Quiz of the Day, October 2016

Quiz of the Day, October 31, 2016

Who wrote the novel, "All Hallows' Eve?"

a. C.S. Lewis
b. G.K. Chesterton
c. Dorothy Sayers
d. Charles Williams

Quiz of the Day, October 30, 2016

Which day(s) comprise All Saints Triduum or All Hallowtide?

a. All Saints Day
b. All Souls Day
c. All Hallows Eve
d. All of the above

Quiz of the Day, October 29, 2016

In what book is the number of the beast designated as 666?

a. Daniel
b. Ezekiel
c. Revelation
d. All of the above

Quiz of the Day, October 28, 2016

Which following two saints were known as "the Zealot" and the saint of lost causes, respectively?

a. Simon and Anthony
b. Christopher and Anthony
c. Jude and Swithin
d. Simon and Jude


Quiz of the Day, October 27, 2016

In the Book of Revelation, when the dragon is in pursuit of the woman in the wilderness, what comes from the dragon's mouth?

a. blasphemies
b. fire
c. rubies
d. water

Quiz of the Day, October 26, 2016

Of Kings born in England which is the only one with the title, "the Great?"

a. Cnut
b. Rhodri
c. Richard I
d. Alfred

Quiz the Day, October 25, 2016

John the Divine recorded a vision when the seventh trumpet was sounded.  What did he see in the Temple of God in heaven?

a. the saints
b. the holy priesthood
c. the ark of the covenant
d. the seven angels

Quiz of the Day, October 24, 2016

A quote attributed to Jesus: "Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them."  What is the specific context in the Gospel for these words?

a. Holy Eucharist
b. healing
c. church disagreement
d. sending of apostles

 Quiz of the Day, October 23, 2016

Ask, Seek, and Knock and it shall be opened to you.  These are teachings of Jesus on Prayer in which book in the Bible?

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


Quiz of the Day, October 22, 2016

Which of the following is true about St. James of Jerusalem?

a. brother of our Lord
b. an early martyr
c. son of Zebedee
d. attributed author of an epistle of James
e. called James the lesser
d. a,b and d
e. b, c, and e


Quiz of the Day, October 21, 2016

Where can one find the following all inclusive expression about God?  "Good things and bad, life and death,  poverty and wealth, come from the Lord."

a. Isaiah
b. Proverbs
c. Ecclesiastes
d. Ecclesiasticus

Quiz of the Day, October 20, 2016

The parable of the "Good Samaritan" is found in which Gospel?

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

Quiz of the Day, October 19, 2016

Who of the following translated the Bible into the Persian language?

a. Jalal al din Rumi
b. Henry Martyn
c. Robert de Nobili
d. St. Francis Xavier

Quiz of the Day, October 18, 2016

In addition to be the attributed author of Luke and Acts, Luke was a physician and what other skill set does tradition attribute to him?

a. metallurgist
b. artist
c. tent maker
d. saddle maker

Quiz of the Day October 17, 2016

Who is most associated with the monarchical episcopate in the identification of the unity of the church centered in the person of the bishop?

a. Ignatius Loyola
b. Ignatius of Antioch
c. Cyril of Jerusalem
d. Clement of Rome

Quiz of the Day, October 16,2016

What is unusual when Jesus is quoted as saying to Peter, "on this rock I will build my church?"

a. Peter means rock
b. Cephas means pebble
c. rock refers to Jesus himself
d. the "church" did not exist in the time of Jesus

Quiz of the Day October 15, 2016

Which of the following was not written by Teresa of Avila?

a. The Dark Night of the Soul
b. Interior Castle
c. The Way of Perfection
d. Concepts of Love

Quiz of the Day, October 14, 2016

Who wrote the following: "Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours.  Yours are the eyes through which He looks compassion on this world.  Christ has no body now on earth but yours?"

a. John of the Cross
b. St. Francis
c. St. Teresa of Avila
d. Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Quiz of the Day, October 13, 2016

Which of the following might be the Wisdom lesson of the story about the prophet Jonah?

a. God loves people beyond one's own country and religion
b. God chooses one nation over another
c. God controls nature even big fish
d. Jonah was written as preparation for the message about Jesus

Quiz of the Day, October 12, 2016

What is the most common reference to the afterlife in the Hebrew Scriptures?

a. heaven
b. hell
c. Hades
d. Sheol

Quiz of the Day, October 11, 2016

The metaphor in the life of which Hebrew Scripture person is used for the three days in the tomb of the body of Jesus?

a. Moses
b. Abraham
c. Jonah
d. Jeremiah

Quiz of the Day, October 10, 2016

How many accounts of the conversion of Paul are found in the Acts of the Apostles?

a. 2
b. 3
c. 4
d. not accounts, since there is only one

Quiz of the Day, October 9, 2016

Which Apostle wrote to his church, "In Christ Jesus, I became your father...?"

a. Clement
b. Paul
c. Peter
d. James

Quiz of the Day, October 8, 2016

Agrippa, Festus and Felix were involved in the legal hearings for what early church leader?

a. Peter
b. Barnabas
c. Paul
d. James of Jerusalem


Quiz of the Day, October 7, 2016

In the parable of the Sower, which of the following is not one of the growing environments for the "seed?"

a. path
b. rocks
c. water
d. good soil
e. thorns

Quiz of the Day, October 6, 2016

Who was responsible for the English translation of the Psalter in the first book of Common Prayer of 1549?

a. William Tyndale
b. Thomas Cranmer
c. Miles Coverdale
d. John Wycliffe

Quiz of the Day, October 5, 2016

What saved the Apostle Paul from prosecution?

a. his being a rabbi
b. his Roman citizenship and appeal to the Emperor
c. the intervention of influential friends
d. his judge became a Christian convert

Quiz of the Day, October 4, 2016

How did St. Francis receive his name, since he was born with the name Giovanni di Bernardone?

a. he took the name Francis as a novice in the order of his own name
b. he received the name in the vision when he received the stigmata
c. his father gave him the nickname, "the Frenchman" Francesco
d. he admired a holy man of the same name and so he took the name
Quiz of the Day, October 3, 2016
When Paul appeared before the tribune of the High Priest Ananias how did he rhetorically divide the parties of the Pharisees and Sadducees?

a. he claimed that he was defending the temple
b. he claimed that he was defending John the Baptist
c. he claimed that he was defending the resurrection from the dead
d. he claimed that he was defending ritual purity

Quiz of the Day, October 1, 2016

Which Gospel records Jesus as saying, "Blessed are the poor," and not "Blessed are the poor in spirit?"

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

Quiz of the Day, October 2, 2016

How did John the Baptist die?

a. old age
b. on a cross
c. he was beheaded
d. he drown

A Close Encounter with Jesus of the Best Kind

24  Pentecost, Cp26, October 30, 2016

Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4 Psalm 119:137-144

2 Thessalonians 1:1-5 (6-10) 11-12 Luke 19:1-10

  
Lectionary Link

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

  Caroline, I get it that it is Halloween tomorrow, but really an ET mask?   That really is 1980's and you weren’t even born then.  Are you trying to be really retro?

Caroline: Well, Andrew, is going to a party with me and he is the UFOologist.  So he told me that he would wear thick horned rim glasses and be the scientific Geek studying extra terrestrial life.

Andrew: That's right, I am a UFOologist, strictly scientific though.

Catherine: Scientific?  What do you mean?

Andrew: I deal with just the facts.  I follow the classification system for contact with alien life.

Caroline: What is the classification system?

Andrew: There is what is called Close Encounters of the First Kind and it goes all the way to Close Encounter of Eighth Kind.

Caroline: Well, then the Movie Alien ET must have been the closest encounter of all.

Catherine: What is a close encounter of the first, second and third kind?

Andrew: First kind is a visual sighting of a UFO, an unidentified flying object...a flying saucer.  The second encounter in when animals respond or when interference occurs in radio or radar signals.  The third in when a live alien is seen.  The fourth is when a human being is abducted or kidnapped by an alien.

Caroline: Wow, all of this sounds really spooky, but scientific.

Catherine: I understand it is Halloween and so we have the ET costume and the UFO-talk, but we are giving a sermon so how can we change ET and a UFOologist  into a sermon?

Andrew: I'm glad you ask.  Today we read about the levels of encounters that the man Zacchaeus had with Jesus.

Caroline: So how would you classify  the kinds of close encounters which Zacchaeus had with Jesus?

Andrew: Well, at first Zacchaeus had a close encounter of the curious kind.

Catherine: What do you mean?

Andrew: Well, Jesus was a popular prophet and teacher who gaining many followers.  And Zacchaeus was curious about the attention which Jesus was getting.

Caroline: Why do you think Zacchaeus was curious about Jesus?

Catherine: Well, he was a tax collector.  The Roman armies controlled nation of Israel.  The Roman administration collected taxes from the Jews.  But they used Jews to collect the taxes from their own people.  Zacchaeus had to collect money from his fellow countrymen.

Caroline: So Zacchaeus was not very popular with the Jews?

Catherine: No, because tax collectors overcharged in order to make a profit.  They hung out with non-Jewish people and so they were regarded to be sinners who did not follow all the Jewish laws of purity.

Andrew: So if Zacchaeus was hated by religious people, he probably thought that he did not ever have a chance to be a faithful person who was accepted for believing in God.

Caroline: He was curious about Jesus because Jesus seemed to make friendship with all kinds of people, people who were just like him.  People who were regarded to be lost sinners by the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

Catherine: So if being curious about Jesus is a close encounter of the first kind for Zacchaeus, what would be a close encounter of the second kind?

Caroline: Well, Zacchaeus heard that Jesus was coming to his town, the town of Jericho.  So he went out to see him, but he could not see Jesus.  He was short man and so he could not see over the shoulders of the crowd.

Andrew: So, he climbed up a sycamore tree in order to see and hear Jesus.  When he made the effort to see and hear Jesus, he moved to a close encounter of the second kind.  But then he got a big shock.

Catherine: What do you mean?

Andrew: Well, you would really be shocked if an extra-terrestrial, an alien, began to speak with you and call to you.

Caroline: Well, Jesus noticed Zacchaeus in the tree and so he spoke to him and he told him to come down from the tree.  And he told him that he was going to come to his house.

Andrew: So Jesus went to the home of Zacchaeus.  I think this qualifies for a close encounter with Jesus of the third kind, don't you?

Catherine: Yes, it does.  Because if Jesus came to your home for some dinner and some conversation, this would be a very close encounter indeed.

Caroline: Well, I guess the close encounter with Jesus ended with a visit to the home of Zacchaeus.

Andrew: Not so fast, the close encounter become even closer.

Caroline: How so?

Andrew: Jesus got even closer to Zacchaeus.  He got under his skin.  The wonderful Spirit of Jesus went straight into the heart of Zacchaeus.

Catherine: What happened?

Andrew: Zacchaeus got hit in the heart almost like an arrow of Cupid.  He was immediately changed.

Caroline: He sure was.  He had been a greedy and dishonest tax collector and when Jesus got really close to him, he said that he would repay all of the money that he had cheated others out of and even give them more.  So when Zacchaeus had a close encounter with Jesus, it changed his relationship with his money.  Sounds like Father Phil has a good stewardship message there.

Catherine: So when the words and the Spirit of Jesus got inside of Zacchaeus and changed him into an honest and truthful person, could we call this a close encounter with Jesus of the fourth kind?

Andrew: Whether it is a close encounter of the first, second, third or fourth kind, it is a close encounter with Jesus of the best kind.

Caroline:  That's true.  How can we classify our encounters with Jesus today?

Catherine: What would a first encounter be like?

Caroline: Well, we can all know about Jesus.  We can study about him as a famous person in the history of the world.  That is a first encounter with Jesus.

Andrew: But we can go onto the second and third encounters with Jesus.

Catherine: How do we do this?

Caroline: We can read the Bible.  We can go to church.  We can pray.  We can get baptized.  We can make promises to follow the teachings of Jesus.  We can receive the bread and the wine of the Eucharist as an experience of Jesus becoming very close to us.

Andrew: But how can we become like Zacchaeus and have close encounters with Jesus of the best kind?

Caroline: I think the encounter with Jesus of the best kind is when we let the Spirit of Christ get inside of our hearts and begin to change our lives in such a profound way that we begin to love God more and we begin to love our neighbors better.  But will you excuse me now?

Andrew: Why do you need to be excused?

Caroline:  I'm getting a call.  I phoned home and this is perhaps a return call for my ride back home on an Uber space ship.

Catherine: , bye ET.....Jesus did go back to home with his Father in Heaven.  But he did leave us the Holy Spirit.

Caroline: Yes, He did.  And with the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we can still have close encounters with Jesus of the best kind.

Andrew: Yes, my friends, I wish for all of us here today an encounter with Jesus of the best kind.  Zacchaeus had his life changed by the best encounter with Jesus.  I hope that all of us can have our lives changed in this way too.  Amen.

Sunday School, October 30, 2016 24 Pentecost C proper 26

Sunday School, October 30, 2016     24 Pentecost, C proper 26

Zacchaeus Story, wanting to be good

Zacchaeus was a wealthy man but he was rich because he overcharged people for their taxes.  He worked for the Roman government and he was hired by them to collect taxes from his own people, the Jews.  So, of course he was hated by members of his city and country.

It is not easy to be disliked.  And as long as he was a tax collector he was not going to be liked by his neighbors.

Zacchaeus was trapped and he wanted to find a way to get out of his trouble.  He needed help.  Where could he find help?

He heard about the famous teacher.  So he went to see the famous teacher Jesus.  But he couldn’t get close.  He climbed a tree to see Jesus, but that meant that Jesus saw him too.

Two things about the life of Zacchaeus and us.

We need to always be seeking Jesus.  And we need to know that Jesus is always seeking us.  It takes two sides in a relationship.  We look for the help of Jesus to become better people.  And Jesus is a teacher who wants us to learn more.

How do we know if we have made Jesus our friend?

Our life changes.  Our behaviors change.  We become more honest.  We work to repair relationships that have become unfriendly because of things that we have said and done.

Remember: Let us seek the help of Jesus to become better people.  Let us know that Jesus is also seeking us.  Jesus went to the home of Zacchaeus.  God comes to us and gets very close to us.  Our bodies can become the homes of the Holy Spirit who will help us become better persons.

Sermon

  I have been watching children at our church and preschool for many year.  And do you know the most favorite place of all children who come to St. John’s for church and for preschool?

  It is right outside of this window in this olive tree.  This olive tree is the perfect tree for children to climb in.  It’s not tall; it is easy to get into and it fits several children at the same time.  It has leaves all year round and so you can still have privacy.

  So most children do not want to be in preschool or in church; they want to be outside climbing in this tree.  Maybe we should have school and church in the tree and you would have more fun.

  Why do you like to climb in trees?  Why do people like to build tree houses?  Do you want to be like birds?  Or is it because I feel short and when I climb in a tree, I can feel taller.

  In the Gospel story today, we read about a short man who climbed a tree.  His name was Zacchaeus.  He was not a very popular man because he collected taxes for the Roman government.  And sometimes he would charge too much tax so that he could have more money for himself.

  When people do not like us for something bad that we are doing, what can we do?  We can say, “I want to be liked by other people.  I want to have friends.”  But someone might say to us, “If you want to be like by others and if you want to have friends, you have to learn how to act in friendly ways.  You have learn to act better.”

  That is what Zacchaeus thought.  “I need to be a better a better person.  Who can I see to help me become a better person?”

  Zacchaeus heard about a famous teacher, Jesus of Nazareth.  Jesus was teaching and he was doing many good things.  And he was helping people to live better lives.  But wherever he went, there was a crowd of people.  He was popular and so it was very difficult to get close to him.

  Zacchaeus heard that Jesus was coming to his neighborhood and so he ran to see him, but he could not get close because of the crowd of people.  And Zacchaeus was so short that he could not see over the crowd of people.  So what did he do?  He climbed up a sycamore tree so that he could see and hear Jesus.  And when Zacchaeus was in the tree, he got quite a shock.   Jesus looked at him and said to him, “Come down from the tree, because I’m coming to your house today.”

  Zacchaeus was shocked that Jesus noticed him.  He invited Jesus into his house and became his friend.  And he made his life better; he gave money to help the poor and he promised to return money that he had wrongly charged people in their taxes.

  Zacchaeus wanted to be better, so he went to Jesus.

  We come to church each Sunday, because we want to learn how to be better.  We come to learn about God and Jesus and we come to share friendship together because we want to help each other become better people.

  Zacchaeus had a curiosity to become a better person, so he went to see Jesus.  You and I need to remember to be curious about being better people.  We need to do everything we can, include climbing a tree, to try to be better people.  We need to study about the life of Jesus and the lives of all good people to learn how we can be better.  And just as Zacchaeus had the reward of meeting Jesus, we too can be rewarded with learning how to be better people.  Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

October 30, 2016   Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Zacchaeus; O Come Let us Adore Him; Jesus, Stand Among Us; When the Saints Go Marching In  

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: Zacchaeus,   # 252, Christian Children’s Songbook

Zacchaeus was a wee little man, A wee little man was he.  He climbed up in a sycamore tree, For the Lord he wanted to see.  And as the Savior passed that way, He looked up in the tree; And he said, “Zacchaeus, you come down!”  For I’m going to your house today, For I’m going to your house today.”

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty God, you have joined together your chosen people into one family of people who enjoy a special friendship as we are gathered as the body of Christ on earth today; Give us grace so to follow the great heroes in good living, that we may come to those unspeakable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. 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

Liturgist: A reading from the Second Letter to the Thessalonian Church

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of everyone of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith during all your persecutions and the afflictions that you are enduring.  To this end we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

A Reading  from  Psalm 119

 You are righteous, O LORD, *and upright are your judgments.

 You have issued your decrees * with justice and in perfect faithfulness.

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 entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today." So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, "He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner." Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much." Then Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Lesson – Fr. Cooke:  

                                        

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

Song for the Offertory: O Come, Let Us Adore Him (Renew # 1)

O come, let us adore him; O come, let us adore him; O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord.

We’ll give him all the glory.  We’ll give him all the glory; we’ll give him all the glory, Christ the Lord.

For he alone is worthy.  For he alone is worthy.  For he alone is worthy, Christ the Lord.

We’ll praise his name forever.  We’ll praise his name forever.  We’ll praise his name forever, Christ the Lord.

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.

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:  Jesus Stand Among Us (Renew # 237)

1-Jesus, stand among us in your risen power; let this time of worship be a hallowed hour.

2-Breathe the Holy Spirit into every heart; bid the fears and sorrows from each soul depart.

Post-Communion Prayer

Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;

We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.

And His Presence has been known to us.

We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers

    and sisters in Christ.

Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the

     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,

As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Closing Song: When The Saints Go Marching In

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

When the girls go marching in…..

When the boys go marching in….

Dismissal

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Archery Anyone?

23 Pentecost, C p 25, October 23, 2016

Joel 2:23-32 Ps. 67

2 Tim. 4:6 8,18    Luke 18:9 14  

 Lectionary Link 


  How does a Gentile group of Christians who do not observe all of the ritual purity rules of Judaism understand Jesus in his own time as an observant Jew and yet find the roots for what eventually happened within Gentile Christianity?  If we can understand the issues of transitioning from the Judaism practiced in the time of Jesus to the Christian practices of the Gentile Christianity, we can understand how the Gospel writer had to deal with this transition.  Why were the Christian churches different from the synagogues?  How did they become this way?  Can we understand that Gospel writers associated Jesus of Nazareth with this great shift from the synagogue to the church?
  This dilemma is illustrated in the parable of Jesus about the Pharisee and the tax-collector.
   The Pharisees were one of the major religious parties within Judaism.  The practices and identity of the Pharisees was a form of Judaism which had developed from the templeless Jews in exile in Babylon and Persia.  Without a Temple the Jews could still "gather" for communal prayers and Beit Kenesset or synagogue was the gathering place for reading of the Torah and communal prayers.  Jesus attended the synagogues and the Temple.  Most of the New Testament derived from the time when the Temple had been destroyed by the Roman armies and so the synagogue as a more portable gathering became one of the models for the "house churches" within early Christianity.
  A Pharisee was an observant Jews.  He or she would have been a person who followed the ritual purity codes of Judaism as it pertained to the application of the rules found in the Torah.
  A publican was person designated from the perspective of observant Jews as one who was defiled.  In Palestine a publican would have been a Jew who collected taxes from his fellow Jews on behalf of the Roman authorities.  The way in which a publican would earn a living would be to add his collection fee to the amount that the Roman authorities wanted him to collect.  So a publican was a person who lived in contact with Roman authorities and who was often hated as one who betrayed and "over-charged" his own people.  In a purity code of the Pharisee a publican would have been a designated defiled sinner.  The lifestyle of the publican who had to live in contact with Roman authorities would make the publican a "defiled person" and not one who could be a ritually observant Jews.  A publican would have been regarded to be a ritually and morally defiled person.  So one definition of sinner was one who was a ritually defiled person.
  Within early Christianity there occurred a subtle rehabilitation of the notion of sinner.  Within the theology of St. Paul, being a sinner was an unavoidable condition of being human.  If one cannot avoid being a sinner, then how can we say that some sinners are better than others?
  In the theology of St. Paul, a Pharisee could not be excluded from the human condition of sin.  Paul, himself was a Pharisee.  For the Pharisee, sin was the condition of living a ritually defiled life, so a person could go in and out of being defiled depending upon the observance of ritual and moral purity.
  St. Paul's theology of sin did not exclude ritually observant people from the human condition of being sinners.  St. Paul wrote that all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory.
  If all Gentiles were ritually non-observant people who lived in a perpetual state of defilement, then Gentiles were born and lived in the condition of sin.
  St. Paul redefined the notion of sin.  He moved the condition of sin from the Jewish context of observing ritual purity into the Greek notion of archery as it was known in Hellenistic Greek usage.  The Greek word for sin was a word from archery.  To sin "hamartia" meant to miss the mark; to miss the target.
  St. Paul said that the purpose of the Jewish law was to expose us to the fact that we are always missing the mark.  We cannot help but always miss the mark.  We are shooting arrows and we are missing the target.  Why?  Because the target is the holiness and the perfection of God and such holiness cannot be attained in any final sense;  we can only be in the process of attaining holiness and perfection.  So how do we tolerate ourselves in not yet being perfect.  We ask for a pass.  We ask to borrow or use in the meantime someone else's perfection as our own.  The permission to borrow or use God's perfection temporarily as our own is the experience of mercy or grace.
  So the publican of the parable of Jesus acknowledges his condition.  "God, I am not a ritually observant Jew.  I only know myself as missing the target of moral excellence and perfection in life.  How can I live with myself in knowing that I lack a Pharisee or Sadducee or anyone to declare me pure or clean or perfect?  God, I need your mercy, because I can never have the mercy of the Pharisee or Sadducee."
  And this is where the theology of Paul also is known.  St. Paul wrote that God in Jesus Christ was God's Son giving us the grace and mercy to borrow an identification with God's perfection even while we have not arrived there.
  So our life is a life like the life of publican or the tax collector.  We live in the state of knowing ourselves as sinners.  We are archers shooting our arrows in the right direction toward the bull's eye of God's perfection and yet we always fall short.  But in falling short we receive an identity with God's perfection because we cannot be proud of individual perfection.  We can only be proud of God's perfection which is shared with us through the experience of God's mercy, grace and forgiveness.
  The Gospel of Luke was written from the reality of Gentile Christianity and so there was this need to change the notion of a sinner from being a non-observant person of the Jewish purity code to being the human condition of being born with an unclean heart in the state of sin.  Even when people believe they are not breaking any big laws, they cannot observe perfectly the 10th Commandment.  Thou shalt not covet.  This essentially says, "Thou shall not have any wrong desire."  In order not to have wrong desire, one needs to have a clean heart and a renewed spirit.  And so the Gift of the Holy Spirit gives us the clean heart and renewed Spirit and a participation in perfection without being able to claim perfection as something that derives from us as individuals.
  The Gospel for you and me today is that we can embrace our lives as archers today, metaphorically speaking.  The arrows of our lives which we shoot are the intentions of our thoughts and deeds.  And we need to shoot the arrows of our thoughts and deeds toward what is worthy and excellent and perfect in love and justice.  We never attain finality in perfection because we still live in time.  We are touched by God's perfection through grace and mercy and so we are aided continually to be better today than we were yesterday.
  The Gospel for us today is to look at the contrast in attitude presented by the parable about the proverbial Pharisee and the publican.  The attitude of Pharisee is that "I have arrived at perfection to the point of being able to judge people like this publican.  I have conveniently defined perfection according to the rules that I understand."  The attitude of the tax collector was "God, the perfect one, have mercy upon me who is far from perfect but who still wants to participate in some way with God's perfection."
  You and I are invited to embrace this positive notion of sin; never arriving at perfection because we always have a future towards what is better for us.  And because we know we can always be better, we remain hopeful about that same invitation for others and so we cannot make any final judgments about the sins of others.
  Let us be happy sinners today, happy archers, aiming the arrows of our thoughts and deeds of love, kindness and justice toward the perfect target of God.  And the archery situation will never be finished so let us embrace it.  Amen.