Sunday School, February 4, 2018 5 Epiphany B

Sunday School, February 4, 2018   5 Epiphany B

Themes:

Understanding Health

How many times do most people get sick in their lives?

If we live a long time, we get sick many times.

Sometimes it happens several times in a year.

A strong healthy child can have ear aches, strep throat and pink eye all in a month.

We get colds and we get the flu.

There are other kinds of sickness, like from an injury.  If we fall and get a sprain or a broken bone, we have to spend a longer time to recover.

We also have sickness that happen that not everyone can see.  We can be very sad and we can feel sick in our inside feelings.  If we don’t get enough to eat we can feel sick.  If we don’t get enough sleep, we can feel sick.  If we don’t drink enough water, we can feel sick.  We also can have allergies that sometimes make us feel sick.

So, we get sick and better many times in life.  And sometimes we have a sickness that stays with us for our entire lives like an allergy.

If we get sick and better many times in our lives, what is the meaning of health?

Jesus is known as a person who healed.  But the people who Jesus healed, still got sick again and again and eventually they died.

So, what does health and healing mean for Jesus?

Jesus healed the insides of people.  He healed their thoughts and their feelings and the deepest place inside of them, he healed their hearts and spirits.

And when your spirit is healed you have health, now and forever.  You have health even after you have died, because you have the promise that God is going to preserve and save your life.

Jesus also healed by starting a community of people who loved and cared for each other.  This is the greatest meaning of health.

Think about how you can health even when you can get sick many times in life?

Health is about how we care for each other and how God cares for us in this life and the next.    Health is knowing that God cares for us in this life and in the next and for now God gives us people who care for us and for the health of our hearts, souls, minds, feelings and our bodies.

Jesus is a healer because he showed us as persons and as a community to live in the most healthy way.

Sermon:

Today, we have read a story about how Jesus healed the mother-in-law of Simon Peter.  And if we read all  the stories about Jesus, we will read about how Jesus had the gift of healing.  He healed people with many, many problems.

  Jesus did have a special gift of healing.  To be able to help someone get well, is a very important gift to have.

  And even though you and I may never be able to heal people in the same way that Jesus did, we can learn to heal people in some very important ways.

  Did you know that an empty stomach is a great sickness?  Did you know that many men and women and children in our world do not have enough to eat?  So, if the people who have more than enough food help feed those who don’t have enough, then we are helping to heal the empty stomachs in our world.  People who don’t have enough to eat really feel sick.  And so we can help heal them.

  We can heal in other ways too.  When someone is hurt and crying, we can heal them by being kind to them.  When we make them feel better, we are helping to heal them.

  When people are fighting with each other, this too is like a sickness.  If we can help make peace and help to make people friendly with each other, then we can be healers, even though we are not doctors.

  When we can make people happy, give them joy and hope and faith, then we are helping to heal their lives.  Every person needs hope.  Hope means that we feel like we are going to live forever because we feel like God is inside of us in our hearts.

  And when we have this feeling that God is inside of us in our hearts, we call it salvation or health, or Good News.

  Jesus was a great healer because he was able to give people hope.  And when Jesus came back to life, he showed us that death isn’t the strongest thing in life.

  Today, we come here to celebrate the hope that Jesus has given to us.  And we also come here to remind each other that we are to help Jesus heal the people in this world who need to have hope and joy and faith.

  Jesus was a great healer and he was not even a doctor.  You and I can do many good things to help heal people as well.

  Can you help Jesus in healing this world?  You can by loving your neighbors and being kind to one another.  This is how we can help heal the many problems in our world.  Amen. 

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

February 4, 2018: The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany

Gathering Songs:  O Be Careful,  Alleluia, Give Thanks, Into My Heart, Do Lord 

Song: O Be Careful (Christian Children’s Songbook # 180)

O be careful little hands what you do.  O be careful little hands what you do.  There’s a father up above and he’s looking down in love so be careful little hands what you do.

O be careful little feet where you go. ……

O be careful little lips what you say….

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.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for 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

Liturgist:   A reading from the Prophet Isaiah

The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He does not faint or grow weary;

his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.  Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 147

Great is our LORD and mighty in power; * there is no limit to his wisdom.

The LORD lifts up the lowly, *  but casts the wicked to the ground.

Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; * make music to our God upon the harp.

  

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.

Jesus left the synagogue at Capernaum, and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, "Everyone is searching for you." He answered, "Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do." And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

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  Alleluia, Alleluia, Give Thanks, Hymn # 178, in the Blue Hymnal

Refrain: Alleluia, Alleluia, give thanks to the Risen Lord, Alleluia, Alleluia, give thanks to his Name.

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

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

3 We have been crucified with Christ.  Now we shall live forever. Refrain

4 Come, let us praise the living God, joyfully sing to our Savior. Refrain

Doxology

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

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

Prologue to the Eucharist

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

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of 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 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.  And sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so 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,

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: Into My Heart  (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 126)

Into my heart, into my heart, come into my heart Lord Jesus.  Come in today, come in to stay.  Come into my heart Lord Jesus.

Into our church, into our church, come into our church Lord Jesus.  Come in today, come in to stay.  Come into our church Lord Jesus.

Into our homes….

Into our work…

Into our lives…

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: Do Lord (Christian Children’s Songbook,  # 42)

I’ve got a home in glory land that outshine the sun.  I’ve got a home in glory land that outshines the sun. I’ve got a home in glory land that outshines the sun, way beyond the blue. 

Refrain: Do Lord, O do Lord, O do remember me.  Do Lord, O do Lord, O do remember me.  Do Lord, O do Lord, O do remember me, ‘way beyond the Blue..

I took Jesus as my savior, you take him too.  I took Jesus as my savior, you take him too.  I took Jesus as my savior, you take him too, ‘way beyond the blue.  Refrain

Dismissal   

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

People:      Thanks be to God! 

    

Aphorism of the Day, January 2018

Aphorism of the Day, January 31, 2018

The Gospel accounts place in a narrative of Jesus, the theology of the early church subscribing to the rhetorical truth that a story is a better way of teaching than didactic discourse.  Jesus told demons to be quiet about his identity.  Demons knew who Jesus was before most of the other characters presented in the Gospel.  The Gospels present Jesus as the one who was controlling his own script of life and one of the chief items on the script was that Jesus was also the Christ who was above all principalities and powers of darkness in heavenly places.  Those powers wanted to let his identity out before its proper stage entry.  Jesus in the Gospel is presented as the playwright of his own script and within this script the theology of the early church is being taught.

Aphorism of the Day, January 30, 2018

St. Paul's evangelistic methodology was, "I have become all things to all persons so that I might save some."  How much do we morph and refuse to wear our identities on our sleeves in order to persuade others about what we think is the good news of Christ?  Institutional Christianity is calcified Christian identities that seems to say, "We the institution will do nothing to persuade you; it is your option to enter the institution and follow our rules. You have to become all things to us according to our rules in order to be one of us."  It is amazing how informal and personal Pauline evangelism gets lost in calcified institutional Christianity.  The pride of success means you conform to us; we don't need you that much to change ourselves to reach out to attempt to open ourselves to the details of your life.  So goes mainline churches that complain about losing members and not growing even while doing nothing to "become all things to all people."

Aphorism of the Day, January 29, 2018

There is poignant irony in the greatness of God, humanly conceived as the sum total all of discursive practice (WORD).  The irony of God's greatness is that God's greatness is freedom and freedom is the inherent weakness of God.  If God wanted and could interdict all innocent suffering why doesn't it happen always?  The inherent weakness of God is permissive freedom since morality only has its telling value in the conditions of overall freedom.  One could say the biblical record is one of people trying to deal with reality of freedom being the inherent weakness of God, a weakness which permits human agony and ecstasy to occur, as well as all of the seemingly benign drudgery.  The New Testament Gospel writers understood unseen demons to be the mysterious cause of evil which beset many people.  A lucky few got to interact with the shamanic Jesus who from his invisible insides was able to instigate the reorganizations of the interior lives of those who were possessed.  Gospel writers placed in story form the Pauline belief that Christ was seated above the principalities in the invisible realm.  God as True Freedom, subjected Jesus to that Freedom in his death on the cross because what is true about Freedom is that there is always Some More occasions of freedom which have the power to open up the rewriting and reinterpretation of  the meanings of previous events of freedom.  The New Testament is written on the subsequent side of the resurrection appearances of Jesus and in the freedom of that subsequent resurrection the meanings of the cross of Jesus are re-written.  Freedom means that nothing is ever finally resolved; things are only constantly open to being resolved by surpassing occasions of freedom.

Aphorism of the Day, January 28, 2018

How does one classify a person who is very disruptive to the social order, even a threat and still maintain the humanity that is the essence of every person?  A disruptive person can be a person with an "unclean person" whose identity is made equal to his malady or he can be a person capable of great inner peace when Jesus met him without fear and did not see him as a "sick" person but as one who bore God's image. 

Aphorism of the Day, January 27, 2018

In the time of Jesus the Palestine Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) had a limited scope of diagnostic categories.  One categories seemed to fit all disordered mental and physical disease:  The devil did it through the agencies of fallen angels, demons and "unclean" spirits.  The Jesus cure seem to come in one dramatic event of exorcism and we don't know if the person then lived happily ever after, we mostly know about the event of Jesus casting out the unclean spirit.  Though there was expressed some doubt about the finality of the "cure" because the little imps could return to the person with sevenfold fury.  In our current day of mental health crises of addictions to opioids and the casting out of the "unclean depressed spirit" through psychotropics and the dispensing with the long process of the "talking cure" of psychoanalysis we probably should note that what is lacking is genuine befriending between people as the curing fellowship of being together in ways that includes everyone with their idiosyncratic gifts and infirmities.  The church as such a fellowship is increasingly avoided because people can no longer tolerate each other in healthful ways.

Aphorism of the Day, January 26, 2018

St. Paul believed that an interior cosmic battle was going on with principalities and powers and spiritual forces in heavenly places.  Winning the battle in the "interior" heaven came before the will of God was done on earth (in the exterior world).  The Gospels present Jesus as the most direct expression of God's will being done on earth and as one who whispered the man with the unclean spirit.   The early church presented Jesus as an heroic "ghostbuster."  The "ghostbusting" of Jesus signified that he was a Cosmic Victor.

Aphorism of the Day, January 25, 2018

There can be something unreal about the Gospel stories of Jesus in that they can be read as focusing upon the event of the intervention of Jesus to "save" the day.  Readers are not left with much of the aftermath and one can seem to think that naively "everyone lives happily ever after."  An addict might find the event with a Higher Power to begin to attain sobriety but for most addicts, life does not become "happily ever after" because sobriety becomes the daily work.  Jesus "heals" the person with an "unclean" spirit and we celebrate the magical realism of this account of our hero and we can be fooled to believe it represents the normal continuous experience of the "power" of God.  The man with unclean spirit could have wished for the prior healing power of Jesus never to be in such a psychological state in the first place.  Why didn't the miracle of God work so that such a miracle was not needed in the first place?  Hero stories, past and present, seem to freeze the heroic event and disregard the duration of the times of life filled with diversity of human experience that cannot be lived continuously in peak events of the miracle.  The writings of Paul are filled more with the everyday drudgery of Christian living; the Gospels came to their form later than the writings of Paul and are "root event" oriented as explanation as to why the Jesus Movement was on the way to becoming a rather monster snowball careening down the slope of human history.

Aphorism of Day, January 24, 2018

Societies that survive do so in part because of might be called today, Public Health systems.  The history of humanity includes lots of different promulgations and practices of "public health."  In the Hebrew tradition an entire system of classification for things "clean"=healthy and permitted and things, and "unclean"=unhealthy and not permitted, evolved and developed.  Something unclean had to be avoided or if not the one who was in contact with the "unclean" had to be quarantined or shunned until such a person could be ritually purify and restored to the state of "cleanness" as defined by community authorities.  A person with an unclean spirit showing up at the synagogue would of course set off every religious and social fire alarm.  Jesus, the people whisperer, and Fireman put the fire out and people were in awe of his authority and lack of fear for this person who was "unclean" at the center of his being.  People are supposed to run away from a fire but a Fire fighter is one who runs to the fire to exert authority over it.  As such, a Fire fighter is a liminal figure between the threat of a fire and safe distance from the harmful effects of a fire.  Jesus was a liminal figure between the community of the "clean" and the "unclean" in that he had the authority to deal with the harm without destroying the persons affected by the harmful state. Jesus could see the "clean" image of God on each person and people saw in Jesus the icon of their restoration.

Aphorism of the Day, January 23, 2018

The Psalmist's prayer request: Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me.  The early church was about receiving the "Holy (most clean) Spirit at the heart of one's life and as fulfillment of this ancient but always contemporary prayer request.  Some hearts and spirits in people were characterized as being "unclean" and designated as "demonic," meaning that the controlling impulse of one's life had become a personal force of alienation compelling harm to self and others.  The Gospels present Jesus as a People and spirit whisperer and as the one who could baptize with the Holy Spirit.

Aphorism of the Day, January 22, 2018

Societies form classification systems to describe who and what is healthy and beneficial to society.  In the ancient societies represented in the Hebrew Scriptures things and states of persons were classified as clean or unclean.  The unclean had to be restricted from harming or co-mingling with the clean to "protect" the clean.  There were segregatory rules to uphold social quarantines.  Hence a person who was regarded to be really "messed" up inside because that person acted out of control in a way perceived as dangerous to others, was regarded to a have an "unclean" spirit.  Jesus was shone to be a healer offering the Higher Power to interdict and bring "cleanness" to the inner lives of people.  And the ultimate bill of good health was seen as the presence of the Holy (Most Clean) Spirit in one's life to impart divine sanity.

Aphorism of the Day, January 21, 2018

A call from God can be general or specific.  A specific call pertains to the sense of attraction and engagement in a specific mission and such a mission has a duration in time and may end.  One might say that the general call of God always has particular call even if it may be a call to wait in a time of "limbo" between specific missions of ministry.  The call to "wait" and see what to do next is also a valid call.  In the call of God "waiting" can be an action verb and a mission and a time when self reflection might be the preparation for the next "deployment."

Aphorism of the Day, January 20, 2018

From the highly informal and charismatic call of Jesus to his disciples derived the entire institutionalization of religious "calls" within the church.  The call of Jesus goes from being a personal event of teacher-student engagement into a highly regulated administrative canonical process of ordination.  The early church list many "charismatic" gifts and ministries in the church that eventually become crowded out by the "official" three-fold ministries of bishop, priest and deacon.  A Movement grew to be a large Institution because of success and the need to consolidate and organize large numbers of converts.  Seeing a bishop or pope on a "throne" ordaining clergy seems a long way from the charismatic Jesus calling fishermen to follow him.  What is needed is the recovery of the personal interaction of a call and the leveling of the institutional hierarchy of the call into the one and equal call that is publicly validated in the church in baptism.  Baptism expresses the main Christian call; ministries are lesser calls into the different ways in which a person articulates within church and society one's baptismal calling.

Aphorism of the Day, January 19, 2018

One way of understanding the general call of God to everyone is through the ancient metaphor of the image of the divine being upon each person.  In the metaphor of "original sin" one finds an explanation as to why people cannot honor the divine image upon one's life.  One replaces the divine image with the social constructed "ego" who seems to sit upon the perceptual throne of one's own universe.  This socially constructed ego bears the imperfections of those who are equally imperfect egos and who have modeled or nurtured the construction of one's ego.  The Christ arises as one on whom can be projected the hidden real self, the self of the divine image.  Projecting upon Christ and the Christ-like in our environment activates the self of the divine image within us and calls us to engage in as much Christ-like mission to fully recover and express the self of the divine image from which we have been alienated.

Aphorism of the Day, January 18, 2018

The official ordained ministries of the church in practice has often led to a clericalism seen in the diminishment of lay ministry and lay people having a valid "call and vocation" in their Christian life.  In practice the lay persons call was manifested in obeying the "official call" of Christ found in the ministries of the clergy.  One of the recoveries articulated in the various liturgical reformations which took place after Vatican II was the recovery of baptism as the equal call of Christ to everyone.  Everyone is equal in baptism; a baby articulates his or her equal baptismal calling differently than a bishop.

Aphorism of the Day, January 17, 2018

The call of Christ is an Epiphany because it instantiates the Cosmic Call of God found in all of creation with context specific call have personal events and duration in the times and places of individual people.  Jesus Christ is the divination of Anthropomorphic Word whereby we become honest about human words being valid way to assign and confess God as the highest value that can come to Word as Word expresses equality with the Divine.

Aphorism of the Day, January 16, 2018

Epiphany is the season of the call of Christ.  The Jesus Movement had to start somewhere and with some people.  The main Person was Jesus who had a magnetic charisma but persons responded to it in varying ways.  When the response resulted in a mutual relationship a call reached the tipping point of one being ordained for a mission.  The Gospel includes accounts of more than twelve people being called and sent by Jesus.  The twelve were significant because in space-time relationships of three years only a few people could have a really close proximal relationship with Jesus.  The twelve as a number was symbolically important in the early church leaders interpreting the church as the "new Israel" with new family patriarchs.  In actual relationships, it would seem Mary Magdalene, Mary, Martha and Lazarus of Bethany and the mysterious "beloved disciple" of John's Gospel were the closest to Jesus.

Aphorism of the Day, January 15, 2018

Peter, Andrew, James and John were all fishermen who left the family businesses to follow Jesus.  The call of Christ has always given another option for people to develop some other kinds of personal gifts than they would have had opportunity for if they had stayed in the expected roles determined by local and family contexts.

Aphorism of the Day, January 14, 2018

One of the frightening effects of regional and provincial bias is the fearful ignorance that does not permit us to find future excellence outside of our familiar "forty acres" of our personal experience.  Nathaniel had a bias against meeting Jesus when he said, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"  Fortunately Philip coaxed him to come and see Jesus or he would have miss the greatest event of personal enlargement in his life.

Aphorism of the Day, January 13, 2018

Did Jesus use the metaphor of Jacob's ladder to describe himself?  He told Nathaniel that he would see the angels descend and ascend upon the Son of Man.  In John 1, Word is God and Word is perhaps the ladder of passage between the seen world and the unseen world and "angels" or messengers, are perhaps the personified "messages" which ascend and descend upon the very existence of Word as God as that which arises from the great within to interact with the great without.

Aphorism of the Day, January 12, 2018

A task for Christians today is to drop some of the baggage which has accrued about Christians, Christianity and Evangelism.  Too much evangelism is mainly about how "my church is better than others" so you should join us.  Evangelical comes from the Greek word meaning "good news" and its root is in the prophet Isaiah who wrote about good news coming to the poor, the blind, the oppressed and the prisoners.  When Jesus read this passage, in his homily he said, "My life represents these "good news" values written about by Isaiah.  If our Gospel is about ourselves and our churches and not about the love and justice of Christ coming to those who need it, we are missing the point.

Aphorism of the Day, January 11, 2018

Copper wire is a fine conductor of electricity but if there is no electricity it loses it purpose.  In evangelism, we are to be conductors for the Electric Christ to reach others.  John's Gospels presents John the Baptist, Andrew and Philip as those who conducted or introduced others to Christ.  In our day of  televangelist fame and megachurch stars, it seems as evangelists are "putting the copper wire in place of the electricity," and that is not a good substitution.  Evangelists and their membership and bankrolls are swelling and one wonders if the Electric Christ has been conducted somewhere out of sight in the silent anonymity of hearts of people who are unimpressed with the "public show" of religion.

Aphorism of the Day, January 10, 2018

One of the most personal and intimate meanings of the Epiphany is experienced in the call of Christ known as becoming a disciple, a student of Jesus in a process of having one's life be mentored by the influences of Jesus Christ.  The call of Christ might be called an event of mutual Epiphany: The one called is manifested to the Caller even as the Caller is manifested to the life of the one called.  Nathaniel, had a regional bias.  When told about the hometown of Jesus he replied: "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?"  This skeptic was seen by Jesus while under a fig tree and Jesus noticed him from afar.  Nathaniel became manifest to Jesus in the gaze of Jesus and the skeptic Nathaniel became a friend of Jesus because Jesus noticed him.  Evangelism is a special gift of how we notice each other because we've experienced the gift of being "noticed" by Christ.

Aphorism of the Day, January 9, 2018

The assumption of people of faith is that there is a great Being, God and that great being, is actually interested in the well-being of lesser being  and that interest is known in God seeking out lesser beings as God being a participant through representation within the conditions of freedom governing all lesser beings.  The assumption is that God as the greatest knows all lesser beings in an appreciative way because God see the "telos" of the surpassing end of what lesser beings can become.  God's "epiphany" about human beings is knowing us and loving us and calling us to what God's knows we can become.  God's calling is a coaxing love to us to exercise our freedom in the best possible way in the direction of constantly surpassing ourselves in excellence.  While the Epiphany might be about how God in Christ is manifest to all people; such resides in the great-Counter Epiphany of how human beings are manifest, known, loved and appreciated by God.  God has an Epiphany of each of us, in that we presume that God loves us.

Aphorism of the Day, January 8, 2018

Epiphany refers the entire process of how people came to be persuaded about Christ.  Persuasion or "pistos" in Greek was the goal of Aristotelian rhetoric.  In New Testament Greek, "pistos" is the word for faith and one can note the relationship between the old and new meanings, i.e., faith means that which one has become persuaded about such that one's life practice is transformed around the events of meaning that evoked the persuasion.  Faith is the kind of persuasion that is attractive enough to get to one's motivational center.  Faith motivates desire and desire that projects upon worthy subject matter leads one from idolatry to enjoyment without slavish attachments.

Aphorism of the Day, January 7, 2018

The New Testament language for Jesus is diverse.  It varies from particular events in the life of Jesus when he is presented as doing ordinary human things like accepting solidarity in receiving a baptism by John the Baptist.  But there is also the poetic Cosmic Christ who is the metaphor for everything that is.  Such expansion from particular person to expansive "Word from the Beginning" and "All and in All," is the poetic hyperbole in the confession ecstasy of people who cry "Christ in me, the hope of glory."  I don't see Christ "out there" as an idol, but Christ is hidden even as the Christ nature lives and sees through me.  From the mysticism of Paul about the "Christ nature" came the return to the Jesus nature found in narratives of the Gospels.  The irony is that some do not return from the Jesus narrative to the "Christ nature mysticism;" they remain with an external Jesus of history and miss the point of the Gospels to lead us to find the "Christ nature" within us.

Aphorism of the Day, January 6, 2018

The subtitle of the Epiphany is The Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles.  This subtitle probably sums up the paradigm change which brought about the separation of the Jesus Movement from the synagogue.  In Judaism, the way living the Torah could become the way of living for a person not born into a Jewish family.  A non-Jew could undergo a water rite and conform to the ritual customs of Judaism and become a "Jew."  The early Christian leaders who saw the "charismatic" effects that happened in Gentile persons who heard the message of Christ did not require that such "charismatic" effect be publicly "ratified" by conforming to the ritual purity requirements of Judaism, save the water rite of baptism.  The dispensing of the requirements of the purity requirements of Judaism for the Gentiles followers of Jesus Christ meant that the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles resulted in the separation of "Christians" from the synagogues.  As such, the Epiphany represents the first great paradigm shift and this shift defines the birth of a new faith community.

Aphorism of the Day, January 5, 2018

Understanding discursive practice on the continuum of the particular to the most general one can survey the presentations of Jesus the Christ.  Jesus is a particular person and yet the Risen Christ in metaphorical generality becomes the omni-presence Christ nature who is all and in all. ( Col. 3: 11 ἀλλὰ τὰ πάντα καὶ ἐν πᾶσιν Χριστός-"but Christ is all, in all)  The presentation of Jesus is one who spoke particular words but he is also presented  in the most general sense as the pre-existent eternal Word from the beginning.  If one tries to isolate the particular from the general on the continuum one commits the falsehood of idolatry.  If one tries to isolate the general from the particular on the continuum then one commits the falsehood of denying that the general resides in being an abstraction from the quantity of the cases of particulars.  Slip and slide on the continuum but do not deny the great inclusive continuum of being within Word and knowing that one exists generally and particularly because of Word.  If one denies that language mysticism undergirds the biblical witness, one is trying to assert particular and general while denying the Continuum.

Aphorism of the Day, January 4, 2018

How do occasions of living become valued vis a vis other events of human experience?  Human experience, known by living the field of language, gets differentiated when we use language to classify experiential events/occasions and place value on them and even place "hierarchical" value on them because we compare and say, "From this perspective, this is better than that."  In the valuing processes in being merely human and using and being used by language, we by language set up a value system for events that stand out as sublime, and so we use the words epiphany and theophany to designate such experiences.  And such words attain particular and specific definition within the particular fields of traditions of using language to categorize religious experience.  The Epiphany as a day and season in the church calendar sums up both general and particular religious experience of Jesus Christ.  The church as a community happened because there was replicated in human experience events of the sublime characterized by language such as receiving the Holy Spirit or having Christ born within one's life.  The observation of this phenomenon helped and naming of the general phenomenon of the Epiphany and the promulgation of the same has provided the language of classification for individuals to continue to have particular events to be labeled as Christo-centric epiphanies.

Aphorism of the Day, January 3, 2018

The arrival of the magi symbolizes the church teaching that Jesus is the wisdom of God and those who are wise and seek wisdom, even being foreign and from afar will find the wisdom of God in Christ.  Christ as Wisdom is the occasion for continuous Epiphany.

Aphorism of the Day, January 2, 2018

We head toward the day of Epiphany, which is "Christmas" on the Julian calendar.  The arrival of the magi in Bethlehem is the lesson of the day, and this is a will have become story of the early church.  What will have become as a result of Jesus Christ?  The church will have become primarily a Gentile church because the Gentiles have arrived at the birth of the Risen Christ in their lives and they will have honored him with gifts signifying how they have come to value the birth of Christ in them.  The Gospels are the cryptic stories of Jesus written to hide what the church "will have become" in the 8-10 decades after Jesus.

Aphorism of the Day, January 1, 2018

In the first week of January, the church commemorates two days of initiation and identity in the life of Jesus.  His naming/circumcision and his baptism.  Circumcision was a secret mark of identity for Jewish males, public to their community, but private in how it marked the identity that Jewish males carried about themselves when they reached the age of knowing how they were "different."  The baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist was an event of publicly identifying his solidarity with John and his community.  Even as John the Baptist recognized the "uniqueness" of Jesus, Jesus was humble in taking membership in John's community, perhaps the "proto-church."

Quiz of the Day, January 2018

Quiz of the Day, January 31, 2018

Which of the following is not true about Abraham?

a. his original name was Abram
b. he heard God tell him to sacrifice his son
c. he present his wife to the Pharaoh and his sister
d. he was the first Jewish person in the Bible
e. circumcision originated with him

Quiz of the Day, January 30, 2018

Of the following which pairs were not brothers?

a. Isaac and Ishmael
b. Jacob and Esau
c. Joseph and Benjamin
d. Manasseh and Reuben

Quiz of the Day, January 29, 2018

What biblical figure turned into a pillar of salt?

a. Ramses the Pharaoh in one of the plagues
b. Korah
c. Lot's wife
d. the prophet of Baal who opposed Elijah

Quiz of the Day, January 28, 2018

Why did Abraham want God to spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah?

a. his nephew Lot and family lived there
b. it was part of the land that God had promise to him
c. Sarah's nephew Lot lived there
d. Abraham sold most of his flock in the markets there


Quiz of the Day, January 27, 2018

What did Abram and Sarai do when God's messengers told them that they were going to have a baby in their advanced age?

a. composed a song of praise
b. told their relatives
c. laughed
d. tried to help by obtaining Hagar as a surrogate mother

Quiz of the Day, January 26, 2018

Who of the following was not a colleague or companion of St. Paul?

a. Silas
b. Barnabas
c. Titus
d. Timothy
e. Nicodemus
f. John Mark

Quiz of the Day, January 25, 2018

The metaphor "Damascus Road Experience" derived from which New Testament personality?

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

Quiz of the Day, January 24, 2018

Who was the biblical Hagar?

a. wife of Abram
b. mother of Ishmael
c. recipient of a theophany
d. slave of Sarai who was mistreated by her
e. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, January 23, 2018

Which of the following is not true of Phillips Brooks?

a. he wrote "O Little Town of Bethlehem"
b. he was Bishop of Massachusetts
c. he preached at Abraham Lincoln's funeral in Washington
d. he preached against slavery
e. he preached long sermons which were published

Quiz of the Day, January 22, 2018

In the text of Genesis, Melchizedek, was given a tithe by Abram aka Abraham.  How is the identity of Melchizedek listed in the book of Genesis?

a. High Priest of Salem
b. Judge of Salem
c. King of Salem
d. Patriarch of Salem

Quiz of the Day, January 21, 2018

Why did Paul rebuke Peter?

a. for not accepting the Gentile Mission
b. for hypocrisy in his interaction with Jewish and Gentile Christians
c. for not observing purity rules in Judaism
d. for differences on the circumcision requirement

Quiz of the Day, January 20, 2018

Who was the man who was elected to be the Pope when he was a layman and his selection was partially due to a dove landing on him in the middle of a crowd?

a. Fabian
b. Gregory I
c. Leo I
d. Pius I

Quiz of the Day January 19, 2018

Who was the father of Abra(ha)m?

a. Terah
b. Haran
c. Nahor
d. Melchizedek

Quiz of the Day, January 18, 2018

Peter's confession to Jesus, "You are the Christ, the Son of God" was inspired but what elements in its presentation indicates that Peter needed something more than inspiration?

a. Jesus rebuked him by saying, "Get behind me, Satan"
b. Peter did not understand the kind of Messiah Jesus was going to be
c. Peter wanted a triumphant Davidic King, not a Suffering Servant Messiah
d. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, January 17, 2017

Whom of the following is called the "Father of all Monks?"

a. Anthony of Padua
b. Anthony of the Desert
c. Anthony of Egypt
d. Anthony of Thebes
e. Anthony the Great
f. all of the above except a

Quiz of the Day, January 16, 2018

Whom of the following is most responsible for the revival of Anglican monastic orders?

a. King Henry VIII
b. King Charles I
c. Richard Benson and Charles Gore
d. Joseph Cowley, founder of the "Cowley Fathers"

Quiz of the Day, January 15, 2018

Why is there two possible commemorations for the Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Episcopal Calendar of saints?

a. one on his birth date and one on the anniversary of his death
b. one for the national holiday and one on the anniversary of his death
c. one for the national holiday and one on the anniversary of his birth
d. one for the dedication date of his memorial and one for the national holiday

Quiz of the Day, January 14, 2018

In the stable of biblical hothead personalities, which of the twelve disciples were given the nickname by Jesus, "sons of thunder?"

a. Peter and Andrew
b. Philip and Thomas
c. James and John
d. Peter and Thomas

Quiz of the Day, January 13, 2018

Who were the biblical Nephilim?

a. a pre-Flood race of giants born from heavenly beings and women
b. foes of Israel across the Jordon River
c. Cain's descendents
d. foes of Noah's building of the ark

Quiz of the Day, January 12, 2018

Aelred of Rievaulx might be called the saint of which of the following?

a. Gregorian Chant
b. Monastic Rule
c. Holy friendships
d. Monastic theology

Quiz of the Day, January 11, 2018

Nathaniel is often identified as which of the 12 disciples?

a. Thaddaeus
b. Bartholomew
c. Jude
d. Matthew


Quiz of the Day, January 10, 2018

Which of the follow might best characterized William Laud's view of church and state?

a. establishmentarian
b. disestablishmentarian
c. antidisestablishmentarian
d. Arminian Calvinist

Quiz of the Day, January 9, 2018

The statements of belief of which Creed is used in question and answer form for the baptismal vows of the Book of Common Prayer?

a. Nicene Creed
b. Apostles' Creed
c. Chalcedonian Creed
d. Athanasian Creed

Quiz of the Day, January 8, 2018

Who of the following responded to the voice of God in the night, "Speak Lord, for your servant is listening?"

a. Moses
b. Paul
c. Jesus
d. Samuel
e. David
f. unknown person in the Psalms

Quiz of the Day, January 7, 2018

What is the meaning of "mikvah?"

a. a Jewish prayer shawl
b. ritual immersion bath in Judaism
c. the Hebrew name of the altar in the tabernacle
d. the name for the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea

Quiz of the Day, January 6, 2017

Which of the following is not a theme of the day and season of the Epiphany?

a. Baptism of Jesus
b. The visit of the Magi
c. The calling of the 12 disciples
d. The changing of water to wine by Jesus at a wedding in Cana

Quiz of the Day, January 5, 2018

Why is January 6th "Christmas" for many Christians in the world?

a. theological disagreement between the Eastern and Western Churches
b. Pope Gregory the Great changed the date
c. the Eastern Church reacted against using the pagan solstice date
d. the retaining of the date in the Julian calendar

Quiz of the Day, January 4, 2018

Whom of the following American Catholic saints has a university named after her/him?

a. Katharine Drexel
b. Elizabeth Ann Seton
c. Dorothy Day
d. Vincent R. Capadanno
e. a and b


Quiz of the Day, January 3, 2018

What biblical figure raised people from the dead, did not die, parted waters and called down fire from the sky to consume animal sacrifices?

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

Quiz of the Day, January 2, 2018

Who issued a personal threat to the life of the prophet Elijah?

a. Ahab
b. Jezebel
c. the priests of Baal
d. the king of Judah

Quiz of the Day, January 1, 2018

What happened to Jesus on the "eighth" day of Christmas?

a. he made the flight to Egypt
b. he returned from the flight to Egypt
c. he was visited by the Magi
d. he was circumcised