Loving Father and Birth Order Dynamics?

4 Lent             March 6, 2016     

Joshua 5:9-12          Ps.32           

2 Cor. 5:17-21     Luke 15:11-32     

Lectionary Link

 

Birth order theory is based upon the parenting habits influencing how a child is socially constructed based upon the child's order of birth in family.

  And as we know first time parents invent parenting because no one can be good enough for our first and most precious one.  And because of such measured scrutiny, the first born becomes a natural informer who perpetually tells on the rest of the children.

  And what do older children often tell mom and dad: "You let the younger children get away with murder.  You never let us do what you let them do."

  One might apply birth order theory to the parable of the prodigal son.  The story might be called the parable of the slighted older brother.  "Your mercy towards my little brother really dishonors me and my loyalty and my playing by the rules.  How can you do this?  It is not fair."

  We might try to understand the function of the parable of the prodigal son in the early church.  The Gospel writers believed that members of the main religious parties within Judaism were dismissive of Jesus and the Jesus Movement.  The criticism of Jesus is that he welcomed tax collectors and sinners. 

  By the time the Gospel of Luke was written, what was the make up of the Christian Church?  The churches had essentially become Gentile churches.  The tax collectors and the sinners had become celebrated members of the Christian communities.  And these communities had become separated from synagogues which consisted mainly of members of Pharisee Judaism.  Pharisees and Sadducees were less likely to become followers of Christ than were members of the community of John the Baptist.

  So the competition between church and synagogue and the separation of the church and synagogue was shown by the Gospel writer to be foreshadowed in the life and the teachings of Jesus.

  The parable of the Prodigal Son has three main characters, the Merciful Father, the younger rebellious son and the older stay-at-home brother.

  At the heart of this story is the question who does God belong to?  And who does God love?

  The Father symbolizes God who is the parent of everyone.  But it a fact of the history of humanity that many people have lived without benefit of the laws Moses.  They have  lived as people who have taken their original inheritance and lost connection with God as the original owner and parent of the world.  They have lived on the largesse of God but they lived their lives as though the appearance of "possession is nine tenth of the law."  Without guidance and connection with God, they have wasted their lives.

  The Jews are a people with an ancient written tradition.  They know who they are.  They have the ancient Hebrew Scriptures which gave them a self-understanding as being God's chosen and favorite people.  They were God's first born and as such had special inheritance rights.

  St. Paul came to understand that God belonged to everyone.  He came to understand that the main witness of Jesus Christ was to reconcile all people, not just the Jews to God.  And the main Christian ministry was to be ambassadors of Christ in proclaiming this reconciliation of God and humanity.

  This parable was used by the church to reveal the main difference between the synagogue and the church.  The synagogue was committed to maintain the religious and ritual purity identity of Jews; the church existed to take the message of the love of God in Christ to all people.  Those persons long regarded to be tax collectors and sinners, Gentiles and some Jews without religious status,  and who were regarded to be far from God's love and grace as expressed by ritual conformity, came to be celebrated as the long lost members of God's family who had come to be reconciled to God their original parent.

  One can see in this parable the seeds for what has become a historical reality.  The Christian mission was to the entire world and the Jewish mission has been to a smaller number of people, to those who could commit to the requirements of their ritual purity.

  One of the functions of the New Testament writing was to show how Christianity became significantly different from Judaism while at the same time borrowing and adapting freely from the Judaic tradition.

  Christians borrowed the universal aspects of Judaism found in the prophets which proclaimed that God's house was a house for all people.  Christians borrowed the tradition of the messiah from Judaism, but not the tradition which regarded the messiah to be a Davidic king who would immediately restore the nation of Israel; the Christian interpretation of the messiah was the suffering servant messiah who died for the sins of the entire world, the world of those who inhabited the Roman Empire.  For Christians, Jesus was the messiah of the world and not just of nation of Israel.  Christianity became a universalization of various strains within Judaism.  The early Christians believed that John the Baptist and Jesus were prophets who came to bring about a world mission to bring about the opportunity of reconciliation between all humanity and God.

  As Gentiles, you and I can be thankful that we have been included in this mission of reconciliation began by Christ.  But you and I can be different than the early Christians.  The early Christians were so dominated by their separation from Judaism that they often presented  the various parties of  Jews in an unfavorable light.  We no longer as Christian need to define ourselves by contrasting ourselves with Jews.  And we can also come to new applications of the parable of the prodigal son.

  Each of us at times have been those who have been like the prodigal son.  We have been those who have used our freedom to squander the divine gifts.  Sometimes we have had to learn that we will not change our losing patterns of life until we come to end of ourselves.  For people who have been successful at recovery from addiction, they confess that they had to come to the end of themselves in reaching the place where their habits ruined their lives and their relationships.  Sometimes we will only change when we hit the bottom.  And when we hit the bottom, we need to know the Higher Power of God's mercy.  God's mercy is expressed as a loving regard for who we were made to be.  God's mercy is expressed as a welcoming grace to give us another opportunity to repent and change our lives to be better.  We also know that all of us can relate to the older brother and his strict sense of justice.  Sometimes in our areas of strength we can be very unforgiving of people who fail in our areas of strength.  We can be hypocrites, in that we often want forgiveness and mercy in our weakness while not offering that same mercy to others.   We sometimes can use our own resume of good deeds as a justification for not being merciful.  "I have played by the rules so I deserve more credit and celebration than those who have just decided to start playing by the rules again."  What we don't realize is that playing by the rules is its own reward.  We don't play by the rules to get a reward; the reward is that we already have the grace to be able to do the right things.  And we should rejoice whenever anyone discovers this wonderful grace of the reward of being able to do what is right and pleasing in God's eyes and for our own benefit and the good of the community.

  So the parable of the prodigal son had a function of explaining the dynamic separation of the church from the synagogue but the parable of prodigal son also has current meanings for us today as we find projected upon the characters aspects of our behavioral tendencies.

  When we have gotten to the very bottom, let us remember God as the original parent is loving, kind and merciful. This God invit Birth order theory is based upon the parenting habits influencing how a child is socially constructed based upon the child's order of birth in family.

  And as we know first time parents invent parenting because no one can be good enough for our first and most precious one.  And because of such measured scrutiny, the first born becomes a natural informer who perpetually tells on the rest of the children.

  And what do older children often tell mom and dad: "You let the younger children get away with murder.  You never let us do what you let them do."

  One might apply birth order theory to the parable of the prodigal son.  The story might be called the parable of the slighted older brother.  "Your mercy towards my little brother really dishonors me and my loyalty and my playing by the rules.  How can you do this?  It is not fair."

  We might try to understand the function of the parable of the prodigal son in the early church.  The Gospel writers believed that members of the main religious parties within Judaism were dismissive of Jesus and the Jesus Movement.  The criticism of Jesus is that he welcomed tax collectors and sinners.  Any one who did not live a ritually pure life was regarded to be a sinner or "unclean."

  By the time the Gospel of Luke was written, what was the make up of the Christian Church?  The churches had essentially become Gentile churches.  The tax collectors and the sinners had become celebrated and welcome members of the Christian communities.  And these communities had become separated from synagogues which consisted mainly of members of Pharisee Judaism.  Pharisees and Sadducees were less likely to become followers of Christ than were members of the community of John the Baptist.

  So the competition between church and synagogue and the separation of the church and synagogue was shown by the Gospel writers to be foreshadowed in the life and the teachings of Jesus.

  The parable of the Prodigal Son has three main characters, the Merciful Father, the younger rebellious son and the older stay-at-home brother.

  At the heart of this story is the question who does God belong to?  And who does God love?

  The Father symbolizes God who is the parent of everyone.  But it is a fact of the history of humanity that many people have lived without benefit of the laws Moses.  In the biblical narrative they have  lived as people who have taken their original inheritance and lost connection with God as the original owner and parent of the world.  They have lived on the largesse of God but they lived their lives as though the appearance of "possession is nine tenth of the law."  Without guidance and connection with God, they have wasted their lives.

  The Jews have been a people with an ancient written tradition.  They know who they are.  They have the ancient Hebrew Scriptures which gave them a self-understanding as being God's chosen and favorite people.  They were God's first born and as such had special inheritance rights in the biblical narrative.

  St. Paul came to understand that God belonged to everyone.  He came to understand that the main witness of Jesus Christ was to reconcile all people, not just the Jews, to God.  St. Paul believed that  the main Christian ministry was to be ambassadors of Christ in proclaiming this reconciliation of God and humanity.

  This parable was used by the church to reveal the main difference between the synagogue and the church.  The synagogue was committed to maintain the religious and ritual purity identity of Jews; the church existed to take the message of the love of God in Christ to all people.  All people meant that those long regarded to be tax collectors and sinners, Gentiles and some Jews without religious status. People were regarded to be far from God's love and grace because they did not express ritual conformity to Judaism, came to be celebrated as the long lost members of God's family who had come to be reconciled to God their original parent.

  One can see in this parable the seeds for what has become a historical reality.  The Christian mission was to the entire world and the Jewish mission has been to a smaller number of people, to those who could commit to the requirements of their ritual purity.

  One of the functions of the New Testament writingw was to show how Christianity became significantly different from Judaism while at the same time borrowing and adapting freely from the Judaic tradition.

  Christians borrowed the universal aspects of Judaism found in the prophets which proclaimed that God's house was a house of prayer for all people.  Christians borrowed the tradition of the messiah from Judaism, but not the tradition which regarded the messiah to be a Davidic king who would immediately restore the independence of the  nation of Israel; the Christian interpretation of the messiah was the suffering servant messiah who died for the sins of the entire world, the world of all people who inhabited the Roman Empire.  For Christians, Jesus was the messiah of the world and not just messiah of the of nation of Israel.  Christianity became a universalization of various strains within Judaism.  The early Christians believed that John the Baptist and Jesus were prophets who came to bring about a world mission to bring about the opportunity of reconciliation between all humanity and God.

  As Gentiles, you and I can be thankful that we have been included in this mission of reconciliation began by Christ.  But you and I can be different than the early Christians.  The early Christians were so dominated by their separation from Judaism that they often presented  the various parties of  Jews in an unfavorable light.  We no longer as Christians need to define ourselves by contrasting ourselves with Jews.  And we can also come to new applications of the parable of the prodigal son.

  Each of us at times have been those who have been like the prodigal son.  We have been those who have used our freedom to squander the divine gifts.  Sometimes we have had to learn that we will not change our losing patterns of life until we come to end of ourselves.  For people who have been successful at recovery from addiction, they confess that they had to come to the end of themselves in reaching the place where their habits ruined their lives and their relationships.  Sometimes we will only change when we hit the bottom.  And when we hit the bottom, we need to know the Higher Power of God's mercy.  God's mercy is expressed as a loving regard for us to achieve what we were made to be.  God's mercy is expressed as a welcoming grace to give us another opportunity to repent and change our lives to be better. 

  We also know that all of us can relate to the older brother and his strict sense of justice.  Sometimes in our areas of strength we can be very unforgiving of people who fail in our areas of strength.  We can be hypocrites, in that we often want forgiveness and mercy in our weaknesses while not offering that same mercy to others.   We sometimes can use our own resume of good deeds as a justification for not being merciful.  "I have played by the rules so I deserve more credit and celebration than those who have just decided to start playing by the rules again."  What we don't realize is that playing by the rules is its own reward.  We don't play by the rules to get a reward; the reward is that we already have the grace to be able to do the right things.  And we should rejoice whenever anyone discovers this wonderful grace of the reward of being able to do what is right and pleasing in God's eyes and for our own benefit and the good of the community.

  So the parable of the prodigal son had a function of explaining the dynamic separation of the church from the synagogue but the parable of prodigal son also has current meanings for us today as we find projected upon the characters aspects of our behavioral tendencies.

  When we have gotten to the very bottom, let us remember God as the original parent is loving, kind and merciful. This God invites us to repentance and God's mercy is the higher power of loving regard to change our lives.  This parable can also remind us that we can be unforgiving from our areas of strength, just like the older brother in the parable.  But finally, let us know that God is merciful and forgiving and the forgiveness and mercy was expressed in the life of Jesus Christ.

   We now are ambassadors for the reality of expressed in the parable of the prodigal son.  We are ambassadors for the proclamation the reconciliation of the world to God through Jesus Christ.  We are called to be ambassadors for a loving, merciful and forgiving God. Amen.es us to repentance and God's mercy is the higher power of loving regard to change our lives.  This parable can also remind us that we can be unforgiving from our areas of strength, just like the older brother in the parable.  But finally, let us know that God is merciful and forgiving and the forgiveness and mercy was expressed in the life of Jesus Christ.

   We now are ambassadors for the reality of expressed in the parable of the prodigal son.  We are ambassadors for the proclamation the reconciliation of the world to God through Jesus Christ.  We are called to be ambassadors for a loving, merciful and forgiving God. Amen.

 

 

Sunday School, March 6, 2016 4 Lent C

Sunday School, March 6, 2016     4 Lent C

Themes

St. Paul wrote about our lives becoming a new creation.  We need God’s help in re-creating our lives in better ways?  Why?  Because some things are very difficult.

One of the most difficult things in life is forgiveness.

Forgiveness is interesting.  We know that we are not perfect and so we want people to give us second and third chances when we make mistakes.  But sometimes it is hard for us to give other people second and third chances.  Some times it is very difficult to forgive people who do bad things, and especially when they do them to us.

Jesus told a parable to show us that it is very hard to forgive.   It is a story about unfairness which happened in a family.  It is about a brother who found it very difficult to forgive his younger brother.  Sometimes older brothers and sister think that the youngest children in the family have it the easiest because it seems to them that mom and dad have easier rules for the youngest children in the family.

Jesus told a story about a very sad father.  The father was sad because his youngest son wanted to leave him and he wanted to take with him all of the money that he would get from his father after his father would die.  The young son took all of the money and moved away and wasted it and became very poor.  And he was so poor that he just wished he could work as a slave on his father’s farm.  So he went home.  And his father did not let him work as a slave.  He was happy that he returned and gave him a party.

The older brother who never left home and always obeyed his father was angry and said it was not fair.  Why did his dad give a party for the son who had behaved so badly?

And that is riddle of the story.  It is really hard and unfair to forgive people who have broken the law and done some really bad things.  But the miracle of God is to have mercy and forgiveness and to keep giving people more chances when they learn from their mistakes and want to improve their lives.

God has mercy on all of us when we aren’t perfect and yet when we realize our mistakes and want to improve our lives.  Sometimes when a person is bad in something where we are good, it is hard to forgive them.  We have to remember that sometimes we are bad in things where other people are good and we need them to forgive us.

The lesson we learn is that forgiveness is sometimes easier to accept than to offer.  And because forgiveness is hard, that is where we need to accept the forgiveness which is the gift of God as a loving parent.

Let us pray to God to ask God to give us the gift of forgiveness even as we freely accept the forgiveness from God and from the people who love us even when we are not perfect.

A Sermon about when being good can turn into being bad

Today we have read a story of Jesus about a family: A father, a younger son and his older brother.  The stories of Jesus are called parables.  A parable is a story that has an important message for us to learn.

  And this parable has a riddle in it.  And the riddle in this:  When can being good, turn into being bad?

  One day the young son said to his father, “Dad, I am leaving.  I’m tired of living here.  I want all of the money that you will give me after you die so I can leave and live elsewhere.”  Dad was very sad to hear this, but he gave his young son lots of money and his son left.

  Well, the young son went far away from home and he did not use his money very well.  He partied, he spent it foolishly on his friends.  He gambled and he lost all of his money.  He ran out of all of his money; he didn’t have any money to buy food.  So, he had to take a job taking care of pigs.  He watched the pigs eat; and he thought:  I’m so hungry, even the pig’s food looks good.  Even the lowest paid workers on my father’s farm earn more than I do and have more food than I have.  May be if I go back to my father, he will let me work on his farm and get enough to eat.  So he went back home.  And when his father saw him coming, he decided to throw a big party for him and welcome him back.  The young son said, “Dad, I made a mistake and I lost all my money; just let me work as one of your servants.”  But his father was so happy to see him; he treated him just like his son.

  Well, the older brother was not happy about it.  He told his Dad, “I stayed with you and I have worked hard.  And you have not thrown me a party.  And how can you let my little brother back into the family after he did such a terrible thing?”  So the good brother became angry and resentful because his father welcomed and forgave his brother.  So his goodness turned to badness because he was angry at his father for forgiving his brother.

  And so here is the lesson of the parable.  God forgives anyone who tries to make their life better.  Whether we have done wrong or whether we have been good.  We can always get better.  And we are not perfect, so we always need forgiveness and we always need to get better.

  And when and where we are good; we should not get angry when someone who has done something bad is willing to say that they are sorry and willing to change their lives.

  We should remember that God is like the father in the story.  God is the one who forgives everyone who wants to be forgiven.  That is why we confess our sins, the things that we have done wrong and we make a promise to work to get better.  And we learn that God forgives us; so we should not be angry if God forgives other people too.

  Let us learn today to accept God’s forgiveness.  And let us learn to forgive each other too.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

March 6, 2016: The Fourth Sunday in Lent

Gathering Songs: This Little Light of Mine, Awesome God, Dona Nobis, He’s Got the Whole World

Song: This Little Light of Mine (Christian Children’s Songbook,  # 234)

This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.  This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Hide it under a bushel, No!  I’m going to let it shine.  Hide it under a bushel, No!  I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Don’t let anyone blow it out.  I’m going to let it shine.  Don’t let anyone blow it out.  I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Shine all over my neighborhood, I’m going to let it shine.  Shine all over my neighborhood, I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Liturgist: Bless the Lord who forgives all of 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.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Litany of Praise: Chant: Praise be to God!

O God, you are Great!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have made us! Praise be to God!

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

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Praise be to God!

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

Liturgist: A reading from the Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians

If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 32

You are my hiding-place; you preserve me from trouble; * you surround me with shouts of deliverance.

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go; * I will guide you with my eye.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

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 Luke

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus told them this parable:  "There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands."' So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly, bring out a robe--the best one--and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate. "Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.' Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, 'Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!' Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'

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 Hymn: Awesome God (Renew!, # 245)

Our God is an awesome God, he reigns from heaven above, with wisdom, power and love our God is an awesome God.  (sing three times)

Doxology

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

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

Prologue to the Eucharist

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

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

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

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

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

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

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

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

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

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

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

All may gather around the altar

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

You have made us in your image

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

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

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

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

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

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

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. Sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbor.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.

Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ.  May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory

 is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. AMEN.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,

(Children rejoin their parents and take up their instruments)

Our Father: (Renew # 180, West Indian Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father who art in heaven:  Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.

Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

And forgive us all our debts: Hallowed be thy name.

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory: Hallowed be thy name.

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: 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: Dona Nobis Pacem,  (Renew!  # 240)

Dona nobis pacem, pacem, dona nobis pacem.  Dona nobis pacem, dona nobis pacem.  Dona nobis pacem, dona nobis pacem.

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: He’s Got the Whole World (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 90)

He’s got the whole world in his hands.  He’s got the whole wide world in his hands.  He’s got the whole world in his hands.  He’s got the whole world in his hands.

He’s got the little tiny baby in his hands.  He’s got the little tiny baby in his hands.  He’s got the little tiny baby in his hands.  He’s got the whole world in his hands.

He’s got the boys and the girls in his hands.  He’s got the boys and the girls in his hands.  He’s got the boys and the girls in his hands.  He’s got the whole world in his hands.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

C

Jesus, the Peripatetic Wisdom Teacher in the Stoa

4 Easter   C       April 21, 2013           

Acts 9:36-43 Ps.23

Rev 7:9-17  John 10:22-30

  Being among good Christian folks such as yourselves and as people who are well-informed about your faith, I would like to pose some questions seeking short answers of the one word variety, yes or no.   Is Jesus the Good Shepherd?  Yes?  Is Jesus the Lamb of God?  Yes?  Well, now you have me really confused?  Can Jesus be both Shepherd and Lamb?  Is that acknowledging contradictory metaphors?

  It is indeed and it is no problem for language users.  We do amazing things with language.  Such contradictions only show the limits of any metaphor but it shows how versatile we are as metaphor makers and users as we continuously look to receive and create new metaphorical insight about our faith in the art of living.

  We use language to transform geography.  We use language to relocate cities.  By the time the Gospel of John was coming to significant textual form, the city of Jerusalem had been destroyed.  Members of the various religious parties of Judaism had to flee Jerusalem.  Some Jews went to Jamnia and they began a program to purify Judaism of all Hellenistic influences.  Other members who were following the teaching of Rabbi Jesus were forced out of Jerusalem and other parts of Israel as well. 

  Some scholars believe that the chief writing agents of the Gospel of John ended up in Ephesus.  Ephesus was an ancient city that was the largest city in the Roman Asia province.

  How does language recreate geography?  Some say that followers of Jesus in Ephesus referred to that city as a New Jerusalem.  In the migration of people resettling in a new location, we are well aware of people bring the location names of their native countries to their new place of residence.  People love their homelands; even though economic conditions and hostilities drive them from their lands they have enough nostalgia for the homeland to try to remake it in the new place.

   Ephesus as Jerusalem is quite a stretch though.  Unlike the Jewish purists who tried to restore their religion to a purity without Hellenistic influence; the followers of Jesus in Ephesus as we know them from the writing of the Gospel of John did exactly the opposite of the Jewish purists.  They sought to find a way for cultural aspects of the Greco-Roman world to be baptized and used in the presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  One of the ways to resist the world was to take methods of the world and baptize them for the presentation of the Gospel.  This was an engaging method of evangelism and it has accounted for the greater success of the various forms of the Christian faith in comparison to the worldwide success of the spread of the Jewish faith.

  We find in the appointed Gospel lesson a scenario that mixes a cultural presentation with a seeming historical event.  It would seem as though Jesus is walking in the portico of Solomon at the Temple in Jerusalem and he is in dialogue with Jewish interlocutors.

  Does anyone find it strange that Jesus is presented as being questioned by the Jews?  In his own time, it really would be just one Jew, Jesus talking with other Jews.  But how does it happen in the Gospel of John that Jesus is talking now to “Jews?”  Suddenly the Jews were presented as foreign enemies of Jesus.  This presentation should tell us how Gentile the Christian movement had become even while there were some Jewish patriarchs of the Jesus movement who were trying to translate the Judaic context in ways so that it could be grasped by the larger number of Gentile persons who were following Jesus.

  There are specific presentation elements that would give us an indication of a marriage between Athens and Jerusalem.  John is written in the koine or common Greek that was left over from the conquering of the world by Alexander the Great.  Alexander tried to bring the Greek polis to the entire world.  Local residents would speak their own native language but would learn a common Greek for politics and commerce.  This low Greek, lingua franca became the language of choice for writing the New Testament.

  The Greek world for portico is Stoa.  Stoa or porch was the place where the founder of the Stoic philosophy began to do his public teaching.  Jesus was walking and discussing in the stoa, a colonnade walkway that ran the length of one side of the Temple complex.  The Greek philosophical school of note occurred in the colonnade walk ways called “parapatoi.”  The philosophers eventually were called the Peripatetic school or those who taught by walking about.  This is the very Greek word used for what Jesus was doing in the portico of Solomon; he was walking and in dialogue. (περιπατέω peripateō )  This image would have recognizable symbolic meaning for the Gentiles of Ephesus.

  The Peripatetic School was the classical graduate school of Greek philosophy.  A student or disciple would gather around a known teacher or philosopher who held court on the porch as he walked and taught.  And one can see the conscious blending of teacher from the Greek wisdom perspective with the Hebraic notion of the shepherd.  David was the quintessential shepherd but in the Gospel of John, Shepherd and Sheep is presented as this intimate relationship between master and devotee, teacher and student.  And this notion would find a hearing in the Gentile Greco-Roman world that had this long tradition of graduate school for advanced learners.

  In the Gospel of John, Jesus was presented as the wisdom teacher par excellence.  None of the other Gospels has the long teaching discourses like the Gospel of John does.  The Gospel of John presents to the readers an occasion to identify with the disciples as they progressively learn to follow their teacher and come to understand the inner wisdom of his teaching.  The Gospel of John is founded upon a blend between the Hebraic and Greek wisdom traditions.  The chokmath or Sophia of the book of Proverbs is seen as the eternal word or logos in the Gospel of John.  In the beginning was the Logos, the Word.  There are few words that are more directly from the Greek wisdom perspective than the word logos.  And John’s Gospel is built around the Logos.

  Logos is so pervasive and so versatile it allows the full play of metaphors for evocative purposes; purposes of evoking insights to influence and change our life and help us live better.  So indeed, Jesus can be a wisdom Shepherd of God but also a Lamb whose life expresses the essence of sacrifice, of laying down his life for others as a way of celebrating a relationship with God.

  John the Divine in his vision of the end sees irony; the Lamb in the center will also be the Shepherd.  Being a shepherd comes through sacrifice.   Sacrifice or laying down of our lives for each other is what rises to the top of all value.  Sacrifice or giving of one’s life is what makes the Shepherd worthy of the sheep.  A teacher who shares all is what makes a teacher worthy of the student.

  If Jesus was the Good Shepherd who had sheep who knew and heard his voice; it is also true to say that his sheep went on to be shepherds and wisdom teachers.  They too made disciples; the end and teaching of their lives was to bring salvation or health.  In the story of the rising of Dorcas one finds the essence of the dynamic purpose of shepherd; it is to restore people into the conditions of service.  Dorcas’ life was characterized by service and she lost it but with Peter’s ministry she was restore to being able to serve.  This parable is metaphorical of the function of those who are trained in the wisdom tradition of Jesus.  We are called to enable each other to serve.  We are truly unhealthy when we do not serve.  Health is being able to serve.

  The Gospel of John is a successful wedding of Jerusalem and Athens; it is a blending of Hebraic wisdom tradition within the language forms of the Greek wisdom tradition.  This blending accounts for the long success of the Gospel.

  We are still blending the good news in the wisdom tradition as it can be made relevant to our lives within our post-modern world.  I am committed to this blending of the Gospel of Jesus Christ within our current time and place.  Let us be in the wisdom school of Jesus today and let our lives express the wonderful health of service.  Amen