Hell As Wasting One's Life

18  Pentecost Cycle B Proper 21 September 30, 2012

Numbers 11:4-6,10-16,24-29  Ps 19

James 4:7-12        Mark 9:38-43,45,47-48

 Lectionary Link

  In Mark’s Gospel, the writer goes to great pain to show how immature and unenlightened the 12 disciples were when they walked with Jesus.  In a sense these unenlightened disciples are straw men for the writer to show what people were like before and after the post-resurrection experience and the experience of receiving the Holy Spirit.  The early church knew what the 12 disciples minus Judas had become; but they weren’t always heroes and martyrs.  They were sometimes clueless when they walked with Jesus. In a real sense, the disciples only became truly aware and informed after Jesus was gone.  So the intent of the Gospel is show how even the believing disciples had to go through repentance and growth in life.  The Gospels highlight that repentance and growth are the natural process of spiritual life.

  In the Gospel of Mark, we have been reviewing some of the pre-resurrection  behavior of the 12 disciples:  Peter confessed Jesus to be the Messiah, but he was ignorant of what that meant.  The disciples argued about who would be greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  The disciples offended Jesus when they tried to keep children away from him.  And what were our keystone cops up to in the Gospel for today?

 They were seized with rivalry and jealousy.  Someone else was casting out demons and doing good works and it wasn’t officially sanctioned by them. Like tattling little children the disciples went to Jesus and said: They’re casting out demons, we told them to stop, and they didn’t obey.  They didn’t follow us. And what did Jesus say?  “Whoever is not against us is for us.”  Guys, you’re wasting your time picking the wrong battles.

  The pages of Church history are full of this kind of rivalry.  We can get very jealous by the good deeds that are done by people of other religious groups or denominations.  Why was this good deed not cleared by me in advance?  Imagine other people doing something good and not getting my sanction first!  Somehow the good deed can’t really be good unless it is sanctioned by someone on our side.  This only goes to show you that adults can behave in very childish ways.  It also shows how truth and defining good can end up being about more administration and party loyalty than about the actual benefit to people.

  I think what Jesus was trying to say to his disciples is that rivalry is just wasted energy.  Rivalry is also counter-productive; it can offend and turn people off to the Gospel.  If we preach the Gospel without Gospel behavior then our behavior will turn people off to our message.  Jesus had very harsh words for those who were stumbling-blocks; those who did not perform the Gospel and thereby kept others from knowing the benefit of the Gospel for their lives.

  And then we have the exaggerated language of Jesus:  If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off.  If your foot causes you stumble, cut it off.  If your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out.  This sounds very severe and barbaric but such shocking language is often found from the lips of Jesus.  It reminds me of something my father used to say to me very often: “Cut it out Phil.”  And I never took that in a literal way.  “Cut it out, simply means, stop it!  I wonder if the origin of this phrase isn’t from the Gospel?

  The Gospel lesson is also a warning about wasting our lives.   What is rivalry and jealousy?  It is essentially a waste of the energy of our lives that could be used better elsewhere.

  The literally meaning of the word hell is waste!  Gehenna is one of the New Testament Greek word for hell, along with Hades and Tartarus.   Actually, it is a Hebrew word for a location that is transliterated in Greek.  Gehenna refers to the garbage dump near Jerusalem in the Valley of Hinnom.  It was where the animal carcasses were disposed of and burned.  It was a despised place because of all of the purity code legislation against touching dead things and human waste.  So the most literal, and in my mind, the most shocking meaning of hell is “waste.”

  The sad thing in life is to be given the energy of life and to use what we’ve been given in ways that harm others and ourselves.  That is horror of waste.  In the strongest terms possible, Jesus was saying, “Don’t waste our lives.  Don’t waste our energy on petty rivalry.  Eyes, hands, feet: Seeing, working and living are symbolic of the human vocation.  If our work does not honor God and serve people and fulfill our lives; then we need to stop it.  If the way we see life (our doing nothing about our state of ignorance), does not honor God and help us make wise decision for ourselves and others; then we are acting as though we are blind.  If our life’s path, the way in which we walk, does not honor God and take us to excellence; not walking at all would at least not take us in a bad direction.  It is better not to walk at all, than to cause harm to others.  While all of this sounds very harsh, it really shows the belief that Jesus has in the human capacity to take corrective action.  One of the aims of the Gospel is to promote repentance.  Jesus believed in the power of the individual to repent.  I think that Jesus was more optimistic about the human ability to repent than either St. Paul or Martin Luther.  The belief in repentance is an optimism about what a person can do when energized by God’s Spirit.

  The words of Jesus indicate that corrective behavior is not always easy.  Cut it off.  Tear it out.  These are radical term, because sometimes behavior can only be changed by beginning a total fast from a previous behavior.  In AA, alcoholics know that sobriety is achieved only by never taking another drink.  It requires a total fast from alcohol to restore order to their lives.  Addictive behaviors sometimes require a total fast to prevent something from becoming the controlling idol of life.

  The message of the Gospel today is a challenge about waste.  Are we wasting our lives?  With petty rivalry?  With the misuse of any human capacity or ability?

  Jesus calls us to repentance, and if that means a radical fast, to change addicting and destructive behavior, then we are commanded by Christ to do it.

  Jesus only commanded what he believed was possible.  And he believed that we can transform wasted lives into fruitful and productive lives that both please God and serve the people in our lives.

  Hell-fire and brimstone preachers; don’t be afraid of their hot air.  But be very provoked by the literal meaning of hell as expounded by Jesus of Nazareth.  Hell is waste.  Jesus confronts us about wasting our lives.  And he provoked us to do something about it, because he believes that we can. By turning to him, we can find the Spirit as the higher power within us to help us reclaim every area of our lives that have been affected by wasteful behavior.

  Let the shocking language of Jesus be for us a message of hope for us that we can reclaim our lives from all effects of wasteful behavior.  Salt has several purposes in life but if those purposes are never discovered then salt cannot express its purpose.  Each person has a God-purpose in life and each of us need to find our God-purpose.  If we find our God purpose in life we will be like salt.  We will help to preserve life and we will help to make life much tastier. May the words of Jesus help each of us to find our God-purpose in life.  Amen.

A Child As a Teaching Occasion

17  Pentecost Cycle b Proper 20   September 23, 2012

Wisdom of Solomon 1:16-2:1, 12-22Ps. 54

James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a Mark 9:30-37      

Lectionary Link

    One could make the case that the goal of the entire biblical tradition is to train a person in wisdom.  Some have found that the most suitable way to characterize the way in which Jesus presented himself was as a wisdom teacher.  He used parables and riddles to stimulate the learning event for his followers.  Wisdom is more than information and more than knowledge; wisdom pertains to the complete art of good living.  It is knowledge in the pragmatic action of ones lives.  Wisdom involves the integration of all of the best ways of being human.  The writer of the letter of James is within this wisdom tradition of Jesus.  He writes:  Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. …. the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.

  In the wisdom teaching of the Gospel one can find some overarching metaphors that provide us to the hints of what Jesus of Nazareth was trying to leave as his legacy to the art of good living.  We are so used to our doctrines that perhaps we are not practiced in imagining how they must have functioned in their original settings.  Take for example the notion of God as Father.  A rather important notion in our Trinitarian doctrine, but what does it mean when Jesus refers to God as his Father and why would that parental title be important in his context?  Could it be true that Jesus found in his setting that the general level of nurture in Palestine to be completely lacking?  What was the model of adult caretaking in Palestine?  Well, the ultimate adult of the time was the Caesar in Rome and his nurture through all of his surrogates was the brute expression of power.  People like King Herod and Pontus Pilate and all of their agents were the eyes and ears and boots on the ground for the Caesar.  The most impressive experience and modeling of adulthood in Palestine was the experience of having power and positions over others.  And in their oppressed communities, Jesus perceived the religious leaders to be emphasizing the power aspect of their religious authority.  So idealized adulthood in Palestine was seen has having obvious power over other people.

  And that kind of thinking also was present in the disciples of Jesus?  What did they want?  What did they argue about behind the back of Jesus when he was gaining a following?  “Well, Jesus is getting to be well known.  He may be the one who will be the next great leader.  And so it is time to think about what my position will be in the administration of Jesus.”  So even the disciples were presented as being power hungry; after all that is the adult task in life, to wield power over others.

  We find in the wisdom tradition of Jesus some interesting emphases.  The Fatherhood of God is revealed in the face of profound failure of the power of nurture of dependent people in Palestine.  And if people have been very poorly parented what do they need?  They need to be re-programmed; they need to be re-parented and in such a drastic way that they need to be re-born.  What did the skeptical Nicodemus ask?  How can I be re-born?  How can I get back to my mother’s womb?  As skeptics we might ask, how can I be a child again?

  In the wisdom teaching of Jesus he constantly uses the motif of the child.  The kingdom of heaven is hidden from the wise and revealed to infants.  Jesus performed lots of his miracles on children and often those who were designated as “possessed by unclean spirits.”  One can note that traditional religion can be presented in a way to give bad parents an excuse to inflict trauma on their children.  The book of Leviticus gives the permission to stone an insolent child.  Others writings in the Hebrew Scriptures warn parents about “sparing the rod and spoiling the child.”  I highly suspect that Jesus came into an environment where children were often abused or traumatized, even to the point what we today call “dissociative disorders” that may have had the general diagnosis of “demon possession” in the time of Jesus.

  I find in the Gospel that Jesus of Nazareth is presented as having a great affinity for children.  He must have been aware of their vulnerable situation so much so that his recommendation for anyone who offended one of these little ones was rather harsh: put a millstone around their neck and cast them into the sea.    In his fascination for vulnerable children, Jesus also found the perfect metaphor for his teaching.

To understand the kingdom of God or to understand how the invisible presence of God is all around us, one has to be able to access the child-like capacity of wonder.

  Jesus found in Palestine and even amongst his disciple those who could not access their child-like capacity of wonder.  They perhaps had it beaten out of them by the adult world of power.  And so they had conformed themselves to the adult world.  To be adult is to have power and to use it.  So the disciples imagined a kingdom with Jesus in charge and where they would be able to exercise authority and power.

  Jesus said, “Forget guys, look at this child here.”  Why have you missed the point?  If you welcome this child into your care, then you’ve understood how God is my Father and parent to all. Life isn’t about being important in my administration; it is about using one’s power to help the vulnerable.”

  I invite us to this wisdom of Jesus today.  As people who grow up we are gradually surpassing ourselves in age.  We may see ourselves as always leaving behind us the former ages of our lives but if I am 62 I include in myself all states of being the person named Phil from my conception.  And I include in my years memories of how I was Phil at different ages.  I include in myself the experience of being happy and helpful and joyful for no reason at all.   So in my severe adulthood, I need to learn how to access receptive aspects of my personality to awaken the kind of wonder and curiosity that is needed for me to see behind what is presented to my eyes.  This is the kind of seeing that is needed to know God’s presence in the world.  This is the kind of sensitivity with which one can identify the sublime.

  We often need re-parented and re-programmed when we've gotten ourselves caught up in the severe adulthood trap of life being about grabbing power for ourselves rather than receiving the power that we have as power to care for others.

  I believe the wisdom of Christ and the child motif is a part of intergenerational age therapy that we all need.  How many people sit in skilled nursing centers who feel like they have no worth because they are no longer strong to compete?  In intergenerational age therapy a person accepts one’s own age as a public witness to the world of what it is like to be 82, 72 or 52 or 12.  We all need to model our age to each other as the age that we all once were or might be some day.  But at any age, we need to learn how to be the receptive child to the presence of God and at the same time we need to take up the gifts that we have at any age to serve the community.  And our gifts are not measured in dollars and cents.  A baby can just plain delight us without earning a dime, and each person can represent their age with delight of their worth and gift to the world even as they are always in the child-like receptive mode for the wonder of God’s presence that morphs itself in myriad ways into our lives.

  Let us accept the intergenerational reality of our lives and represent our age well, even as we access a child-like receptivity to the Sublime behind the ordinary.  And where we have come into our adult power and maturity, let us use that power and maturity to be a part of God’s effort to re-parent persons in this world who have not had the advantage of beneficial nurture.  And in so doing we will understand why Jesus came to teach his disciple about his relationship with God as his Father, his parent who sent him to re-parent those who fell through the full blessing of effective parenting nurture in this world.

  Let the Gospel today give us new insights in how we might be better adults in the art of living well and and living with wisdom.  Amen.

Having a Patient Tongue

A lesson in Patience  from the Letter of James

Characters:  James and Kerry

Video Link: Click here

James:  Boys and girls, welcome to chapel today.  My names is James.  And I wrote a letter that became a part of the famous book called the Bible.  Can you saw Bible?  And I….

Kerry: Hi!  How are you doing?  My name is Kerry.

James: Kerry, I was trying to talk to the children…

Kerry: Can I go outside and play?  Can I have some ice cream?  Can I go to the store?

James:  Kerry, we are not doing any of that today.  And you need to stop interrupting.  You need to wait your turn to speak.  In fact I was about to teach these boys and girls something.  Do you think you can be silent for a few minutes.

Kerry: I don’t know if I can.  I just want to talk all of the time?  How do I stop talking?

James:  Well, that is what I am going to talk about today.  I would like to give you a riddle.  Do you like riddles?

Kerry:  Yes, but what is a riddle?

James: A riddle is a problem that you have think about.  And my riddle is this: What is a very small muscle that might be the strongest muscle of the body?

Kerry: That’s hard.  Is it the stomach muscle? 

James: No, Kerry.  Boys and girls, what do you think your smallest and strongest muscle is?  Is it your arm muscle?  Let me see your arm muscle?  Is it your leg muscle?  Let me see your leg muscle?  No, those are bigger muscles.  Do you know what muscle I am talking about?

Kerry: No…please tell us.

James:  The smallest but strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.  Let me see your tongue.  What do you use your tongue for?

Kerry:  I use it to lick an ice cream cone. 

James: But do you use your tongue to talk?

Kerry:  Yes, I use my tongue to talk.  But how is my tongue strong?

James: Our tongue is strong because when we speak we can do some very strong things.  A general can talk and all of the soldiers will go into a battle.  And that is strong.  But our tongue is so strong it can hurt people.  Do you like bad things said to you? 

Kerry:  No, I don’t …bad things can hurt my feeling and make me feel sad and cry.  I guess the tongue is strong enough to hurt our feelings.

James:  But a tongue is also strong enough to help people and make them feel better.  What if I say to you that you are a very good girl and you are growing up to be strong.  What if I say that I like you?  What if I say can I help you?  What if I say nice and kind things to you?

Kerry: I would like that.

James:  Do you see how strong the tongue is?  It can do nice things and very bad things.  But the tongue has to be controlled.

Kerry: Sometimes, I want to talk all of the time.  How do I stop my tongue?

James:  Well, you need to have a patient tongue.  If your tongue is patient, you wait your turn to speak.  When you are patient, you raise your hand in class before you speak.  If you do that you will have a patient tongue.

Kerry: But it is hard to have a patient tongue.

James:  Kerry, I believe that you and these boys and girls are superheroes?

Kerry:  How are we superheroes?

James:  You are superheroes because you are strong enough to control what your tongue says.  You are strong enough to have a patient tongue.  You are strong enough to say kind and nice things and to wait your turn to speak.

Do you think you can be that kind of superhero?

Kerry:  Well, I’ll try.

James:  Good, then you and all of the boys and girls repeat after me:  “I am a strong super hero.”

Kerry:  I am a strong super hero.

James:  I have a patient tongue.

Kerry:  I have a patient tongue.

James: Good so now you can practice being a super hero today because you are strong enough to have a patient tongue.

What We Can Learn from a Child

Cycle B Proper 20

Gospel Puppet Show

Characters:  Jesus, Peter and John

(John and Peter are speaking)

John: I am so glad that we’re friends with Jesus.  When Jesus becomes the King of this land, I’m sure he will pick me to be his president.

Peter:  But I am closer to Jesus and I am also stronger than you are.  John, you will let people run over you.  Jesus need a strong leader to be his president.

John:  No Peter, I think that I will have the better position when Jesus is King because you lose your temper.  Jesus needs a calm person to be his president.

Peter (shouting real loud):  I don’t lose my temper.  I don’t get angry.  I just raise my voice to make a point.

John:  Well, it looks like you’re losing your temper.  In fact the other disciple think that you can be a very hot head.  That’s why Jesus needs me to be his president.

Peter: He does not.

John:  Does so.

Peter: Does not.

John Does so.

Peter: Just wait, Jesus will pick me to be his highest assistant.

John: No he won’t, he will pick me.

Jesus(suddenly appears):   Hey, Peter, hey John, what were you talking about.  I thought I heard you speaking very loudly.

Peter:  We weren’t talking about anything.

John: We were arguing about who caught the biggest fish.

Jesus: Are you sure about that?  I want to tell you something about my kingdom.  My kingdom is different from other kingdoms.

Peter: How is your kingdom different?

Jesus:  Well, in my kingdom the King is the one who serves people.  And anyone who wants to be a president also has to serve people.

John:  What kind of King is that?  Aren’t people supposed to serve the king?  Aren’t people supposed to obey the orders of the president.

Jesus: My kingdom is different than that?

Peter: But it is not like the kingdoms we know.  It’s not like the King of Rome, the Caesar or like the famous King David.

John: Jesus how do you expect us to understand your kingdom.

(Father Phil bring a baby)

Jesus: Do you see this baby?

Peter: Yes.

Jesus: If you want to understand my kingdom, you have to become like this baby.

John:  It is very hard for us to be babies again.  What do you mean?  Are you talking in riddles again?

Jesus:  Well, yes I am.  You have to become like this baby.  What I mean is that you’ve learned the wrong way and the wrong things about my kingdom.  You have to erase you’re wrong thinking.  You have to become like this baby and be re-educated again.

Peter:  But you know we have lots of habits.  You know you can’t teach an old dog, new tricks.

Jesus:  But if you learn about my kingdom and the importance of service then you will be able to learn new things.

John:  It is hard to learn new things.

Jesus:  But when serve people you get the reward of helping people and that will make you happy.  You can learn that serving and helping people is better than making them serve and help you.  And that is the secret of my kingdom.

Peter: Well, we’ve got a lot to learn.  And I have to confess now.  John and I were arguing about who would be the most important people in your kingdom.

John:  I am ashamed that I misunderstood your kingdom.  I now understand the importance of service.  And I should have known, just by watching you.

Peter:  Thank you Jesus for this lesson about serving and helping other people.

Jesus: Boys and girls, can you remember this secret about the kingdom of God?  It is all about learning how to serve and help others.  Can you remember this?

Wisdom and the Gospel As Spiritual Method

15 Pentecost Proper19  September 16, 2012

Proverbs 1:20-33 Psalm 116:1-8

James 3:1-12  Mark 8:27-38

Lectionary Link

  It seems as though the writer of the book of Proverbs presents Wisdom as rather unforgiving.  I quote: “I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when panic strikes you,”  And though this might seem cruel, I believe that it represents the reality of ignorance in not understanding the clash of the various systems of natural law and human behavioral responses.  We have wisdom clichés that state the same principles: “If you play with fire, you’ll get burnt.”  Buddhism is a wisdom philosophy and one of their chief understandings is that in a great part “suffering is caused by ignorance.”  Not knowing leaves us at a disadvantage in life.   If we could cure the gross ignorance of the world how much could we reduce the amount of suffering?  If I could cure my own gross ignorance, how much of my own suffering could I reduce?

  The writer of the book of Proverbs presents a natural theology; God as Wisdom can be discovered and known by simple observation.  But is the attaining of wisdom really just natural or does it have to be learned within the traditions of a particular community?  And are the findings and practices of wisdom in one age adequate for the practice of another age?  I think that one could make the claim that the Bible is a book of the unfolding of wisdom in the belief and practices of various communities of people.  And this would mean that wisdom is still in the process of being unfolded and known to us.  The Bible is not to be a limitation to details of ancient practice of wisdom; it is to be an invitation to us to be engaged in the current work of the discovery of wisdom in our lives and the practice in the situations that confront us here and now in the year 2012.  In fact, one can even say that what was once regarded to be the ancient practice of wisdom now seems to be ignorant or at the least irrelevant.  We don’t see the need to keep from our diet shell fish or pork though ancient religious prescription did so.  We don’t see the need to restrict the roles of women or practice slavery for economic well-being.  In this regard we find so called “ancient wisdom” to be even cruel ignorance.

  I do not believe that any one can observe nature with pristine eyes and see things how they “really are.”  We only see things through the lenses of culture and tradition which we inherit from our communities of birth and our current interaction with the communities of influences.  And just as communities and traditions grow in adjusting wisdom to new situations, so too we as individuals need to grow and adjust and discover wise practices in our moment by moment situations.  If we look at the world communities today we can find lots of conflict over how wisdom traditions are practiced in various countries and communities.  In America we admit that the free speech tradition permits tasteless speech, sacrilegious and disrespectful speech and cruel speech and the free speech practice is not appreciated in other cultures that do not share the same free speech traditions.

  And when we think about the free speech tradition in our country, we can note the wisdom from the epistle of James.  What the writer of James reminds us about is that the tongue is perhaps the smallest and most powerful muscle of the human body.  One does not have to be a politician to put one’s foot in one’s mouth.  How many of us have regretted at times things that we have said?  Every thought that we have does not need to be said or published.  Our social media today allows things to be published and  made public without proper thought for self-censorship to take place.  We are in the age of “too much information.”  We are in the age of the practice that everything that can come to language and publication, should come to language and publication.  I’m not against the free speech tradition but the wisdom tradition of James encourages all of us to adopt a policy of self-censorship otherwise known as the fruit of the Spirit of self-control.

  So how do we attain this Spirit of self-control?  How can we make free speech the blessing of truly creative speech that is used to bring goodness and kindness to our world?

  Wisdom needs a strategy or it is wishful thinking or mere academic thinking.  We often would like to make the Gospels into academic thinking; simply treating them as theological words on the page that we need to have the correct view about.  In wanting my position to be declared the correct position, I can be obsessed with orthodoxy or right belief as a way of declaring that I hang around with the right crowd.  I think that the Gospel writings that originally were read as liturgy to mostly illiterate congregants are more about orthopraxy, that is, they are a spiritual methodology more concerned with wise practice rather than correct belief.

    So how does the Gospel reading as our liturgy promote wisdom and self-control that could extend to the control of our speech?

  Remember we don’t read this Gospel as an eyewitness recording of the actual life of Jesus; we read it as the method of the early church using the story of Jesus to teach a spiritual method for the growth and renewal of one’s life.

  In this method the church is taught that having the correct confession does not mean that one has wise practice.  Peter is used as a teaching foil; he is the one who had the correct confession but he did not have the wisdom and the practice of that confession.  It was not enough to know that Jesus was the Messiah.  For Peter, being the Messiah and the Messiah’s follower meant that one was on the triumphant winning side such that nothing of loss or disappointment could happen.   But this was revealed as ignorant thinking and untrue to life; bad things do happen to good people, in fact, a very bad thing happened to the Messiah and he was not any less the Messiah because of the bad death that happened to him.

  And in the early church, there were teaching catch phrases:  “taking up one’s cross,” and “dying to one’s self.”  These phrases express the method of wisdom, knowledge and education.  We die each day to a state of mind that is exposed as ignorance through further education and wisdom.  But as ignorance is exposed by wisdom, then we have the ability for more self-control, more intelligent action, more intelligent and wisdom in our speech.

  Today the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not words on the page to believe in a certain way; it is the invitation to a method of coming to progressive wisdom in our lives so that we may excel in wise practice and in wise speech.  And what is the desired goal?  To live and speak the Good News of God in Christ in our lives.  Amen.

James: The tongue is the smallest mightiest muscle

Gospel Puppet Show

September 16, 2012

Kathyrn as the emcee; and James

Kathryn: Welcome boys and girls to Sunday School Puppet Theatre.  Today I am going to interview a famous man.  He wrote a letter and this letter became a part of the Bible.  Let’s give a big applause to our guest today.  Welcome James.  Thank you for being with us today.

James:  I’m happy to be here today but I thought that I was going to be talking to old people; but I’m looking at these people and they are not old people, they are beautiful young children.  Hi, Kids, how are you doing?  Thank you for coming today.

Kathryn: James, you wrote a very famous letter?  What was the name of your letter.

James: It doesn’t have a difficult name; it’s call the letter of James.  It could be called a letter from me, James to the church.

Kathryn:  What happened to your letter that it became so famous?

James:  Well, I was writing to give some advice about how to live a good life by learning from Jesus Christ.  I sent this letter to one person and he shared with other people and they shared it with others and like the most famous chain letter, it soon was shared with lots of people.

Kathryn:  Well, it must have been very popular.  It must have had some very good advice.

James:  Well, I hope so.  I just want people to be successful in living good lives and so I am happy to share this letter with everyone.

Kathryn:  Well, it was shared with so many people and so many people read it that it became a part of the Bible.  And now people have been reading your letter for 2000 years.  But today, you want to share something from your letter that you wrote.

James: I want to share with you a riddle.

Kathryn:  Okay, what’s your riddle?

James:  What is one of the smallest but most powerful muscles in the human body?

Kathryn:  What do you think kids?  What is the smallest most powerful muscles in the body?  Is it your biceps?  Your triceps?  Your thigh muscles?  Your calf muscles?  Those are strong muscles but they are also big muscles.

Okay, we give up James.  What is the smallest, most powerful muscle in the body?

James:  The smallest but most powerful muscle in the body is the human tongue.

Kathryn: Now that’s a surprise.  The tongue cannot lift a heavy weight.  The tongue cannot run a long race.  The tongue cannot jump.  The tongue cannot throw a football.  How is the tongue the strongest muscle?

James:  The tongue is the smallest and strongest muscles because what can we do with the tongue?

Kathryn:  Well, I use my tongue to lick an ice cream cone.  I think the children are very good at that too.  But does your tongue have to be strong to lick an ice cream cone or to eat?

James:  Well, no but what else do you use the tongue for?

Kathryn:  We use our tongues for talking.  But does that make our tongue strong?

James:  Yes, talking and speaking with our tongue makes our tongues the strongest muscle in our bodies.

Kathryn:  How does talking with our tongue make us strong?

James:  When a general speaks an order to all of the soldiers can he make them go to battle?

Kathryn: Yes, he can.

James: So talking can start a army to go to battle.  Can a tongue heal a person and make them better?

Kathryn:  Well, yes it can.  When I am sick and someone tells me that they love me and they are praying for me, I feel much better.

James:  A tongue is so strong that it can hurt people too.

Kathryn:  Yes, when people say mean things to us and when they hurt our feelings, it can make us feel very bad.  And now I understand your riddle.  A tongue is a very strong muscle.

James:  Yes, it is very strong and so we have to use our tongue in the right way.  We have to use it to speak words of love and kindness.  We have to use it to teach others.  We have to use it to encourage each other and help each.

Kathryn:  Yes, and we have to use it to lick ice cream cones too.

James:  Yes, a tongue is good for licking ice cream too.

Kathryn:  Mr. James, thank you for sharing your riddle with us today.

James:  You’re very welcome.  And children can you remember how great your tongues are?  If your tongues are very strong muscles, can you use them today to help to say words of love and encouragement?  If you can do this then your tongues will be a very powerful force of love in our word.

Kathryn:  Children, repeat after me:  I will use my tongue to speak powerful words of love and kindness.

James:  Amen.

Noah's Ark Puppet Show on Patience

Chapel Time Puppet Show

A lesson in Patience and Noah’s ark

Characters:  Fr. Phil in front of theatre, Noah and Roary the Lion in the ark

Father Phil:  Boys and girls today we are going to learn about patience and we’re going watch a puppet show to help us learn.  I want to introduce to you a very famous man who built a very big boat.  This man name is Noah.  Noah, welcome.  Take a bow.

Noah:  Hello boys and girls, my name is Noah.  And I am in my big boat.  Do you know what we call my big boat?  We call it Noah’s ark.

Father Phil:  Noah, why did you build a big boat?

Noah:  Well, God told me it was going to rain.  God told me there was going to be a big flood.  God told me to build a big boat so I could save my family from the flood.

Father Phil:  Did you save anyone else from the flood?

Noah:  Yes I did. I built the boat big enough bring lots of animals with me.  I brought mommy and daddy animals on the ark so they could be safe during the flood.  And after the flood is over they can have baby animals.

Father Phil:  Noah that is very kind, but isn’t it difficult traveling on a boat with all of those animals?  Doesn’t it smell?

Noah:  Yes, it does smell so I just open the window.  And the hippopotamus snores real loud at night.  And he has really bad breath.   Yuk..yuk..yuk.  But I love my animals.

Father Phil: Do you have any problem with the animals?

Noah:  Yes, I have a problem with Roary the Lion.

Roary the Lion (appears):  Heh.  I heard that Mr. Noah.  Did you call me a problem?  I’m not a problem.  I’m Roary the Lion.  Roar!   Can I go out and play now?  Can I go out and play now?

Noah:  Roary, you’re not a problem but you have a problem with patience.  I have told you that we had rain for 40 days and 40 nights and we cannot go outside and play.  We’re stuck on a boat.  Can you swim if there is no place to go?

Roary:  No, I live in a jungle.  I don’t live in the water.  I am not a swimming animal.  But I want to go outside and play.  It’s no fun staying inside the boat with all of the stinky animals.

Noah:  Roary, you need to learn patience.  Did you know that you need patience to save your life?

Roary:  What do you mean?

Noah:  If I let you go out of the boat, you would be lost in the flood.  If you are not patient you might jump out of the boat into the water and we would lose you.  We don’t want to lose you in the very deep water.

Roary:  But I am a lion and I need to be out doors in the jungle.  I don’t like to be trapped on this boat.

Noah:  I know Roary.  Being patient is difficult but it will save your life.  Just wait for more time and it will stop raining.

(Roary goes off scene and then jumps up)

Roary:  Can I go outside now?

Noah:  Not yet.  It stopped raining but the water is still too deep.  Be patient.

(Roary goes off scene and then jumps up)

Roary:  Roary, be patient.

Noah:  Boys and girls can you help me remind Roary?  Can you say, “Roary be patient!”

Boys and girls: Roary be patient! 

Roary: Okay.

(Roary goes off scene)

The water recedes.

Noah:  Roary, come here.  Now you can go outside.  The water has gone down and now you can go back to your jungle.

Roary:  Roar!  I am very happy now.  And I am happy that I learned a lesson.  Be patient and soon we can do what we want to do.

Noah:  Children can you learn patience today?

Children:  Yes, we can.

Noah:  Yes you can!  Thank you.