A Parable As a Mirror for our Lives

4 Lent             March 6, 2016     

Joshua 5:9-12          Ps.32           

2 Cor. 5:17-21     Luke 15:11-32     

Lectionary Link
Catherine:  So, my friends how did you like the Parable of the Irresponsible and Prodigal Son?

Rylie:  Excuse me.  Don't you think it should be called the Parable of the Forgiving Father who could not practice "tough love?"

Sasha:  Excuse me.  Don't you think it should be called the Parable of the Responsible Big Brother who thought his dad favored his younger brother?

Catherine:  Whatever, you want to call this parable, if it were a play, which character would you like to play?  I personally, would not want to be the fatted calf.  You know what happened to him.  Perhaps it would be interesting to be one of the persons who attended the homecoming party.  But if this were a play, which part would you want to play?

Rylie:  I, would of course, love to play the loving and generous father who did not just rejoice when his son returned home, he threw him a big party, bought him a new tuxedo, even though his son had wanted to get far away from his dad and his home and never come back.

Sasha:  Do you really think that you would be that forgiving?  And why wouldn't you give the older brother some credit for always being faithful and staying at home to work for his dad?

Catherine:  That's true, I think everyone could understand why the older brother would have some very hurt feelings.  He was probably thinking?  What the use to be loyal?  There is no reward in being loyal.  So, Sasha, would you like to play the older brother?

Sasha:  Well, he was a bit unforgiving and jealous, but I think everyone can understand why he did not think it was fair.

Rylie: Does anyone want to play the irresponsible and rebellious son?

Catherine:  I would, of course, because playing the bad person would bring out more flamboyant acting scenes.  Can you imagine having all that money and blowing it all on spending sprees and parties.  Wouldn't that be a great role to play?

Sasha:  But what if you had to become a kosher pig farmer, who became so poor that you became jealous of the pigs food?

Catherine:  As an actor, the rebellious child would allow me to explore a full range of acting skills.  What actor wouldn't like that?  The lovable father might seem to be foolish with love.

Rylie:  Yes, he did allow the rebellious to take his inheritance long before he died.  And his son wasted all of his inheritance and then came crawling back home.  I guess I would like to know what Dad said to his son after the homecoming party?  He probably said, "Okay, Junior, the party is over now.  Remember that your older brother has been loyal and faithful.  You are going to have to behave in a way that allows our family to believe in you again.  Are you ready for a life of being responsible?"

Sasha:  Well, that's the part of the story that we do not hear.  The father can be loving and he can welcome his rebellious son back home, but he also can ask that his son change his future behaviors.  He can ask that his young son prove that he can be a good brother,

Catherine:  Well, we have had fun with the story, but it could be that Jesus used stories to teach his listeners.  A story is like a mirror.  If I look into the mirror and see a smudge on my face, then I know I have to wash my face.  If I didn't have the mirror, I would embarrass myself by going into public with a dirty face.

Rylie:  So the story of Jesus is like a mirror.  We can see ourselves in the loving father, in the rebellious son and in the older brother.

Sasha:  We can be loving and forgiving.  We also can be rebellious and sinful.  We can be in need of forgiveness.  We can need to be humble and go and admit that we made a mistake.

Catherine:  We can also be unforgiving like the older brother.  When we are good at something, we might be harsh when people are not good in areas of our strengths and ability.  So we can be judgmental.

Rylie: As people we can find ourselves in all three characters.  We can be loving and forgiving.  We can be rebellious and in need of forgiveness.  And we can be judgmental and jealous.

Sasha: There is one catch though.  God only plays one of the roles.  God is only in the role of the loving and forgiving father.  God is not like the rebellious son or the unforgiving son.  So God just plays one role.

Catherine:  So, today we have this parable of Jesus as a mirror for our lives too.  We can be rebellious and unforgiving, but we also have the ability to be loving and forgiving.  We can learn to be like the loving father.

Rylie:  When we are sinful, we know we need someone who forgives us.   And when we judge someone else we know that others need forgiveness too.  So the younger son and the older son need to grow up and become like the loving father.

Sasha: We too, are always on the path of growing up to be loving, kind and forgiving like God is.

Catherine:  And let us not forget why Jesus told the parable in the first place.

Rylie:  Why did he tell it?

Catherine:  Jesus was criticized by the religious leaders when they saw him eating with people who were not religious.  They did not think Jesus was very religious because they thought he was meeting with sinners and rebellious people.

Sasha:  Jesus came to teach that all people are the children of God.  Nobody has the right to say that someone is not worthy of God's love.  And how can people know that God loves them if someone does not tell them?

Rylie:  Jesus came to remind people that they are God's children and they are invited to come home to God's family.  God will give to everyone a loving welcome.

Catherine:  The Eucharist on Sunday is  God's party to welcome everyone to God's table.

Sasha:  And we all know that there are lots of empty seats at God's table. 

Rylie:  This means that we need to be like Jesus; we need to welcome as many people as possible to know God as our loving and forgiving parent.  We need to invite everyone to God's party.

Catherine:  So, people of St. John's; if Jesus welcomed everyone to God's party of forgiveness, we too need to welcome the people we meet to know God's love and forgiveness.

Sasha:  Amen.

Rylie: Amen.

Nice Play Shakespeare

1 Christmas  C     December 30, 2018

Is.61:10-62:3     Ps. 147:13-21

Gal. 3:23-25,4:4-7  John 1:1-18

Lectionary Link

Youth Sermon for December 30, 2018

1-William Shakespeare was and is probably the greatest playwright of the English language.  Actors for more than four hundred years have wanted to perform his words.  It could be that William Shakespeare performed in his own plays because he was an actor too.  He was a playwright and an actor, and he probably directed too.  He was quite a genius with words both in writing and in acting and in the directing of his plays in the English language.

2-We might understand God as the playwright of the entire world.  But not just the playwright but also the star actor in the great play of the entire world.  Why could we say this?  The writer of the Gospel of John might think so too.  The Gospel writer wrote "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  And everything came into being through the Word."  So, God as Word is the creator or playwright of us existing as human beings.

  

3-But the Word is not just the great Playwright.  The Word became the very best actor too.  The Gospel writer wrote, "The Word became flesh and lived with us."  So, we understand Christ to be the eternal Word and the Playwright of life itself; and Jesus is the star actor of the great play of life created by the Eternal Word Playwright.

4-But is this just some nice poetry?  Does it have any practical meaning for our lives?  What does it mean for us that the Word creates everything?  What does it mean that the Word became flesh in Jesus and lived with us?

1-It could be that what makes us human is the fact that we are language users and our lives are made up of collections of words.  Even though we might think that we are flesh and bones and blood and nerves and brains with thought and hearts with feelings.  Flesh, bones, blood, nerves, brains, hearts and feelings are words that we use to describe ourselves.  Words are what we use to find meaning for our lives.  The best meanings of our lives are what we call truth.

  

2-To find and know truth in our lives, we have to find the best meanings.  To find the best meanings, we need to find people who can be the very best examples for us to teach us the best meanings for our lives.  That is what we believe about Jesus Christ.  He was the best Actor in the great play of life.  He taught us, and he lived the very best meanings of life.  He taught us how to find the best scripts in life to live.  And he gives us the very best acting lessons.

3-In the theater, acting is only pretending to be the person that you are playing.  In the real play of life, acting is not pretending.  It is trying to live out the very best script in all that we do or say.

4-Sometimes we find ourselves acting some bad scripts.  Sometimes we have some bad habit of speaking and acting that we just keep repeating.  We have learned these bad scripts from following the examples of some not so perfect actors and by having some imperfect directors.  We sometimes have accepted less than perfect scripts to follow.

1-What do we do when we find ourselves as bad actors in a bad play with some bad scripts?  The first thing that we do is to accept our freedom.  As actors we can choose the scripts.  As actors we can choose the directors of our play in life.  As actors we can choose the acting teachers to help us do our very best.

2-A good actor is always hoping to get better. A good actor is always looking for better roles.  He or she might look at all the roles that have been played.  An actor might want to play the same role again on stage because he or she might think that the role can be performed better.

3-Today we are about at the end of the year.  We are about to finish Act 2018 of our lives.  Today we may want to be the theater critics of Act 2018 of our lives.  How was our acting this past year?  Where did we improve and get better than we did in 2017?  Did we eat more broccoli and other healthy foods?  But more importantly, how did we do in the most important roles in life?   How did we do with love?  Kindness?  Self-control?  Patience?  Faith?

4-Let us review the scripts that we have followed in 2018 as we prepare for the next big play of our lives, the year 2019.  To write the scripts of our lives for 2019, let us consult the scripts in the Bible to improve our new roles for 2019.  Let us especially study the life of Jesus as our model of best behaviors.  Let us choose good role models who are in our lives now to help write the scripts for 2019.

1-Now the new year can seem like a big challenge and sometimes when we are on the big stage of life we can feel all alone.  But we should remember that we have an entire cast and crew of fellow friends and Christians to help us be the very best in our roles for the New Year.  Don't try to do 2019 alone.  Accept the very best advice and support from the best supporting cast in your life.

  

2-And remember when you think that you are alone on the stage of 2019, remember you have something better than cue cards when you forget your lines.  You have the very best prompter of all; you have God's Holy Spirit inside of you whispering what you need to say and to do.  God's Holy Spirit is with you as you walk on the stage of 2019.

3-Okay.  First Scene of Act 2019.  Quiet on the set. Camera.  Action. Roll.  Break a leg in the New Year!  Good luck.  God bless us as we follow Jesus.  We have been given the Word of God and Jesus as our acting model and teacher.  And may we have many curtain calls at the end of the year.  Amen.

A Little Boy Began the Domino Effect

10 Pentecost cycle b proper 12     July 29, 2018

2 Kings 4:42-44  Psalm 145: 10-19

Ephesians 3:14-21 John 6:1-21

 Lectionary Link

Catherine: Today we have read about the feeding of a large crowd by Jesus in the wilderness.

Caroline: Today, a large multitude of people are being fed garlic products in the Gilroy garlic festival.  Some of our friends are working at this garlic festival at booths for their organizations.

Catherine: We are not here to eat garlic though we can smell it in the air.

Caroline: Jesus fed the multitude with bread and fish and the multitude who were crowded together for this great picnic are probably glad that garlic was not served.  Can you imagine the garlic smog breath in such a large crowd?

Catherine: Since it is youth Sunday, I would like to suggest to you that the Gospel story that we have read is about the youth and the youth contribution to the church, the family, schools and many other places.

Caroline: You mean by being experts in texting, gaming and downloading itunes?

Catherine: No, I mean that when we do something, it can be discounted as something small but something small can really start something big.

Caroline: Like what?

Catherine: It is what is called the domino effect.  You know when you line up dominoes and when you push the first domino, it begins a chain reaction and soon, one by one, all the dominoes fall.  And it is spectacular to watch.

Caroline: But what is the domino effect in our Gospel story?

Catherine: Well, I believe that a little boy and his lunch started everything happening.

Caroline: How so?

Catherine: Jesus saw the crowd and wanted to feed them since they had come out into the wilderness and so he presented the problem to his disciples.

Caroline: The disciples surveyed the situation and said, "We can't feed this large crowd.  We took an inventory and the only food we have is the lunch that has been offered by a young man."

Catherine: And what did Jesus say?  “That's enough.”   And then he made the miracle happen.

Caroline: It is kind of like the parish picnic and the parish brunch.  We look at the list of people who signed up to bring food and it's only a few people.  But when we arrive at the picnic and the brunch we find tons of food and more than enough to eat.

Catherine: It is like the little boy primed the generosity pump.  When he gave his lunch that his mom had packed for him, he became the example for everyone.

Caroline: How so?

Catherine: Well this is what I imagined happened.  I imagine Jesus knew about the crowd.  He knew that the all of the crowd was not without food.  He knew that many people were just like the little boy; they had packed a lunch for themselves, but they kept it hidden.

Caroline: He also knew about kosher laws.  He knew that people would not share food or eating together if they did not know how the food was prepared.  This is why everyone kept food for themselves.

Catherine: The little boy was not concerned about kosher rules; he was ready to share his food with others.

Caroline: So, I can imagine Jesus taking the food given by the little boy.  And he told all  the people to close their eyes because he was going to offer a prayer and blessing.  He raised the boy's lunch up and said, "I thank you Father for the kind heart of this young boy.  He did not just think about his own hunger; he was willing to share all of his lunch with everyone.  Let this be an example to us.  And now Father, when I open my eyes, I would like to see how much food we have for everyone.  Amen."

Catherine: And so what happened when his prayer was finished?

Caroline: When he finished praying, he opened his eyes and suddenly out of those large cloaks with big hidden pockets and from bags that had been carried, there suddenly appeared lots and lots of food.  And there was enough for everyone to eat and even left overs to gather to hand out to the hungry on the way home.

Catherine: And the little boy started it all.  How?

Caroline: He simply offered his lunch.  He shared a little and the result was abundance.  His example of sharing inspired the entire crowd.

Catherine: And this is an important lesson.

Caroline: What's that?

Catherine: It is a stewardship lesson.  When we share a little and invite others to share, we can gather an abundance for our own needs and also have plenty left over to help those in need.

Caroline: The church works in the same way.  We need people to start the domino effect.  It can be young people or older people; anyone with generosity can start the domino effect and see abundance happen.

Catherine: We are young, and we offer our time and talent to the parish and we hope that it will inspire you to offer your time, talent and treasure to our parish for our mission to proclaim and live the Gospel here in Morgan Hill.

Caroline: If we hide and hoard, then abundance cannot happen.  Remember the small giving of the young boy started the experience of abundance for all.

Catherine: At St. John's, we need the generosity of lots of people to become the abundance to sustain our community and also help those in our community who have greater needs than we do.

Caroline: So, just as the little boy who shared his lunch began the work of Christ to make abundance happen, let each of us ask what we need to do to make abundance happen in our parish and for the needs people of our world.

Catherine: The little boys first thought was to share his lunch with all.  And Jesus blessed his sharing with abundance.

Caroline: Let our first thought be sharing our gifts with all too.  And Jesus will bless our sharing with abundance too.  Amen.

Holy Sap?

5 Easter     B  April 29, 2018

Acts 8:26-40 Psalm 22:24-30

1 John 4:7-21  John 15:1-8

Lectionary Link

Alex:  Last week, we read about Jesus being the Good Shepherd and we are sheep of his flock.  This week we move from animal metaphors to plant metaphors and we can understand this metaphor about vines and branches, because everywhere around us we can see vineyards.  Jesus said, “I am the vine and you are the branches.”  And he also said that “God the Father is the Vinedresser or the one who takes care of the vineyard.”  I am wondering where we can find God, the Holy Spirit, in this metaphor about the Vine and branches?

In this metaphor, we would have to say that the Holy Spirit would be the Holy Sap.  That does not sound very nice, because we know it is not nice to call someone a “sap.”

But sap is like plant blood.  It is what keeps a plant alive and well.  So, the Holy Spirit is the Holy Sap, or the flow of life between the branches and the vine.   The Holy Spirit is our connection with Christ and because we have the Holy Spirit we can abide in Christ and Christ can abide in us.

What does the sap allow a plant to do?  It allows a plant to have leaves, blossoms and fruit.  Jesus said that we should bear fruit in our lives.  St. Paul said that there are fruits of the Spirit.  And my friends are going to share with us the fruits of the Spirit.

Stephanie:  Love is a fruit of the Spirit.  Love is so great, that love is the best definition of God.  God is Love.  It is not enough to say that God is love; we also have to love each other and that is not always so easy.  This is way we need the life-giving sap of the Holy Spirit to help us achieve the great fruit of living, the fruit of love.  And one of the fringe benefits is, we can write Country Western Songs, too.

Rebecca: Joy is a fruit of the Spirit.  Joy is different from happiness.  Happiness depends upon what happens; joy is something that we can have even when unhappy things are happening in our lives.  Joy is a fruit and a gift of God and it is like magic.  Why does a tiny little baby smile?  It could be that joy is an original gift of God and fruit of the Spirit because we are just happy and don’t know why we are happy.

Chike: Peace is a fruit of the Spirit.  Peace happens outside of us when people stop fighting and when wars end.  But peace is something inside of us.  If we can find peace inside of us, it will help us be peaceful with each other.  Peace is such a great fruit of the Spirit that we pass the Peace each Sunday, to remind ourselves how important it is for us practice kindness and forgiveness.

Catherine:  Patience is a fruit of the Spirit.  Why do we need patience?  Because we cannot have everything right away when we want it.  We have to wait for many things in life.  Sometimes it is not easy to wait for things.  Patience is required because we live in Time.  Time means we have to wait for new things to happen because we cannot do or have everything all at once.  If we have patience we can learn to wait for the many good things that God wants for us in our lives.  Amen.  I can’t wait for my sermon to get done.  Patience, Catherine, Patience!

Sasha: Gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit.  Why do we like little babies and puppies?  There is something very attractive about gentleness.  Innocence and gentleness awakens something in us and when we see gentleness, we want to be gentle too.  Everyone needs the comfort of gentleness in life because life can bring sadness, suffering and disappointment.  We often need gentleness to heal us and make us feel better again.  This is why gentleness is an important fruit of Holy Spirit.

Daniella: Goodness is a fruit of the Spirit.  We need goodness as a special gift of God’s Spirit because when bad things happen, we can begin to believe that bad things and evil are stronger and more normal than goodness.  The life of God’s Spirit within us is like a deep well of goodness.  This helps us to remember that Goodness is what is natural and normal in life and it reminds us not to let evil and badness have more power in this life than they deserve.  The Fruit of the Goodness helps us to flex our goodness muscles and overcome evil with good.

Alec: Humility of is a fruit of the Spirit.  I wish I could say that I was proud of my humility but that would be a contradiction.  We can be proud of ourselves and have self-esteem but at the same time we can make room for other people to be proud of themselves and have self-esteem too.  When we have the fruit of humility, it means that we have learned to make plenty of room for other people.  A story in the Bible says that the original sin of Lucifer, the Devil, was Pride.  He thought that he was bigger than God and so he revolted.  With the fruit of humility, we can recognize God’s greatness and that God’s greatness provides enough room for everyone.  When we are humble, we do not need to tell people how great we are; we let our actions speak for themselves.

Caroline: Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit.  To be patient we need the fruit of self-control because we can’t have everything exactly when we want it.  We have to have some very strong muscles inside of us to be able to say “no.”  We cannot speed all the time; we have to have the ability to take our foot off the accelerators of our lives.  Self-control means that we all have to learn to be our own heroes, because learning to control our behaviors is the biggest challenge all our lives.  We have to control what we do and say and when we take on some bad habits, we really need the fruit of self-control to help us enjoy the good things through portion control.  If we learn self-control, we can all become our own superheroes.

Rylie:  Wow, there are lots of good clusters of grapes growing on our branches as we remain connected with Jesus as the Vine.  We want to continue to bear the good fruits of Spirit.  We want the Holy Sap of God Spirit flowing inside of us to keep us abiding in Jesus Christ.  We are in the season of spring when we can see the blossoms on the tree.  We want to be fruitful Christians.  And we can be as we abide in Christ.

Jesus, you are the vine and we are your branches.

Holy Spirit, you keep us connected with Jesus to help us grow fruits of the Spirit.

God, we are able to love because you are love.

We thank you for joy, no matter what happens.

We pass the peace because we want to live in peace.

We ask for the strength of Patience to be able find the right time to do the right things.

God, give us gentleness because we often need your comfort and we need to know how to comfort others.

God, in the freedom of life let us make goodness the winner over evil.

Holy Spirit, grant us humility which can be natural as we worship the greatness of God and realize how small we are in this great universe.

And finally, God, give us the fruit of self-control.  Let us learn to do and enjoy everything at the appropriate time and in the appropriate way. 

God, thank you for Jesus the Vine and thank you for the fruits of the Spirit.  Amen.

Simplify the Law

21 Pentecost, Cycle A Proper 25, October 29,2017

Deuteronomy 34: 1-12 Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 Matthew 22:34-46

Lectionary Link

Youth Dialogue Sermon

Caroline:  In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  You may be seated.

Catherine, what are you doing with those big thick books?

Catherine:  They are books of all the laws.

Caroline:  That's a lot of laws.  But why are you carrying them around and why are you looking at your cell phone?

Catherine:  Well, these books list just some of the laws in our country and I don't want to break any laws, anywhere.  How do I know that I won't break a jay walking law in New Jersey, if I have go there?  And I keep looking at my phone to see if my lawyer has called to see if I'm breaking any laws.

Alex:  Well, don't you think that you are obsessing a bit too much about all the rules?

Catherine:  Well, I may be obsessing but that still doesn't mean that I won't break a law.  I just have to be prepared.

Caroline:  There must be a better way to put yourself at ease over the fear of breaking a law.

Catherine:  What do you mean?

Alex: I think she means that not all laws are created equal?

Caroline:  I don't think that is what I meant, but what do you mean that "all laws are not created equal?"

Alex:  I mean that some laws are more important than others.  For example, here's a no brainer:  Is it more important not to kill another person or pick up after your dog in the city park?

Caroline:  I see what you mean.  Of course, it is more important not to kill than to remove that natural dog fertilizer from the city park lawn.  But how does that help Catherine's worry about the laws.

Catherine: Yeah, how can this help me?  I just can't walk around being uninformed about the laws and rules of society.

Alex:  Well, the main worry in life should be about keeping the most important rules.

Caroline:  You mean like the 10 Commandments?

Alex:  Exactly, Catherine, do you know the 10 Commandments.

Catherine:  Yes, I know the Big 10.  And I have mostly kept them, short of a few little "white" lies and borrowing some things from my sister secretly.  And I've probably "coveted" a few times in wanting too much of what I do not have.

Caroline:  So, it was you who borrowed my iPad!  I'm glad you finally confessed!

Catherine:  Okay, but give me some legal help please!

Caroline:  I think Jesus gave some wonderful legal advice.

Alex:  How did he do that?

Caroline:  He wanted to teach people how to think legally and morally so they would know what to do.

Catherine:  How did he do that?

Alex:  Well, he reduced the Big 10 to the Big 3.  And everyone can remember 3 things easier than 10 or the many other rules in life.

Catherine:  And what is the Big 3?

Caroline:  One: Love God.  Two: Love your neighbor.  Three: Love yourself.

Alex:  If we judge everything that we do by loving God, loving our neighbor and loving our self, then we will only want to do what is right by God, by our neighbor and by our self.

Catherine: Okay, but what about all the thousands and thousands of rules?  Are they important?

Caroline:  They are important but important in a different way than how the Big laws are important.

Alex:  Yes, the Torah had 613 rules about some of the small details of life.  There were so many rules that you needed to have rabbis as religious lawyers around to tell you how to keep all the rules.

Caroline:  In the time of Jesus, some of the minor rules were treated as more important than some of the big rules.

Catherine: Like what?

Alex:  Like when Jesus healed people on the Sabbath and the religious leaders said that healing was work and so Jesus should not be doing the work of healing on the Sabbath.

Caroline:  And that is really petty.  If you lift your hand to wash your face or put a piece of bread into your mouth on the Sabbath, isn't that working too?

Catherine:  I can really see how petty things could get.

Alex:  Jesus was more concerned about our motives in our hearts.  He was more concerned about learning how to think legally.

Catherine:  Do you mean that he has given us the Holy Spirit who is like the Law of God inside of us?  And we can consult the Holy Spirit to inform our conscience about doing right and wrong?

Caroline: Bingo.  You've got it.  Now ditch the books sister!

Catherine: Phew!  What a relief.  Jesus has taught me to be a moral and a legal thinker.  Hmmm.  If I do this will it mean that I am loving God, loving my neighbor and loving myself?  If I can answer "yes" do these, then I should be safe in choosing what to do.

Alex:  I'm glad that Jesus simplified the law for us, but it doesn't make it any easier.

Caroline:  Why do you say that?

Alex:  Well trying to love is never finished and we can always get better at doing loving things.

Catherine:  I agree.  Loving God, our neighbor and ourselves is a lifelong adventure and we never get finished.

Caroline:  Well, I've got some good news and some bad news for everyone today.

Alex:  What's the bad news?

Caroline:  You have 613 rules to learn from the Old Testament and you probably are breaking many of them?

Catherine:  What's the good news?

Alex:  The good news is that the Big 10 and the even bigger Big 3 help us sort out the most important laws.

Caroline:  But even better, Jesus promises to change our lives from within so that we can always be at work loving God, loving our neighbors and loving ourselves.

Catherine:  That's probably a good place to stop.  The law is not God's gift to us to make us petty and worried about doing wrong.  God law is an invitation for all us to become better lovers of God, our neighbors and yes, ourselves.  Can you say, Amen?

Everyone:  Amen.