Sunday School, May 29, 2016 2 Pentecost C proper 4

Sunday School, May 29, 2016   2 Pentecost C proper 4

Themes for Sunday School

What does remote mean?  What does remote control mean?

How do we order pizza without going to the pizza restaurant?  We make a phone call or a text.  We order from a remote location.  It saves time.

How does remote control work on our televisions and video games?  How do the wi-fi and Bluetooth work?  They work remotely.

A person does not have to be at the TV to change a channel.  With a remote control you can push a button and change the channel on the TV across the room or you can play a DVD.

We like to use remote because it means we don’t have to be present to make something happen.

The Gospel story is about how faith is remote.  A Roman officer had a sick servant.  He wanted Jesus to heal his servant.  And he believed that Jesus did not have to be at his home in order for his servant to be healed.

Today, we do not see Jesus.  But we believe he is still alive and we can still talk to him.  We have faith that Jesus is still alive and still hears us and helps us.  Our remote control device of faith is called prayer.  Prayer is like pushing the remote control buttons because they are asking Jesus to help us, keep us safe and to help others to need help.

Remember the lesson in faith: Believing that Jesus is still alive even though we don’t see him.   And we exercise our remote faith when we offer our prayers to Jesus.

 Sermon

  What do we call the people in the army who give the orders; the most important officers?  We call them generals and some have four stars and some have five stars.  And they give orders to many soldiers.  And all of those soldiers don’t get to see the general.  He gives the order and soldier who are around the world follow those orders even though they don’t see the general.

  Today in our Gospel we read about a Roman Centurion.  A Roman Centurion in the time of Jesus was like a General in the Emperor’s army.  A centurion was one of the top army officers and he commanded 800 to over a thousand soldiers.

  Now he did not live with all of those soldiers, but he would just give an order to one of his officers and they would make sure that his orders would be obeyed by all of the soldiers.

  One day there was a centurion and he had one of persons in his house who was sick and he wanted to help him get better.  He heard about Jesus and about how Jesus could heal people and so he arranged for Jesus to come and see his sick friend.  But before Jesus arrived, he sent people to  tell Jesus not to come.  The centurion said, “Jesus is so great and I am not worthy to bother him….but just as I give orders and my orders are obey, let Jesus just give and order and my friend will be healed.”

  And sure enough, Jesus did not go to the centurion’s home; he just gave the order and the servant was healed.

  And then Jesus said that this centurion had great faith.

  And this story teaches us about our faith too.

  How many of you have Jesus living in your home?  I don’t.  How many of you can see Jesus living here at the church?  I can’t see Jesus, can you?    But how many of you believe that in some way Christ is still alive and with us and can hear our prayers and help us when we are in need?

  We all do; that is why we are here.  We are just like the centurion.  We don’t see Jesus and yet we still have faith that Christ can help us in our lives.

  And that is what this Gospel story is trying to teach us.  We can have faith even when we don’t see or touch Jesus.  Jesus left love and kindness and goodness in this world and we can have faith in this love and kindness and goodness, even when we don’t see Jesus.

  Let us remember to have faith today, even when we don’t actually see Jesus.  Faith is being able to believe in goodness and love even when we cannot see all of the proof of goodness and love.  Jesus honors us when we have faith to believe in goodness and love even when it isn’t the only thing that we see or experience in life.

  Let us remember to have faith today, even though we don’t always see or understanding everything.  Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

May 29, 2016:  The Second Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: As the Deer,  This Little Light, Eightfold Alleluia,  When the Saints

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

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

Song: As the Deer Pants for the Water, (Renew # 9)

1          As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after you; you alone are my heart’s desire and I long to worship you.  Refrain: You alone are my strength, my shield, to you alone may my spirit yield; you alone are my heart’s desire, and I long to worship you!

2          I want you more than gold or silver, only you can satisfy; you alone are the real joy-giver and the apple of my eye.  Refrain.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

O God, your never-failing providence sets in order all things both in heaven and earth: Put away from us, we entreat you, all hurtful things, and give us those things which are profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

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 to the Galatians  

Paul an apostle-- sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead-- and all the members of God's family who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 96

 Sing to the LORD a new song; * sing to the LORD, all the whole earth.

 Sing to the LORD and bless his Name; * proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day.

 Declare his glory among the nations * and his wonders among all peoples.

 For great is the LORD and greatly to be praised; * he is more to be feared than all gods.

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 Luke 

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us." And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, `Go,' and he goes, and to another, `Come,' and he comes, and to my slave, `Do this,' and the slave does it." When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith." When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.

 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: This Little Light of Mine (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 234)

1-This little light of mine.  I am going to let it shine.  This little light of mine, I am going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

2-Hide it under a bushel, no.  I am going to let it shine.  Hide it under a bushel, no.  I am going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

3- Don’t let anyone blow it out; I’m going to let it shine.  Don’t let anyone blow it out, I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

4-Shine all over my neighborhood, I’m going to let it shine.  Shine all over my neighborhood, I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

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,

(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: Alleluia (Renew! # 136)

1          Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.  Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

2          He’s my Savior, alleluia.  He’s my Savior, alleluia.  He’s my Savior, alleluia.  He’s my Savior, alleluia.

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: When the Saints (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 248)

O when the saints go marching in, O when the saints go marching in.  Lord I want to be in that number, when the saints go marching in.

O when the girls go marching in….

O when the boys go marching…

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Trinity; Synchronic Abstract Unity; Dynamic Personal Unfolding

Trinity Sunday  May 22, 2016

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 Psalm 8/Canticle 13

Romans 5:1-5  John 16:12-15

Lectionary Link

Today is Trinity Sunday and so I am obligated to explain to everyone how God can be three persons and yet still be just one God.  I probably cannot do this adequate to anyone's satisfaction.  What I can do is to hazard a try to provide some insights about why the Trinity has come to have true, valuable and functional meanings for people who have embraced this Christian notion of God.  This is to say that the way in which people have understood God has a human history.  As human beings we often believe that latest discoveries to be the best discoveries but then we further proclaim that our latest discoveries about God were always that way from the beginning.

Belief in God or gods is called Theism, and there are many kinds of theisms.  And there are different varieties of theisms even within the kinds of theism.  Some of the variations of theisms came about because of historical developments within cultures and societies.  The majority of the religious people of the world would call themselves monotheists or people who believe in one God.  The people of the Abrahamic faith traditions, Jews, Muslims and Christians are monotheists.  But within this classification there are variations; Most Christians are Trinitarian monotheists, Jehovah Witnesses are not Trinitarian monotheists.  Judaism and Islam might be called radical monotheistic faith communities and some observant members of Judaism and Islam do not understand how the Christian belief in the Trinity can avoid being called the kind of theism known as polytheism, or the belief in many gods.   It also might be noted that during the development of Judaism, the ancient Hebrew people might be called henotheists.  Henotheists believe in many gods, but there is a one, supreme or superior God among the other gods.  There are references in the Hebrew Scriptures of the One God El, or Yahweh who was the supreme God of a heavenly council of other  gods.   Ancient Greek and Roman societies were polytheists as well as the pre-Christian European peoples.  Ancient Greek has also henotheistic tendencies as the god Zeus battled and became the supreme god of the Greek pantheon.

Sometimes in classifying theism, we run in the problem of who gets to classify theism.  Since much modern scholarship has been done in the modern western context, scholars have tended to classify all world beliefs in terms of how people of the Abrahamic faiths have used the terms gods and God.  So when modern scholars have encountered life practices in Asia or Africa they have used the Western models as the norm for analysis.  To characterize Eastern religion the term pantheism has been used.  This means that everything is some way a part of God.  This has been used to define Hindu beliefs, even though there is no exact correspondence between the various systems of Eastern and Western belief.  Hinduism may have many gods but they also have a supreme Deity and they also believe in Unity.

There is a theism known as Deism.  Deism was the belief of some of the founders of our country and of liberal political philosophers in Europe after the Enlightenment. What kind of God can we believe in after the reason of Enlightenment has come to prevail?  In Deism, one believes in a creator God who after creation left creation to run independent of divine intervention by the rules of reason.  And in this system, we discover God through the discovery and practice of the good reason which guides the universe.  Certainly Thomas Jefferson was a Deist.

So why are we Christian Trinitarian monotheists?  Is it because we recite the Nicene Creed which derived from a church convention of bishops in the 4th century when our official belief in God was voted on and then gradually enforced throughout the Christian world?  Yes, that is partially why we Christians believe and confess God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The theologians of the Council of Nicaea used the Greek philosophical concepts of their time to try to explain how God could be One God and three equal Persons.  Even though the belief in the Trinity came to very explicit expression and doctrine at the Council of Nicaea, it would not have happened if the internal relationship within the Divine Life had not been presented in the witness of Jesus Christ in the Gospel.

The Trinity derives from the Gospel presentation of Jesus Christ who is presented as one who prayed to his Father and who claimed equality with His Father.  He also indicated that he would send the Spirit from the Father to be with his disciples.  The Spirit would represent and be the equal Divine Presence of God with his followers.

Today you and I can understand the Trinity as the official teaching of the church.  We can accept it as the standards of belief of the church.  And this is important for cementing our community relationship in our participation within our church.  After all, we want to live in agreement with each other as we embrace a common mission to let our world know about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

But more than being our official doctrine, it behooves each of us to walk back to the precedence for this doctrine in the life and ministry of Jesus.  When we do that we realize that the Trinity is not so much a doctrine as it is a relationship dynamic.  The record of the life of Jesus shows us a dynamic relationship between Jesus, God the Father and the Holy Spirit as Persons in the One Divine Being.  When we speak about personal relationship, speaking takes place in sequential time, even though relationship dynamics happen with synchronicity.  I am a father, son, brother, husband.  It has taken me speaking a sequence of titled roles to tell you my personal identity.  But I am father, son, brother, husband and lots of other things all at once.  So we can understand the synchronicity of the One God even while we can also understand that under the conditions of time, God is presented in the sequences of the Persons of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Time and Language helps us understand the relationship between singularity of Being in Equality with Persons of Becoming known in Time.

I am a rather severe skeptic and doubter.   Things have to make sense to me.  I just don't want to be told to believe blindly some special revelation if I can't articulate it as something which is very anthropological sound and functional within human experience.  I often believe that the church has been comfortable to just state the Trinity as an unexplainable mystery of belief rather than showing how the Trinity accounts for what is unavoidable in our human experience.  As a doubter, I want to know that the Trinity has unavoidable true meanings for my human existence.

I begin human existence as it can be known with language.  We know nothing about ourselves or God without first having language.  In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God.  Because we have and use language, we define our existence as human beings.  And since we can only be human beings we use language to speak about the existence of non-human beings.  We speak about animals and plants and angels and we speak about the divine life.  But when we do so, we do so as human beings.  So we use human categories to make understandable to us the life of animals, angels and God.  We use language to define our human consciousness which includes the ability to have wisdom, reason, emotions, and choice in the classification of human experience and our interaction with all that is in our environments.  With reason we have come to know we are not alone and that we are in relationships with many other beings.  With reason we know we did not self generate; we know that we came from a great pre-existing Plenitude.  When others die and depart, we also know that the Plenitude will still exist after we have died.  So we can easily acknowledge a very great pre-existing Creator and future Sustainer of life.  And so we speak of an eternal divine parent who was called Father by Jesus.  And since Jesus called the Divine parent His Father, that by definition made him the Son. 

But there is some more anthropologically honest about our confession of God as the Son.  God as the Son is Emmanuel or God with us.  This is a very true meaning about God.  The only reason we speak about God at all is because we inherently accept God as being with us.  This means we believe that God accepts human language and human experience as valid and meaningful ways to know about the Divine.  If we deny this then we cannot assume any valid understanding or relationship with God.  So God as the Divine Son is perhaps the supreme validation of human language and experience as ways to be in adequate, beneficial and saving relationship with God. 

There is something else which I can also believe in; I can easily believe in mutual experience and the conduit which makes such mutual experience possible.  In electricity a copper wire connects point a with point b and when the power is turned on the light comes on.  Copper wire conducts electricity as it travels between two points.  What is it that conducts mutual experience between human beings and other phenomena?   If I am holding your hand then I have direct contact with you.  When I am not in direct contact with you what it is it which allows me to see, hear, smell that you are here?  Is the space between you and me a dead space which blocks us from having mutual experience of each other?  No, there is a dynamic conductor between us which allows us to mutually experience each other.  We can give endless scientific and physiological explanation about how and why I can experience you, but that still does not explain the mystery of their being a dynamic conductor which allows mutual experience.  And this conductor is not limited to an impersonal electrical current; this conductor allows Personality to be conducted and so it is easy for me to confess the Holy Spirit as the supreme personal Conductor of all mutual experiences within this universe.

Today, we confess the Trinity for good reason.  But we should not be too proud of our Trinitarian knowledge or confession of God.  Why?  Because we do not believe the experience and the knowledge of the Trinity is yet finished.  As long as there is time, the Trinity will still have a future.

Today, you and I can embrace the Trinity with good reason, but not being too proud of our reason, because in humility we need to be open to the further and greater unfolding of Trinitarian knowledge in the future.  The knowledge of the Trinity is not yet done, because the last person has not yet inhabited the earth.  The Trinity is best known in the experience of a personal relationship with God.

And so in thanksgiving today, I make my humble and limited confession of the great Trinity; In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sunday School, May 22, 2016 Trinity Sunday C

Sunday School, May 22, 2016     Trinity Sunday, C

Today is Trinity Sunday

What does Trinity mean?

It means that we believe God is three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit

But if God is three persons, how can God be One God?  Do we believe in three Gods?

No, we believe in One God, in three Persons who are all equally God

Why do we believe in God as a Trinity?

Even though we believe God is much greater than us, we believe that God wants us to know about God. We as human being believe we are persons.  A person is someone who knows oneself in relationship with each other.  I am a son because I have a father.  I am a father because I have a son.  I am a brother because I have brothers and sisters.  I am a husband because I have a wife.  So I have many expressions of my personality depending upon what relationship I have with other people.

We believe that God wants to be related to us as persons.  So we believe that God can best be known to us in being known as Persons of the Trinity.

When we relate to God as our creator, we speak of God as our Father.  When we relate to God as someone who became human to show us how to live the best human life, we know God as Jesus the Son.  And when we know that God surrounds us like water surrounding a fish and when we know that God is close inside of us, we know God as the invisible Holy Spirit.

So in our relationship with God we know God in different kinds of relationships and yet each of these kinds of relationship are with a single one, kind and loving God.

The Trinity is our confession about a great God who wants to be in relationship with us and we wants us to be in relationship with God, in different ways, sometimes as our Father, sometimes as our big brother Jesus and sometimes like the invisible breath or wind when we know God is with us because we feel the closeness of God.

Exercise: What is your name?  How many persons are you?  Son? Daughter? Brother? Sister? Boy? Girl? Student? Soccer Player? Dancer?

Puppet Show for Trinity Sunday
Characters:

Officer George

Father Phil

  

Sign on the Puppet Theatre

Security Agent, Security Systems and Driving Instruction

Fr. Phil: (knocks on the puppet theatre) Is anyone in?  I need some help.

Officer George:  (pops up)  Hello, I’m Officer George here.  Can I help you?

Fr. Phil:  Yes,  I need some one to teach a friend of mine how to drive.

Officer George:  Happy to help you.  Just have them come and sign up and I will be do the driving instruction.  I have never had a ticket but I wrote lots of tickets for speeders when I was a traffic cop.

Fr. Phil:  Great, I’ll have my friend come by to see you and sign up for the class.

(Officer George leaves)

Fr. Phil:  Oops, I forgot that I needed something else.  (Fr. Phil knocks on the theatre again)   Hello, is anyone still in the office?

Officer George: (pops up)  Yes, I’m still here.  Do you need another driving lesson?

Fr. Phil: No, I want to talk to your security person.  I need to have an alarm installed at my home.

Officer George:  Well, you’ve come to the right place.  I’ll be happy to help you.

Fr. Phil:  But aren’t you the Driving Instructor?

Officer George:  Yes, but I also install alarm systems.  Is that a problem?

Fr. Phil:  Well, no but you must be a busy person.  I will give you my address.  When can you come by and give me a bid.

Officer George:  I’ll come by tomorrow and help you decide what kind of alarm system that you need.  Good bye…..(Officer George disappears)

Fr. Phil:  Oops.  I forgot I still need something.  I need a security guard to come by each night and check our property.  Knock!  Knock!  Is anyone still there?

Officer George:  Oh, hello.  I see you are still here.  How can I help you? 

Fr. Phil:  I want to talk with your security agent.  I need a watchman to check out the church each night.  Can I hire one of your night watchmen?

Officer George:  Yes, you can.  I am the night watchman.

Fr. Phil:  How can you be the Driver Instructor, the alarm installer and the night watchman?

Officer George:  Well, I could ask you how you, the one and same person, could need a driver instructor, an alarm installed and a watchman.

Fr. Phil:  Well, as a person I have many needs.

Officer George: So you can be just one person and have many needs?  Don’t you think that I can be one person and have many jobs and titles?  I am a Driving Instructor, an alarm installer and a watchman.  Fr. Phil as a priest you should be able to understand that?

Fr. Phil:  Why do you say that?

Officer George:  Well, today is Trinity Sunday.  God is One, but we know God in different ways in God’s different Persons.  We know God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Fr. Phil: Officer George, thank you for your instruction about the Trinity.  Do you think this will help the children at St. John’s understand the Trinity?

Officer George:  Maybe a little…but now you’ve given me a fourth job, a teacher.  I think that I’ll stick to my three jobs.  Good bye, as you see I’m a very busy person having three different jobs.

Fr. Phil:  Good bye Officer George and thank you.  God must be a very busy God since there are so many people who have so many needs.  It’s a good thing that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Don’t you think so?

A Sermon for Trinity Sunday.

Can you be a brother or sister, and a son or daughter, and student all at one time?  Can your father be a father, brother and husband all at one time?  Can your mother be a mother, sister and wife all at one time?

  So one person can be many different personal roles at one time.  I am a father, a brother, a son, a cousin, a priest, and yet I am still just one human being.  I am a father person, a brother person and a son person, but still just one human being.

  Today is called Trinity Sunday.  Does anyone know what Trinity means.  Whenever you see the three letters TRI at the start of a word, what number are we talking about?  The number three.  So Trinity refers to three persons.

  As Christians we say that God is One God but in trinity of persons.  And what are the three persons?  Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

  If you are talking to your Dad, then you know him as your father.  But if your uncle is talking to your dad, he will know your dad as a brother.  And if your mother is talking her your dad, she will know your dad as her husband.

  So whether we know God as Father, Son or Holy Spirit, it all depends on how we are knowing God.

  If we are talking about God as the great creator, we will be speaking about God as our Father. 

  But if we are talking about God as God became known to us as a human being, then we will talk about Jesus Christ, God’s Son.

  And if we talking about how God can be present everywhere at one time, then we will talk about God as the Holy Spirit.

  So God can be one God and be also known as three different persons, depending upon what we need to know about God.

  And that is the wonderful thing about the Trinity.  God can be known to us in different ways.  Because sometimes we need to know God in different ways.

  Today let us be thankful that God can be known to us in different ways, as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  This is the Trinity that we celebrate today.  Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

May 22, 2016 Trinity Sunday

Gathering Songs: The King of Glory, Glorify Thy Name, Eat This Bread, Peace Like a River

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

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

Song: The King of Glory Comes, (Renew! # 267)

Chorus: 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.

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

3-Sing then of David’s son, our savior and brother: in all of Galilee was never another

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

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 Book of Proverbs

Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice?   On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out: "To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live.  The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 8

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, * the moon and the stars you have set in their courses,

What are men and women that you should be mindful of them? * and their children that you should seek them out?

You have made them but little lower than the angels; * you adorn them with glory and honor;

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 the disciples, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you."

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: Glorify Your Name, (Renew!, # 37)

Father we love you we worship and adore you. Glorify your Name in all of the world.  Glorify your name, glorify your name, glorify your name in all the world.

Jesus we love you we worship and adore you. Glorify your Name in all of the world.  Glorify your name, glorify your name, glorify your name in all the world.

Spirit  we love you we worship and adore you. Glorify your Name in all of the world.  Glorify your name, glorify your name, glorify your name in all the world.

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,

(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: 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.

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: I’ve Got Peace Like a River (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 122)

I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river in my soul.  I’ve          got peace like a river; I’ve got peace like a river.  I’ve got peace like a river in my soul.

I’ve got love…. 

I’ve got joy…

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Pentecost: The Taming of Diversity

Day of Pentecost C   May 15, 2016

Gen. 11:1-9Ps. 104: 25-32

Acts 2:1-11      John 14:8-17, 25-17 

Lectionary Link

  Today, we celebrate the feast of Pentecost.  It is a day that we celebrate the church's awareness of God's omnipresence known as the  person of the Holy Spirit.
  I would like to pose this question.  Was God the Holy Spirit before the feast of Pentecost?  Did God develop from being first the Father, and then added God the Son and then finally when Jesus was gone, God added the Holy Spirit to the Divine resume?
  Sometimes we are very simplistic in our thinking.  We think in a linear and chronological fashion.  So, because the Church came to experience God as the Holy Spirit, it would seem that it suddenly made God to be the Holy Spirit.
  When an immigrant goes through the process of becoming an American citizen and experiences for the first time the delight of being an American citizen, does that make America suddenly exist?  No, it existed before an immigrant took the oath of allegiance and loyalty, even though for the new citizen, America comes into existence in a personal way at the induction ceremony.
  In our religion we sometimes treat God as a very weak being, so weak that such weakness defies the definition of God.  How do we treat God as a weak being?  We treat the progressive human understanding of God by human beings as being the actual development of God as well.
  God created and gave freedom.  Men and women used freedom to sin.  And God is so weak, God is at divine wit's end to know what to do.  "Oh, as a last ditch effort, I will send my Son Jesus to try to convince these sinful people to learn how to do what is right and respect me.  And then I will let them know that I am a great external wind and an internal breath as the Holy Spirit."
  Do you see how it is very easy to make God to be held captive to human history and limit God to how human being have come to understand God?
  Now if God appears to be weak, it is because God allows the divine self to be understood in human versions of God.  The Bible is written is human language.  So the Bible presents us with human versions of God and the versions of God which are found in the Bible have become for us our traditions about God.
  Are these version true?  Yes, they are in that they are meaningful in helping us deal with the great questions of life.  And on this day, the Day of Pentecost, we deal with one of the greatest questions of life.  How can unity and diversity co-exist?
  How can there be diversity in unity?  How can there be unity in diversity?  The American system of government is based upon the Pentecost dilemma?  E pluribus Unum.  From the many one.  Ab Uno in plures.  From the one many.
  How can we delight in diversity and still live together without destroying each other?  The poetic Psalm for the Day of Pentecost is a praise of delight for all of the beautiful diversity in creation.  "There goes that Leviathan; God made this beast of the sea for the sport of it."  God the creator is presented as thoroughly delighting in the diverse beauty of creation.  We do too; we love nature and we love the manifold diversity of nature.  We love National Geographic's presentations of the diverse beauty of all of the peoples of the earth and all of the oceans, rivers, mountains, plains, forests and animals.  The diversity of the world gives us the experience of ecstasy.  Can we not shout with the same ecstasy of the Psalmist: ""O Lord, how manifold are your works! *  in wisdom you have made them all;  the earth is full of your creatures."  O, God, I can hardly believe the diverse beauty of all I can experience!  But we also know that our National Geographic vision of nature exposes a consequence of the free diversity of nature, namely the competition among the needs of the creatures.  There is conflict between natural happenings and human goals.  National Geographic often depicts the natural cruelties of nature in predator-prey relationships.  Foxes eat chickens; whales consume lots sea creatures, humans eat other animals, humans fight and war with each other, tornadoes demolish houses, earthquakes destroy structures, humanity uses up the resources of the environment and even destroys the environment, lighting strikes people and starts fires.
  On the Day of Pentecost we are invited to ponder the Cosmic Question: how can unity comprehend and coexist with such vast diversity within the entire created order of the universe?
  But also on the Day of Pentecost, the question of cosmic diversity and unity comes indoors to the human communities of family and religious houses of faith.  How can people manifest all of the differences and uniqueness of their personal gifts and live in non-competitive ways for the general good of the community?
  In our diversity each person cries, "I am the unique, individual snowflake, different from anyone else, now hear me roar in my uniqueness."  But what does the community and family say?  "You may be unique but you cannot let your uniqueness harm the uniqueness of the other unique people who share this world and family and community with you."
  Pentecost is the day when the members of the world express a desire for someone who can conduct humanity like a good symphony.  I may be a Tuba player who thinks that tubas are the most important instruments in the orchestra and since my instrument is bigger and louder, I should drown all the other instruments out.   But then I get angry when the cymbal player begins to drown out my tuba.  So what is needed?  The symphony needs a conductor who is respected and who can orchestrate harmonies while giving everyone enough "solo" time to adequately express their individual uniqueness.
  So why is the Day of Pentecost important?  It is important because it invites each of us to come to know God as the Holy Spirit who can whisper, tame and affirm each of our human egos to convince us to be committed musicians in this human symphony of the church so that we can make the good music of the Gospel known to the diverse people of this world.  And in making this good music of the Gospel together, we can know personal elation and fulfillment and we can know that we are actually very useful to each other because we are learning how to let our personal uniqueness serve the common good.
  This is the miracle and the magic of the experience of the Holy Spirit.  We can speak all of the human languages and not compete but cooperate in a unity known as harmony, in a musical score which encourages, applauds and includes enough individual solos to affirm the unique personal gifts of each person.
  We celebrate the Day of Pentecost, not as a one time event; we celebrate it as the reality of existence as long as there has been existence.  Indeed today, we with the Psalmist believe that God delights in diversity.  We share that delight in the truth that we know when we experience beauty.
  We also know that diversity presents the challenges of competitions of the systems of nature which in the human community is known as the conflict of egos.
  In Jesus Christ, we believe that biggest and best ego of all, the divine ego, was incredibly checked at the door.  Jesus dying on the cross, is the ultimate checking the ego at the door.  In the Pauline writing, it is written that Christ emptied himself of the divine, took on humanity and died a death on the cross. This has become for us the model of checking the ego and it has also become for us the power to learn how to check our egos to live as a part of human community.
  Today on the feast of Pentecost, let us show up for the orchestra of Jesus Christ.  God asks us to join the orchestra of Jesus Christ.  Can we follow the musical scores found in the revealed divine wisdom of the ages.  Can we follow the musical direction of our conductor and Maestro, Jesus?    Are we willing to play "solos" when called upon?  Are we willing to practice the Christian Gospel until we become so lyrical that we blend with others and we realize that there is a life and breath playing through us?
  The life and breath of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.