Sunday School, July 2, 2017 4 Pentecost, A proper 8

Sunday School, July 2, 2017     4 Pentecost, A proper 8

Theme:  Passing on Identity

Life is about receiving identity and passing it on.

We are born into a family, and we have family identity.  We have birth certificates and we are raised by family member who teach us who we are and where we have come from.

We have a citizenship identity as Americans.  How do we know that we are Americans?  We were born here or we applied for and received our citizenship.  We learn about our heritage and our fathers and mothers pass on citizenship to us.  We may have citizenship but we still need to practice citizenship by obeying the laws of our country.

What about our Christian identity?  How did we receive it?  Someone shared with us the life of Jesus Christ.  And we have welcomed the message of Jesus Christ as our life identity.

Jesus told his disciples that “whoever welcomed them were also welcoming him.”  For two thousand years people have been sharing the life of Jesus Christ with others.  And when we welcome the people who bring us the message of Christ, we are welcoming Jesus Christ.  In this way, the church has stayed alive and grown for two years, because we believe the presence of Christ is passed on as we share it with people.

Remember when we share Jesus Christ with other people; Christ is present and is being welcomed into the future life of other people

Sermon:

  Jesus said to his friends, “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me.”

  How many of you are alone?  Are you a son or a daughter?  Are you a brother or sister?  Are you a mom or dad?  Are you someone’s friend?

  Even though we each have a name and we are each different from one another, we also know ourselves from our relationships with one another.

  Something happened to me when I got married.  I used to be  Phil, but suddenly lots of people were calling me Karen’s husband.  Something else happened to me when I had children.  Lots of people started called me Tessa’s dad or Simon’s dad.  So I used to be just Phil, but then I became Karen’s husband, Tessa’s dad and Simon’s dad.  What happened to me?

  I became very close to other people; so close that I sometimes would lose my name in them.

  Let me tell you how close this feeling was.  Did you know that when someone did something nice to my children or to my wife, I actually thought that they were doing it to me too?  That how close I felt with them.

  So when Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me.”  That is how close Jesus felt with his friends.

  And that is how close Jesus wants to feel with us.  And that is how close Jesus wants us to feel with each other.

  When God sees us doing nice things for each other, God feels like we are doing these things for him.  Jesus called God is father.  And Jesus invited us to live as a part of God’s family and live so close that when we do things for each other, we are doing them for God and for Jesus.

   In the church, we celebrate the fact that we are part of God’s family.  And when we welcome each other, we are pleasing Jesus, because each time we welcome someone, each time we do a kind deed, each time we love one another, we are doing it to Christ.

  Now do you understand how close Jesus wanted to be with his friends?  Do you understand how we are live together as friends?  It means we share our lives with each other.  If you are sad, then all of feel your sadness.  And if you are joyful, then all of us feel you happiness.  Why?  Because God has put us together to be the family of Christ in this place.

  Just remember when someone does something nice to you, your parents feel so joyful; because they know that if someone is nice to you, they are also nice to them.

  And that kind of feeling together, is the feeling that Jesus gave to the church.  Let us learn how to feel together for one another as we were taught by Christ.  Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

July 2, 2017: The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Jesus Loves the Little Children, The Butterfly Song, There is a Redeemer, 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: Jesus Loves the Little Children, (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 140)

Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. 

Red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in his sight. 

Jesus love the little children of the world.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; 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: 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 Letter of Paul to the Romans

Do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.  No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness.  For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.  

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 13

But I put my trust in your mercy; * my heart is joyful because of your saving help.

I will sing to the LORD, for he has dealt with me richly; * I will praise the Name of the Lord Most High.

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, "Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple-- truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward."

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. (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

Offertory Song: Butterfly Song (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 a 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 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.  And I 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, and 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.  And if I were a fuzzy wuzzy bear, I’d thank you Lord for my fuzzy wuzzy hair, and 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 heaven.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of our 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: There is a Redeemer (Renew!  # 232)

There is a redeemer, Jesus, God’s own Son, precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Holy One.  Refrain: Thank you, O my Father, for giving us your Son; and leaving your Spirit til the work on earth is done.

Jesus, my Redeemer, name above all names, precious Lamb or God, Messiah, hope for sinners slain.  Refrain

When I stand in glory I will see His face, there I’ll serve my King forever, in that holy place.  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: Soon and Very Soon (Renew! # 276)

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 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.  No more dying there, we are going to see the king.  Hallelujah, hallelujah, we are going to see the king.

Dismissal:   

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

People:      Thanks be to God! 

  

Aphorism of the Day, June 2017

Aphorism of the Day, June 30, 2017

In a paradigm change, a new paradigm provides solutions to problems or issues which a former paradigm could not provide.  What issue was resolved in the switch from the synagogue paradigm to the church paradigm?  Why could not the "rabbinical school" of Jesus continue under the umbrella of the synagogue?  It perhaps had to do with the mode of adapting to living in the cities of the Roman Empire.  Jews and Christians essentially lost their "land of origin" and lived in the semi-voluntary exile diaspora.  To experience intimate religious sociality in the church or the synagogue, what was required?  The church made accessible intimate religious sociality for Gentile citizenry better than the synagogue did.  Gentiles had to give up more of their lifestyle patterns to join the synagogue than to join the church.  Ironically, the Christians which so often proclaimed being "separate" from the world compromised the external markers of "Jewish" separation from the Gentile world, namely the ritual purity requirements.

Aphorism of the Day, June 29, 2017

The goal of evangelism is to be welcomed into someone's life after giving them the good news for their spiritual transformation.  It is like the goal of hospitality, to put people at ease, to make their presence comfortable and to arise to the level of communion, called fellowship, because hearts have been mutually converted in the sharing of common good news.

Aphorism of the Day, June 28, 2017

Jesus to the Twelve: "Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me."  The New Testament is evidence of a new faith paradigm being born.  This new faith paradigm created a new hermeneutical circle.  If a person was converted and persuaded by a rather radical reinterpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures as found in the Christian mission, then people with shared persuasions experience a mutual welcome.  Welcome is a sign of acceptance and if the Gospel was not universally accepted, the apostles were encouraged to register "being welcome" as a sign that the message of Christ was also welcome.

Aphorism of the Day, June 27, 2017

Paul wrote about sin: "Do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions."  While sin comes from a Greek archery term of missing the mark, in St. Paul, sin also came to be the experience of the loss of self control of one's desires.  A projected desire is "fixed" upon some object and repetition of projected desire upon the object enslaved one into behaviors of addiction.  The feeling of being out of control was written by Paul as being dominated by sin which seems to attain the status of being a personal force.  Sin becomes known as a personal management issue and sin is known when the state of being out of control occurs.

Aphorism of the Day, June 26, 2017

Hospitality and Welcome of God's messengers was important in the Gospel.  The words of Jesus relate that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was actually inhospitality to God's messengers, the ones who had arrived to count the number of righteous people there in order to save them.  Unfortunately Sodom has become wrongly associated with how inhospitality was expressed in a specific event and not the inhospitality itself which has many forms of expression.

Aphorism of the Day, June 25, 2017

The words of the Gospel often reveal evidence of the painful separation of Christianity from Judaism.  This separation once adjusted to, meant that each community came to have different missions within the world even while sharing some significant common themes of God's love and justice.

Aphorism of the Day, June 24, 2017

A faith that relies completely upon God's grace is often pitted against a faith that necessarily manifests itself in the performing of good works.  Paul wrote, "Should we then sin just to prove that it is God's grace and not our works?"  Certainly not.  It is true that we are never in a performative state to say that we don't need grace.  We are not in a performative state to say that we didn't have grace to live and be.  That we have grace to perform works of love and kindness means that we still have to choose the gift and manifest a cumulative improvement in perfection.  If there is grace for us to be better today than yesterday, then we must choose to be better.  By choosing to be better we end up instantiating grace in our work and thus reveal that faith and works are not inherently opposing dynamics of humility of pride.

Aphorism of the Day, June 23, 2017

The Gospels include evidence of the harsh language of persons in different interpretative communities in doctrinal battle.  People were even challenged to choose between their family members and their faith commitment to follow Christ.  The irony of Jesus as Prince of Peace is that the separation of the Christian Movement from Judaism was not all that peaceful.  How is it that a community based upon words of "loving one's enemies" ended up in creating "enmity" between synagogue and church?   Christians and Jews at some point had to admit that their missions were significantly different to the point of being unable to gather as unified worshipers.  The oracle words of Christ in the early churches represent the justification for the separation.

 Aphorism of the Day, June 22, 2017

Losing one's life and taking up one's cross are familiar phrases in the Gospel and if one took them in a physical sense, one might think that early Christian fervor invited martyrdom.  Losing one's life or psueche life is a metaphor for the spiritual education called metanoia or repentance.  Repentance is the process of the continual renewal of the mind.  It is amazing how much religious education has to do with teaching "fixed understanding" of the meaning of doctrine rather than the continual renewal of the mind.  In the renewing of the mind, nothing is fixed into any final understanding because we live in Time when what seems to be fixed or final gives way to new insights to guide new response in a new context.

Aphorism of the Day, June 21, 2017

The language of the Gospel reveals people of faith in transition, conflict, excommunication and persecution.  In this crucible loyalty oaths mark one as being "for us" or "against us."  Disagreeing religious people call each other children of the devil or mad.  The Gospel writings reveal that in the birth of Christianity out of Judaism, there arose irreconcilable differences between the "parent and child" leading to a "divorce."   Probably the cause of the "divorce" was the overwhelming success of Gospel of Jesus Christ creating community among the Gentiles.  Following the success of the Gospel among the Gentile meant that what had successfully defined Judaism in the past would not work to integrate and consolidate Gentile followers of Christ into "alt-synagogue" churches.  In trying to change the identity of Judaism to accommodate Gentiles, the Christian community lost its "Jewish identity" in being separated from the synagogue but in reinterpreting the Hebrew Scriptures through the Christ-event, Christians wanted to present themselves as legitimate offspring of the Hebrew Scripture tradition.

Aphorism of the Day, June 20, 2017

Newtonian, Einsteinian and Quantum are kinds of physics and they share vocabulary words such as energy, mass and matter but these words have different meaning and nuance within their particular paradigm.  So people say the same word but mean something quite different in a different paradigm.  The Christian paradigm re-defined and particularized the Hebrew Scripture notion of messiah who in the person of the Risen Christ gave the church permission to dispense with ritual customs of Judaism.  When Christians moved the interpretive center of Judaism from the Torah to Jesus as the Christ, a new paradigm of faith was born and a necessary excommunication from the synagogue occurred.

Aphorism of the Day, June 19, 2017

Why can we quote Jesus as saying "Peace be with you," and “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword" and not be troubled by the apparent contradiction?  Jesus, like all of us, can be presented as living contradictions if we pick and choose from diverse contexts of words said within varying circumstances of life.  We also need to appreciate that the Gospel voice of Jesus is likened to an absent ventriloquist speaking from heavenly places as a oracle through the early preachers in the church trying to make sense of the progressive separation of Christianity from Judaism.  Family disputes sometimes are not very peaceful.  The early preachers were "channeling" Jesus who was saying paradigm shifts are not always peaceful events.  The members of the synagogue came to oppose the desire of the followers of Christ to universalize the salvation history originating in the Hebrew Scripture tradition with a strategy of dispensing with the ritual customs of Judaism.  The Christ-paradigm made accessible to  the Gentiles could not co-exist under the same synagogue roof.  All religions proclaim a message of peace; in actual historical practice religious people have been involved in conflicts which do not comport with peace.  

Aphorism of the Day, June 18, 2017

When does innovation bring about separation?  When is there a paradigm shift?  How did St. Paul go from being an observant Jews to dispense with the ritual requirements of Judaism for Gentile followers of Christ?  For many Jews, dispensing with the ritual requirements of Judaism would remove one from Judaism.  So a Christ-paradigm derived from the paradigm of Judaism but in the new paradigm the figurative meanings of Abraham, Moses, the Law, Israel, David and the prophets became so substantially different as to make it impossible for the followers of Christ to be a part of the synagogue with people who lived and practiced different meanings of their inherited tradition.

Aphorism of the Day, June 17, 2017

Was the laughter of Sarah, wife of Abraham, a laughter of "yeah, right, I'm going to have a baby at my age?"  Was it hilarity or a giggle after overhearing her husband and angels (three men) talking about her impending pregnancy?  Can we also agree about a comedic element of the story in that the miraculous child born is named "Laughter=Isaac" as a reminder to Sarah about her laughing condition of perhaps disbelief?  Fast Forward to St. Paul's Abraham and Sarah:  By limiting the God's covenant just to the people of Israel, the notion of Abraham being a Father of many nations was not being fulfilled.  St. Paul connected the Christian mission to the Gentile to the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant which had become limited when it in practice had become over-identified with the Jewish people and left many people out because too many Gentiles did not find accessible proselyte conversion to full ritual Judaism.

Aphorism of the Day, June 16, 2017

Part of the early dilemma in the formation of a new faith paradigm expression of the Jesus Movement growing to become a separate "faith" community, was the loss of authentic continuity with the Hebraic/Judaic tradition.  In evangelical practice, the followers of Jesus early on dispensed with the ritual purity requirements of Judaism as a tactical response to the success of the message about Jesus to the Gentile population.  Liminal "Christianity" was betwixt and between the synagogue with full ritual conformity and extra-synagogue house churches where "kosher" was not required.  The external "signs" of Judaism were dispensed with in favor of the interior sign of God's Holy Spirit evident in moral behaviors which did not necessarily include all of the ritual behaviors which the synagogue required to be a ritually observant Jew.

Aphorism of the Day, June 15, 2017

The Gospel according to Jesus was good news for people about their physical and spiritual well-being.  Jesus inherited this "good news" tradition from the prophet Isaiah.  Gospel has come to be the books in the New Testament with narrative of Jesus.  Gospel has become associated with the entire "Christ tradition."  We should not ever forget the Isaian roots for "good news=basar."  Good news was for the poor and it was comfort for the broken-hearted.  We can easily adjust the Gospel as a blessing vindication for the fortunate and forget the Isaian message regarding the Gospel.

Aphorism of the Day, June 14, 2017

The New Testament writings are evidence that the transition from Judaism which included followers of Jesus to separated faith communities, was uneven and filled with hurt and polemics that characterize separation.  Religious beliefs and practices became incommensurable between followers of Jesus and those who remained in the synagogue even while followers of Jesus rigorously interpreted Christian practice and mystagogy as being a legitimate interpretive successor/development/innovation of the traditions found in the Hebrew Scriptures.   The ironic "mission" to the Jews only in the Gospel is probably diagnostic that Gentile Christianity had compromised so many of the ritual practices of Judaism that there was a special mission to Jews to try to make the case that the Jesus Movement was a legitimate interpretive tradition of the Hebrew Scriptures.  The historical fact is that the followers of Jesus refused to follow many of the essential ritual requirements for being identified as a Jew in how the Torah specified the behaviors of one's life.


 Aphorism of the Day, June 13, 2017

Jesus is presented as one who looked upon the crowds and saw that they seemed as they were sheep without a shepherd.  The number of vulnerable people in our world always outnumbers the number of those who make themselves available to provide shepherding care.  The success of the Christian movement was in part due to the relevance of the Christian community and social practices to those who needed care and advocacy in their situations.  Significant conversion happens in a person's life when a significant need has been met.  Human need meeting kindness in response is the essence of the Gospel.

Aphorism of the Day, June 12, 2017

The Gospel of Matthew records an instruction from Jesus to his 12 disciples to go on a preaching mission to Jews only.  This perhaps represents a phase in the early church when it was becoming evident to church leaders that more Gentiles were following Jesus than Jews.  The Christian preachers had borrowed and altered so much of the traditions from Hebrew Scriptures to articulate the inclusion of the Gentiles, they discovered the alterations were no longer acceptable to those who stayed in the synagogue.  When early Christians realized that they had removed Jesus from being accepted within the synagogue traditions, they needed a preaching mission to the Jews to reassert the relevancy of Jesus as continuous with the Hebrew Scripture traditions.

Aphorism of the Day, June 11, 2017

God as Father in the Hebrew Scripture seems to be metaphor of the creator whereas God as Father in Trinitarian Christianity is a "personal" Father.  How did it come for God to have personhood?  It probably comes because of humanity expresses itself mainly in personal relational terms.  Personhood defines humanity so the divine must involve the analogical superlative case of Personhood, from whence came the human definition of personhood.

Aphorism of the Day, June 10, 2017

Innovation can be an ironic notion.  Innovation might seem to be something completely new or innovation might be the discovery of something that has always already been.  Is the Christian doctrine of the Trinity an innovation in thinking and talking about God?  How did the Trinity exists before Jesus was born?  Christian expositors of the Trinity end up presenting how the Trinity was involved in creation and yet at the same time have time specific appearance of the Son and the Spirit.  How does one reconcile the always already of God's unchangeable nature with how and when people have come to understand a "fuller" presentation of God's nature.

Aphorism of the Day, June 9, 2017

To say that the Trinity is a mystery might sound like a humble confession, but really everything is a mystery in face of infinite context or the relation of anyone given word or thing to every other given thing or word.  In space a widening horizon entails greater encompassing area contain more for greater context.  In Time, the future includes the ever-changing conditions of synchronicity.  It really is not a surprising mystery to say that we don't know what we don't and can't know with a precision of having control of all that we think that we can know.   Infinity is what comes to language when we want a discourse of totality to function in a meaningful way to say that we are always already together with everything else.  The potential of universal relevance is part of what is assumed when we use language even though universal relevance cannot be empirically verified.

Aphorism of the Day, June 8, 2017

In the human history of how people have spoken about God the names and attributes of God represented significant anthropomorphism since analogically, these names and attributes designate valorized human virtues.  What gives humanity the right to elevate such anthropomorphisms about God to the level of "revelation?"  Ultimately, theology is "all too human" in that we accept all experience of God as human experience of God.  The understanding of Jesus as fully divine is the "divine humanism" of elevating human experience to being a valid way to know God who is "beyond" human experience.

Aphorism of the Day, June 7, 2017

It is easy to underestimate the administrative value and function of how one's community faith is articulated.  Truth has no administrative function if there are not enough people involved to comprise a critical mass for organization and institutionalization.  A task of the "teaching" church, once the Gospel communities were becoming popular, was to reduce the narrative of Scripture and church traditions to teaching devices resulting in canons and creed.  Such devices are necessary abbreviations of narrative  and extended Pauline teaching.  The purpose of an abbreviation is not to limit the focus upon the abbreviation but rather to refer to the fuller referent of the abbreviation.  The doctrine of the Trinity is an inviting abbreviation to discover oneself to share childhood of God with Jesus and to adopt the relational language of Jesus that he used regarding the Father and the Holy Spirit.

 Aphorism of the Day, June 6, 2017

The Holy Trinity arose as a teaching and creedal confession in the early centuries of Christianity.  When the Christian movement was successful, institutionalizing the message for maximum inculcating purposes was required.  Standardization and administration of Christian "truths" was necessary for the organization of the community of faith that had grown.  Bishop scholars, most of whom were trained in Greek philosophy, used their academic backgrounds to parse from the New Testament narratives and writings and available traditions a standardized presentation of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  It is as though the 16 names used for God in Hebrew Scriptures get funneled into three Personalities.  Obviously divine immanence gets new definition in the life of Jesus and the actual personal effects of the Holy Spirit experienced in the lives of Christians.  When Jesus was no longer visible how could the church account for the "lingering continuing traces" of Christ in their lives? Answer: the Holy Spirit.

Aphorism of the Day, June 5, 2017

The evolution of God-talk to speak about God as Trinity was an inevitability in the recovery of what was always already assumed in God-talk, namely, that what can be reported or revealed about anything is a human experience.  How and why do humanity reach a consensus of sorts to accept human experience as a valid way to understand a non-human Being such as God?  The truth of geocentrism is really anthropocentrism and such can be the radical pride of a limited humanism or it can be the humility of accepting the prison of human experience as a valid way to affirm the reality of God.  The co-extensivity of human experience qua having language and knowing God is what makes the Trinity undeniably inevitable if one is to speak about God at all.  Some like to pretend it valid to lock God into apophasis or "not knowing" to start with God's remoteness.  The problem is that apophatic and saying what God is not are still cyphers of language which is having is the essence of being human.  The Trinity is the proof that language presupposes both the apophatic and the cataphatic as ways of speaking about God.  So the incarnation presume that Word was with God and Word was God and Word creates everything and Word co-inheres with Flesh.  How does one elevate human experience as being valid to know a Being that is more than human experience?  One assumes a person with a bi-lingual existence of speak God-lect (the dialect of the divine) and human language.  In assuming that Jesus could speak the language of God within human experience, one arrives at the unveiling of the obvious, that human experience when it comes to knowing God, is a valid way.  This is the elephant in the room in explicating the obviousness of the Trinity.

Aphorism of the Day, June 4, 2017

The Holy Spirit is the built in possibility for the highest of a natural high.  Our current opioid epidemic highlights the fact that we are trained in our societies to seek the sublime in ways that lead to addiction rather than to know the natural child like ecstasy and joy that is so close at hand because our interpretive functions have been misled and so we don't know natural ecstasy anymore; we have let surrogate replacement of the sublime take over and leave us addicted and empty.  The Day of Pentecost is a day to remember that we have access to the image of God in our lives, the Holy Spirit.  But it is more important that we know that the Holy Spirit has access to us and is an abiding advocate in and through us and let us hope that we are getting out of the way and letting the Spirit inspire our lives to be expressions of love, joy, peace, patience, hope, gentleness, self-control and faith.

Aphorism of the Day, June 3, 2017

What has been the common sign of life for people of all time?  Breathing.  Breath is a metaphor for the Holy Spirit.  It is the unseen wind created by the bellows of drawing and releasing of air through the automatic actions that take place in the chest and the abdomen. Having breath means having life.  Wind is also a metaphor for the Holy Spirit.  All Creation is teeming with the invisible Wind of Life who conducts the possibility for all mutual experience.  There is something more universal in the sign value of the Holy Spirit than there is in Father or Jesus Christ.  Why?  Jesus Christ is limited by the historical context; the notion of Father has gender limitations but Spirit as the unseen and abiding reality of God's omnipresence has greater cross cultural sign value because Breathing is a universal sign of life.  Let us give the Spirit, the Spirit's signifying due on the Day of Pentecost.

Aphorism of the Day, June 2, 2017

Pentecost is an event expressing the aspiration for what can truly be "catholic" about the experience of God.  Catholic means "on the whole" and in practice it has come to mean "obeying what the pope or your bishop say you should do to tow the party line," which of course reduces "catholic" from meaning on the whole or universal to having the outer appearance of religiosity according to one's own specific setting.  The Holy Spirit can be known as the indwelling nature of God to be found in everyone beyond local appearance or variations and therefore it the essence of genuine catholicity as it pertains to an accessible God.  With the Holy Spirit, we can believe that God needs no "gate keepers" forbidding God's children to the one and only "official" view and outward signs of "knowing" God.  The Holy Spirit, more importantly is God knowing us by indwelling us and we are blessed and encourage when flares of apparent occurrences of "Holy Spirit events" lure us to express more completely the basic image of God which resides upon our lives, especially as we achieve love and justice in actual behaviors.

Aphorism of the Day, June 1, 2017

Consider the Holy Spirit as the end of all ethnocentrism and racism.  The unseen Holy Spirit has no color of skin but inhabits people of any skin color.  The Holy Spirit is beyond every provincial marking of tribe, clan, culture or religious appearance.  Pentecost is a return to creation in that the Holy Spirit was seen again as moving over the face of deep life of everything and everyone and continuously creating in freedom.

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.