Sunday School, March 15, 2015 4th Sunday in Lent, Cycle B

Sunday School, March 15, 2015   The Fourth Sunday in Lent, Cycle B

Sunday School Themes from the Lectionary of the day

Comparing two stories, the story of Moses and a story of Jesus

When the people of Israel were on their long journey in the wilderness they complained about the conditions and the food and to interrupt their complaining they camped in a place full of poisonous snaked and many were bitten.  To give the people faith that they would survive, Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a tall pole for all to see.  He told them to look at the snake as a reminder to have faith in their health and survival.

Jesus told Nicodemus that God's Son was given as a gift to this world and would be lifted upon the cross, so that people would look at the cross or think about it and have faith that God's mercy and grace would forgive them from the "poison" of their sins.

Teach them the first words of John 3:16  "For God so loved the world that God gave God's only Son....."

What we believe about Jesus is that he is the greatest sign of God's love for us

Puppet Show

Gospel Puppet Show

March 11, 2015

Moderator, Moses, Jesus, Nicodemus,   Boy: Asa,  

Moderator: How many of you like snakes?  It is very easy to be afraid of snakes, since some of them are poisonous.  Today, I want us to learn something from our Bible stories.  And we have stories about snakes and about Christ.  But I’m going to have the puppets help me tell the stories.  Moses, are you around?

Moses: Here I am, can I help you.  I’m quite busy now.

(Release the snakes over the front of the puppet theatre)

Asa:  Ouch, I am so sick;  I got bit by a poisonous snake.  Can you help me Moses what shall I do?

Moses: Asa, you need to go over to the clinic; I prayed to God and God sent us a cure for the snake bites.

Asa:  Okay….ooooh this hurts so much and I’m getting drowsy.

Moses:  Hurry over to the clinic.

Moderator:  Moses what happened?

Moses: We had some people who were complaining so they decided that they wanted to take a short cut and sure enough they walk right into a valley of poisonous snakes.

Moderator: What did you do? 

Moses:  I prayed to God and he told me to make a snake out of bronze and put it up high so everyone can see it.  And he said that everyone who was bitten by a snake could look up at the bronze snake and ask God for help.

(put up the snake pole)

Moderator:  What happened?

Moses: Well, you can see that I put the bronze snake up on a tall pole and sure enough when people look up they are being cured.  Well, I’ve got to go.

Moderator: Thank you Moses.  I hope everyone prays to God for a cure.

      And now I think this will help us with our story about Jesus.  Remember that the snake was lifted up on a pole and everyone who looked at the snake and prayed to God got better.

(Nicodemus appears)

Moderator:  Well, hello!  Who are you?

Nicodemus:  My name is Nicodemus.  I was just talking with my friend Jesus.  Jesus, could you come and meet my friend Moderator, and all of the boys and girls?

Jesus:  Hello, Moderator and boy and girls.  I hope you are here today to learn something.  Did you learn about the snakes from Moses?

Nicodemus:  Jesus and I were talking and he told me that God really loved this world.

Jesus:  That is true Nicodemus.  God does love this world.  God created the world so God loves the world.

Nicodemus:  But how much does God love the world?  There are lots of things that are sad that happen in this world?  How does God love a world with people who are sometimes sad?

Jesus:  God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son to this world.  And just as Moses lifted the bronze snake to save the people from their snake bites, the Son of God will suffer by being lifted up on a cross.  And anyone who looks with faith in Christ’s love for us will live again even after they die.

Nicodemus: Well, that’s really salvation.  One kind of salvation is being saved from snake bites, but the saving of our lives after we die is a most wonderful salvation.

Moderator:  Wow!  That really is salvation.  And that means that God really loves us.  Girls and boys, can you remember how much God loves us?  Let us all say together, “Thank you God for loving us!”  “Thank you God for sending your Son Jesus.”  Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Holy Eucharist

March 15, 2015: Fourth Sunday In Lent

Gathering Songs:

He’s Got the Whole World, Lord, I Lift Your Name on High,  Eat This Bread, Awesome God

Opening Song : He’s Got the Whole World, (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 90)

1.         He’s got the whole world in his hands, he’s got the whole wide world, in his hands.  He’s got the whole world, in his hands, he’s got the whole world in his hands.

2.         He’s got the little tiny baby in his hands, he’s got the little tiny baby in his hands, he’s got the little tiny baby in his hand, he’s got the whole world in his hands.

3.         He’s got the boys and the girls..

4.         He’s got the mommies and the daddies..

Liturgist: Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins.

People: His mercy endures forever.  Amen.

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

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

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

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

 

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:          And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Praise the Lord

O God, you are Great!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have made us! Praise the Lord

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Praise the Lord

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

A Reading from the Book of Numbers

From Mount Hor the Israelites set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food." Then the LORD sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD to take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live." So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 107

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, * and his mercy endures for ever.

Let all those whom the LORD has redeemed proclaim * that he redeemed them from the hand of the foe.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:

For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!

For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.

   Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John

People: Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.  "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

"Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon –   

Children’s Creed

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

Since God is so great and we are so small,

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

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

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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

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

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

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

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

Faithful Departed: 

Your Prayers are asked for those in the Armed Forces:  Nicholas, Collin, Jeremy, Luke, Harry, Joseph, Steven, Daniel and Eric

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

People:            And also with you.

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

Offertory Song:  Lord I Lift Your Name on High, Renew! #4

Lord, I lift your name on high; Lord, I love to sing Your praises.  I’m so glad you’re in my life.  I’m so glad you came to save us.  You came from heaven to earth to show the way, from the earth to the cross, my debt to pay.  From the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky; Lord, I lift your name on high!

Doxology

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

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

Prologue to the Eucharist.

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

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

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

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

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

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

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

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

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

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

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

(All may gather around the altar)

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

You have made us in your image

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

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

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

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

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

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

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit

to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Bless and sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbors.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed by thy name.

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

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:        Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast. 

Word of Administration.

Communion Hymn: Eat This Bread (Renew! # 228)

Eat this Bread, drink this cup, come to me and never be hungry.  Eat this bread, drink this cup, trust in me and you will not thirst.

(Repeat during communion)

Post-Communion Prayer

Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;

We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.

And His Presence has been known to us.

We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers

    and sisters in Christ.

Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the

     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,

As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Closing Song: Awesome God, (Renew!  # 245)

Our God is an awesome God, he reigns from heaven above

with wisdom, power and love our God is an awesome God.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Our Relationship to the Ten Commandments

3 Lent B      March 8, 2015

Exodus 20:1-17  Psalm 19

1 Corinthians 1:18-25   John 2:13-22

Lectionary Link
  A priest was sitting at the counter of local diner and being in a collar can make one a sitting duck in the public.  The man sitting next to him said to him, "Father, I think that there should be an eleventh commandment added to the Big Ten."  And the priest inwardly sighed ready for another joke and he asked, "What would your eleventh commandment be?"  And the man replied, "My eleventh commandment would be, "Thou shalt not get caught breaking any of the first ten."

  Does the tree in the forest really fall if no one witnesses the fall?  Does one really break a 10 Commandment if one does not get caught doing so?  We may have a relationship to the 10 Commandments like we have to speeding laws; it is only wrong if you get ticketed otherwise it is a blessing to get to your destination a minute quicker

  The reading of the Ten Commandments today, gives us the opportunity to reflect upon the nature of the Law and law making and the practice and the reception of the Law within communities of people.

  I actually think that the secret to the 10 Commandments and the secret for establishing the necessity of Law is found in the 10th commandment.  

  Thou shalt not covet....Really, you are asking me and every human being suddenly to stop being engines of desires who are always, already from birth wanting and desiring all sorts of things, people, events, fame et cetera?  Surely you are not asking us to do the impossible, namely putting a cork on this seething bottle of desire.  You know that with pressure, the cork is going to pop off.

  In the long history of humanity as humans discovered the necessity to being able to live together to survive, human communities had to develop into cultures which provided for the sublimation, the transformation of the energy of desire but also for the interdiction and punishment in the aftermath of human acting out upon the energy of coveting.

  One could trace all war and fighting to coveting because when two parties covet the same thing, they also covet the disappearance of their competing party to attain their desire.  As the ancient sages observed community behaviors for many years and collected the lore on how people could live together without destroying themselves through the destructive actions due to competitive desires, they devised statistically approximate rules or best practices for achieving community stability.

  The famous Ten Commandments within the context of 613 laws within the Torah, are an important watershed in the development of the function of law within the history of humanity and within our own Judeo-Christian tradition.  We need to be careful about isolating the Ten Commandments from their contexts by "over-Christianizing" them.  We need to remember that in theocratic ancient Israel the Torah functioned in the same way that many traditional Muslims understand Sharia law to function because in theocratic circumstances one does not separate religion and secular society.  Some States in our country have banned or want to ban Sharia law while they want to establish the 10 Commandments as the model of law for their courtrooms. But these Ten commandments originally existed within the contexts of the 613 other laws in a society governed totally by the Hebrew religion.  For all people to be governed by religious law was not the intentions of the writers of our American Constitution, who sought to disestablish religion from public government even while completely establishing the freedom of practice of religion for all in their private and individual lives.

  The Ten Commandments  seem to be highlighted among all of the other 613 rules of the Hebrew Scriptures.  These other laws include rules about cloth, cooking, sickness, states of ritual impurity, social structure, family law, temple and priestly ritual, dietary rules, slaves, foreigners and child raising.  What psychologists would designate now as "Oppositional Defiance Disorder" was considered to be willful insolence of a child which could actually be punished by stoning of the child.  It is very important to understand the context of the Ten Commandments and to understand that the purpose and function of any wise application of law is the transformation of one's life toward something like our founders proclaimed, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, not just of the individual, but all of individuals in society together toward just outcomes.

  The Ten Commandment gives us both some wise rules for maintaining peace and concord in community but the commandments are based upon learning transformational behaviors.  How does one sublimate and transform the deeply profound energy of coveting desire into an energy which empowers us to enjoy a wide variety of human experiences without propelling us into destructive competition or harmful individual addictions?

  A debate issue between people of faith and secularists has been about the necessity to ground judgments of law upon the higher authority and power of God.   Can we have reasonable law without any reference to God?  Is it enough for the basis of all laws to reside within each community which has the power structures to simply discipline and punish its own member? Does it require a higher authority?  When someone asks “Why do I need to obey the law?”  Do we say simply because one's community authority say that you have do it?  Or do you say, because beyond any temporary authority structure there is a higher realm of divine justice which exists before and after any temporary structure of rules or practice of law?

  The 10 Commandments are based upon the establishment of recommended community behaviors established upon the regulating Force and Effect of God's presence within this world.  The great story of Moses going to the Mountain Top to receive the Law from God is how the ancient people appealed to divine legitimization for this great code of Law.  You should obey the Law, why?  Because Moses received these laws from God and this is how it happened.

  If this seems too mythical for the modern mind, I believe that we in our own time have to experience the legitimization of law through an experience of Sublime Grace.  Within the chaos of a disaster of emergency, people in uniform arrive as clergy of the secular law to symbolize law and order in face of the fury which cannot be prevented or controlled.  And in the presence of those uniformed people we experience the calming effect of the law.  It is an event of Sublime Grace and we think we know where it comes from but it partakes of the same sublime nature of a mother comforting a distressed baby.  
  Some have to come to divine imperative of law through personal failure.  People in their lives can let coveting desire reduce them to people out of control and to get back to control and sobriety, the ones who are successful confess the graceful experience of the Higher Power.

  Do you see how the wisdom behind the Ten Commandment recommends starting everything by directing one’s time and worship towards the Higher Power of the One God, who in turns becomes the graceful regulatory Spirit to help us channel our coveting energies toward sufficient pleasure and enjoyment.  Through the regulatory Higher Power of God's Spirit we avoid destroying ourselves and others through our selfish competitive powerful instincts.

  So one can arrive at the Graceful Higher Power of God through the process of transformation of spiritual practice: this transformation is what defines the calling of the church.  One can come to the Graceful Higher Power of God without the support of the church community even while a secular AA group might be one's support context to experience God as Higher Power.  One way or another, all must get to the Graceful in breaking of the Sublime.

  The apostle Paul and the Gospel communities developed spiritual practices for coming to the lawful and appropriate expression of our coveting energies.  When coveting energies are gone wild, one can think that the only way to stop coveting energy is one's death.  If I’m a drunk and I die, then I will stop drinking, yes and everything else too.     St. Paul proclaimed, "Wretched man that I am; who will deliver me from the body of death?"  Who will help me harness this coveting energy of desire which is running amok?  St. Paul used the death of Jesus on the cross as the wisdom of God in transforming his life.  Death means the cessation of good things, but also bad things such as pain and evil.  St. Paul called the wisdom of Christian practice a process of learning to be "living sacrifices," which is the process of dying to hurting behaviors which arise from uncontrolled desires and riding the Spirit of the resurrection of Christ to the rightful use for one's life desire.

  It is also expressed in the "Temple theology" of the early Christian communities.  The physical body of Jesus and each human body are called  Temples of the Spirit.  The tabernacle and temple centered upon the Holiest of Holy, where the Ark of the Covenant was placed which included the copy of the Law.  In the Temple theology of the Christian community, Jesus was the new Temple who was the one in whom God dwelled in Divine fullness for humanity.  And each body of each person was to be known too as a dwelling place, a temple of the Holy Spirit, so that the law was no longer just an external coercive rule; it was written within the heart as a living Higher Power to achieve the transformations towards the excellence of justice, or appropriate behavior for each human occasion.

  Let us be thankful for the Law today and let us assess our relationship to the law.  Let us assess how we are doing in achieving the optimal transformation of our coveting energies.  I wish and pray for each of us the graceful and sublime experience of God's Higher Power, God's Holy Spirit as the event which does not condemn us for our non-practice of the law, but as the affirming force to guide us with wisdom to the appropriate practice of lawful behaviors for each situation of life.  Amen.

You Can Tell You Are in an Episcopal Church When....March 2015