For Christ's Sake, Have Some Fun

14  Pentecost Cycle B proper 17 August 30, 2015

Song of Solomon 2:8-13 Psalm 45:1-2, 7-10

James 1:17-27  Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Lectionary Link

  The Song of Songs is love poem often graphic in its depiction but also very honest about all of the ranges of experiences which characterize the near pathological state of being in love.  The Song of Songs does not mention the name of God, so one might ask why it was included in both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Bible.  It may be undeniable that  love is the very best expression to be found in human experience with all of the agony and ecstasy which accompany the desire of magnetism which occurs when two people are drawn to each other in such a profound and heightened way that it is difficult for lover to avoid user the poetic confession of divine providence.  Since romantic love is so profound, it was regarded by those who were ancient wisdom teachers to be an appropriate metaphor for the relationship between a person and God.  It could be that the wisdom teachers saw the performance of religion by many as being but boring routines and people had forgotten why they were involved in religion at all except as the cultural practice of obeying their religious authorities. 
  Where was the excitement?  Where was the emotional engagement?  Is a relationship with God boring and unexciting?  Are we forced to admit that the best human romantic relationship is more exciting than our relationship with God?  The wisdom teachers believed that one's relationship with God needed to involve an activation of the excitement of the energy of love.  Worship of God is a focus of one's love upon God.  If one reads the Psalms one finds singing and dancing and music and poetry, all of the excesses of ecstasy and that's just in "church" as it were.  We perhaps have suffered from the severity of the puritanical and the result has been taking the ecstasy out of our relationship with God.  If one were to predict the outcome a council of religious leaders worldwide today, one could doubt that they would vote to include the Song of Songs in their official Scripture.
  It is bad enough if religious authorities take all of the fun out of religion; what if they go further and makes so many little rules that they make "official religion" the only religion and done for the convenience of those who are supported and given power by making everyone else keep rules which seem alienated from commonsense connection for living.
  The portrayal of Jesus of Nazareth which we have in the Gospels is one which is governed by issues that have arisen in the young churches whose very identity is being formed by expulsion of members from the synagogues and the inclusion of Gentile followers of Jesus who were not being  required to follow all of the rules of ritual purity of Judaism.
  And one has to wonder if Jesus is being presented in light of what has begun to happen in the early churches.  This is seen in the parenthetical aside in the Gospel reading today,
"For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elder."  Why would Jesus and the disciples have to be informed about the traditions of the elders because they too were Jews?  The parenthetical information tells us this is an early church looking to explain why many had become separated from the synagogue and why there was an opening for participation of Gentiles in this Jesus Movement.
  The point of the Gospel is to highlight the fact that all laws are not equal in their importance to the life of humanity and in what is truly pleasing to God.  Yes, it may be important to wash one's hands before eating and to brush one's teeth but can such be elevated to be the chief expression of "pure religion?"  The writer of the Epistle of James wrote, "pure religion is to care of the widows and orphans in distress."  In short, pure religion is to practice the hard love of caring justice.  Religious law of the time divided things into what was pure or impure, defiled or undefiled.  The rituals were expressions of dealing with states believed to be defiled.  How could one be re-established into an undefiled condition?  This was the religious issue.
  It is a natural reaction to be downright obsessively compulsively disordered in our religious behavior when we stare inwardly and find that the inside of us can be so "defiled."  Sigmund Freud said that the unconscious mind is polymorphously perverse.  The prophet Jeremiah said the human heart is exceeding deceitful and who can know it. 
  The message that we have in the Gospel is that we can know the radical continuum of the human insides.  We can know the ecstasy of the love recounted in the Song of Songs but we can also know our insides riddled by very selfish, wrongly motivated interests able to result in lots of things we could never be proud of.
  So how do we deal with this incredible continuum of human possibilities of the human heart which can motivate every sort of human action?
  The Gospel is a Gospel of Grace, deep grace, the kind of Grace which can create in us a deeper cleaner Heart, even the Heart of our lives being known by the presence of the Holy Spirit.  And from the deeper heart of the Holy Spirit, the outer layer of our human heart can be trained in the worship of ecstasy towards God and so the energies of our lives can be brought to express pure religion in our thoughts and deeds.
  With the Gospel of Grace of Jesus Christ who baptizes with the Holy Spirit, we can give up our external religious deeds as guilt responses to our own sense of defilement and we can embrace the positive notion of being sinners, who though not perfect, are perfectible as we are learning to respond to the Graceful Deeper Heart of the Holy Spirit.
  May God give us the Graceful freedom to have some fun and joy in our faith and religious experience.  Let us look to the event of the sublime within ourselves which will always help us tolerate what we are not yet in perfected behaviors.
  For Christ's sake friends, lets go forth and have some fun, but let us extend the fun to as many as we can.  Amen.

 

Sunday School, August 30, 2015 14 Pentecost, B proper 17

Sunday School, August 30, 2015   14 Pentecost, B Proper 17

 

Themes for Sunday School

Hebrew Scriptures

If the reading from Song of Songs is used  the lesson can be about love.  Song of Songs is a love poem and is written about being in love.  The reason it was included in the Bible is because the ancient teachers of Israel believed that the relationship between people and God should be a relationship of love.  If we can speak about how wonderful love is between two people, we can use this model as a way of understanding how wonderful our relationship with God is meant to be.  It is a journey of love.

Jesus said to his disciples, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” 

Commandments are laws and sometimes we can treat laws as hard things that our parents and teacher want us to do to obey them.  What we need to know is that laws and rules are ways of teaching us.  By following rules and laws, we learn best behaviors and we build our memory of how to perform these best behaviors.

The lesson from the book of Deuteronomy is about why we should remember and not forget the laws and commandments of God.  They are rules for our very best behavior and if we remember and practice them the good behaviors will become easier to perform.

Why should we practice the laws of best behavior?  So that we can be honest about what we believe and what we do.  The writer of the letter of James reminds us that it is not just important to hear God’s word; we also have to do God words.  It does not do us any good to keep hearing not to lie; we have to practice telling the truth.  We have to get our deeds of our body agree with the law of God.

Jesus had an argument with people who made less important rules more important than the most important rules.  Is it more important to wash our hands before our meals or more important that all of the people of the world have clean water?  Washing our hands is very important but if this rule becomes more important than making sure that every person has clean water, then have lost our sense of right value.

All rules are important but Jesus was teaching his friends that the less important rules should not be made into the most important rules or they would miss out on being kind to people, which is the most important rule of all.

 

A sermon

  Laws and rules are very important because we need them for safety in our lives.  But not all rules are as important others.

  Tell which rule is more important.  You shall brush your teeth.  Or You shall not play in the street.

  What about:  Wash your hands before you eat.  Or Don’t play with knives.

  When Jesus came he saw that some people had forgotten about the important rules and they had made the least important rules the important rules.

  Are you supposed to talk in a library?  No, but if there was a fire in the library, would you yell, “Fire?”  You would break the  rule against talking so that you could save lives, right?

  Jesus saw that some people had many rules about many things. They were supposed  to wash their hands before prayer and they were supposed to wash their pots and pans and plates in special ways.  But he also knew that many of his friends were poor and did not have enough water in the places that they lived to store water and so it was very difficult for them to follow all of the washing rules.

 In the church we use a little water for baptism.  Tell me what rule is more important:  Baptizing all of the babies in the world with a little water.  Or Making sure that all of the babies in the world have safe drinking water?  In Holy Eucharist we use just a little piece of bread.  Is it more important that all people receive a little piece of communion bread or that more people have enough to eat?  Baptism and Eucharist important but we can never forget the importance of the laws that need to be followed to help everyone live well.  To live well people need food and water, home and clothes and education.  If we really live and practice the meaning of baptism and Holy Eucharist, it means we are hoping, praying and working for all people in the world to have enough to eat and drink.

   Jesus wants us to learn the value of different laws.  Loving God and our neighbor are the important laws.

  We should respect all of the rules and laws, especially the rules and laws of our parents.  But remember that Jesus told us about the different value of rules and laws.

  If I make up a special game and only I know the rules.  How would you feel if I got mad at you for breaking the rules of my game?

  Well, you wouldn’t want to play with me or you wouldn’t want to play my game, would you?

  Let us remember that all laws are important but the ones that are about the health and safety and happiness of people are the most important laws.  And those are the laws that Jesus wants us to know and practice the best.  Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

August 30, 2015:  The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: As the Deer, Change My Heart, O Lord, Be Still,  Here in this Place

Song: As the Deer Pants for the Water, (Renew # 9, gray hymnal)

1          As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after you; you alone are my heart’s desire and I long to worship you.  Refrain: You alone are my strength, my shield, to you alone may my spirit yield; you alone are my heart’s desire, and I long to worship you!

2          I want you more than gold or silver, only you can satisfy; you alone are the real joy-giver and the apple of my eye.  Refrain.

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

People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and for ever.  Amen.

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

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

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

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

Litany Phrase: Alleluia (chanted)

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

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

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

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

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

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

A reading from the Book of Deuteronomy

You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!" For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today? But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children's children.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

 

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 15

LORD, who may dwell in your tabernacle? * who may abide upon your holy hill?

Whoever leads a blameless life and does what is right, * who speaks the truth from his heart.

There is no guile upon his tongue; he does no evil to his friend; * he does not heap contempt upon his neighbor.

  

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.

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?" He said to them, "Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.'  You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition." Then he called the crowd again and said to them, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People: Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon:  Fr. Phil

Children’s Creed

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

Since God is so great and we are so small,

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

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

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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

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

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

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

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

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.

 

Song:  Change My Heart, O God   (Renew! # 143, gray hymnal)

Change my heart, O God make it ever true; Change my heart of God, may I be like you.  You are the potter , I am the clay; mold me and make you, this is what I pray.  Change my heart, O God, make it ever true.  Change my heart O, God.  May I be like you.

 

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.

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

You have made us in your image

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

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

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

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

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

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

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Children rejoin their parents and take up their instruments)

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

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

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

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

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

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

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:        Alleluia! Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!

Words of Administration

Communion Song:  Be Still and Know,   (Renew!

# 10, gray hymnal)

1-Be still and know that I am God.  Be still and know that I am God.  Be still and know that I am God.

2-The Lord almighty is our God.  The Lord Almighty is our god.  The Lord Almighty is our God.

3-The God of Jacob is our rock.  The God of Jacob is our rock.  The God of Jacob is our rock.

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: Here in this Place, (Renew # 14, gray hymnal)

1- Here in this place a new light is streaming, now is the darkness vanished away.  See in this place our fears and our dreamings. Brought here to you in the light of this day.  Gather us in the lost and forsaken.  Gather us in the blind and the lame.  Call to us now and we shall awaken.  We shall arise at the sound of our name.

2-We are the young our lives are a mystery.  We are the old who yearn for your face.  We have been sung through all of your history.  Called to be light to the whole human race.  Gather us in the rich and the haughty.  Gather us in the proud and the strong.  Give us a heart so meek and so lowly.  Give us the courage to enter the song.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

All Laws Are Not Equal

14  Pentecost Cycle B proper 17 September 2, 2012

Song of Solomon 2:8-13 Psalm 45:1-2, 7-10

James 1:17-27  Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Lectionary Link

  The teaching  of the Gospel lesson for today is this:  All laws are not equal.  And while it is important to have laws, having too many laws actually might get in the way of freedom for living.  There are lots of laws that we would like to do without, certain tax laws,  deed restrictions, dress codes and rules that seem to deny some basic freedoms. 

  Human life consists of many laws; some of those laws are what we might call morally passive laws.  We would call scientific laws morally passive since they simply try to describe the behavior of natural phenomenon.  Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit at sea level.  It is not good or bad that it does so, and we don’t place any moral value on such a law because human action and motive cannot make it so.

  The laws that pertain to human behavior are many; they are found in human societies ancient and in ours.   For any group of people who have tried to live together well, there is needed structure and order for preserving life and health and the well being of the common good.

   Thou shalt not kill.  That’s a pretty important rule for the health and safety of the human community.  Thou shalt pick up after your dog in the park.  An important rule but not the same level as “Thou shalt not kill.”  Though if it happens on your lawn and the dog owner doesn’t seem to care, it can cause bad thoughts to arise.

  There are also rules that pertain to ceremony and cultural protocol and if one does not know these rules one can truly offend without knowing it.  In a good portion of the world it is impolite to leave your shoes on when visiting someone’s home.  It is protocol to leave one’s shoes at the door.

  Some rules are secret and are meant only for insiders.  Lodges and clubs have secret rules and members take an oath not to disclose the rules.

  So the validity of a rule or law is affected by how widely it is known or promulgated.  The validity of a law is also supposed to be determined by its reasonableness and whether it is truly accessible for whom it is to apply.

  When Jesus walked in Palestine, he found within the Jewish religious community a Judean religious elite.  This elite group had elevated and magnified minutiae and lesser ceremonial rules to the level of the big ones, the Ten Commandments.  The laws of ritual purity were very important to those who believed themselves to be truly the official spokespersons for God and who believed themselves to be the official gatekeepers for those who were to be admitted to God’s favor.

  In Palestine, water was an issue.  Peasants did not always have the same access to water for ritual purity in the same ways that the Judean religious elite had.  The religious elite were wealthy enough to build a micro-society within the greater social order and they had rules for this micro-society that governed membership.  And Jesus found that the vast majority of the countryside peasants and the simple laborers and fisherfolk did not have access to that small micro-society.  And the message of the religious elite was this:  If you don’t and are not keeping the rules of our micro-society, that is a sure sign that you do not have God’s favor.  Because if you are not in our society, you are not in God’s society either.

  And that is what really ticked Jesus off.  The Gospels often portray Jesus as one who is violating these religious rules.  The Gospels have Jesus in sarcasm speaking against the elevation of minutiae to Olympian importance.  In another place Jesus said, “You strain to catch a gnat, but you let the camel go through.”  That is simply an ironic way of saying, “You’re missing the point of God and religion and you’ve got your priorities all wrong.”

  The words of Jesus were meant to indict and convict those who elevated minutiae to top priority while being totally blinded to some very big issue.

  The words of Jesus apply to us because sometimes we are so worried about gnats we do not recognize the camels and elephants that inhabit our world.  It seems as most faith communities fix rules and laws that are exclusionary.  You can’t receive communion unless….You have to be celibate to be a valid sacramental minister…You have to fast an hour before receiving holy communion…you have to believe this particular formula for the salvation of your souls…you have to believe exactly this about the Holy Scriptures…  There are hundreds upon hundreds of subtle little rules that govern who we accept into our company as being valid in God’s sight.  We can get so exorcised about all of the minutiae of church membership we are blind to our great failures to love God and our neighbor as our self.  Our tiny rules can make us blind to justice.

  If the great rule is to love God and our neighbor as our self, should we be more concerned about the correct view of the Holy Eucharist or about the fact that lots of people are starving in our world and in our country?  Should be more concerned about total immersion or sprinkling in baptism than the availability of clean drinking water to all in our world?

  I am not saying we should be over-whelmed by world hunger and poverty; I’m just saying that in the big scheme of things, we should not let the petty church political stuff cause us to lose perspective about the big principle of life, “loving God and our neighbor as our selves.”

  I think if Jesus were here today visiting every church that existed, he would continually challenge all of us about our priorities.  He wouldn't single us out or the Baptists or the Lutherans or the Roman Catholics, because his words are what one might call, “equal opportunity convicting.”  Liberal or conservative, it doesn’t matter, his words will always convict us about our priorities.  His words will convict us about making the petty into the dominant motivation of our lives.

  How is the ritual washing of our hands going to help us love God with all of our hearts and loving our neighbor as ourselves?  But how about getting clean drinking water to all of the people of this world?  How about getting water for irrigation to starving people?  This would really be a way of making the world ritually pure through the use of water.

  If the ritual use of water in our faith ceremonies does not inspire us to get water to those who need it, then our ritual behavior is the equivalence of malpractice.  And Jesus was hitting very hard at the malpractice of religion.

  The words of Jesus will always confront us with our potential malpractice of religion where we are content with micro-rules of ritual and doctrine, but let the big issues that pertain to loving God and our neighbors go unattended.

  Let us live under the conviction of Jesus today, knowing that we are failing in some very major ways.  It is a good place to live because it makes it easy to ask God for mercy, forgiveness, and grace for the amendment of our lives.  And if we have the audacity to ask God for mercy, forgiveness and grace, then perhaps we too will offer the same to the people in our world and life.  Amen.