Sunday School, September 2, 2018 15 Pentecost, B Proper 17

Sunday School, September 2, 2018   15 Pentecost, B Proper 17

 

Themes for Sunday School

Hebrew Scriptures

If the reading from Song of Songs is used  the lesson can be about love.  Song of Songs is a love poem and is written about being in love.  The reason it was included in the Bible is because the ancient teachers of Israel believed that the relationship between people and God should be a relationship of love.  If we can speak about how wonderful love is between two people, we can use this model as a way of understanding how wonderful our relationship with God is meant to be.  It is a journey of love.

Jesus said to his disciples, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” 

Commandments are laws and sometimes we can treat laws as hard things that our parents and teacher want us to do to obey them.  What we need to know is that laws and rules are ways of teaching us.  By following rules and laws, we learn best behaviors and we build our memory of how to perform these best behaviors.

The lesson from the book of Deuteronomy is about why we should remember and not forget the laws and commandments of God.  They are rules for our very best behavior and if we remember and practice them the good behaviors will become easier to perform.

Why should we practice the laws of best behavior?  So that we can be honest about what we believe and what we do.  The writer of the letter of James reminds us that it is not just important to hear God’s word; we also have to do God words.  It does not do us any good to keep hearing not to lie; we have to practice telling the truth.  We have to get our deeds of our body agree with the law of God.

Jesus had an argument with people who made less important rules more important than the most important rules.  Is it more important to wash our hands before our meals or more important that all of the people of the world have clean water?  Washing our hands is very important but if this rule becomes more important than making sure that every person has clean water, then have lost our sense of right value.

All rules are important but Jesus was teaching his friends that the less important rules should not be made into the most important rules or they would miss out on being kind to people, which is the most important rule of all.

 

A sermon

  Laws and rules are very important because we need them for safety in our lives.  But not all rules are as important others.

  Tell which rule is more important.  You shall brush your teeth.  Or You shall not play in the street.

  What about:  Wash your hands before you eat.  Or Don’t play with knives.

  When Jesus came he saw that some people had forgotten about the important rules and they had made the least important rules the important rules.

  Are you supposed to talk in a library?  No, but if there was a fire in the library, would you yell, “Fire?”  You would break the  rule against talking so that you could save lives, right?

  Jesus saw that some people had many rules about many things. They were supposed  to wash their hands before prayer and they were supposed to wash their pots and pans and plates in special ways.  But he also knew that many of his friends were poor and did not have enough water in the places that they lived to store water and so it was very difficult for them to follow all of the washing rules.

 In the church we use a little water for baptism.  Tell me what rule is more important:  Baptizing all of the babies in the world with a little water.  Or Making sure that all of the babies in the world have safe drinking water?  In Holy Eucharist we use just a little piece of bread.  Is it more important that all people receive a little piece of communion bread or that more people have enough to eat?  Baptism and Eucharist important but we can never forget the importance of the laws that need to be followed to help everyone live well.  To live well people need food and water, home and clothes and education.  If we really live and practice the meaning of baptism and Holy Eucharist, it means we are hoping, praying and working for all people in the world to have enough to eat and drink.

   Jesus wants us to learn the value of different laws.  Loving God and our neighbor are the important laws.

  We should respect all of the rules and laws, especially the rules and laws of our parents.  But remember that Jesus told us about the different value of rules and laws.

  If I make up a special game and only I know the rules.  How would you feel if I got mad at you for breaking the rules of my game?

  Well, you wouldn’t want to play with me or you wouldn’t want to play my game, would you?

  Let us remember that all laws are important but the ones that are about the health and safety and happiness of people are the most important laws.  And those are the laws that Jesus wants us to know and practice the best.  Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

September 2, 2018:  The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: As the Deer, Change My Heart, O Lord, Be Still,  Here in this Place

Song: As the Deer Pants for the Water, (Renew # 9, gray hymnal)

1          As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after you; you alone are my heart’s desire and I long to worship you.  Refrain: You alone are my strength, my shield, to you alone may my spirit yield; you alone are my heart’s desire, and I long to worship you!

2          I want you more than gold or silver, only you can satisfy; you alone are the real joy-giver and the apple of my eye.  Refrain.

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

People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and for ever.  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

Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

Litany Phrase: Alleluia (chanted)

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

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

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

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

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

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

A reading from the Book of Deuteronomy

You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!" For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today? But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children's children.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

 

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 15

LORD, who may dwell in your tabernacle? * who may abide upon your holy hill?

Whoever leads a blameless life and does what is right, * who speaks the truth from his heart.

There is no guile upon his tongue; he does no evil to his friend; * he does not heap contempt upon his neighbor.

  

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 Mark

People: Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?" He said to them, "Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.'  You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition." Then he called the crowd again and said to them, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People: Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon:  Fr. 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.

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.

 

Song:  Change My Heart, O God   (Renew! # 143, gray hymnal)

Change my heart, O God make it ever true; Change my heart of God, may I be like you.  You are the potter , I am the clay; mold me and make you, this is what I pray.  Change my heart, O God, make it ever true.  Change my heart O, God.  May I be like you.

 

Doxology

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

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

Prologue to the Eucharist

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

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of 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.

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

You have made us in your image

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

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

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

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

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

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

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Bless and sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbor.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.

Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ.  May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory

 is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. Amen.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,

(Children rejoin their parents and take up their instruments)

Our Father: (Renew # 180, West Indian Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father who art in heaven:  Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.

Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

And forgive us all our debts: Hallowed be thy name.

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory: Hallowed be thy name.

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:        Alleluia! Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!

Words of Administration

Communion Song:  Be Still and Know,   (Renew!

# 10, gray hymnal)

1-Be still and know that I am God.  Be still and know that I am God.  Be still and know that I am God.

2-The Lord almighty is our God.  The Lord Almighty is our god.  The Lord Almighty is our God.

3-The God of Jacob is our rock.  The God of Jacob is our rock.  The God of Jacob is our rock.

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: Here in this Place, (Renew # 14, gray hymnal)

1- Here in this place a new light is streaming, now is the darkness vanished away.  See in this place our fears and our dreamings. Brought here to you in the light of this day.  Gather us in the lost and forsaken.  Gather us in the blind and the lame.  Call to us now and we shall awaken.  We shall arise at the sound of our name.

2-We are the young our lives are a mystery.  We are the old who yearn for your face.  We have been sung through all of your history.  Called to be light to the whole human race.  Gather us in the rich and the haughty.  Gather us in the proud and the strong.  Give us a heart so meek and so lowly.  Give us the courage to enter the song.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Aphorism of the Day, August 2018

Aphorism of the Day, August 31, 2018

The uneven pacing of innovation or conversion to new paradigms across different communities accounts for the lack of unity.  What does Amish Christianity have to do with Eastern Orthodox Christianity or with churches that have gone completely digital?  Innovation is relative to the context of the innovators and some are more receptive to technical innovation than innovation in the realm of ideas, doctrine and church practices.   The Amish are technological conservatives; they have conserved old technologies.  Other communities are conservatives in trying to set in concrete ideas forever, assuming that once something is "written" down it achieves a permanency that is perpetuated with each repetition even while they lose sight of the fact that the changing tacit epistemological contexts do not allow a permanence of any idea or belief.

Aphorism of the Day, August 30, 2018

The crucible of the writings of the New Testament involved a community of faith being born which decided to "deal" with the Roman situation rather than try to be like Amish-like synagogue communities resisting significant assimilation into participation in Roman citizenry requirements.  The Jesus Movement became a vanguard off shoot of Judaism which decided that "being separate" from the world was not a matter of external separation; it was a matter of interior separation of the Spirit of Christ rather than the spirit of the world.  The result was that the ritual purity rules of separation were made optional for Gentiles members of the churches.  This great paradigm switch in ritual practice brought the separation of Christians from the synagogue and since the New Testament writings were being written in this coming to practice of a new paradigm, the witness of Jesus in the Gospel was told and presented with this eventual outcome as the telos.  Christians were more adaptable to the reality of the Roman Empire and they welcomed the conversion of the culturally diverse peoples to the Gospel and the conversion did not require all the ritual purity practices that were required of Jewish proselytes.

Aphorism of the Day, August 29, 2018

The writer of the book of James declared that one could not be religious if one did not practice justice.  Lot of people think that the commandment about "taking the Lord's name in vain" is about using God's name in scatological utterance; taking the Lord's name in vain is really about presenting oneself as being "religious" and not doing justice in the practice of one's life.

Aphorism of the Day, August 28, 2018

I tried to exist without using words but then "not using words" was using words.

Aphorism of the Day, August 27, 2018

When prescribed religious behaviors lose their connection with training the inward being to let one's body language speak love and justice, then religious rules for the benefit of ceremony might be nice to build community identity and determine "who's in" and "who's out," but the great purposes of God's law are missed.

Aphorism of the Day, August 26, 2018

Ironic how many regard the various canonical collections of the Bible to be exhaustively the "word of God."  So when Paul was referring to the "word of God," one has to guess that he already knew that centuries later his letters would become part of a collection of writings which would be called the "word of God."  The Bible cannot exhaust the notion of word of God.  John's Gospel relates that in the beginning the Word was God and it became humanly instantiated in the life of Jesus, even while Word is the very fullness of all human life as it can ever be known.  Word of God would have to mean the very ground of human existence as it could ever be known.  As such a ground, it also is a ground of freedom and in the freedom that we have with how we articulate our words and deeds we need Exemplars of Word in human flesh and so we have Jesus.

Aphorism of the Day, August 25, 2018

The disagreements about how Jesus is present in the Eucharist are long-standing.  They can be found in the Pauline church in Corinth and in the Johannine Community.  Regarding "eating flesh and drinking blood," many decided no longer to follow Jesus.  Christians have been forever fighting over Eucharistic language and so there are terms like transubstantiation, consubstantiation, receptionism, Real Presence, symbolic and spiritual presence and more.  The Gospel of John relates that there is nothing more substantial or concrete than "Word" from the beginning which is the very basis for physical or concrete experience.  If we remove the "Word" basis of Eucharistic presence, we do not have anything.  Language has discursive habits of "literal" reference and figurative reference as well as many other kinds of references.  What is most literal is having the real presence of "Word" as the distinguishing basis of all human experience, without which, I could not have written "the distinguishing basis of all human experience."

Aphorism of the Day, August 24, 2018

"Eat my flesh, drink my blood."  To this some said, "This is a difficult teaching."  And they walked away.  John's Gospel in part teaches people that they can be poets and scientists at the same time.  The writer mocks through the oracle of Jesus, the crass literalists who want to be scientists when they are unable to awaken to the reality of their inner poet.  John's Gospel seeks to convert us to Christ and in the process one discovers the fullness of being a multi-discursive user of language.  Poetry is the ability to drink the ordinary water of life and taste it as extraordinary wine.

Aphorism of the Day, August 23, 2018

St. Paul used the metaphor of a soldier's protective gear to teach about what he regarded to be the battle of life.  He first claims that we are not fighting against flesh and blood or exterior foes; rather we are fighting an interior battle.  Each piece of exterior bodily armor is used to illustrate an interior armor of virtue that much "clothe" the spiritual person in order to undertake the interior battle.  The interior battle involves the formation of the "concrescences" of words that form and expedite the forces that guide our speech and deeds.  Prayer is the use of words to invoke the power of God as an interior organizing power toward the kind of peace and order which is the preparatory posture for how we act and speak.  The real battle in life happens in the battle of words within us and prayer is a sorting out method in mapping the word geography of our inner lives.  This mapping is the prelude to articulate the speech and deeds which become the exterior manifestation of our inner lives.

Aphorism of the Day, August 22, 2018

Truth is in the news and it wakens the differences of how people see the world.  The Greek notion of truth evolved to be consistent logical phrases in language which could purport to be universal and objective standards or principles.  Truth in the Hebraic sense tended to be more about continual pragmatic honesty in action as one is forming the character of one's life.  The more current notion of truth has to do with what can be "proven" in a juridical setting.  The ideal of juridical practice is that court procedures can arrive at juridical truths to execute juridical actions of declarations of guilt or innocence or the no-action of a hung-jury.  Juridical truth has both salutary and cynical outcomes and we have to live with both.  The cynical outcome is that some people have better access to better sophists to defend them through the kinds of persuasions to "win" their case.  Juridical truth can be a very isolated notion of simply "winning a court" case.  The greater ideal of law makes appeal to the Greek ideals of principles with categorial imperatives as well as the Hebraic notion of honesty in personal action and growth, and this highlight the "teaching" function of the law.  In the public world, truth as winning a court case seems to prevail and in the "he said, she said" disagreements, juridical truth is also political persuasion of getting votes for either "he said," or "she said."  Truth as coming to honesty in the deeds of one's life in forming the ethos or character of one's life does not always seem to matter in the juridical setting.  When the character of a person is a glaring issue in juridical events, there is often the necessity for multiple witnesses and unimpeachable evidence to counter the person who is unwilling to be honest.  The practice of the law is also often the ugly sausage making procedure of legally manipulating one unethical and dishonest person to achieve the goal of bringing another more prominent unethical and dishonest person to the justice of getting what is "deserved" because of the harm caused by dishonest and illegal actions.

Aphorism of the Day, August 21, 2018

If the Eucharist has become unmoored from the actually eating of a meal for sustenance it cannot be unmoored from the ethical practice of making sure that all people have the most basic medicine of life, namely, adequate food and clean water.

Aphorism of the Day, August 20, 2018

"Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood..."  The writer of John's Gospel was trying to impart the belief that Eucharist is a very "physical" experience.  The Eucharist is a liturgical event which encodes through bread and wine taken within the mystical reality of the life of Christ being born in one and being renewed in one in the Eucharistic event because we exist in time.  The Christ becoming born in us must happen continually because we are "in time."  Because in the beginning the Word was God and is God, Word is able to create or designate in human experience "physicality."  The human experience of physicality is what makes scientists privilege the "empirical" experience as what is "really real" and most meaningful in the pragmatic sense of what can get done in the physical world.  The writer of John's Gospel takes this "physicality" and uses it to promote how really real and physical the mystical union with Christ is, a union that is celebrated in the Eucharistic event.  For the writer of John's Gospel, the mystical of the word and the physical cannot be separated; the mystical experience of Christ must become the physical experience of Christ as one's body, soul, and spirit begins to channel Christ physically in the world in doing love and justice to one's brothers and sister whom one sees to authenticate one's love of God whom one does not see.

Aphorism of the Day, August 19, 2018

Once John's Gospel proclaims that Word is the beginning of life as we know it, then the question becomes a question of the quality of word life in speech and deeds as body language.  We don't have any choice about being in Word; we get to have many choices about how we organize and constitute ourselves in words and how we help to constitute others in the values which we regard to be worthy to pass on.

Aphorism of the Day, August 18, 2018

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and all things came into being through the Word.  Word is co-extensive with the knowing of anything.   One might say that an infant and animals "know" things in their own way without word, but that is only our projection upon word-impaired states of being from the positions of already living, moving and having our being/becoming within Language.  The co-extensive insight about Word in John's Gospel is in my view, the most simply and yet most profound insight of all.  Word is the beginning of our entire anthropomorphic adventure.

Aphorism of the Day, August 17, 2018

In John's Gospel, Jesus says, "unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you."  John's Gospel is a teaching about the error of crass literalism and the Signs are an interpretive goad to get with the Spirit and the spiritual or other metaphorical meanings of the kind of abundant life that is being taught in the early church.  We are told that the "literalists" are offended by the cannibalistic implication and Jesus replies, "My words are spirit and they are life."  Physicality is a metaphor for emphasizing something being really real since in our preference for sensorial verification, we privilege "seeing is believing" even though everything happens because of the unseen configuration of words within us which creates the lens for seeing and interpreting meaning because as we told in John, Great Word is from the beginning of human life as we can know it and Great Word is God, and privileged as the essence of the anthropomorphism which dictates all that humanity can produce.  We do and see in human ways because it is the human way to have Language.  And Language is so wonderful to have a rainbow of discourses which co-exist and complement and we can be scientists and aesthetes at same time without contradiction.  Such complementarity amongst the discursive employment of having language is celebrated in the Gospel of John.  We are invited to be more than "one trick discursive ponies" with our understanding of language and our being language users.

Aphorism of the Day, August 16, 2018

Inebriation alters the state of mind and can evoke a sense of joyous enthusiasm (even though others states not so friendly can occur too).  St. Paul wrote don't be drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit.  One might say that he was speaking about a "natural" high in that it was unaided by any mind altering substances, but it would be truer to say that he was writing about a "spiritual" high.  Certainly the experience of Paul was a "charismatic" experience, the experience of being enthused because one's having accessed something or Someone within oneself who provided the ecstasy of a kind of love which altered the brain's chemistry to render one euphoric in word, mood and deeds.  Many people's lives are missing the access to the kind of ecstasy and euphoria which can happen without resorting to addictive substances or behaviors.  Part of one's own adventure involves learning the experience of being "filled with Spirit" and accessing euphoria and ecstasy to accompany all of the other things that one must face, like drudgery, affliction, suffering, and the repetitive quotidian events of life.

Aphorism of the Day, August 15, 2018

It is a good day to remember that the Virgin Mary is the chief paradigm of all Christians in that she exemplifies the use of physicality as a metaphor for emphasizing that something is really Real.  What was really Real in the mystagogy of the early church?  That the life of Christ is born into each Christian and it happens when one is overshadowed by the Holy Spirit.  Mary as Mystagogue teaches the Pauline mystery of identity with Christ: "Christ in you, the hope of glory."  In the Tersteegen hymn there is a prayer request: "Let my soul like Mary's be thy earthly sanctuary...."

Aphorism of the Day, August 14, 2018

Writing and the passing of time.  Words are written in a sequential before and after and the sequences represent the passing of time.  Writing is done by an author in his or her "present tense," which means the general time of his or her existence when he or she is writing within a situation and location.  And writing involves one writing in a present tense about the past events when the people in the past had their own "present tense" yet it is only accessible to a later writer through memory and the evidence.  The writers/editors of John's Gospel in its development had many "present tenses" and each of those writing occasion reflected the exigent needs of the community for whom they were writing.  The past life of Jesus was presented in a way to serve the current explanatory needs of the church to teach the significance of the practice of Eucharist.  The bread of life discourse in John's Gospel is a presentation of the Eucharistic practices of a later church using the authorial and oracle voice of Jesus to teach the significance and the symbolism of the Eucharist using the Hebraic tradition regarding heavenly bread and the Torah as something that was to be "consumed" as sweeter than honey in the honey comb.  Jesus was the bread come down from heaven in the symbolism of the early church.  It would not make sense if the church was not a Eucharistic church.

Aphorism of the Day, August 13, 2018

The writer of the Proverb uses the seductive qualities of women over men in rather contradictory ways.  Young men are warned about the seduction of the harlots in the street, even while the writer of the Proverb proclaims the seductive qualities of Lady Wisdom who is trying to attract followers.

Aphorism of the Day, August 12, 2018

The Gospel of John is a recommendation for initiates in a new symbolic order.  Each person should do a review of the symbolic order in which they live.  How have you taken on language to derive the values and meanings of your life as they are manifested in the value expressions of your words and deeds?  If you can understand how your language codes your existence, you can understand your symbolic order.  Understanding one's symbolic order is a necessary prelude to working on changing things in one's symbolic order which do not measure up to the expressions of excellence that one may want because one has seen superior exemplars who have made one want to be a much better person in many ways.

Aphorism of the Day, August 11, 2018

Because we are worded-beings, each is born into a symbolic order of how words constitute one's life.  As infants we are linguistically impaired but we are the passive recipient of the linguistic codes of our culture and as passive recipients we are taught how to value what we experience from within and without.  As we progress to more fully claim agency in language use, we seek to become more the "authors" of our own lives.  Attaining greater agency in language also means that in the phases of our being passive recipients of language, we took on the benefits and the curses of our linguistic exemplars.  We can find ourselves wanting to have the power of agency to re-write the deep scripts of our lives which seem to determine us in ways that we've come to eschew.  One of the most profound ways to attain new authorial agency to change one's life is to be inspired by laudable exemplars who give us the power to convert toward the scripts of life which we want to act out towards what we regard to be excellence.

Aphorism of the Day, August 10, 2018

The Gospel of John includes a Book of Signs.  God as Word is the Author of life as it can be known and as God-Word as author, Jesus is the sign-ature of God within the known creation of everything through living and moving and having being in and because of Word.

Aphorism of the Day, August 9, 2018

To belong to a culture one needs to understand the codes and symbols of the culture.  Symbols often are very arbitrary and attain commitment without any obvious reason.  The Bald Eagle and the flag clad Uncle Sam are symbols for America and insiders understand, appreciate, love, cherish and defend the "codes."  John's Gospel includes codes and signs regarding how Jesus fits within salvation history.  All codes and symbol reside in having language, and so the Word which is God sets the foundation for all codes and symbols.  Within Word which is God, there arises the specific symbols or codes which pertain to Jesus Christ and his continuity with the symbols of the Hebrew Scriptures but also his being a bridge to a new future of the Gospel going global beyond the "cultural boundaries" of Judaism.

Aphorism of the Day, August 8, 2018

In the living bread discourse Jesus identifies himself with the living bread from heaven.  In the Hebrew Scriptures there is a relationship between the manna or bread from heaven and the Torah as God's Word from heaven by which people are supposed to live.  In John's Gospel this parallel between heavenly bread and physical bread is taught.  Christ is the Eternal Word of God from heaven make physically personal in Jesus.  And humanity in fact lives by the organization of Word; one could not even eat bread or prepare it if one was not already organized by the words that has taught humanity to make bread and eat it.  God as Word is therefore the actual "soul food" of humanity.  Jesus identified himself with this "soul food" which organizes all of human existence.  Eating the Eucharistic bread is admitting dynamic identity with Word, the mystical pre-substance of human life itself.  The bread of life discourse is about the relationship between bread and the Word that is responsible to its creation or being a part of human life.

Aphorism of the Day, August 7, 2018

Bread of life eaten makes one live forever?  John's Gospel is about how things that are external are made into things internal.  Hunger and thirst are not to be taken literal.  Eating the flesh of Jesus is not to be taken literal.  John's Gospel is about an internal make over and events in the landscape are mere metaphorical signs of the internal transformation to see life in an enhanced "poetic" way.  John's Gospel is based upon the prologue priority that Word creates and changes our lives from within and it is word which structures our interaction within our external environments.  John's Gospel is a poetry of the inner life of rearranging the furniture of words within so that we don't trip up in the changing arrangement of furniture of events in our external world.

Aphorism of the Day, August 6, 2108

It is easy to forget that the Bible is about the art of living with faith.  It is a book of "art" not science and not exact historical writing.  It is collage of metaphors to get us repeated opportunity to view and find insights to help us in the art of living with faith now.  The chief inspiration of faith is hope which is a sense of always having a future and knowing this one acts in accordance with this hope, one act in faith.

Aphorism of the Day, August 5, 2018

Seeking a sign from God usually means that one wants in an experiential occasion something to come into such a obvious foreground distinguishing itself from the ordinary background of everything else that is happening and goes without notice as signs.  When no fire is the ordinary experience then smoke in the air becomes a sign that marks and announces something.  Some people live with the redundancies of the background as an aid for the ever arising new to mark the new adventure of the day and which was noticed because of just doing the faithful background stuff and having a good portion of one's life on good automatic habits precisely so that one can notice how one's life is being marked by the new "sign of God."

Aphorism of the Day, August 4, 2018

One of the writing issues present in all of the Gospel has to do with informing Gentile members of the churches about the Judaic roots of Jesus in his time without anachronistically in blatant ways, imparting too much of the hint of the Gentile mission into the actual narrative of the life of Jesus.  It is done in subtle ways like with the foreign magi visit and the confession of the Roman Centurion or Greeks visiting a feast in Jerusalem asking to see Jesus.  But then there is also the evangelical charge of Jesus to go into all of the world and preach the Gospel, which surely implied the peoples beyond the Jewish diaspora.


Aphorism of the Day, August 3, 2018

Through word and language, naming of everything has come to be, even the naming of God in various specific languages, and John's Gospel even names Word as God.  Word is reflexive in that it uses itself to acknowledge that it is and word is used to acknowledge that there are language users.  Everything that is and can be humanly known starts with the assumption of language, language use and language users.  We even use language to speak about pre-linguistic states of being as an infant and so with language we pre-code every so called non-linguistic state of being.  Language is the human origin of all in that it is coextensive with awareness of existence and language has been used to even make such a claim.  

Aphorism of the Day, August 2, 2018

Jesus said that he was the bread of life come from heaven to give life to the world.  Certainly this is metaphorical in the Gospel of John in that it refers back to the fact that Word is God that brings all human life into existence including knowing that existence is something to be known.  Word comes mysterious from the human inward world, a heavenly place and gives life as it can be known by human beings.  The witness that any specific use and manifestation of word products is referential back to the fact that we have Word as the basis of human life.

Aphorism of the Day, August 1, 2018

Everything happens or becomes because of language, even the past.  Because we have language, we ponder an infinite regress.  An infinite regress comes into being when people have language to ponder the same and posit there was some everlasting pre-existing Great Language User who was a Plenitude from which there has been generated little limited language users as proof that existing in the web of Word is the unavoidable human trap that also provides us the imagination of freedom in pondering that words always signify the imaginable extra-linguistic Reality.

Quiz of the Day, August 2018

Quiz of the Day, August 31, 2018

Which of the following is not true about Lindisfarne?

a. it's call The Holy Island
b. Aidan and Cuthbert were saints who resided there
c. a famous monastery was founded there
d. it is off the coast of Scotland
e. it was an important center of Celtic Christianity


Quiz of the Day, August 30, 2018

Which apostles needed to be prepared in a dream to approach and preach to an "unclean" Gentile Roman officer who had the "profane" customs of the Gentiles?

a. Barnabas
b. Simon Peter
c. Paul
d. Luke

 Quiz of the Day, August 29, 2018

Why did John Bunyan write "Pilgrim's Progress" in prison?

a. he refused to conform to Anglican requirements in the Restoration
b. he fought with Cromwell
c. he was a Baptist minister
d. he refused allegiance to Charles II

Quiz of the Day, August 28, 2018

Which of the following is not a quote from St. Augustine?

a. Love God and do what you want.
b. That love is all there is, is all we know of love.
c. O Lord, give me chastity, but do not give it yet.
d. He who created us without our help, will not save us without our consent.

Quiz of the Day, August 27, 2018

When Paul was being sought in Damascus to be killed, how did he escape from the city?

a. angels escorted him from the city
b. he was hidden in a cart of hay
c. he was let down the city wall in a basket
d. he climbed down a rope on they city wall

Quiz of the Day, August 26, 2018

Who were Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar?

a. the names that came to be given to the three wisemen
b. the friends of Job
c. Daniel's three friends
d. along with Caleb and Joshua, spies sent to the Promised Land

Quiz of the Day, August 25, 2018

Why is the name Ananias both associated with lying and with intercessor for St. Paul?

a. there were two different men in Acts of the Apostle with same name
b. Ananias the liar converted to become Ananias the friend of Paul
c. Ananias lied to protect the life of Saul of Tarsus
d. Ananias only lied to cover for his wife Sapphira

Quiz of the Day, August 24, 2018

Who declared a place to be the "house of God" and the "gate of heaven?"

a. Moses
b. Solomon
c. Jesus
d. Jacob
e. David


Quiz of the Day, August 23, 2018

Which of the following books of the Bible might be considered the quintessential personal study of the meaning of human suffering?

a. Psalms
b. Job
c. Proverbs
d. Ecclesiastes

Quiz of the Day, August 22, 2018

Simony, the selling of ecclesiastical offices derives from what biblical person?

a. Simon Magus
b. Simon Peter
c. Simon the tanner
d. Simon the Zealot

Quiz of the Day, August 21, 2018

Whom of the following was asked to judge between papal rivals?

a. St. Ignatius Loyola
b. St. Francis of Assisi
c. St. Teresa of Avila
d. St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Quiz of the Day, August 20, 2018

Whom of the following is known for his sermons retained in a book on the Song of Songs in which the spiritual meanings are explicated?

a. Ignatius Loyola
b. Bernard of Clairvaux
c. Julian of Norwich
d. John of the Cross

Quiz of the Day, August 19, 2018

Which of the following is not true about Samson?

a. he was a Judge of Israel
b. he was blinded by the Philistines
c. he committed suicide
d. he pulled a house down on 3000 Philistines and killed them
e. Delilah was his wife and childhood family friend

Quiz of the Day, August 18, 2018

What was the source of Samson's supernatural strength?

a. he was bigger and stronger in physical size
b. he grew up wrestling wild animals
c. his long hair due to his nazirite vow
d. his holy life style and chaste behavior

Quiz of the Day, August 17, 2018

Samuel Johnson, became rector of the first Anglican parish in the 13 colonies and then went on to become president of King's College.  What happened to King's College?

a. after the Revolutionary War, the College returned to their Cambridge England campus
b. It closed after the Revolution since America could not have an institution with ties to the English monarch
c. It became Columbia University in New York City
d. It became Columbia College and then became Columbia University

Quiz of the Day, August 16, 2018

Samson ate honey collected from an unusual location and he made a riddle about that location?  From where did Samson collect the honey?

a. from the carcass of a dead lion that he had previously killed
b. from a hive in the shrine
c. from a hive on the tomb of his father
d. from the quiver for his arrows

Quiz of the Day, August 15, 2018

What do various Christians disagree about regarding the Virgin Mary?

a. her perpetual virginity
b. her Assumption into heaven
c. her sinlessness
d. her role as Co-redemptrix of the world
e. her immaculate conception
f.  all of the above

Quiz of the Day, August 14, 2018

Who was Manoah?

a. the father of Samuel
b. the father of Gideon
c. the father of Samson
d. the father of Boaz

Quiz of the Day, August 13, 2018

What is the Shibboleth and Sibboleth pronunciation controversy?

a. rabbis argued about sh versus s and change in meaning of the text
b. It was used as a Jordan crossing password, since the lispers revealed their regional identity with mispronunciation
c. it is the difference between a sword and a knife
d. it was devised by the rabbis as a way of choosing their students based upon their ability to pronounce words

Quiz of the Day, August 12, 2018

In a vow that came back to haunt him, what raider-leader of Israel gave his daughter to God as a burnt offering?

a. David
b. Saul
c. Jephthah
d. Samson

Quiz of the Day, August 11, 2018

Which of the following is not true about Clare of Assisi?

a. she was a sister of St. Francis
b. she founded an order called the Poor Ladies or later called the Poor Clares
c. she was the first known writer of Rules for a religious Order
d. established a convent in San Damiano

Quiz of the Day, August 10, 2018

Who was the earliest king of Israel?

a. Abimelech, son of Jerubbaal
b. Gideon
c. Saul
d. Samuel

Quiz of the Day, August 9, 2018

What was the main fault in the life of Gideon?

a. many wives
b. compromised with the Midianites
c. he made an ephod (idol) out of gold
d. he refused to be made King of Israel

Quiz of the Day, August 8, 2018

Of four founders of monasteries/monastic movevments, who came first?

a. Francis
b. Dominic
c. Benedict
d. Ignatius

Quiz of the Day, August 7, 2018

What was the criteria for the selection of the troops of Gideon for battle?

a. good archers
b. drank water with cupped hands
c. good swordsmen
d. lapped water like a dog

Quiz of the Day, August 6, 2018

Mount Tabor is sometimes cited as the possible location for this event.

a. The Sermon on the Mount
b. The place of the return of the Son of Man
c. The Transfiguration
d. The Ascension

Quiz of the Day, August 5, 2018

Gideon was inspired by God for what?

a. to fight the Midians
b. to deliver Bibles in public facilities
c. to fight the Moabites
d. to divine God's will with fleece

Quiz of the Day, August 4, 2018

In the lectionary, which two days always use the Transfiguration periscope from the Gospels?

a. Feast of the Transfiguration and First Sunday after Easter
b. Feast of the Transfiguration and Last Sunday after Pentecost
c. Feast of the Transfiguration and Last Sunday after the Epiphany
d. Feast of the Transfiguration and Second Sunday after the Epiphany

Quiz of the Day, August 3, 2018

What couple in Hebrew Scriptures were part of a singing duet?

a. Abraham and Sarah
b. Moses and Miriam
c. Hannah and Eli
d. Deborah and Barak

Quiz of the Day, August 2, 2018

How did Sisera die?

a. of leprosy
b. a woman drove a tent peg into his temple while he slept
c. sword wound
d. hit by an arrow in battle

Quiz of the Day, August 1, 2018

Whom of the following would be the most logical patron saint of morticians?

a. Ezekiel, of dry bones fame
b. Elijah, of chariot of fire fame
c. Enoch, of deathless fame
d. Joseph of Arimathea 

Being a Spiritual Warrior

14 Pentecost  Cycle B proper 16  August 26,2018

Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18  Psalm 34:15-22

Ephesians 6:10-20  John 6:56-69

Lectionary Link

St. Paul like all users of language deployed figurative language and all kinds of metaphors in order to present insights for understanding and living a life of faith.

He used both the metaphor of a birthing mother and caring father as his role in the lives of people coming to faith.  He used the metaphors of runner and boxer and prisoner.  

St. Paul lived in the Roman Empire.  Wherever he went, he found the presence of the Emperor and the presence of the Emperor was most visible in the person of the Roman soldier.

Soldiering was a major occupation in the Roman Empire.  There were centurions and soldiers in the Christian churches.  For Paul, the soldier became a metaphor to illustrate the Christian life.

St. Paul completely spiritualized the armor of the soldier to illustrate his understanding about a major experience in life.

Being a soldier is a special discipline.  It means always being physically and mentally ready for the arising crisis of battle.

We perhaps don't like admit a main reality of life.  What is that reality?  Life is a struggle.  And so Paul uses the metaphors of soldier and fighting and war.  We are at war.  Well, that's not too pleasant.  I wish life was just "having it made in the shade."  But just as exercise is needed to prevent atrophy of muscles, so struggle is necessary to prevent the atrophy of the muscles of faith.

In the disagreement about eating the body of Christ and drinking his blood, Jesus said that his words were spirit and his words were life.  The words of Paul were spirit and written about the spiritual life.

St. Paul wrote that we don't fight against flesh and blood.  This is a recognition that the environments in which we live are not always going to be automatically favorable or friendly for us.  And as we daily confront the environments of our lives, St. Paul writes that we must be spiritual warriors.  Our spiritual being has to be in good shape because if we only live in reactionary patterns to our five senses, we will be overcome.

The inner essential spiritual person has to be constantly prepared for the struggles which occur in our environment.

Even as a Roman soldier has all of the equipment of armor for protection and for attack, the inner spiritual person needs to be comprised with corresponding tools.  The battle that occurs in our environment has to be prepared for by being spiritually fit.

The life inside of us is a war of words.  Desire can create within us temptation for power, greed, anger, envy, revenge, fear, guilt and timidity.  We can be tempted to act in wrong ways because it often seems immediately to our advantage to lie instead of telling the truth. Paul wrote that we should wear the belt of truth.  Coupled with that is the breast plate of righteousness.  Simply put, if one is guided by just doing what is right, it prepares one to stand against accusations about wrong behaviors.  The spiritual soldier's shoes or boots, involve being prepared to share the Gospel of peace.  Jesus said, "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel."  For Paul, the Gospel was a Gospel of peace and that is truly ironic given that Paul is using a soldier's uniform as a metaphor.  The spiritual warrior is a person of peace and one who is spreading the peace of Christ.  Paul's spiritual warrior carries a shield of faith.  There are many things that we face in life that could incite fear, anxiety, doubt and despair but faith is the ability to anchor our lives on hope rather than despair.  Faith is the ability always to act with the optimism of hope.  It's like the perpetually hopeful baseball fan: "Wait till next year."  I am going to live now as though things will eventually be much better, even toward a resurrection afterlife.  Hope is the quenching water for the flaming arrows of accusation and fear and with faith one accesses hope as a deep motive for living. Paul's spiritual warrior wears a helmet of salvation?  And what needs to be saved more than our thinking minds.  Certainly our minds can be the devil's playground as we can find them to be the battlefield of clashing thoughts representing the great disagreements which can occur within us.  Each day we need salvation in our minds; we need heath in our minds as we sort out all the thoughts that can arise within us.

 The spiritual warrior of Paul has lots of armor to be in place for defensive protection.  St. Paul's spiritual warrior is not just to be on the defensive; the spiritual warrior is to wield the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.  St. Paul's spiritual warrior did not yet have the book that we call the Bible (since even the words that Paul was writing did not become part of the Bible until centuries later), so Word of God does not refer specifically to our Bible.  The Word of God stems from Christ being called the Word of God who creates all things.  Words can be used in detrimental ways and in holy ways.  Using the Word of God in holy ways means to deploy the use of our language in word and deeds in ways which express what is excellent, loving, kind and just.  We are not just passive defenders taking the blows of all that life has to deal us.  We are also on the offense with the Word of God, as the holy and good speech and body language deeds are used to make our world a place worthy of Christ.

Today, you and I are reminded that we are spiritual warriors.  We have to learn how to win the war in the battleground that is always taking place within us, before we deploy ourselves in the various missions of our live to which we have been called.

Let us today put on the whole armor of Christ so that we may prepared to be faithful in our lives today and counter the atrophy of faith that can diminish our lives and the life of our world.  Amen.