Eucharist As Eating with the Lost and Sinners

17 Pentecost, Cp19, September 11, 2016

Exodus 32:7-14   Psalm 51:1-11

1 Timothy 1:12-17  Luke 15:1-10

Lectionary Link

   The Gospels are the literature of the early Christian communities and so they primarily reflect the habits, the teachings, the  liturgies, the spirituality and the historical outcomes in the experience of the Risen Christ in the church.

  What were the outcomes which were practiced in the early churches?  First, the people who were formerly known as sinners ate the Lord's table.  Second, the people who formerly had been lost from the blessing of Judaism were found in the blessing of the Risen Christ.
  These outcomes and practices of the early church were illustrated in the parables about Jesus.  The irony of the Gospels is that they are "parables" about Jesus who also tells parables.  In the parable about Jesus in the Gospel that we have read today, what was said about Jesus?
  The religious opponents of Jesus criticized Jesus by saying, "He eats with sinners."  This may seem like a strange criticism in our day of quite open public eating.  When one eats at any public restaurant one is never quite sure whom one is eating with and we don't really care.
  Eating with someone in the Judaic context was important during the time of Jesus and afterwards because of the ritual purity practices in Judaism.  If Jesus was the right kind of observant Jews of his time he should have been careful about his public behaviors.  First, of all, a sinner in the time of Jesus was a code word for people who were ritually impure.  If you would eat with someone who was not observing Jewish ritual practices, then you could not be sure that the food had been prepared according to the ritual practices of Judaism.  An observant Jew would be very careful about the people with whom he ate.
  What is the main composition of the members of the Christian Communities in the cities throughout the Roman Empire?  It was Gentiles Christians, formerly known as sinners.
  These Gentiles Christians were eating together in the Holy Eucharist.  This Holy Eucharist was a gathering of people who believed that Risen Christ was present with them because of the presence of God's Holy Spirit.  And in this renewal feast the Holy Spirit was invoked, asked to bless the bread and the wine and to convey through this invocation a renewal in time of another presence of Christ.
  The Holy Eucharist was the evidence of the church that Jesus ate with the Gentiles, the ones who had formerly been declared to be sinners and ritually impure.  Gentiles were mostly, ignorant of the ritual purity requirements of Judaism.
  What is another message which the early church was preaching using this Gospel parable of Jesus?  The message was that God cared for and loved more people than those who could be ritually observant Jews.
  Many people in the world were "lost" and unimportant to those who were ritually observant Jews.  According to those who were observant Jews, most of the population of the world was "lost" from the blessing of what had been received and practiced by observant Jews.  Gentile Christianity was trying to promote the view that God could not be locked up within the limitations of ritually pure Judaism.
  Gentile Christianity was about recovering what had been lost in strict ritual Judaic practices.  The members of the Christian communities looked to the Hebrew Scriptures to find how the lost Gentiles had become could be "found" within the teachings of Judaism.
  St. Paul went back to the Pre-Hebrew figure of Abraham to find him to be the father of faith for both Jews and Gentiles.  The prophet Jonah was ordered by God to preach to the foreign people of Nineveh.  This was a way of indicating that God's love stretched beyond the people of Israel in the witness of the  Hebrew Scriptures.  The Temple in Jerusalem was at its best to be a House of Prayer for all people.  In the Torah, the Jews were instructed to treat foreigners equally under the law.  In the Psalms, God is declared to the God of all people.
  It was clear that in the time of Jesus that ritual purity practices of observant Jews meant that many believed that God was not able to bless anyone who could not be observant in their ritual purity practices.
  Within the early Christian communities were people who believed that God in Christ had found a way to find all of the people who had been lost to ritually pure Judaism.
  In the Christian communities, there was a new way to become regarded as clean, pure and holy before God; it was not through ritual purity, it was through the presence of God's Holy Spirit in one's life.
  The ancient Psalmist cried, "Create in me a clean heart, O God and renew a right spirit within."   The early Christians believe that purity and holiness was not determined by the practice of ritual purity; purity and holiness was determined by the presence of God's Holy Spirit in one's life.  God's Holy Spirit could be the clean heart and right spirit within anyone.
  So the Christian communities believed that Jesus came as proof that God saved sinners.  Jesus came to prove that God could make holy, people who did not practice the ritual purity of Judaism.  Jesus came to say that God had found all of those Gentiles who had formerly been treated as lost to the benefit and the blessings found within Judaism.
  The practice of early churches presented the Gospel to show how many people had come to be found by God.  The Eucharistic practice of church was a witness that Jesus was present within the fellowship meal of all people.  Jesus ate with the people formerly regarded to be sinners and ritually impure and defiled.
  The Eucharist today is still a Gospel witness to fact that Jesus came to save sinners.  Jesus came to find the lost.  Jesus came to show that God truly belongs to everyone.  Jesus came to show that God's Holy Spirit within anyone is what makes us acceptable to God.
  As people who practice Eucharist, we are still sinners eating together.  We can like Jesus say, "All of my best friends are sinners and I eat with them."  As people who gather for the Holy Eucharist again, we know that what is holy, pure and best about our lives is the very presence of God's Holy Spirit.
  So let us become today a part of God's search and rescue team.  Let us find people who have been made to believe that they are lost from God's love, care and grace.  Let us go forth to let people know that they can be made to feel holy and accepted by knowing the presence of God's Holy Spirit within their lives.  Amen.

Sunday School, September 11, 2016 17 Pentecost C proper 19

Sunday School, September 11, 2016   17 Pentecost C proper 19

Sunday School Theme

The value of being lost

We do not look for things which are not important to us.  When something or someone is missing from our lives.  Our hearts want to find them and get them back into our lives.

What are things that you don’t like to lose?  Favorite toys.  People don’t like to lose their keys or their watches or their rings and other jewelry. 

What do we do when we lose something?  We try to find it because it is important to us.  We use it and it is valuable to us.

What about losing people?  The most painful loss of a person is when they die.  And then we cannot have them return to our lives.

Jesus said that God noticed that there were lots of lost people.  Who were these people lost to?  They were lost to the religious gatherings.  Many religious people did not even want to find lost people.  Jesus told his friends that there were many lost people who were important to God but they were not important to the people who would not invite them into their lives.

Jesus was criticized for eating with sinners.  But Jesus was trying to teach that the people called sinners were the lost people who needed to be found and brought into the family of God’s love.

Let us be careful about people we exclude from our lives.  We need to remember that God loves everyone, particularly those who do not know that they are loved and cared for by God.

Can we learn to be God’s detectives and God’s finder of the people who are lost because they are neglected by others.

Let us become a part of God’s army of finders who are doing search and rescue of the people who seem to be lost in this world because no one cares for them.

Sermon:

  Do you know one of the most frightening experiences in a family?  When a child is lost.  Sometimes a young child wanders away from the shopping cart and a child can get lost in a big store.  And mom and dad can get very worried.  They look and look until they find their lost child.

  There is one thing that is good about being lost.  Do you know what that is?  If someone or something is lost, it tells us that it is valuable.

  If you lose your watch or keys or toys, why do you look for them?  Because you want them, they are valuable to you.

  Jesus told stories about being lost.  And he did this to teach people that God values all people.  And if God values all people, then we too should value people who seem to be lost from finding enough food, health care or freedom in life.

  We are having a baptism today because baptism is a way of celebrating how valuable each person is to God and to our community.  Lily is very valuable to us, to her parents and family and this is what we are celebrating today.

  Baptism is a way of celebrating in this big, big world that God has found us because we are valuable to God.

  So we practice baptism as a way of sharing God’s love for everyone.  We do not want anyone to feel lost in this world.  We want everyone to feel valued by God and by special people in their family and in their community.

  Let us be thankful today that we don’t have to feel lost today.  God values us and God has found us.  And the way in which we celebrate our value to God and to each other as children of God and brothers and sisters in Christ is through Holy Baptism.

  We baptized today because we celebrate that God’s love has found us.  And so we do not ever have to feel lost in life because we belong to the family of Christ.

  Repeat: Thank you God for finding us and making us members of the family of Christ.  Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

September 11, 2016: The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Peace Before Us, I Am the Bread of Life, Dona Nobis Pacem, When the Saints

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

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

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

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

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

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

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

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

2. Love   3. Joy   4. Light   5. Christ

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 of Praise: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

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

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

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

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

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

A reading from the First Letter to Timothy

But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-- of whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 51

Make me hear of joy and gladness, * that the body you have broken may rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins * and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, * and renew a right spirit within me.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God!

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 Luke

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."  So he told them this parable: "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. "Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, `Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father Phil

Children’s Creed

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

Since God is so great and we are so small,

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

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

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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

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

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

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

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

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

People:                        And also with you.

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

Offertory Song: I Am The Bread of Life (Blue Hymnal, # 335)

I am the bread of life; they who come to me shall not hunger; and they who believe in me shall not thirst.  No one can come to me unless the Father draw them.

Refrain:  And I will raise them up, and I will raise them up, and I will raise them up on the last day.

The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world, and they who eat of this bread they shall live for ever, they shall live forever.  Refrain

Doxology

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

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

Prologue to the Eucharist

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

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

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

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

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

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

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

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

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

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

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

(All may gather around the altar)

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

You have made us in your image

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

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

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

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

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

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

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Breaking of the Bread

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

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia.

Words of Administration

Communion Song: 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: When the Saints God Marching In (Christian Children’s Songbook, #248)

O when the saints, go marching in, O when the saints go marching in.  Lord I want to be in that number.  When the saints go marching in.

O when boys go marching in….

O when the girls go marching in…

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Being Lost as Being Valued

17 Pentecost, Cp19, September 15, 2013

Exodus 32:7-14   Psalm 51:1-11

1 Timothy 1:12-17  Luke 15:1-10

Lectionary Link

   It is said that necessity is the mother of invention and there was a great human need:  The need to convince men that they needed to stop and ask for directions.  As men it is humiliating to admit that we are lost and so it is great blow to our ego to have to admit that and ask for direction and take the advice of our spouse to pull over and ask for direction.  And so now we have voice navigation through GPS devices in our phones and automobiles.  And irony of ironies, we men take directional advice from Siri and other women’s voices that give us directional advice and so women do have  the last laugh on the “lost” men of their lives. It is obvious that the parables that Jesus told about the lost cannot apply to men, since men never believe they are lost and now a woman’s comforting voice in a navigational system can help them maintain the illusion..

  The parables of Jesus about “being lost” provides us with a metaphor to give us some insights about the human condition.

  There is on the grand scale of things the mystical value of being lost.  When one stops for a moment and looks in the sky or at the oceans or at the mountains, one can compare oneself with the grandeur of the encompassing environment of Plenitude and in the humble moment of acknowledging the perspective of all things, one can feel lost in this Plenitude.

  Where do I fit in this vastness or as the Psalmist pondered, “What is man and woman that you are mindful of us.”  Indeed we can feel lost in the Plenitude of all.

  But being lost also has more poignantly felt contextual meaning.    “Being lost” is both bad and good news.

  The bad news about being lost is the sense of disorientation.  It means that nothing seems familiar.  It means that while you are lost, there is no one present to help you.  Being lost takes you away from the care of those who can help you.

  The good side about being lost is that if one is lost, by definition it means that the one who is lost is valuable to the one to whom one belongs.  Being lost means that you are valued and it means that someone is making the effort to seek you out.

  When Jesus came he found the emergency rescue services of the religious establishment to be completely lacking.  There were lots of people in Palestine who were not on the religious radar.  The message of the temple and synagogue was not accessible to lots of people. The religious leader regarded all of these people as being unacceptable to their religious message and Jesus believed that their attitude was a misrepresentation of God.  If these forgotten people were lost, the religious leaders did not know or care.

  Jesus said that these forgotten people were lost and they were worthy of rescue.  Why?  Because they were God’s creation and they were made in the image of God and so they were very valuable to God.  It is the responsibility of any who claims to represents God’s plan on earth to seek out all people who need to know that God loves and cares for them.

  So Jesus offered a resounding critique of the religious establishment.  And certainly that critique is still valid for all people of faith today who neglect the lost.  People of faith are supposed to understand the heart of God.  And the heart of God is to care for everyone.  And those who are lost from reach of care are to be sought out because they are valuable to God.  And if the lost are valuable to God, then they should be valuable to us as well.

  Our inability or unwillingness to recognize the lost is perhaps our greatest sin.  When we look at the puritanical sensitivities of our country, we find that sins that pertain to sexual behavior tend to be the only sins that people recognize today, while the scandal of poverty, illiteracy, injustice, illness and hunger seem to thrive without notice.  There are many people lost in our world in many ways and yet there is blindness or unwillingness of leaders to respond to the lost of our world.

   The message of Jesus was rather straight forward in his time:  God cares for the lost.  And his message is also this:  If we claim to be people of faith, we need to be people who seek out the lost ones, the ones who are valued by God and the ones who have fallen through the cracks of significant human care.

  We should be thankful about what Jesus shows us about the priorities of God.

  First, even in our lives of privilege, we too can feel at times lost.  Lost in loneliness or lost in a situation of loss or crises.  There are many times in our lives that we wish that we could know that God cares for us.  And in those times, the care could come from someone if they only knew about our dilemma.

  The parables of Jesus use the lost and found metaphor for the Christian mission of search and rescue.  But it is also a reminder that we too are often lost in a significant problem or dilemma of life when we need to be found by someone who cares.  Sometimes we find ourselves in need of being befriended by the right person who can get through to us and make us feel like we belong.

  Lost and found is a metaphor for life.  There are many people in life who at any given time are lost.  And there are many people who have the ability to be in the search mode.

  And the truth of it all is God is not going to directly intervene in getting to those who are lost.  God wants to inspire us to a sensitivity to look for the lost and the needy and let them know that they are valuable.  Why would God have so much faith in humanity to leave it up to us to fulfill the search and rescue mission in life that is needed to bring dignity of living to all people?

  God has faith in humanity because God values human freedom.  God has given us enough resources in our world to care for one another. We need to have the insights from our relationship to God to understand what our roles are to be in this lost and found dynamic of life.

  If you are feeling lost, I hope and pray that God will use someone to find you in the way in which you need to be found to affirm to you God’s love and care for you.

  There is another aspect of being lost that is addressed in the parables of Jesus in its specific context.  The tax collectors and sinners were people who obviously knew they needed to change their lives.  They went to Jesus for help and the religious leaders criticized Jesus for having anything to do with them.  So, in the thinking of Jesus, these lost people were valuable to God because they were seeking to change their lives.  The religious leaders were not seeking to change their lives; they were acting as though they had arrived at such a plain of perfection that they could judge the obvious sinners.  Through out the Gospels, Jesus is shown to be one who does not care what a person’s condition is, as long as a person is on the path of repentance or seeking to become better.  A person who is willing to repent is the one whom Jesus is seeking.

  Being lost and found is a metaphor for our lives.  Hopefully, life is showing us that we need to repent and in our efforts to repent, we need God to find us with grace and mercy.  And if we have found grace and mercy for our lives, let us be those who help God find those who feel lost from God’s love and mercy and from human care.  With God’s help you and I can become part of the search and rescue mission that God always wants to do in this world.  Amen.