Sunday School, March 3, 2019 Last Sunday after the Epiphany C

Sunday School, March 3, 2019  Last Sunday after the Epiphany C

Themes:

The last Sunday before the Lenten fast from the word Alleluia.

Saving this special word of celebration for the Easter celebration.  During Lent we do not use this special word of celebration.

Event: Make a “mock” coffin and put the word “Alleluia” in it and put it in a “burial place” for Lent.

Other themes:

Mountain tops in the geography of the Bible.  Important things happened on the tops of mountains.

The Story of Moses:  He received the Law, the 10 Commandments on Mount Sinai.  When he received the Law, he got so close to God that his face shone.  Mount Sinai was covered with clouds so that people could not see the presence of God.

Elijah had special experiences on top of mountains.  On Mount Carmel, he challenged the prophets of the god Baal.  And the God of Elijah sent down fire from heaven.  When Elijah was in a Mountain cave, he had a special experience of God speaking to him in a “still small voice.”

Moses and Elijah had special endings to their lives on earth.  Moses had an unwitnessed death and God buried Moses.   Elijah was carried away into heaven on the chariots of fire.  So Moses and Elijah were like “space men.”  They could travel back and forth from the heavenly space to the earthly space.  So Moses and Elijah met with Jesus and three of his disciple on the Mount of Transfiguration.  In this special event, the voice of God declared Jesus to be God’s chosen Son.  This declaration was witnessed by Moses, Elijah, Peter, James and John.

Mountains are the highest places on earth.  They symbolize the place where earth touches the sky.  They symbolize the event of the God experience of men and women.

Each of us has a “mountain top” within us where God meets us and shows us how important Jesus is to our lives.

Sermon

Today the Last Sunday of the Season of Epiphany.  And it is also called transfiguration Sunday.

  We have read the story about how the face of Jesus shone very bright.  And we have made some sunshine haloes to wear today to remember the transfiguration of Jesus.

  Do you think that you could ever make your face shine like a light bulb?

  Let’s try something.  Let us try to make our faces look real sad.  Can you do that?  And what if we walked around all of the time with sad faces?  Would you like that?  No, the world would seem dark, if we had to have sad faces all of the time.

  Okay, let switch.  Let make happy faces and faces of surprise and excitement.  Isn’t that better?  When we have faces of happiness, joy and gladness, doesn’t it make it seem as though our faces are shining?

  When do you have a happy face?  When good things happen to you.  When some one is kind and nice to you.  We smile and we get happy.  When we are happy our face is full of light.

  So we should learn to make our faces shine with happiness.  And we should learn how to make the faces of other people shine with joy and happiness.

  The word Gospel means good news.  To receive the good news about God’s love makes us happy.  It makes our faces shine.  And there are many people who help us to have good news in our lives.

  But getting good news and being happy is not enough.  We need to do something else.  We need to learn how to make the faces of other people shine with happiness.  How can we do that?

  By being kind.  By helping.  By loving.

  When you play nicely with your friends and brothers and sisters, you make them happy.  You make your parents happy when you help with house work.  You make your parent happy when you study hard.  And your parents love to make you happy by doing nice things for us.

  So remember today, the Transfiguration of Jesus when his face shone with a bright light.

  We too can have faces that shine with happiness and joy because of the good things in our life.  And also we can help the faces of other people shine with happiness and joy as we practice love and kindness.

  Okay let me see your best happy face!  Wow is room getting bright.  I’m going to have to put on my sun glasses. 

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

March 3, 2019: The Last Sunday after the Epiphany C

Gathering Songs: Climb up Sunshine Mountain; Shine, Jesus, Shine; You are My All in All; Awesome God

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.

Song: Climb, Climb up Sunshine Mountain (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 30)

Climb, climb up sunshine mountain heavenly breezes blow.  Climb, climb up sunshine mountain faces all aglow.  Turn, turn from sin and doubting, look to God on high.  Climb, climb up Sunshine Mountain, you and I.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

O God, who before the passion of your only­ begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

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

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

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

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

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

Liturgist: A reading from the Book of Genesis

Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them. Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 99

The LORD is great in Zion; * he is high above all peoples.

Let them confess his Name, which is great and awesome; * he is the Holy One.

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 Luke

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

About eight days after Peter had acknowledged Jesus as the Christ of God, Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah"--not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

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.

Youth 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 Hymn: Shine, Jesus Shine (Renew! # 247)

Lord the light of your love is shining, in the midst of the darkness shining. Jesus, light of the world, shine upon us. Set us free by the truth you now bring us. Shine on me.  Shine on me.

Refrain: Shine Jesus Shine, fill this land with the Father’s glory.  Blaze, Spirit, blaze set our hearts on fire.  Flow, rivers, flow, fill the nations with thy grace and mercy.  Send forth your word, Lord, and let there be light.

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.

All may gather around the altar

The Celebrant now praises God for the salvation of the world through

Jesus Christ our Lord.

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.  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: 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 Hymn: You are My All in All (WR#427)

You are my strength when I am weak, you are the Treasure that I seek, you are my All in All. Seeking you as a precious jewel, Lord, to give up I’d be a fool, you are my All in All! Jesus, Lamb of God, Worthy is your name. Jesus, Lamb of God, Worthy is your name.

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: Awesome God (Renew! # 245)

Our God is an awesome God, he reigns from heaven above, with wisdom, power and love.

(Sung three times)

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Aphorism of the Day, February 2019

Aphorism of the Day, February 28, 2019

Transfiguration or metamorphosis had both total and phase specific meaning in the event on the mount of the "transfiguration."  Metamorphosis is the entire cyclic change process in life; the eternal return of the sameness in the repetitive of subsequent events which are like what has happened before.  The disciples experienced a "change" in Jesus; they perhaps got a glimpse of what his resurrection body of like before the resurrection.  St.Paul referred to the human spiritual body which would not see corruption.  In the Transfiguration event, perhaps the spiritual body of Jesus was surfacing or shining through his physical body even as the spiritual eyes of the disciples were seeing him through their physical eyes.  What happened immediately after the transfiguration event?  They went down the mountain to the "demon possessed" valley.  We'd rather be in the transfiguration event of butterflies being born out of cocoons rather than the "ugly" phases of larva, pupa and cocoon.  The life of Jesus ran the gamut of metamorphosis but the resurrection proved that the spiritual was driving all of the phases of appearances of the continual transfiguration of life experience.  We can't live on the mountain top but we can know that the spiritual drives the changing becoming of our lives.

Aphorism of the Day, February 27, 2019

"This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him."  This is what the heavenly voice was heard to said in the mystical state in the event of the transfiguration.  Why did Jesus have to be announced as "chosen?"  What does "chosen" mean in the Scripture traditions?  Was Abraham chosen? Jacob chosen?  Joseph chosen?  Moses chosen?  Saul chosen?  Gideon chosen?  David chosen? Is being chosen how the dynamic aspect of the messianic is described?  The divine is manifest within the human and when it happens, it is declared as "God chosen."  Scriptural chosen means that people understand the divinization of someone or something accessible to human beings to elevate humanity toward the higher purposes for humanity.

Aphorism of the Day, February 26, 2019

Theophanies/Epiphanies in the Bible have their won symbolic order.  Mountain top experience representing "high" experience or establishing a hierarchy of valued events in the experience of humanity.  When is a mountain not a mountain?  When it is the symbolic place designated closeness to God which in turn set the hierarchy of value for the person or event which is "on the mountain."  Often biblical mountain means interior "inscape" and not necessarily external "landscape."  With language one can make things more than they seem to be.

Aphorism of the Day, February 25, 2019

Imagine a stack of transparencies with the traces of the events and descriptions of the past visible to those who are adding a new transparency to the top of the stack to relate a current event.  The Hebrew Scriptures provided for the New Testament writers the templates to use to tell the story of Jesus.  The Transfiguration unites many of the traces of the figures and the theophanic atmospherics of the Hebrew Scriptures.  Glory, Shekinah, Light, Clouds, God's Voice, Glowing Faces, Moses, Elijah, Sinai, Carmel, Mountain Top.  The message was the the "old" was affirming the "new," and the New was Jesus Christ for the New Testament Communities.

Aphorism of the Day, February 24, 2019

Imagine translating the beatitude way of living given to oppressed people who had to learn to survive and be winsome with their oppressors to people who are not oppressed.  The beatitudes for non-oppressed people means that such people should be champions against any sort of oppression of people at all.

Aphorism of the Day, February 23, 2019

St. Paul: "Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good."  This is instantiated in the beatitude sayings of Jesus in his recommendation of non-retaliatory forgiveness as the response to hate and curse.  When evil is embodied in the oppressor of any kind, there is the impatience of "justice delayed is justice denied."  Why should we wait for something so important as justice especially if it means protection from bodily harm?  We do not want the terrible dilemma of having to delay justice to wait for the oppressor to be convinced of his ways by the goodness of whom he oppresses.  The passive resistance of Gandhi, Mandela and King had a "good" response in times of delayed justice.  Sometimes the biblical witness seems to look at things in the long run and not the short run.  The belief that God is everlasting meaning that all things will pass, in not a comfort for those who live as the victims of delayed justice.  Pushing the rectification of injustice to eschatological justice in another "afterlife" can wrongly be used as justifying the present injustice.  Patience can be strength to wait for the tyrant to die but who has to be most patient if there is a very slow arc of history towards justice?

Aphorism of the Day, February 22, 2019

People of faith who believe that the correct moral behavior need to be established from some transcendental revelation or humanity has no basis for criticizing atrocity, have to acknowledge that transcendental means the surpassing horizontal quest for universality as each of us speak from a located solidarity with aspirations for declaring what is the best universal behavior for all.  One can say I know how God wants me to behave and the Bible tells me what God wants.  But in saying this, one can naively assume knowing what God wants is so self-evidential that it does not require that one interpret the "universal" from a personal location in history within a particular community that has provided the interpretative framework for understand what is "universal."  Who has the right to speak as an infallible spokesperson for the universal and then assume that all that he or she says will be self evidential in the hearing audience?  Having human discourse means that we have body language actions that comport to the fact that we have and are guided by how we have taken on language.  Having language is the universal and when we use one word, we assume the entire universe of discourse even though we cannot exhaust it because it contains us and not we IT.  From our limited and partial vision within the particular human solidarity, we commit "universal" aspiration in our discourse because we assume the relevance of our particular within the universe of all other particulars, and in so doing we make the case for the maximal benefit for as many language users as possible and so the Golden Rule is uttered as well as the Categorical Imperative of Kant: "Act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law."   What remains is locally adapting the categorical imperative in time and space and in body language actions.  We are always already in need of deciding what is the universal common good beyond local person, family, tribal and national interests.

Aphorism of the Day, February 21, 2019

One should note that St. Paul was not too "carnal" about the resurrection.  The resurrection of the body for him meant the resurrection of the spiritual body.  Such a body would be the belief of the unity of the identity of a person through the changes of time which get fully registered in the demise of the perishable physical body.  One might suspect that many hold the subjective immortality of Christian resurrection in carnal ways wanting a new body in the same way that one had the old body only free from the ticking clock of time and time's effect.  Does one wish for an afterlife of static perfect being or of endless future becoming of surpassing oneself in a future state?  It is always good to pose questions regarding the comprehensiveness, cohesiveness, and consistency of one's metaphorical understanding of the afterlife.

 Aphorism of the Day, February 20, 2019

The beatitudes express the freedom of living beyond the tyranny of being determined by one's past affinities.  I know what and whom I like, and I like whom I know and what I like.  The beatitudes are the moral practice a a new inclusive community; a new experiment in bring Gentile and Jews together in the closeness called fellowship when previous practices of segregation kept people from each other based upon the habits of judging others from one's bias, condemning others as having no future, and loving only those who were familiar.

Aphorism of the Day, February 19, 2019

The beatitudes are the spiritual martial arts attributed to Christ for the winsome behaviors of a minority and persecuted group of people to survive and gain favor with the people who have the power to oppress them.  Forgiveness and the practice of non-retaliation were the winsome rules which required a different kind of personal discipline.  People who turned the other cheek and carried the soldiers' gear for not just one mile but the second mile, willingly, showed the strength of serving without servitude.  The spiritual martial arts of the beatitude was based upon serving the Higher Spirit within in hopes that even the oppressor would be impressed by the God who was being served by the oppressed, so impressed as to be lured to join them.

Aphorism of the Day, February 18, 2019

The "turn the other cheek" advice of the beatitudes is part of the spiritual martial arts and peaceful passive resistance program that the followers of Jesus needed for their survival when they were in a minority.  Fast forward to inquisitional hegemonic Christianity and the times when competing Christians burnt their heretics at the stake.  What happened?  It is easier to romanticize Christians in the minority being forced to practice beatitudinal methods than the Borgia papal Christianity of sheer power in the name of God.  Bad behavior, bad thinking of religious people have created the response of atheists to dismiss all religious discourse as foolishly contradictory and therefore not believable or worthy to embrace.

Aphorism of the Day, February 17, 2019

The Beatitudes in Modern Urban: Let me make lemonade with life's lemons and sugar me Jesus!

Aphorism of the Day, February 16, 2019

To understand the beatitudes one should think about how one has been rebuked in one's comfortable melancholy by a person who is impaired by social or physical circumstances and yet seems to be exuding unspeakable joy.  How can that person seem to be so content, when I in my comfort can't seem to choose to enjoy my comfort?  The blessed state is being able to channel such contentment when it really seems that one has no visible reason to do so.  This says something about the abundant life program that the early church received from Jesus.

Aphorism of the Day, February 15, 2019

Blessing and curses used to be more open and acceptable as is seen in biblical accounts.  The beatitudes seem to overturn the obviousness of the blessing and cursing verification.  One would think that the well-fed, the rich, the powerful are the ones who "verify" the signs of "success" or "blessing."  The words of Jesus in the beatitudes overturns the blessing and curse formula.  Those who seem cursed with poverty, persecution and hunger are those who are declared as blessed.  What's going on in the transvaluation of the blessing and curse formula?  The word of Jesus play havoc with typical human preference for "ideal" conditions.  I suspect this is the appropriation of the "contentment" practice of Paul being expressed in the narrative of Jesus for some people learning how to cope in some difficult times.

Aphorism of the February 14, 2019

The Bible is a collection of writing written in different times and places.  The purpose of the writing was to inculcate a faith identity into the people to whom the writings were written.  People's identities are often formed by what is beneficial and what is woeful.  Blessing and curse are conferred in biblical writings.  Sometimes in appropriating the eternal return of themes embedded in language there are hooks onto which we want to hang our identity and so we appropriate the Bible as being favorable to one's own perspective and condemning of those who disagree with me.  If the Bible can be an "international" book, the interpreters must resist ethnocentric tribalism and understand that like the ideals of the American Declaration Independence, it invites to better selves not found in the peoples of the Bible or in human history.  If we don't understand the invitation to a better future of the Bible we can get bogged down in co-opting for ancient cultural details of chauvinistic practices of all sorts. 

Aphorism of the February 13, 2019

One of the areas of dishonesty through avoidance by Christians with wealth is there assertion of fidelity to the beatitudes.  Affirming the "blessed" state of wealth and comfort and stating the beatitudes as one's "ideals" might leave one in the state of hypocrisy.  It is better not to claim all things biblical as a reflection of one's life, there is however an obvious injunction of Jesus that should be relevant to people of wealth and comfort: To whom much is given; much is required.

Aphorism of the February 12, 2019

About the prehistoric and origins and about extra, non and pre linguistic beings it must be noted that they have human significance because of this phrase in the future anterior tense: They will have come to become language events.

Aphorism of the Day, February 11, 2019

We in American Christianity need to be careful about how casual we are in appropriating the words of the beatitudes as being constituting of our experience.  Such words were called by Nietzsche the "transvaluation" of value; the promotion of slave experience to be definitive of noble values.  We should perhaps appreciate the beatitudes as "coping and survival" values of oppressed people who had to adopt spiritual jujitsu methods of finding dignity in the conditions of mere survival when the social conditions did not allow the free and open practice and expression of their faith.  Oppressed people trying to find dignified survival can relate to the beatitudes more truthfully than the triumphant Christians who now live as those who have "co-opted" the values of the oppressors and don't realize it.

Aphorism of the Day, February 10, 2019

We often romanticize the Gospel fishermen because we project upon them our notion of fishing as a relaxing recreational activity.  So, anyone who would give up the love of fishing to follow Jesus is seen as one with heroic love.  But when hauling fish nets in the family business is the apparent occupation that one is trapped in for the rest of one's life even when one has intellectual and skill sets that remain underdeveloped in the fishing business, seeing Jesus and following him would provide a spiritual mobility, even an escape from an over-determined life.  Jesus surely was a pied piper who called some people from what they perceived was the curse of a "boring" life script.

Aphorism of the Day, February 9, 2019

It turns out that God seems to call people for failure in their own situation even while the traces of their call are revived to find significant relevance many years later.  Isaiah was an unrequited prophet; his message fell on deaf ears, yet many years later Jesus of Nazareth understood the "good news" program of Isaiah to be definitive of his life and the followers of Jesus came to call the life of Jesus "superlatively messianic."

Aphorism of the Day, February 8, 2019

People who are given insights before the time for public acceptance of those insights are called to public irrelevance and being ignored.  After Isaiah's fantastic vision of God and his response to God's call, he realized that he was called to say things that would be ignored and not understood by his audience.  It takes a visionary faith to be called to be irrelevant to people in one's own time and place but it is the lot of some people to initiate the tomorrow which they themselves will never see.

Aphorism of the Day, February 7, 2019

Ponder the accounts of the "appearings" of Jesus/Christ.  One notes that Jesus was present to Pontius Pilate but to what effect?  St. Paul wrote about the appearings or re-appearings of Christ after he had died on the cross.  How Christ appeared to him was significantly different than how Christ re-appeared to others.  St. Paul did not regard the appearance of Christ to him to be an "inferior" sighting because of the way it changed his life.  We do not hear about appearances of Christ to people who then say they reject the significance of him to their lives.  The appearings of Christ are nuanced with the effects of what these appearances did to the lives of the people who experienced them.  The sacraments involve the linking of the appearances of Christ within the regular "rites of passage" issues of people, not to exhaust how Christ can appear to anyone; rather the sacraments encourage anticipation of the serendipitous sublime presence to arise with God's playful "peek a boo, I see you." 

Aphorism of the Day, February 6, 2019

An adjective for God is "holy," which means to be set apart.  So God is so difference as to be unique in the most unique sense of the word unique.  And if every snowflake is unique, then God is the biggest in snowflake-like uniqueness.  Each person in claiming holiness is to discover how one is unique or set apart.  But if being set apart means that there is no inter-communication between beings then we would not even be able to speak about being set apart.  Being set apart happens within the myriad community of all different things and beings.  Life is learning how to be holy in the sense of being unique toward the maximum benefit of the whole.

Aphorism of the Day, February 5, 2019

From now on you will be fishing for and catching people.  This is a Jesus saying for evangelism, certainly not a metaphor to be taken literally since a fish would not be one who would want to be caught and served up as the food for humans.  But when a grand child charms a grandparents one might remark that the winsomeness of the child, "hooks the doting grandparents and reels them in" and with such winsomeness is able to manipulate grandparents to perform copious acts of reward by being charmed.  Evangelism might be simply learning how to be winsome in the presentation of God's love to other people such that they are "charmed" by the charismatic encounter to make a decision to respond to the love of God.

Aphorism of the Day, February 4, 2019

Epiphany is another name for a "call" from God.  The Bible gives examples of such epiphanies and we can conclude that there are as many epiphanies and calls as there are people and times and places.  Such assumption would follow from divine omnipresence or Christ being all and in all.

Aphorism of the Day, February 3, 2019

Paul's "poem" to love may as well be a poem to what is humanly impossible and refer to possible omni-presence of God who is love and lures us to understand more and more what it means to be loving in better ways.

Aphorism of the Day, February 2, 2019

St. Paul wrote about love and "omni-faith" in the phrase "love believes all things."  This is not to say that "love believes all things have equal value."  Such great love is an inclusive belief because it expresses an honor for the Freedom of everything to happen; it is the freedom of everything coming to language that can come to language in the experience of any theoretical language user.  Such great love is honor the honest conditions of freedom but such love can also inspire the best values of the conditions of freedom, like justice itself.


Aphorism of the Day, February 1, 2019

The way in which one tolerates the reading of much of the Bible is through the lens of hermeneutic charity, which means we are forgiving of people in the past who have not attained the same level of justice which we have regarding the dignity and equality of all people.  When we read Scriptural rules regarding women and slaves, we engage in comparative horror.  We reflect that if this is the way people were treated in the past as a matter of their "law," what must life had been for people before they had such laws.  That such laws governing the treatment of women and slaves was seen as an advance, means something much worse must have preceded it.  We moderns will need hermeneutic charity from our future readers as well.  One can think about what was regarded as an era of peace and liberation in the 1960's in culture and songs, and as we look at the words and songs of that time we now see patriarchal sexism there as well as many views of the world that have come to be regarded as not fully enlightened.  We can have hermeneutic charity without perpetuating the virtue of the past that has become today's vice. (Joseph Campbell: Yesterday virtue is tomorrow's vice).

Quiz of the Day, February 2019

Quiz of the Day, February 28, 2019

Whom of the following would be regarded as the quintessential parish pastor?

a. George Herbert
b. William Laud
c. Thomas Aquinas
d. Julian of Norwich

Quiz of the Day, February 27, 2019

Which of the following is not true about gleaning?

a. it was a legal requirement of the Torah to help the poor
b. it is a law for farmers to not pick up crops that were dropped in the harvest
c. it is something that Ruth collected in the fields of Boaz
d. it was an official tithe of money for the poor

Quiz of the Day, February 26, 2019

The biblical phrase etched in Hebrew on many wedding rings, "Where you go, I will go;Where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God" was say by whom to whom?

a. Adam to Eve

b. Sarah to Abraham

c. Ruth to Boaz

d. Bathsheba to David

e. Lover to lover in Song of Solomon

f. Ruth to Naomi

Quiz of the Day, February 25, 2019

In what New Testament writing can there be found the account of the "election" of the disciple to replace Judas Iscariot?

a. Luke
b. Romans
c. 1 Corinthians
d. Acts of the Apostles

Quiz of the Day, February 24, 2019

Kant's Categorical Imperative for establishing moral behavior might be closest to what from the Bible?

a. The 10 Commandments
b. The Fruits of the Spirit
c. The Golden Rule
d. The Summary of the Law

Quiz of the Day, February 23, 2019

Where is it written that "the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil?"

a. Matthew
b. Luke
c. Romans
d. 1 Timothy

Quiz of the Day, February 22, 2019

The movie "Chariots of Fire" was a biography of whom?

a. C.S. Lewis
b. Oswald Chambers
c. Eric Liddell
d. G.K. Chesterton

Quiz of the Day, February 21, 2019

Which New Testament person made the stark comparison between the physical body and the spiritual body?

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

Quiz of the Day, February 20, 2019

Which is not true about Frederick Douglass?

a. he was a former slave
b. he was a articulate abolitionist
c. he debated President Lincoln
d. he conferred with Presidents Lincoln and Johnson
e. he supported John Fremont over Ulysses Grant

Quiz of the Day, February 19, 2019

Whom of the following is responsible for the people of Israel to be Egypt?

a. Jacob
b. Joseph
c. the brothers of Joseph
d. some Midian slave traders

Quiz of the Day, February 18, 2019

What happened on this day, February 18th, 500 years ago?

a. Luther was born
b. Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Castle church
c. Luther died
d. Luther founded the Lutheran Church

Quiz of the Day, February 17, 2019

Which philosopher saw the Beatitudes as indicative of "slave morality" whereby noble values of triumph and fortune and will to power were overturned and slave conditions were transvalued?

a. Marx
b. Hegel
c. Feuerbach
d. Nietzsche

Quiz of the Day, February 16, 2019

Bishop Charles Quintard is associated with the founding of which Episcopal Seminary?

a. General
b. Berkeley Divinity
c. Seabury-Western
d. Sewanee
e. Nashotah
f. Virginia Theological Seminary
g. Philadelphia Divinity School

Quiz of the Day, February 15, 2019

In Anglican Missiology the letters S.P.G.F.G. are associated with whom of the following?

a. Thomas Ken
b. Thomas Bray
c. William Wilberforce\
d. John Wesley

Quiz of the Day, February 14, 2019

Which of the following is not true about Cyril and Methodius?

a. they share a feast day with Valentine
b. they were born in Moravia
c. the were asked to evangelize the Slavic peoples
d. they translated a Bible for the Slavic people
e. they were responsible for developing the Glagolitic alphabet which became the Cyrillic script

Quiz of the Day, February 13, 2019

Which bishop ordained the first African American Episcopal priest, Absalom Jones?

a. Samuel Seabury
b. Philander Chases
c. William Henry Hobart
d. William White

Quiz of the Day, February 12, 2019

Of the following, whom would be the most prolific hymn lyricist?

a. John Wesley
b. Charles Wesley
c. Fanny Crosby
d. Isaac Watt

Quiz of the Day, February 11, 2019

The beatitude "blessed are the poor," instead of "blessed are the poor in spirit," is found in which Gospel?

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

Quiz of the Day, February 10, 2019

How many wings did Isaiah's seraphs have?

a. two
b. four
c. six
d. eight
e. none

Quiz of the Day, February 9, 2019

Where is it reported that Jesus walked on water?

a. Sea of Galilee
b. Lake Tiberius
c. Lake of Gennesaret
d. Sea of Chinnereth
e. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, February 8, 2019

Which prophet understood God to call God's house, a "house of prayer for all people?"

a. Isaiah
b. Jeremiah
c. Hosea
d. Amos
e. Nehemiah

Quiz of the Day, February 7, 2019

The story of Cornelius the Centurion is found in which New Testament book?

a. Luke
b. John
c. Acts of the Apostles
d. Matthew

Quiz of the Day, February 6, 2019

The "Sanctus" of the Mass comes from the "Holy, Holy, Holy" song of the heavenly beings recognizing the ineffability of God's presence.  Which two books of the Bible include this hymn phrase?

a. Isaiah and Ezekiel
b. Daniel and Revelation
c. Isaiah and Daniel
d. Revelation and Isaiah

 Quiz of Day, February 5, 2019

What pre-Revolutionary man was persecuted by Archbishop William Laud and came to the American colonies and eventually advocated and coined the phrase, a "wall of separation" between the church and the state?

a. John Wesley
b. Roger Williams
c. William Penn
d. Jonathan Edwards

Quiz of the Day, February 4, 2019

Whom of the following was the apostle to Scandinavia?

a. Boniface
b. Wilfrid
c. Willibrord
d. Anskar

Quiz of the Day, February 3, 2019

What does "glossolalia" refer to?

a. gift of the spirit mentioned by Paul
b. speaking in tongues
c. language of angels
d. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, February 2, 2019

Which of the following is not associated with the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple?

a. Candlemas
b. 40 days after the birth of Jesus
c. Ritual purification rite for Mary
d. Zechariah's Song
e. Nunc Dimittis
f. Performing the rite of the redemption of the firstborn son

Quiz of the Day, Feburary 1, 2019

St. Bride is a reference to who or what?

a. Brigid of Ireland
b. the church as the Bride of Christ
c. Blessed Virgin Mary as the Bride of God
d. the sanctimony of marriage

Translating the Beatitudes to the Non-Oppressed

7 Epiphany C  February 24, 2019 

Genesis 45:3-11, 15  Psalm 37:1-12, 41-42

1 Corinthians 15:35-38,42-50  Luke 6:27-38  

Lectionary Link

We in America have attained fascination with the martial arts.  They are exotic and foreign practices from Asia.  The practice of them seem to promote self-discipline, respect for authority and others, and knowing that martial arts is really about never having to really use them in practice; it is the practice of restraint to be used only for self-defense.

Surely the ancient martial arts had the context of preparing warriors for actual battle of both an offensive and defensive sort.  Martial arts would be training for battle and when battle did not exist, it would be the practice of readiness for battle.  But when war was not happening, they would be sporting events to foster the competitive edge.

It is likely that most members of the armed forces training to go to battle today learn some martial arts.  But for most of us it the romanticized Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Mr. Miyagi, waxing on and waxing off for entertainment and good recreational exercise.  But the martial arts for us, are mainly dislodged from the original contexts of preparation for battle, and thankfully so.

We could also say that for us, thankfully, the beatitudes of the Gospels are dislodged from the conditions which generated them.

The conditions of freedom can result in quite a variety of experiences.  Some of them are not so pleasant.  But what about people who have lived for long time in slavery?  What about people who have lived for a long time with their country occupied?   What if you are a member of a minority religion in an Empire that requires you to worship the Emperor as a god, and your religion doesn't allow you to do this?  If you live under sustained conditions of oppression and lack of social, economic and religious freedom, you still have to live.  Much of the Bible was written by people who had sustained misfortune and lack of the social freedoms that we have and take for granted.

What do people of the Bible have to say to us to don't live in oppression?  Can we ever say that we can identify significantly with their circumstances?

I believe that the beatitudes of Jesus represent a sort of spiritual martial arts that was forced upon oppressed people.  The people to whom Jesus came needed a spiritual martial arts both to survive and to live with enjoyment.  Why do you think that the beatitudes were important to reformers like Gandhi and to Martin Luther King, Jr.?  They represent a way to resist and maintain a cause for justice and at the same time live in such a winsome way that you might attract people to join you because of your extreme kindness, the extreme kindness of forgiveness, the extreme kindness of a non-retaliatory way of living.

In our prayers we pray for safety of all, so we pray that the conditions which require the beatitude way of life never occurs.  We'd rather live without enemies, without abuse, without someone who would strike us on the cheek, or without bullies who would take our coats and steal our goods.

The beatitude spiritual martial arts were a special way for oppressed people to live, and we do not want the conditions of oppression in the first place.

When people are oppressed, certainly they have the option of open revolt and retaliation.  But people end up being killed or imprisoned.  The other option is to learn how to fly under the radar and that is where the beatitude style of living comes in.  How can I live in such a super winsome way that even my oppressors cannot help but be impressed and stumped and ask: "Where does this person get the interior strength to love one's enemy, to do good to those who hate, to bless those who curse, to pray for those who abuse, to refuse to retaliate when someone strikes?"

I would suggest to you that we in the land of the free and home of the brave should reject the conditions which required the beatitudes as a way of life.  The entire purpose of laws is to keep people safe, to respect the rights and dignity of everyone.  So, we need to reject the conditions of oppression and injustice which required the early followers of Jesus to have to live such super kind lives just to survive.

But ponder this:  What if we were to transpose a beatitude lifestyle to our time and place when we do not experience the same conditions of oppression?  How do we live without allowing ourselves to even have someone whom we would designate as an enemy?  What if we found no reason and no one to hate?  What if we are fortune enough to not have people who hate us, how much easier it would be to be good to people who are just mildly irritating to us?    What if we could adopt only the language of blessing and never have a reason to curse others?  What if we prayed equally for those with whom we agree and those with whom we disagree?  What if we learn the deft language art of turning our linguistic cheeks and offer verbal roses to those who might want to be argumentative or angry?

You and I do not live in the same conditions which required the radical lifestyle of the spiritual martial arts of the beatitudes for survival and maintenance of dignity.  So how do we live?  We should live to make sure that we are never consciously or indirectly on the side of the forces of oppression, suppression or mistreatment of any people.

We should honor the people who lived with such grace and forgiveness in the times of supreme oppression and we should work to eradicate every form of oppression and injustice.

Remember today, we are the equivalent of the favored people of the Roman Empire; we have the power and wealth.  How can we translate the beatitude lifestyle of oppressed people to be our lifestyle as people of privilege and power?

We can be thankful that the ideals and laws of our country calls us to honor the dignity of all people. 

The challenge for you and me today is to translate the spiritual martial arts of the beatitudes which derived among oppressed people into our lives as those who would live such kind lives as to bring the loving regard of Christ to all people in this world.  Amen.