Sunday School, March 4, 2018 3 Lent B

Sunday School, March 4, 2018    3 Lent B

Theme:

10 Commandments

In our world today, we don’t use instruction manuals.  When we want to put something together or fix something, we just Google it and find a video on Youtube to show us someone giving and showing us specific instruction on how to put things together and how things work.

In the time of the Bible there were no videos.  What did God give to this world to show men and women and boys and girls how to live life in the best way.

God inspired the famous Ten Commandment as an old-fashioned video for how people should live.

Answer these questions:

How can I show God that I love God the most?

What things am I tempted to value more than God?

How can I misuse God’s name wrong?  When do I say I love God and yet I do not act as if I do?

What special time do I give to God to show and prove that I love God?

What do I do to show that I respect my parents?

What do I do to honor the marriage promises of others?

What do I do to show that I respect the value of life?

What do I do to show that I value what is true?

What do I do to show that I respect the property of other people?

What do I do to show that I am thankful and content with my life?

If you answer these question, then you can understand how the 10 Commandments are teaching you how to live your life in the very best way.

Sermon:

  When you get a new car, or new television, or new set a Legos, or a new bike, what do you get with them?

  You get a book or an instruction manual.  This manual tells you how to put something together.  This book tells us how to take care of our car, our bicycle or our toys.  It tells how to treat our car or bicycle or toy to keep it from breaking.

  When a baby is born, do mommy and daddy receive an instruction manual about how to take care of a baby?  Well, yes, we have many books that tell us how to take care of babies.  And we have books to tell us how to take care of young children, teen age children, young adults, middle age people and older people too.

  And there is a very famous instruction manual for how all people should live.  We read it today.  It is called the 10 commandments.  If we want to live a good life, then we will try to follow the 10 commandments.

  If God made us, then we need to make God the most important thing in our lives.  And that means everything else is less important than God.  And how do we make God important in our lives.  We give God time by thinking about God and by praying and by worshipping God when we gather together.  And if we make God important, then we won’t misuse God’s name.  If we make God very important in our lives, then we all also know how to live with each other?

  And how are we to live with each other?  We respect our parents and families.  We respect the importance of everyone’s life.  We respect the things that belong to each other.  We respect marriage.  We tell the truth.  And we learn to be happy and contented with the good things that God has given us.

  Those are the 10 commandments that God has given us.

  And if you can’t remember all 10 commandments, Jesus gave us two commandments that will help us to always know what to do with our lives.

  Jesus said, We should love God, with all of our hearts, our mind and our strength.  And he said that we should love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

  Love God, love our neighbors, and love our selves.  Can you remember that?  If you can remember these three things, you will always know how to live a very good life.  Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Holy Eucharist

March 4, 2018: Third Sunday in Lent

Gathering Songs:

  Jesus in the Morning; Let All That Is Within Me,  Ubi Caritas; Oh, When the Saints

Opening Song: Jesus in the Morning, (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 134)

1.         Jesus, Jesus, Jesus in the morning, Jesus at the noontime.  Jesus, Jesus, Jesus when the sun goes down.

2.         Love him…

3.         Praise him…

4.         Serve him…

Liturgist: Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins.

People: His mercy endures 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

Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Praise the Lord

O God, you are Great!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have made us! Praise the Lord

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Praise the Lord

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

A Reading from the Book of Exodus

Then God spoke all these words: you shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself an idol, You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Honor your father and your mother, You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet. 

The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 29

The law of the LORD is perfect and revives the soul; * the testimony of the LORD is sure
and gives wisdom to the innocent.

The statutes of the LORD are just and rejoice the heart; * the commandment of the LORD is clear
and gives light to the eyes.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:

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

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

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

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

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

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

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

For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.

   Thanks be to God!

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

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!" His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me." The Jews then said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews then said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?" But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father Phil

Children’s Creed

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

Since God is so great and we are so small,

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

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

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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

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

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

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

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

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

People:            And also with you.

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

Offertory Song:  Let All That Is within Me,  (Renew! # 262) 

1-Let all that is within me cry, “Holy,” Let all that is within me cry, “Holy.”  Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lamb that was slain.

2-Let all that is within me cry, “Glory,” Let all that is within me cry, “Glory,” Glory, Glory, Glory to the Lamb that was slain.

3-Let all that is within me cry “Jesus,”  Let all that is within me cry, “Jesus,” Jesus, Jesus, Jesus is the Lamb that was slain.

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 the celebration of our birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

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

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

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

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

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

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

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

(All may gather around the altar)

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

You have made us in your image

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

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

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

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

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

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

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Bless and sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we might 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 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:       Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast. 

Word of Administration.

Communion Hymn: Ubi Caritas (Renew! # 226)

Ubi caritas et amor, ubi caritas, Deus ibi est.

(Repeat during communion)

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: When the Saints Go Marching in, (Christian Children’s Songbook,  # 248)

Oh when the saints go marching in.  Oh when the saints go marching in.  Lord I want to be in that number.  When the saints go marching in.

Oh when the girls go marching in…

Oh when the boys go marching in..

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Aphorism of the Day, February 2018

Aphorism of the Day, February 28, 2018

If a metaphor for the Eternal Christ is the Word being with God and being God, then our religious life is about finding the "signature" of the divine within the events of our lives.  How are we at reading the divine authorship behind, under and within the events of our lives and the life of the world.  The most awesome Signature of the Divine is called Freedom.  The answer to almost any question is that Freedom permits it to come to be.  But Freedom is so conforming, like the strength of flowing water around all objects; It can receive impressions and yet be much stronger than what it surrounds.

Aphorism of the Day, February 27, 2018

If human life as we know it occurs because it is created by Word, then we hope that the Author of such creation leaves a divine signature upon creation so that the sentient language users might be able to recognize the Playwright of their lives.  Signs of the Playwright authorial status appear in the script of life where genuine freedom allows lots of ad libbing to be going on and when ad libbing threatens to ruin the preferred ending corrective signs or cues are given to get the "play" going in the right direction again.

Aphorism of the Day, February 26, 2018

Events in history that represent significant change or turning points might be called milestones.  In the Gospel of John, such turning points might be called signs.  A sign identifies or places meaning on a event.  When Jesus cleansed the Temple from the institutional commercialism, he was asked for a sign.  He responded enigmatically that his body was the Temple that would be destroyed and restored in three day.  Truly the cross of Jesus has become an historical sign.

Aphorism of the Day, February 25, 2018

If the Bible is indeed a book for all humanity, those who use the Bible need to find a permissive place in the Bible for all humanity.  Paul looked to the pre-Jewish Abraham to articulate the kind of faith the Gentiles could have without having the benefit of the traditions of the Mosaic Law.  Paul found the Hebrew Scripture permissive for the kind of faith Gentile Christians were living out.  If Scripture includes the phrase, "God is love," then it is a permissive and inviting book for everyone even if all the cultural details of the Bible are not universally applicable to all cultures.

Aphorism of the Day, February 24, 2018

Tradition is a word that we use to speak about the words which have come to constitute our self-identities.  We take on our traditions in passive ways because we don't have a choice for the situations that we are born into.  Becoming an adult means the expression of greater freedom of choice in actively selecting, developing and participating within the traditions of identity in our lives.  The Holy Scriptures provide the salvation history of many faith traditions that have used them to form their community identity.

Aphorism of the Day, February 25, 2018

One might understand textual dynamics of the Gospel using concentric circles.  The Gospel writers would be in the outer circle as final editors of story and traditions.  They were already practitioners of traditions which they were teaching and passing on and so they told the story of the life of Jesus as a parable to instantiate and give authority to their church practices.  Anything that originated in Jesus had authority.  The stories about Jesus would be represented as a circle within the greater circle of the Gospel writers.  And then the "parables" of Jesus would be a further interior circle.  Subsequent church traditions have added other rings representing the editorial selection of inherited tradition to support the needs and the practices of the Christian community at any given time.  Jesus told the parable about a Good Samaritan as though he were really a person who existed even though he was artistic invention for teaching purpose.  The Gospel writers told parables of Jesus as artistic invention to illustrate and inculcate the liturgy, spirituality and values of the practice within their community.  The difference between the Good Samaritan and Jesus in levels of story telling is that Jesus really existed as specific person and the Good Samaritan did not.  Parables can be about fictional people and about actual people and both be "true" in the sense that they are honest to message of the story teller and the mode of telling.

Aphorism of the Day, February 22, 2018

Belief and confession can be held wrongly or incompletely.  When Peter confessed Jesus to be the Messiah, the ironic response from Jesus was both "flesh and blood did not reveal this to you," and "get behind me Satan."  Peter wanted his messiah to be the superhero kingly bouncer of the universe.  He did not understand how God's strength could be found in the suffering Jesus on the cross.  And who could blame him?  This Gospel vignette highlights the division regarding Jesus.  The "human or natural" understanding was that a Messiah could not suffer the indignity of death on a cross.  The divine understanding, i.e., that of the early church was that the cross and resurrection combination defined messiahship for Christians.

Aphorism of Day, February 21, 2018

The research of family trees is called genealogy.  We are curious about where we came from.  The New Testament, in part, is a genealogy of faith, belief and practice because the New Testament writers use the Hebrew Scriptures as a study in the genealogy of Christian ideas.  Gospel, messiah, holy spirit, Son of God, Son of Man, suffering servant and much more had their roots in Hebrew Scripture.  But all of these notions mean something completely different to the tradition of Judaism that was retained in the synagogue and did not convert to the Christian paradigm which redefined the meaning of Hebrew Scriptural notions in their innovations.  Christians and Jews are people who are divided by having a common Hebrew Scriptures due to the fact that Christians have given the Hebrew Scripture a complete "make over."

Aphorism of the Day, February 20, 2018

Juridical practice, in part, is based upon the compilation of case law in what is called "precedence."  This practice is the appeal to past practice of decisions in case law as a basis for determining present decisions.  Precedence is how human community expresses continuity with past in establishing the authority for belief and practice in the new situations now.  The writers of the books of the New Testament used the Hebrew Scriptures as "precedence" for establishing why they believed that Jesus of Nazareth and his followers, and even the devotees in the Gentile peoples, were in valid continuity with Hebrew Scripture traditions.  Historically, one might say that the Jews who remained in the synagogue traditions of Judaism maintain a different "continuity" than did the Christian expositors.  The differences in the use of the Hebrew Scriptures as "precedence" for current and future faith practice reveals ingredients of two different faith paradigms.  Gentile Christianity represented the call and the evangelistic effort to make the faith tradition as universally accessible as possible and St. Paul used the Pre-Jewish Abrahamic (father of faith for many nations) covenant as the way to write new faith precedence into the traditions derived from Hebrew Scriptures.

Aphorism of the Day, February 19, 2018

The New Testament is an "apology" for why Christians can consider themselves to be valid heirs of the Hebrew Scriptures even when the churches mainly became Gentiles in composition who were not required to follow the ritual purity codes of Judaism.

Aphorism of the Day, February 18,2018

Temptation and sin are mainly about timing and mistiming of what we do and say in our lives.  When and what we do and say and how many times that we do and say something sum up the stewardship in our we articulate the energy of desire in our lives.  Mistiming occurs because we fail to delay gratification for the benefit of our better selves and our community.  Just as sports teams have training camps to work on their timing, the church has the annual season of Lent for us to look at together the timing and mistiming of what we do and say.  We need this review to assess where the timing of what we say is askew with good stewardship for our personal lives, the lives of our immediate communities and the life of the world.

Aphorism of the Day, February 17, 2018

If the events and circumstances of our lives are the "tea leaves" that we are reading to find meaning and purpose in our lives, there are lots of "tea leaves" to read onto which we project the meanings that are hidden but appear on the screen of our life events to give them an exteriority and become more obvious "handwriting on the wall."  In our reading of the meaning of the events of our lives, we still have to interpret and we interpret based upon the models of interpretation that we have used to inform our lives.  The Bible is a book that is full of interpretations about the meaning of events in the lives of the people whose words are recorded in the contexts of their life experiences.  There is such a vast variety of biblical meanings, even contradictory because they represent the stark contrast between hope's vision of utopia and the "actual conditions" on the ground.  The Plenitude of God is presented as the entire environment of Fate on which humans live and commit acts of language to represent diverse meanings.

Aphorism of the Day, February 16, 2018

One could call the church a para-liturgical entity, in that there are practices which arise within contexts and gain  spatio-temporal manifestation in praxis and over time the praxis remains in liturgy when the originating "start up" intention is lost, forgotten and no longer accessible.  Lent is a season which has accrued much in different times and places and ingredients of its recurring traces have lost their general relevance in the church, e.g., the catechumenate, except in places which deliberately have tried to retain it.  Lent and the history of Lenten practice is a living body of resources and our space-time practice can add to its body of resources.  Treat the season of Lent as a vital living resource that has no one perfect practice or practitioner.  Try on some Lenten practices for yourself to make it fit your situation, now.

Aphorism of the Day, February 15, 2018

In biblical numerology, 40 is the time of test and ordeal.  The season of Lent is an annual presentation of the acknowledgement of the "ordeal with a purpose."  It is based upon being called by God and being a disciple, a student, in the school of God.  The ordeal with a person includes the faith to believe that the circumstances of one's life can be the curriculum which includes the teaching purposes of God towards excellence.  The ordeal is the acknowledgement that life is often struggle and delayed gratification to achieve even the good things that one desires.  Faith in the purposes of God being projected on the screens of our circumstances means that we are always looking for the messages of God for our betterment.

Aphorism of the Day, February 14, 2018

Ash Wednesday: Fast forward the life of your body life into an icon of one of the states of it being broken down and dissipated and bear the marks of ashes on your forehead.  Ponder that all the king's horses and all king's men could not put the broken Humpty Dumpty together again.  Hope against hope that Someone can reconstitute you as a body-soul-spirit unity again.

Aphorism of the Day, February 13, 2018

The Bible is the artistic literature of spiritual identity and it gave birth to theology as the queen of sciences until she was dethroned by modern science birthed in the Enlightenment.  Those who did not want their queen dethroned had some choices to make: to make the continuing case for the sublime discourse of spiritual transformation or to defend biblical texts as empirically verifiable science and equal to modern historicism.  Those who did the later went the way of "fundamentalism."  Others were less intimidated by science because they are honest to the discursive difference of spiritual discourse versus scientific discourse.  They are equal but different discourses with different goals and different resulting praxis.  Those whose moral and spiritual lives are changed by spiritual discursive practice can still be brute fact scientists, just as a scientist can weep in the aesthetic sublime of musical and artistic performance.  To confuse discursive practices and the inability to embrace language users as multi-discursive beings has been the curse of "fundamentalism."

Aphorism of the Day, February 12, 2018

If every sub-atomic particle has its own development and process then what is the effect of belonging to the community of particles that form the visible entities which we come to name.  In the community of particles which make up a human person, the particles which we call the will or volition still does not have complete control over all of the particles which make up the human being.  When enough particles seem to conspire to effect the demise of the person the human will is brought to its helplessness.  Are all of the particles of a human being constantly in process?  But are they in process en masse to be a recognizable entity?  In a sea of process what can preserve the collectivity of particles which we have come to call the human person as a body, soul, spirit entity?

Aphorism of the Day, February 11, 2018

The Christ who was transfigured is also the Christ whose "light" apparently went out in his forsaken state of death.  But did light go out?  The resurrection appearances of Christ meant that his Being was lit up again.  The importance of the transfiguration is to believe in the midst of the chances and changes of life that hope resides as the light of the process of metamorphosis which describes the conditions of freedom and the passing of time.

Aphorism of the Day, February 10, 2018

We may have favorite experiences which the passing of time does not let us hang onto.  Peter enjoyed the event of the Transfiguration; it was such a spiritual high that he wanted to build tents to dwell there.  He had to go down the mountain to his own betrayal of Jesus whose states of suffering and death on the cross were quite in contrast to the transfigured Jesus on the mountain.  Egg, pupa, cocoon, butterfly; which state of metamorphosis do you prefer?  Your preference is irrelevant to the passage of time which give them all equal reality.  We are always already going through metamorphosis and we may prefer a particular "climactic" event of enlightenment even while we must admit that its difference resides in the serial of the other phases of being in the cycle of metamorphosis.  Can we learn to be content with all of the phases of metamorphosis in our personal and institutional lives?  Things coming to pass is the chief reality of the life of freedom.

Aphorism of the Day, February 9, 2018

Transfiguration or the Metamorphosis of the face of Jesus for his disciples on the Mountain highlights a phase in the lift of Jesus in being manifest in a special way to a select group.  Peter, James and John had Jesus become manifest to them; the account of the same shared widely is the collateral effect which allows the Epiphany to become the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles.  The nature of something coming to language and writing means that it becomes accessible for all to be eligible for the manifestation of Christ to each person.  The written literary art of the Gospel is what universalizes the manifestation of Christ.  Christianity became "universal" because it was launched in the art of language because particular discourse assumes the existence of all discourse.


Aphorism of the Day, February 8, 2018

Electric lights have been one of the great inventions of the world.  They are important because they come to their importance in darkness.  The transfiguration present Jesus as the Light of world in the contrasting world of darkness about the universal availability of God.  Jesus taught the world that if one is a user of language one can add the name of God to one's vocabulary as a valid and meaning discourse of totality.  Just as the sun is available to all of the diversity of creation, so too is the divine accessible to all.  This is meaning of Jesus as Light; the accessibility of God to all who use language.

Aphorism of the Day, February 7, 2018

The transfiguration might be seen as the "confirmation" of Jesus.  The confirmation involved the voice of God the Father saying "This is my Son."  Earlier the voice of Father had said to Jesus at his baptism, "You are my Son."  The confirmation is not for Jesus; it was the disciples who were having the identity of Jesus "confirmed" for them.  This expression also echoes the Royal messianic poetry of the Psalmist who probably was lauding the "divine" right of the King by writing, "You are my son; today I have begotten thee."  Was David a Messiah before he was anointed by Samuel?  Are we what we have become before we become what we are?  Was the tree a tree when it was a seed?  The passage of time confirms for self and others identities.


Aphorism of the Day, February 6, 2018

Why did Elijah and Moses appear on the Mount of the Transfiguration?  Why not King David since he was the most "proto-typical" representative of messiahship?  Elijah did not experience death; he rode to heaven on a chariot of fire and Moses had an "irregular" death such that he, Elijah and Enoch became figures in the apocalyptic genre of literatures.  It is as though they were "liminal" figures between the after life and life and as such liminal travelers they could be witnesses from former paradigms in the Hebraic/Judaic traditions to affirm the new paradigm that was beginning in Jesus Christ.

Aphorism of the Day, February 5, 2018

The event of the transfiguration is not found in the Gospel of John but the most uses of "light" as a metaphor for Christ and the work of Christ are found in John's Gospel.  The churches theology of light is coupled with the comparison and surpassing of Moses by Christ in the transfiguration story.  In the diversity of the life of Jesus something within him could make his face a filament showing light.  His face could be turned on and off based upon the perceptual luck of favored viewers.  In the human spiritual psychology of the New Testament the spirit essence of a person recreated by Holy Spirit essence of God becomes the Electric Power to "light" up our minds and brighten our faces as we seek to live as transfigured beings.

Aphorism of the Day, February 4, 2018

The Gospels include expansive statements which are hyperbole but which express the theology of the early church, as when the disciples came and said to Jesus, "Everyone is searching for you."  That was not literally true in any original conceivable context; in the context it was shorthand for saying "an uncanny amount of people are interested in Jesus."  But it was also the story form of the theology of Paul and the early church who believed that everyone was seeking for the Christ nature within the self and others as the fulfillment in articulating the image of God on each person's life.

Aphorism of Day, February 3, 2018

St. Paul: "I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some." The method of evangelism represents the conversion of St. Paul.  He went from being a persecutor of the followers of Christ to become the apostle for the inclusion of the Gentiles in the community Christ.  He believed that those who did not follow the purity rituals could still have the main qualification of being a child of God, namely, the evidence of the Holy Spirit.  External religious practice did not make one holy; the inside job of the Holy Spirit did.  For Paul, lots of things became negotiable matters of person taste and cultural differences while the main issue was the presence of the Spirit evident in the manifestations of the fruits of the Spirit.  People who manifest the fruits of the Spirit find a way to get along with each other because that is the nature of the Holy Spirit.

Aphorism of the Day, February 2, 2018

With more than 20,000 deaths from overdoses in the U.S., it behooves us not to think of our medicine as too highly superior to the "folk medicine" present in the ministry of Jesus.  Jesus was more like a shamanic healer who did a guided "inside" job on people whose health involved bringing the insides and outsides of a person into a state of equilibrium.  Health is more than achieving "temporary cures on the way to our deaths."  Health is an embracing Salvation that includes the visions of an eschatological faith placebo of life after life in order inspire abundant life, abundant healthy living,  in this present life.

Aphorism of the Day, February 1, 2018

The association of demons and unclean spirits with every sort of sickness in the Gospels suggests the medical diagnosis during the time of Jesus involved a holistic notion of health or salvation.  Rampant social ills can generate incredible psychosomatic conditions of very poor health for lots of people living in anxiety and helplessness who have been made sick by their environments.  The health and salvation of Jesus was a holistic health involving a interior cleansing of the "heart" of a person who could become better as one knew the interior cleansing.  The early church believed that the baptism of the Holy Spirit gave one a clean bill of health or salvation.  The healing stories of Jesus instantiate the kind of holistic health promoted in the practice of the early church.  Today, physicians use the mysterious diagnosis "stress related" as the cause of sickness and use pharmacopeia to "heal" these "stresses."  One does not have to be anti-pharmaceuticals to live and believe in holistic health that has long been the staple of the church proclaiming a baptism with the Holy Spirit.

Quiz, February 2018

February 28, 2018

Which canonical Gospel does not include the Parable of the Sower?

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

February 27, 2018

Who wrote the poem in the work often called "The Country Parson?"

a. Nicholas Ferrar
b. John Bunyan
c. John Donne
d. George Herbert


February 26, 2018

Which two tribal heads of Israel had an Egyptian mother?

a. Manasseh and Ephraim
b. Manasseh and Reuben
c. Reuben and Asher
d. Dan and Ephraim

February 25, 2018

"He gained authority over the land of Egypt."  About whom was this said?

a. Abraham
b. Melchizedek
c. Moses
d. Joseph


February 24, 2018

Joseph Barsabbas is known in church tradition for what?

a. for being the released prisoner instead of Jesus
b. for being one of the false messiahs in a revolt put down by the Romans
c. for losing a drawing of the lots to replace Judas Iscariot in the 12
d. for being an early convert through the ministry of Peter

February 23, 2018

According to Tertullian, Polycarp was a disciple of which disciple of Jesus?

a. Thomas
b. James the Greater
c. John
d. Peter

February 22, 2018

Who was Potiphar?

a. an Egyptian officer of the Pharaoh
b. owner of Joseph when he was a slave
c. husband of the woman who tried to seduce Joseph
d. the man who incarcerated Joseph
e. all of the above

February 21, 2018

Who wrote this in reference to doctrinal "innovation" in the church:  "To be perfect is to have changed often?"

a. Hegel
b. Kant
c. Augustine
d. Thomas Aquinas
e. John Henry Newman

February 20, 2018

Which son of Jacob was known as "the dreamer?"

a. Benjamin
b. Levi
c. Reuben
d. Joseph

February 19, 2018

On which two occasions in the life of Jesus do the Gospels record a heavenly voice saying, "You are my son, the beloved...?"

a. Birth and Transfiguration
b. Birth and Baptism
c. Baptism and Transfiguration
d. Transfiguration and Glorification
e. Transfiguration and Resurrection

February 18, 2018

Which book in the Hebrew Scriptures purports to have been written in the time of the ancient Persian Empire but whose internal evidence pertains more to the events that occurred during the time of Antiochus Epiphanes?

a. Job
b. 2 Kings
c. Daniel
d. Esther

February 17, 2018

Janani Luwum, martyred archbishop of Uganda, was murdered by whom?

a. Idi Amin
b. Robert Mogabe
c. Mwanda II
d. Muteesa I

February 16, 2018

Which Gospel presents the longest prayer of Jesus?

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

February 15, 2018

What biblical person inspired both the Kyrie and the famous "Jesus Prayer" tradition in the Orthodox traditions?

a. St. Paul
b. St. Peter
c. a penitential tax collector in a parable of Jesus
d. a Roman Centurion

February 14, 2018

What is the Orthodox Church equivalent of Ash Wednesday?

a. Clean Monday
b. Fasting Friday
c. Penitential Tuesday
d. Mourning Thursday

February 13, 2018

Which Bishop ordained Absalom Jones as the first African-American priest in the Episcopal Church?

a. Samuel Seabury
b. William White
c. Samuel Proovost
d. James Madison
e. Thomas John Clagget

February 12, 2018

What is the biblical meaning of "kenosis?

a. eventful time
b. fellowship and befriending
c. renunciation of the Divine to take the form of humanity
d. sanctification

February 11, 2018

Which canonical Gospel does not include an account of the Transfiguration?

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

February 10, 2018

"Some believe in eating anything while the weak only eat vegetable."  Who wrote this?

a. the writer of Proverbs
b. Ben Sirach
c. St. Paul
d. writer of the Epistle of James

February 9, 2018

The place where Jacob had his dream about angels descending from heaven is called what?

a. Bethel
b. Luz
c. Beer-sheba
d. Mamre
e. a and b

February 8, 2018

Who was Laban?

a. Rachael's father
b. Leah's father
c. Rebekah's brother
d. Jacob's father in law
e. the father of Jacob's cousins whom he married
f. all of the above

February 7, 2018

Who was the first Gentile convert to the Gospel for Peter?

a. Simon the tanner
b. an unknown Ethiopian eunuch
c. Cornelius
d. Sapphira 

February 6, 2018

Beersheba, Sitnah, Rehoboth, Esek are associated with Isaac the Patriarch for what features?

a. the oases
b. groves of trees
c. the wells he dug
d. sites of contention with the Philistines

February 5, 2018

Which biblical figure could have had the nickname, "Red?"

a. Esau
b. Boaz
c. Reuben
d. Benjamin
e. Samuel

February 4, 2018

Who of the following was not a wife of a Patriarch?

a. Ruth
b. Sarah
c. Hagar
d. Rachael
e. Rebekah
f. Leah

February 3, 2018

Who did Abraham send to his homeland to find a wife for his son Isaac?

a. Isaac himself
b. Sarah
c. Lot
d. his chief servant Eliezer

February 2, 2018

The Presentation of Christ event inspired which of the following liturgical rites in the liturgical history of the Anglican Church?

a. mandatory circumcision
b. the Churching of Women
c. a dedication service for new born babies in lieu of a postponed baptism
d. the Churching of Fathers

February 1, 2018

The heroes of faith went to become part of great cloud of witnesses.  Where in the Bible can the metaphor "cloud of witnesses" be found?

a. Romans
b. Acts
c. Jude
d. Hebrews

Having a Biblical Identity and not Knowing It

2 Lent B      February 25, 2018
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 Psalm 22:22-30
Romans 4:13-25  Mark 8:31-38
Lectionary Link
As part of our Lenten discipline, I am asking for us to explore the identities of our lives.  I know some of you are Californian natives.  That's an identity.  Some of you are Giants' fans.  That's an identity.  I hope that all of us are Christians.  That's an identity.  Many of us are Episcopalians.  That's an identity.  Who we are is often what we receive from the place of our birth and from the influences in our lives.  Who we are is also what we become when we actively study and form our identities by the changes we instigate in our lives.

Part of our identity might be called our "biblical" identity.  I grew up in the home of a Baptist preacher and from day one, I was force fed the words of the Bible.  I received a grounding in a biblical identity.

I am not so certain that our postmodern culture has the same connection with biblical identity as was the culture in which I grew up in.  For many years, the Bible dominated our world as the preferred and only authority for moral authority.  The King James English translation of the Bible was a standard for English language and literature.  Since the Enlightenment, the Guttenberg press, the expansion of general literacy, the rapid increase in the amount of world knowledge, and now in our postmodern world of the internet, there has been an increasing availability of so many words that can form our identities, the Bible has lost its once dominate role in the formation of identity.  The Bible used to be like  a sugar cube placed in a cup of tea.  Now the Bible is like a sugar cube placed in the ocean.  The effect of the sugar cube is more noticeable in a tea cup than it is in the ocean.  This means that we have to be more deliberate in including the Bible in our lives as providing words for our identity.

The biblical identity of the early Christians was an important issue and we can highlight this in our Bible readings for today.

The early church communities included Jews who were familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures; but the early church communities included Gentile members who did not know the Hebrew Scripture traditions.  They came from the cultures steeped in Roman Hellenistic traditions of philosophies, rhetoric and Mystery religions which included a pantheon of many gods and goddesses as well as the cult the divine Caesar.

St. Paul experienced an incredible social phenomenon.  Many Gentiles were hearing the message of Jesus Christ and embracing it.  The Gentiles did not have the tradition of Hebrew Scriptures but they had obvious Holy Spirit life-changing experiences.  They had never read the law of Moses but they had begun to change their lives morally and spiritually.  What was St. Paul to do?  And how could he explain this to the people who had grown up with a Bible identity, the Hebrew Scriptures of the Law, Prophets and the Wisdom and history writings and the corporate prayer tradition of the Psalms?  Could a person have valid faith who followed Jesus, a Jew, and yet be one who had never heard about the Hebrew Scriptures?

St. Paul had some explaining to do.  How could the Gentile Christians be included in the tradition of the Hebrew Scriptures?  St. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans wrote the theology of Gentile Christianity.  He showed how the Hebrew Scriptures anticipated the faith of the Gentiles.  He showed how his Judaism had failed in evangelism to the entire world by remaining within a cloistered separatist community.  How did St. Paul explain the faith of the Gentiles?  He went to the pre-Jewish Patriarch of the Hebrew Scripture.  Abraham was not a Jew; he existed before Jacob and his son Judah, from whom the word "Jew" derives.  Abraham existed before Moses received the Torah, the Laws of God.  Abraham did not know the Ten Commandments but he had a faith in God and this faith in God was regarded to be as valid and as good as the faith of Moses, David, Elijah and all the prophets.

The Gentiles Christians were like Abraham; they did not have the benefit of knowing the law of Moses, but by faith they had received the Holy Spirit, the presence of the Risen Christ in their lives.  And they were living faithful lives in the manner of Abraham, but they were not keeping all of the minor laws, like the dietary laws regarding pork or the circumcision law.

St. Paul was saying to Gentile Christians, your faith is valid because your faith is like the faith of Abraham.  St. Paul was saying to his fellow Jews: The faith of the Gentiles is valid like the faith of Abraham and because they have the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives, we should not require of them to observe the less important rules of ritual purity.  St. Paul argued for the valid biblical identity for new Gentiles Christians.

An early Christian leader and teacher wrote the Gospel of Mark.  The writer was also interested in the biblical identity of the readers.  The writer of Mark's Gospel was concerned about the biblical identity of the Messiah.  Why was this an issue?  Was Christianity to be a "land-based" religion pertaining only to the people who lived in Palestine in a Promised Land?  In one Messianic tradition, the Messiah was to be a king like David who would arise and save the nation of Israel from her enemies and establish the Jews within their traditional borders.  Peter confessed Jesus as the Messiah, but he wanted Jesus to be the kingly Davidic version of the Messiah.  The historical facts of the time indicate that the Romans were well in control even to demolish totally Jerusalem and Temple in the year 70.  These wars further exiled the Jews away from Jerusalem and environs.  Jesus was not such a kingly, military Messiah but as the Risen Christ, he was converting hearts and lives of Jews and Gentiles in the villages and cities of the Roman Empire, even far away from Jerusalem.  Did the Hebrew Scriptures provide the words for the kind of Messiah that the Risen Christ had become in the lives of Christians?  The word of Jesus in our Gospel indicate that Jesus would be the suffering servant Messiah.  The suffering servant Messiah was written about in the prophet Isaiah and he would be a Messiah for all people.  He would not be one limited to retaining the borders of Israel for the national autonomy of the Jewish people.  The suffering servant Messiah would be the Risen Christ who would be available to the entire world and belief in him would allow Christians to fulfill the world evangelism that the Jewish people were unwilling to do.

Today, you and I are invited to both explore our biblical identity but also invite others to do so as well.  We can become like the Jews in the time of Jesus and Paul and use the Bible in very narrow ways to keep people away from faith.  Or we can highlight the portions of the Bible which indicate that God is love, God is inviting and inclusive, God has a large heart and God and Christ are not limited to the Episcopal Church or our liturgy.  We come to church on Sunday, not to lock God in the box of our faith tradition, but to be mobilized to go forth and invite everyone to find faith in God through knowing the presence of the Christ-nature within themselves.

The biblical tradition is wide and broad; let us not make it narrow and petty.  Paul found room for the Gentiles in the witness of Abraham.  There are many people today who have not had a religious upbringing but who live lives like Abraham of old.  Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness or "rightness with God."

Let us learn our biblical identity, not as a strait jacket, but as encouragement to show people in our lives how God reckons them righteous, because of their practice of faith in love, justice and kindness. People can realize the nature of Christ within themselves even without knowing it.  And we need to be there to support and encourage the expressions of the Risen Christ wherever we can find them.  St. Paul found the biblical identity for Gentiles who did not know the Bible; we too can find the biblical tradition for people who do not know it today.  If Christ, is truly universal, Christ knows how to be manifest in people who never read the Bible.  We need to be like St. Paul and affirm the effects of the Risen Christ in all of the peoples of this world today.  And some of them might become Episcopalian and join us to proclaim Christ and the Bible as available to all.  Amen.