Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday  March 24, 2016   

Ex. 12:1-14a       Ps. 78:14-20, 23-25
1 Cor 11:23-32      John 13:1-15

 Lectionary Link

  Many people believe that the reason one becomes wealthy and powerful is so that one does not have to do the little things, like drive one’s car, take out the trash, wash dishes, clean the house, or take care of the children.

   Maundy Thursday is a night when we remember that Jesus said that our lives of faith involve being constituted by lots of little things, things so obvious that one might forget them or neglect them.

  The early Christian gathering was a table meal.  People have to eat and eating is also a good time for renewing friendship and family relationship.  The central Christian gathering is the Holy Eucharist and long before it became a stylized meal of unrecognizable bread and a sip of wine, it was an actual fellowship meal.  Jesus hosted a meal and served; he told his disciples to continue this simple practice.  “Continue to get together and eat and fellowship and when you do it as I ask, you will realize that I am there with you.  When you eat this meal which I asked of you, in this meal you will be connected with this very night when I first asked you to do it.”

  Peter and his disciple friends were often concerned about their position in the kingdom of Jesus. If Peter were thinking out loud he would be saying, “ Jesus, you are the kingly messiah and this is not just an ordinary meal among some friends.  This is like a banquet of a great king.  And since you Jesus are going to be our great king.  You can’t be putting a towel on and washing our feet.  That is not kingly work.”  And Jesus said, “Well guys we’ve set down to eat and no one has offered the basic hospitality of washing our dusty feet before we eat.  No one saw the obvious thing to do.  And there were not servants here to perform it. So I am going to set the example.  Your gathering in the future is going to be very basic; eat, discuss and fellowship together and serve each other doing the little things and the obvious things which need to be done.”  99% of life is obvious, ordinary maintenance things.  Too boring for you?  Well, if you only want to do big and heroic things you will miss doing them if you don’t do the basic things really well as a part of the formation of your character.”

   The Holy Eucharist is the continual grace of the gathered church sharing a meal, reading our family tradition as found in the Scriptures and making sure that the basic needs of the community are fulfilled.  Because if we live really well together, then that in itself will be the best evangelism.

   If we really live well together, then others will say, “I want what they have.  I want to be with them.  I want their good news.  I want their fun.  I want their peace and joy.  I want to be with them because they share it all, they rejoice with each other, they work with each other, they pray with each other, they mourn with each other, they comfort each other.”

  In 2000 years the church has become pretty good at hiding the basic stuff of the Holy Eucharist into church laws or obligations.  What we need to remember tonight is to return to the basic.  A fellowship meal together with the sharing of our best words of our traditions, prayers and encouragement and just really basic, basic fix the meal, take out the trash, do the laundry type of service.  Does it sound too boring?  Too ordinary? 

  I believe if we do the basic things of service very well we will also find that some extraordinary things will happen because we practice belonging to each other in the name of Jesus Christ.

  Let this meal tonight return turn us to basic, basic Jesus Movement Christianity.  A meal together, prayers, passing the peace, wishing each other the very best, and the basic service which will keep us together and help us to pass on these habits of fellowship to another generation of people who need to be connected to the original Last Supper.

  May God let us know that we are connected to the original Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples tonight.  Amen.

Reading the Passion into Our Lives

Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday  C      March 20, 2016

Is. 50: 4-9a        Ps. 31: 9-16         

Phil. 2:5-11       Luke 23:1-49  

Lectionary Link

  By following our Palm Sunday Procession with the Passion Sunday liturgy, we perhaps pack too much into one Sunday.  The events highlight two opposing crowds.  One crowd, the friends of Jesus formed a  parade and proclaimed him as a king.  The other crowd gathered by the parties of those resident in the Jerusalem rallied at his sentencing and shouted "Crucify him, he can't be a king because we have no king but Caesar."
  As you know, I have the ability to take a straight forward reading of the Gospel and make it very complicated by looking into the actual time when the Gospels were written.
  True to my habit I will do the same for us today and I would like to look at three different ways of reading the Passion Gospel.  I would also like to show the various consequences of reading the Passion Gospels in different ways.
  The three ways of reading are the following:  First, an immediate face-value reading of the Passion.  Second, the reading of Passion Gospel with information about when and why it was written.  And finally, reading the Passion Gospel as a way of making specific connections with our lives today.
  First, a face value reading of this Passion presentation involves treating it as if it had happened exactly in the way in which we have read it.  Let us be aware that writing is a form of time lapsing long before time-lapsed photography.  The Passion Gospel presents events which took place over a couple of days and we can read them in less than five minutes.  The Passion Gospel is time lapsed.  Literary art time lapses and it is magically an illusion because if the magic is successful it emotionally transports us to be there.  It is the illusion of events "as if" they actually happened.  But all writing of history or a story is a "time-lapsed" presentation of something that is done presented in written words.  Events are reduced to words upon a page.  And yet these artistic words can so engage our participation that we can imagine ourselves into an emotional presence with the events themselves.  This "as if" magic evokes some emotional responses from us.  And we make judgments, we feel empathy and we may even get angry.  We may get angry at Pilate, or at Herod or at the Jews who are presented as those who plotted the arrest and conviction of Jesus.  We get angry at Judas for his betrayal and we think, "let Judas be an everlasting symbol of betrayal."  We are put off or mildly amused at the blow hard Peter who was so confident and yet denies Jesus out of fear of what identification with Jesus might cost him.  We look at the irony of the women being those who are unafraid and who stay with Jesus during his Passion.
  We see that the face value reading has the value of arousing emotion, feeling and passions.   Those feelings can be beneficial if they promote our empathy and identification with the "all too human" characters who are presented in the Passion Story.
  But the face value reading which stokes the fires of emotions can also be dangerous.  Historically, the reading of Passion led to victimization of the Jews.  The reading of the Passion has in various times and places of Christian history led to Christians mobs under the emotions of a face value reading of the Passion Gospel to go out and persecute the Jews.  Angry people transfer their anger response to the story and have persecuted Jews who lived long after Jesus. And this indeed is the irony of evil; the Christ who loves and forgives from the cross is used as an excuse to promote persecution and violence.
  Let us accept the immediate face value reading as evocative, but remember we still are responsible for how we react emotionally to the Passion Reading.
  The second level of reading of the Passion involves giving some historical context for the writing of the Passion Gospel.  This second level of reading can in fact actually falsify the face-value reading because the context of writing contradicts the meanings of the face-value reading.
  Let me explain.  The Passion Gospels were written after the writings of St. Paul; they were written after the destruction of Jerusalem.  They were written after St. Paul encouraged the church to pray for the Roman authorities and regard them to be as God's agents.  The Passion Gospels were written after the post-resurrection appearances of Christ.  If these post resurrection appearances had not happened, the accounts of the death of Jesus never would have been written.  The Passion Gospels were written when the Christian communities had become separated from the synagogue and when more Christians were Roman Gentile citizens than they were Jews.  The Passion Gospels were written after the often painful and angry separation of Christianity from Judaism.  This accounts for the fact that the Passion Gospels make it seem as though the Jews had more power to crucify Jesus than did the Roman governor in Palestine.  This Passion accounts were written to ameliorate the Gentile and Roman Christians who had become members of the churches and so in the Passion Gospel there is subtle displacing of the blame, implicating the Jews more than the Roman authorities.  This Passion Gospel was written after the Cross had become a glorious event of power for the churches of St. Paul. and others.  St. Paul said that he was crucified with Christ.  So the crucifixion was changed into a metaphor of spiritual transformation, far from the bloody and gory details of the actual event.  The cross as a metaphor of spiritual transformation meant that the Passion Gospel was written as a necessary event of God's providence in bringing the experience of spiritual transformation to the lives of all people.
  Now that we appreciate something of these first two ways of reading the Passion Gospel, where does that leave us today in how we can find correspondences in our own lives today?  First we don't to be angry at the Jews like the Gospel writers were who had been excommunicated from the synagogues.  We can accept the fact that Jewish mission in this world is different from the Christian mission, even while we can share many common religious and spiritual values with them.  Next we approach the death of Jesus and all events of hurtful death and loss from the perspective of the resurrection.  We live with faith to know that we are holding a trump card to play in the game of life when all of the cards which have been played seem to point to our loss and demise.  Slam.  We play the resurrection card and all of those bad cards lose their threat.  I am not suggesting that we ever deny or minimize or avoid the poignant experiences of loss and death;  I am suggesting that we can have the experience of faith which means that no matter what happens there will be something "after" the events of loss and death and that ultimately the afterlife of Christ will give a different perspective on everything which happened before the afterlife.  You and I need this imagination of faith to help us to live today with a continuing sense of hope in the face of the the great losses in life, especially the great loss known as death.
  We can embrace today the theology of the cross that St. Paul used when he said, "I am crucified with Christ, yet I live, yet not I, for Christ lives within me."  We can look to the Cross of Christ for the real power to actually check our egos at the door so as to give us the ability to love God with all our hearts and to love our neighbor as our selves.
  Finally, we can project upon all of the characters in the Passion Gospel since it was also written as a Parable of the early church to illustrate the personality types in various phases of spiritual progression.  We can be betrayers of Christ by our life styles, unwitting accusers just like St. Paul had been in his former life, mob shouters who can change with political crowds with great fickleness, we can be those who represent the banality of evil like  Pilate and Herod who were just doing their Roman jobs in ridding Jerusalem of this Jesus who could draw a crowd. Or we could be those women who were faithful even when their hero and his heroic values seemed to be losing.  We also can know that Christ is still on the cross when all who love justice get sacrificed by people, governments, and powerful people who get rid of people who pose a threat to those who exploit others for their own advantage.
  There are plenty of insights and meanings for us to find in our readings of the Passion Gospel today.  Let us be those who are committed to the path of spiritual transformation and who seek this inner power to overcome evil with good.  And may we find the ability to apply the power of the death of Christ to everything in ourselves which would hinder our spiritual transformation.
  May each of us be able to say today, "I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live, but not I, for Christ lives within me."  Amen.

Sunday School, March 20, 2016 Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday C

Sunday School, March 20,  2016   Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday, March 20, 2016

Themes

Explain the two meanings of this day, Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday

The day of two crowds

One crowd of the followers of Jesus who came to Jerusalem perhaps from Galilee and the countryside wanted to make him the king of Jerusalem.

The people in Jerusalem who received most of their jobs by being employed in the building projects of the Roman government, were worried about the people who wanted to make Jesus a king.  The people in Jerusalem were worried about the Roman soldiers punishing them because of the popularity of Jesus.

During the day time the crowd with Jesus had their parade.  They put him on a donkey and celebrated him as their king.

At night Jesus was taken by the authorities and arrested and put on trial.  The crowd who went to the trial were a different crowd.  And they wanted to get rid of Jesus and so they told the Roman governor that Jesus was trying to be a rival king to Caesar, the Emperor in Rome.

The Roman government put people on a Cross to die in public so all people would be reminded not to rebel against the Roman government.

Jesus really did not want to be a rival king to the Caesar, he wanted to become a “king of hearts.”  He wanted to be someone who ruled the thoughts and feelings of all people with love and kindness.

Let us wave palm branches today to remind ourselves that Jesus is the king of our hearts.

A Palm Sunday Story

Once upon a time in a village near the city of Jerusalem, the village of Bethphage; a little donkey was born in the pasture.  And that donkey was called by his owner, Shorty, because he was so tiny when he was born.

  But the donkey’s mom, called him Christopher.  When Christopher became old enough to talk to his mom, he asked her, "Why does my owner call me Shorty, even now when I've grown to be a tall and strong donkey?"  Christopher's mom said, "Well once you get a name, it sometimes just sticks and people won't let you be anything else."

  Christopher asked his mom, "Then why do you call me Christopher?"  His mom said, "Well, I'm not sure but I just had this feeling that it was the right name for you."

  Christopher looked in the other pasture and he saw a beautiful big stallion prancing around.  He saw important Roman Generals ride this beautiful horse.  And Christopher thought, "I wish that someone important would ride on my back some day.  And Christopher was a little jealous of the stallion.

  But one day something exciting happened to Christopher.  Two visitors came to the farm where Christopher was kept.  They called themselves disciples of Jesus, and they said there was going to be a parade into the great city of Jerusalem.  They also said that they needed a donkey to carry their king.  Christopher's owner Farmer Jacob, said, "I've got two donkeys, that jennet over there and her colt that I call "Shorty."  If Jesus needs the donkeys, take them.  Jesus is my friend, he healed my son, and I owe him everything I have."

  So the two disciples took Christopher and his mom with them and they went to a place just in front of the sheep gate in Jerusalem.  There was a large crowd gathered who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover Holiday.  After waiting for about an hour, the crowd soon got excited.  Jesus arrived and it was time for the parade to start.  The people put some robes on Christopher to make a saddle for Jesus.  Christopher had never been ridden before, and he was nervous.  But Christopher's mom said, "Calm down, Jesus is the nicest man in the world.  You don't need to buck him off."

  Jesus Climbed up on the back of Christopher and the parade started.  The people took some branches from some palm trees and they began to wave and shout and scream, because their superstar was there.  They followed Jesus as he was riding Christopher into the city of Jerusalem and Christopher trotted proudly through the streets.  This was the happiest day of his life.  At night, he and his mom were tied up at the house of one of the disciples in Jerusalem.  Christopher's mom was proud of him and she said, "Well now I know why I named you Christopher.  "Christopher" means, "the one who carries Christ."  And today you have carried Christ on your back, so today you have lived up to your name."  Christopher was so happy he wanted hee haw with joy.  But his happiness didn't last too long.

  He looked out on the street and he saw another parade.  In the darkness he saw a tired and naked Jesus walking with soldiers.  And the soldiers were forcing him to carry this large wooden cross on his back.  He was bleeding and he was too weak to carry the cross, so at one place they forced a man named Simon to carry the cross for Jesus.  The people who were following the soldiers were laughing and making fun of Jesus.  They were saying, "you're going to die Jesus.  You were just pretending to be a king, but you don't have any power, you're going to die Jesus."

  Christopher ran to his mom and said, "If I had known that this would happen to Jesus, I would not have brought him to Jerusalem."

  Christopher's mom said, "It is a terrible, terrible thing, but we must trust God.  Jesus is the best and nicest person who ever lived and God will take care of him.

  Well, Jesus went on to die on the cross.  And he was buried in a grave.  But does the story does not end here.  Come back next week and we will tell you the end of the story.  What happened to Jesus after he died and was put in the grave?

  What was the donkey's name?  Christopher.  What does Christopher mean?  It means "The one who carries Christ."  In a way, every Christian could be called Christopher.  Because you and I are asked to carry the presence of Christ into this world by being nice and kind.  Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Holy Eucharist

March 20, 2016: Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday

Gathering Songs: Hosanna, Hosanna in the Highest!; The King of Glory Comes, Were You There?; Hosanna! Hosanna!

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.

Opening Song: Hosanna, Hosanna in the Highest! (Renew! # 71)

Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest!  Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest! 

Lord we lift up your name with hearts full of praise;

Be exalted, oh Lord my God! Hosanna in the highest!

Glory, Glory, glory to the King of kings! Glory, Glory, glory to the King of kings!

Lord we lift up you name with hearts full of praise;

Be exalted oh Lord my God! Glory to the King of kings!

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Assist us with your mercy and help, O Lord God of our salvation that we may enter with joy as we think about your mighty acts, which have given us life and an everlasting future; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen

First Litany of Praise: Hosanna

O God, you are Great!  Hosanna

O God, you have made us! Hosanna

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

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

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

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Hosanna

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

A Reading from the letter of Paul to the Philippians

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-- even death on a cross.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 118

On this day the LORD has acted; *we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Hosanna, LORD, Hosanna! *LORD, send us now success.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; *we bless you from the house of the LORD.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God!

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 Luke

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

After telling a parable to the crowd at Jericho, Jesus went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, "Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it.'" So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" They said, "The Lord needs it." Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!" Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, order your disciples to stop." He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father 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.

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.

Youth 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: The King of Glory, (Renew # 267)

Refrain: The King of glory comes, the nation rejoices. 

            Open the gates before him, lift up your voices.

1          Who is the king of glory; how shall we call him?  He is Emmanuel, the promised of ages. Refrain

2          In all of Galilee, in city or village, he goes among his people curing their illness. Refrain

3          Sing then of David’s son, our Savior and brother; in all of Galilee was never another. Refrain

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 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 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,

(Children rejoin their parents and take up their instruments)

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:       Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast. 

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Were You There? (#172, blue hymnal)

1. Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

2. Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? …

3. Were you there when they pierced him in the side? …

4. Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? …

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: Hosanna! Hosanna, (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 102)

Hosanna!  Hosanna!  The little children sing.  Hosanna! Hosanna! For Christ, the Lord, is King. 

Prepare the way, the children sing, Hosanna to our Lord and King. 

Hosanna!  Hosanna! The little children sing.  (repeat)

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Coming Events:

Tonight: Yoga at 5 p.m. 

Mon., March 21, 6:45 p.m.  7:30 p.m.   Bell  choir Rehearsal

Wed., March 23, 7:30 p.m. Directed Meditation

Thurs.,  March 24,  7:30 a.m.  Eucharist,   7 p.m. Maundy Thursday liturgy, 7:30 p.m. Choir Rehearsal

Good Friday, March 25, 12 Noon Good Friday Liturgy,  Stations of the Cross on the Labyrinth all day

Holy Saturday, Easter Vigil, March 26, 6 p.m.

Easter Sunday, 9 a.m. Family Easter Liturgy, 9:45 a.m. Easter Egg Hunt and first Easter Brunch.  10:15 a.m. Holy Eucharist, followed by 2nd Easter Brunch.  Bring food items to share at the brunches

Death, Where Now Is Thy Stink?

5 Lent             March 13, 2016     

Is.43:16-21        Ps.126              

Phil.3:8-14        Luke 20:9-19      

Lectionary Link 

  We Americans who pride ourselves, often wrongly, about being a classless society, are uncomfortable with cultural gestures which show unusual deference to people of authority.  We have read the story about Mary of Bethany anointing the feet of Jesus with perfume and wiping them with her hair.  She was criticized for her waste of the costly perfume and she was defended by Jesus.  Jesus declared her to be a prophet because she was actually symbolically preparing his future dead body for burial.

  This can all seem quite macabre to us since we don’t encounter such things in our everyday lives.  I do recall a party game called the “King of Siam.”  Did any of you ever play this game?   In this game, a person is blind folded and brought to have an audience with the King of Siam.  He or she then must bow before the King of Siam and kiss the ring of the King.   Once the initiate has kissed the ring of the King of Siam, the blindfold is removed only to see the ring on the big hairy toe of the King of Siam.  Laughter ensues, until the victim of the humor watches the next victim.  The ringed finger is quickly taken out of sight before the blindfold comes off.  So we feel really yucky about getting our faces close to other people’s feet in showing respect.

  In ancient cultures respect for authority involved having a foot fetish whether you wanted it or not.  Certainly in kissing the Emperor’s feet it symbolized the fact that he could literally walk all over you if he so chose.  Such honorific gestures were adopted by European kings and popes.

   As a Bible reader, I want to ask what does the anointing of the feet of Jesus have to do with me when it seems so culturally distant from my experience.  What function does this story have in the life of the early church, particularly in the community which generated the Gospel of John?  Why is this anointing of the feet of Jesus associated with the inevitable death of Jesus?

    In our Church liturgical calendar, the death of Jesus is once again inevitable.  Next week we will read the Passion Gospel twice, once in the Passion Sunday liturgy and again on Good Friday.  Since the Passion is in all four Gospels in different edited forms, we know that the Passion was a liturgy which was used in various widespread churches in the six or seven decades after Jesus left this earth.

  We also know that St. Paul wrote his letters before the Gospels were written.  In the writing of St. Paul, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ had become the metaphors of spiritual transformation.  And so the Death of Jesus had become a good thing in that the death of Jesus symbolized a Higher Power to bring to an end all of the unworthy habits and former identities of one’s life.  Then one received the energy of the Higher Power of the resurrection to be re-created, to be made a new creation in Christ.

  The theology of spiritual transformation of St. Paul, became hidden in the Gospel narratives about the life of Jesus.  The Gospels externalized in narrative form the interior spiritual transformation that was found in the writings of St. Paul.  Only the spiritual initiates in the early church understood the spiritual significance of the Gospels.  It is amazing how we from the point of view of empirical verification and eye-witness journalistic writing have managed to make the Gospels into exact accounts of history.  And we have been fooled if we have not come to know the spiritual significance of the Gospel literature.  We have been fooled into making the art of spiritual transformation into exact eye-witness historical accounts of the life of Jesus.

   The Gospel of John from it first page is discourse about how the Death of Jesus is a planned divine event.  In the first chapter, John the Baptist is already declaring Jesus to be the Lamb of God who is and will take away the sin of the world.  This is not subtle writing; this is writing many years after the post-resurrection appearances of Christ recounting the spiritual experience of how one can experience interdiction in one’s life for one’s sinful, unenlightened ways.  In chapter three, Jesus tells Nicodemus that he is going to be lifted up, like the serpent in wilderness and that he would draw all people to himself.   This glorification of the death of Jesus, something in itself which was God-awful,  happened because of the afterlife of Jesus in his resurrection manifestations to his disciples.  The result of the post-resurrection manifestations of Christ for the disciples was the transformation of their lives.  These lives were so transformed that the disciples wanted to share this spiritual method of transformation as a regular practice within their communities and so the Gospels were written to encode the life of transformation within narrative presentations of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

   The placing of perfume by Mary of Bethany on the feet of Jesus comes in this progressive presentation of the inevitable Death of Jesus in the narrative of the Gospel of John.  Human logic would not naturally connect the anointing of feet with perfume as a sign predicting the eventual burial preparations of the body of Jesus.  We are dealing with a spiritual logic of transformation as it was practiced and taught within the community which wrote and read the Gospel of John.

  The writings of St. Paul and the writing of the Gospel of John are written proof that Christianity became a new faith community which was born out of Judaism.  In fact, St. Paul writes that all of his resume of Jewish identity was rubbish compared to his new identity with Jesus Christ.  While this may seem like a harsh separation from his past, it does indicate a confession of the reality of the Christian community moving into the Gentile world.

  The Jews who accepted the spiritual practice of the Gospel had to “die to their Jewishness” in order to accept Gentiles as their spiritual equals.

  We sometimes read the Gospels as somehow telling us why things happened when in fact the Gospels were written after the fact that things had already happened.  The Gospels were written to reveal the new spiritual practice of a Gentile Christianity.

   And so perfume can be placed upon death, because the hope of the message of the resurrection is that death has lost its stink.

   The Death of Jesus in the Gospel of John is presented as having two functions.  It provides us with the power of spiritual transformation in dying to what is unworthy in ourselves.  And since Jesus survived Death in his afterlife, his death and all death are made into but singular events which have to give way to a new future for the afterlife of all.     

  Let us today be like Mary of Bethany; let us start applying the fragrance of perfume on what we anticipate to be passing away.  Let it be an olfactory celebration that abundant life cannot and will not ever end.  Amen.

Sunday School, March 13, 2016 5 Lent C

Sunday School, March 13, 2016    5 Lent C

Themes:

What is good about never being finished?

St. Paul was very successful but he did not think that his success made him finished.  He wrote that he forgot what was past and he would keep pressing on until he died and then after he died he believed that he still had a future in continuing to press on.

So we should remember that our lives of faith, love and kindness are never finished.  We may be happy about our good successes and we may be sad about our failures, but we need to continue to have hope that our lives are never finish.  This means we keep looking to do the next best thing that we need to do in our lives.

Remember our lives are never finished because we have hope for a future.  And the future is calling us to be better than we have been in the past.

The Themes for the readings from Isaiah and the Psalms show us how God’s people still had hope in some very difficult times.  Even when they did not have a place to settle and live they had hope that God would help them find a home.  Even when their homes had been taken away and when they had been carried away into captivity, they still had hope that their homes, their temple and their special city of Jerusalem would be rebuilt for them to return to.

So when things are not going well, it is hope and thinking about how God will make things better which inspires us to keep going.

The Gospel Lesson

Sometimes when we are really thankful, we want to do something special for something special that someone did for us.

Mary of Bethany lost her brother Lazarus when he died.  But her friend and teacher, Jesus healed her brother’s death and made him to live again.  Mary was very thankful to Jesus for his special gift to her.  She invited Jesus to dinner and in front of everyone she wanted to honor Jesus, so she poured perfume on his feet.  Usually, they just used water to wash the dusty feet of guests, but Mary used more than water, she put perfume on the feet of Jesus as way of honoring Jesus.  Judas did not understand Mary’s love of Jesus and he told her that she used her money wrongly by buying such an expensive gift.  But Jesus defended Mary.  Jesus understood how much Mary appreciated what he had done for her and her family and so he accepted her gift.

Sometimes when you do something nice for someone, you too, need to know how to receive the thanksgiving from others.  When we offer thanksgiving and when we receive thanksgiving we are celebrating what is very best about friendship, family and living in community.

Sermon

  What if you only had the end of a story and not the beginning?  Would it make the story harder to understand?

  You remember the story of Cinderella.  What if you had only the part of the story of the prince’s helpers coming to Cinderella’s home with a glass slipper.  If you didn’t know the beginning of the story, how would you know the meaning of the glass slipper.

  Today, we have read in the Gospel the end of a story.  Jesus was at the home of his friend Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha.  And Mary does a very strange thing.  She puts expensive perfume on the feet of Jesus and then wipes his feet with her hair.  Back in the time of Jesus, that is how she showed Jesus that she was really, really, really thankful for some thing special that he had done for her.

  And what had Jesus done for Mary, Martha and Lazarus?  If we read the chapter before the chapter that we read today, we know what Jesus did for Lazarus, Mary and Martha.  Jesus had brought Lazarus back to life after he had died.  So now we know why Mary wanted to show Jesus how thankful she was.

  This Gospel story is important for us because it teaches us something that we believe as Christians.  We believe that after we die that God will do some thing wonderful so that we can live on in another way.  And if we know that God is stronger than death, we know that we don’t have to live in fear.  We can live in hope, because whatever bad that can happen, God can do something better.

  And so like Mary, we try to find some very special ways to thank Jesus for bringing us this wonderful news about our after lives.  We come to church to sing songs of praise and thanksgiving.  We worship God and this worship is a way of honoring God and respecting God.  When we worship God, we are telling Jesus thank you for the wonderful news that he has brought us about the resurrection.

  And since we have this good news, we know that it is greater than our fears.  And this good news helps us to have hope and faith and love in our lives.

  I don’t recommend that you get perfume and put it on some one’s foot.  I don’t recommend wiping feet with your hair.  But in our way and in our time you and I can find special ways to honor God and show Jesus that we love him for the special things that he has done for us.

  So I want you to think about some special things that you can do for Jesus today, to thank him.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

March 13,  2016: The Fifth Sunday in Lent

Gathering Songs: Only a Boy Named David,  I Have Decided to Follow Jesus,  Let Us Break Bread Together, Joyful, Joyful We Adore Three

Song: Only a Boy Named David (All the Best Songs for Kids,  # 112)

Only a boy named David, only a little sling. Only a boy named David.  But he could pray and sing.  Only a boy named David, only a rippling brook.  Only a boy named David and five little stones he took.  And one little stone went in the sling, and the sling went round and round.  And one little stone went in the sling, and the sling went round and round.  And!   Round and round and round and round and round and round and round.  And one little stone went up in the air and the the giant came tumbling down.

Liturgist: Bless the Lord who forgives all of our sins.

People: God’s 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

Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Litany of Praise: Chant: Praise be to God!

O God, you are Great!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have made us! Praise be to God!

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

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Praise be to God!

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

Liturgist: A reading from the Letter of Paul to the Phillipians

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 126

When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, * then were we like those who dream.

Then was our mouth filled with laughter, * and our tongue with shouts of joy.

Then they said among the nations, * "The LORD has done great things for them."

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.

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father 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.

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.

Youth 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 Hymn: I Decided to Follow Jesus (All the Best Songs for Kids,  # 130)

1-I have decided to follow Jesus;  I have decided to follow Jesus;  I have decided to follow Jesus.  No turning back, no turning back.

3-Though none go with me, still I will follow.  Though none go with me.  Still I will follow.  Though none go with me, still I will follow.  No turning back, no turning back.

4-Will you decide now to follow Jesus?  Will you decide now to follow Jesus?  Will you decide now to follow Jesus?  No turning back, no turning back.

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.  Bless and 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: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:       Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast. 

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Let Us Break Break Together,  (Blue Hymnal,  # 325)

1-Let us break bread together on our knees.  Let us break bread together on our knees.  When I fall on my knees, with my face to the rising sun.  O Lord have mercy on me.

2-Let us drink wine together on our knees.  Let us drink wine together on our knees.  When I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun.  O Lord have mercy on me.

3-Let us praise God together on our knees.  Let us praise God together on our knees.  When I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun.  O Lord, have mercy.

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:   Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee (Blue Hymnal, # 376)

1-Joyful, joyful, we adore thee, God glory, Lord of love.  Hearts unfold like flowers before thee, praising thee, their sun above.  Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of clouds away; giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day.

3-Thou are giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blest, well-spring of the joy of living, ocean-depth of happy rest!  Thou our Father, Christ our Brother: all who live in love are thine;  teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God!