Sunday School, November 8, 2015 24 Pentecost B proper 27

Sunday School, November 8, 2015    24 Pentecost B proper 27

Themes

The widow who gave her last coins

Widows often had to live in poverty because their support came from their husbands.  If they did not have families to return to, they often were in need.

Old Testament law had laws to help provide for widows and orphans because as it is written in the Psalms: "The Lord cares for the widow and the orphans."

How does our modern world take care of people who are in need?  What about the current refugee problem in our world?  People have been driven out of their homes and lost family members because of war.  What is the responsibilities of Christians to help the widow and the orphans? 

The Old Testament lesson is about how a widow provided food and a room for God's prophet Elijah and Elijah promised her that God would always give her enough food.

Jesus was with his disciples in the temple.  He observed how a poor widow had put her last two coins into the temple offering.  Jesus said that she had given more than anyone because she had given her all.

How is it that a poor person is still generous to give to God through the work of the Temple?  Shouldn't the Temple through the offerings be helping this poor woman and her children?

This is an important lesson in generosity.  A generous person does not regard himself or herself to be poor because a generous person is able to see how much God has given us with the beauty of the world.

Generous people include their good health, the sunshine, the beauty of the earth as a part of their wealth and so they always feel like they have something to give.

We learn from the example of the widow that generosity does not depend upon how much we have; it depends on whether we have a heart willing to share a portion of what we have.

The lesson from the letter to the Hebrews presents Jesus as the Great High Priest.  As the Great High Priest Jesus was not worry about his own wealth of goodness and perfection; he wanted to share all of his goodness and perfection with us.  He was willing to offer his life so that we could learn to be forgiven so that we could grow in goodness.  Jesus was generous with his goodness.  He gave us his very best.  He still shares his very best because he has sent a very generous Holy Spirit to live within us.

Sermon on a riddle about generosity

  Let me give you a riddle.  When are you giving a lot even if it’s only a dime?  And when are you giving a little even when it’s a thousand dollars?

  Let try a little exercise with some pennies.  I need some volunteers.

  I am going to give to one two pennies.  And to another I am going to give many pennies.

  Then I am going to ask each of them to give so that each of them have at least one penny.

  So who gave the most pennies?  Who has the most pennies left?

  Sometimes we thing that people who give the most are the most generous; but that is not always true.  Sometimes people, who give just a little, only have a little left over to live on. Sometimes people, who give a large amount of money, still have plenty to live on.

  That is the lesson that Jesus was trying to teach his friends. 

  Sometimes we think that everyone should give an equal amount.  And sometimes we think that we have to give more than others.

  As we grow older, we have more to give than when we are younger.  So when other people don’t seem to give as much as we do, we often get upset.

  For example, when your younger brother or sister doesn’t have to do the same amount of work or chores as you do, it seems unfair.  But remember:  Giving is determined by our ability.

  That is the lesson that Jesus wanted to teach to his followers.

  The older we are, the stronger we are, the more knowledge we have, the more money that we have, then the more we are required to take care of those in this life who cannot take care of themselves and who need our help.

  Remember this lesson about giving.  It is not amount that we give…. It is the ability to give that should determine what we give.  And also, how much do we have left over after we have given?  If we have lots left over after we have given, have we given enough?

  And God has given us much and God will continue to give us much.  And God is always asking us to learn how to be generous according to our ability to give.  Remember God never asks us to give something we

that we do not have.

  Let us learn the secret of being generous today.  Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

November 8, 2015: The Twenty-Fourth Sunday After Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Hallelu, Hallelujah, He’s Got the Whole World, I Come with Joy, Christ Beside Me

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

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

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

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

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

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Song: Hallelu, Hallelujah   (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 84)

Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah, Praise ye the Lord. 

Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah, Praise ye the Lord. 

Praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah, Praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah. 

Praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah, Praise ye the Lord.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

O God, whose blessed Son came into the world that he might destroy the works of the devil and make us children of God and heirs of eternal life: Grant that, having this hope, we may purify ourselves as he is pure; that, when he comes again with power and great glory, we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom; where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Litany Phrase: Alleluia (chanted)

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

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

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

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

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

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

A reading from the Letter of Hebrews

Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

 

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 146

Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help! * whose hope is in the LORD their God;

Who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them; * who keeps his promise for ever;

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;

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 Mark

People: Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Teaching in the temple, Jesus said, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows' houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation." He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People: Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon:  Fr. Phil

Children’s Creed

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

Since God is so great and we are so small,

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

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

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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

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

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

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

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

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy. (chanted)

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.

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

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.

Little tiny babies. 

Brother and the sisters  

Mothers and the fathers

 

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 heaven.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

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

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

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

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

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

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

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

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

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

All may gather around the altar

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

You have made us in your image

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

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

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

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

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

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

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Breaking of the Bread

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

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!

Words of Administration

Communion Song:  I Come With Joy   (Renew! # 195)

I come with joy a child of God, forgiven, loved, and free, the life of Jesus to recall, in love laid down for me.

I come with Christians, far and near to find, as all are fed, the new community of love in Christ’s communion bread.

As Christ breaks bread, and bids us share, each proud division ends.  The love that made us makes us one, and strangers now are friends.

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: Christ Beside Me   (Renew! # 164)

Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me—King of my heart;  Christ within me, Christ below me, Christ above me—never to part.

Christ on my right hand, Christ on my left hand, Christ all around me—shield in the strife:  Christ in my sleeping, Christ in my sitting, Christ in my rising—light of my life

Christ be in all hearts, thinking about me, Christ be on all tongues, telling of me; Christ be the vision, in eyes that see me, in ears that hear me, Christ ever be.

Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me—King of my heart; Christ within me, Christ below me, Christ above me—never to part.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Saints Be Praised Not Neglected

All Saints' Day  B,  November 1, 2015 
Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9  Psalm 24
Revelation 21:1-6a     John 11:32-44


What is your own experience with All Saints' Day?  People who have been raised in different Christian traditions have had various pieties regarding the saints.  Churches which do not use the creed and confess a belief in the Communion of Saints tend to neglect the saints.  They have been taught that devotion to the saints is an unnecessary distraction from devotion to Christ.  Why would want to pray to a saint for an intercessory need, when one can go directly to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit?

I suspect that the cult of saints and the subsequent writings of hagiographies or the written biographies and legends of the saints came about partly because of the effort to bring the Christian message of the Gospel to so called "pagan" cultures which had practices of ancestor veneration and worship.  The cult of saints became more widespread as the church of the Dark Ages and the Middle Ages became essentially a church with a feudal like structure.  In this structure, the clergy mediated religion on behalf of the lowly baptized lay people, the Christian serfs in feudal Christian societies.  The clergy said the prayers in a foreign liturgical language, Latin while the lay people were spectators who were not educated enough for full participation in the liturgy.  It developed that lay people only received communion once a year at Easter because Jesus had become such a perfect King of Heaven that he could only be approached and received on a regular basis by the completely patriarchal clergy.  In this milieu one can understand how there would arise populist psychical correction in gaining of access to a sense of God's sublime care.  The rise of devotion to the saints and to the Ever Blessed Mary became the popular practice.  Saints were more culturally accessible in local areas; they served as totemic identities for local places almost like the professional football teams serve as local identities for cities and geographical regions today.  The rise of the Virgin Mary to a place of being a co-Redemptrix as well as the veneration of female saints meant that there was a feminine balancing of a thoroughly patriarchal church hierarchy and society.  At least in the heavenly realm saintly women had broken through the "glass ceiling" and so women and men could literally look up to holy women.

What happened in the Reformation was largely due to what was happening in Europe in what is called the Enlightenment.  With the break down of the feudal structure, the assertion of national identities and the re-discovery of the individual who needed to experience individual salvation instead of just a passive assimilation into a group salvation situation, the exclusive mediation of Catholic Clergy on behalf of lay people was brought into question. There were also abuses because of the corruption of too much power residing in the hands of the clergy.  The Reformation  notion of individual salvation empowered individuals to pray in their own languages; it empowered them to go directly to God and bypass the clergy and also by pass the intercessions of their long regarded guardian saints.  With the Reformation many Protestants threw out the saints as no longer being relevant to their everyday lives.

The Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox retained the practiced relevance of the saints within their daily lives, especially the relevance of the Ever Blessed Virgin Mary, for whom is expressed a veneration second to none.

I remember growing up as a completely "saint-deprived" Baptist.  I was a bit jealous of my Roman Catholic friends.  They got to ride in cars with those cool figurines of St. Mary, St. Joseph and St. Christopher on the dash boards of their cars.  And back in the 1950's most boys did not wear necklaces; except Catholic boys could wear a necklace with a St. Christopher medal on it.  Catholic moms wanted to make sure their children had the protective intercessions of St. Christopher.  Too bad, that in post-Vatican II catholicism, St. Christopher was "decanonized" as he was not a real historical saint.  Yet even today St. Christopher medals persist; so one cannot discount the placebo effect of even legendary saints.

Today, with this history of the saints, we attempt to appropriate some meanings for us for All Saints' Day as people who still confess a belief in the Communion of Saints.

A 19th century Hasidic rabbi said that "People are God's language."  Long before the 19th century the writer of the Gospel of John wrote, "In the beginning was the Word.....and the Word became flesh and dwelled among."

All Saints' day is about how people have been God's language to us in the very best way.  God  as Word did not limit Word becoming flesh just in the life of Jesus.  God as Word has continually become made flesh in the lives of people who have lived, spoke and wrote the example of how to live this life best.

The most poignant human experience is the deep love of people and then losing the people whom we love through death.  We lose heroes who have had a wide reaching impact upon the well being of many people.  We lose people who are known only to us and a small circle of people.  We can fear that the loss of people will also mean the loss of the good which their lives perpetuated for us and for our world.  There is a natural human reaction to fear the loss of the legacy of goodness and greatness.  Just as in sports and in every area of life there is a human tendency to vote people into halls of fame, the communion of saints is a hall of fame that perhaps has been the proto-type of all halls of fame.  The reason that there are halls of fame is because we want to preserve the record of the highest standards.

The first persons to enter the Christian Hall of fame after Jesus were the early martyrs.  Deacon St. Stephen and James, the Just of Jerusalem and brother of the Lord.  The martyrs became saints through the witness of their lives when they chose identity with Jesus rather than denying him in public.  The first New Testament writing was the first letter of Paul to a church in Thessalonica. In this age the Christians felt so threatened that they really believed that the end of world could happen at anytime.  Paul wrote to the members of the church who worried about their loved ones who had died before the return of the Lord.

In the history of the church, as it became clear that the world was not ending, Christians had to accept that they would be around and that they needed view their mission as no longer being preparation for the end the world as they knew it; they had to prepare to settle in for the very long run.  The mission had to become institutions for the perpetuation of the message of the Gospel.  The Hall of Fame of Christian saints represents the success of the institutionalization of the Gospel.  The Christian Hall of Fame grew because Time did not end and the number of Christians grew and the number of heroic Christians grew.  The Communion of Saints is like long term banking account; the more members who have entered it the more the benefits have accrued.  The Communion of Saints is like a standing Endowment Fund for all Christian of the future.  The witness of their lives are gifts to us which keep on giving.  Their lives are worthy to remember because we as human beings only advance in excellence when we follow our highest insights.  The saints are those who have given us examples in their lives of highest ideals.

One of the things which happened in Christian practice is what I might call a pride of eternal life and a resurrection pride resulting in a discounting of the grief that occurs because of the experience of death.  It's almost as if someone mourns too long or too profoundly that one is viewed as one who does not have the appropriate amount of faith in the resurrection and in eternal life.  Christians have often regarded themselves as being superior to those in other cultures who they saw to be practicing ancestor worship and even treating their ancestors as those who still lingered upon this earth.

I would suggest that both the resurrection of Christ and the veneration of the saints is related to the human experience of grief.  I believe that the post-resurrection appearances of Christ to certain disciples were connected to the profound grief and loss which his friends experienced at his death.  I do not believe his disciples were prepared for his death; I think that what they had experienced of Jesus made them believe that he was deathless.  So when Jesus died, it caught them off guard.  They lived in shocked disbelief about his death.  With the death of Jesus would the values of the life of Jesus also die?  The death of Jesus was so profound that the deep grief was answered with the power of God to give Jesus an afterlife in the life of his friends.  And Jesus reappeared to his disciples to teach this world about the fact that death was a transition to another kind of life.

The Risen Christ was born into the lives of many people in many times and places.  Jesus instantiated the life of God for humanity in first century Palestine.  But the Risen Christ has been made available in the lives of people throughout the world.  The life of Christ has been lived very well in the lives of the saints and so the life of Christ became more accessible to people who have lived after Jesus in different times.  With the life of the saints we celebrate the fact that the life of the Risen Christ has become more diverse than just the life of Jesus of Nazareth in his thirty plus years upon earth.

I think it is wrong to divide the family of Christ in thinking that the saints would promote themselves over Christ, or to think that Jesus would be jealous of how people relate to the good lives of the saints.  It is very logical to believe that because the church has remained for such a long time that saintliness is one of the reason for the staying power of the church.  The church has remained for so long because the Risen Christ has significantly inspired people to live saintly lives.

It is very natural for us to celebrate saintly lives for several reasons.  First, it allows us to acknowledge that significance of their lives.  It allow us to be honest about our grief at the loss of the lives of people who have touched our lives with the very best witness.  It is correct and necessary for us to celebrate the lives of saints as a way to practice the faith of the resurrection.  You are alive here and now, and I feel completely confident in asking you to pray for me early and often.  If we believe in the continuing life of the saints and the significant departed souls of our own lives, why would we treat them as dead and insignificant by avoiding to ask them to pray for us.  The saints and the holy dear people are not people who compete with our devotion to Christ; they are gifts of God to us to help us in our love and devotion of God.

But finally, we cannot let all holiness and godliness remain contained in Jesus and the saints; the reason that we have the cloud of witnesses of the saints is so that we ourselves might progress in being saintly as well.  Sainthood, or holiness is not something Jesus kept to himself.  It is not something that is limited to the official saints of the Church; holiness is how you and I respond to the life of God in our lives.  And no one can be a saint like you can.  Only you can be the saint given the uniqueness of your life circumstances.  And there are people who need us to be saints for them in making the life of Risen Christ known again in our world.

Today, let us be thankful that the Most High Saint Jesus, shared saintliness with all people through the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Let us be thankful for the saints who have taken the gift of holiness of Jesus and made it evident in their lives as a blessed witness to us.  And finally, let us receive the gift of holiness in our lives as we endeavor to allow the Risen Christ to be known in and through us by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.