Sunday School, November 6, 2016 25 Pentecost, C proper 27

Sunday School, November 6, 2016   25 Pentecost, C proper 27, All Saints’ Sunday

Some ideas:

Present this Riddle and get the answer:

As I was going to St. Ives,

I met a man with seven wives,

Each wife had seven sacks,

Each sack had seven cats,

Each cat had seven kits:

Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,

How many were there going to St. Ives?

Jesus had a discussion with some other religious people and they gave Jesus a riddle.

Imagine a woman who got married and her husband died.  And because there was an ancient Jewish rule, her husband’s brother was required to marry her.  But imagine that her first husband had six brothers and she had seven husband who died who were all brothers.  The riddle question for Jesus was this:  Jesus, when the woman lives again in the resurrection, which man will be her husband?

This question was asked by people who did not believe in the resurrection or living again in the afterlife.

How did Jesus answer the question?  He said the afterlife is not like this life.  He said that we will be like angels and angels do not get married.

Jesus said that it is more important to believe in God than in ourselves because God is a strong living God and when we die and when others die, we know that we are not great enough to preserve ourselves after we die.  So we believe in a very Great God who is able to preserve, but not just preserve us but make us into our angel-like selves.  In our angel-like selves we will not have the same limitations that we have in our lives now.

The message of Jesus is a message of faith and hope

Why are faith and hope important?

Because we live better when we have faith and hope instead of fear.

If we always are afraid of getting hurt or if we are afraid of death, then we will not be free to try new things and to learn.  Fear makes us too timid to try new things.  Fear makes us sad and it paralyzes us.

When Jesus gave people the hope of the resurrection, this hope allows us to quit being fearful and so we can live our lives in an adventure of faith or always trying to do things to make our lives better.

If we know that we will continue to live after death in an angel-like life, it means that we will still get more time to work on everything that we don’t finish in this life.  And this is hopeful for us.  It can help take away the “fear” of death.  It can help us know that God is fair to all people who don’t get to live as long as some other people because of accidents and misfortune.

The resurrection allows us to believe in fairness.  There will be plenty of time for everything to be made fair.

So Jesus showed us that everlasting life will bring about fairness and because we know this we can live with faith.

The people who argued with Jesus only wanted to win an argument.  Jesus was interested in giving people hope for the future so that they live with faith and adventure now in their lives.

Discussion:

What happens to you when you live in fear?

What happens when you are hopeful about good things?

Talk about the difference between living with fear and living with hope.

Sermon

  Can you and I know everything there is to know in life?  No.  Would we like to know everything?  Yes.  But why can’t we know everything?  We are too small.  Our minds, our brains cannot collect and remember all of the information.  And we cannot know some things because of who we are.  I know how to be a father, but I don’t know how to be a mother.  Why, because I can never be a mother.  So there are some things that I can never know.

  So I have to rely upon other people knowing what being a mother is.  Since there is so much to know, I have to rely on other people to know some things that I don’t know.  I have to rely upon a mechanic to fix my car.  I have to rely upon the doctor to take care of my health.  I have to rely upon many different teachers who know many different things.  I have to rely upon people who know more about music than I do.

  And when we add up everything that all people in the world know, do people still know everything?  No we still don’t know about distance stars and planets that we have never seen.  So there are still many,

many things that we do not know.  

  Why is every thing knowable?  Because we believe that God is knowledge and truth and life itself.  And God’s life is bigger and greater than our lives, so we always have more to learn about in life because God is so big and great.

  One of the things that we do not have a lot of information about is about what happens to people after they die.  And that is important for us because we want to know that the important people in our life are going to be with us forever.

  Jesus had a discussion with some people about what happens after we die.  And what Jesus says is this:  Since God lives and since God is the God of the living, all people will always live on in God.  Why?  Because God’s life is so great that God can preserve everything and everyone in a very special way.

  So if you ever begin to think about what’s after life, just remember how big God is and remember that God is big enough to preserve and keep everyone and everything that was ever made, even though we

may always be able to see everyone and everything.  God is a God of the living.  So all people will always live in God.  And so will you and I and so will all of the important people in your life.  Doesn’t that make you happy.  Remember that God is a living God and all of us live in God.  Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

November 6, 2016: The Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

All Saints’ Sunday

Gathering Songs: Alleluia, Give Thanks; I Am the Bread of Life; The King of Glory 

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: Alleluia, Give Thanks   (Blue Hymnal # 178)

Refrain: Alleluia, alleluia, give thanks to the risen Lord.  Alleluia, alleluia give praise to his name.

Jesus is Lord of all the earth.  He is the King of creation.  Refrain

Spread the good news o’er all the earth: Jesus has died and has risen.  Refrain

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

O God, whose blessed Son came into the world that he might destroy the works of the devil and make us children of God and heirs of eternal life: Grant that, having this hope, we may purify ourselves as he is pure; that, when he comes again with power and great glory, we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom; where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and 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 Second Letter to the Thessalonians

But we must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth. For this purpose he called you through our proclamation of the good news, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter.  Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 17

I call upon you, O God, for you will answer me; * incline your ear to me and hear my words.

Show me your marvelous loving-kindness, * O Savior of those who take refuge at your right hand
from those who rise up against them.

Keep me as the apple of your eye; * hide me under the shadow of your wings,

.

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.

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and asked him a question, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her." Jesus said to them, "Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.

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: I Am the Bread of Life (Blue Hymnal, # 335)

I am the bread of life; they who come to me shall not hunger; they who believe in me shall not thirst.  No one can come to me unless the Father draw them. 

Refrain: And I will raise them up, and I will raise them up, and I will raise them up on the last day.

I am the resurrection, I am the life.  They who believe in me, even if they die, they shall live for ever.  Refrain

Doxology

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

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

Prologue to the Eucharist

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of 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:   I Come With Joy   (Renew! # 195)

1.         I come with joy a child of God, forgiven, loved, and free, the life of Jesus to recall, in love laid down for me.

2.         I come with Christians, far and near to find, as all are fed, the new community of love in Christ’s communion bread.

3.         As Christ breaks bread, and bids us share, each proud division ends.  The love that made us makes us one, and strangers now are friends.

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: The King of Glory (Renew! # 267)

Refrain: The king of glory comes the nation rejoices.  Open the gates before him, lift up your voices.

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

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

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

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween


Please don't let people de-Christianize your observance of "All Hallows' Eve," the eve of All Hallows' Day=All Saints' Day. It begins a Triduum of All Hallow's Eve, All Saints Day and All Souls' Day. Christianity came to places that already had observances of traditions of entrance to the afterlife and relationship with inhabitants of the afterlife. Christianity offered the transitional explanation of the resurrection to the afterlife into a Communion of Saints with the ribbon of hope tying together the living and the dead. Some of the dead became famous beyond their locations and entered the "Christian Hall of Fame" and are designated as superhero saints. So we have the Christian Hall of Fame day of All Saints' Day. Most people are influenced by some very local saints, moms, dads, grandparents, teachers, mentors and so we have on November 2nd, All Souls' Day, to remember those who have made the Gospel evident to our own lives.

Have fun with Harry Potter costumes and superhero costumes and chocolates (in moderation???) on this day and use it as a teaching day to express the resurrection faith of Christianity regarding the end of one's life and the lives of others and how the Communion of the living and the dead testifies to God's preserving great memory.

Don't let the curmudgeons or those who seem to be more interested in finding spooky Satanic signs everywhere keep you from observing the resurrection significance of these three days.

 

Aphorism of the Day, October 2016

Aphorism of the Day, October 31, 2016

Did it ever occur to us that Christian focus upon the afterlife seems to be a contradiction of the serenity prayer? "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference."  The New Testament writers seem taken up with the afterlife and the impending end of the world as we know it, so how were they using courage to change the things they could change?  Can anyone change one's death or one's afterlife.  How does one accept death and not presume to know too much about the specifics of the afterlife state of being?  The things that we can change pertain how you and I will enter the afterlife.  We can change the quality of our life before we die and from that quality assume the best kind of continuity in how we get preserved in God's memory which we hope includes a reconstitution and a continuous recycling towards excellence of Personal life force.

 Aphorism of the Day, October 30, 2016

The Gospel present the opponents of Jesus as one who hung out with "sinners."  All Gentiles were sinners in that they were ritually impure and defiled people.  Also, the Jews  who were not ritually observant according to the practice of the prominent religious parties were also "sinners."  The Gospels expanded the meaning of "sinner" to all people and is a positive notion because it implied that human beings were imperfect but perfectible.  Imperfect people need to be on a path of repentance.  Repentance is simply the progressive education program in excellence which involves tolerating oneself in the state of being imperfect because of God's perfect grace.  It involves a vision of being so much better that one cannot judge others excepts as others who are trying to deal with their own path of perfectability in equal need of grace.

Aphorism of the Day, October 29, 2016

The 12 step program includes the notion of reparation as a way of rebuilding one's credibility in recovery.  The conversion of Zacchaeus inspired him to pay reparations with interest all whom he had cheated.  Reparation is a way to rewrite the history of the past through a post-humus generosity to the dead past of one's own unjust behaviors.  Generosity of reparation can actually be a form of resurrection.

Aphorism of the Day, October 28, 2016

Zacchaeus is the Saint of Stewardship.  He proved that an encounter with Jesus will change your relationship to your money.

Aphorism of the Day, October 27, 2016

UFOologist developed the classification system of "close encounters" with alien life.  Bible writers encode their system of classification of close encounters with the "alien" life of God.  New Testament writers encode their classification of "close encounters" with the "alien life" of the Risen Christ.  Frankly, all encounters are constituted by what makes visible the invisible, name Word and language.  We know all encounters in life because we first have language.  Once we have language we bring all experience into existence.

Aphorism of the Day, October 26, 2016

The Zacchaeus story recounts the serendipitous events of how he went from being a Jesus watcher from afar to becoming a disciple whose life was radically changed from an intimate encounter with Jesus in his own home.  The Zacchaeus story in the Gospel is an announcement to all that having one's life changed by an encounter with Jesus has happened, may happened, will happen to anyone and it will not be exactly like with Zacchaeus because the Risen Christ through the Spirit morphs into the context specifics of anyone who can confess such an encounter.

Aphorism of the Day, October 25, 2016

The Zacchaeus story in the Gospel encapsulates features of the "Gospel seduction" within the early churches.  Zacchaeus, a liminal person stuck by the choices of his profession between being a Jew and working for the Romans, is curious about Jesus from afar.  Zacchaeus is made to feel chosen when Jesus invites himself into Zacchaeus' life.  Jesus visits the home of Zacchaeus and his entire lifestyle is converted: he pays reparations for his over-charging and becomes a generous steward.

Aphorism of the Day, October 24, 2016

The writer of Luke has a "thing" for publicans or tax-collectors.  Perhaps it is because they represent the liminal nature of the early church.  Tax-collectors were often non-observant Jews who in the Gospel were shown as people who wanted to have some "faith" status.  The early Jesus Movement must have embraced these liminal figures on its way to becoming a mostly Gentile community.

 Aphorism of the Day, October 23, 2016

Sin and being a sinner can be designated in different ways.  A sinner can be a person who does not know the rules I follow and so is different from me and undesirable because my lifestyle rules are inaccessible to such a one and so he is a "sinner" or one outside of my lifestyle rules.  A sinner can be one who willfully and purposely does things that violates rules of safety, health and well being of self and others.  Or sinner can be a positive state into which all people are born.  We are born in the human condition with future states of excellence that we are not yet attaining.  Those states of excellence invite us to grow continually in their direction.  The New Testament word for sin is an archery term meaning to "miss the mark," or to fall short of the target.  This is the perpetual human condition since future excellence, no matter what our state of practice is now, is always a future target at which we will continually aim.  As we define a current excellent target and then attain it, in attaining it, it will be further revealed that another future target exposes the inadequacy of what we have attained.  This is the nature of learning.  Future excellence should always keep us humble about what we have attained and certainly not qualified to judge others who are on other archery ranges in quest of their own targets at their own rates of growth in the life process of spiritual archery.

Aphorism of the Day, October 22, 2016

The New Testament redefines sinner from being but a "ritually" non-observant person to being the state of being imperfect.  The positive notion of being a sinner is that the admission of sin means also that one is perfectible.  The notions of grace, mercy and forgiveness is that God's perfection is shared with the sinner and so each sinner has the freedom to accept a substitutionary perfection with God, so each person can say, "I'm perfect with God."  Perfection is the wholeness that one accepts by acknowledging being made complete by God's grace.

Aphorism of the Day, October 21, 2016

"God be merciful to me a sinner."  Failed archers of the world unite!  The New Testament world for sin is to fail as an archer to hit the target.  So sin can be a positive notion, if the target one is aiming at is the continuously elusive perfection of God.  Oops.  I missed again but I going to keep shooting my arrows of intentional life deeds toward the excellence which God requires.  One can create all sorts of arbitrary targets to shoot out and achieve, e.g., not eating anymore broccoli, and be proud of achieving such "easy" targets.  One can judge others for not attaining the easy targets attained in one's own life.  But in the game of Ultimate Archery, one's target is the moving target of God's perfection at which one is always aiming and always failing and yet always improving because shooting in the direction of perfection is how we get better.  And always missing perfection is how we remain as those who have humble reasons for not judging others who have their own history of "archery" experience.

Aphorism of the Day, October 20, 2016

The panning of religious leaders by Jesus including a parable of comparing favorably the repentant publican with a Pharisee characterized as a "self righteous" prig is indicative of the polemic of the early church in its separation "anxiety" from the synagogue.  The early Christian leaders had two shocks:  Gentiles were drawn to the message of Jesus and most members of the traditional parties of Judaism were not.  So Christianity dismissed the ritual purity codes of Judaism to conform to Gentile Christianity.  This scenario forms the ethos of those who generated the writings of the New Testament.  Today, we need not identify with the polemic which so informed the separation of synagogue and church.

Aphorism of the Day, October 19, 2016

The negative side of the "insight of sin" is to have the prideful attitude of thinking that one does not have significant sin or judging others for having obviously worse sins than one's own.  The positive side of sin is to compare oneself with one future surpassable self in excellence and humbly acknowledge how much more one has to attain that one requests mercy from God and God's patience to allow one to continue to maintain in the life journey of self-surpassability in excellence.  The best insight of sin is to compare oneself with oneself and hope for self-surpassability in holiness in the future.

Aphorism of the Day, October 18, 2016

"God be merciful to me a sinner."  The realization of sin is a very positive realization since it means that one subscribes to the view of human perfectability, with God's mercy tolerating us and completing us when we are not yet perfect.  Perfection then is not an individual quest; it is acceptance of perfection as "wholeness" because we live and move and have our being in God.  And an experience within the Holy Ground of God is mercy.

Aphorism of the Day, October 17, 2016

"God be merciful to me a sinner."  Knowing that one is a sinner is a positive notion in the Gospel.  It means that one realizes that one has not yet attained the more perfect moral targets where one is aiming.  Knowing that one is a sinner is the realization that one is "in time."  Being "in time" we cannot claim some "static laurels" and judge ourselves as somehow better than others forever.  Being "in time" we are invited to the humility of anticipation for future excellent performance.

Aphorism of the Day, October 16, 2016

When things happen to us we tend to take them personally.  We may think that God has blessed us or that God or some other agents is punishing us.  The Greek personified fate as the Moirai; those divine personal metaphors of destiny.  In the Gospel parable of the nagging widow and the judge, the judge represents the personification of the negative probable outcomes which happen in a true system of freedom.  All of us have to learn to live in relationship with this judge, the by product of freedom, and when the negative outcomes express deprivation of health, goodness and justice, we need to become the holy naggers who pray continuously for the normalcy of justice, goodness, health and kindness.  Such nagging is the free expression of faith geared to help tilt the balance toward justice in the overall environment of real freedom and real possibilities.

Aphorism of the Day, October 15, 2016

Consider the nagging prayers of faith in the face of injustice.  Conceive of Reality as a quantity of interacting and mutual occasions.  Consider in a free system of interacting occasions the ability for certain qualitative occasions to reach the tipping point of majority such that the qualitative majority begins to tilt the whole in its favor.  Adding up the qualitative prayers and actions of faith within the Total Milieu of all occasions means that hopeful outcomes can be effected.  When the Son of Man comes will he find faith?  God is luring and coaxing us to tip the majority toward just outcomes.  Let us prevail in nagging prayers against injustice.  Our prayerful "votes of faith" count in the eventual outcomes.

Aphorism of the Day, October 14, 2016

Why is the nagging prayer of faith important within the freedom of injustice being a persistent reality of life?  If injustice is an expression of freedom, faith and prayerful faith is also a persistent freedom.  It is almost like Jesus is suggesting that when a majority of occasions of faithful prayer makes injustice a minority, then injustice must respond to the events of faith overcoming it.  In a system of Freedom, it is important to cast many votes of faith to attain the majority over the freedom of injustice to prevail.

Aphorism of the Day, October 13, 2016

When the Son of Man come, will he find faith?  The presence of injustice and the uneven distribution of luck and misfortune throughout the world can result in people not having faith.  Injustice and oppression can be reason not to have faith.  Conversely, if one lives in the lap of luxury one might not have faith because such easy comfort does not require the growth of any "faith muscles."  Cynicism and anger about how unfair life is and entitlement make be threatening circumstances for living with faith.  Faith is the attitude of inner contentment which rests upon a vision of hope inspiring positive actions in the "now."  Though each person needs to have faith, faith necessarily has collateral salutary effects for one's community.

Aphorism of the Day, October 12, 2016

The freedom of an infinite number of things, events and occasions happening always, already in the now means that our lives can experience things which are beyond our direct control and sometimes the "fate" of things beyond our direct control can be experienced by us as injustice particularly if we believe that other personally directed forces are against our well-being.  Prayer is how we use our language to relate to the ultimate Freedom that we live in.  Can we still believe ultimate Freedom is a Divine Being which honors us by letting human worth be authenticated by participation in this freedom?  Or because there can seem to be an uneven distribution of the events of negative events of freedom, do many decry Freedom as a Fatal Determining Being who seems to have favorites for no reason at all?  Prayer is a language of faith of us constituting ourselves and responding to what is happening to us, even as we know we are not exempt from uneven distributions of the weals and woes of what can happen.  The reason prayer as faith discourse is important is that it is a talking cure to adjust us to the reality of what is and that adjustment is not just passive paralysis but hopeful response in the best way given the limitations of the situation.  Lots of people are crushed in bitterness by not knowing or seeking the recipe for lemonade.

Aphorism of the Day, October 11, 2016

The parable of the persistent widow presents prayer as holy nagging.  There is an entire book which consists of lots of "nagging prayer" about how unfair life is.  It called the book of Psalms.  Prayer as holy nagging is perhaps psychologically healthy; God as the very big ear Therapist listening to endless nagging about how life is unfair to me.  God as the Therapist on the other side of our "talking cure prayers" is probably good for social health since God is big enough to take our nagging and our nagging does not do much for relationship with family, friends and colleagues.  So let it all out; the Sigmund Divine is ever attending and saying, "uh-huh, and how did that make you feel?"

Aphorism of the Day, October 10, 2016

"Life is not fair."  This experience was illustrated in the parable of the widow who continually pleads to a judge for justice.  It could be that the only way that life is fair is to say that freedom is fair, freedom is just.  Freedom is perhaps the most awesome justice since the free conditions of the world involve people being inhumane with each other and often in harm's way to the terrors of natural events.  Freedom assumes time and change and if justice is conceived as a "static" final state, it is incompatible with freedom.  Great notions like love and justice need to be explicated within the condition of freedom because human beings cannot rest upon the past events of love and justice; they are continually beckoned to the present and future of love and justice within the conditions of freedom.

Aphorism of the Day, October 9, 2016

The conditions of change in the world means that states of being are continually in flux and crucial events of change are marked in language with words such as birth, sickness, recovery and death.  How can life be regarded as healthy in the midst of the changes which are always already inevitable?   Faith is the expression of being well, being healthy, being "saved" within the conditions of time=change.  There is an unrealistic notion of health and wellness which denies time and change; a holding onto a "static state of perpetual comfort" as the condition of health.  Jesus said, "Your faith has made you well."  The leper had faith when he was a leper and when he was not one so faith is the "wellness" which embraces all conditions of life.  The proverbial Job was "well" with faith, even when all appearances of health and fortune were missing. 

Aphorism of the Day, October 8, 2016

For Jesus in the Gospel, being "well" means having faith.  The diverse conditions of "health" befall us all in very uneven ways.  It is wrong to just present Jesus as one who heals or cures and makes us all better.  If healing was permanent, we would never die.  This is why we need to look to the Gospel teaching of having faith as the condition of being "well."  People with terminal illnesses can still be well.  Another Gospel teaching of Jesus about being well is the active faith of the community in including all people with welcome and care.  Community faith and community wellness means that we include with care all people in need.


Aphorism of the Day, October 7, 2016

The mention of Samaria and Samaritans in the Luke-Acts writings probably means that early churches included Samaritan members and church gatherings could be found in Samaria.  The Gospels as a storied presentation of the life of Jesus to mirror the practices of the early churches means that there is an origin discourse for the encounter of Samaritans with Jesus Christ.  Writing Samaritan acceptance of Jesus into the Gospel narrative would express the living oracle of the Risen Christ encountering the Samaritans who actually claimed to have a traditional "Israel" lineage dating from the time of Joshua.  The Samaritans in the New Testament are an indication that the Gospel of Christ was appealing to a variety of sects and groups, including Zealots, Pharisees, followers of John the Baptist and Sadducees, plus the Gentiles.  Ironically, a Samaritan convert to Christ and a Jewish follower of Christ could say in healing of their ancient division, "In Christ, there is no Jew or Samaritan."

Aphorism of the Day, October 6, 2016

Jesus said to the thankful Samaritan leper who was healed: "Your faith has made you well."  This encoded the notion of salvation wellness in the early churches.  This was contrasted with the notion of physical and spiritual health being the condition of being certified by the authorities in the classification system of the purity code in Judaism.  St. Paul proclaimed that Samaritan and Gentiles could have Abrahamic faith which is what made them well, i.e. saved and acceptable by God.  Gentile Christian "wellness" challenged the exclusive system of the purity code for determining salvation wellness.

Aphorism of the Day, October 5, 2016

Under the ritual purity codes, a leper was "unclean" and thus quarantined from society.  The ritual purity code functioned as a religious public health taxonomical system.  The public needs to be "protected."  It is a valid impulse except one of the outcomes was the loss of access of "ritually impure" people to the health of the community.  The healing Jesus was first of a person who violated quarantine rules and in his state of healthiness he welcomed those who had been unwelcomed due to the quarantine.  Health is not just about a physical "cure;" it is about health as a caring community.

Aphorism of the Day, October 4, 2016

The Gospel stories about Jesus actually encode the dynamics of what was happening in the early churches.  10 lepers were healed by Jesus; only the "foreign" leper returned to say thanks to Jesus.  The "foreigners" in the church were ritually impure and segregated from the synagogue and yet these "foreigners" were thanking Jesus for making them clean and pure and acceptable to be included in the fold of God.  The ritual meal in the inclusive churches was called "Eucharist" which means "thanksgiving."

Aphorism of the Day, October 3, 2016

The most blatant anachronism of the Gospel writers is the embedding of the Gentile  Christianity within the narrative of the life of Jesus.  How do the writers artfully try to be true to the Jewishness of Jesus in his own time and yet include in this presentation the subtle suggestion that Jesus was already reaching out to the Gentiles?  The writing purpose of the early Christian writers in the way they presented Jesus vis a vis foreigners has to be included in what is regarded to be "inspired."  The Gentile mission "inspired" the presentation of the narrative of Jesus in the Gospels.

Aphorism of the Day, October 2, 2016

When the disciple requested of Jesus, "Increase our faith,"  he essentially said, "Do it yourself."  Do it through small individual deeds of faith which collect to become the "increase" of faith that is so desired.  There is no easy way for faith to become the character of our lives; we have to practice it so that the quantity of actual faithful deeds result in being the character of our lives and in the uncanny results which can happen because of sustained faithfulness.

Aphorism of the Day, October 1, 2016

Increase our  faith."  The classical Greek word "pistos" was the goal of rhetoric.  "Pistos" means persuasion.  Fast forward to the koine Greek of the New Testament and "pistos" means "faith."  So what is the relationship between persuasion and faith?  Faith is the expression of the constituting motivation of one's life which expresses the degree of persuasion toward the motivating focus.  In the Christian community faith was the cumulative constituting faith acts motivated by the hopeful belief in God in Christ such that an undivided persuaded person attained the character of faith to achieve the uncanny results of faith.

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.