Children Can Be "People Whisperers too"

5 Pentecost, Cp7, June 23, 2013   

1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a  Psalm 42

 Gal. 3:23-29   Luke 8:26-39

 Lectionary Link

  Have you ever been to a circus?  Have ever seen someone who works with animals?  With wild animals?  Have you seen a lion tamer?  Or have you seen someone who teach a dog to do amazing tricks?

  Have you ever taught your dog some tricks? Can you get the dog to fetch a ball?  Or roll over?  Or sit?  Or does your dog train you to feed it whenever it wants?

  Some people have a special gift with animals.  A person who can tame a wild horse is sometimes called a horse whisperer.  A horse whisper has such a calming effect upon the horse so that the horse will become very friendly and peaceful.  Sometimes a horse is wild and seems to be angry because the horse has been taught to be fearful and not trust anyone.

  Did you know that as people we can have things that make us wild?  Do you know what can make us wild?  Pain, loss and fear can make us wild.

  Do you ever remember falling and hurting yourself and all you can do is scream in pain; you cannot do anything else.  Pain makes us seems as though we are wild.  Fear also makes us seem like we are wild.  Losing important things and people in our lives makes us have a sadness and this sadness controls our lives.

  Just as a wild horse needs a horse whisperer; we as people need people whisperers.

  When we hurt ourselves, we need our parent or someone with us to hold us and help us, to give us a band aid.  We need someone to calm us down from the wildness caused by pain.

  When we are afraid, we need a people whisperer; we need someone with us to show us that we are safe and that everything is okay.

  Jesus was a wonderful person because he was a people whisperer.  Jesus knew how to calm and tame people from the wildness of pain and fear.  We have many stories of Jesus helping people when they suffered from pain and fear; he gave them hope and encouragement and he made them peaceful and calm just to be with them.

  And Jesus wants us to be people whisperers too.  He wants us to learn how to be with each other when we are hurt by pain and fear.  Everyone has pain and fear at some time in their lives and so it is very important that we learn how to be people whisperers with each other.

  We need to know how to be with each other in pain and fear.  When your friend gets hurt on the playground what do you do?  You try to help them; you run and get help, you call 911 if they are really hurt badly.  When people are in the hospital what do you do?  You visit them, you send them cards or flowers, you pray for them, you let them know that you care.

  Why?  Because Jesus wants us to be people whisperers.  Jesus wants to know how to help each other when we have pain and fear.

  Can you say today, “I will be a people whisperer when people are in pain or fear?”  Because I want to be cared for too when I have pain or fear.  Amen.

Noah's Ark Puppet Show: Vacation Bible School

Vacation Bible School

Puppet Show

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

We are Water and Rainbow People

God’s Salvation is God’s Promise to us

Characters:

Narrator

Noah

Noah’s wife: Emzara

Noah’s Son : Shem

Shem’s wife: Sedeqetlebas   (nickname? Sadie?)

Noah’s son: Ham

Ham’s wife: Ne’elataum’ak  (nickname?  Nellie?)

Noah’s son: Japheth

Japheth’s wife: Arbasisah  (nickname?  Arby?)

Animals for the ark (see inventory)

Jesus

Disciples of Jesus

Songs: Arky, Arky   (five verses to be sung as the puppet story develops)

             Mr. Noah Built an Ark,  (to Old MacDonald)  see the words below

             Here come’s Jesus, See him walking on the Water

Puppet Show

Narrator: (can be any puppet including an animal puppet)

A long, long time ago the great cities of the world were built upon famous Rivers.  The Tigris, the Euphrates, the Nile are some of the most famous big Rivers.  Cities were built upon rivers because people need lots of water; for bathing, drinking, for growing food and for shipping and travel.  But people in the past did not have the weather service.  They did not have weather satellites and so they did not know when rain and floods were coming.

When snow melted in the faraway mountains in the spring and when there was spring rain, the river valleys around cities would flood.  And since most people only travelled a few miles from their home in their entire life, their entire world would flood.  The entire river valley would flood and cover entire cities.

Once upon a time there was a man named Noah

(Scene 1)

Voice of God:  Noah, Noah, Noah, I need to speak with you.

Noah: Am I hearing voices? Who is speaking to me?

Voice of God:  Noah, this is the Lord God.  I want you to do something important.

Noah:  Okay but why me?

Voice of God:  Noah, you are a good man of with faith and you have an important mission.

Noah:  What kind of mission?

Voice of God:  You have to save your people and also the animals.

Noah:  Why do I need to do that?  Everything seems just fine.

Voice of God: Noah, I am giving you a warning about a big flood that is going to come.  You need to warn people.  And you need to do some to save your life.

Song: Arky Arky, verse 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMQjYJdtwoc

Noah:  What can I do?  I can’t just run away?  Where can I go?

Voice of God: Noah, I want you to build a big boat, an ark and you can put your family on this ark during the flood.

Noah:  Okay but I’m not a sailor or a boat builder.  How will I know how to build it?

Voice of God:  I will give you the instructions and you have to follow them exactly.

Song:  Arky Arky, 2nd. verse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMQjYJdtwoc

(Scene 2, showing the progressive building of the ark)

(Props.  Saws and axes, hammers)

Narrator:  So Noah obeyed God and started to build the ark.  He got his sons to help him.  But his neighbors thought that he was crazy.

Neighbor 1: Noah, what are you doing?

Noah:  I’m building an ark.  God told me that there was going to be big flood.  You too should start building your own ark so that you can survive the flood.

Neighbor 2:  Ha! Ha!  Ha!  Noah you are crazy.   It not even raining and we don’t get much rain.  Noah, you have lost your mind.

Neighbor 3:  Let’s go and leave this crazy man alone.

Noah:  Please listen to me and get to work building your own boats so that you can survive the storm.

Narrator:  The neighbors did not listen to Noah; they laughed at him and went away.  But Noah obeyed God and followed his instructions to build a big ark.  And soon the big boat was finished.  And God spoke again to Noah.

Voice of God:  Noah, you have built a very big and strong ark.  And now I want you and your family to round up animals and load them onto the ark.  Make sure you get mommy and daddy animals so they can have babies after the flood.

Noah:  We need everyone help rounding up the animals.  Let’s get to work.

Noah’s wife: Emzara:  I’ll get the rabbits.

Noah’s Son : Shem:  I’ll go find the Lions.

Noah:  You better be careful!

Shem’s wife: Sedeqetlebas   (nickname? Sadie?):  I like birds.  I’ll get some bird seeds and get them to come onto the ark.

Noah’s son: Ham:  Do I have to get the alligators.

Noah:  Yes you do.

Ham’s wife: Ne’elataum’ak  (nickname?  Nellie?):   I’ll go get the peacock.

Noah’s son: Japheth:  I’ll go lead the elephant.

Japheth’s wife: Arbasisah  (nickname?  Arby?):  I’ll find the chipmunk and the raccoon.

(Procession into the ark)

(The ark can have a ramp and the animals march into the ark)

Song: Verse three:  The Animals came in twoosies twoosies…..

(Clouds and rain and rising water)

Noah:  Ship Ahoy!  All aboard.  Pull up the loading ramp.

Neighbor:  Noah, open up.  Let us in.

Noah:  There is no more room.  Remember that I told you to build your own boat.  Sorry.

Song: Verse 4:  It rained and poured for forty daysies, daysies..

(Window openings in the ark will allow Noah’s family members to stick their heads out and speak)

Ham:  Wow!  There is lots of rain and lots of thunder.  I’m glad Dad obeyed God.

Arby:  I’ve never ridden in a boat; this will be fun.

Shem:  I don’t know; those animals will probably start to smell and they might wake us up when we try to sleep.

Alligator:  Those people shouldn’t flatter themselves.  They will smell too if they don’t take showers.

Noah:  Everyone be quiet.  Time to sleep.  Good night.  Let’s thank God for sending us a warning to help us save our lives.

Song:  Mr. Noah built an ark ,  to Old MacDonald had a farm tune.

Narrator:  It rained for forty days and forty nights.  Noah and his family and their animals were safe on the ark.  But it soon stopped raining and the flood water began to go down.  Noah wanted to check to see if it was safe to get out of the ark.  So he sent a dove out of the ark.

Noah:  Look, Dovey has returned and she has an olive branch in her beak.

Dovey:  Noah, I found this on an olive tree and the water has gone down and the ground is dry enough to get off the ark.

Song: Verse 5,  The sun came out.

(Animals and people get off the ark)

Rainbow appears in the Sky

Noah:  Look at the lovely rainbow and all of the beautiful colors.  I wonder what that means?

Voice of God: Noah, this rainbow is a gift to you of my promise.  I promise you that I do not destroy the world because I love and care for the world.  Whenever you see a rainbow remember the promise of my love and care.

Noah:  Thank you God for saving our lives and the lives of all of the animals.  We promise to be good keepers of your world.

Song:  Chorus verse, “Rise and shine and give God the glory.”

Final Bow.

Suggestions:

Use the water theme for the week.

Water at creation.

Genesis 1:1-9

1In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

3Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

6And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. 8God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

9And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.”

Noah and the Flood.

Genesis 6

6When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, 2the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose.

3Then the Lord said, “My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years.”

4The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown. 5The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.

6And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7So the Lord said, “I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

8But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord. 9These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. 10And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth.

13And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. 14Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. 18But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive. 21Also take with you every kind of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them.”

22Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

Genesis 7

7Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation. 2Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate; 3and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth. 4For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.”

5And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him. 6Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. 7And Noah with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, 9two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. 10And after seven days the waters of the flood came on the earth.

11In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.

13On the very same day Noah with his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons entered the ark, 14they and every wild animal of every kind, and all domestic animals of every kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every bird of every kind—every bird, every winged creature. 15They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. 16And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in.

17The flood continued forty days on the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; 20the waters swelled above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep.

21And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings; 22everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark. 24And the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred fifty days.

Jesus Walking on the Water and Calm the Stormy water

John 6:16-21

16When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. 20But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.

Water and the meaning of Baptism

John 3: 5 ff.

5Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’

Is the Gospel Only for Excessive People?

4 Pentecost, C p6, June 16, 2013   

2 Samuel 11:26-12:10, 13-15  Psalm 32

Gal. 2:11-21   Luke 7:36-50  

Lectionary Link

   Do you think that the kind of faith and religion that gets most of the attention in the world is due to the excessive natures of the people who have been the formative personalities of our faith tradition?  Let face it; non-excessive people are just plain boring or at least they are not newsworthy; they don’t give you any historical markers.

  So we tend to write history based upon public heroes; the ones who are best known because of their excesses.  There has been a post-modern attempt in some circles to write an anti-hero kind of history It would be called “quotidian” history, meaning everyday life or the mundane.  What if  history were written from the notes discovered in the receipt books of a bakery in Paris, what would the history look like?  Well, some might say boring. Others might be fascinated with such details.

  The Bible is about mostly heroic excessive personalities.  King David was excessive; he even arranged the murder of one of his soldiers because he wanted the soldier’s wife.  Paul was excessively fanatic; he was complicit in stoning murders of the followers of Jesus.  So, his conversion was dramatic and he became excessive in the other direction.

  The Gospel personalities are also excessive personalities.  When is the last time you did a liturgy of washing feet with tears, anointing feet with perfume and then wiping them with your hair?  A rather excessive way of saying, “Thank you Jesus.”  If you have had seven demons cast out of you then you make the Gospel records too.

  In the appointed Gospel today, we have a parable of Jesus that kind of explains the tendency towards the excessive and heroism in the Gospel literature.  The one who has been forgiven more loves more.  I guess in using Freudian terms, it would be saying that those who have excessive amounts of destructive energy and sublimate that energy towards constructive purposes, tend to do more and hence make the history books for doing memorable things.

  But what do you and I think about this doctrine of the sublimation of the excessive as being what is truly praiseworthy in the life of faith?  Are we to mourn the fact that we have not been excessive enough; we’ve followed the rules and played it safe and lived very ordinary lives?  Does the Christian faith have anything to do with living ordinary faithful lives with no great swings from extreme vice to extreme virtues?  Do we have to go out and look to be involved in extreme vice so that we can “really” appreciate forgiveness and redemption?

  We perhaps need to be careful about allowing Christianity to be just for people of “heroic” conversion involving moving from public notorious vice to confession and forgiveness.  We have perhaps been programmed by the Gospel literature only to appreciate this dominant literary theme.  Today we can see politicians caught in the act of vice and move to great redemption because all kinds of  Christians just love the excessive sin and forgiveness theme.  I think that America is unique in our television religion; we have dramatic preachers who spend most of the money they receive in order to stay on television and they do so by maintaining this story theme; extreme sin to extreme forgiveness and redemption.  It could seem as though of Christian parishes exist for people “living in recovery” so as to keep us from wrongly using our excess in addictive ways and learning to sublimate our addictive ways by an experience of the Higher Power of God’s grace.

  Let’s be honest about the Gospels.  The Gospels are dramatic literature.  They would not be the Gospels if they were but receipts and entries in a Jerusalem bakery journal in the first century.  As dramatic literature, their purpose is to evoke response from readers.

  And so we ask, what kind of evocative judgments are drawn from us today from our dramatic biblical literature?

  I think they ask us to be honest about our excesses.  We may not have dramatic excesses or we just haven’t been caught or they may not that exciting.  How exciting is it that one plays computer Solitaire for many hours in a day?  It is a rather excessive use of time, time that may actually have other beneficial uses but it does not make the charts for an exciting vice to be converted from.

  The woman who anointed the feet of Jesus was commended for her excessive act of devotion…one which I am glad has not become a continuing liturgical act in the church, particularly with my hair impairment.  Her excess horrified the religious host who was scandalized by its social impropriety.

  You and I are like this religious host as well; we make judgments from our individual perspectives.  Your excess is not mine so I can judge you as lacking; mine is not yours so touché!   We can be dueling judgmental people always feeling good about ourselves at the expense of others.  Though, if I only feel good about myself because of how I see that you are so bad, what good is my self-worth?   And that kind of self-serving judgmentalism is what the words of Jesus exposed.   

  What do we learn from the example of Jesus, who can also be the risen- Christ nature within us?  Well, Jesus kind of, accepts the individual weird.  As good parents we accept from our children their unique art work as wonderful gifts even as the older sibling might criticize the art as inferior and get a rebuke from us.  Jesus accepts our individual gifts as they are tailored to how we love because we have known special events of grace and forgiveness.  One of the secrets of life is to learn to sublimate, yes transform, the excessive energies of addiction and waste into the devotion that can focus upon what is truly worthy, namely, the risen Christ who is always before us as what we can be in a future surpassing state of excellence.

  Jesus was also inviting the excessively judgmental religious leader to accept extreme forgiveness for such obsessive use of his discernment for criticizing people and do something excessive toward God, namely, excessively practice forgiveness as a way of life.

  Let us embrace the dramatic biblical literature, not as condemning us for not having dramatic lives but as being instructive to us about the poignant metaphors as providing instruction and direction for our transformation.  The dramatic religious personality Paul who once in fanatic religious passion wanted to kill people who disagreed with him, became one who discovered in the dramatic passion story of Jesus the metaphor of personal transformation.   Instead of killing Christians, St. Paul went to “dying with Christ” as the chief metaphor of transformation in his life.  He wrote:  “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

  You and I are invited to the metaphors of transformation in our lives as we learn to tame and corral the energies, desires, affinities, preferences, passions, into beneficial acts of Christ-like behavior for the good of our world.  Let us accept forgiveness and celebrate our excesses with Christ-like sublimation of the energies of our lives for living the Good News.  Amen.

What is God Like?

3 Pentecost C June 9, 2013

1 Kings 17:8-16 (17-24) Psalm 146

Galatians 1:11-24 Luke 7:11-17

 Lectionary Link

  What is the Lord God like?  The writers of the Bible  use many words trying to answer that question.  They use poetry and stories and salvation history to try to relate to their reading community, what the Lord God is like.

  What is the Lord God like?  The writer of the Psalms tells us:   The Lord is the one who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them;  and who keeps the divine promise for ever; and who gives justice to those who are oppressed, and food to those who hunger. The LORD sets the prisoners free; the LORD opens the eyes of the blind; the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;  The LORD loves the righteous; the LORD cares for the stranger; he sustains the orphan and widow, but frustrates the way of the wicked.  That is what the Lord is like.

  Is this what we really think God is like?  Those who see this world with hunger, oppression, sickness and  people neglected,  challenge this view of God whose existence would only be proved through realized justice and total eradication of hunger.  People who are trying to remove the word God as relevant to their lives want to challenge us theists as being intellectually impaired.

  We need to remind ourselves and all people who defend God poorly that the Psalmist did not write:  The Lord God forces justice to be practiced in the world.  God forces people to share their food so that no one is hungry.  God does not heal the blind because God does not permit blindness in the first place.

  Certain notions of God cannot be defended when this world is not exempted from random and non-random events of pain, suffering and afflictions?

  Perhaps the most adequate answer is that God is this pure freedom of creativity and rather than monopolizing all power through a divine tyranny, God allows a genuine degree of true freedom in everything within the divine environment.

  What would be totally unthinkable is the world as fixed and static entities that always interacted in robotic ways to avoid the competitions between systems which cause pain and suffering.  Automated, driver-less cars make sense for having no accidents; automated entities in this world would be lifeless and soulless life because potential conflicting peoples and entities is what characterizes genuine freedom and this is what makes us persons and not robots or machines.  We know ourselves to be people with a degree of freedom and we assume this is expressive of a greater being of creative freedom and it is not difficult to project personality upon this Great Being, because we believe the freedom that has created personhood, is a higher form of personhood than our own.

  So how would a God who cares for justice and yet permits freedom as the only conditions suitable for their being authentic personhood; how would such a God be and act towards us and everything that is not God?  How would God respect our freedom and yet instruct us to use our freedom in the best possible way?

  The task of any parent is to be a persuader since a parent wants a child to choose what is good and right.  This is what God is like; God persuades and lures us to surpass ourselves in excellence.  The Bible is a book written by very imperfect people under the influence of the divine lure to do what is right, just and loving.  The Bible heroes are those who as it were, “took the bait” from the divine lure and in their lives instantiated, lived out, what God is like.

  So have the examples of Elijah, Jesus and St. Paul.  In ancient times the child of a widow was very important to her life, not just for the obvious reason of mother-child relationship but also for continued connection with the father’s family as a social and economic safety net.  The prophets of God had to show what God was like as an example to us all?  Why?  In the play of freedom in this world we can become practitioners and victims of a kind of social Darwinism; living as though only the fit and the strong have the full right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  The weak have no right to survive; they are a drag upon the life of the strong and therefore expendable.

  In biblical religion this sense of inevitability of the rights of the strong and powerful is countered by the revealed law and by the witness of the prophets who remind us what God is like.  And even people who have law can limit the function of the law for the benefit of a privileged few.  Even the law can become but a regulation between rich and powerful people stepping on each other’s toes.

  St. Paul saw that the boundaries of Judaism in practice were too narrow; there were too many outsiders to Judaism.  St. Paul came to understand that God was not one to exclude and so he devoted his life to the inclusion of the Gentiles in the message of God’s love.  He wanted to show the Gentiles what God was like; one who loved justice and one who cared for the widow and orphan and for the poor.  If God was to be good news in this world, the news about God was to be an actual reality for the most embracing common good.

  Today, we have the great task in our lives to show this world that the word God has a functional reality in this world.  If we don’t live the reality of God as love and good news and justice, then we may be responsible for the creation of more atheists, people for whom God seems to have no useful reality.

  The Bible and the people of the Bible did not finish the work of justice and love in this world, because they were not perfect and neither are we.  The Bible only represents a cursory start to the never-ending work of love and justice in this world.  Today, we have the examples of Elijah, Jesus and Paul who showed us what God is like; God cares for the lives of the vulnerable and God does not have any outsiders.  Let us continue in this work of showing the people of our lives what God is like.

  People who profess God can can actually live very unloving lives.  People who do not profess God can actually live just and caring lives.  But why not profess God and also strive to be just and caring in our lives?  For us, there is incredible significance in the experience of knowing an inspired sense of Great Love and Justice that challenges the human ego as being the sole origin of such wonderful attributes.

  We confess God, as indeed the best way, to check the humanistic ego, because we know that the power of our dominion when the humanistic ego is not checked by Higher Love and Justice results in horrendous outcomes.

  Let us go forth and show this world what God is like.  Let us the live the good news.  Let us love one another, love mercy and justice and walk humbly with our God.  Amen.

Gospel Puppet Show: God Cares for Those Who Mourn

Gospel Puppet Show

June 9, 2013

3 Pentecost

Characters:

Jesus

Disciple Peter

Widow: Miriam

Widow’s Son: Josh

(sounds of people mourning)

Peter:  Jesus, we’re coming to the village of Nain.  I see something ahead.  There must have been an accident.  Shall we go around the village to avoid the problem?

Jesus:  No Peter, let us go and see if we can help.

(arriving at the woman and a covered body)

Peter:  It looks like we're too late to help.  The son of this widow has died and they are having a funeral.  Let’s not disturb the funeral.

Jesus:  I feel very sad for this woman.  She lost her husband and now she has lost her only child.  God cares for those who are suffering and we must show her that God cares for her.

Peter: How will we do that?

Jesus:  Let's go and see.

(Jesus meets the widow)

Jesus:  What is your name?

Widow:  My name is Miriam.

Jesus:  What happened?

Widow:  My only child Josh got a really bad fever and then he died.  I lost my husband and now I have lost my son.  Now only God can help me get through this.

Jesus: Do not cry, Miriam.  God cares for widows and orphans, and I am here to prove this.

(Jesus goes to the covered body)

Jesus: Josh, Rise and get up.

(Josh, pushes the grave cloth aside)

Josh:  Wow.  Mom where am I?  Have I been in a long sleep?  And who are these people?

Widow:  Josh, you got very sick and we thought you were dead.  But this nice man Jesus came and he has now brought you back to my life.  And God has answered my prayer.  I know that God cares for me.  Thank you Jesus for showing me that God loves and cares for us.

Jesus:  Peter, this is our mission in life.

Peter: What mission?

Jesus:  It is our mission to show people about God’s love and care.  It is our mission to tell good news to people about God’s love.  Can you remember that?

Peter:  Yes, I can and do you think the boys and girls here today can remember this important mission?  Can you boys and girls remember to show everyone that God loves and cares for them?

All:  Yes we can.

Peter:  Good, then lets get to work.  Good bye!

Elijah's Holy Barbecue and Having Faith When Jesus Is Not Physically Present

2 Pentecost Cycle C Proper 4 June 2, 2013
1 Kings 18:20-21, (22-29), 30-39 Psalm 96

Galatians 1:1-12  Luke 7:1-10

Lectionary Link

  Our lessons appointed for our reading today highlight the clash of people in their religious thinking and in their beliefs about God.

  In the reading from the Hebrew Scripture we read about the prophet Elijah issuing a challenge to all of the prophets of Baal.  He was pitting the God of Israel against the god Baal.  The challenged involved building altars upon Mount Carmel, placing the offerings upon the altars and then the challenge was to see if Baal or the God of Israel would respond by zapping the offerings upon the altars with fire from heaven.  Now in Texas we used to be awfully proud of our competition barbecue but never anything like this.  Yes, the winner often thought his barbecue was divine, but there has never been anything like this holy barbecue showdown on Mount Carmel.

  And Elijah was confident and maybe a little cocky don’t you think?  He insisted that water be poured upon his altar just to make it harder for the God of Israel to start a fire upon the altar.   And sure enough, the God of Elijah and the God of Israel came through and zapped that offering on the altar that had been soaked in water.  And the prophets of Baal could get no response from their god  who could not even flick his Bic.

  And the God of Israel won this Holy Barbecue and a message was sent to the rotten King of Israel, Ahab and his wife Jezebel who had gone after the god Baal.  Jezebel is perhaps one of the most infamous woman’s name in history.   She was the daughter of the king of Tyre who Ahab married for political reason but she also brought with her the worship of Baal.

  We have legendary super heroes today and many children use those heroes to inspire their imaginations of doing the impossible.  Elijah was one of those super heroes whose place in the writings for Israel was to accentuate the power of the Lord God of Israel and to warn them not to forsake the Lord God for other gods.  The Hebrews Scriptures are realistic in portraying that the God of Israel had competitors in the gods and goddesses of Canaan.  And sometimes the God of Israel was not their choice.  Much of the writing in the Hebrew Scriptures blames the bad luck of the people of Israel upon their infidelity to the God of Israel and their running after other gods.

  The legendary event of the holy barbecue with Yahweh sending fire from heaven was a super story with an obvious message about God’s greatness.

  St. Paul also makes reference to a religious clash within his communities.  He has some very strong words for some Gospel competitors.  Apparently some other prophets arrived in Galatia after Paul left and they preached the Gospel differently than Paul did; it was different enough for him to issue a curse upon those who preached a Gospel different from Paul.  This isn’t quite as impressive as the Holy barbecue showdown of Elijah and the prophets of Baal but it does reveal to us that there must have been quite a diversity of preachers of the Gospel within the early Christian communities.  And Paul disagreed with Peter and others about how the Gospel should be lived and preached.  We should not put the past on a pedestal of purity as if the people of the past were exempt from all sorts of religious disputes and disagreement which seem to be characteristic of our age.

   We probably too should remember that the Nicaea Council was the beginning of the effort to remove all religious disagreement and diversity from the church.  What the Emperor was for the Roman Empire the Pope and Patriarch were to become for a Holy Empire Church with a central authority removing all disagreement from the worldwide church.  Such has never worked and it still doesn’t.

  The Gospel lesson for today has a rather interesting religious judgment upon the faith of Israel.  A centurion was a Roman military commander for 800-1200 soldiers.  He was loyal to the Caesar and would be required to venerate the Caesar as a god.

  But someone a certain centurian loved and cared for was ill; he had heard about the wonder worker Jesus and so as a patron for a synagogue, he asked some Jews to arrange an audience with Jesus, and Jesus agreed.  But then the centurion thought, “If I issue a command, I don’t have to be present with all of my troops for it to be carried out, surely this Jesus can do the same.”  So this centurion, who had to be loyal to his Caesar god, paid homage to Jesus by saying, “I am not worthy to have you in my home; just say the word and my servant will be healed.”

  And this is what Jesus said about the faith of the centurion and about faith in Israel: “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”

  Remember that this Gospel is being recounted within a Lucan Christ community, after followers of Jesus have been dismissed from the synagogue and had curses read against them in the prayers at the synagogues.  The followers of Jesus had increasingly become gentiles and Roman citizens and were people who did not have eyewitness contact with Jesus.  They were like us; “They and we have not been in the worthy situation of  having eyewitness encounters with Jesus.”  They had to believe and we must believe that the salvation power of Christ works apart from his physical presence.

  Like the centurion, we say, “We’ve not been worthy for the presence of the historical Jesus within our home, but just let the words of Jesus be said and his saving health can still be known to us.”  And our faith can be as real and as valid as the faith of the eyewitnesses in Israel in the time of Jesus.

  Elijah was involved in a religious dispute; so was St. Paul, and so was Jesus, but I prefer the judgment of Jesus.  Jesus affirms the faith that is great and possible even when we don't actually see him.  Jesus does not seem to be concerned about controlling a community, he seems to be concerned that we have faith and that we be affirmed in our faith when we believe in a saving health that comes without ever seeing him.

  We probably will never cease fighting in the church and out of the church about God, faith and religion.  It might be good for us to step back and realize that Jesus saluted the faith of one who was already committed to venerate the divinity of an Emperor.  It is a good witness for us not to rush into sectarian judgments based upon our own preference; rather, let us rejoice when we find faith in people to embrace the saving faith of Christ.  Let us remember the words of Christ before the Christian religion was even born;  “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”  Let us hold to Jesus who honors faith from all sorts of persons, and he honors our faith too.  Amen.

Gospel Puppet Show; Healing of the Centurion's Servant Cycle c, proper 4

Gospel Puppet Show

June 2, 2013

2 Pentecost

Characters:

Claudius

Junius

Father Phil

General Claudius:  psst.  Father Phil could I talk to you?

Father Phil:  General Claudius, what are you doing here?  Shouldn’t you be off fighting a war?

General Claudius: Well, we’ve had peace for a while and I have been able to be home but I have had sadness in my house.

Father Phil:  What happened?

General Claudius:  Well, one of my employees and best friend, Junius has become very ill and I am worried about him.  I’ve taken him to all of the best doctors and they say that they have done all that they can do.  And I need a favor from you.

Father Phil:  What do you need from me?

General Claudius:  Well, you know that I have been very friendly and helpful.  I have help to build some places of worship.   You know that I respect God.  And I would like you to go asked Jesus a favor for me?

Father Phil:  What do you want me to ask him?

General Claudius:  I want you to ask him to come to my house and heal my best friend Junius.  Will you do that for me?

Father Phil: Okay but I don’t know when I am going to see him.

(Claudius leaves)

(Jesus pops us on the other side of the puppet theatre)

Jesus: Father Phil, how are you?

Father Phil:  Jesus, you frightened me.  I need to see you and talk with you.  How did you know?

Jesus: Just call it divine knowledge.  So what do you need?

Father Phil:  The Roman General Claudius said his employee and friend Junius was really sick and he heard about you and he wanted me to ask you to go to his house to heal his friend.  Can you go?

Jesus: Sure, off I go.

 (Jesus disappears…after a while Claudius reappears)

General Claudius:  Father Phil, could I speak with you again?

Father Phil:  You already are speaking with me, so continue.

General Claudius:  I don’t want to waste the time of Jesus.  I am a General and I give orders and my orders get obeyed.  Jesus is greater than I am and I am sure that he can just heal my friend without coming to my house.  I am not worthy to have such an important person as Jesus in my home.

Father Phil:  Okay, I’ll try to find Jesus again.

(Claudius disappears and Jesus reappears)

Father Phil:  Jesus, I need…..

Jesus:  Yes, you need to talk to me and tell me that General Claudius thinks that I can heal his servant without even coming to his house.  And he is correct.  I have already healed his friend.  And I think that he has great faith to believe in me even though he does not see me.

Father Phil:  Isn’t that like our faith too?

Jesus:  Yes, it is.  Only a few people get to see me and talk with me.  But many people do not see me but they still believe in me and they still know my love, goodness and health.

Father Phil:  This is the faith of all of our children here too.  They live about two thousand years after you but they still gather together because of your love and kindness.

Jesus: Yes and I salute the faith of all who don’t see me but still believe in my love and kindness.

Father Phil:  Thank you Jesus for teaching us about faith.