Sunday School, August 4, 2019 8 Pentecost, C proper 13

Sunday School, August 4, 2019   8 Pentecost, C proper 13

A lesson about Greed

Jesus taught a lesson about how the things that we own can own us instead.

We can become a slave to the things that we own.

How so?

When we buy something then we are responsible to take care of it.  Anything that we own requires that we spend time to care for it and protect it.

And so we may end up spending more times with things we love rather than spending time with the people we love.

We can end up by taking care of the things of our lives and not taking care of people in this life who are more important.

There is a judgment that will happen to everyone to test whether their life treasure will die or whether their life treasure will live on forever.

If a person teaches someone to read, the student will also grow to teach another person to read, and each person who teaches someone to read is giving an eternal gift forever.  So teaching someone is a gift which lasts forever.

If someone gives money or a car to someone, these things get spent or wear out or just take more time to store and attend to.  Things require our time and devotion and care.  And it is easy to take care of things that give us pleasure right now, but do not give anything to other people.

Being rich and having treasure toward God happens when we love our neighbor as ourselves.  When we love, we created domino effect into the future.  With love, we inspire others to love too and so the future becomes “rich” with love.

Let us remember not to be a slave to the things we own.  Let us see that what we own, we are truly in control of so that we can use all of our lives to love God and our neighbors.  This is how we create everlasting treasure which will never end.

Sermon on being rich toward God

  Once upon a time there were two brothers, Mark and John;  and they both grew up wanting to be great builders.  They studied architecture; they studied how to build houses.  And so they set out to become great builders.

  Mark decided that he wanted to build the perfect house that he could live in.

So he began to build this perfect house.  This house was built in the mountains where very few people could come.  It was very hard to get to and it took many, many years to build.  In fact, Mark was quite old when he finally finished building his perfect house.  And it had cost him all of his money to build this perfect house.  And after finishing his perfect house, Mark died, and he had only been able to live but a few months in this perfect house.

  And when Mark died, his family did not want to live in the house because it was so far away from everything, so Mark’s perfect house, remained empty, unused, and unseen.  And no one even wanted to buy the house.

  John, his brother also became a builder.  And John did not build a big perfect house.  John went to poor neighborhoods and poor countries and he taught many people how to build houses that they could live in.  And when John would finish teaching poor people to build houses for them selves in one country, he would go to another poor country and help people learn to build houses for the homeless.

  And one day, John too died. But when he died, he had built hundreds and thousands of houses.  And the people whom he taught to build, kept building more houses, and they also taught other people to build houses.  And so even though John was dead, he was still building houses.

  Mark built one perfect house that was not worth much.

  And John built lots of houses for lots of people.  And he taught people how to build houses and taught them how to teach others to built houses.

  Between Mark and John, who was the best builder?  Which builder was best for this world.

  When Jesus taught us how to be rich toward God, he meant that when we love and give to others, we are building things that will last forever and ever.  If we teach someone who teaches someone who teaches someone…then in some way, what we do will last forever.  That is how we can be rich toward God and that is how we help our world survive and be a better place.  Let us learn how we can make our lives good and useful for God and each other.  Amen.

Holy Eucharist, intergenerational and young child friendly

July 31, 2016: The Eightth Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs:The Butterfly Song,If You’re Happy, Father I Adore You,  How Great Thou Art

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

People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and forever.  Amen.

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

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

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

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Song: The Butterfly Song,  (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’d 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 octapus, I’d thank you Lord for my fine looks.  And 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

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; 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: 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

A reading from the Letter to the Colossians

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 107

Let them give thanks to the LORD for his mercy * and the wonders he does for his children.

For he satisfies the thirsty * and fills the hungry with good things.

Whoever is wise will ponder these things, * and consider well the mercies of the LORD.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God!

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.

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." But he said to him, "Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?" And he said to them, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." Then he told them a parable: "The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, `What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?' Then he said, `I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, `Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, `You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."

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 Song:

            If You’re Happy and You Know It, (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 124)

If you’re happy  and you know it clap your hands.  If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.  If you’re happy and you know it then your face should surely show it.  If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.

If you’re happy and you know it stomp your feet.  If you’re happy and you know it stomp your feet.  If you’re happy and you know it, then your face should surely show it.  If you’re happy and you know it stomp your feet.

If you’re happy and you know it, shout, Amen!  Amen!  If you’re happy and you know it shout, Amen!  Amen!   If you’re happy and you know it, then your face should surely show it, if you’re happy and you know it, shout, Amen!  Amen!

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.

The Prayer continues with these words

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Children rejoin their parents and take up their instruments) 

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

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

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

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

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

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

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:       Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast. 

Words of Administration

Communion Song:  Father, I Adore You (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 56)

Father, I adore you, lay my life before you, how I love you.

Jesus….

Spirit…

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: How Great Thou Art, (Renew!  # 250)

O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder.  Considered all the worlds thy hands have made.  I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, thy power throughout, the universe display.  

Refrain:  Then sings my soul, my savior God to thee.  How great thou art!  How great thou art!  Then sings my soul, my savior God to thee.  How great thou art!  How great thou art!

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Aphorism of the Day, July 2019

Aphorism of the Day, July 31, 2019

As profound as the writer of Ecclesiastes sounds in his skepticism, there is the subtle personal temporal provincialism purporting to have achieved so much that one would hardly want such brilliance to be sullied and ruined by those incompetent heirs.  How would they value what I have achieved and maintain it with the same valuing organ that I have valued it.  The universe is "moi;" it dies when I die because I will no longer be around to keep creating it in time.  It probably is good to remember that as one is center of one's own perceptual universe, one is but a satellite in the perceptual universes of the others.

 Aphorism of the Day, July 30, 2019

Is being as personal identity a property that one has?  What we have represents the conditions of the dynamic of what we've been given and the limited amount of freedom that we use in "taking" what we've been given to shape the "givenness" of our human situation.  The All into which we've been born but known filtered and funneled mainly through temporal location, really has us more than we have the All.  What is All really has us more that we have the All since the All will continue after us even as we assume the All is self-surpassing in a future state and like a large expanding kaleidoscope, the turn of time rearranges all of the shards of the traces of what has been into different existence than what has been.  We been had by the All, and we can only say that we have All in the like way in which a guppy might say that "it has the Ocean."  All and Universe have functional poetic meaning without having exact and precise meaning.

 Aphorism of the Day, July 29, 2019

How is being and having related?  Can being be having, as in one's has existence as a possession or property?  Does one have successively an accumulating number of occasions of becoming in time.  So does one possess or have the total number of occasions of becoming?  In the process of sheer becoming one also can become identify, even over-identified with what one has.  Family heritage, money, property, education, fame, power.  One can view one's identity in terms of personal possession to the point of saying, "I am what I have."

Aphorism of the Day, July 28, 2019

How is God's will being done on earth when one asks for a fish and an egg and gets a snake and a scorpion?  One has to submit to the higher condition of Freedom even while the secondary agents of freedom live parasitically off this greater freedom to account for the weal and the woe, the sublime and the ridiculous and everything in between.  The higher Freedom does not intervene among secondary agents except to be the conditions for their very existence.  The competition and the lack of the totally coordinated conditions among secondary agents accounts for the seeming chaos, even while the greater Freedom has the lure of an order which structures everything.  In our prayer we trying to respond to the lure of this greater Freedom which is trying to structure us toward goodness and counter the freedom of the deprived goodness, called evil.

 Aphorism of the Day, July 27, 2019

Prayer is the practice of learning how to live when God seems to be either apparent or non-apparent.  Greatness encompasses what is apparent and what is not apparent.  Most of us prefer to live in the conditions when it seems as God's favor shines upon us as the apparent proof of God presence.  Faith is the state of living with the belief of God as actual during the perceptual states of God when God seems apparent or when God seems non-apparent.  The phrases of the "Our Father," deal with living in a stable attitude toward God even God's will is apparently done on earth as it is in heaven and when it is apparently not.  Trials and temptation arise when we confront what does not seem to be God's will being done on earth.

Aphorism of the Day, July 26, 2019

"Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil."  "Save us from the time of trial."  Obviously, we want to be exempt from having to face life situations which would challenge us beyond our capacity of maintaining faith, hope and love.  But think about all of the people who have been victims of extreme circumstances in life who have not had this prayer "answered."  We still ask for good things even though we know that none is exempt from extreme dire events occurring.  The Lord's prayer is based less upon outcome and more upon relationship.  It means that healthy relationship is based upon wanting good things for ourselves, e.g., salvation as general good holistic health.  A healthy relationship is also based upon not being mis-theistic (God-hating), or starting from the perspective that the universe is basically an unfriendly place without having a Big Friend within it All to inspire a phile-theistic (God loving)  basis for relationship.  Prayer means we begin our relation with God assuming our good motives toward God and likewise assuming God is inclined toward our well-being.  Such a relationship is what might be called faith and trust.

Aphorism of the Day, July 25, 2019

Translation and interpretation.  Forgive us our sin, our debts, or our trespasses?  Debts imply a monetary obligation and might imply that God is the landlord of the universe to whom we owe everything and such seems to be a limited metaphor for human/divine relations.  Forgive us our sins in the sense of the archer who shoots the arrow and perpetually misses the target might better characterize the human situation of the clash between now and the future, hope and the actual.  Hope is what is not yet in terms of what we should be and the human dilemma of the quest for excellence means we always hold ourselves responsible for what we are not yet because we are haunted by hope.  We want to be forgiven for what we are not yet, mildly accepting our current deficiencies and those of others whom we often deem to be deficient towards us in their behaviors.  Forgiveness is the reciprocal dynamic of mutual tolerance of people living together helping each other surpass themselves in future states of excellence.  In such a practice we look for Hope as future possible betterment to forgive us for not being yet what we want to be.

 Aphorism of the Day, July 24, 2019

Prayer can be narrowly understood as offering petitions to God and getting them answered in in a way that is favorable to that way in which the petitioners understands his or her welfare.  A more embracing understanding of prayer pertains to the relationship to God as all.  How can we be faithfully related to the total situation of Freedom within which we live and in which we have our degree of freedom, including the freedom to pray?  Can we live imputing loving motives of God even when we ask for a fish and we seem to receive a snake, or when we ask for bread and receive a rock?  Prayer might be understood as adjusting to the conditions of freedom in our lives with God as the One who is Most Free but as such, shares degrees of freedom to all lesser agencies such that in the total play of free agents lots of outcomes can be experience that may be characterized as weal or woe or indifferent in terms of favorability to one's self-assessment of one's welfare.  Prayer is the expression of a relationship with All in believing that one's life is beneficial to the total common good, even when the details of how it pertains in each life event such benefit is not always evident.

Aphorism of the Day, July 23, 2019

"Your kingdom come." This is a personal request for one to know that one lives and moves and has one's being in God.  An assumption of believing in a creator, would be that all that is created is in the "realm" of the creator.  So why does the realm of the creator have to come when it never left?  It appears to have left because other realms have usurped the the hidden background of the tacit realm of God.  Jesus was one who called us to return to the original obvious Realm of life.

Aphorism of the Day, July 22, 2019

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke indicate the belief that Jesus taught his followers to pray, "Our Father in heaven...."  Certainly the poetry of this opening address suggests not some "sky God" who dwells in the realm beyond the trap door at the top of the domed sky, but One who dwell in  an interior space within all, who is the spiritual conceiving One of all who wish to know their interior lives as the constellation of One who perfectly befriends without exempting us from all of the agony and ecstasy of living within the free conditions of the world.  This profound interior Parent does not exempt us from the conditions of life but can be experienced as One who mentors us through same.

Aphorism of the Day, July 21, 2019

Mary and Martha of Bethany have become the proto-types for the active and contemplative orders of monasticism.  Martha was interested in hospitality for Jesus in the family home; Mary was interested in hospitality for the words of Jesus within her inward home.  The apparent "clash" between the sisters is the balancing act of tending to the outer world or our inward world.  It is continual and both are important, even as Jesus said, "Mary has chosen the better part."  For that specific occasion with Jesus being so accessible, Mary chose the better part.  We always need to chose the better part when the occasions arise for significant opportunity for soul-work to be done.  The better part is to be discerning of the opportunity for creative advance of inward awakening.

Aphorism of the Day, July 20, 2019

The origin of faith movements begin with mystical and serendipitous experience of the people who have them.  They change the world with moral and spiritual awakening in ways that inspire people to conserve, perpetuate and promulgate the values which arise from these experiences.  In short they become institutionalized and they can become efforts to "mass produce" the serendipitous.  And sudden the "genie" has left the bottle and all that is left is the bottle, beautiful in its own right, but spiritless and without mysticality.  The bottle becomes an artifact for remembering what it once contained.  The bottle becomes a replacement for the once resident "Genie."

Aphorism of the Day, July 19, 2019

An insight regarding the Gospel writings might be to understand them as the coding of the mystical experiences of the Risen Christ into a "physical historical narrative," since "believing our eyes" is a metaphor for indicating that something is really real.  The mystical experiences of the Risen Christ created the accounts of the physical journey of Jesus in the Gospel narratives, with the mixture of oral remnants of the traditions of Jesus' words and actions coupled with oracular "voice" of the Risen Christ directing the narratives for the needs of the particular communities of the Gospel preachers/writers who were speaking and writing in the name of the Risen Christ.  The Gospel writing is in koine Greek and not Aramaic, the language of Jesus.  The Gospels represent interpretations, translations and expansion into the post-resurrection era of the meaning of Jesus Christ for those who had and would find him to be the telling life changing event of their lives.

Aphorism of the Day, July 18, 2019

New wine in old wineskins, is perhaps an aphorism highlighting the incommensurable between an older paradigm and a new paradigm.  Old systems are not able to contain new situations.  Our understanding of equal dignity of all people means that the old wines skins of biblical cultures which supported oppression for many people cannot contain the expanding arc of justice.  The "from many one" phrase of American idealism could romantically presume to prevail when the ones with the power and the wealth could convince themselves that they were being "good masters" of those who had very little influence in the political, social and economic outcomes.

Aphorism of the Day, July 17, 2019

Synecdoche is a figure of speech where something refers to the whole or vice versa.  The Pentagon is a building but in speech can refer to the entire Department of Defense.  In speech we use these sweeping reductive or expansive devices for "abbreviation" to conserve speech act or writing acts energy.  The use of synecdoche is effective when all participants understand the "abbreviations."  The famous Christological poetic hymns function in a similar way.  Jesus of Nazareth expands to the Christification of all things: Christ is all and in all.  Christ is WORD from the Beginning.  Christ is the Invisible God.  One should understand the meaning of the Trinity as poetic expansiveness and not as empirical observations of three different persons in a space time sensorial context.

Aphorism of the Day, July 16, 2019

Christ Jesus is the image (icon) of the invisible God.  Such is what is written in Pauline writings.  It is like the poetry of the introduction to John's Gospel: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God."  Word as Word is still invisible but through itself, Word is evident.  Word continually refers beyond itself to what is not Word, but it really ends up just referring to other words which are supposed to be signifying what is not words.  We are ordered and created as humans because we have Word as the ordering and structuring reality of our existence.  I say that because in a very circular argument, I use and must use words to establish the primacy (the arche status)  of Word.  We are totally caught inwardly and outwardly in Words.


Aphorism of the Day, July 15, 2019

"The better part."  This is what Jesus said about Mary the contemplater in contrast with Martha the compulsive worker.  If this was a parable of Jesus in the early church which privilege mystical experience, then one can see the priority which is established for the early mystics.  You don't win the lottery if you don't play?  You don't have the recognition of one's mysticality unless one spends the contemplative time.

 Aphorism of Day, July 14, 2019

"For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished."  These words of Jesus about the law seem to contradict the notion that "love" fulfills the law rather than a legalistic literalism about all of the written rules found in the Torah.  This could also mean that whatever is accomplished in the future cannot change how the law was written in the past.  What will be accomplished seems to be uncertain even while we can interpret endlessly about it referring to what was accomplished in the life of Jesus.

Aphorism of the Day, July 13, 2019

To ask the question, "who is my neighbor?," is to pretend ignorance about something that might be obvious.  It covers the hidden agenda, "who am I required to treat with dignity and respect?"    "Jesus, would I have to regard a Samaritan as my neighbor, and therefore worthy of the love required by fulfilling the law?"  Jesus then told a story about a Samaritan who helped a victim of roadside crime.  Jesus was pointing out that everyone is a passive neighbor who needs help at some time.  But the neighbor who keeps God's law is the one who is doing the loving and not just the recipient who receives the love. 

Aphorism of the Day, July 12, 2019

According to the punchline for the parable of the Good Samaritan, a neighbor is one who shows mercy.  Show mercy means that regardless of the conditions of either party, one party has empathy for someone in need and that empathy results in an action of care.  Mercy is empathy plus an action of care.  This is how Jesus defines "being a neighbor."  As passive neighbors, we also want to be on the receiving end of such care when we need it.

Aphorism of the Day, July 11, 2019

Love your neighbor as yourself.  Who is my neighbor?  Wrong question.  The neighbor is the one who is suppose to love any other person.  In the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus was saying "You love your neighbor as yourself," and you loving is what defines "neighbor."

Aphorism of the Day, July 10, 2019

Doesn't it humiliate you when someone about whom you have preconceived notions and predisposed not to like, does something totally nice and wonderful.  That is the spot of conscience which Jesus hit in telling the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Aphorism of the Day, July 9, 2019

In the parable of the Good Samaritan dialogue, Jesus subtly changed the debate from a who is the neighbor in the Summary of the Law, whom I have to love into a neighbor is really the lover of God as a neighbor loving whomever is placed before one in life.  The Samaritan is presented as the example of the active neighbor.  And isn't it galling when the "natural enemy" is seen to be more neighborly than our presumed "natural friends."  Those who have experienced the kindness of "strangers" understand the unbiased nature of "neighorly love."

Aphorism of the Day, July 8, 2019

The parable of the Good Samaritan has a very subtle but profound shift that is evident  in saying, being a neighbor and being a neighbor to.  The shift is from the passive to the active.  Passively a neighbor can be anyone who is geographically close to one; Actively, a neighbor is someone who is neighborly.  Lots of people are passive neighbors without being neighborly.  Jesus shatters the bias of his time by present the bad guy, the Samaritan, as one who is neighborly.  Jesus was elevating the notion of neighbor from location proximity to the act of being neighborly.

Aphorism of the Day, July 7, 2019

"Rejoice that your name is written in heaven."  Jesus told his evangelist not to rejoice in their success; rather rejoice that you in fact embraced the message that you are preaching.  What was the message?  God's realm is near and you are a member, a citizen of that realm.  (Hence you are enrolled in the "heavenly" records as such a citizen).  Act and be a citizen of God's realm.  That is its own reward.

Aphorism of the Day, July 6, 2019

The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few, is what Jesus is saying.  What is plentiful?  The number of people who need to know good news about God's love.  Why so few laborers?   Perhaps there are not enough people who have been able to embrace good news in their own life to the point of being compelled to share it with others.  It is a shame that there are not enough satisfied customers of "good news" to be available to share the excess with others.

Aphorism of the Day, July 5, 2019

"Whenever we have the opportunity, let us work for the good of all."  That is from St. Paul but it is the universal "common good" ethic.  Everything should be judged by the question, "will this benefit everyone?"  Whether the environment, health care and the economy, we often find individual "justice" at odds with distributive justice.  The world is in need of a correction toward distributive justice.

Aphorism of the Day, July 4, 2019

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States provides the framework for different people to be envious of the gifts of each other in the affirmation that we are all needed for our corporate wholeness and we cannot say of another, "I have no need of you."  There are many universal and Christ-like values of strategies of love within our American ideals documented in our founding charters.

Aphorism of the Day, July 3, 2019

St. Paul's law of "karma" is expressed, "you reap what you have sowed."  What we do now affects the future and sometimes the causes are directly observed and known and other times there are cumulative effects and the direct causal effect is unknown.  This can be in our health and diet and in how we treated the environment.  It is not that we don't believe in God's forgiving grace when we mess up really badly; God's law of karma is God as pure freedom sharing a degree of freedom with everyone and everything else and in the law of freedom current harm causes future harm to self and others through the reinforced repetitions which harden habits as well as actual future outcomes.  Our world has been building up incredible cumulative effects that threatens us with a future grim reaper.

 Aphorism of the Day, July 2, 2019

In the instructions for the evangelical mission, Jesus told his messengers not to stay around if their message was not received.  Just move on.  Not everyone is "ripe for harvest" in their life experience to be receptive for a paradigm shift.  The sadness in life is most people are not ready to take a step in the direction toward what they need to become.

Aphorism of the Day, July 1, 2019

Great idea remain such without strategies and action plans to make them actual.  Perhaps the most native American philosophy is called "pragmatism," which means the truth of something includes it actual functional outcome in people's lives.  The Gospel present Jesus using a mission strategy to get the message out including going in pairs and evangelical poverty.  The corresponding application for us is that the Gospel needs strategies or it remains a hidden ideal; the strategies can vary depending upon the individual circumstances.

Quiz of the Day, July 2019

Quiz of the Day, July 31, 2019

Which of the following is not true regarding Ignatius Loyola?

a. He was a soldier and fought in war with France
b. his conversion involved a vision of Madonna and Child
c. He was the sole founder of the Society of Jesus, the "Jesuits"
d. His order was crucial in the Counter-Reformation

Quiz of the Day, July 30, 2019

What is William Wilberforce best known for?

a. being a member of Parliament
b. being an Evangelical Anglican
c. being against the slave trade
d. his relationship with John Bunyan

Quiz of the Day, July 29, 2019

Who did Herod think that Jesus was?

a. Elijah
b. Moses
c. The Messiah
d. John the Baptist raised from the dead

Quiz of the Day, July 28, 2019

About whom did David sing, "your love was wonderful, surpassing the love of women?"

a. Absalom
b. Jonathan
c. Bathsheba
d. God

Quiz of the Day, July 27, 2019

In which Gospel does Jesus and the disciple not cast out demons?

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

Quiz of the Day, July 26, 2019

Where is the information on the parents of the Virgin Mary found?

a. Apocryphal Gospel of Anne and Joachim
b. Matthew
c. Luke
d. The Protoevangelium of James

Quiz of the Day, July 25, 2019

Who is the patron saint of Spain?

a. Santiago
b. James, son of Zebedee
c. James, the Greater
d. One of the "sons of thunder,"
e. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, July 24, 2019

Which of the following are true about Abigail and Bathsheba?

a. They were wives of David
b. They married David after their first spouses died 
c. They both bore children for David
d. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, July 23, 2019

Who was the husband of Abigail?

a. David
b. Jethro
c. Moses
d. Nabal
e. a and d

Quiz of the Day, July 22, 3019

The word maudlin meaning weepy pity derives from what saint?

a. Mary of Bethany
b. Martha of Bethany
c. The Virgin Mary
d. Mary Magdalene

Quiz of the of the Day, July 21, 2019

Who took communion on the moon?

a. Armstrong
b. Bean
c. Conrad
d. Aldrin

Quiz of the Day, July 20, 2019

What Episcopal saint is associated with women's undergarments?

a. Harriet Tubman
b. Amelia Bloomer
c. Sojourner Truth
d. Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Quiz of the Day, July 19, 2019

What did David receive from the priest Abimelech?

a. the holy bread of the Presence
b. the budding rod of Moses
c. the sword of Jonathan
d. the sword of Goliath
e. b and c
f. a and d

Quiz of the Day, July 18, 2019

Jonathan, son of Saul,

a. was to be a king of Israel
b. was the best friend of David
c. warned David to flee his father Saul
d. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, July 17, 2019

If George Washington might be called the political "father" of our country, who might be called the "father" of the Episcopal Church?

a. Bishop Samuel Seabury
b. Bishop Samuel Provoost
c. Bishop William White
d. Bishop Philander Chase

Quiz of the Day, July 16, 2019

What musical instrument did David play?

a. harp, according to the King James' translation
b. lyre, actually
c. psaltery, according to King James' translation
d. nevel
e. all of the above


Quiz of the Day, July 15, 2019

In what city is it said that the followers of Jesus were first called "Christians?"

a. Jerusalem
b. Rome
c. Antioch
d. Corinth

Quiz of the Day, July 14, 2019

Jesus said which of the following?

a. I, Christ am the fulfillment of the law
b. Love is the fulfillment of the law
c. not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 
d. without the law there is no sin

Quiz of the Day, July 13, 2019

How did David kill Goliath?

a. bow and arrow
b. sling shot
c. decapitation with a sword
d. spear

Quiz of the Day, July 12, 2019

What does the Gospel of Mark begin with?

a. In the beginning was the Word
b. the birth of Jesus narrative
c. the genealogy of Jesus
d. John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus

Quiz of the Day, July 11, 2019

Who is the "Father" of Western monasticism?

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

Quiz of the Day, July 10, 2019

Who said, "Mortals look on outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart?"

a. Samuel to Jesse
b. the Lord to Samuel
c. Jesse to David
d. David to Goliath

Quiz of the Day, July 9, 2019

Joseph of Arimathea is the obvious patron saint for what profession?

a. jailers
b. lawyers
c. morticians
d. soldiers

Quiz of the Day, July 8, 2019

Why was Saul rejected by God as a worthy king of Israel?

a. David was preferred
b. Jonathan was an unworthy successor
c. Saul disobeyed the Lord
d. Saul spared and used some of the spoils of war
e. c and d

Quiz of the Day, July 7, 2019

Why was Saul going to kill his son Jonathan?

a. because he took David's side
b. because Jonathan inadvertently violated Saul's food ban
c. because he began a coup
d. Saul was jealous of Jonathan's prowess in battle

Quiz of the Day, July 6, 2019

Jan Hus was associated with which of the following views of the Holy Eucharist?

a. transubstantiation
b. consubstantiation
c. receptionism
d. symbolic presence
e. spiritual presence

Quiz of the Day, July 5, 2019

Where is it written about beating "swords into plowshares?"

a. Isaiah
b. Joel
c. Micah
d. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, July 4, 2019

The Fourth of July, Independence Day

a. is a feast day on the Episcopal liturgical calendar
b. whose collect was opposed by the first Presiding Bishop because of too many "Tory" clergy
c. did not become a Major Feast until the 1979 Book of Common Prayer
d. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, July 3, 2019

What ended the rule of Judges in Israel?

a. the sins of the sons of Eli
b. the death of Samuel
c. the failure of the sons of Samuel
d. the replace of the rule by judges with rule by king

Quiz of the Day, July 2, 2019

What is the sin of "simony?"

a. derived from Simon Magus
b. means the selling of offices (positions) of the church
c. originated from a story in the Acts of the Apostles
d. involved Simon being jealous for the gifts of the evangelist Philip, Peter & John
e. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, July 1, 2019

Of the following, who was present at the stoning of St. Stephen?

a. Peter
b. Saul of Tarsus
c. Philip
d. Cornelius

Living When God Does Not Seem Apparent

7 Pentecost, Cp12, July 28, 2019

Gen. 18:20-33     Ps.85:7-13  

Col. 2:6-15   Luke 11:1-13 

Lectionary Link

Today we read one of the versions of the prayer misnamed as the Lord's Prayer.  It should be called the "Disciples Prayer," or simply the Our Father.

It perhaps is the most famous prayer in Christianity.  It is based upon what the early church believed that Jesus taught regarding relationship with God.

In light of the freedom conditions which prevail in our world, it can be said that in uneven ways, each person experiences the basic weal and woes of life, coupled with lots of what might just be called benign drudgery.

So what does the Paternoster propose?  The Our Father assumes that we are children of the divine parent.  The prayer assumes that there are parallel worlds of heaven and earth, which in our lives might be seen as the interior world and the exterior world.

The most interior of our inner world might be called the world of the invisible spirit.  It is the connecting place with heaven.  And experiencing that connection with heaven within us, involves the art of contemplation and prayer.  It becomes the life vocation to convince all of the outer realms to live toward and for what is heavenly, or what is God's will.

And we want this heavenly realm to be irresistibly accessible, obvious and evident to us and everyone, because it is how we believe that God's will could be attained "on earth," in the outer realms.  And so we ask that the highest possibilities of goodness become actual in our world.  We ask that love and justice come to actual situations.

The "Our Father" and the teaching context in Luke's Gospel reveals something else.  It reveals the obvious fact that God's will does not seem to be prevailing on earth as in heaven.  We experience the ambiguity of the clash of the heavenly and earthly realms.  The result of this is the uneven and intermittent experience of God's will being experienced as apparent or non-apparent.

How do we relate to the non-apparent will of God occurring in our life?   How did Jesus respond to the "non-apparent" will of God in his life?  From the cross, He cried out, "My God, why have you forsaken me!"  The state of the "non-apparent" will of God is the state of forsakenness, during which we can only honestly cry out about the sense of being forsaken.  All of us live in a world where people experience in various and uneven ways of what it seems like to be forsaken in what our logical thinking cannot call the loving will of a loving God.  We find ourselves asking always for good things and apparently we get the opposite, a snake instead of fish, a scorpion instead of an egg.  And we can live being totally frustrated by the intermittent play of an apparent God or a non-apparent God.

The words of the "Our Father," and the context for the same in Luke's Gospel, is an invitation to a prayerful faith of adjusting to the negative outcomes in a free world without becoming proponents of Murphy's law, or God-haters or misanthropic persons totally disillusioned with other people.

With the prayerful faith of the "Our Father" we are invited to the absolute will of God which is always done, which is the absolute condition of freedom.  Freedom is the always everywhere will of God.  We participate in that freedom by choosing how we want to decide to bring what is good to actual life, even when the results of the freedom of evil are confronting us and tempting us to respond with bad choices.

The life of praying the "Our Father," is the life of living with the ambiguous interaction of good and bad within the great arena of a Higher Freedom.  We want to survive the effects of the negative outcomes of freedom, even as we do not want to perpetuate the goals of what is bad and evil.

The best way to honor the nature of God, which is Freedom, is to use the degree of that Freedom given to us to choose to do good, to love and to do justice and walk humbly as a child of the Heavenly Parent.

May God help us to live the "Our Father," being realistic about the situations when God may seem apparent or not.  May we in our prayer lives become those who are actively making God's will on earth actual, because we are learning the habits and the repetitions of choosing to do good, as Jesus did.  Amen.