The Alchemy of Transmuting Fear into Faith

12 Pentecost, C p14, August 7, 2016 

Isaiah 1:1, 10-20 Psalm 50:1-8, 23-24

Hebrews 11:1-3 (4-7) 8-16 Luke 12:32-40

 Lectionary Link

Jesus told his followers, "Don't be afraid."  All of us know what fear is.  We all have the capacity to be fearful, and if not fear as sheer terror, we know the more common boutique varieties of fear: worry, anxiety, fretting, concern, foreboding, and melancholy.  Is this perhaps due to the great attention that is given to the bad news in our world?  Such great attention to the bad news tempts us live our lives according to Murphy's Law:  If something can go wrong, then it probably will.  If five events of terror happen in this world in three weeks, then that must mean that terror and evil are omnipresence and surely going to come to the locations of my life.  So, I need to frightened in advance because perhaps all of my fearful energy will actually prevent the terror of evil thing from befalling me.
  The force of bad news is why we need to remind ourselves of FDR's words, "We have nothing to fear, except fear itself."  Fearing fear is to deplete and waste our energy and make our lives truly miserable.
  And if we have this capacity to live in fear and anxiety what are we supposed to do with our fears?
   The first tip about fear which Jesus provides us in today's Gospel has to do with the cause of fear.  Fear is based upon some future loss: loss of one's life or a significant person in one's life, loss of property, loss of dignity, loss of job, loss of money, loss of friends, loss of family and loss of health.  So if fear is based upon loss, then we need to do an "attachment" review.  What is our treasure?  If we have loving devotion to so many idols, then the loss of those idols will in some way end our lives because of our over-identification with those idols.  So, Jesus reminded his followers not to be afraid and to sell their possessions and to give alms.   If we can transact in our minds that everything we have could really belong or be given to someone else who needs it more, then we learn to release ourselves from our fearful attachment to "stuff."  Jesus was essentially saying, "Let go of your stuff, not by being irresponsible with your things but to lose fearful attachment that we often have with all that we love and often manage wrongly in our lives."  If we establish that God is the treasure of our lives then we know that even when we experience loss, we cannot lose God.
  The next way to deal with fear is train ourselves to be prepared and ready.  Education is supposed to help us to be ready and prepared for as many life circumstances as possible.  Being prepared has to do with commonsense, wise probability theory.  If you have a wedding; get thee to the church on time.  It's your own fault if you miss the vows and you face the shame of not honoring your friends by your late arrival.  In the wise actuarial practice, Jesus reminded his friend not to be naïve by only assuming goodness in other human beings.  If you know that there are thieves in the area; lock the doors of your house and be prepared.
  How do we deal with fear?  First treasure God above all and then whatever we might lose cannot cause the loss of God.  And don't be naïve; practice wise probability theory in all that we do.
  These are excellent ways to deal with fear but there is something further that can be done with fear.  Fear saps an incredible amount of life energy and that same life energy can be transformed and expressed as its opposite.  What is the oppose of fear?  It is faith.
  The Faith chapter of the Bible is the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews.  Faith is defined as the assurance of things hoped for; the evidence or conviction of things not seen.
  Fear is a wrong relationship to the future.  Fear is based upon building worst case scenarios and letting those scenarios keep us from effective action now.  Fear is based upon what we cannot see yet in the future but projecting the worst outcomes and then acting accordingly.  (How many remember the Y2K scare and the many people who acted out in fear?)
  Faith is inspired by hope and hope is the gift of vision of what is  good and more perfect.  With faith we let the magnet of hope inspire creative actions which attempt to reach the goals of hope.  Faith is not hope; faith is creative action in the direction of the perfection of the vision of hope.
  Hope does not exist in a vacuum; hope needs exemplars.  Hope needs the vision of God as our perfect treasure.  Hope needs the example of the life of Jesus to show us how God would live a human life.  Hope needs the examples of saints, holy people, moms, dads, friends, teachers and mentors.  Why?  Faith needs the positive visions provided by living examples of what is good and decent, positive and optimistic.
  Today we are invited to the life of faith, just like all of the heroes of faith written about in the Bible.  These heroes were not perfect; they had human weaknesses, but they had faith.  They had the ability in the midst of the varied circumstances of life to execute their actions toward the better and more perfect visions of hope.
  Without faith, we cannot please God.  Without faith we cannot make progress toward what is better.
  But with faith we can continually make creative advance in our lives and in our community.  With faith we can always be at the work of surpassing ourselves in excellence in a future state.
  And we owe it to ourselves and to our communities to live by faith.  If we live by faith we become examples to the young and to each other to provide encouragement and positive direction in our lives.
  The Gospel for us today is that our fear can be transformed to faith.  And so the energy of faith can propel us to complete the vision of hope.
  Jesus says to us today: Do not be afraid, don't worry, be happy and exercise your faith.   Amen.

Sunday School, August 7, 2016 C proper 14

Sunday School, August 7, 2016   12 Pentecost  C proper 14

Themes

The Gospel reading is about Jesus telling his followers that they needed to always be ready.  One of the reason we go to school and learn things is so that we can be ready for the many things which are going to face in life.  We might live in fear if we are not prepared for some very challenging situations.

Why do we do our math problems?  Yes, so we can pass a test, but also so we know how to take care of our money or use math to build a new kind of airplane in the future.

What is the best way to be ready and be prepared to live our lives in the very best way with God and with each other?

The answer is to live by faith

Hebrews chapter is call the “faith” chapter.  It defines faith and then gives the examples from the lives of many Bible heroes of faith, people like Abraham, Noah, David and others.

How is faith defined?  Faith is the assurance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen.

What does that mean?

Hope is about the future and the future has not yet happened.  And because it has not happened we can be fearful about what might happen.  If we are fearful about might happen, we might just try to hide in our rooms and not do anything.

Faith is not fear; it is a different way of living toward the future.  With faith, we get up and do good and wonderful things which are aimed toward future good goals and targets.

Faith is acting because we are aim our lives toward very good goals and targets.

We study and we practice now not because we are afraid of the future but to prepare ourselves to be better at the good things which we want to do.

So, remember Jesus wants us to be ready and prepared for the future.  And we do this by living with faith.  Faith is living in a positive way with positive goals.

A sermon

Do you know what a wish is?

 What are some things we might wish for?

 Do you wish have a certain toy?

 Do you wish to be a good soccer player?

There was a boy who once saw a beautiful bicycle and he wanted this bicycle a lot.  So he asked his parents to buy him this bike, since he did not have much money and the bike was very expensive.

  His parents said he could have the bike but first he had to complete some chores and some projects.  They said if you finish these projects then we will get you bike.

 Some of the chores were easy, but some of the chores were harder.  He had to make his bed every day.  He had to keep his room clean.  He had to help watch his younger brother when they played in the back yard.  And sometimes the boy did not do his chores and his parents reminded him about the bike and his promises.  So he kept doing his chores, though he was getting very impatient.

  One day, day his dad told him to go into the garage and get a hammer.  And when the boy went into the garage, he saw the new bike.  Of course he was excited.  But then he asked his parents, “Why did you make me work for this bike?”

  And his parents said, “We wanted you to have faith.”

  We wanted you to believe us that we would get you the bike.  But we also wanted to teach you a lesson about wishing and dreaming and hope and faith.

  When you are young you can wish for something and think that because mom and dad gives it to you right away…you can think that everything in life is very easy.

  But not everything in life is easy.  Sometimes you have to work and you have to work hard to get something.

  Like if you want to be good in soccer or baseball, you just can’t wish to be good, you also have to work hard and practice, practice, practice.

  Faith is important because when you see what you want to do, you need to have faith to work hard to do what you really wish for in life.

  So faith is when we see what God wants us do and we work to do it, even if it very hard and difficult.  When we have faith, it means that we do not give up working for some very important things.

  So faith is very important in life, because everything does not just happen with magic in life.  Your parents are trying to teach you to have faith, when they encourage you to work for the good things in your life.  And if it seems hard, just remember you are learning to live with faith and you are building faith muscles to do lots of great things.  Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

August 7, 2016: The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Awesome God, My Jesus I Love Thee, Let All That Is Within Me,  Lord Bid Your Servant

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: Awesome God,  (Renew!, # 245)

Our God is an awesome God.  He reigns from heaven above.  With wisdom, power and love, our God is an awesome God.

(Sing three times, repeat ending on third verse)

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Liturgy Leader: In our prayers we first praise God, chanting the praise word: Alleluia

Litany of Praise: 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 Hebrews

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. .By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 33

Our soul waits for the LORD; *he is our help and our shield.

Indeed, our heart rejoices in him, *for in his holy Name we put our trust.

Let your loving-kindness, O LORD, be upon us, * as we have put our trust in you.

 Liturgist: Before we offer our thanksgiving, is there anything special you are thankful about today?

As we thank God, let us chant, “Thanks be to God.”

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.

Jesus said to his disciples, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. "Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. "But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour."

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.

Liturgist: As we offer our prayers for people in need, let us chant: “Christ, have mercy.”

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:           My Jesus, I Love Thee, (Renew!  # 275)

My Jesus I love thee, I know thou art mine.  For thee all the follies of sin I resign.  My gracious redeemer, my savior art thou.  If ever I loved thee, my Jesus tis now.

I love thee because thou has first loved me.  And purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree;  I love thee for wearing the thorn on thy brow, if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.

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)

Liturgist continues:

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.

The Prayer continues with these words

And so, Father, when we will bring you the gifts of bread and wine. We will ask you to 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: Let All That Is Within Me, (Renew! # 269)

1-Let all that is within cry holy.  Let all that is within me cry holy.  Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb that was slain.

2-Glory   3-Jesus

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: Lord, Bid Your Servant Go In Peace, (Renew! # 295)

1-Lord bid your servant go in peace; your word is now fulfilled.  These eyes have seen salvation’s dawn, this child so long foretold.

2-This is the Savior of the world, the Gentiles’ promised light, God’s glory dwelling in our midst, the joy of Israel.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Pokeman Go and Taming Desire

11 Pentecost, Cp13,July, 31, 2016

Ecclesiastes 1:2,12-14;2:18-23  Psalm 107:1-9,43

Col. 3:1-11  Luke 12:13-21

Lectionary Link

Chike:  In the Name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.  You may be seated.

(Catherine has her iPhone and is looking at it)

Chike:  Catherine, I hate to interrupt your texting, but we have sermon to deliver.  I don't think that you have the phone numbers of everyone here so that you can just text the sermon to them.

Catherine:  Hold on!  I am in the midst of Pokémon Go and my phone started to vibrate just a minute ago so I know one of the critters is near.  Which Pokémon is it?  Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, Venusaur, Charmander, Charmeleon, Charizard, Squirtle, Wortortle, Blastoise, Caterpie, Metapie, Butterfree.

Andrew:  Okay, okay, we don't want the whole list!  I'm a bit concerned that you might know these Pokémon better than the twelve Apostles.  Now you might like augmented reality, but we have to get back to the real and actual time of this sermon.

Catherine:  But can't we use Pokémon as a metaphor for our Bible reading themes?

Chike:  Are you sure that we want to augment the reality of the Bible in this way.  Maybe Father Phil will turn over to the heresy police and we will be in trouble.

Andrew: When in Rome do as the Romans do; when in Pokémon Go do as trainers do and so we will perhaps find that St. John the Divine is a Pokestop today.

Catherine:  Precisely! One of the main tasks of the game is to become adept trainers and throw Pokeballs at the various critters to defeat them, to capture them, and to retrain them.   I think St. Paul wrote about some critters.

Chike:  What kind of critters?

Catherine:  Fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed, anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive language, and lying.

Andrew:  Indeed those are some powerful monster.  How do we defeat these monsters?

Chike: St. Paul said we could put these things do death.

Catherine: I don't think that we can just swipe the screens of our phones and throw Pokeballs at them.

Andrew:  St. Paul said we could put these things to death by using the power of the death of Jesus.  Jesus, a perfect person, was wrongly put to death upon the cross.  And since pure Goodness cannot stay dead, God brought Jesus back to life.

Chike:  So St. Paul used the power that comes from the life, death and resurrection as a spiritually augmented reality.

Catherine:  Wow – that’s cooler than the augmented reality of Pokémon!

Andrew:  Why is that?

Catherine:  Because Pokémon is just a game; the Spiritual power to change our lives and make them better is much greater than a game!

Chike:  But how do we change our lives and get them free from the monster of greed?

Andrew:  How do we stop wanting things, people, and situations?  From the time we were babies, don't we always just keep wanting things?

Catherine:   St. Paul said that there is desire and evil desire?  Greed is evil desire runaway like a wild fire and make us think that only having lots of money and things in life will make us happy.

Chike:  And when we want to have everything, then we compete and we lie and we abuse other people who get in our way.

Andrew:  The writer of Ecclesiastes said, “Vanities of Vanity - all is vanity.”

Catherine:   The writer must have been a woman, because only women have vanity tables to primp in front of…

Andrew:   No, the writer was not talking about furniture, though that was a good pun.  The writer was talking about the futility of living one's life just to gain wealth, power, and position.  A person is not able to live forever like God, so we have to leave all of our wealth to other people who did not work for it - and who may not know how to take care of it.

Chike:  Jesus said that Greed was a real problem.  Greed, according St. Paul, is making idols out of things.  Idols are what make desire evil.

Catherine:  So what is the answer to the problem desire?  Can we just stop desiring?  How do we tame desire?

Andrew:  Should we go to a Pokémon gym and get help from our fellow trainers? 

Chike:  O, I think that you mean, should we go to church and get help from our fellow Christians in learning how defeat evil desire?

Catherine:  Yes, we should but still the question is:  How can we tame desire without denying desire?  How can we make evil desire into good and beneficial desire?

Andrew:  I think the secret of magical transformation of desire involves aiming our desire at the right target.

Chike:  What do you mean?

Andrew:  Our desire has to be aimed at the greatest target of all: God.  The first commandment is to love God with all our hearts, souls, mind, and strength.  The Love of God is Good Desire.

Catherine:  Bingo!  That's it.  God is the only one worthy enough to be the greatest Idol of all!

Chike:  So we have freedom to desire God as much as we want.

Andrew:  Yes, and when we learn to desire God the most, then we won't let money or things or people or fame become idols which addict with destructive behavior.

Catherine:  Wow!  If this were Pokémon Go, I would say that we've arrived at Level 100.

Chike:  So, let us be Greedy for God alone.  God is our best treasure of all.

Andrew:  And if we know God to be our best treasure we will learn to enjoy all of the good things and people in our lives without making them into idols.

Catherine:  Okay, we've solved that.  Can I get back to Pokémon Go?

Chike:  Say, amen, Catherine!

Catherine:  Amen.

Andrew:  People, be Greedy for God! Can you say Amen?

Amen.

Aphorism of the Day, July 2016

Aphorism of the Day, July 31, 2016

The writer of Ecclesiastes states that he was a king of Israel and rabbinic tradition assumes it was Solomon in his old age.  As king he experimented with excess and then lamented about his excess of age which will bring the end of his excessive life.  Ironically, the wise king does not place much hope in the people who will live after him to tend to his legacy; he suspects that they will waste it.  He who had much did not trust those for whom he would leave it; in the end one has to leave the excess or the meager legacy of one's life to the Most Excessive One of all, a Plenitudinous God. Hopefully we learn soon that all of our excess can either tempt us to greed or make us mindful that we cannot be greedy about time, because our days are numbered.

Aphorism of the Day, July 30, 2016

Once one comes into the world one is thereafter everlasting in that one has become an "absolute" past once one has became.  One is everlasting in the sense that one's chain link in the human chain can never be removed.  That one becomes an everlasting chain link in the human chain is not the question but how will we become everlasting.  With deeds of love and justice we "play forward" a domino effect of loving goodness and kindness which then qualifies our time here with the kinds of adjectives and adverbs that our being and doing can have.  This is how we build up treasure in heaven and not have the human chain link of our lives be remembered as a "rusty" link.

Aphorism of the Day, July 29,2016

The writer of Ecclesiastes wrote about being in despair about working and gaining things from labor but then having to die and leaving the gain to others who may not know how to maintain the gain properly.  Sorry!  The price of mortality and a limited life span means that we have to admit that we received context and situations from those who came before even if we tout our "individual" work and stewardship.  Mortality means that one will leave lots of things without being able to be continually present to sustain the works of one's labor.  The message for us is that living and moving and having our being in God means that God is great Corporate Entity including past, present and future and who is surpassing the Divine Self in the future of the Divine Self.  The writer of Ecclesiastes eventually concludes that what is most important in life is to "fear=being in awe of" God.  God is the biggest US.  There is no I in God.  God is the greatest TEAM US.

Aphorism of the Day, July 28, 2016

One of the tenets of biblical fundamentalism is that the entire Bible is the inerrant Word of God.  It might be one thing to believe this and another thing to spend one's life explaining what this means and how it is so.  The explanation can neither be simple nor simplistic and would have to be nuanced with endless qualifications to wit one would ultimately arrive at the only valid human metaphysic, viz., the co-extensive function of word or language in mediating all of human experience. Indeed, I just used words to establish that human experience refers to more than words.  St. Paul could wax poetic about Christ being all and in all because he turns out to be like all of us, we are Wordologists, before we are theists or Christologists.  Let us never forget that we are using words prior to whatever we might think that we believe or assert as our foundation or our "fundamental."  For Paul, Christ can be all and in all because of the creating Word which is in the beginning and creation of human life "as we can know it."

 Aphorism of the Day, July 27, 2016

Paul lists "evil desire" and greed as two human behavioral experiences which one is supposed to "put to death."  Greed perhaps is just a more nuanced form of "evil desire" as it pertains to the hoarding instincts to possess and own as much as one can because of a fixation upon having a quantity of "stuff" while needing but a minute fraction of that stuff for subsistence.  While putting to death "evil desire" and greed might be a fit metaphor for interdiction in things which must end, it is unrealistic to put to death desire as such.  If salvation is healing, then what is called for is a "healing of desire."  How does one heal desire?  By directing the intense focus of desire toward a truly worthy object of desire, namely, toward no object at all, yes toward God.  God, who is no idol, is the only worthy "Idol" of desire and following the great commandment by loving God with all that we are we heal our desire by expressing its energy in the positive form as desire for God.

Aphorism of the Day, July 26, 2016

The writer of Ecclesiastes wrote, "Vanities of vanities, all is vanity."  The writer's experience was one of a wealthy "Renaissance Man/Woman" who had the money and power to explore the realm of aesthetics, ownership and knowledge to its fullest and s/he conclude, "all is vanity."  It does seem rather skeptical and it points out the ambiguous experience of spirit and flesh.  Spirit tempts us with everlasting life and flesh decays with the passing of time.  Why would the creator tempt us with a hopeful spirit and not allow the flesh to instantiate that hope forever.  In this dilemma, one can see how the afterlife comes to textuality in order to make the case that the gift of hope is not to mock the body for not having an eternal future; rather it gives birth to the imagination that a great God with a great memory could in fact reconstitute and save everything in distinct ways that would allow us to celebrate our gift of hope.

Aphorism of the Day, July 25, 2016

Descartes: "I think therefore I am."  Skewed capitalist: "I have, therefore I am." Jesus: "Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." One can displace the being one's life with all of the adjective modifiers of one's being.  Educated, wealthy, tall, et. al.  The over-identification with what we think we have or possess is to lose one's being to one's "having."  Practice the return to one's basic being and seek the following modifiers of that being: love, joy, faith, hope, just, self-control, gentleness, goodness, kindness.  If one wants "possessions" the Fruits of the Spirit are expressions of one's holy self.

Aphorism of the Day, July 24, 2016

Often we regard prayer to be communication like speaking on the phone, viz., two parties in different and remote locations conversing.  But if we live and move and have our being in God, and Christ is in us as the hope of glory and if we have the presence of God's Spirit within us, how can prayer be communication between two "remote" parties.  I think prayer between two remote parties probably derives from an older cosmology when heaven was physically located through the top of the dome sky.  But there are many biblical references to God's omnipresence and immanence and so prayer is basically the practice of overcoming eyes which cannot see God or physically locate God.  Prayer is about practicing the arising of the portion of our original nature which is expressive of the image of God on our lives.  Prayer is learning to practice that we are primarily sons and daughters of God and with practice we convince ourselves of this and practice the attending implications of the same.

Aphorism of the Day, July 23, 2016

St. Paul wrote about Christ: In Him dwells the whole fullness of Deity dwells bodily."  This is quite a shocking poetic utterance for the radical monotheists since it would seem to over-identity all of deity within a historical particular person of Jesus of Nazareth.  How could God be fully deity elsewhere if the Divine resided wholly in the body of the historical person of Jesus?  However, if in the poetry of the New Testament, Christ is the eternal Word who created all bodily and physical existence, then the fullness of Christ dwells within the entire Body of Creation which continues to expand with the Creating/Sustaining work of God such that everything lives and moves and has being within the Creative Body of God.  So the fullness of deity resides in the Cosmic Christ whose entire Body is all that was, is and shall be, visible, invisible, all constituted by and re-constituted in the perfect mind/memory of God.

 Aphorism of the Day, July 22, 2016

The field of the apparent is drastically smaller than the field of the Real.  The apparent is based upon the limitations of the focus of an individual or group experience of a certain event.  The apparent dwells within the plenitudinous field of the Real.  A goal of prayer is to be able to move from the apparent to the Real and then return to the particular apparent with such differing qualifications of the former apparent, that prayerful faith has created a new apparent which allows one to act in hope.

Aphorism of the Day, July 21, 2016

Prayer sometimes is the experience of getting the apparent non-desired "answer" as in a child who asks a parent for a fish and gets a snake instead.  Faith is an experience which must accompany the apparent bad news of specific event with the over all good news of the Plentitude of everything, past, present and future all at once in knowing that "all is well indeed" even when specific event is particularly unpleasant and inconvenient.

Aphorism of the Day, July 20, 2016

Abraham as the intercessor used bargaining "prayer" discourse with God to try to get God to spare Sodom, if there were but ten righteous people there.  Bargaining is one of the stages of the grief process before reaching acceptance.  One of the functions of prayer as a discourse is the practice of wise probability theory of progressively adjusting our lives to the most probable outcomes in the human conditions.  In such a practice, it does not mean that give up the absolute "uncanny" happening but it means that we don't regard God as our private interventionist whom we will drop like a hot potato when God does not apparently intervene as we wish.  Petitionary prayer also serves as a discourse to adjust realistically to the truth of freedom in our world.  Jesus went to the Cross, not receiving an exemption from death.  He made peace with human death and it was okay for the early Gospel writer to have heard him quote the Psalm, "My God, why have you forsaken me?"  This is quite an ambiguity in the Trinitarian relationship: The Son expressing forsakenness by his Father.  Acceptance does not mean denying the sense of being forsaken; acceptance can be done in faith because intervention is also a matter of timing.  Since God is everlasting, intervention can always be delayed until a future resurrection.

Aphorism of the Day, July 19, 2016

"Give us this day our daily bread."  We want the larder fully stocked and social security and good financial planning for our futures.  The words of the "Lord's Prayer" were generated to people who were being taught to just ask each day for just enough for the day itself.  This reveals how so many people who live in the world of excess cannot identify with people who live in the world of lack.  How about a reasonable expansion of this prayer request, "Give us this day, O Father, from the vast excess of people who have way more than enough, some food, clothing and provision for this day."  Unless there is miraculous daily manna delivered to all of the needy people of the world, the only way this prayer can be universally answered is for people who believe in an "enlightened and compassionate Free Market" to freely choose to re-distribute the resources of the world to give everyone enough.  Can we believe in a truly enlightened and compassionate "Free Market?"  Too many people who tout the "Free Market" do not believe in enlightened, creative and compassionate freedom.

Aphorism of the July 18, 2016

In the effort to elevate Jesus to such an exclusive place of Sonship, we forget that Jesus came to teach everyone to say, "Our Father," implying that Jesus understood that every person needed to be taught about one's primary identity as God's child.  Indeed, none of us is Child of God like Jesus was; that is not the issue.  The issue is for each of us to be uniquely a child of God in the only way in which one can.  Please don't make Jesus Son of God to exclusion of your own DNA image of God stamped upon your life.

Aphorism of the Day July 17, 2016

We receive words and their meanings within social and cultural contexts.  Even when something "new" arises, the expositors of the "new" have to use the familiar words with familiar meanings to explain what is "new."  Paul came from Tarsus, a city steeped with Mystery Religion practice.  Even though Mystery Religion practice had elements of secrecy, the language of ritual and practice was part of the common meanings of words for people of Tarsus and other Roman cities.  Members of the Jesus Movement were necessarily secret in their practices since Christians did not openly participate in the civil religion of Emperor worship.  The writings of Paul, the ritual practices of the Christian Movement and the stories of the life of Jesus, the Gospels, were Mystagogy or orientation into the central mystery of Christian which was embrace by each Christian mystic initiate, namely, Christ in you, the hope of glory.  Jesus of Nazareth was regarded to be the historical personal manifestation of a pre-historical Word of God and the post-Jesus Risen Christ could become known as the indwelling alter-Person of anyone who wanted to really know for whom humanity is performing conscious existence.  The mystagogical process goes from performing for the alter-Person Risen Christ to accepting that the alter-Person Risen Christ is performing through us.

 Aphorism of the Day, July 16, 2016

Paul wrote that he came to reveal a mystery:  Christ in you, the hope of glory.  One can note the poetic expansion of the historical person of Jesus of Nazareth.  He became known as the eternal Word from the beginning.  He became after his resurrection a Person who could be "split" to reside within the interior lives of all people and yet remain the same Person.  There is a sense that every person has one's own unique interior universe and while one can think that one's interior universe is understood by others, it is not fully understood, except by the imaginative and meaningful sharing with the One for whom our thoughts, words, and consciousness are performing all of the time.  In one's interior life one can learn to be performing one's entirety for the Christ in us, and the Christ who whispers or shouts, "Bravo!" to one's performance is the telling fame and glory in being a special kind of recognition.  People can seek endless recognition in their environments of other people and never be satisfied.  The interior "bravo" offered by the Residing Christ is the hope of glory.

Aphorism of the Day, July 15, 2016

There are advantages in being naively unaware of the events of evil which are happening in other places.  Babies and children out of harm's way do not worry about some horrendous event that is happening elsewhere.  Babies and children everywhere can, do and should feel naively safe wherever they are to prove to us that the few shouting events caused by terrorists are not the omnipresence of evil but rather a minute minority of events which can arise in a total field of freedom.  This total field of Great Freedom is a Creating God Who in Becoming is also Sustaining the Greatness of Freedom.  The Greatness of Freedom in being true to itself admits the probability of free people and random competition between people and systems to create the experienced chaos of evil.  The clanging cacophony of evil events are so loud and seem to dominate because they reside within a plenitudinous field of goodness.  Evil only stands outs because the Goodness of Creation is so normal.

Aphorism of the Day, July 14, 2016

The Christian monastic Myers-Brigg Personality profile for religious used a binary classification derived from the story of Mary and Martha of Bethany.  Mary was the patron saint of the contemplative orders and Martha of the active "working" orders.  This is certainly a simplistic personality classification "system" and one wonders if people can be divided into either/or categories of contemplation or active workers.  Certain one's personality can direct the destiny of the nature of one's life work and no matter what one's personal tendencies, one is fully developed when one finds the balance between work and contemplation.

Aphorism of the Day, July 13, 2016

The Gospels present Mary of Bethany as completely enamored with Jesus.  She anoints his feet and dries them with her hair.  Instead of doing the hosting activity when Jesus is in her home, she is totally captured by his word and teaching.  Of her devotion to this spiritual friendship with Jesus, he said, "Mary has chosen the better part."  Finding "spiritual friendship" which is perhaps the best way to advance in excellence is often not sought after in a world of busy-ness.

Aphorism of the Day, July 12, 2016

Today when we feel embarrassed by receiving the detailed accounts of someone's life we cry, "TMI, Too Much Information!"  But when we read the Bible, we may feel the exact opposite and exclaim, "Not Enough Information."  What happens when we don't have enough information about biblical personalities?  One or two events that are recounted become definitive of their entire lives and this means that the lack of information reduces the life of a person to one or two known deeds.  Why do we do this?  We use the "personality typology" of biblical people as teaching illustrations.  So Mary of Bethany becomes known as the contemplative and her sister Martha becomes known as the busy bee worker who does not appreciate quiet time with Jesus.  This reduction is unfortunate but it is also proof that "real people and actual events" in the Gospel narrative are used not for historical accuracy but as parables of the "real."  The Gospels included the discursive dynamic of two layered parables:  Stories of Jesus telling stories.  The stories about Jesus and his friends are actually teaching parables and in those stories Jesus also tells story.  We need to appreciate this subtle discursive practice of what is happening when we read the Gospels.

Aphorism of the Day, July 11, 2016

Mary and Martha of Bethany became the archetypes of the life of contemplation and the life of work.  Both are important ingredients in our lives.  One needs to balance the life of work, career, job, vocation with the life of contemplation.  The life of contemplation is not burdensome; it is completely portable and adaptable to anyone's life if one is like Mary and makes the contemplative choice.  Contemplation is good health practice and it will improve good work performance.

Aphorism of the Day, July 10, 2016

The "Good Samaritan" parable is a rather "in your face" parable.  Jesus uses an enemy of the Jews, a Samaritan, to exemplify the loving neighbor who loves his unknown neighbor and the priest and Levite are presented as indifferent people who cannot be bothered to stop and help a dying man.  We are so "ethnocentric" and such "homers" that the kindness done by people who are completely different than us might humiliate us.  "Imagine that!  God does good things from people different from me and who have different religions and life styles."  Another word of Jesus, "By their fruits, you shall know them."  A neighbor is not automatically Jew, Gentile, American, non-American; a neighbor is the one who bears the fruit of being neighborly in impartial caring behaviors.

Aphorism of the Day, July 9, 2016

The parable of the Good Samaritan is about the event of how one knows oneself to be a neighbor by actually performing the neighborly act of care.  None of us wants to be the "heroic" neighbor who is called upon in the emergencies to rescue someone who faces dire straits; in fact we have EMT's, police and first responders who are called and paid to be "heroic neighbors" in responding to exigent needs.  Yet, each of us needs to develop the practice of everyday kindness in the quotidian as preparation for the event of when a situation arises for us to respond to exigent need that we just "happen" upon.  Part of being prepared for the neighborly event is to rid ourselves of prejudices, indifference and our pre-occupation with our own sense of personal convenience so that we are not loaded with the temperamental baggage which prevents us from being an active neighbor through actual caring response.

Aphorism of the Day, July 8, 2016

Pain is the sign to the body that something is wrong and that the normalcy of health is deprived.  Pain is a sign to seek return to health.  Civil unrest is "social pain" and it is a sign that the conditions of social pain have be addressed to return to the social health of peace.  In our extreme individualism we in America often assume it is each individual's total responsibility for one's life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  The laws are social and corporate guidelines and society should be structured to foster quality of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  The obstacles for the quality life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are greater for many people in our society and we should begin to remove the obstacle of extreme economic inequality to foster the equal chance of all to have quality life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  We pray that we might learn from our "social pain" and begin a more honest attempt at social health through the extension of economic justice to all.

Aphorism of the Day, July 7, 2016

Theism is a practice of the discourse of "totality."  Those who are atheists and agnostics practice other discourses of totality.  Discourses of totality are unavoidable because of the priority of word or language in how we are constituted as human beings.  When we utter language products, the utterances participate is a universe of all possible utterances and language products.  What we produce in a specific language products has meaning by everything in the language universe that it is not.  So language assumes total linguistic possibilisms.  All must use various discourses of totality without but being minute fragments of totality because totality cannot be fully represented by anything that is less than total.  Totality is an expanding becoming and because of expanding environment the meanings of everything within the total expanding environment as it could arrive in the linguistic actual are constantly changing.  In this total play, humility is the right response to such plentitude of what might come to discursive performance.

Aphorism of the Day, July 6 2016

The parable of the Good Samaritan is about the "kindness of strangers."  Sometimes religion and one's own set agenda are so irretractable as to make one completely indifferent to the exigent needs which arise.  Religion which is supposed to be based upon loving one's neighbor as oneself becomes even the justification for indifference.  The world is full of religious people who use their religious pieties and practices to support not just indifference but even banal cruelty.  Jesus pointed out that often "foreigners do true religion better than we do."

 Aphorism of the Day, July 5, 2016

The parable of the Good Samaritan is a contrast in the notion of neighbor as an active person rather than a passive person.  We receive many titles and designation by the sheer accident of location; born in America makes one an American citizen.  But active citizenship involves keeping the law, voting and sacrifice for one's country.  We can be passive Christians, passive Episcopalians with sheer accidental identities or we can activate our Christianity with Christ-like practice.  We can activated being Episcopalian by being bishoply.  Bishoply?  Not wearing miters and having a special ordination.  A bishop is one who symbolizes the active connection of the church of the past with the present.  A bishop is one who symbolizes the current fellowship among fellow Christians.  All Christians are called to actively do what is symbolized in the calling of a bishop.

Aphorism of the Day, July 4, 2016

The preamble of the U.S. Constitution states one of the purposes as being "in order to form a more perfect Union."  Being a country is like marriage, it requires continuous work to be more "perfect" in being together.  Those who wrote the Preamble held slaves and did not entertain full rights for but the "property" owners.  The greatness of the American tradition like the biblical tradition is to be open to a more perfect union.  Both are based upon the perfectability of individuals and individuals living together in society, never arriving but always striving asking for the assistance of the angels of grace to complete the task of being touched by the "better angels of our nature." (see Abraham Lincoln's Inaugural Address, 1861)

Aphorism of the Day, July 3, 2016

Jesus told his evangelists to "move on" if people did not respond to the message about the kingdom being near.  An ingredient in good news is the timing and relevance of the news in the context specifics of a person.  What is obvious good news to one may not yet be that for another.  Rather than being naïve about all people being in the same "receptive" mode, the winsomeness of truth also involves the timing of the receptivity.  Timing cannot be rushed.

Aphorism of the Day, July 2, 2016

"Say the kingdom of God has come near to you."  The belief in God as a creator means the reality of God's kingdom being the pervasive fact.  But the kingdom of God was not, has not, is not apparent to all because of people's self alienation, viz., not being aware of the obvious because of being constituted in a lie about one's primary personal identity as a child of God.  Jesus wanted his chosen evangelists to make apparent what was already the fact.  "Folks you have always, already been in the kingdom of God, and Jesus has come to make it "apparent" to your self identity. 

Aphorism of the Day, July 1, 2016

"Rejoice that your name is written in heaven."  One could look at the Bible around the theme of patriotism.  The Hebrew Scriptures trace the epic journey of paradise lost and the attempt to rebuild it with a perfect land of Promise with perfect "God-given" laws.  But the people of the land are not perfect angels and people from other lands do what the people of Israel did; take land from them just as they had taken it from the Canaanites.   Human history is about people taking land from other people and then calling it their legitimate "home" and then building poetic and romantic images about one's glorious earthly "homeland."   And it works because we do get constituted by the tear wrenching identity of patriotism.  The Gospel is about people who have given up the "heaven on earth" theme in favor of experiencing the inner "heavenly" while living in very imperfect human communities in earthly locations.  The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews wrote that all of the heroes of faith of the Hebrew Scriptures were actually looking for a better "heavenly country."  So the Christ-message is a rather ambiguous patriotism; one is supposed to live with dual citizenship, with earthly location and yet also retain an internal heavenly "spiritual passport" bespeaking one's primary divine image.