Sunday School, January 7, 2018 1 Epiphany B

Sunday School, January 7, 2018   1 Epiphany B: The Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ

Theme:

Joining and Belonging

Joining and Belonging is what makes us great

God is the greatest of all, so great that God doesn’t need to join humanity.  God did not need to even let men and women know of God’s existence.

But God joined the human community.

First by giving men and women a law and way of living for their lives.

God joined and belonged to human family in the closest way by being born in Jesus.

Jesus was God special Son and he could have believed that he was so perfect that he did not have to be with those who were not as good and perfect as he was.

What did Jesus do?

He fully joined the human community.  How did he show this?

He was baptized by John the Baptist.  He perhaps was joining the community of John the Baptist.

The baptism of Jesus shows us that he did not think that he was too good for all people.

The baptism of Jesus shows us that Jesus joined and belonged to human community.

Jesus did not act too good and perfect for us, he joined, he belonged, and he participated.

God is great and Jesus is great because they joined humanity.

Great people join.  They join to share with other people the greatness of love, kindness and wisdom about how we should live best.

How should we follow Jesus?

We follow Jesus by joining, by being baptized, by belonging to groups of people.

By joining our church, we gather to follow Jesus who joined us to show us how to live.

If we want to live the best life, the way that we do is to join and belong to groups of people who are committed to what Jesus has taught.

Sermon

What is the most common mistake that everyone makes, children and adults?

  I think the most common mistake that all of us make is the mistake of forgetting.

  Do you ever forget?  Forget to do your homework?  Forget to clean your room?   Forget what your teacher told?  Forget what your parents told you?  Forget what you promised to your children or spouse?

  Forgetting is easy to do.

  But the most serious forgetting is forgetting about God.   Today we have read the story about John the Baptist on the day that he baptized Jesus in the Jordan River.

  John the Baptist and Jesus were special men who were prophets.  And they came to help people recover from their forgetting.  See many people had forgotten some important things about God.  Even the religious leaders had forgotten some important things about God.  And what is often forgotten about God?

  People often forget that God loves them.  People often think that God loves the people in our country, or in our neighborhood or in our race better than people in another country, neighborhood or race.

  When Jesus was baptized, the voice of God said, this is my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.

  You and I need to remember what baptism means.  Baptism looks like just pouring some water over the head of a baby or an adult.  But what does baptism mean?  It means that we celebrate that each and every person is a child of God, a son or daughter of God.

  You see the problems in our life happen when we forget that we are sons and daughters of God.  The problems in our life happen when we forget that other people are son and daughters of God.

  When we remember that we are children of God we treat ourselves with respect.  When we remember that other people are children to God, we treat them with respect too.  When we remember God, then we remember to live good lives for God and we remember to live in peace and love with each other.

  John the Baptist and Jesus came to remind us about some things that we had forgotten.

  Let us remember the meaning of baptism.  Our baptism is a reminder that we and all people belong to the same family of God.  And if we remember that we will work to love one another and live in peace with each other.  Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

January 7, 2018: 1 Epiphany: The Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Gathering Songs:

 There Is One Lord, Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves the Little Children, God is So Good

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

People: And Blessed be God’s Kingdom, Now and forever. Amen.

Song: There is One Lord (Renew # 161)

There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; there is one God who is Father of all.

 (Twice to begin, once after each solo verse)

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. 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

Liturgist: A reading from the Book of Genesis

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Liturgist: Let us read together a verse from Psalm 29  

Ascribe to the LORD, you gods, * ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his Name; * worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.

The voice of the LORD is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders; * the LORD is upon the mighty waters.

The voice of the LORD is a powerful voice; * the voice of the LORD is a voice of splendor.

My faithfulness and love shall be with him, * and he shall be victorious through my Name.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Liturgist:

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 Mark  

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon:  

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.

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

Song: Jesus Loves Me, This I Know (# 104 in All the Best)

1-Jesus loves me, this I know.  For the Bible tells me so.  Little ones to him belong.  They are week but He is strong.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  Yes, Jesus Loves me.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  The Bible tells me so.

2-Jesus love me. He who died.  Heaven’s gates to open wide.  He will wash away my sin, let His little child come in.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  The Bible tells me so.

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 up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give him 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 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 that we may love God and our neighbors.

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 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!

Words of Administration.

Communion Song: Jesus Loves the Little Children (# 30 in All the Best)

Jesus loves the little children, All the children of the world.  Red and yellow, black and white, They are precious in His sight; Jesus loves the little children of the world.

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: God is So Good (# 31 in  All the Best)

1-God is so good, God is so good, God is so good, He’s so good to me.

2-He cares for me, He cares for me, He cares for me, He’s so good to me.

3-I’ll do His will, I’ll do his will, I’ll do his will, He so good to me.

4-He is my Lord, He is my Lord, He is my Lord, He’s so good to me.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God!

Aphorism of the Day, December 2017

Aphorism of the Day, December 31, 2017

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  In the beginning was the Word.  There is an incredible difference between the insight about "the beginning" between Genesis and John's Gospel.  John's Gospel is perhaps a bit more philosophical.  There could not have been a human eyewitness to such a beginning as related in Genesis.  The Gospel of John hints about a different sort of beginning, the beginning of human life and experience as we know happening because we are constituted by language.  Human life as we know it is created, comes to have existence because of Word, and the confession about Word being our beginning is perhaps the basic insight of human life.  Humanity has built endless human products even while forgetting that it all has happened because we begin with Word.  Having Word, having words, having language is always, already the big elephant in the room of human existence.  As we might be very proud of all of our human products we should offer an important disclaimer: "Oops, I forgot that I have been using language and have been used by it."

Aphorism of the Day, December 30, 2017

The writer of John's Gospel confesses that the Word was God.  One can say that the Word is God, in that being within the web of Word is how we have any awareness of anything at all and have our existence confirmed.  If Word is God, it is most embracing and comprehensive human platform and we as having some free agency in our role as language used and language user should commit ourselves to be effective translators of language use for the greater benefit of all language users remembering the most profound use of language is body language acts of mutual kindness and regard.

Aphorism of the Day, December 29, 2017

Paraphrase of John 1:1ff.: The beginning of human consciousness as we know happens because of Word, hence Word signifies the Personal Superlative even to the degree of being equal with the Personal Superlative.  All things have existence because of Word and nothing can have existence as humans know it without having Word.  Through Word comes existence which is also called life and knowing such life through the Word is light or consciousness for humanity.

Aphorism of the Day, December 28, 2017

The beginning of human life as it can be known is the Word and all things come to be known as having existence through having word ability.  Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am."  He was putting "de cart before de horse."  From John's Gospel, one could say, "I think because I have become aware of having language and in having language I know that I am because I use language to tell me the same."

Aphorism of the Day, December 27, 2017

In the Beginning was the Word.  Can one see how one gets into a "chicken or the egg" stalemate?  One uses words to say that Word was in the beginning before "Word."  Does what we refer to with words have a verifiable existence apart from words?  The Almighty as a word user?  Alas, we've used words to say, "the Almighty."

Aphorism of Day, December 26, 2017

Probably the most empirically verifiable phrase of the Bible is that "all things came into being by the Word."  That we have word is the way in which we know that we are language users and being language users we reflexively verify that we use language by using language.  It is the most brilliant and valid circular argument of all because we cannot falsify the fact that we are language users.

Aphorism of the Day, December 25, 2017

Lost in the primary naiveté of the Christmas Story so promulgated by "popular" church culture is the ancient mystagogy of the early church which presented the story as a parable for eternal birth of the Risen Christ in the souls of the one's who knew this favor.

Aphorism of the Day, December 24, 2017

The Song of Mary confesses a utopian hopefulness which does not seem to be always, already realized:

He has mercy on those who fear him *in every generation.

He has shown the strength of his arm, * he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, * and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, * and the rich he has sent away empty.

Such outcomes may have intermittent realization in actual human history so why confess such utopian optimism?  The ideal is always an invitation to people who have freedom and it should continually be confessed and offered as the standard for living.  It is a confession of an always already parallel kingdom of heaven to which some have access and they continually pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Aphorism of the Day, December 23, 2017


The Magnificat, the Song of Mary, is like most biblical utopian vision; it is anticipatory of the ideals of the parallel universe of heaven.  In the exterior world the reign of probable mixture of good, bad and indifferent events occur proving the general conditions of freedom.  The biblical drama is constructed upon free human agents seeking the will of heaven or hell in contributing to outcomes in the mixture of what can actually happen in this world.  The Song of Mary is a confession of justice and an anticipation of just outcomes in this world, especially for the poor and suffering.

Aphorism of the Day, December 22, 2017

One might call the Gospel of Luke, a "musical," in that within the narrative of the events people spontaneously break out in poetic songs:  The Songs of Zechariah, Simeon and Mary have become the Canticles of the Daily Offices of our prayers.  The subject matter of the songs are loaded with confession of utopian ideals of justice and a belief that such should also become the "heaven" on earth actuality.

Aphorism of the Day, December 21, 2017

Even though through the passage of time there has been a "differentiation" of consciousness in humanity based upon discoveries which have changed how people read and interpret, one can still locate discursive practices in ancient texts such as the Bible that are similar to the variety of discursive practices that we have today.  Modern science created a preference for establishing empirical verification as the chief mode of propositional truth.  Intimidated by the pragmatic realism of empirical verification, may Bible readers gave up the artistic truths of the Bible by making the claim that a "plain" reading of the Bible means that all of the details of the Bible can be empirically verified.  By presenting biblical writing as empirically verified, many modern people left the Bible because of the way in which it has been presented.  If we return to the text as an artistic text guided by motives of moral and spiritual transformation we allow the writings of the Bible to serve their purpose consistent with their discursive practice.

Aphorism of the Day, December 20, 2017

The confessions about God as found in the famous Song of Mary, are sometimes "true."  Why only sometimes?  "He has filled the hungry with good things; the rich He has sent away empty."  How is it that it is verified that God has always already filled the hungry with good things?  The confession about who God is and what God stands for still needs the cooperation of humanity to make the God-ideal true in actual life circumstance.  While we live confessing the perfect will of God in the parallel reality of the kingdom of God, we still need in time and the external world to make God's will done on earth as it is done in heaven.  Prayer and persuasion to express our "better angels" are not yet finished.

Aphorism of the Day, December 19, 2017

In the mystagogy of the early church, people were confessing to events of the heart in a realization that general divine omnipresence was becoming particular presence within them.  They used the language of being filled with the Holy Spirit or having the Risen Christ "born" in them.  The early churches believed that they were moving from external signs and markings of religious identity to the inward verification of God's presence.  We read the Christmas stories as plays for our Christmas Pageants but the first use of the infancy narratives were "mystagogic" texts hiding the inward verifiable event of the birth of Christ into one's life within the infancy narratives of the Gospel.  One needed to have "ears" to hear what was being proclaimed in the model of Mary as the paradigm for the Christ-mystic.  Over-shadowed by an interior event, one in acquiescence confessed the Marian words, "Let it be unto your servant according to your word."  The way in which words are constituted within a mystic are the words which are mirrored in the infancy narratives which comprise the significant realities of identity within the early churches.

Aphorism of the Day, December 18, 2017

The Hebrew word "beit" or house has duel meanings.  It can refer to people of one's household, present, past and future and it can refer to a structure, such as the Temple, as being the House of God.  King David wanted to build a structural house for God and he wasn't able to do it.  His house or lineage was to last forever.  Joseph, was from the house of David as the Gospel writers were tracing lineage of family for Jesus.  History indicates that structures can be destroyed but God resides in the lineage of people even though certain spaces might be regarded to be "sacred."

Aphorism of the Day, December 17, 2017

"Gaudete" or Rejoice!  Rejoice always!  Quite a command given the actuarial probability of lots of things happening at any given time which defies the logic of being joyful.  And it might even seem irreverent to be joyful since the appearance of joy might seem inappropriate in the company of people who are faced with immediate suffering and afflictions.  The command to rejoice is not naïve optimism; it can be a spiritual methodology of garnering the inward capacity to day-dream to focus upon the energy of psychic analgesia and beyond analgesia to an actual "high," not to deny the external reality of troubles and woe but to cope and inspire creative response to what one is facing within one's exterior circumstances.  Rejoicing as opposed to possession with gloom is a greater orientation toward creative action to play the hand that one has been dealt.  To tap the capacity for joy at all time is to tap an elixir for creativity with what is in one's life.

Aphorism of the Day, December 16, 2017

Interlocutors to John the Baptist: "Are you the Messiah, Elijah, a prophet?"  John the Baptist:  "No, No, No. I am but a Voice crying in the wilderness..."  This conversation reveals the eschatological speculation of their time.  It was a time of suffering and speculation about how intervention by a hero Messiah could bring justice.  The collective daydreams of all suffering people produce eschatological speculation about justice, superheroes and intervention all of the time.  That such speculation came to biblical literature should not demand that we treat it as prediction in the sense of a future verifiable specific event; the visualization functions as the "eternal return" in human experience of justice and intervention to achieve the same in all human history.  Most of modern eschatology has moved into the cinema, comic books and science fiction.  Whether religious or secular, the eternal return, viz., the repetition of visualization of attained justice occurs.

Aphorism of the Day, December 15, 2017

It interesting to note the spiritual genealogy of John the Baptist in John's Gospel.  In the beginning was the Word, the Word was God, the Word created life that that life was the light of humanity.  John the Baptist, we are told, was sent from God and denied being the light, but to testify to the light. Word, Life, Light is a sequence in John's Gospel and each is a metaphor for Christ who has such a metaphorical exclusivity in the New Testament, and all other confessing people are lesser words, life and light in comparison.  The metaphorical exclusivity of Christ in the confession of the church is the way in which the hierarchical value of Jesus was experienced and proclaimed.

Aphorism of the Day, December 14, 2017

John of the Cross coined the phrase "dark night of the soul" to describe a phase of spiritual desolation, a sense of forsakenness.  On first reading one might think that the writer was suffering from severe depression.  Or it could be that in spiritual methodology, depression energy is named and something creative arises out of the chaos of wanting to be in a dark closet only smelling the leather of one's shoes.  Today we don't have time for the energy of the depression to be transformed; it has to be immediately cured so that we can be "functional."  Perhaps the mystics had the time for depression and the structure of community to rework the energy by progressively renaming it and reconstituting the interior word structure of one's life.

Aphorism of the Day, December 13, 2017

The Gospel of John is full of "ego eimi" sayings, "I am" sayings of Jesus.  In contrast John the Baptist is the disclaimer, the one who says, "I am not he, Elijah,  the messiah, the light."  His recorded disclaiming in the Gospels is the set up message for proclaiming Jesus and the contrast was an important persuasive oracular device for the members of his community who were being asked to switch their allegiance to Jesus.

Aphorism of the Day, December 12, 2017

John's Gospel is about the personification of Word, which is God.  After the declaration that Word is God, such a notion would refer to the "hum" of the universe of all possible discursive practice such that differentiation could not be recognized.  So, from the realm of all possible discourse a discursive figure arises who is life of differentiation by setting the hierarchy of values of how Word is to become known within an actual human person.  Such a person on top of the hierarchy is called life and light in the midst of people whose lives are in "word disorder."  Jesus as the superlative case of instantiating Word becomes the incarnate corrective for human "word disorder."  So, John the Baptist calls him the light shining in the darkness of human "word disorder."

Aphorism of the Day, December 11, 2017

Since four books of the New Testament are called Gospels, one might think that the notion of Gospel originated with Jesus and the early church.  Gospel or good news was taken directly from the writings of the prophet Isaiah: "he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed."  If one does not think that Gospel has anything to do with political conditions, think again.  Good news for the oppressed does not mean just learning how to tolerate the conditions of oppression; it is a promise of deliverance.  Anyone who claims to be honest to the Gospel needs to be one who is working to relieve and overturn the conditions of the oppressed people of the world.  People who live in the conditions of being free from the conditions need to remember their Gospel duty.

Aphorism of the Day, December 10, 2017

In a figurative way, the earliest Gospel, the Gospel of Mark present, not the birth of Jesus, but perhaps the birth of the Jesus Movement out of the John the Baptist Movement.  It is interesting to note that the writer of the earliest Gospel is more interested in presenting the birth of the Jesus Movement rather than the birth of the person of Jesus.  There seems to have been some compunction about showing continuity with the John the Baptist Movement because the core followers of Jesus may have been first in the John the Baptist Movement.

Aphorism of the Day, December 9, 2017

There is an obvious truth to the "last shall be first" phrase of Jesus.  A person who interprets in the present tense is always interpreting in the latest day; the present tense is always the latest time.  As such, the one who is latest cannot but interpret all of the memories of the past in a way that serves in some way the present, which is the latest in time.  So John the Baptist and his community are chronologically before Jesus and his significance is interpreted by later followers of Jesus Christ in a way that John himself could not have foreseen in his own time.  The oracles of the early church function somewhat like playwrights trying to assign significance to the life of John the Baptist in light of what their experience was in the early churches.  So John was viewed as the water-man and Jesus was viewed as the Spirit-man.  A baptism or immersion in the Spirit assumes a deeper inward event than the external washing of a ritual baptism in the Jordan River.  In the present, we conveniently make the past serve what we understood to have become.  If this seems unfair, we can only note that we too must serve the ends of future people who will make us what we never were in our own time, if we are remembered at all.

Aphorism of the Day, December 8, 2017

Both the words of John the Baptist and Jesus are presented as oracles within the early churches, particularly in the effort to show the transition for the followers of John to become followers of Jesus.  So the oracle of John the Baptist speaks within the early church: "I baptize with water but he will baptize with the Holy Spirit."  This is a contrast which seems to imply that John's baptism was not accompanied by Holy Spirit.  Was John's baptism a "lifeless" ritual?  As a baptism of repentance, it would seem to be a public ritual about a person's intention to change or transform one's life.  How could such a transformation be regarded as being a transformation with being "Holy Spirit" aided?  This oracle of John the Baptist is an indication of the development of Pneumatology in the early church, or a doctrine of the rising personal omnipresence of the Holy Spirit as a distinctive cause of personal transformation.

Aphorism of the Day, December 7, 2017

In the "solo scriptura" position of some Reformation groups, the Bible was elevated to something it never was nor ever could become, namely the exhaustive words of God.  The writer of John's Gospel states that the Word from the Beginning was God, not the writings that eventually formed the canon(s) of the Bible after several hundred years.  A person who is serious about hermeneutics and charitable toward writers of the past who lived under different conditions, can say that the Bible is adequate to the concerns and issues that were being raised in the time that they were written without saying that the writings are "Omni-adequate" or "Omni-applicable" to the details of all human knowledge past present and future.  One can have a humble view of the Bible without denying its divinity in providing the universal and eternal patterns of humanity within language such that the divine and enduring principles of love and justice can be discovered for inspiring people of all time to find correspondences in their own time.

Aphorism of the Day, December 6, 2017

The main message of John the Baptist is "Repent," which in Greek μετάνοια, metanoia,  literally means the "after mind" or the renewal of the mind.  John the Baptist emphasized the freedom of volition in the transformation of one's inner life.  Advent is a season of believing in "one's perfectability" and in one's real choices to participate with this progressive transformation to surpass oneself in a future state.  The emphasis on choice and human free will in transformation does not nullify God's grace because one never arrives at a final state of perfection where one no longer needs the complementing grace of God.  Grace and free will work together in the process of repentance.

Aphorism of the Day, December 5, 2017

John the Baptist is a fixture in the season of Advent and models the kind simplicity of an uncluttered life before we clutter our lives with the excesses Christmas.  John the Baptist's prominent role in the Gospel is an indication that early Christians were making an appeal to his long continuing followers to move on to Jesus.  In the Gospels, John is the "set up" man for Jesus.  Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots were different religious parties; the community of John the Baptist was probably the one that was evangelized the most by early Christians. We wrongly assume that all followers of John the Baptist just automatically became followers of Jesus.  The Gospels are proof that various kinds of appeals were being made to the followers of John to persuade them to made the transition to the community of Christ.

Aphorism of the Day, December 4, 2017

The life style of John the Baptist, who pops out in our Advent lessons, is inaccessible for most of us who live closer to the stylistic norms of our society.  What he can model for us is the direction for simplifying our lives and to remind us that we should possess our possession and not have our possessions, possess us with maintenance demands competing with our devotion to God and commitment to charity.

Aphorism of the Day, December 3, 2017

The anthropological soundness of apocalyptic and utopian literature of the Bible is established by the way in which people appropriate it.  If the language is literalized as predicting tea leaves of actual events to come, it is equivalence of people acting out upon the dream material from last night's dream.  But if it is seen as deriving from the corporate day dream space coming to language and vision to complement the actual conditions of living in the actual ambiguities of the free conditions of this world, it is inspired and true.  Being created equal, having the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is the great American utopic dream that is not fully realized in actual life but it accompanies actual life to inspire our better angels to make it actual.  Don't appropriate the utopian in Disney's vision or the apocalyptic in Tolkien or Star Wars or D.C. Comic Superheroes and then deny this valid genre within the Bible to inform the direction of our ideals and to hold onto to the actual normalcy of justice enforced and injustice interdicted.

Aphorism of the Day, December 2, 2017

Utopian and apocalyptic discourses within the Bible represent radical discontinuities from the way things are.  Lion and lamb as normal playmates? Actuarial probability indicate that eventually lions will eat lambs.  But what if preditor-prey relations were magically reversed?  Probability in human life most often have the strong and the fittest surviving and imposing their will on the weak, the ignorant and the poor.  What if a super hero who was strong actually intervened and brought equal justice for the poor, the naïve and the weak?  Utopian and apocalyptic discourse are "dream" discourses and Marx criticized religion for having such discourses as "opiates" to not just survive present woe but to accept it as God's will.  Religion is often accused of "wishing" away the woes of the world and providing discourse to justify the maintenance of those "woes."  Utopian discourse represents a magically discontinuity with the way things are; apocalyptic discourse involves a stronger force actually doing some serious overwhelming of the "bad guys."  These discourses in the Bible have now become the common themes driving cinema and modern versions of futurism.  Is it human to create and imagine alternate worlds with alternate just outcomes?  If so, to what purpose?  Ponder this as we appropriate apocalyptic and utopian biblical discourse for Advent.

Aphorism of the Day, December 1, 2017

In looking at biblical futurism of the apocalyptic and utopian variety, I would ask the prior question to both of these varieties of discourse, "Will there be language and language users in the future, even as the very notion of future is linguistically mediated?"  According to the biblical account, God in the indeterminate pre-beginning with no human present to empirically verify, spoke, i.e, used word/language to create the world as we know it and God created language users to mediate all that was not language.  This creation was re-visited in John's Gospel by calling Word as being with God and being God.  While apocalyptic and utopian discourse may be meaningful within human contexts, they still reside in the scope of Word being God as the prior condition for any discursive practice.

Quiz of the Day, December 2017

Quiz of the Day, December 31, 2017

What did the childless Hannah promise God should God allow her to bear a child?

a. the child would be a priest
b. the child would take the vow of the nazirite
c. the child would anoint the first King of Israel
d. the child would be a soldier in the army

Quiz of the Day, December 30, 2017

Whom of the following biblical performed what might be called mouth to mouth resuscitation or some kind of CPR equivalent?

a. Jesus
b. Moses
c. Elijah
d. Elisha

Quiz of the Day, December 29, 2017

To whom is the Second Epistle of John addressed?

a. the church at Ephesus
b. to a local church bishop
c. to the elect lady
d. to general readership

Quiz of the Day, December 28, 2017

The slaughter of the Holy Innocents serves as a story to present Jesus in comparison to whom?

a. Adam
b. Moses
c. David
d. Solomon

Quiz of the Day, December 27, 2017

In Church tradition, the disciple "whom the Lord loved" is regarded to be?

a. John the Apostle
b. John the Evangelist
c. John, son of Zebedee
d. John of Patmos
e. John the Divine
f. All of the above

Quiz of the Day, December 26, 2017

Who were Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus?

a. Leaders of churches found by Paul
b. Evangelists commissioned in Antioch
c. The first martyrs of the Jesus Movement
d. Earliest deacons ordained to served the poor

Quiz of the Day, December 25, 2017

Who is best known for the promulgation of the eternal birth of Christ in the soul?

a. St. Paul
b. Meister Eckhart
c. Thomas Traherne
d. Julian of Norwich

Quiz of the Day, December 24, 2017

How long is the fourth "week" of Advent in 2017?

a. 6 days
b. 5 days
c. 3 days
d. 1 day

Quiz of the Day, December 23, 2017

In what book of the Bible can one read about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?

a. Jude
b. Daniel
c. Ezekiel
d. Revelation

Quiz of the Day, December 22, 2017

Who is the Apostle of India?

a. Sadhu Sindar Singh
b. Francis Xavier
c. Roberto de Nobili
d.  Thomas


Quiz of the Day, December 21, 2017

Which of the following is not true of St. Thomas the Apostle?

a. he is founder of Thomism
b. a Gospel is attributed to him
c. he is called the "Twin"
d. he is referred to as Didymus
e. he wanted empirical evidence of the resurrected Christ

Quiz of the Day. December 20, 2017

Who is the speaker in the "Magnificat?"

a. Elizabeth
b. Simeon
c. Mary
d. Hannah

Quiz of the Day, December 19, 2017

Seven is an important number in the Book of Revelations.  Which of the following is not an item of seven in the Book of Revelations?

a. lamp stands
b. swords
c. spirits of the churches
d. angels
e. trumpets
f. bowls
g. plagues
h. crowns

Quiz of the Day, December 18,  2017

Where can Philadelphia be found in the Bible?

a. it can't; it was a Quaker invention for a city in Pennsylvania
b. Acts of the Apostles
c. Book of Revelations
d. Romans


Quiz of the Day, December 17, 2017

Third Sunday of Advent is called "Gaudete" Sunday.  What does "gaudete" mean?

a. rose colored vestments
b. light the rose/pink candle
c. Rejoice
d. Prepare


Quiz of the Day, December 16, 2017

Who mourned over Jerusalem and wished that he could gather it children like a hen gathers her brood under her wing?

a. Jeremiah
b. David
c. Jesus
d. Hosea

Quiz of the Day, December 15, 2017

Which of the following is Zerubbabel known for?

a. disobeying Haggai
b. defeating Antiochus Epiphanes
c. rebuilding the Temple
d. bringing thousand back from exile in Persia

Quiz of the Day, December 14, 2017

Which of the following is not a writing of the Spanish mystic Juan de la Cruz?

a. Ascent of Mt. Carmel
b. The Spiritual Canticle
c. The Interior Castle
d. The Dark Night of the Soul

Quiz of the Day, December 13, 2017

The famous Neapolitan song "Santa Lucia" is inspired by what?

a. St. Lucy of Syracuse
b. Santa Lucia in the Bay of Naples
c. Dark days of winter
d. The celebration of light

Quiz of the Day, December 12, 2017

Where was John the Divine when he experienced his "divined" state of revelation?

a. Ephesus
b. Laodicea
c. Patmos
d. Thyatira

Quiz of the Day, December 11, 2017

Which of the following prophets received a message from God involving the masonry device of a plumb line?

a. Micah
b. Joel
c. Amos
d. Obadiah


Quiz of the Day, December 10, 2017

Which Gospel has the three songs: of Mary, of Zechariah and of Simeon?

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

Quiz of the Day, December 9, 2017

The Gospel of Mark begins with what?

a. birth narratives of Jesus
b. genealogy of Jesus on Mary's side
c. genealogy of Jesus on Joseph's side
d. the witness and ministry of John the Baptist

Quiz of the Day, December 8, 2017

In what book of the Bible is it written that Michael the Archangel contended with the devil over the body of Moses?

a. Revelations
b. Exodus
c. Daniel
d. Jude

Quiz of the Day, December 7, 2017

"Per saltum" ordination is "direct ordination" or the leaping over all ordained ministries to the one to which one was called.  Of the following who was baptized and made bishop in a most direct way?

a. Cyril
b Clement
c. Ambrose
d. Augustine

Quiz of the Day, December 6, 2017

The "real" Santa Claus was from where?

a. Holland
b. Lapland
c. Rome
d. Myra
e. Bari

Quiz of the Day, December 5, 2017

The eve of December 6, is a big gift giving day in which country the saint known as Sinterklaas?

a. England
b. The Netherlands
c. Belgium
d. Finland

Quiz of the Day, December 4, 2017

Which Christian saint is reported to have worked as an administrator for a Muslim Caliph?

a. Cyprian
b. John of Damascus
c. Gerontius
d. Pope John I

Quiz of the Day, December 3, 2017

The Advent Wreath, with candles, is a liturgical fixture in many Christian Churches.  Where and in what faith community did it originate?

a. England-Anglicanism
b. Ireland-Celtic Christian
c. Rome-Roman Catholic
d. Germany-Lutheranism
e. Constantinople-Orthodox Tradition

Quiz of the Day, December 2, 2017

Channing William Moore was a missionary bishop to what countries?

a. India and China
b. Hong Kong and Indonesia
c. China and Japan
d. Japan and Korea

Quiz of the Day, December 1, 2017

T.S. Eliot's poem about Little Gidding is about a place made noteworthy in church history by which of the following:

a. Oliver Cromwell
b. George Herbert
c. Nicolas Ferrar
d  William Shakespeare

Only One Bible Verse Needed

1 Christmas B      December 31, 2017

Is.61:10-62:3     Ps. 147:13-21

Gal. 3:23-25,4:4-7  John 1:1-18

Lectionary Link

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  The Word was God.  This is perhaps the only Bible verse that is needed.  Why?  It tells us the very basis of human life as we can know it.  Word is the grounding of human life in the most general sense.  But Word also needs particularity in that we need modelling for the very best possible use of human words. 

The Word was God is the most basic insight of all.  Why?  In a divine circularity of argumentation, Word is used to establish Word as that which is Primary, First Principle or in Greek, the "Arche" of all human existence. (In principio erat Verbum, Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, En archē ēn ho Lógos)

But you say, isn't Word itself simply metaphorical in that Words constantly refer to things that are not words?  Material things, non-material things, things out there,  things in here?   Indeed that is the very art of having words.  Art is the "as if" of using words to refer to things that are not words, even while to do so we have to use and be used by other words in the referring process.

I hope that I have convinced you of the sheer brilliant obviousness of the phrase and the WORD WAS GOD.

If we can accept the basic constitution of all of our life and life itself by word and within the web of words, then accepting that "arche" we can move on to deal with the most important word issue of all, namely, the quality of how we actually use words.

This is where the other biblical words come to play important roles for us.  This is where the example of holy people, saints and sages arise for us to find role models in how we should freely choose to use the words of our lives.

Part of the task of learning how to add quality to our word use in life is to undergo a word analysis of our lives to understand how we are passively used by words of our lives over which we had no control since in our naïve passive states we could not control how words came to us and how we became constituted by words, not of our mature adult or subsequent "enlightened" choosing.  We were not born in perfect word environments.  In our states of not yet being wise censors of our word exposure, we took on habits of word which encoded our lives into repetitions of language use in word and deed that we have come to recognize as lacking the kind of quality which we have come to see as wise, self-controlled, compassionate and just.

Part of interdicting bad word habits comes from understanding how we have taken on the repetitions of some bad language habits in word and in our body language deeds.   In psychological terms terms, one might look at how our desire became locked into body language deeds of "addiction."  Addictions are those repetitive body language deeds which are locked in by the power of desire and bring a person to be out of control and do and say things that one does not want to do or say.  Addictions can be on a continuum of mild lack of self control in matters not good for our health to the severe addictions that have stark health implications and social collateral damage.

In religious terms, the locking into behaviors of repetitions by the energy of desire might be called idolatry.  An irreligious life is the life of idolatry; it is the life of repeating the false belief that things other than God can be God.  Alcohol, drugs, food, careers, fame, glory can be the dangling carrot in front of us feigning the appearance of the divine and thus demanding the energy of our desire to achieve this feigned appearance.

If we can appreciate the "arche" or the First Principle of WORD BEING GOD, then we can begin to exercise the freedom that we know we have in being language users.  We can become free agents in censoring the kinds of influences that we allow to become a part of the composite inner word reservoir of our lives from which rises all repetitive behaviors in our body language.  This has become quite a task in our Informational Age when we have screaming at us the flood of a worded environment.  The age of the internet is the age of profuse word products and such a quantity seems to indicate that whatever can come to language should come to language as a product to be experienced by you and me and everyone.  Can one see how important it is to be the gate-keeper of the words one allows to have frequent entrance to contribute to the inner cauldron of fomenting words that can become possible future behaviors and future repeating behaviors?

So here's a recommendation for the New Year: 1-Accept WORD AS GOD.  2-Analyze how you have taken on word use in unhealthy addictive, repetitive behaviors in speaking, writing and body language deeds. 3-As a free agent language user, choose superlative models of word use.  Following John's Gospel, this means that we follow Jesus Christ because He was WORD MADE FLESH as a model person to help lead us from the bondage of sin, aka, addictive and repetitive habits of things not good for us or our society.

If we can accept Word as the basis of our lives, then in 2018 we will work on translations of how we use words together with each other into love, kindness, peace and justice for all.  Amen.