Sunday School, September 8, 2019 13 Pentecost C proper 18

Sunday School, September 8, 2019  13 Pentecost C proper 18

Sunday School Themes

For children, there has been the purposely avoided the “hard sayings” of Jesus about “hating” one’s family members to be a disciple of Jesus.  Though one could present how Jesus used contradictory riddles to present his priority.

The Gospel themes chosen center around wise planning

If you want to be a good baseball player, what do you do?  You practice, you join teams, you work out.

If you want to be a good ballet dancer, what do you do?  You join a dance studio and you practice and you listen to a good dance instructor.

Life is about planning because even though the future is not here yet, we believe that we will grow and change and we have to be prepared for what we are going to be doing in our future.

Parents begin to prepare their children for what they are going to do and become from the day of their birth.  Why?  Because life is about growing and changing.  Since life is about change we have to learn how to be prepared for the changes which will come to our lives.

Jesus said that a person who wants to build a big tower has to make sure that there is a plan.  There has to be materials and a design and the workers to do the job.  There has to be enough money to afford to build the tower.

Jesus said that we want to be his disciples, then we need to know what we need to do.  We need to be smart and wise about our planning.  A disciples of Jesus is a student of Jesus.  And we never graduate from being a student of Jesus.  So we need to plan on learning about Jesus for the rest of our lives.

Smart planning for learning how to be a disciple is to learn from the most important Christian rules.  And the most important Christian rule is to love God with all of our hearts and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

If we are planning to follow Jesus as his disciple and student, we need to plan to be his student and to always be learning about how to love God better and to love our neighbors better.

Sermon

  If you are going to build a house what do you need?

  Well, you need to have some money to pay for the building supplies.  You need an architect.  You need some land or a place to build your house.  You need a builder who can organize all of the workers.  You need building supplies, cement, wood, nails, shingles, electrical wires, lights, switches, sinks, counters, and many other things.

  So to build a house you have to do a lot of planning, because what will happen if you don’t plan?  You won’t be able to finish the house.  If you try to build a house you can’t afford then you won’t be able to finish it.  Or if you choose the wrong builder the house may not be built to last.

  Jesus reminded his friends that they needed planning in their lives, planning just like someone who was going to build a great tower, or just like a general who was planning a battle.

  And Jesus reminded his friends that they were going to have many people in their lives.  Their family and their friends.  To live our lives means that we have to learn to live with people.  So if we are going to plan our lives well, we are going to have plan our lives in learning how to live with people in our lives.  And it is important to learn how to live with people in our lives, with our parents, our brothers and sisters, with our husbands and wives, with our teachers and friends.  And it is important to learn how to live with our self.

  Now why do I say we have to learn to live with our self?  We have to know our self well, so we know how to plan our lives?  If I like baseball, but I am terrible at playing baseball, should I try to play professional baseball?  No, I would not be accepted by any team because I’m not good at playing baseball.  So I have to know myself and what I am good at in planning my life.

  It is important to know how to live with other people and with our selves.  So we need to plan well.

  And the best way to do this is to learn the law of Christ:  Love God with all of your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.

  This is the greatest plan of life.  And if we learn this plan in life, we will be successful in learning to live with other people and our self.

  So remember this great plan of Christ for our lives:  Love God with all our hearts and love our neighbors as our self.  Amen.

An intergenerational Eucharistic liturgy

September 8, 2019: The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Rejoice in the Lord Always, He’s Got the Whole World, Alleluia, Jesus Loves the Little Children

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: Rejoice in the Lord Always   (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 197)

Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. 

Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. 

Rejoice!  Rejoice!  And again I say rejoice. 

Rejoice!  Rejoice!  And again I say rejoice.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Allow us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts; for, since you always oppose the overly proud who do not think they need you, so you never forsake those who make there are very proud of your mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for 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 Book of Deuteronomy

Moses said to all Israel the words which the Lord commanded him, "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 139

LORD, you have searched me out and known me; * you know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar.

You trace my journeys and my resting-places * and are acquainted with all my ways.

Indeed, there is not a word on my lips, * but you, O LORD, know it altogether.

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.

When Jesus was speaking to the people about being disciples, he said, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace.”

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: 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 brothers and the sisters, in his hands, he got the brothers and the sisters, in his hand.  He’s got the brothers and the sisters in his hands, he’s got the whole world in his hand.

He’s got the mothers and the fathers, in his hand, he’s got the mothers and the fathers, in his hand.  He’s got the mothers and the fathers in his hand, he’s got the whole world in his hand.

Doxology

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

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

Prologue to the Eucharist

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

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is 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.

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,

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

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

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

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

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

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

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Breaking of the Bread

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

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia.

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Alleluia  (Renew! # 136)

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

He’s my savior, alleluia.  He’s my savior, alleluia.  He’s my savior, alleluia.  He’s my savior, alleluia.

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: Jesus Loves the Little Children   (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 140)

Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.  Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight.  Jesus loves the little children of the world

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Eucharist = Hospitality

12  Pentecost, Cp17, September 1, 2019

Proverbs 25:6-7 Ps. 112

Heb.13:1-8        Luke 14:1, 7-14

Lectionary Link

When the Gospel of Luke was written several decades after Jesus walked on this earth, the winsome practice of the early churches might be called "hospitality."

When is hospitality particularly important?  When people need it.  Hospitality also occurs when people don't really need it.  It is the reciprocal behaviors of people of means.  In our appointed Gospel, Jesus made some comments on the kind of hospitality at the party of the Pharisee leader.  People attended who wanted to be seen.  They wanted to schmooze with the important people.  They wanted to take the seats on the podium next to the people of influence.  And of course, we know he couldn't be talking about Episcopalians, right?  They always want to sit in the back of the church in the cheap seats.  Is that because of humility? or late arriving or making a quick exit?  Don't want to be too close to a slobbering and spitting preacher?  There are always good seats here in the front, you know the $500 seats.


Hospitality is a major facet of human life.  Hospitality is how people minister to each other in welcoming ways.  There are all kinds of hospitality venues.  At the heart of hospitality, there is a host who provides and offers something that provides relief, comfort and some kind of sustenance to the hosted party.

We as people, are often those who need or want the kinds of hospitality for the various situations of need.  We are willing to pay for hospitality.  Like when we need a hotel or motel.  Businesses provide hospitality suites and booths as a way to convince you that they care for you as a customer.

A person who hosts a party is a hospitality provider.  He or she invites guests to the event.  Such events are done to celebrate happy occurrences in one's life.  Hospitality events are often "closed" events, meaning the host's generosity and planning has a limit.  Food and drink can only be provided for so many; so the event has a limited guest lists.

I would like to suggest that hospitality was a chief value of the early Christian churches which in turn accounted for much of the success of the Jesus Movement.

The writing of the Gospels is proof of the success of the Jesus Movement.  They were written several decades after Jesus lived and walked and he spoke in Aramaic.  The Gospels were written in the lingua franca of the time, Greek.  They were written by early Christian leaders who believed that they had the mind of Christ and so they could speak and write in his name.  They channeled the oracle of the Risen Christ.  They used presentations of the life and words of Jesus to account for the success of the values of the Jesus Movement.

Hospitality was a chief value of the Jesus Movement.  It was an expanded notion of the hospitality that had been practiced by the observant Jews in the time of Jesus.  The Jews in the time of Jesus really could not really practice open hospitality.  Why?  Their strict ritual purity observances did not permit it.  One of the constant criticisms of Jesus was that he ate with Publicans and sinners, namely, he violated the community's policy of segregation by associating with persons who did not know or care about how the Jews were supposed to keep themselves holy and separate by strict observances of the ritual purity customs, particularly as it pertained to food and its preparation.

The words of Jesus recounted through the oracle of the Gospel writers indicate that Jesus proposed a radical hospitality.  The Jesus Movement invited the ritually non-observant Gentiles into their community.  They invited them to their celebration of the Eucharist.  The Eucharist of the Jesus was truly an event of open hospitality, open communion.

It was this chief value of open hospitality that accounted for the success of the Jesus Movement.  Why was such hospitality important?  Jerusalem was destroyed in the year 70.  Followers of Jesus became scattered in the cities of the Roman Empire.  They accepted the faith of Gentile believers in Jesus without requiring that they conform to the ritual customs of Judaism.  This practice of open hospitality was really attractive within the cities of the Roman Empire.  Why?

Urbanization was taking place.  People were leaving countryside and villages for new life in the cities.  What does a new immigrant to a new location need?  Hospitality and fellowship and help in adjusting to a new location in a new place.  The genius of the home churches in the cities of the Roman Empire was that they provided social clubs for new arrivals.  These social clubs were based upon the mystical experience of the Risen Christ.  When you arrive at a new place it is very difficult to "break into" rigid social structures, like the political wards or the Temple complexes of the Roman cities.  The home churches as significant social clubs of open hospitality provided the perfect new identity for people arriving in a new place.  The hospitality of love among the followers of Jesus provided the occasion for many to be introduced to the  mystical experience of the Risen Christ.

The Eucharist was the practice of the early church.  It was not a Passover meal; it was not a meal to welcome the Sabbath, it was a meal expressing the radical hospitality of God in Christ to all who wanted to receive the life of the Risen Christ within them by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Eucharist is chiefly a symbol of the hospitality of God.  The Holy Eucharist is a meal of aspiration which anticipates a day when all can sit down in fellowship with each other.  The Holy Eucharist is an evangelistic open communion which accounted for the success of the Jesus Movement within the cities of the Roman Empire.

We continue in this hospitality tradition except when we practice the oxymoron of "closed communion."  "Closed communion" is the ultimate contradiction.

The hospitality tradition is very embracing.  The writer to Hebrews suggests that when we practice it, we may even be hosting God's messengers.  Hospitality is both ordinary and extraordinary.

One of the most ordinary practices of hospitality is in the befriending practice of marriage.  Ordinary hospitality is important and it can be difficult.  We practice ordinary hospitality in marriage and in our parish life because common befriending activities have to be accomplished for the maintenance of our community.  What true hospitality, whether ordinary or extraordinary, requires is the continual checking of our egos at the door to make room for others.

St. Mary's is called to this chief value of hospitality.  We will have our successes and our failures but we can never depart from this as a chief value.  We are called to offer ourselves as "living sacrifices" so that our gifts might be acceptable to God.  We will be called to check our egos at the door continually so that we can create the welcoming environment of making room for each other even as we make room for new people to be with us.

The checking of the ego at the door begins with me; I am not a "father who knows best:" only a vicar who knows what he knows and offers it into the mix of all of the other gifts which are to comprise us toward our being a truly hospitable community.

New friends, the Gospel words of Jesus call us to hospitality.  

People God: Will you honor the words of Jesus Christ which call us to the practice of hospitality?

Response: We will, with God's help.  Amen.

Aphorism of the Day, August 2019

Aphorism of the Day, August 31, 2019

Hospitality writ large means the call to practice distributive justice which means enough for all.  Enough for all would be the true meaning of a "free market."  The "geniuses" of capitalism should add the creative notion of enough for all to their agenda.

Aphorism of the Day, August 30, 2019

What the early followers of Jesus discovered was that the ritual purity laws of Judaism prevented them from offering the kind of hospitality needed to validate the reception of the Holy Spirit by the Gentiles.  Inward verification of God's touch on one's life replaced the external and cultural verification of one's "chosenness by God."  Eucharist as hospitality had to be an "open communion" and not like a "closed Passover" meal.

Aphorism of the Day, August 29, 2019

Hospitality can be an embracing metaphor for social well-being, of each person living in reciprocity for each other's well-being within the community.  Hospitality requires the discernment by each member to understand whether one is an active giver of hospitality or a receiver of hospitality depending upon the need of each situation.  Welfare laws are needed because greedy people do not embrace the obviousness of hospitality for the common good.

Aphorism of the Day, August 28, 2019

If Eucharist is the central gathering of the church, hospitality of God to us and we with each other is a chief Christian value.  Ponder the kinds of hospitality; among equals for reciprocity, to strangers and needy for exigent need, and the regular hospitality of checking egos at the door to be able to live together well.  If one has only schmoozing hospitality so that one can practice social rising, then hospitality can become selfish which contradicts the sacrificial giving involved with living towards a distributive common good.

Aphorism of the Day, August 27, 2019

A new kind of hospitality characterized the churches that arose in the cities of the Roman Empire.  Urbanization because of the relocation of people for economic and social reasons, meant that the "stranger" in a new place needed a welcoming community to help give orientation and "fellowship" to socially succeed.  The churches were successful because they embraced a new inclusive fellowship of Jews and every sort of Gentile person, including persons of differing socio-economic strata (see Philemon and Onesimus).  A non-segregating hospitality with a centering on the inclusive Eucharist was the genius of the growth of the Jesus Movement and the oracle of the Risen Christ in the Gospel communities connected the ruling value of hospitality with the historical Jesus.  The Aramaic speaking Jesus was translated into the Risen Christ speaking about hospitality in the lingua franca of the church, the koine Greek.

Aphorism of the Day, August 26, 2019

Hospitality may a crucial biblical metaphor to illustrate relationship with God and with each other.  The recommended hospitality of Jesus refers to the kind of engagement which results in distributing well-being to the people who need what is basic to one's well-being.  Jesus eschews the type of schmoozing hospitality as one behaves towards promoting one's position of power and influence in a situation.

Aphorism of the Day, August 25, 2019

When the critics of Jesus accused him of breaking religious rules of "working" on the Sabbath for healing, they instantiated a common problem in religious behavior: separating orthopraxy from orthodoxy.  The faith practice of the love of one's neighbor at all times has to be regarded as valid oblationary prayer otherwise one's ritual behaviors are disconnected from all of the other actions of one's life.

 Aphorism of the Day, August 24, 2019

Religion that has gone awry is when one's "orthodoxy" does not include "orthopraxy" in matters of kindness, social justice and the active love of one's neighbor as oneself.  The observance of the "proper and prescribed rituals" of one faith should not be incompatible with observing the kindness of healing a person even on the Sabbath.  Healing is oblationary prayer and should be valid and recommended at anytime.

Aphorism of the Day, August 23, 2019

What about healing on the Sabbath?  Healing and acts of justice are the prayers of oblation and even though they might involve some "work," the intention of oblation or the offering of acts of justice, healing and love should could count as good Sabbath prayers.  Augustine said to "sing is to pray twice."  I would say, "to heal is to pray thrice," but then who is counting?

Aphorism of the Day, August 22, 2019

Seems rather trivial that Jesus is associated with comments about where one chooses to sit at a party.  It could be that our values are immanently lived out in the quotidian practices of our lives.  If we are selfish in small things, it probably means we are really selfish toward God and live as those who think that we are automatically entitled people, rather than as humble people who are grateful for the grace of what God entitles us to share with everyone in the ways that we can to show the true largesse of God. 

Aphorism of the Day, August 21, 2019

Jesus contrasted hospitality behaviors.  Hospitality can be tit-for-tat reciprocity among social status equals to better each others position in society or it can be the people with money, education and power offering hospitality to those with much less money, education and power.  Which do you think Jesus recommended as the communal practice for "Gospel communities?"

Aphorism of the Day, August 20, 2019

About Jesus in the Gospel, it was said that "he was being watched closely."  We have enter the age of surveilled lives.  By choice or not we can find ourselves watched.  Jesus was one being watched by those who were looking for a reason to discredit him if he were to make a great public faux pas that could be seized on to cause others to think less of him.  Jesus embraced the scrutiny, not by hyper-correcting his behavior to "look religiously correct;" rather he had core principles of love and justice that he lived and spoke whether he was being watched or not.  If we commit our lives to love and justice, then we should not worry about being "watched."

Aphorism of the Day, August 19, 2019

"Our God is a consuming fire."  One must read the Bible like poetry gleaning flickering insights of aesthetic import in their appeals to how we have come to define and further code our emotions through successive repetition within our cultural settings.  What could God as a consuming fire mean?  It would not be an appealing image for those who have actually been in wildfires gone wild and out of control and who have suffered the loss of property and even life.  The image of God as an enormous fire sucking up all of the oxygen that could be shared for the life of others is also frightening.  God as the consuming reality of Freedom always already everywhere would hint at us being totally contained by a Dynamism which is beyond good and evil and thus can consume everything because it is in everything.  From the perspective of human experience one could say that Word is that which is in and consumes everything because without Word, nothing is known.  Word could be the consuming fire of human life.

Aphorism of the Day, August 18, 2019

Faith involves living under the conditions of time, change and freedom.  Change experienced as non-eventful can seem to be peaceful.  Changed experienced as event of discontinuity with what went before can seem to be violent and unpeaceful change.  Faith is wise orientation to the reality of time, change and freedom without becoming cynical by over-identifying life with what can go wrong, but rather focusing upon the future reconciliation of what comes after fulfilling or making complete, what has come before.

Aphorism of the Day, August 17, 2019

We can be quite naive about time and change and transitions and creative advance.   We would like growth to be smooth and peaceful but we often regard peace as hanging onto familiar repetitions which seem to have been “working” for us.  To be challenged about our familiar repetitions can be upsetting and conflict can arise.  The words of Jesus as an oracle in the early church was meant to inform the people about how time and change sometimes requires conflict and those conflicts are the growing pains of creative advance for your who embrace new insights and threaten those who hold onto the repetitions that may seem to be adequate to one’s life.  The uneven adequacy of insights to different people create the conditions of conflict and the loss of peace.  How can one integrate “peace” with the dynamics of significant change?

Aphorism of the Day, August 16, 2019

“I did not come to bring peace on earth...”  Jesus did not bring the peace of something like music being only a composition of “rests” without any notes to disturb the “silence.”  Music is made up of rests and musical notes with each beat having an oppositional relationship with every other note and rest.  Time and change means there is no such thing as a static “peace.”  Life is dynamic change and if one does not interpret this as the reality of creative freedom, one does not know how to interpret the present time.

Aphorism of the Day, August 15, 2019

“You do not know how to interpret the present time.”  These words of Jesus are given in the context of the predication of great family disagreement regarding the changing of the religious paradigm.  Christo-centric Judaism of the nascent Jesus Movement with the acceptance of Gentiles as having valid faith without being fully ritually observant to the customs of Judaism was to usher a paradigm shift bringing conflict between people living in different paradigms and having different “interpretations.”

Aphorism of the Day, August 14, 2019

“You do not know how to interpret the present time.”  This is always the dilemma in life.  We interpret mostly by the inherited repetitions of how we have lived and acted before.  Interpreting the meaning of events toward personal action does not guarantee the success of such action.  Interpretation should be based upon wise actuarial probability of what “might” occur.  The words of Jesus indicate that he found many religious leaders out of touch with the obvious conditions of his time.

Aphorism of the Day, August 13, 2019

"Gentle Jesus, meek and mild," so goes the saying and yet he is quoted as saying, "I did not come to bring peace but a sword."  The oracle words of Jesus delivered through church leaders speaking "in the name of Jesus," were realistic about the division caused by following Christ or remaining within the synagogue. "A father will be against his own son and the son against the father," describes the conditions which prevailed in the birth of the Jesus Movement on its way to becoming the church.

Aphorism of the Day,  August 12, 2019

"You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?"  Not knowing how to interpret the present time is the perpetual dilemma in life.  We are lodged in such preconceived notions that we cannot always see the significance of what is new.  The words of Jesus indicate that we know how to read natural signs, like clouds and rain, or smoke and fire; he said we should have some similar common sense wisdom about what is impending, especially regarding the things which pertain to the common probability of human behavior.  For example, if we have a leader who cannot help but lie with great frequency, we can interpret that our nation is in great trouble.

Aphorism of the Day, August 11, 2019

Portions of the oracles of Jesus are "apocalyptic" in Luke's Gospel.  If times are threatening, be prepared for the end of everything.  Apocalyptic "martial arts" living is a mode of lifestyle for dealing with dire circumstances.  If you sell all and become poor, it becomes true that "you can't lose what you never had."  Such was the way to prepare for what was regarded as a "potential" end.  Everyone has death as the potential end of everything; everyone has a personal apocalypse to anticipate with uncertainty about when it will actually happen.  When personal apocalypses are shared by communities of people who are threatened, then such threat of "corporate" death instigates and inspires reflection about life beyond life for the threatened community toward an eventual justice.  Don't knock the apocalyptic impulse of biblical people; it is perhaps alive and more active in our world today which has the knowledge of eco-disaster and the actual ability of humanity to destroy our world through it own behaviors.  The incredible amount of popular culture's fascination with science fiction's futurism and the apocalyptic interventionism of all of the so called "action adventures" movies and games is indicative of popular apocalypticism.  We need not absolutize any particular apocalyptic outcome while we can acknowledge the truth of this discursive possibility of everyone who has to develop a discourse about one's eventual death.

Aphorism of the Day, August 10, 2019

Faith is the way to cure nostalgia, the perpetual wish for the "good ol' days," since faith is the attitude of orientation toward the future articulated in a vision of Hope.  Acting in faith involves the integration of the actuarial statistics of the good, bad and the indifferent of what has happened in the past, and using this actuarial wisdom to act toward the future.  Faith involves not knowing the future as actual and so it involves degrees of "creative" risk which is needed in significant creative advance in one's life.

Aphorism of the Day, August 9, 2019

"By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.."  John's Gospel does not just say, "word of God," but Word is God.  Our human world is "prepared and organized and accessed" because we have Word as God as Word...as God...as Word....as everything else.

Aphorism of the Day,  August 8, 2019, 

"By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible."  Faith need not be incompatible with the empirical.  No one has the empirical capacity to register all causal connections of everything, everywhere past and present.  Lots remains tentative because we simply don't know.  The scientific method invites us to observe the behavior of events in nature just in terms of what we know and in light of our methods and apparatus available to us.  Science allows us to challenge the tentative with explanations which have long term and consistent power of congruence.  Even so we are always opened to what he cannot possibly know and the steps of continuity to get there.  Biblical people did not write about or know about Cadillacs or even have hopeful faith about their eventual invention.  What is invisible requires a high degree of faith.

Aphorism of the Day, August 7, 2019

Hope can be "mere" dreaming if it is not complemented by faith.  We need to be inspired by positive surpassing of ourselves in a future state, but we also have to have that motivating desire to act toward the same.  Faith is living creatively toward what is not yet in possible goodness.

Aphorism of the Day, August 6, 2019

I am surprised that few scholars note the connection between the classical use of "pistos" in rhetoric and its undergirding relationship to "pistos" in the New Testament, meaning faith or belief.  Faith or belief instantiate that which one is persuaded about such that one acts on such persuasion.  "Pistos" in Aristotle is "persuasion" or the chief goal of rhetoric.  One may diminish rhetoric as mere "words," even while confronting the fact that Word is God, or the source of all words.  By having words, we are persuaded about our existence and the existence of all things.  One should not diminish the omni-rhetoricity of all human existence.

Aphorism of the Day, August 5, 2019

Faith is the expression of what one is privileging in one's life.  The classical Greek usage of the New Testament word for faith or belief is "pistos."  In classical rhetoric (see Aristotle) "pistos" or persuasion was the goal of rhetoric.  Faith is that which one has become persuaded about.  Such persuasion is manifest in one's life force or how the energy of desire propels one into the future, into one's hope or that which is not yet.  One lives by faith, whether one knows it or admits it.  Why?  One's live is always an expression of one's privileged values, i.e., that which one is persuaded by.  Repentance, the fancy term for Christian Education, is learning to grow from faith to faith.  Faith is the expression of learning continuously how the purpose of one's life is being persuaded by better and wiser outcomes.  Faith is never ended because it is anchored on the "not yet" of Hope.

Aphorism of the Day, August 4, 2019

St. Paul wrote, "if you have been raised with Christ..."  The Pauline writing indicate that we are "seated with Christ in heavenly places."  Paul's mysticism indicates living in and from an inner realm in such a way to manifest the different values of Christ when our lives also are firming on the the "terra firma" and our bodies know the full gravity of the attending mortality.

Aphorism of the Day, August 3, 2019

Jesus expressed concerned about people who were not trying to be rich toward God.  Prosperity Gospel preachers preach that wealth is a sign of God's blessing, if they are following God in the right way.  One might note that humanity is "poor" toward God if the majority of humanity is poor toward each other, with one per cent of the people of the world owning the majority of the world wealth.  If people are laying up "treasure in the heaven," at the very least everyone in the world has enough.

Aphorism of the Day, August 2, 2019

Jesus told a parable about a man who believed, "I have, therefore I am."  Or, "I am "somebody" because of what and how much I have."  The man died and suddenly did not "have" a life.  None can fully control the "having of one's existence."  Is existence a "property" to be had?  Having divine treasure pertains to the fruits of the Spirit, which can be the eternal legacy of one's life because each deed done in love begins an endless chain of like actions and though mostly unseen, the collateral effect of the deeds of the fruit of the Spirit are the endless treasures of heaven.

Aphorism of the Day, August 1, 2019

According to preacher/teacher of Ecclesiastes, it is an unhappy task given by God to seek out wisdom.  The writer is suggesting that wisdom may give rise to pessimism about the human condition.  Wisdom might be the experience of being raised above the unreflected life of being a naive and automatic parrot in living of one's immediate language traditions within the human solidarity in which one lives.  Naivete might be the state of optimism without any reason for it.  How can one be wise and hopeful at the same time?  I'm not sure that the writer of Ecclesiastes was able to attain hopefulness in wisdom.  The writer's hopefulness might be called resignation; "The best that we can do is to fear God and keep the law."  Perhaps the wisdom might be coming to state of learning that being good is its own reward both now and for any future life.

Quiz of the Day, August 2019

Quiz of the Day, August 31, 2019

Where was the Ark of the Covenant before it came to reside in the temple built by Solomon?

a. Shiloh
b. Hebron
c. Zion, city of David
d. Bethlehem, city of David

Quiz of the August 30, 2019

King Hiram of Tyre provided what for the Temple of Solomon?

a. granite
b. cedar
c. marble
d. oak

Quiz of the Day, August 29, 2019

Which of the following is associated with Solomon?

a. playing the harp
b. wife Bathsheba
c. divide the baby and give half to each woman
d. the northern kingdom of Israel

Quiz of the Day, August 28, 2019

Augustine of Hippo was not

a. the author of "Confessions"
b. the author of "The City of God"
c. son of Monnica
d. the first Archbishop of Canterbury

Quiz of the Day, August 27, 2019

Who anointed Solomon to be the successor king of David?

a. David
b. the prophet Nathan
c. Zadok the priest
d. Samuel

Quiz of the Day, August 26, 2019

What is true of the biblical Adonijah?

a. he was a son of David
b. he was a brother of Solomon and Absalom
c. he was a rival to the throne of Solomon
d. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, August 25, 2019

For which of the following did David feel "stricken" by the Lord?

a. marrying Bathsheba
b. taking a census of Israel and Judah
c. for arranging the death of Absalom
d. for marrying Abigail

Quiz of the Day, August 24, 2019

Whose dream was responsible for the naming of the dream place, "Beth-el," of house of God?

a. Joseph
b. Daniel
c. Jacob
d. Abraham

Quiz of the Day, August 23, 2019

Who said, "I am only a boy," when he was called by God as a prophet?

a. Hosea
b. Jeremiah
c. Isaiah
d. Daniel

Quiz of the Day, August 22, 2019

Felix and Agrippa were Roman officials who enter the story of what biblical person?

a. Timothy
b. Philemon
c. Paul
d. Peter


Quiz of the Day, August 21, 2019

Which of the follow was the prelude to the killing of Absalom, the rebelling son of David?

a. he was bucked off his horse
b. his long thick hair was caught in a tree leaving him hanging
c. David ordered the pursuit and killing of Absalom
d. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, August 20, 2019

Which of the following saints was born in a town famous for its mustard name? (Dijon)

a. Thomas Aquinas
b. Benedict
c. Bernard
d. Igntius Loyola

Quiz of the Day, August 19, 2019

What topic did Paul raise to divide his religious opponents in Jerusalem?

a. the topic of Jesus as Messiah
b. the belief in the resurrection from the dead
c. the future of Jerusalem
d. the issues of circumcision and Quiz of the Day August 18, 2019

Where in the New Testament can one read about Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel?

a. Matthew
b. John
c. Revelations
d. Hebrews

Quiz of the Day, August 17, 2919

How did Paul avoid being flogged by the tribune is Jerusalem after his arrest?

a. The tribune included followers of Jesus
b. Paul declared himself a Roman citizen with attending rights
c. Peter intervened on his behalf
c. All of the above

Quiz of the Day, August 16, 2019

Which of the following is not a reference to Eucharistic belief?

a. Transubstantiation
b. Consubstantiation
c. Receptionist
d. Real Presence
e. Complementarianism

Quiz of the Day, August 15, 2019

Where is it written that Jesus is the pioneer of our faith?

a. John
b. Romans
c. Hebrews
d. 1 Corinthians

Quiz of the Day, August 14, 2019

Who said, “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword?”

a. Paul
b. David
c. Jesus
d. Elijah

Quiz of the Day, August 13, 2019

Who prophesied that Paul would be seized by the Jews?

a. Barnabas
b. Ananias
c. Agabus
d. Silas

Quiz of the Day, August 12, 2019

Which son of David had his half brother assassinated?

a. Absalom
b. Solomon
c. Amnon
d. Jonadab
e. Shimeah

a. Quiz of the Day, August 11, 2019

Which of the following is not true about the rape of Tamar?

a. David was complicit by asking Tamar to fix meal for the feigning sick Amnon
b. Absalom was Tamar's brother and Amnon's half brother
c. David did not punish Amnon
d. Absalom would eventually attempt a coup against David
e. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, August 10, 2019

What happened to the first child born to Bathsheba, the wife whom David stole from Uriah the Hittite?

a. he was Solomon, King of Israel
b. the baby died at birth
c. he was Absalom, who rebelled against David
d. he was born with a deformity

Quiz of the Day, August 9, 2019

Why was Abram's name changed to Abraham?

a. because he moved from Ur to Canaan, a new land with new language
b. Abraham was his Hebrew name
c. the "ham" was added when he was going to be the father of many nations
d. Moses added the "ham" to Abram

 Quiz of the Day, August 8, 2019

Which of the following might be called the "faith" chapter of the Bible?

a. Hebrews 11
b 1 Corinthians 13
c. John 3
d. John 1

Quiz of the Day, August 7, 2019

Which of the following is not true regarding Miphibosheth?

a. he was crippled
b. he was the son of Jonathan
c. as Saul grandson, he was a heir to the throne of Israel
d. he ate at the table of King David 

Quiz of the Day, August 6, 2019

Who was present at the Transfiguration event?

a. Jesus
b. Peter
c. Moses
d. Elijah
e. James
f. John
g. voice of God
h. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, August 5, 2019

Which of the followed did the most famous render of "praying hands?"

a. Albrecht Dürer
b. Rembrandt
c. Cranach the Elder
d. Matthias Grünewald

Quiz of the Day, August 4, 2019

Why did David gain the rebuke of his daughter Michal?

a. he took her away from Saul
b. he took her away from her husband in the regime change
c. he danced before the Ark of the Covenant in a mere loin cloth
d. David would not let her be devote to Baal

Quiz of the Day, August 3, 2019

Who said that "we too are God's offspring?"

a. Peter
b. Andrew
c. Paul
d. Timothy

Quiz of the Day, August 2, 2019

What is the city of David?

a. Jerusalem
b. Bethlehem
c. Hebron
d. Zion

Quiz of the Day, August 1, 2019

What did David do to people who killed the son of Saul?

a. rewarded them with a position in his kingdom
b. had them killed
c. had them exiled
d. made the spies against those who opposed him