Sunday School, September 4, 2016 C proper 18

Sunday School, September 4, 2016  16 Pentecost C proper 18

Sunday School Themes

For children, there has been the purposely avoided the “hard sayings” of Jesus about “hating” one’s family members to be a disciple of Jesus.  Though one could present how Jesus used contradictory riddles to present his priority.

The Gospel themes chosen center around wise planning

If you want to be a good baseball player, what do you do?  You practice, you join teams, you work out.

If you want to be a good ballet dancer, what do you do?  You join a dance studio and you practice and you listen to a good dance instructor.

Life is about planning because even though the future is not here yet, we believe that we will grow and change and we have to be prepared for what we are going to be doing in our future.

Parents begin to prepare their children for what they are going to do and become from the day of their birth.  Why?  Because life is about growing and changing.  Since life is about change we have to learn how to be prepared for the changes which will come to our lives.

Jesus said that a person who wants to build a big tower has to make sure that there is a plan.  There has to be materials and a design and the workers to do the job.  There has to be enough money to afford to build the tower.

Jesus said that we want to be his disciples, then we need to know what we need to do.  We need to be smart and wise about our planning.  A disciples of Jesus is a student of Jesus.  And we never graduate from being a student of Jesus.  So we need to plan on learning about Jesus for the rest of our lives.

Smart planning for learning how to be a disciple is to learn from the most important Christian rules.  And the most important Christian rule is to love God with all of our hearts and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

If we are planning to follow Jesus as his disciple and student, we need to plan to be his student and to always be learning about how to love God better and to love our neighbors better.

Sermon

  If you are going to build a house what do you need?

  Well, you need to have some money to pay for the building supplies.  You need an architect.  You need some land or a place to build your house.  You need a builder who can organize all of the workers.  You need building supplies, cement, wood, nails, shingles, electrical wires, lights, switches, sinks, counters, and many other things.

  So to build a house you have to do a lot of planning, because what will happen if you don’t plan?  You won’t be able to finish the house.  If you try to build a house you can’t afford then you won’t be able to finish it.  Or if you choose the wrong builder the house may not be built to last.

  Jesus reminded his friends that they needed planning in their lives, planning just like someone who was going to build a great tower, or just like a general who was planning a battle.

  And Jesus reminded his friends that they were going to have many people in their lives.  Their family and their friends.  To live our lives means that we have to learn to live with people.  So if we are going to plan our lives well, we are going to have plan our lives in learning how to live with people in our lives.  And it is important to learn how to live with people in our lives, with our parents, our brothers and sisters, with our husbands and wives, with our teachers and friends.  And it is important to learn how to live with our self.

  Now why do I say we have to learn to live with our self?  We have to know our self well, so we know how to plan our lives?  If I like baseball, but I am terrible at playing baseball, should I try to play professional baseball?  No, I would not be accepted by any team because I’m not good at playing baseball.  So I have to know myself and what I am good at in planning my life.

  It is important to know how to live with other people and with our selves.  So we need to plan well.

  And the best way to do this is to learn the law of Christ:  Love God with all of your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.

  This is the greatest plan of life.  And if we learn this plan in life, we will be successful in learning to live with other people and our self.

  So remember this great plan of Christ for our lives:  Love God with all our hearts and love our neighbors as our self.  Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

September 4, 2016: The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Rejoice in the Lord Always, He’s Got the Whole World, Alleluia, Jesus Loves the Little Children

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: Rejoice in the Lord Always   (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 197)

Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. 

Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. 

Rejoice!  Rejoice!  And again I say rejoice. 

Rejoice!  Rejoice!  And again I say rejoice.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Allow us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts; for, since you always oppose the overly proud who do not think they need you, so you never forsake those who make there are very proud of your mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Litany of Praise: 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 Deuteronomy

Moses said to all Israel the words which the Lord commanded him, "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 139

LORD, you have searched me out and known me; * you know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar.

You trace my journeys and my resting-places * and are acquainted with all my ways.

Indeed, there is not a word on my lips, * but you, O LORD, know it altogether.

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.

When Jesus was speaking to the people about being disciples, he said, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace.”

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

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

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

He’s got the brothers and the sisters, in his hands, he got the brothers and the sisters, in his hand.  He’s got the brothers and the sisters in his hands, he’s got the whole world in his hand.

He’s got the mothers and the fathers, in his hand, he’s got the mothers and the fathers, in his hand.  He’s got the mothers and the fathers in his hand, he’s got the whole world in his hand.

Doxology

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

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

Prologue to the Eucharist

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

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is 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.

The Prayer continues with these words

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Breaking of the Bread

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

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia.

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Alleluia  (Renew! # 136)

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

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: Jesus Loves the Little Children   (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 140)

Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.  Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight.  Jesus loves the little children of the world

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Coming Events:

Tonight:  Yoga at 5 p.m. 

Tues., September 6, 1 p.m. Divine Arts

Thurs., September 8, 7:30 a.m.  Eucharist,  7:30 p.m. Chancel Choir Rehearsal 

Aphorism of the Day, August 2016

Aphorism of the Day, August 31, 2016

One does not like to support "censorship" in the reading of the Bible even though one might advocate age appropriate exposure to certain words in the Bible.  One might want to even wait to present certain "words" of Jesus to young children such as "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple."  Children who might prefer "plain" meaning might have their faith baffled by such phrases.  Adults too are baffled by such "family values" expressed by baldly presenting discipleship in the school of Jesus in competition with love of one's family members.  Such words of Jesus perhaps show that the Gospels were originally not meant for general reading; they were disciple manuals for a few who were given "koans*" or seemingly contradictory or absurd word puzzles to confound the logical and commonsense mind to pierce a spiritual level of faith.  The bald literalness of such phrases cannot be denied and their confounding connotations beg for interpretive contortions to find a rhetorical yogic posture to "align" the linguistic chakras of one's life.

*Koan=a paradoxical anecdote or riddle, used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and to provoke enlightenment.

Aphorism of the Day, August 30, 2016

The biblical issue involves the main issue of life, namely, we as people having language and being formed in the meanings derived by the fact that we possess language and it us.  Having language problematizes everything; language marks individual events since it arises in contexts of human usage.  Language purports to be "universal" in that when people use it they assume the ability to transfer meanings in functional ways to other people.  Language is problematic because meanings are different for different people.  If meanings are enforced by oppressive power then solidarity of meanings is but the dictators propaganda.  Meanings which are charismatic and winsome in persuading people to embrace them can be as varied as the places where a fall leaf can be blown.  The significant problem in declaring the Bible to be God's word is that there is no one accessible to us who is infallible enough to tell us what a "correct" meaning is.  Language is so problematic because it becomes nuanced in the pragmatic contexts of people's life and truth becomes "contextual" for the group which describes what will be true for the solidarity of the particular community of one's significant and telling location.

Aphorism of the Day, August 29, 2016

The Gospel collection of "Jesus-speak" can drive the logician crazy.  Love your enemies.   Do good to those who hate you.  But you can't be my disciple unless you hate the members of one's family?  This hard saying goes with cutting off offending hands and plucking out offending eyes, also recommended as a spiritual practice of "fasting."  Could it be that "family fast" or taking a fast from one's family is a spiritual method when family frustration issues are actually detrimental to one's living in the spiritually centered place of being a child of God first.  When one's family relationships are defeating spiritual life, one needs to find how to fast from one's family in order to appreciate and love them better.  This can happen through finding one's primary relationship as a child of God.  The words of Jesus are  perhaps hyperbole (spiritual koans) to say if one finds one family relationship with God then one can find a way to negotiate the challenges which arise in family life.  The spiritual "koans" of Jesus challenge "literal" interpretation, even the recommendation of the famed Irenaeus who said the "plain" meanings of the Gospel words are the preferred meanings.  If read carefully, one should note that Gospel words actually overthrow plain meanings by challenging one to find literally consistent logic therein.

Aphorism of the Day, August 28, 2016

The thesis of the book of Job is that good people suffer.  Job's "friends" are compelled to eloquently argue about God not allowing a good person to suffer so that in order for God's image to be "saved" there has to be something willfully bad in Job's life to have caused his severe misfortune.  The Psalmist often opined, "Why do the bad people have better luck than good people?"  If the freedom abroad in the world does not match up good fortune with good living and punishing fortune for bad living, what is the purpose of life or morality or believing in God?  People of faith learn how to honor Continuous Creative Freedom as what is truest about God and all derivation of such Freedom is what makes meaningful morality and suffering and people who comfort each other within suffering.

Aphorism of the Day, August 27, 2016

People can quit reading the Bible because it makes them feel guilty because modern day practice of justice seems to be more embracing than the extent of justice extended to various classes of people in the cultures which generated the biblical texts.  How could an ancient cultural practice which seems to be "demeaning" to the lives of classes of people actually be an eternal principle.  Such dilemma can occur because too many people absolutize the ancient cultural practices and do not accept the task of re-writing the meanings of love and justice within the contexts of our lives today.  Reading the Bible is hard work; it is not passive acceptance of ancient cultural practices.  It involves discerning the eternal principles of love and justice and responding to the omnipresent Holy Spirit to work out the meanings of love and justice in our current lives.

Aphorism of the Day, August 26, 2016

Sometimes it is difficult to translate descriptions of social phenomena from the setting of the ancient world to our world.  In the Gospel communities there was to be radical welcoming of the strangers and the outsiders.  There are different kinds of strangers and outsiders.  Some strangers and outsiders are actually people whose condition have made them thus, and yet they desire and have the ability to live and participate in covenantal relationship which allow them to make and keep baptismal vows within a community.  In our modern world the stranger and outsider is often feared because the inability of people to even be able to achieve the reciprocity of covenantal practice.  Some people have come to be described as "socially impaired" because of the events in their past which have constituted them in a way that leaves them living from one exigent need of the moment to the next exigent need of the moment.  We often forget that the Christian Movement was founded by people who knew themselves to be strangers and outcast but who banded together expressing the ability to form covenantal communities practicing baptismal promises with each other.  In our efforts to help the needy today, we need to realize that there is not a apple to apple comparison of the needy who eventually formed the early Christian communities and the needy on the streets today who are impaired in the ability to define their lives by the way in which we understand the baptismal covenant.

Aphorism of the Day, August 25, 2016

Segregation and integration impulses are found within religious traditions and practices.  Segregation in religion can be seen in the "call" to separation from other surrounding people so as to retain a certain doctrinal or ethnic purity.  Such separatism is valorized as a call to be "holy" or special or uncompromised by "outsiders" who could dilute the purity of identity and purpose.  The people of Israel vis a vis their neighbors were supposed to be separate or "holy" and not be tainted by interaction with those who had different religious and cultural practices.  They developed a "holiness" or purity code to maintain their separation.  Their prophets usually explained the woes which befell their peoples because they forgot to practice their holy separation and compromised with the polytheistic practices of their neighbors.  Every religious organization practices a degree of separation or segregation to define their identity vis a vis who is not like them.  Yet most every segregated group provides a universal gate of entrance as long as those who enter the community are willing to conform to the rules of the community.  So most organization which will let others in who agree to the follows the rules are "catholic" in being open to all.  The segregation and integration issue gets a bit more tricky when members of the group disagree about compromising what is crucial to the identity, the purity, the holiness code of a group.  This issue is what separated Judaism and Christianity; St. Paul and St. Peter came to give up the ritual purity requirements for the Gentile followers of the teaching of Jesus.  The integration of Gentiles into Christo-centric Judaism by dropping the ritual purity requirements for Gentiles eventually separated the two into distinct religions.  In an Hegelian model the thesis of Judaism and the antithesis of the Roman citizen world resulted in the synthesis of the Christian faith which was neither Judaism nor Roman.  It was something new; Christian Gentiles did not follow ritual Judaism nor did they engage in the cult of the Emperor.

Aphorism of the Day, August 24, 2016

People in military intelligence use the feeds from satellites to study sites on the ground to make educated guesses about what kind of activity is happening on the ground.  People who seek textual intelligence and wisdom about ancient biblical texts resort to the theory that words reveal the condition of the lives of those who generated the text.  Loving one's enemy, welcoming the stranger and the poor characterize many of the Gospel words.  This may reveal that the appeal of the Gospel took hold within the lives of people who did not have significant community in their lives due to a variety of reasons, such as sickness, being widowed, or nomadism in search of a better situation in a city of the Roman Empire.  The Gospel practice had to become more diverse than the exclusive ritual practice of Judaism if this diverse group of people who were attracted to the Gospel message and communities were to become consolidated within a socio-religious movement which grew to become the institutional church.

 Aphorism of the Day, August 23, 2016

In the meeting of people of differences, the differences of ethnicity, places of origin, socio-economics, the nature of "meeting" involves various dynamics such as conformity, conversion, mutual sharing, mutual conversion, mutual appreciation or rejection and incompatibility.  To make friendship or even fellowship a possibility there needs to be an ideological framework to foster a mutually beneficial fellowship between people who come from places of different orientation.  Christo-centric Judaism of St. Paul as compared with traditional Judaism proved to be the framework for the birth and development of the Christian movement because it was more receptive to Gentiles retaining their cultural practices and still being included within the fellowship and community of faith.  The purity codes of Judaism were supposed to keep the observant Jews in a state of "holy" separation from the world.  St. Paul proclaimed a "holy" separation based upon "spiritual" separation and he was lenient about the physical signs of separation such as the ritual purity rules which were inaccessible to many of those who came into the Christian house churches of the cities of the Roman Empire.  How radical can our welcome be without changing the deep "structures" of one's community identity?  This issue is what contributed to the separation of the Jesus Movement from the synagogue.  This dynamic is always involved in the offering of a radical welcoming of "different" people to one's fellowship since one deals with the fear of being changed by others more than one imprinting the values and practice of one's community upon the new arriving visitor.  Sometimes tradition deeply rutted in institutional practice becomes like an automatic cookie cutter in turning out "institutional" copies and when this occurs the visitor is only free to be fed into the institutional cookie cutter process of making another conforming copy.  Lots of people today fear what they will lose in the church as another institution of conformity.  One must conform in one's society and job and so the postmodern individual (as a free economic agent) is choosing carefully and limiting the situations of conformity.  Part of the mission of the local parish is to create a fellowship to celebrate the freedom of the individual gifted one within the paradigm of the love symbols promoted by connections of Christians in the geography of our world and in the succession of time involving revering and dynamically applying the identities of the past in the present.

 Aphorism of the Day, August 22, 2016

Sometimes we are so hung up about the superiority of our spiritual traditions, we discount the favorable conditions which support their growth and such conditions may actually have to do with sociological factors, particularly the phenomena of urbanization and immigration.  The movements of people mean that people arrive in a new place with no established social connection and if there is a group which welcomes the "outsider" the beliefs of the welcoming group will be persuasive and winsome.  This perhaps was a key ingredient in the growth of the church in the Roman cities just as it is an ingredient in the rise of "mainline" religions in Africa which has undergone urbanization.  The practice of welcoming the stranger is the condition for effective evangelism.

Aphorism of the Day, August 21, 2016

Jesus freed the Sabbath from being but a prescribed 24 hours of time on a weekly calendar.  He healed on the Sabbath and so declared that healing makes any time as Sabbath time honoring God and our neighbors.

Aphorism of the Day, August 20, 2016

Doctors and nurses practice healing arts on Sabbaths, Sundays and holy days.  Firefighters put out fires on Sunday.  First responders save lives on holy days and Sabbaths.  If one removes healing and saving as being valid for the Sabbath, one defeats the purpose of having a Sabbath at all.

Aphorism of the Day, August 19, 2016

The sabbath principle is based upon the time of one's life as a "possession" which one is given stewardship over.  "Time is money" goes the phrase of valuable productive time within industry.  Time is what everyone has equally even though we don't end up having equal duration in Time.  The sabbath principle is like the "tithe" principle; by designating sacred and worship time, one then adds the quality of blessing on the rest of the time of one's life.  Sabbath time is the logical result of the first commandment; loving God above all others, means actually putting in the time to do so.  Sabbath time is taking intentional time to "love God."

 Aphorism of the Day, August 18, 2016

The Peter Principle of human management states that persons often are promoted to the level of their incompetence.  Sometimes the way in which religious authorities promote religious practice, they make religion rise to the level of it incoherence and ridiculousness.  One can remember the Sunday Blue Laws in States which allowed the purchase of beer but not a baby bottle.  Jesus noted that his religious competitors applied sabbath rules to censure the healing of a person on the sabbath.  Religious minutiae can rise to greater importance for the convenience of controlling clergy and not be compatible with a genuine notion of salvation, namely, the good holistic health of people.  We need to be aware of instantiating religion at its worst since some people identity God with the contradictory practices of Christ-like behaviors and use the hypocrisy of religious folks as good reason not to believe in God.

Aphorism of the Day, August 17, 2016

Eternal threats, excommunication, shunning and heresy trials have been part of the juridical discourse of religions.  In the history of the behaviors of religious people threatening people for their "own good" has been resorted to.  Part of the modern revolt against the religious rhetoric of threats has been to deny the existence of a God who would validate the local bias of anyone who offered such threats.  Threatening discourse may be a comfort to suffering people something akin to the little brother saying to a bully,"my big brother is going to get you!"  The irony is that both powerless and powerful people use threats; the difference is that some have sticks and stones to hurt while others hopefully proclaim a future afterlife reckoning.  What is actually validated empirically is the function of the discourse which reveals the ideology context of the users of such discourse.

Aphorism of the Day,  August 16, 2016

Good and holy things can be made into harmful stupidities.  The sabbath rule is good and holy; strive to give one seventh of one's time to God.  But if the sabbath is reduced to a set of picky rules about what cannot be done within a twenty four period of time then the sabbath can lose the function of being beneficial to humanity.  If healing can be regarded as a forbidden work on the sabbath then the sabbath loses its salvatory effects.  Jesus pointed out that good rules can be held and practiced wrongly.

Aphorism of the Day, August 15, 2016

The Virgin Mary has had to be the feminine counter weight to the vast patriarchalism in Christian tradition.  When women did not have power or position they took flight with Mary who was Assumed into heaven as Co-Redemptrix.  Men could also pray to her and submit to her even as they by tacit cultural practice subjugated the women of their lives.  But if God's will and Mary's dignity is to be regarded on earth, women need to be afforded full dignity on earth even as Mary has heavenly respect.  Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Let the exaltation of Mary truly exalt all women.  

Aphorism of the Day, August 14, 2016

We can understand being at peace and division when we encompass the contradictions within our own personal histories.  I am not the same person I was at the age of 16; my beliefs and expressions have changed many times and yet in the unity of being a person of the same name for all these years, I am peacefully the same person who has encompassed the radical events of division within my stages of growth.  We need to transfer this interior personal peace and division dynamic to the communal world.  Institutions and societies continue to grow and change even while retaining the history of their disagreeable pasts.  There have been painful breaking away from previous ideas which have come to be unworthy of continuing, e.g. slavery, subjugation of women et al.  Some divisions within religious communities have been the result of a complete change of direction.  Christo-centric Judaism became the churches which broke continuity with the ritual conformity to Judaism.  This was a break and a division and not peaceful if one's family was on differing sides.  And so the oracle words of Jesus about divided families is explanatory truth about what happens when faith stages are uneven and not unanimous within the lives of people who are growing at different paces.  Peace and division co-exist because of the great patience of God.

Aphorism of Day, August 13, 2016

When Bible readers make the Bible into a Superhero who is an omnipresence, omnipotent, omniscience Person with Omni-relevance in everyone's life situations all of the time, they violate the nature of word and literature.  They must then somehow defend the words of the Bible in making them over-identified with God.  All of the words of the Bible are not context specifically relevant for all people all of the time.  Difference reigns in the application relevancy of specific words to specific contexts in a person's life as they arise and as "match ups" are made in the particular insights at a particular time for a particular biblical passage in a particular person's life experience.  The reading of the Bible can prove that inspired insights can and do occur and this means that the words of the Bible follow the contours of language itself in being the vehicle of meaningful practices of language in its many discursive practices.  The Bible is made up of many texts which flow within the overall human practices of words which constitute human experience and having a "most favored" status for many human readers, the words do exert a significant function of forming values in the words and behaviors of people.  But there is a danger; misinterpreting and making the Bible a false equivalence with God can lead to the cruelties which modern skeptics skewer all people of faith with.  A chief task of postmodern readers of the Bible is to rescue it from cruel misreading of those who have divinized ancient cultural practices rather than seeking the relevant principle of love and justice which herald creative advance in humanity achieving a truer humaneness and "godliness."

Aphorism of the Day, August 12, 2016

A question from Jesus: "Why do you not know how to interpret the present time?"  "How to interpret" suggests that the issue is the quality of the life of the interpreter.   Life is the process of being in situations of making continuous judgments followed by necessary actions.  Some of those judgments and actions are the habitual rituals of our life and we hope that we have "made automatic through ritual" some wise regular responsible actions in our lives.  But there are new events and new situations which require wise discernment.  The goal of our lives of interpretation should be wise discernment as a prelude to wise actions.  New situations sometime require invention and creativity and "thinking outside of the box" of previously ritualized responses.  May God grant us wise discernment in our daily life task of interpreting the events of our lives and community.

Aphorism of the Day, August 11, 2016

In the world of the computer and the internet, the word "cloud" is used to refer to the storage of data that can be made available to all retrieving devices which have access to the internet.  In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the writer uses the metaphor: "Cloud of witnesses" to refer to this memorial storage of the heroes of faith whom we can access as examples of what faithful living can be.  We cannot be the heroes but their witness can inspire us to live faithful lives given the specifics of our own lives.  Jesus is the one who is called the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.  He is the teacher and we are his student in his school of faith.  We seek wisdom to transform the memory of the good examples of faithful people into new and creative acts in our own lives.  As great as the heroes of faith were, we only truly honor them by being faithful in the unique ways given to us in our own situations.  We revere those in the "cloud of witnesses" by seeking to be in this "cloud" ourselves as the living reality of the "Communion of Saints."

Aphorism of the Day, August 10, 2016

In the writings about faith, the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews connects the present and future with the past.  The story of faith is a story of the continual unfolding of creative completeness.  No one can be individually perfect or complete in the time of one's life; one must rely upon the future to complete who one is and what one has done.  The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews wrote: "Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect."  Perfection at any given moment is the recent surpassing state of comprised totality (as it can possibly come to language) in Time meaning the latest time reinvents and recreates the significance of people in the past.  Time means that all people are in this together and with lives of faith, we seek to add "quality" to the overall meaning of all people of all times.  The total quantity of the deeds of faith deriving from the character of faith is what will always, already overcome evil and will prove the confession of Lady Julian of Norwich: All shall be well and all manner of things shall be well indeed.

Aphorism of the Day, August 9, 2016

Our image palate of Jesus is often "Gentle Jesus meek and mild."  What about this Jesus? "Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! "  How is this Jesus quote representative of the Prince of Peace?  For biblical interpreters who are devoted to harmonizing all of the words about Jesus and God into a neat perfectly consistent and perfectly comprehensive and internally coherent Being in the way in which God and Jesus are presented in the Bible, they must take up the hermeneutic contortion posture of a pretzel.  For those who admit to just being human reading inspired writings as imperfect interpreters and imperfectly being inspired by the perfect Holy Spirit, we are not forced into making God or Jesus the expression of "hobgoblin of small minds" (see Ralph Waldo Emerson)  demanding artificial consistency.  We can be true to multi-faceted and multi-contextual ways in which biblical writings came to be received and also "ratified" by imperfect people voting on the canon of Scripture.  The words of Jesus about division instead of peace is a contextual marker of the early Christian communities where a family might have members who were Pharisees, Zealots,  followers of John the Baptist and followers of Jesus.  All of these religious parties felt "passionately exclusive" about their beliefs and when such people because of familial relationship are forced to interact one can certainly know the demise of domestic tranquility.  Creative advance often creates discomfort and uneven situations of faith development.  Such are often the most poignantly painful because of blood relations.  This is not unique to the time of the early church.  How many families are divided over religious preference?  How many parents have wanted wayward children go through "deprogramming" because of their embrace of a religious expression mildly or widely different from the parental religious expression?  Ironically, a person may find the internal Peace of Christ even while experiencing the rejection by members of the former paradigm with previous ideological commitments.

 Aphorism of the Day, August 8, 2016

The words of Jesus: "Why do you not know how to interpret the present time?"  This is perhaps the question of dilemma for everyone all of the time.  Our interpretation of the events of the present precedes our action.  Interpretation derives from the filters we wear through which we process the information that we take in.  We need to understand the value designators within the paradigm of our interpretive framework to understand our filters of interpretation.  Value designators are formed by the exemplars which have gained the attachments of our hearts.  So one can filter the world through the profit motives of Wall Street or through the preponderance of the words of Jesus on behalf of the poor.  In one's interpretation one has to understand how one is pre-determined to arrive at one's conclusions.  Values derive from where one's heart values are truly fixed.  Prevenient values pre-determine one's interpretation of the present time.

Aphorism of the Day, August 7, 2016

Everyone and everything has a future even if it is different manifestation of how we and all things are currently constituted.  Having a future means that we live under the constraints of time and so we age and we change.  Things can go wrong and things can go right; fixing our logic upon what can go wrong inspires fear.  Fixing our logic upon things that can go right is the work of faith.  We can do this if we accept the plethora of the normalcy of good vis a vis the fewer events of ill which deprive the normalcy of goodness for short periods of time.  Focusing upon the normalcy of good now will help to develop our "faith organ" and teach us to anticipate the goodness of Hope's future.


Aphorism of the Day, August 6, 2016

Two events that might invite fretting and anxiety: Wedding planning and the burglary of one's home.  Words of Jesus: Be ready, don't be afraid if your treasure is in heaven then what can be stolen from you?  And if your relationship with the beloved is the main thing, why worry about the liturgy and the wedding party?  Love and faith are the treasures which prepare one for living.

Aphorism of the Day, August 5, 2016

Faith is a posture of living which one may adopt because one is so small in the face of Plenitude that one always has dreadfully limited knowledge about many things in life and especially about having actual knowledge of the future.  Fear is the opposite of faith in that it is anxiety about what we don't know and then having anxiety about our very condition of having limited knowledge.  Faith is living with hope and the exact outcomes of the visions of hope are not yet known and so we must choose to embrace an attitude of a friendly Plenitude ultimately assigning us with hopeful outcomes.  Fear or Faith; choose today which way to be motivated today.

Aphorism of the Day, August 4, 2016

"By faith we understand that ......what is seen was made from things that are not visible."  The writer of Hebrew places "faith and understanding" in an interesting relationship.  One could say in a meaningful way that the present visible world always comes from the past invisible world.  The past exists now in all of the variety of traces within the memory of humanity and in the memory technologies used to retain the pre-existing conditions of the present.  The chief dynamic in bringing the visible present from the invisible past is Word.  That we have Word in human language ability means we have the transmission of the present from the past.  We cannot infallibly prove the past to anyone even while we might build meaningful objective communities of consensus about what happened in the past.  Faith is the mystical element of understanding which is a confidence that what we think we know rests upon an ocean of unseen negligible phenomena in a Plenitude of what we cannot empirically verify.  Humanity has confidently assert all sorts of consensual knowledge that later has been disproved by subsequent consensual communities.  The consensus of any community does not negate the mystical function of faith which always is an indication that what we know resides within a plethora of More.

 Aphorism of the Day, August 3, 2016

Faith is never completed as a way of "being and acting in the world."  Why?  Because Time is not over and there is always a future because we posit an Everlastingness which always includes the Everbeforedness.  Faith is related to hope and hope is always the possible which has not yet become the actual.  With faith we act towards the targets given to us by hope and those targets represent the motives of justice, love and kindness as a way of providing orientation toward better actual events occurring in the future.

Aphorism of the Day, August 2, 2016

Where is the affinity of one's heart? The heart is a physical organ but it is used to designate in a metaphorical way the center of one's desire.  How and where one's desire is drawn from one creates the objects of desire and those objects, varied as they are, create what one values.  How and what one desires create the treasures of one's life.  Thus we have the saying of Jesus: "For where your treasure is, there your heart is also."  This saying places the heart in identity with whatever one desires and reveals the values of one's life.  As empirical literalists, we may believe that we can only value things that can be "seen."  Yet God is not seen; how can God be valued?  God is the plethora of all that was, is and shall be and thus eludes being a graspable place for our desire to land in any final way.  But the striving of the heart for the plethora of God is what keeps us from allowing our desire to land upon any temporary thing which can become an idol.  When we make an idol then we must serve it and we lose our freedom.

Aphorism of the Day, August 1, 2016

πιστός, "pistos" is the New Testament Greek (koine) word for "faith."  In the classical Greek of Aristotle, the same word meant "persuasion."  It is referred to in his work "Rhetoric," and persuasion is the goal of rhetoric.  One can note quite an evolution in the use of this word "pistos" in different times and contexts, even though one can also see the connection.  Faith is that which one is persuaded about such that one acts toward the meaning of such persuasion.  Obviously, in the political climate when politicians are asking us to "trust them" and the promised meanings they bark, one might note that trust involves the character of the people who are producing the words.  Faith in God, in Christ and in the Holy Spirit means that one has a relationship with the one in whom one has faith.  I am persuaded about God because of the Freedom that exists in the created order.  I have faith in Christ because the created order is only known to us by virtue of Word.  I am persuaded about Holy Spirit because it seems undeniable that an Omni-presence allow mutual experience of all beings in their particular environments within that which is the Great Horizon of our environments.

Quiz of the Day, August 2016

Quiz of the Day, August 31, 2016

Which of the following is not associated with Lindisfarne?

a. Columba
b. Aidan
c. Cuthbert
d. Finian

Quiz of the Day, August 30, 2016

Who was the biblical Rhoda?

a. a disciple of St. Paul
b. a seller of purple
c. a woman who wiped the face of Jesus
d. a maid in the house of Mark's mother

Quiz of the Day, August 29, 2016

According to the Acts of the Apostles, in what city were the disciples of Christ first called "Christians?"

a. Ephesus
b. Jerusalem
c. Pella
d. Antioch

Quiz of the Day, August 28, 2016

"Blessed are the poor in spirit," is found in which Gospel?

a. Matthew
b. Mark
c. Luke
d. John
e. Thomas


Quiz of the Day, August 27, 2016

What was the content of Peter's vision before he accepted the gift of the Spirit being received by the Gentiles?

a. a vision about God not requiring circumcision
b. a vision about permission to the eat the meat "non-kosher" animals
c. a vision about mikveh
d. a vision about speaking in tongues

Quiz of the Day, August 26, 2016

What could be called the "Second Pentecost?"

a. the conversion of St. Paul
b. the receiving of the Holy Spirit evidenced in the lives of Gentiles
c. Pentecost since first Pentecost happened in the Doubting Thomas event
d. the birth of the church in Corinth


Quiz of the Day, August 25, 2016

To whom did Peter say the following: " “You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile...?"

a. the Roman cohort
b. the household of Cornelius
c. Simon the tanner
d. the Gentile members of the church in Antioch

Quiz of the Day, August 24, 2016

Who, of the following, made this exclamation, "How awesome is this place; this is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven?"

a. Moses, at the burning bush
b. Moses on Mount Sinai
c. Solomon at the dedication of the Temple
d. Jacob, after his dream about ascending and descending angels



Quiz of the Day, August 23, 2016

Peter prayed and restored Tabitha to life and health.  What was Tabitha's other name?

a. Lydia
b. Dorcas
c. Junia
d. Sapphire

Quiz of the Day, August 22, 2016

When there was a plot discovered to seize the newly converted Saul, how did he escape safely from Damascus?

a. Barnabas interceded with his accusers
b. Saul friends lowered him in a basket from the city wall
c. he was hidden in a cart pulled by donkeys
d. God shuts the eyes of guard as Saul escaped

Quiz of the Day, August 21, 2016

What commandment is about honoring the Sabbath?

a. third
b. fourth
c. fifth
d. sixth

Quiz of the Day, August 20, 2016

To what religious order did St. Bernard of Clairvaux belong?

a. Benedictine
b. Dominican
c. Franciscan
d. Cistercian

Quiz of the Day, August 19, 2016

Which of the following was not one of Job's friend?

A. Eliphaz

B. Zophar

C. Bildad

D. Schlomo 

Quiz of the Day, August 18, 2017

Who negotiated the fate of Job?  

A. The heavenly council of gods
B. Jobs friends
C. God and Satan
D. God and the Angels

Quiz of the Day, August 17, 2016

The selling of church positions is called

a. Indulgences
b. Usury
c. Simony
d. Peter's pence

Quiz of the Day, August 16, 2016

From the cross, who did Jesus commit the care of his mother?

a. Mary Magdalane
b. John
c. Someone referred to as a disciple loved by Jesus
d. Peter

Quiz of the Day, August 15,2016

To whom did Jesus say "Woman, what concern is that to you or me?"

a. Mary Magdalene

b. Mary of Bethany

c. Martha of Bethany

D. Mary, His Mother

Quiz of the Day, August 14, 2016

How did the life of Samson end?

a. suicide
b. he pulled a building down on himself and Philistine captors
c. he was killed by the Philistine army
d. he jumped off a cliff
e. a and b

Quiz of the Day, August 13, 2016

Delilah has been the name for the beguiling seductress; who did Delilah beguile to gain the reputation?

a. Solomon
b. the writer of Song of Songs
c. Samson
d. King David

Quiz of the Day, August 12, 2016

What is the classification of the role of Samson in the history of Israel?

a. prophet
b. military commander
c. nazirite
d. judge
e. priest

Quiz of the Day, August 11, 2016

Which of the following is not true of Samson?

a. he was under the vow of the nazirite
b. he ate honey from the bee hive in the carcass of a dead lion
c. he slew Philistines in battle with the jaw bone of an ass
d. his short hair was the source of his strength
e. he brought down a building on himself and his captors

Quiz of the Day, August 10, 2016

In Christian and biblical traditions, Jesus had a miraculous conception, Mary an Immaculate conception; which of the following is not one who had a "marvelous" conception?

a. John the Baptist
b. Isaac
c. Samson
d. Samuel
e. Jeremiah

Quiz of the Day, August 9, 2016

Who was the Alaskan saint who was also the first missionary to that area?

a. Juvenaly
b. Herman
c. Innocent
d.Jacob Netsvitov

Quiz of the Day, August 8, 2016

What is the biblical significance of the distinction between shibboleth and sibboleth?

a. variance in Hebrew spelling
b. a pronunciation test for gaining permission to ford the Jordan
c. a class marker in biblical sociology
d. one is a dagger, the other is a spear

Quiz of the Day, August 7, 2016

Jephthah, was cast out because he was the son of a prostitute and he became a bandit; later he was called become the commander in the fight against the Ammonites.  What was the result of a vow that he made with God if his forces would win in battle?

a. he cut out his right eye
b. he sacrificed his daughter
c. he gave his best horse to the temple
d. he sacrificed his son

Quiz of the Day, August 6, 2016

On which two occasion did bystanders hear the voice of God declare about Jesus, "This is my Son, the beloved...?"

a. his baptism and resurrection
b. his attendance at the Passover feast and the transfiguration
c. his baptism and transfiguration
d. the angels to the shepherd and his baptism

Quiz of the Day, August 5, 2016

What of the following are true about Gideon?

a. his name was also Jerubbaal
b. his son Abimelech, not Saul, might be called the first king of Israel
c. he had seventy sons
d. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, August 4, 2016

What did Gideon do with some of the gold booty from his battles?

a. fed the poor
b. made an ephod (idol) to worship
c. placed it on the ark of the covenant
d. donated it to the shrine in Shechem

Quiz of the Day, August 3, 2016

Who was the first African-American to receive a PhD from Harvard University?

a. Booker T. Washington
b. W.E.B. Dubois
c. George L. Ruffin
d. Robert T. Freeman

Quiz of the Day, August 2, 2016

Gideon had too many volunteers for his army.  How did he select the final 300?

a. he chose the best archers
b. he chose the soldier who drank water with cupped hands
c. he chose those who throw the spear the farthest
d. he chose those who lapped water like a dog

Quiz of the Day, August 1, 2016

What does the fleece test refer to in the Bible?

a. Jacob covered his arms with fleece to make himself seem hairy
b. Fleecing referred to taking money from one's enemy
c. Gideon used a fleece to seek a sign from God for a victory in battle
d. It derives from King David when as a shepherd he used a fleece to seek an oracle from God

Feeling Irrelevant to the Poor and the Stranger?

15  Pentecost, Cp17, August 28, 2016

Jeremiah 2:4-13 Ps. 112

Heb.13:1-8        Luke 14:1, 7-14

Lectionary Link

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.  When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.

Since we are an inclusive church, why don't we just take our Book of Common Prayer to the streets of San Francisco and invite the homeless and the poor to celebrate the beauty of our liturgy.  Are you ready to go with me?  If we could get them to worship with us, then their lives would be able to change and they would learn to become fully integrated into middle class or upper middle class society and live more happily ever after?  Anyone think this would be wise evangelistic strategy?

Sometimes the words of the Bible seem to place before us an unattainable standard for us.  The words about hospitality to the strangers and homeless we are happy to leave to the saintly specialists like Mother Teresa of Calcutta and we are happy to help much more indirectly with some money gifts.

People who specialize in advising about safety do not always recommend an open policy toward strangers or even the poor.  If in fact one invited to the normal banquets of one's life strangers and people with impairment, it would be unusual unless one had the situation of that being a regular practice.

How can we read these words of the Bible and not feel guilty about our own fear about opening our homes and lives on a regular basis to the people who inhabit the tent towns of our inner cities?

We need to be honest about our lives.  In our lives it is most common for us to be found with people who have some compatible and pragmatic relationship with us in our lives.  That is, we live with people with whom we can practice mutual reciprocity.  I will do this for you and you will do this for me.

What do the poor and strangers have to do with mutual reciprocity?  If you are poor and a stranger how do you function in my life?  I can actually make the stranger and the poor person to have a function in my life.  By giving to a poor person or helping a stranger, I can feel good about myself as being altruistic or as obeying the words of Jesus.  Do I need the poor and the stranger in my lives to feel good about how I am obeying Jesus?

It could be that we often can read the words of Jesus and the Bible and feel guilty about an unattainable standard, particularly toward the poor and the stranger.  We might think that these words should compel us to visit the homeless on streets of San Francisco or San Jose and bring them to our homes and place of worship.

It is important to understand the contexts of the biblical writings.  The New Testament writings were writings which arose to teach and to expose the habits of the early Christian practice within their communities.

The chief event of hospitality within the early church was the Holy Eucharist.  The practice of the Holy Eucharist was actually the banquet of the church.  The early church invited to the Holy Eucharist a wider crowd than had been invited to the synagogue.

What had happened in Judaism of the time of Jesus was what can and does happen in any community, segregatory practices.  Segregation can happen when people want to protect themselves from outside threats and influences.  Segregation can happen when people believe that outside contact will change the community's institutional identity and purity.
Segregation can happen when people of like interest get comfortable in meeting together.  Why would we want to meet with people with whom we have no compatibility?

One of the side effects of segregatory practices is that strangers can feel like they can never belong in a group with such exclusive practices.  Outsiders and strangers may not want to change their lives in order to fulfill the requirements of community membership.

When the New Testament was being written, the urbanization of the cities of the Roman Empire brought together strangers.  When strangers arrive in a new place how do they acculturate themselves to a new place, in employment, places to dwell and social contacts?   If a new family arrives in a place to live permanently where do potential suitors go to form relationships, get married and raise families?

The secret of the success of the early Christian movement was it provided a meeting setting, a social club which allowed strangers to feel like they belonged in a new place.

Hence, we have the words of Jesus as an oracle in the early Christian community, actually touting what the Holy Eucharist had already become within these growing Christian Clubs within the cities of the Roman Empire.

The Gospels and other New Testament writings present a contrast in the practice of these new Christian Social Clubs being places where strangers were welcome and the practices of the synagogues which were places only for people who were able be completely observant Jews, complying with the ritual purity rules of Judaism.

How are the strangers and the poor and the impaired found in the early church different from the homeless poor who live on the streets of our cities today?

The strangers and the poor who became members of the early church, were people who had the ability to enter into covenantal relationship with others.  They were people who were able to perform the baptismal vows.  The strangers, the poor and the impaired of the time of the early church were those who wanted community; they wanted to be contributing members of a community but they for various cultural reasons could not find a accessible way to belong within synagogues which enforced the ritual purity of Judaism.

The reason that the strangers and the poor on our streets seem so foreign to us today is because they are socially and community impaired when it comes to the community life of most churches.  I am not suggesting that street people and the homeless do not have community;  it is just not community behaviors that conform to the socio-educational requirements of people who are formed by the liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer.

In interacting with people who arrive at the door of the church asking for money, I used to say to them: "If you come to our parish and attend every week and participate with us for three months, I think we can help change your life."  In 35 years of ministry, I have only seen it happen once, since only one woman has ever taken the challenge.  And it did work for her and her children.

What this reveals is how confused we can get when we try to make wrong interpretation of what stranger and poor meant for New Testament communities and what stranger and poor mean for us today.  The early Christian strangers and poor were people who wanted community identity but were denied it in other places but found community in the Christian social neighborhood clubs in the cities of the Roman Empire.  These Christian social clubs became called churches.   And the stranger and the poor and the impaired became expressive of health and salvation as they interacted to fulfill their baptismal vows.

I don't think that we can apply the words of Jesus and the early church in exactly the same way to the conditions of the poor and strangers we find in our cities today.  This does not mean that we do not have a responsibility to the poor on the streets of the city today;  we still have to build strategies and tactics to help the poor and the people who forever will be strange to people who use the Book of Common Prayer in their worship.

A community with common prayer accessible to the street poor and homeless is another kind of ministry and it is always worth the efforts to promote the kinds of accessible community to the homeless and poor and we cannot demand that they be able or required to follow how we practice the baptismal covenant with equal mutual reciprocity within significant community.  We cannot be disappointed that homeless poor are different than us;  we cannot ask that they become like us in how we practice our faith in communities expressive of the social aspects of middle class or upper middle class values.

We need to appreciate the success of the early churches in becoming effective social clubs for strangers to become friends, for poor to find contacts and support and for the impaired to be regarded as equally able to be gifted by God's Spirit.

The long success of the church also means that there are large sectors of the world population which inhabit the places where the poor and strangers can be found.  Some poor and strangers can become integrated into parish communities.  The immigrant strangers who have become prominent citizens need to be aware of the new immigrants.  The poor who have become people of means need to be aware of those who are still poor.  Within immigrant population there are people who have the ability to be in mutually reciprocal relationship as is found in a parish church.

The New Testament writings represent the time when strangers were becoming friends through mutual commitment to each other.  The New Testament writings represent a time when poor and isolated people could join a community and have their fortunes changed.  The New Testament communities were places where people who had impairment did not have to believe that God had punished them because their bodies came into this world formed differently.

We as a parish church still need to be a place where strangers can be come friends; poor can network to find enough; and the impaired to be valued for how they have been made by God.

Beyond this there are people who are still poor, strange and foreign to us and segregated by various kinds of impairment.  We always are called to seek tactics of love and justice which honor people for what they can do and give based upon their actual conditions.

Let us not condemn ourselves because there are still poor and strangers in our world.  Let us not condemn ourselves because not that many people will ever enjoy or appreciate Episcopal liturgy in the way in which we do.  But let us not forget that essentially the Eucharist is God's banquet to which everyone is invited to be fed by the equal and great presence of the Risen Christ.

And let us pray that the presence of the Risen Christ also gets known to people in having enough to eat, a place of shelter and dignity for themselves in the uniqueness of how they are coming to know their own integrity in their life circumstance.  Amen.