Sunday School, September 13, 2015 16 Pentecost, B proper 19
Sunday School Themes
The reading from Proverbs calls Wisdom the way in which we
can discover that God is everywhere. The
Psalm states that the heavens declare the glory of God. People who look in the sky and also observe
the way in which things are made are fascinated and so they confess the
presence and existence of something greater and anything that we can do or make
as human beings. But since we see this
greatness and if greatness is greater than us as persons, then the greatness of
God must also have a Great Personality and so we come to believe that we have a
personal relationship with the Wise Great Being og God whose works we can
observe everywhere.
The Epistle of James is about the small muscle of the tongue
and how destructive can be. Everyone
needs a lesson in learning self control in what we say. The things we say can harm and do hurt to each
other. But the nice and kind things
which we say can also do some lovely and wonderful things to build
relationships.
Since September 14 is Holy Cross Day, the Gospel lesson
gives us a lesson on the cross. Peter
did not want to accept the fact that Jesus would suffer and die. He wanted Jesus to be just a Messiah
superhero. Jesus told Peter that he was
wrong in his thinking about who the messiah was. The messiah would suffer and die and know
fully all of the hardships of human suffering.
Jesus as the suffering messiah was proof that God has and is and will
suffer with us.
You can instruct about the notions of life in the riddle of
Jesus about losing and gaining our lives.
The life that Jesus told us to lose is psueche or soul life which is the
life of our minds, emotions and choosing power.
Education means that we lose the ignorant states of mind and we gain
wisdom and education. This is how we
lose and gain our lives. In the
church, taking up the cross and following Jesus means that we learn to give up
our selfish selves as we make room to help others through love and kindness.
Gospel Puppet Show: What kind of Messiah Is Jesus?
Puppet dialogue between Roary the Lion and Interviewer
Roary the Lion (holding a soccer ball and sobbing):
Wah…Wah….Wah….Wah….
Interviewer: What’s wrong Roary, why are you crying? Have you been playing soccer?
Roary the Lion: Wah,
Wah, Wah, Wah, Wah, Wah…
Interviewer: Roary, I
think you need a hug… Calm down now and talk to me. Can you tell me what’s wrong? Did you have soccer game?
Roary the Lion: Wah, Wah, Wah, Wah……
Interviewer: Roary,
I’m here to help you. Let try to
help you. May be I can help you get your
happy roar back. Will you let me try?
Roary the Lion:
Wah…Wah….okay but I’m not too happy.
Interviewer: What
happened to make you so sad? I’ve never
heard a lion cry so loudly?
Roary the Lion: Well,
I played soccer today and our team lost the game, 4 to zero. And I was the leading scorer.
Interviewer: Well that’s good isn’t it?
Roary the Lion: No..no…no…I scored two goals for the other
team. Wah…Wah And I’m so
embarrassed. Why did that happen to
me? And why did my team lose?
Interviewer: Well,
let’s see if we can learn something from you and your soccer game? All of us will be winners if we can learn
from you and your soccer game? Will you
help us all?
Roary the Lion: Okay
but I don’t know how my losing a soccer game can help others.
Interviewer: Was anyone happy after your soccer game ended?
Roary the Lion: The
winning team were happy, of course.
Interviewer: When it
rains really hard the farmer is happy to get rain for his corn and his
wheat. But if the same rain comes in the
middle of the baseball game, the teams are sad because they have to stop
playing baseball. You see the same rain
made some people happy and made some people sad.
Roary the Lion: So
that’s like every soccer game; if one team wins the other team loses.
Interviewer: Yes and
life is like that some times there are things that make us happy and there are
things that make us sad.
Roary the Lion: I don’t like to be sad. What good is sadness?
Interviewer: It is
not fun to be sad but being sad can turn out to be good?
Roary the Lion: How can being sad turn out to be good?
Interviewer: Well,
let us remember the Gospel story today.
Peter was upset at Jesus. Peter
only wanted Jesus to be a strong King.
Peter did not want Jesus to ever suffer.
He did not want Jesus to ever feel sad.
Roary the Lion:
That’s right! Jesus told Peter
that some very sad things were going to happen to Jesus. He told Peter that he was going to suffer and
even die.
Interviewer: And
Jesus said that Peter had to understand life better. He said that Peter needed to understand that
life is made up of wins and losses. Life
is made up of sickness and health. Life
is made up of happiness and sadness.
Roary the Lion: So to
learn how to live is to learn how to live with both. But I prefer to win. I would rather be happy. I don’t ever want to be sick.
Interviewer: I know
Roary, but what good can come from
sadness, loss and sickness?
Roary the Lion: I
don’t know Interviewer. It would take a
great magician to turn sickness into health, happiness into sadness and losing
into winning.
Interviewer: Well,
Jesus is better than the greatest magician.
And he showed us how to do one of his greatest tricks.
Roary the Lion: I
like magic. What is the greatest trick?
Interviewer: Roary,
the next time you play a soccer game and when you win the game, what are you
going to say to the little boy who lost the game to your team?
Roary the Lion: Well,
I’m going try to make him feel better.
I’m going to tell him that I lost a game too and it was very sad. I going to tell him that he played a good
game. And I’m going to tell him that is
more important that we have fun playing the game than if we win.
Interviewer: Why
would you say those nice things to him Roary?
Roary the Lion: Well,
because I know what it is to lose and be sad.
So I want to help someone else when they are sad.
Interviewer: And
Roary, that is the magic of Jesus.
Because you were sad, you knew how to help a boy who also was sad. And that was the message that Jesus was
trying to teach Peter.
Roary the Lion: So
God can help us better because God gave his Son Jesus to suffer too. And so we can know that God is with us when
we are sad.
Interviewer:
Bingo! Now do you see how your
loss and your sadness can turn out to be winning. You always win when you are able to help others.
Roary the Lion:
Interviewer do you think that the boys and girls can learn this
too. I’m shy, could you ask them?
Interviewer: Boys and
Girls, do you see how Jesus taught us the meaning of suffering and
sadness? We can turn our sadness into
happiness and winning because what really makes us happy in life is to be able
to help someone else. Have you learned
the lesson from the Gospel today. Can
you say, Amen? Amen. Can you say bye, bye to Roary?
A Sermon for Children about the Cross of Christ
What is the most important sign of the Christian
religion? When you look around the
church, you see this sign. Some people
wear a necklace and they have this Christian sign done in gold or silver.
The sign I am
talking about is the cross.
Why is the cross the
sign of Christianity? Was it a pleasant
or happy sign? It was not a happy sign,
because it was used to put Jesus to death.
The only reason that it is a happy sign for us today, because Jesus came
back to life and showed us how we can have hope and happiness in our world that
has sadness and death.
So the cross is an
important sign for our Christian faith.
And we use this sign in many ways.
We use it as our Christian brand.
Do you know what a brand is for cows?
The cowboys will burn a mark on a cow, with the sign of their ranch, so
that if the cow wanders away, they will be able to tell who the lost cow
belongs to.
Did you know that
the cross is like our Christian brand?
Do you know what happens after we are baptized? The priest dips his thumb into some special
oil called chrism and then draws a cross on the forehead of the person who has
been baptized and the priest says: You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in
baptized and marked as Christ own forever.
Can you trace that sign on your forehead now and remember that you
belong to Christ.
We make the sign of
the cross on our selves and over things, to remember that we belong to Christ
and that we dedicate our lives and the things of our lives to God. We make the sign of the cross in our worship
as a way of punctuating the words that we say: like before the Gospel or before
receiving communion.
Today is the Sunday
before a special feast day, the feast of the Holy Cross. This was a day that celebrates the building
of a famous church in Jerusalem when they believed a piece of cross of Jesus
was found, many years after he had died.
Jesus said something
in a riddle. He said that we had to take
up our cross. He said that we had to
lose our lives in order to gain our lives.
What does that mean? The life
that we have to lose is not our physical life where our heart stops
beating. It is the life of our soul, our
psychological life that we must lose in order to gain it. When we learn something at school we are
losing our old life of ignorance and gaining a life of knowledge. Whenever we want to change our lives and make
them better, we have to lose something of our former lives in order to make
them better.
And we are asked to
take up our cross, not because Jesus wants us to die. The cross of Jesus is a sign of
sacrifice. Sacrifice is the most
important principle in life. Sacrifice
is needed for family and community to survive.
If people only did selfish things for themselves, then we would not be
able to survive. The Cross of Christ is
a most important sign to us, because it is a reminder that we need to say no to
our selfishness in order to learn and in order to help other people.
So today we
celebrate the cross of Christ as an important sign of our lives. Repeat after me: I am seal with the Holy
Spirit, and I am marked as Christ’s own forever. Amen.
St. John the Divine Episcopal Church
17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037
Family Service with Holy Eucharist
September 13, 2015: The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Gathering Songs:
There Is a Redeemer; Lord, Be Glorified; Lift High the Cross;
Song: There Is a Redeemer
(Renew! # 232)
There is a Redeemer, Jesus, God own Son, precious Lamb of
God, Messiah, Holy One.
Refrain: Thank you, O
my Father, for giving us your Son; and leaving your Spirit ‘til the work on
earth is done.
Jesus, my Redeemer, name above all names, precious Lamb of
God, Messiah, hope for sinners slain. 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
O God, because without you we are not able to please you,
mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our
hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Litany Phrase: Alleluia (chanted)
O God, you are Great!
Alleluia
O God, you have made us! Alleluia
O God, you have made yourself known to us! Alleluia
O God, you have provided us with us a Savior! Alleluia
O God, you have given us a Christian family! Alleluia
O God, you have forgiven our sins! Alleluia
O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead! Alleluia
A reading from the letter of James
For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no
mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a
bridle. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide
their whole bodies. Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes
strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever
the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it
boasts of great exploits.
Liturgist: The Word of the Lord
People: Thanks be to God
Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 116
Then I called upon the Name of the LORD: * "O LORD, I
pray you, save my life."
Gracious is the LORD and righteous; * our God is full of
compassion.
The LORD watches over the innocent; * I was brought very
low, and he helped me.
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.
Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea
Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I
am?" And they answered him, "John the Baptist; and others, Elijah;
and still others, one of the prophets." He asked them, "But who do
you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Messiah."
And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. Then he began to teach them that the Son of
Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief
priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He
said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get
behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on
human things." He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them,
"If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up
their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it,
and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will
save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their
life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are
ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them
the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father
with the holy angels."
Liturgist: The
Gospel of the Lord.
People: Praise to you,
Lord Christ.
Sermon: Fr. Phil
Children’s Creed
We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father
is the maker of the world.
Since God is so great and we are so small,
We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus,
son of the Virgin Mary.
We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the
life, death and
resurrection of
Jesus Christ.
We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy
Spirit.
We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church
where everyone is
welcome.
We believe that Christ is kind and fair.
We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.
And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve
us forever. Amen.
Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy. (chanted)
For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have
mercy.
For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have
mercy.
For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.
For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.
For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.
For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in
our world. Christ, have mercy.
For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have
mercy.
For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have
mercy.
For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have
mercy.
For the forgiveness of all 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: Lord I Lift Your Name on High, Renew! #4
Lord, I lift your name on high; Lord, I love to sing Your
praises. I’m so glad you’re in my
life. I’m so glad you came to save
us. You came from heaven to earth to
show the way, from the earth to the cross, my debt to pay. From the cross to the grave, from the grave
to the sky; Lord, I lift your name on high!
Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all
creatures here below.
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost.
Prologue to the Eucharist
Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong
the kingdom of heaven.”
All become members of a family by birth or adoption.
Baptism is a celebration of birth into the family of God.
A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.
The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to
his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.
The Lord be with you
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to God.
It is right to give God thanks and praise.
It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made
us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts. Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all
of the world that we see and don’t see, we forever sing this hymn of praise:
Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might. Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.
All may gather around
the altar
Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;
You have made us in your image
And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to
live by faith:
Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob
and Rachael.
And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured
by Joseph
And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.
Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this
Holy Meal so that when we eat
the bread and drink
the wine, we can know that the Presence
of Christ is as near to us as
this food and
drink that becomes a part of us.
The Prayer continues with these words
And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine.
Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and
Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. Bless
and sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbor.
On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the
blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take,
eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."
After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and
said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which
is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink
it, do this for the remembrance of me."
Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we
eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the
life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in
our future.
Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a
special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ. May we forever live with praise to God to
whom we belong as sons and daughters.
By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of
the Holy Spirit all honor and glory
is yours, Almighty
Father, now and for ever. Amen.
And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,
(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: Lord,
Be Glorified (Renew! # 172)
In our hearts, Lord, be glorified, be glorified. In our hearts, Lord, be glorified today.
In our homes, Lord, be glorified, be glorified, in our
homes, Lord, be glorified today.
In your church, Lord, be glorified, be glorified, in your
church, Lord, be glorified today.
In your world, Lord, be glorified, be glorified, in your
world, Lord, be glorified today.
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: Song: Lift High the Cross (blue hymnal
# 473)
Refrain: Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim
till all the world adore his sacred name.
Led on their way by this triumphant sign, the hosts of God
in conquering ranks combine. Refrain
Each newborn servant of the crucified bears on the brow the
seal of him who died. Refrain
Dismissal:
Liturgist: Let us go forth in the Name of Christ.
People: Thanks be to God!