Sunday School, March 31, 2019 4 Lent C

Sunday School, March 31, 2019     4 Lent C

Themes

St. Paul wrote about our lives becoming a new creation.  We need God’s help in re-creating our lives in better ways?  Why?  Because some things are very difficult.

One of the most difficult things in life is forgiveness.

Forgiveness is interesting.  We know that we are not perfect and so we want people to give us second and third chances when we make mistakes.  But sometimes it is hard for us to give other people second and third chances.  Some times it is very difficult to forgive people who do bad things, and especially when they do them to us.

Jesus told a parable to show us that it is very hard to forgive.   It is a story about unfairness which happened in a family.  It is about a brother who found it very difficult to forgive his younger brother.  Sometimes older brothers and sister think that the youngest children in the family have it the easiest because it seems to them that mom and dad have easier rules for the youngest children in the family.

Jesus told a story about a very sad father.  The father was sad because his youngest son wanted to leave him and he wanted to take with him all of the money that he would get from his father after his father would die.  The young son took all of the money and moved away and wasted it and became very poor.  And he was so poor that he just wished he could work as a slave on his father’s farm.  So he went home.  And his father did not let him work as a slave.  He was happy that he returned and gave him a party.

The older brother who never left home and always obeyed his father was angry and said it was not fair.  Why did his dad give a party for the son who had behaved so badly?

And that is riddle of the story.  It is really hard and unfair to forgive people who have broken the law and done some really bad things.  But the miracle of God is to have mercy and forgiveness and to keep giving people more chances when they learn from their mistakes and want to improve their lives.

God has mercy on all of us when we aren’t perfect and yet when we realize our mistakes and want to improve our lives.  Sometimes when a person is bad in something where we are good, it is hard to forgive them.  We have to remember that sometimes we are bad in things where other people are good and we need them to forgive us.

The lesson we learn is that forgiveness is sometimes easier to accept than to offer.  And because forgiveness is hard, that is where we need to accept the forgiveness which is the gift of God as a loving parent.

Let us pray to God to ask God to give us the gift of forgiveness even as we freely accept the forgiveness from God and from the people who love us even when we are not perfect.

A Sermon about when being good can turn into being bad

Today we have read a story of Jesus about a family: A father, a younger son and his older brother.  The stories of Jesus are called parables.  A parable is a story that has an important message for us to learn.

  And this parable has a riddle in it.  And the riddle in this:  When can being good, turn into being bad?

  One day the young son said to his father, “Dad, I am leaving.  I’m tired of living here.  I want all of the money that you will give me after you die so I can leave and live elsewhere.”  Dad was very sad to hear this, but he gave his young son lots of money and his son left.

  Well, the young son went far away from home and he did not use his money very well.  He partied, he spent it foolishly on his friends.  He gambled and he lost all of his money.  He ran out of all of his money; he didn’t have any money to buy food.  So, he had to take a job taking care of pigs.  He watched the pigs eat; and he thought:  I’m so hungry, even the pig’s food looks good.  Even the lowest paid workers on my father’s farm earn more than I do and have more food than I have.  May be if I go back to my father, he will let me work on his farm and get enough to eat.  So he went back home.  And when his father saw him coming, he decided to throw a big party for him and welcome him back.  The young son said, “Dad, I made a mistake and I lost all my money; just let me work as one of your servants.”  But his father was so happy to see him; he treated him just like his son.

  Well, the older brother was not happy about it.  He told his Dad, “I stayed with you and I have worked hard.  And you have not thrown me a party.  And how can you let my little brother back into the family after he did such a terrible thing?”  So the good brother became angry and resentful because his father welcomed and forgave his brother.  So his goodness turned to badness because he was angry at his father for forgiving his brother.

  And so here is the lesson of the parable.  God forgives anyone who tries to make their life better.  Whether we have done wrong or whether we have been good.  We can always get better.  And we are not perfect, so we always need forgiveness and we always need to get better.

  And when and where we are good; we should not get angry when someone who has done something bad is willing to say that they are sorry and willing to change their lives.

  We should remember that God is like the father in the story.  God is the one who forgives everyone who wants to be forgiven.  That is why we confess our sins, the things that we have done wrong and we make a promise to work to get better.  And we learn that God forgives us; so we should not be angry if God forgives other people too.

  Let us learn today to accept God’s forgiveness.  And let us learn to forgive each other too.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

March 31, 2019: The Fourth Sunday in Lent

Gathering Songs: This Little Light of Mine, Awesome God, Dona Nobis, He’s Got the Whole World

Song: This Little Light of Mine (Christian Children’s Songbook,  # 234)

This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.  This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Hide it under a bushel, No!  I’m going to let it shine.  Hide it under a bushel, No!  I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Don’t let anyone blow it out.  I’m going to let it shine.  Don’t let anyone blow it out.  I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Shine all over my neighborhood, I’m going to let it shine.  Shine all over my neighborhood, I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Liturgist: Bless the Lord who forgives all of our sins.

People: God’s mercy endures forever.  Amen.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.

And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.

Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Litany of Praise: Chant: Praise be to God!

O God, you are Great!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have made us! Praise be to God!

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

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Praise be to God!

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

Liturgist: A reading from the Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians

If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 32

You are my hiding-place; you preserve me from trouble; * you surround me with shouts of deliverance.

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go; * I will guide you with my eye.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

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.

Jesus told them this parable:  "There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands."' So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly, bring out a robe--the best one--and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate. "Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.' Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, 'Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!' Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'

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: Awesome God (Renew!, # 245)

Our God is an awesome God, he reigns from heaven above, with wisdom, power and love our God is an awesome God.  (sing three times)

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

 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:       Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast. 

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Dona Nobis Pacem,  (Renew!  # 240)

Dona nobis pacem, pacem, dona nobis pacem.  Dona nobis pacem, dona nobis pacem.  Dona nobis pacem, dona nobis pacem.

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: He’s Got the Whole World (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 90)

He’s got the whole world in his hands.  He’s got the whole wide world in his hands.  He’s got the whole world in his hands.  He’s got the whole world in his hands.

He’s got the little tiny baby in his hands.  He’s got the little tiny baby in his hands.  He’s got the little tiny baby in his hands.  He’s got the whole world in his hands.

He’s got the boys and the girls in his hands.  He’s got the boys and the girls in his hands.  He’s got the boys and the girls in his hands.  He’s got the whole world in his hands.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

C

Repentance As Our Future

3 Lent      Cycle C     March 24, 2019

Ex.3:1-17          Ps. 103:1-11           

1 Cor. 10:1-13     Luke 13:1-9       

Lectionary Link
The life of Moses can be divided into three trimesters of 40 years.  He lived to the age of 120; the biblical writers liked numbers and their symbolic values and the number 40 is the symbol of the time of test and trial and ordeal and practice and preparation.  Moses had successes and failures in all three of his trimesters.  In his first 40 years, he had a miraculous infancy narrative; he was supposed to be killed with all the Hebrew male children in Egypt, but he was spared in his ark of bulrushes and rescued and adopted by an Egyptian princess and raised as a prince of Egypt.  He did not forget his people and as he neared the age of 40 he felt it was his duty to unify the Hebrew people and help them fight their oppression.  He failed and murdered two Egyptians and ran into the wilderness to escape for his life and give up his call.  He attached himself to the family of his bride and became a shepherd for Jethro his father-in-law.  And at the age of 80, he had his great theophany, a great encounter with God who appeared in the burning bush which was not consumed.  

This encounter of Moses as it is recorded in the book of Exodus evokes a study of God, the name of God and how God has come to be regarded.  Through textual analysis of Hebrew Scriptures, some scholars find at least four editions of Hebrew Scriptures.  This is called the source theory, and the sources are abbreviated as JEDP.  Two of these sources derive from the Hebrew words to designate God.  The J stands for "Jehovah" but is called by scholars the Yahwists.  The E, stands for the Elohists.  The Yahwists were the editors who used "Yahweh" for the name of God.  The Elohists were the editors who used Elohim as the name of God.  So how do we know in English translations which Hebrew name of God is being used?  The English word "Lord" is used for Yahweh or some translators use Yahweh.  Yahweh entered our vocabulary because some biblical scholar believed it to be a better English transliteration and the God formerly known as "Jehovah."   The extra vowel has to do with some textual version of the vowel pointing of the four consonants.  So the Hebrew Scriptures result in both versions of God's name being used, as in Lord God or Yahweh Elohim.  What developed in Judaism after the destruction of Solomon's Temple to begin the exile, was the reverence for the name of God.  The four consonants which represent the name of God were regarded to be so holy that they could be written but not pronounced.  These four letters are called the tetragrammaton, and observant Jews read the four consonants with alternate pronunciations, like HaShem, meaning "the Name," or "Adonai"  meaning my Lord, or hakadosh baruch hu ("The Holy One, Blessed Be He").     In his great encounter with God, Moses was afraid about returning to Egypt where he had failed to gain the respect of his fellow Hebrew people.  Moses was given the name of God to use as proof of his call to lead the people of Israel.  God's name is rendered in English as "I am that I am."  But scholars say that the Hebrew language did not have a present tense for the verb "to be."  So some think that it should be rendered as "I will be who I will be."  Moses returned to Egypt to lead a stubborn and skeptical people and he used the revealed name of God and using the name resulted in the plagues and the feats of wondered which enabled the Israelites to eventually arrive in the Promised Land.

Why is all of this relevant to the Christian tradition?  St. Paul and the apostles, understood Jesus Christ to be the one who assumed and made known God as the "I am" or the "I will be who I will be."  St. John's Gospel is the "I am" Gospel.  Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I am."  This means that Christians regarded Christ to assume identity with "The Name."  St. Paul acted in the name of Christ in assuming it as a manifestation of the name of God.  He wrote that the Red Sea event baptized the children into Moses and many of them did not honor the name and they failed in their temptation and testing in the forty years in the wilderness.  St. Paul warned the Corinthian church not to fail the time of testing.  He said that God, who delivered Jesus in his time of temptation, will also provide a way of escape in our time of temptation if we will commit to speak and act in the name of Christ, into whom we have been baptized.

Our Gospel for today, indicates to us that we always already can be subject to the conditions of freedom where good things can happen to bad people; bad things happen to good people.  Bad things happen to bad people. Good things can happen to good people.  Freedom means that tyrants can prevail and do horrendous thing.  Freedom means that a tower can be structurally unsafe and fall on and kill people.  Such event may leave us speculating about why things happen.  Such speculation cannot change the fact that they did happen.  What response did Jesus give to the conditions of freedom?

Jesus said that we should always live in the state of repentance.  What does repentance mean?  It means we live in order to be better in the future.  How does one become better in the future?

How does a gardener make a better future yield?  A gardener composts the present ground around the plant in order for a better outcome?  What is compost?  In human experience, compost is our dead past.  The past is dead and gone.  The past can be a liability seen as an albatross to determine a bad future, or using the recycling and compost metaphor, we need to learn how to use the dead past to engender a better future.  Repentance is the education dynamic to learn from our past successes and failures to make a better future.

This Lent, we as a parish need to repent into our future.  We need to act in faith toward hopeful outcomes.  We need to apply success and failure in our past to a better future.  If the name of God in Christ is, "I will be who I will be," we can act in the name of Christ into our future with the great expectancy of better outcomes and future renewal.  Let us adopt repentance as a our Lenten habit toward a better personal and parish future.  Amen. 

Sunday School, March 24, 2019 3 Lent C

Sunday School, March 24, 2019   3 Lent C

Sunday school themes

What happened to Moses after his disappointment and failure?

The Story of Moses

The life of Moses was spared as a newborn baby when an Egyptian princess adopted him and raised him in a palace.  But Moses was a Hebrew man and when he saw that the other Hebrew people were treated like slaves by the Pharaoh of Egypt, he knew that God wanted him to help to make the lives of the Hebrews better.  He tried to help but in his first attempt he was opposed by both the Egyptians and also his fellow Hebrew.  He felt like a failure so he ran for his life to a faraway place.  He became a shepherd and got married and he worked for his father-in-law.  When he was tending the flock, Moses saw a bright burning bush and he heard God call him.  God wanted him to go back to Egypt to help the Hebrew people.  Moses told God that he could not do it and that he had failed.  But God told him that God is greatest of all and that God would help him.  God said that Moses would be given another chance to go and help the Hebrew people be freed from slavery in Egypt.

We can learn from our failures.  Sometimes when we fail we want to give up and quit and run away.  We may want to say, “I can’t do that.”  But our teachers and parents come to us and say, “Keep trying and you will be successful.”  Our teachers and parents forgive us and accept us and they help us because they understand that we learn through our failures.  When we are not yet perfect, God does not forget us.  God keeps coming to us and inviting us to keep trying.  When we fail to love or be kind, God keeps inviting us to learn how to be better.  The lesson that we can learn from Moses is that God does not give up on us.  God keeps coming to us and asks us to do the good work that we know that we’re supposed to do.

The Gospel Riddle of Jesus

Jesus told a riddle about the patience of God.  When a fig tree did not have any fruit, the orchard owner wanted to cut it down.  What good is a fig tree if we can’t get figs?  The gardener of the orchard said, “Don’t cut it down; let me fertilize the soil around the tree; give the tree another chance to bear fruit.”

God is love because God always gives us more chances.  God tells us to use all of the things of our past, things that are dead and gone, but things like the memories of our failures can be used to help us grow new Christian fruit in our lives, like the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, faith, self control and gentleness.  Compost is dead plant and animal remains which are used to fertilize new plants.  God is always using the human compost of our past life experience to help us produce new and wonderful fruits in our lives, the fruits of love and kindness.

Remember God did not give up on Moses when he failed.  God does not give up on us when we fail.  So we should not give up on ourselves or on each other when we have failure and some difficult times.  Let us remember that God is patient with us.  God will allow our lives to be fertilized with all that has happened to us to make us better in the future.

Children’s Sermon: Growing Christian Fruit

  If you are a fruit grower, and you plant an apple tree, what do you want to get from the tree?

  When it is time to harvest, you want to be able to pick some fruit don’t you.  You want some nice big red apples, don’t you?

  But what if harvest time comes and you go to your apple tree and you don’t find any apples to pick?  You have a lot of questions don’t you?  If the tree looks healthy and has lots of pretty green leaves, you ask why doesn’t this tree have any apples.  It looks good and it looks healthy; why doesn’t it have good apples.  Did I make a mistake?  Did I plant the wrong seed?  Did it have some hidden plant disease?  Did the bugs get under its bark?   Did it get enough water?

  What should I do with an apple tree if it doesn’t have any apples?  It looks like a good tree but I have to sell apples to make money.  What should I do?

  I will wait until next year.  I will water it better.  I will dig around it and puts some special fertilizer around the tree, some special tree food to make it grow some good apples.

  Jesus told a story about a tree farmer who grew a fig tree, but the fig tree did not have any figs on it.  So the tree farmer decided to keep the tree and put some fertilizer, some tree food around the tree in the soil and wait until next year to see if it would grow some figs.

  The story about Jesus is a story about God.  You and I are like trees that God plants in this life.  And God does not just want us to look pretty, God also wants us to be like trees that produce lots of good fruit.

  Now you and I cannot grow apples and figs can we?  What can we produce and grow?  What kind of fruit can we grow?  We can make deeds of love, joy, faith, patience, gentleness, goodness, self-control and kindness.

  Those are the kinds of fruit that God wants us to grow.  And God is always giving us more time to produce these wonderful fruits.

  Just as the tree farmer gives fertilizer to help grow good fruit, so God gives us things to help us learn how to love.  We have the Bible, we have God’s word and God’s law to teach us how we should live.  We have parents and teachers who teach us how we should live good lives.  And sometimes we have some difficult tests that we have to pass to help us get strong and get better.  Some times we don’t know how to help others until we have had a hard time and learned to get help from God and other people.  And when we learn to help other people, then God is happy because then God says, I have planted a good tree and it is producing good fruit.  I have made a good person and that person is kind and loving, so I have been a very successful God.  We can help make God a very successful God by learning to grow good human fruit.  And the fruit that you and I are supposed to make are the fruits of love and kindness.

A Family Eucharistic Liturgy

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

March 24, 2019: The Third Sunday in Lent

Gathering Songs: Simple Gifts, The Butterfly Song, Jesus Stand Among Us, My Tribute

Song: Simple Gifts (Christian Children’s Songbook # 206)

‘Tis a gift to be simple, ‘tis a gift to free, ‘tis a gift to come down where you ought to be, and when we find ourselves in the place just right, ‘twill be in the valley of love and delight.  When true simplicity is gained, to bow and to bend we won’t be ashamed.  To turn, turn will be our delight till by turning and turning we come out right.

Liturgist: Bless the Lord who forgives all of our sins.

People: God’s mercy endures forever.  Amen.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.

And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.

Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

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

Litany of Praise: Chant: Praise be to God!

O God, you are Great!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have made us! Praise be to God!

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

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Praise be to God!

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

Liturgist: A reading from the Book of Exodus

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." He said further, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 63

For your loving-kindness is better than life itself; * my lips shall give you praise.

So will I bless you as long as I live * and lift up my hands in your Name.

My soul is content, as with marrow and fatness, * and my mouth praises you with joyful lips,

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

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.

Then Jesus told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?' He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put fertilizer on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'"

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: If I Were a Butterfly (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 9)

1-If I were a butterfly, I’d thank you Lord for giving me wings.  If I were a robin in the tree, I’d thank you Lord that I could sing.  If I were a fish in the sea, I wiggle my tail and I’d giggle with glee, but I just thank you Father for making me, me. 

Refrain:  For you gave me a heart and you gave me a smile.  You gave me Jesus and you made me your child.  And I just thank you Father for making me, me.

2-If I were an elephant, I’d thank you Lord by raising my trunk.  If I were a kangaroo, you know I’d hop right up to you.  If I were an octopus, I thank you Lord for my fine looks.  But I just thank you Father, for making me, me.  Refrain

3-If I were a wiggly worm, I’d thank you Lord that I could squirm.  If I were a billy goat, I’d thank you Lord for my strong throat.  If I were a fuzzy-wuzzy bear, I’d thank you Lord for my fuzzy-wuzzy hair.  And I just thank you Father for making me, me.  Refrain

Doxology

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

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

Prologue to the Eucharist

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

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,

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:       Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast. 

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Jesus, Stand Among Us (Renew! # 17)

1-Jesus, stand among us at the meeting of our lives, be our sweet agreement at the meeting of our eyes; O, Jesus, we love you, so we gather here, join our hearts in unity and take away our fear.

2-So to you we’re gathering out of each and every land, Christ the love between us at the joining of our hands; O, Jesus, we love you, so we gather here, join our hearts in unity and take away our fear.

3-Jesus, stand among us at the breaking of the break, join us as one body as we worship you our head.  O, Jesus, we love you, so we gather here, join our hearts in unity and take away our fear.

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:   To God Be the Glory (Renew!  # 68)

To God be the glory, to God be the glory, to God be the glory for the things he has done.  With his blood he has saved me; with his power he has raised me; to god be the glory for the things he has done.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

The Fox and the Hen

2  Lent C      March 17, 2019           

Gen.15:1-12,17-18   Ps. 27

Phil.3:17-4:1   Luke 13:22-35 

Lectionary Link  

  One of the ways that I I like to describe the Bible:  Inspired writings of people who are trying their best to give a narrative to the human experience of hope.

  Hope is a great seduction.  With hope we always are seeking a future, a better future.  And in the experience of trying to tell how hope came to human experience, people of faith have been inspired to write the Bible. 

  Hope is so great, it presents us with more than we can complete in our lifetime.  Hope is a great consolation for actual suffering and deprivation in life.  Therefore, hope also inspires evolution in what the future might look like.  The evolution of stories of hope eventually took people beyond this life to the afterlife.

  What would future hope look like for Abraham?  He was a childless man.  The most concrete way for Abraham to attain immortality was in having children.  If one's immortality is children, one's children must also have provision.  What was the most concrete provision available to Abraham?  Land.  So, God promised Abraham the immortality of having children and having land.  Land and children were concrete, objective immortality for Abraham.  The narratives of afterlife cannot be found in but in but a couple places in the Hebrew Scriptures.  Images of the afterlife developed in later Judaism after the future of having children and land was severely threatened because the very existence of the people of Israel and their land was threatened.  How could God's people be allowed to be so oppressed with their land invaded and when they were carried off into captivity?  How could their God be a great God of justice if they experienced such suffering?  This is when hope and justice inspired the stories of the future of judgment in the afterlife when the scores would be settled.  The apocalyptic figures of a Son of Man and a Messiah involved the future of justice and the afterlife.

  Fast forward to St. Paul and the early church.  The land of Israel as a future place had been given up.  The meaning of the innumerable children of Abraham had been changed.  St. Paul wrote not about his citizenship in Rome or Israel; he wrote about being a heavenly citizen.  Heaven was the new Promised Land.  Heaven was the new place of immortality.   And who was the posterity of Abraham?  According to St. Paul, Abraham was the father of faith even before Jacob and Israel existed; the posterity of Abraham was now seen as the spiritual children of faith, even the Gentiles who had become grafted into the family of faith.

  I hope that we can appreciate the evolution of the stories of hope in the Bible, as a movement from physical immortality (found in children and a promised land) to a spiritual and heavenly immortality.  And even though there is this new resurrection immortality, there is not a rejection of the physical world, in fact, it is an expansion of objective immortality.  Why?  Because immortality was no longer limited to the land of Israel and the genetic lineage of Abraham; now God's loving eternal life in Jesus Christ was to be offered to the entire world, all the lands of the earth and to all of earth's peoples.  Every place on earth could be a Promised Land.

  The Gospel story of the fox and the hen illustrates how hope expanded in a rather unexpected way.  The time of Jesus was presented in the Gospels as a time of competition between religious parties in Judaism.  The Pharisees wanted Jesus to move on and so they warned him about the King of the Jews, King Herod.  "Herod killed John the Baptist and now he's going to get you, Jesus, you better go off the grid and into hiding."

   Jerusalem is called a holy city, but it really has no long history as a really safe place for people.  The politics and infighting in Jerusalem have always meant that the prophets would be killed and stoned because they called for justice, love and peace for all.

  Jesus mourned the fact that Jerusalem could not live up to it name, "city of peace."    Jesus used the metaphor of the mother hen.  He wished that he could protect all the vulnerable chicks and take them under his wing, but it was not to be so.

  But what happened?  Jesus as the mother hen submitted himself to death by King Herod, and others.  And what happened?  All the little chicks fled but those little chicks became the eagles of the early church.  They were Christians who brought the message of the hope of Christ and eternal life to the ends of the earth.

  The fox did kill the hen, but the Risen Christ returned to spiritual children of faith to live on forever in this life and in the life to come.  This is how hope's story evolved.  And Hope still inspires stories for us today in our lives, in our families and in our parish.  But for hope to become our story, we need to act in faith so that Hope's story for our parish can be further written in the days ahead.  Amen.