Sunday School, December 18, 2016 4 Advent, A

Sunday School, December 18, 2016    4 Advent, A

Themes:

Jesus in the Hall of Fame

In sports and in many other areas of human achievement we create Halls of Fame.  We compare great people with ourselves and with each other.

We say, “records are to be broken.”  When someone does something great in the past we always look to that greatness to compare ourselves and the importance of what is great.  But when something great happens then people look for the next great thing to happen or they look for someone to break the record.

We can always make a prediction about the future, that the records will be broken.

The first part of our Christian Bible is what we call the Old Testament.  People of the Jewish Faith call it the Hebrew Scriptures since it is still current for them and not “old.”

In the Hebrew Scriptures there are stories about many heroes, people like Abraham, Moses, David and Elijah.  But when things were really hard for the people of Israel, they hoped and prayed and wrote about a new hero to come and to make their land like it was during the time of King David, only better because in the future there was hope for someone who was in David’s family and line who might be born.

Who would have David as ancestor and who would come and do something so important that such a person could even have a name like Emmanuel, which means “God with us?”

When Jesus died and rose again and when many people came to know Jesus throughout the cities of Roman Empire, they began to write about how important he was.  They believed that he was greater than David and they believed that he was greater than the Roman Emperor.  Afterall, if a person can reappear after he dies and then begin to have many people have spiritual experiences to change their lives, isn’t this person a great person like the King David?  How was it that Jesus had changed so many people’s lives and even when they couldn’t see him?  How could this happen?

The Gospel stories were written to compare Jesus with David and with the Emperor.  The Gospel writers believed that Jesus was more important than David and than the Emperor and so they wrote about why they believed that Jesus was the one who was written about by the prophets in the Hebrew Scripture.  Jesus was the most important person in the Hall of Fame which included, Abraham, Moses, David and Elijah.

Sermon:

In American baseball there was a famous batter named Babe Ruth.  Babe Ruth was famous because he could hit homeruns in baseball.  And for many many years he held the record for the most homeruns hit in one season.  He hit 60 homeruns in one season.  And many people did not ever think this record could ever be broken.  But everyone always wondered about a baseball player who in the future would hit more hormeruns than Babe Ruth.

Well, someone did finally break the homerun records of Babe Ruth, but it does not mean that Babe Ruth was not great.  And it does not mean that in the future someone will break the new homerun records.  We remember famous people in life and we are always looking for people in the future who will do really great things.

When Jesus came and lived, he did many wonderful things.  He lived and he died but then he reappeared after his death to his friends.  And he sent the Spirit to continue to let people know that Jesus was with them.  Since Jesus was so popular, people began to write about why he was popular.  They said that he was proof that “God was with us.”  The prophet Isaiah had written many years before Jesus about someone named “God with us.”  And Jesus was so important to so many people that they believed that he was the one who was great enough to claim the name “Emmanuel” which means “God is with us.”

The followers of Jesus wrote the story of how Jesus was born and how he became the special proof that God is with us.

In the Hall of Fame, Christians believe that Jesus was more important than Abraham, Moses, David and Elijah. 

We see today that billions of people have come to know Jesus Christ and because of this we can say that he is still the leader in our Hall of Fame.  And as we love Christ and serve Him, we can know that “God is with us.”  In Jesus, we like Mary and Joseph have become people who know that  “God with Us.”

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

December 18, 2016: The Fourth Sunday of Advent

Gathering Songs: Light a Candle,  Peace Before Us; Thy Word,  When the Saints

             

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

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

Lighting of the Advent Candle:   Light a Candle

Light a candle for hope today, Light a candle for hope today, light a candle for hope today.           Advent time is here.

Light a candle for peace today..3. Love…4. Joy

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen..

Litany Phrase: Alleluia (chanted)

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 Prophet Isaiah

Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. Then Isaiah said: “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.”

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

 

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 80

1 Hear, O Shepherd of Israel, leading Joseph like a flock; *shine forth, you that are enthroned upon the cherubim.

2 In the presence of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, *stir up your strength and come to help us.

3 Restore us, O God of hosts; *show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:

For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!

For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family. Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,”

which means, “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon:  Fr. 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. (chanted)

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.

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: Peace Before Us (Wonder, Love and Praise,  # 791)

Peace before us.  Peace behind us.  Peace under our feet.  Peace within us.  Peace over us.  Let all around us be Peace.  Love,  Light, Christ

Doxology

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

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

Prologue to the Eucharist

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

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.  Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we forever sing this hymn of praise:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might.  Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

All may gather around the altar

Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;

You have made us in your image

And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:

Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.

And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph

And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.

Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat

  the bread and drink the wine, we can  know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as  

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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: Thy Word, (Renew! #94)

Refrain: Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and light unto my path

1-When I feel afraid, think I’ve lost my way, still you’re right beside me.  And nothing will I fear as long as you are near.  Please be near me to the end.  Refrain.

2-I will not forget your love for me, and yet my heart forever is wandering.  Jesus, be my guide and hold me to your side; and I will love you to the end.  Refrain

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

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

Boys….. 3.  Girls  4.  Saints

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

  

Poetry and Science Do Co-exist

3 Advent A     December 11, 2016

Is.35:1-10         Ps. 146: 4-9          

James 5:7-10      Matt. 11:2-11

Lectionary Link

  How many of you who wear eyeglasses have multifocal lenses?  Bi-focals, tri-focal or Quadra focal?  How many of you have photochromatic lenses?  These are lenses which adjust according to the amount of light.
  Why do we put so many transitional views into one set of lenses?  Well, we don't want to be switching eye glasses continuously and our eyes can be trained to focus through the various transitional areas to provide clear seeing.  I did have difficulty when I had very small lenses and it meant that transitional areas were smaller and so my eyes had to be trained to look through smaller areas or my vision clarity was affected.
  And if we think transitional lenses are amazing because they allow multi-seeing through the same pair of glasses, words and language are much more amazing than multi-focal eye-glasses.  Our word ability allows us many different ways to see the world.  And we are pretty good at switching back and forth in the different ways in which we use language.  A child can look and see Peter Pan and Tinkerbell flying around in a movie; but why is it that a child knows when he or she jumps off the bed that they will not fly but become earthbound really quickly?  They have switched their word glasses from magical realism and fantasy to commonsense, naïve realism that takes their previous experience with gravity into account.  But what happens when a child does not make the transition from magical realism to commonsense seeing?  A child might leap from a high place think he or she might fly like Peter Pan or Tinker Bell and coming crashing down to the floor.  My dear child, it is okay to see through the eyes of magical realism in one situation but to try to transfer that to a situation of actual encounter with gravity is to have one's confusion get one into serious trouble.
  We as people of language and word are blessed to have this language ability be so multi-focal and so diverse that it allows us to express the wide diversity of the human capacity from poetic imagination to detailed scientific brute facts.  We sometimes are seeing things through poetic imagination and sometimes just the nitty gritty details of the gravity of brute facts.  Lying, silliness and schizoidal behaviors occur when we begin to think that poetic imagination is brute fact or conversely when brute fact is poetic imagination.  When such mistakes in application of discursive seeing take place, it can be either comical, tragic or just plain nonsensical.
  The Bible is a book of words and language and it was written from various ways of seeing the world.  When we read the Bible, we need to enter with intuition into the kind of seeing that the writer is writing from.  When a writer is using poetic imagination, we cannot assume scientific discourse.
  The writings in the prophet Isaiah include lots of writings from the vision of the poetic imaginary.  The prophet creates another world which does not exist in any actual place; the prophet creates utopias.  The prophet personifies or anthromorphizes physical environments. A wilderness can be glad and a desert can rejoice.  This anthropomorphizing of the environment reveals something about the writer.  The writer is living under environmental stress.  His environment was not giving him and his people the kind of sustaining pleasure that he desired for himself or for his fellow citizens.  He desired a more perfect environment  where everyone could live and thrive in a poetically perfect place.  He wanted to travel on a highway and be safe; he did not want to be attacked by lions or robbers when he traveled.
  Isaiah spun a world of fantasy and magical realism and the vision provided comfort for him and his community to survive some very difficult days.  One of the mistakes fundamentalists have made is due to the success of modern science.  Modern science has been so successful, that religious people became intimidated and so they have made the poetic imaginations into the truth of some actual future event.  They have tried to read poetry like a science book in order to say that the Bible is true.  The Bible is true because it has poetry and many other ways of seeing the world.  We are people of science today, but we still seek relief in the artistic presentation of poetic imagination when we watch television and movies and sports.  We harm the Bible if we try to make it into the truths of a modern science textbook.  We miss the poetic truth of the Bible if we don't read it and seek the similar kinds of truth for our souls that we look for today in novels, poetry, cinema, music, dance and sports.
  The Bible includes an umbrella of language use some of which was meant to entertain and sooth people during some very hard times.  Some religious people have been wrongly tempted to believe that things are only true if they are empirically verified or could be or will be empirically verified.  They have come to read the Bible with only the lenses of empirical verification to try to defend the Bible as being true scientific truth or modern eye-witness journalistic reporting.  This is the wrong way to defend the Bible and it is an offense to the beautiful, inspired truths of the Bible.
  It is a wonderful truth to want an environment of plants, animals be friendly co-residents.  It is a wonderful truth to want geographical features of rivers, hills, deserts, mountains and oceans to be friendly and supportive  places for us.  We want to believe that we live and move and have our being in the grandest environment of all, namely, living and moving and having our being in the Lord God.  And what do we want to believe about the Lord God as our total environment?  Like the Psalmist we want the Lord God to keep good promises to us.  We want the Lord God to give justice to the oppressed, to feed the hungry, open the eyes of the blind, make the lame to walk, take care of the needy orphans and widows.  We want the Lord God to frustrate the forces of the wicked so they do not have success.
  The poetic imagination of what we want our environment to be and how we want the Lord God to be known, functions for us in ministering to our most basic nature of hope.  As babes we were made to be hopeful and this expression of the hopeful means that language must allow us to wax poetic about the imaginary ideal.  We need the imaginary ideal to inform the direction of our lives within the down to earth real scientific brute facts of the world of freedom.  In the brute world of freedom we know that things can be anything but ideal.  The ideal is challenged by the wound of freedom which is the probability that things can and will go wrong and bad things will happen.
  The ideal utopian world and God co-exist with the probability of things going bad within the conditions of real freedom.  We are people who have the privilege of language to receive hopeful comfort from the poetic imagination of the ideal while at the same continuously making pragmatic adjustments to hard conditions of freedom on the ground.  This very struggle defines our identity as people who are constructed of both dust and divinity.
  Another lens of our language is what the Greeks called "Kairos."  Kairos is the experience of eventful time, times of transitions, times of crisis, times of endings and new beginning.  All of the anticipation for the end of the world partakes of this discursive feature of "kairotic" or eventful time.  The sacraments themselves are the rites of celebration of eventful time in our lives.  The reason we often miss eventful or "kairotic"  time in the church today, is because we've moved most of our eventful time into the secular sacraments of the world and even into the scientific world.  Today, the scientific world tells us that life as we know it could end at any time through disaster or lack of conditions that can sustain humans being on this planet forever.
  We should not discount the kairotic or second coming time discourse of biblical people.  It was their poetry for embracing the future for which they did not like us, have more realistic modes of perceiving what the end would look like.
  Another way that we need to appreciate the truth of the Gospel writers is how they wrote in parables about Jesus and John the Baptist to represent the seachange that had occurred because of the success of the Christian message.   The Gospel writers wrote about Jesus as representing the entire Christian Movement.  They wrote about John the Baptist as one who represented the entire movement of John the Baptist.  Of all of the parties within Judaism, it seems as the most converts to the Gospel came from the substantial community of John the Baptist.  The community of John the Baptist lingered until after the end of the first century.  The Gospel writers, some of whom had once followed John the Baptist, believed that the purpose of John the Baptist was completely supportive of what happened in the Jesus Movement.  The Gospels are proof that the writers were trying to convince members of the community of John the Baptist that it was okay to follow Jesus without being disloyal or disrespectful of John the Baptist.  In the Jesus Movement so many wonderful things had happened; people saw, heard and spoke in a new way which overcame previous blindness, lack of hearing and speaking.  People found a way to walk on the Highway of God.  They found a community where the sick and the previously quarantined were healed by being welcomed into community.  They found a community called a fellowship in which people took care of each other.  They believed that having been dead in the condition of their sin, they had been brought to life by God's Holy Spirit.  John the Baptist died before seeing the completeness of the Gospel success and so each Christian had a distinct advantage over John the Baptist.  They lived longer and saw much more than he did.  The appeal of the Gospel writers to John's followers was this: "If you truly followed John the Baptist, you can freely and whole-heartedly follow Jesus without diminishing your respect for John the Baptist."
  The Gospel writers saw through lenses of peace and reconciliation.  They hoped to bring the followers of John the Baptist and the followers of Jesus together as one community under the Risen Christ.
  We are blessed and distinct as human beings because we have language.  But language and words can be used wrongly.  Let us learn to appreciate the language of poetic imagination as inspired truth.  Let us learn to the appreciate the language of "Kairos" or eventful time.  We have moved the language of Kairos into our politics but we need to know whether in the Bible or in politics, kairotic language represents a vital truth of our hopeful human nature.  Finally, we use language the best when we reconcile and make friends.  The Gospel church used the language of reconciliation to draw them together with the community of John the Baptist.  The Gospel writers used Jesus and John the Baptist as figureheads supporting the union and friendship of these two communities of people.  This was perhaps one of the earliest phases of the "ecumenical" movement.  The language of reconciliation of the Gospel was a language of appreciation for John the Baptist and his important role in setting up an enhanced appreciation of Jesus Christ.
  Today, let us be thankful for the many ways in which the biblical language teach us to see our lives.  Let us seek to have wisdom to read the Bible through the correct lenses of language so that we don't confuse poetic imagination with empirical commonsense reality.
  The Gospel message allows us to activate the truths of all of the ways in which we use language.  Let us during the season of Advent learn to use our language in the ways which can develop our natures to their maximum multifocal potential.  We are not poets only; we are not scientists only, we are both and much much more.  I believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ is wisdom that calls us to our full development as persons, as persons who need to know how to use our words in the right ways.
  Advent is and always has been about the comings of Jesus Christ.  And he has come to us now, he will come to us in this Eucharistic event, and he will come to each of us in ways tailored to each person's experience.  So, let us be ready for the comings of the Christ.  Amen.

Sunday School, December 11, 2016 3 Advent A

Sunday School, December 11, 2016   3 Advent, Year A

Theme: Perfect Worlds

Have the children invent or talk about how they would imagine a perfect world.  What would a perfect world look like?

Eat all the chocolate you want with getting sick or ruining your teeth.  Be smart without having to go to school.  Be able to fly like birds.  Never get sick.  A world without diseases.  A world without war.  A world with peace. 

After making a list of what their perfect world would look like, look at how some of the writers of the Bible imagined a perfect world, or a better world or a world that is becoming healed from its troubles.

For Isaiah: The wilderness and desert would be like a garden and forest.  The weak would be strong.  God would intervene with justice.  The blind could see.  The deaf could hear.  The handicapped could jump like a deer.  Those who could not speak would be able to.  There would be plenty of water in the desert.  Traveling would be easy and safe from robbers and wild animals.  People who were forced away from their favorite homeland could go back home safely.

Perfect world for the writer of the Psalm:

A God who keeps promises.  God who gives justice to the enslaved.  God setting the prisoners free.  God caring for the strangers.  God caring for the orphan and widow.  God confusing bad people so they cannot win.

 Perfect world for Mary as seen in the Song of Mary

God looking with favor on us.  Being blessed.   God being merciful.  A strong God who defeats the proud.  God who helps the lowly poor.  God filling the hungry with good things.  God helping his people.

For the writer of James

A perfect world would happen when the Lord comes in the future.

For the writer of Matthew’s Gospel in the words of Jesus

the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.

Ask the students:  Has the perfect world happened yet?  If not, why not?  And if the perfect world cannot happen, why do we have imaginations of perfect worlds?

Some answers:

We don’t have perfect worlds because freedom allows what is not perfect to happen.  If there was not freedom for bad things to happen, then we would be robots or machines of perfection.  A machine does not have a choice and so if the world was a “perfect machine” it would not be what we value about being human people.  True freedom is what makes us really valuable as God’s creatures.

We have imaginations of the perfect to inspire us toward how we want to heal our world from the bad things which do happen.  If we just had imaginations of a bad world or the actual world, we would not be taught the right direction to learn.

Let us be happy for the imaginations of a better world because they teach us the direction that we should aim for in our words and deeds.

Sermon:  

  What season are we in right now?   Advent.  And what is the color of Advent?    And what season comes after Advent?   Christmas?

   And what do we celebrate at Christmas?  The birth of Christ.

   The season of Advent is also a season of imagination.

   What is imagination?

    Imagination is when we think about a different world.  Make believe worlds.  Can you think of some make believe worlds?

  Never-never land of Peter Pan.  Harry Potter’s world is an imaginary world.  The worlds of Snow White, Cinderella & Belle and Ariel are all imaginary worlds.

  The world of Batman, Superman, Sponge Bob are imaginary world.

  We like imaginary worlds because they entertain us.

  They also help us to develop our imagination, because when we use our imagination, we learn to think.  We learn to create.  We learn to make new things and do new things.

The writers of the Bible built imaginary worlds too.  They wrote about a world with no sickness.  A world where all the sick people would be healed.  They wrote about a world with no fighting and war.  They wrote about a world where a lion and lamb could play together, and where a little baby could play with a snake.  They wrote about a world where flowers would grow in the desert where there was no water.

  We need to imagine a better world, if we are going work at making our world a better place.

  So let us remember to use our imagination to help us make our world a better place.

  John the Baptist imagined that Jesus was a super hero called the Messiah.  But since he was prison, he wanted to make sure.  And when he found out that Jesus was making sick people well and that he was telling good news to people, John then knew that Jesus was the Messiah, a superhero who was helping to make our world a better place.

  Remember God gave us Jesus as the Messiah to make our world a better place, and God gives us imagination so that we can work to make our world a better place.  Can you use your imagination to make the world a better place?

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

December 11, 2016: The Third Sunday of Advent

Gathering Songs: We Light the Advent Candles, Butterfly Song, What Wondrous Love, Christ Beside Me

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:  We Light the Advent Candles (While lighting the two purple candles & the pink candle)

1-We light the Advent cands against the winter night, to welcome our Lord Jesus who is the worlds’s True Light, to welcome our Lord Jesus who is the world’s True Light.

3-Three candles now are gleaming and show the true way, rejoice, the Baptist cries out, your Lord has come today, rejoice the Baptist cries out, your Lord has come today!

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

Litany of Praise: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Alleluia

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Alleluia

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Alleluia

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Alleluia

A reading from the Letter of James

Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 146

Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help!* whose hope is in the LORD their God;

Who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them; * who keeps his promise for ever;

Who gives justice to those who are oppressed, * and food to those who hunger.

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 Matthew

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me."  As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: "What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, `See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.' Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."

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

Song: If I Were a Butterfly (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 9)

If I were a butterfly, I’d thank you Lord for giving me wings.  If I were a robin in the tree, I’d thank you Lord that I could sing.  If I were a fish in the sea, I’d wiggle my tail and I’d giggle with glee, but I just thank you Father for making me, me. 

Refrain: For you gave me a heart and you gave me a smile.  You gave me Lord Jesus and you made me your child, and I just thank you Father for making me, me.

If I were an elephant, I’d thank you Lord by raising my trunk.  If I were a kangaroo, you know I’d hop right up to you.  If I were an octopus, I’d thank you Lord for my fine looks, but I just thank you Father for making me, me.  Refrain

If I were a wiggly worm, I’d thank you Lord that I could squirm.  If I were a billy goat, I’d thank you Lord for my strong throat.  If I were a fuzzy wuzzy bear, I’d thank you Lord for my fuzzy wuzzy hair, but I just thank you Father for making me, me.  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,

(Children rejoin their parents and take up their instruments) 

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

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

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

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

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

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

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Breaking of the Bread

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

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia.

Words of Administration

Communion Song:  What Wondrous Love (Renew! # 277)

What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!  What wondrous love is this, O my soul.  What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss to bear the dreadful curse, for my soul, for my soul, to bear the dreadful curse for my soul?

When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down, when I was sinking down, sinking down;  when I was sinking down beneath God’s righteous frown, Christ laid aside his crown for my soul, for my soul.  Christ laid aside his crown for my soul.

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: Christ Beside Me (Renew! # 164)

Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, King of my heart.  Christ within me, Christ below me, Christ above me, never to part.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

How Romantic Is a Jesse Stump?

2 Advent         December 4, 2016
Is. 11:1-10         Ps.72        
Rom. 15:4-13    Matt. 3:1-12

Lectionary Link

            The Study of trees is called dendrology.  The biblical writers loved trees; they loved them so much that they used them as metaphors.  In the Garden of Eden story, there are two trees, the Tree of Life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  After the resurrection, the cross is perhaps poetically referred to by some New Testament writers as a tree.  And in the futuristic vision of John the Divine in the book of Revelation, there is a tree of life which bear twelve fruits and is on the river of the water of life in Jerusalem.

             In today's reading, we have some different reflections upon trees.  In Christian tradition Advent is the season of the Jesse tree.  The Jesse tree traces the genealogy of the events in the history of salvation.  Jesse was the father of King David and his tree become famous because of King David who according to prophets established the messianic lineage.

           The Jesse tree derives from the prophet Isaiah but in fact it would be more correct from Isaiah's perspective to call the Jesse tree, the Jesse stump.  That is quite a switch in images.

          A stump is quite different than a tree.  If we make a tree into a stump, it means that we want it to go away, unless we are in the orchard business.  In the orchard business, trees are made stumps for the purpose of grafting new branches into them.  The life in the roots can bring about new life to the branches which are grafted in.  For those of us who have tried to remove trees where we don't want them, we also find that branches can grow out of the stump of the tree and those branches can become a new tree.

        The tree/stump analogy is important in the reflections of Isaiah and the words of John the Baptist regarding the phases of life of a community.  The tree and stump comparison represents different states in community and institutional life.  When the community is flourishing like a tree it manifests all the full beauty that we associate with a tree.  The stump is quite a different phase of the tree.  A tree may become a stump because someone needs lumber for building or firewood.  A tree may become a stump because the tree has become diseased and so the tree is cut down.

            When Isaiah wrote about the stump of Jesse; he was referring to the state of his country during his lifetime.  Israel had been split into two kingdoms and the both kingdoms had suffered from incompetent monarchs even those who were supposed to be in the blessed Davidic lineage.  Both kingdoms were about to come to an end.  The once glorious Israel had gone from being a glorious tree to but a stump.  A stump represents some rather severe pruning.  "The variety of this tree is no longer wanted or sustainable."  The prophet Isaiah recognized the demise of his country and he was aware that all of God's promises to  David, the messiah and his offspring seem to be unfulfilled.  If the lineage of David were failing what did this mean for Israel?  The line of David was seen to be but a stump.

           But Isaiah said, "Wait just a minute now.  A stump is not dead because of the deep root life of the stump.  At any time, a new branch could appear."  So, even though Isaiah observed that the Davidic line seemed to be a completely pruned stump, he still believed in a future for what could come out of the stump of Jesse.  He believed the roots were still full of life which could engender new growth and could produce a new hero even greater than David.  And so the Jesse stump is the Jesse tree of Advent.

           John the Baptist came with a message about some major pruning.   He is quoted as saying, "Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."  John the Baptist came during a time when he believed that the religious institutions of Jerusalem had arrived at the level of their incompetence and they were no longer doing what they were supposed to do.  They were maintaining institutional life for its sake alone and had become divorced from the needs of actual people.  John the Baptist might even be called the axe of the tree himself because his voice and message involved some serious pruning in the religious scene of his time.  John knew that he could be a serious pruner with an axe but he promised that Jesus would be different than he was.  Jesus would be one who would graft new branches of life into the old tradition; Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the deep life of God in the very invisible root of life itself.  John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus to help reconnect people with the deep root, the Holy Spirit at the heart of life itself.

          Not surprisingly, the church has used the words of the prophet Isaiah to illuminate the gifts of baptism.  Isaiah wrote about what would happen when the Spirit of the Lord rested upon a promised one from God.  The Spirit of the Lord would bring wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge and a deep sense of awe about God.  These are the traditional sevenfold gifts of the Spirit which we pray to descend upon every newly baptized person.

            You and I know that the stump phase of life may not be a very attractive or comfortable phase of personal life, family life, parish life, church life and our country life.  It not fun to be "pruned" or prevented from flourishing like a beautiful tree.  There is something ugly about the pruned phase of a tree because one compares this phase with the season of flourishing.

           In many ways, we may be experiencing stump phases today.  In our country, our elected leaders often forget about the meaning of governance which involves vigorous debate and compromising and voting for the common good.   Our country is in a stump phase when more than 90 million eligible voters did not vote.  This indicates that people are out of touch with the meaning of our roots as American citizens.  We, as a society, are not firing on all cylinders.

             The Episcopal Church and our parish are showing the gradual decline in growth and participation.  We can seem to be in stump phase of our institutional and community existence.  We seem to be increasingly irrelevant to the lives of more people even to the point of having to shut down because of lack of participation.  It could be that past success has led to stagnation; our traditions have allowed us to be successful enough to exist as individual independent financial islands and we can conduct our lives in such a way that we don't need each other and we don't want the responsibility of others needing us.  We forget that communal participation is when the strong participate in order to help those who are not yet as strong.  Just as parents are stronger and more competent to give more to the family than children; the strong in the church and society are called to bring up the quality of life for those who are not as strong and who are not as able to give as much.  We can arrive at the stump phase of church and national life because those who have benefited from American, Christian and Episcopal values have birthed generations who are on the "proverbial" third base and they think they have hit a triple.  Too many people are the heirs of values which they no longer see need to practice.  Through non-participation and apathy, the institutions of those values have come to be in their pruning phase, the stump phase.

            We may need the jolt of serious consequences of our lack of participation in our institutions to shock us to seek out the roots of American democratic life.  We may need the decline of our church and parish to realize how important it is to keep faith and reason in rigorous and active dialogue.  It is very easy to under-appreciate the graceful form of Catholicism that the Episcopal Church is, because in a profound way, we honor the freedom of people to choose without guilt or coercion.  We honor the freedom of people to make us irrelevant.

           I would leave us with this message during Advent.  Let us keep the stump alive, because there will come a time when a new generation of lost people will need what we have to offer them in continuity with the values of our wonderful tradition.

   Isaiah and John the Baptist came into orchards full of stumps.  And they were hopeful about the future.  God's Spirit is the invisible root of life and who can be accessed by those who are made aware of the divine presence.  John the Baptist contrasted his baptism with the Baptism of Jesus.  He baptized with water; Jesus baptized with the Holy Spirit.

 The Holy Spirit lives in the roots of the institutions and the communities even if members are out of touch with the Spirit of God.  During this Advent season, we mourn our appearance in the stump phases of our lives, but we keep ourselves hopeful as we remind ourselves of the Holy Spirit as the root of the life of the stump and who can bring forth new growth, new life and new ministry and new fruitful living.

  Let us be vigilant, even now, to maintain and water the stumps that have had their flourishing past appearances severed.  In the Epistle of Romans, St. Paul wrote that the entire Gentile Christian church was a branch which was grafted into the stump of Jesse, and Gentile Christianity has shape the world probably more than any movement in the history of humanity.  Let us have hope that out of the stump phase of life new life will grow because at the root of all life is the life of God's Holy Spirit who is the Renewal Source of all.  Amen.