Quiz of the Day, June 2017

Quiz of the Day, June 30, 2017

Saul of Tarsus and King Saul, first king of Israel were from what tribe of Israel?

a. Judah
b. Dan
c. Ephraim
d. Benjamin
e. Levi

Quiz of the Day, June 29, 2017

Which of the following are not feast day on the Episcopal calendar?

a. St. Peter
b. Confession of St. Peter
c. St. Paul
d. Conversion of St. Paul
e. St. Peter and St. Paul
f. a and c

Quiz of the Day, June 28, 2017

Which of the following does not pertain to Irenaeus?

a. polemics against heretics
b. plain sense of Scripture preferred
c. supported the four canonical Gospels
d. was a follower of Marcion

Quiz of the Day, June 27, 2017

Which rabbi said if the Jesus Movement is of God, it will not be overthrown?

a. Shammai
b. Hillel
c. Gamaliel
d. Paul


Quiz of the Day, June 26, 2017

Which opponent of Israel actually captured the Ark of the Covenant?

a. Amorite
b. Hittites
c. Philistines
d. Jebusites


Quiz of the Day, June 25, 2017

Who was Ichabod?

a. son of Phineas
b. nephew of Hophni
c. grand son of Eli
d. a baby whose name meant "the glory has left"
e. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, June 24, 2017

Who said, "He must increase and I must decrease?"

a. St. Paul
b. Peter
c. John the Baptist
d. Nathaniel

Quiz of the Day, June 23, 2017

Who said, "Speak Lord, for your servant is listening?"

a. Paul
b. David
c. Samuel
d. Isaiah

Quiz of the Day, June 22, 2017

Which is true about the death of St. Alban?

a. he died in battle
b. he died impersonating a priest
c. he died at the stake
d. he was the fourth martyr in England

Quiz of the Day, June 21, 2017

Which of the following was not a source for the first Book of Common Prayer?

a. Sarum Rite
b. Roman Breviary of Cardinal Quiñones
c. Hermann von Wied book on liturgy and doctrine
d. King James Bible
e. Coverdale Bible

Quiz of the Day, June 20, 2017

Phineas was

a. Samuel's brother
b. Eli's son
c. David's butler
d. writer of Psalms

Quiz of the Day, June 19, 2017

Who is Theophilus?

a. a companion of St. Paul
b. the addressee of the writer of Luke and Acts
c. the brother of Luke
d. a companion of Barnabas

Quiz of the Day, June 18, 2017

Which biblical patriarch has a name which means "laughter?"

a. Abraham
b. Noah
c. Isaac
d. Jacob

Quiz of the Day, June 17, 2017

The account of the cleansing of the Temple by Jesus is found in which of the following Gospels?

a. Matthew
b. Mark
c. Luke
d. John
e. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, June 16, 2017

What American city was named after an Irish bishop/philosopher?

a. Butler
b. Berkeley
c. Becket
d. Cambridge

Quiz of the Day, June 15, 2017

Who is associated with the metaphor "thorn in the flesh" when referring to a personal God given weakness or ordeal?

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

Quiz of the Day, June 14, 2017

Which of the following saint is not designated as "the Great" in the title of his name?

a. Pope St. Gregory
b. Leo
c. Basil
d. Peter
e. Albert


Quiz of the Day, June 13, 2017

Who said, "If there were no God, there would be no atheists?"

a. C.S. Lewis
b. Charles Williams
c. G.K. Chesterton
d. J.R.R.Tolkien

Quiz of the Day, June 12, 2017

Who is regarded to be the founder of the church in Cyprus?

a. Silas
b. St. Paul
c. St. Barnabas
d. St. Timothy

Quiz of the Day, June 11, 2017

The "holy, holy, holy" or Sanctus derives from what book of the Bible?

a. Ezekiel
b. Revelations
c. Isaiah
d. Psalms

Quiz of the Day, June 10, 2017

Which of the following is true about the Holy Trinity?

a. using the word Trinity for God is not found in the Bible
b. the Trinity was first articulated by Athanasius
c. the Emperor Constantine enforced the invention of the Trinity
d. the Trinity was not an official belief until the Council of Nicaea

Quiz of the Day, June 9, 2017

Who was the founder of the Abbey on Iona?

a. Chad
b. Patrick
c. Columba
d. Wilfrid

Quiz of the Day, June 8, 2017

Which of the following is known for writing about missionary methods?

a. St. Paul
b. Roland Allen
c. St. Gregory the Great
d. St. Augustine of Canterbury

Quiz of the Day, June 7, 2017

What do the following Christian groups agree on?  Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christadelphians, Christian Scientists.

a. divinity of Jesus
b. antitrinitarian
c. the Bible
d. ordained ministries

Quiz of the Day, June 6, 2017

Which of the following is a symbol of the Holy Trinity?

a. egg
b. triquetra
c. circle
d. eagle

Quiz of the Day, June 5, 2017

Boniface, the apostle to Germany was born where?

a. Bavaria
b. Frisia
c. Holland
d. England

Quiz of the Day, June 4, 2017

Which of the following is true about the account of the Day of Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles?

a. Gentiles in Jerusalem heard the Gospel in their various languages
b. Devout Jews gathered in Jerusalem from around the world heard local Galileans speak in diverse languages
c. Gentiles received the gift of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost
d. the tongues of Pentecost are glossolalia or tongues of angels and not known human languages

Quiz of the Day, June 3, 2017

According to the Epistle of Hebrews, who was the model "High Priest" for Jesus?

a. Aaron
b. Moses
c. Eli
d. Melchizedek
e. Caiphas


Quiz of the Day, June 2, 2017

Which of the following is not used to refer to the Holy Spirit?

a Heavenly Dove
b. tongues of fire
c.  Paraclete
d. Advocate
e. Redeemer
f. Wind
g. breath of God
h. Comforter

Quiz of the Day, June 1, 2017

The Good Samaritan was

a. a disciple of Jesus
b. the woman at the well in John 4
c. a character in one of the parables of Jesus
d. the founder of the hospital movement in early Palestine

Paradigm Change and Conflict

3 Pentecost, A p 7, June 25, 2017 
Genesis 21:8-21 Ps. 86:1-10, 16-17
Rom. 6:1b-11    Matt. 10:24-39

Lectionary Link
One of my preaching goals has been to show how the spiritual practice and theology of St. Paul became presented in story form in the Gospel presentations of the life and words of Jesus Christ.

Today's reading are examples the different forms of teaching found in the New Testament.  St. Paul wrote about spiritual practice and teaching in his churches: "We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him."  Dying with Christ and living with him was the metaphor of spiritual practice in the churches of St. Paul.

In the Gospels, which were written after St. Paul, we can see that how this spiritual practice was presented in the oracle words of Jesus to the early church: "Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

Taking up one's cross and losing one's life, that is one's "soul" life, were catch phrases for the spiritual practice of the early church.  It was also called repentance.  Repentance in Greek meant the continual receiving of a new mind.  Repentance meant dying to the old ignorant mind and awakening to a renewal of one's thinking.

Time means that life can be seen as a binary, a before and an after.  In spiritual transformation, the after is supposed to be better than what has come before.  One dies to what has come before; and one is born into what is better.   The binary of before and after in the spiritual practice of St. Paul is a practice of identifying with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Life is dying to the old and giving birth to the new, with the new being a transformation of one's life.

The early church used this binary of dying with Christ and rising with him as a method of adjusting their lives to the social reality of their lives?

What was happening in the lives of the early Christians?  There was great excitement about the Spirit and effervescence of the Gospel.  The message of Christ was so attractive that it found a great following among the Gentiles.  This was both a blessing and a problem.  A blessing because many people were finding a spiritual practice of transformation for their lives.  It was a problem because to accept the success of the Gospel among the Gentiles was not regarded to be valid by people of the synagogue because Paul and other Christian leaders did not enforce the ritual purity customs of Judaism.

On the social level the process of dying and being reborn is very painful.  Today's Gospel is proof of the conflict which was occurring when the Christian Movement was separating from the synagogue.  When it came to including the Gentiles within the religious fellowship there was no peace.  There was great division.  Families and communities were divided.  One can see how the words of Jesus served as an oracle in the early churches among people who were trying to make sense of the separation of the Jesus Movement from the synagogue.  There were irreconcilable differences.

We, who are far removed from the disagreement between synagogue and the early Christians, can appreciate that Judaism and Christianity have come to have different missions to different people in the salvation history of the world.  Clearly, the Christian message was meant to have relevance to a much wider group of people in the Roman Empire than what was the practice of the lifestyle of Judaism in the time of the early church.

The separation between church and synagogue has long been complete; when we read the Gospel we have to return to the original pain of separation.  We can find a language of anguish of people who knew they had to be true to a new message about God's plan for the world.  The new Gospel paradigm involved inviting to fellowship Gentiles who followed Christ, but who had no intention of following the ritual purity customs of the synagogue.  In embracing the message of the Gospel, the Jews who conformed to Gentile Christianity had to leave with great pain, their former participation in the synagogue.

Living and dying express the continuing binary of spiritual practice and because it is both a negative and a positive, it is true to the freedom that is in life.

Change can cause family and social unrest.  Abraham's family became divided.   Abraham had to send the mother of his child Ishmael out of the family because Sarah, the mother of Isaac did not want any competition from Hagar or Ishmael.  Ishmael went on to be the father of the Arab people.  Isaac and Ishmael had different destinies.

Judaism and Christianity have come to have different missions and different destinies.  The Gospels record the painful times when separation was occurring.  Many separations have happened within Christianity in its history; new movements have arisen and there have been times of painful separation.

What we continue to embrace today is the process of spiritual transformation.  We identify with the death and resurrection of Christ as a way of getting ourselves realistically in tune with the process of the freedom of time, the binary of before and after.

We ask for God's grace to embrace this identity with Christ in his death and resurrection, as we lose ourselves to find ourselves in better ways.  As we experience loss, we look with hope to ever future gains in wisdom, love and kindness.

May God help us to find the rhythm of dying with Christ and rising with him as a way to adjust realistically to what is happening in our lives today, even within the serious paradigm changes that occur in our lives.  Amen.

Sunday School, June 25, 2017 3 Pentecost, A proper 7

Sunday School, June 25, 2017     3 Pentecost, A proper 7

Theme:

God and the Probable

Freedom means that probable things can happen.

When you kick a soccer ball what can probably happen?  You score a goal, you miss the goal or the goalie blocks the ball.

We live in our lives knowing many things can happen.  Some things make us sad and some things make us happy.

Because there is freedom in our lives, good things and bad things can happen.

God made freedom in this life because to have the freedom to choose is the highest thing that we can do as people.  Having freedom to choose is what makes our lives valuable.

The friends of Jesus wondered if God loved and cared for them, even when bad things happened to them.

Jesus told them that God care even when a sparrow fell to the ground.

Freedom is what happens because of time.  Jesus told his friends that they had to learn to live with freedom.  They had to learn to live with what probably can happen.

We have to learn to live with change in life.  We have to learn to live with good things that happen to us and bad things that happen to us.

Jesus said we had to know how to “lose our lives.”  He did not mean dying.  He meant education.  When we learn something new, we lose our ignorance. 

Jesus told his disciples and friends that they had to learn how to die to being ignorant and learn to live to new learning.

We can know that God cares for us in the middle of everything that can happen to us.

One of the greatest discoveries of life is to discover that God cares for us no matter what happens.

Prayer:  Ask God to help you know God’s love and care today.

Sermon:

Has anyone here ever had something bad happen to them?  Has something sad ever happened to you?

  Have you ever been sick?  Have you ever bumped your head?  Have you ever fallen down and scraped your knee?

  Have you ever had an argument with your brother or sister or a class mate?  Did you ever get your feeling hurt and cry?

  Why do these things happen?

    When some bad things were happening to the friends of Jesus, they wondered if God cared for them.  They wondered if God knew what was going on.  And Jesus told them that God knew when every sparrow fell to the ground and died.  He said that God counted even the hairs on our heads.  And some of you have much more hair for God to count than I have.

  So when bad things happen, we sometimes wonder: Why do bad things

happen?  And does God know that bad things happen?  And why doesn’t he stop bad things from happening?

  And those are very difficult questions to answer.

  Do you think that your mom and dad love you more than your car?  Just think about what a car does for you.  It takes you many places, to the park, to school, shopping and on vacation.  But does your car love you more than your mom or dad.

  And you say, of course not because a car is a machine, like a robot and it is not a person.  A car cannot choose to love.  A car can only do what it is programmed to do.  Your mom and dad have freedom and they choose to love you and because they choose to love you, it makes their love very special.

  So God made this world with lots of freedom.  God did not make the world to be like a robot or a machine.  Why?  Because the only valuable love is love that happens with true freedom.

  And because there is true freedom, it means that lots of great and wonderful things can happen, but also some bad things can happen too.  And God knows and see everything that happens, the good things and the bad things.  And God won’t change things because then God would be making the world like a machine that did not have freedom.

  So when bad things happen, God would like us to respond and help each other.  When we respond and help each other, we can overcome the bad with the good.    So let us remember: Bad things can happen because the world is not a machine.  The world is made with true freedom.  God knows what is happening.  And we can please God by asking for God’s help to do good things.

  So how many sparrows have fallen to the ground?  How many hairs do you have?  God knows.  God knows and care for even the little things.  And God wants us to care too, so that we choose to help each other.  Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

June 25, 2017: The Third Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs:  Here in This Place, To God Be the Glory, I Come with Joy, Soon and Very Soon

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: Here in This Place, (Renew # 14)

1-Here in this place new light is streaming, now is the darkness vanished away;  see in this space our fears and our dreamings brought here to you in the light of this day.  Gather us in, the lost and forsaken, gather us in, the blind and the lame; call to us now, and we shall awaken, we shall arise at the sound of our name.

2-We are the young, our lives are a myst’ry, we are the old who yearn for your face; we have sung throughout all of hist’ry, called to be light to the whole human race.  Gather us in, the rich and the haughty, gather us in, the proud and the strong; give ua heart, so meek and so lowly, give us the courage to enter the song.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving-kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

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

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

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

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

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

Liturgist: A reading from the book of Jeremiah

Sing to the LORD; praise the LORD! For he has delivered the life of the needy from

the hands of evildoers.

The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 69

But as for me, this is my prayer to you, *  at the time you have set, O LORD:

"In your great mercy, O God, * answer me with your unfailing help.

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.

Jesus said to the twelve disciples,

"A student is not above the teacher, nor a  work above the employer; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house a very bad name, how much more will they malign those of his household!  "So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Lesson – Fr. Cooke:

Children’s Creed

We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.

Since God is so great and we are so small,

We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.

We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.

We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.

And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever.  Amen.

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.

For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.

For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.

For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.

For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.

For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.

For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.

Youth Liturgist:          The Peace of the Lord be with you always.

People:                        And also with you.

Song during the preparation of the Altar and the receiving of an offering

Offertory Song: To God Be the Glory, (Renew # 258)

1-To God be the glory, great things he hath done, so loved he the world that he gave us his son, who yielded his life an atonement for sin, and opened the lifegate that all may go in. 

Refrain: Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear his voice! Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the people rejoice!  O come to the Father through Jesus the son, and give him the glory, great things he hath done.

2-O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood, to every believer the promise of God;  the vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus, a pardon receives.  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.

All are born into the family of God by Baptism.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his family 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 good and right so to do.

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, 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 may rejoin their parents and take up their instruments)

Our Father (Sung): (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 by 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!

Word of Administration.

Communion Hymn:  I Come With Joy   (Renew! # 195)

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

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

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:  Soon and Very Soon, (Renew # 276)

1-Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King; soon and very soon, we are going to see the King; soon and very soon, we are going to see the King; hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  We’re going to see the King.

2-No more dying there, we are going to see the king; no more dying there, we are going to see the King; no more dying there, we are going to see the King; hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  We going to see the King.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

The Church As Sarah's Laughter?

2 Pentecost, A p 6, June 18, 2017
Ex. 19:2-8a     Ps.100    
Rom.5:6-11      Matt. 9:35-10:15
Lectionary Link

Let us consider today the early Christian church in formation.  Have you heard the phrase "cut off your nose to spite one's face?"

Let us ponder an early Christian dilemma:  St. Paul and others dispensed with  the ritual requirements of Judaism in order to make the message of Jesus Christ accessible to Gentile people.  Why?  because the message was a life changing social practice.  The message of Jesus Christ built community among people of diverse back ground.  Should we go with success with the Gentile people or should we require that all Gentile followers of Christ submit to all of the ritual purity customs of Judaism?

Those who were observant Jews began to reject the Christian Movement because the ritual requirements of Judaism were not enforced upon the Gentile membership.  The Jesus Movement could no long be supported by those who were committed to synagogue ritual tradition.  The Jesus Movement threatened to change Judaism too much for Jews who wanted to maintain the traditions.  The Jesus Movement was a dilemma for the people of the synagogue.

Conversely, the Jews of the synagogue became a dilemma for the early Christians.  Christians were criticized by the synagogue for compromising Judaism beyond recognition in Gentile Christianity.  But Christianity was born out of the Judaism and the traditions found in the Hebrew Scriptures.  The Hebrew Scriptures were the official texts of the synagogue.

What do Jews who have become followers of Jesus do when they found this division arise between the synagogue and the followers of Jesus?

This is a possible context for the preaching mission to the Jews found in our Gospel reading today.  Christians have wanted to have their cake and eat it too when it comes to their Jewish heritage.  We have wanted to say the Hebrew Scriptures are our Scriptures too, even though we have radically reinterpreted the meaning the Hebrew Scriptures to describe the reality of Christian Church.

Imagine a child who gets converted away from the faith practices of her parents.  She is so blessed by her new found faith expression that she in turns want to share her faith to try to convert her own parents.  She wants to maintain a continuity with her parents but the only way that fellowship can prevail is if one side converts to the practice of the other.

This was dilemma expressed in the mission of the message of Christ to the Jews.  While Matthew's Gospel seems to be contemporary with Jesus, it is more feasible to see it as contemporary with the oracle of the Risen Christ in the Jesus community that has become concerned about the "conversion" of the Jews to the message of Jesus.

St. Paul and others presented the message of Christ as being something like Sarah's laughter.  You know about Sarah's laughter.  Sarah was doing work in a tent when she overheard God's three messengers tell Abraham that his wife Sarah in her senior years and barren state would have a baby boy.  And Sarah giggled.  And God has a good sense of humor because Sarah's baby boy was named, "Giggling."  Isaac means "laughter."

"This old barren body is going to get pregnant and bear a child through whom I will become the Matriarch of many nations.  Yeah right!  Tell me another joke."

St. Paul writes the church as a kind of evidence of Sarah's laughter.  How so?  This old religion Judaism which has heretofore been limited only to people who will comply with the specific ritual laws, is going to be a vibrant and accessible faith expression to all of the peoples in the Roman World.  Yeah right.  No because, it would be more likely that the Jews would remain cloistered within their religious and ethnocentric world with specific rules to keep most people out of their community.

We might find some romantic charm in the lifestyles of the Shakers and the Amish.  And the Amish may allow anyone to join them in their community, as long as one follows Amish rules.  But logically, how likely is it that the Amish are going to convert many people to their way of life?

For the Gentiles of the Roman Empire, becoming an observant Jew was something akin for us becoming observant Amish.  Becoming Amish is too far from our normal experience to be accessible to us. 

St. Paul believed that Judaism in its practice had lost its accessibility to the peoples of the Roman Empire.  Conversely, he and Peter were surprised to see how the message of the Gospel was so successful among the Gentiles.  So, to build Christian communities in the Roman world, the ritual requirements of Judaism were dispensed with even while Christians borrowed and reinterpreted wholescale the Hebrew Scriptures which derived from the Jewish people.

St. Paul believed that the promise made to Abraham and Sarah about being parents of many nations happened because of Jesus Christ.  Christianity has made the Hebrew Scriptures more popular and widespread than it would have been if the Jesus Movement had been a short-lived and failing movement.

St. Paul believed that even though circumcision began as a practice with Abraham as an external marker of covenant with God;  St. Paul believe that faith was the interior marker of covenant with God.  Abraham and Sarah were the parents of the faith tradition; Jesus Christ and the church became the historical and social way in which the faith tradition of Abraham was brought to a greater number of people in the world.

So Judaism as a sort of vintage Sarah, could laugh that a child would be born out of it which would expand the genealogy of salvation history to the entire world.

The success of the Christian Movement is seen by the fact such success separated it from its parent, Judaism, and the offspring movement returns to try to convert the parent to the innovations of the Jesus Movement.

Today, we still live in the era of conversions.  People convert all the time.  Conversion is based upon the confidence that one has in one's beliefs, beliefs that can be recommendable to everyone.   People of all faith persuasions believe that their faith is recommendable to all.  Evangelism can be inspired by wanting to share our best with other people.  At the same time, we have to realize that there was a time and a place in our own lives which brought us to places of discovery about our faith.  And if the faith was not forced or coerced upon us, we should appreciate that evangelism starts with respecting the experiences of others.

We can appreciate the situation for the mission to the Jews.  Early Jewish followers of Jesus were troubled about the rejection of the priority of Jesus by the people of the synagogue.  At the same time, the early Christians believed that the Jesus Movement derived from Judaism as an authentic development from Judaism.  The motive to convince the Jews about Jesus can be understood as a dilemma for Jewish followers of Jesus.  Christianity derived from Judaism.  The Hebrew Scripture was the earliest Christian Bible and yet the official representatives of Judaism removed Christians from the synagogue.  The mission to convert the Jews to Christ needs to be understood as motivated by the fear of being disconnected from Judaism because the Jews rejected the Christian interpretations of Judaism.

Let us rejoice today in the power of the Gospel to convert us.  Let us not place wrong limitations upon the meaning of the Gospel.  For Jesus, the Gospel was the ancient message of the prophet Isaiah to bring good news to the poor and the captives.  And if we embrace the Gospel of Jesus, we will preach and live and convert others, not to agree with our religious party beliefs, we will convert others to the good news that can come to them when they have enough to eat, when they have health care, when they vocation and calling and purpose and hope and love and justice.

As we understand the meaning of Gospel, we should appreciate that the Gospel of the Isaian Scripture and the Gospel of Jesus are the same: God is active love and kindness; and that is how we should live and teach and convert others as well.  Amen