Blue.  Thank you God for the blue sky and the blue ocean waters.  We love the great blue sky.

Noah: Indigo.  Thank for this lovely royal color.  We use it for both the color of our clothes and we use it to remind us about our need for repentance.

Seth: Violet.  Thank you for the beautiful flowers of violet.  They make our homes very bright, happy and colorful places.

Noah: Amen.  We thank God for the rainbow and the rainbow has given us the opportunity to thank God for all of the wonderful colors in our world.

Liturgy

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

February 22, 2015: First Sunday In Lent

Gathering Songs: Yield Not to Temptation, Change My Heart, O God, Eat This Bread, Peace Before Us

Opening Song: Yield Not to Temptation (LEVAS # 170)

Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin, each victory will help you some other to win.  Fight pressing onward, dark passion subdue.  Look ever to Jesus, he will carry you through. 

Refrain: Ask the Savior to help you. Comfort, strengthen and keep you.  He is will to aid you.  He will carry you through.

Shun evil companions, bad companions disdain.  God’s name hold in reverence, nor take it in vain.  Be thoughtful and earnest, kind-hearted and true.  Look ever to Jesus, he will carry you through.  Refrain

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

People: And blessed be God’s Kingdom now and forever.  Amen.

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

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

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

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Litany phrase: Praise the Lord (chanted)

O God, you are Great!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have made us! Praise the Lord

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Praise the Lord

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

A Reading from the Book of Genesis

God said to Noah and to his sons with him, "As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." God said, "This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth."

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 25

Show me your ways, O LORD, *and teach me your paths.

Lead me in your truth and teach me, * for you are the God of my salvation;

in you have I trusted all the day long.

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.

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father Phil

Children’s Creed

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

Since God is so great and we are so small,

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

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

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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

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

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

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

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

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy (chanted)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

People:            And also with you.

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

Offertory Anthem: Change My Heart O God,   (Renew! # 143, gray paperback hymnal)

Change my heart, O God.  Make it every true.  Change my heart, O God, may I be like you.  You are the Potter, I am the clay; Mold me and make me, this is what I pray.  Change my heart, O God, make it ever true; change my heart, O God, may it be like you.

(Repeat)

Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist.

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of heaven.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of our birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

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

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might.  Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

(Children may gather around the altar)

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

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

You have made us in your image

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

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

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

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

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

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

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

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.  And sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbors as our self.

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 by 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 Anthem: Make a Joyful Noise,  by Kevin McChesney

                           Divine Jubilation 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: Peace Before, (Wonder, Love and Praise # 791) 

Peace before us, peace behind us, peace under our feet.  Peace within us, peace over us, let all around us be peace.

Love before us…

Light before us..

Christ before…

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God!