Quiz of the Day, December 2019

Quiz of the Day, December 31, 2019

Frances Joseph Gaudet is best know for what?

a. hymnody
b. prison reform
c. mission work with Native Americans
d. ministry to the deaf

Quiz of the Day, December 30, 2019

Which prophet resuscitated life of a young boy?

a. Jeremiah
b. Amos
c. Elijah
d. Joel

Quiz of the Day December 29, 2019

Samuel was not

a. a nazirite
b. son of Hannah
c. anointer of Saul
d. anointer of David
e. a Judge of Israel
f.  a member of the tribe of Dan

Quiz of the Day, December 28, 2019

The event of the Holy Innocents puts Jesus in direct contrast with whom?

a. David
b. Elijah
c. Moses
d. Abel

Quiz of the Day, December 27, 2019

Of the following book of the New Testament, which has a self-identifying author with the name of John?

a. 1 John
b. 2 John
c. 3 John
d. John
e. Revelations


Quiz of the Day, December 26, 2019

The Infancy Narratives of Jesus are found in which Gospels?

a. Luke and Matthew
b. Mark and Luke
c. John and Matthew
d. Matthew and Mark
e. Luke and John
f. Mark and John

Quiz of the Day, December 25, 2019

Which mystic said that we needed to be mothers of God in our world?

a. John of the Cross
b. Meister Eckhart
c. Teresa of Avila
d. Julian of Norwich

Quiz of the Day, December 24, 2019

To whom was the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles written?

a. to the Gentile churches
b. to Theophilus
c. to synagogue members in Asia Minor
d. to the Pauline churches

Quiz of the Day, December 23, 2019

What is the priestly order of Abijah?

a. a division of priests set by King David
b. one of 24 divisions of priests from the time of David
c. an order of priest from Abijah, a descendent of Eleazar, son of Aaron
d. the order of priest of the father of John the Baptist
e. all of the above

 Quiz of the Day, December 22, 2019

Who is the biblical dragon slayer?

a. St. George
b. Gabriel
c. Raphael
d. Michael

Quiz of the Day, December 21, 2019

Which apostle was referred to as "the twin?"

a. Nathaniel
b. Thaddaeus
c. Thomas
d. Matthias

Quiz of the Day, December 20, 2019

Who was Martin Luther's wife?

a. he was an Augustinian monk and not married
b. a former nun
c. a member of the minor nobility
d. Katharina von Bora
e. b, c, and d
f. b and d

Quiz of the Day, December 19, 2019

Where is the reference to the Lion of Judah found in the Bible?

a. Genesis
b. The Psalms
c. Daniel
d. Revelations
e. a and b
f. a and c
g. a and d

Quiz of the Day, December 18, 2019

Which of the following is not one of the four living creatures of the Book of Revelations?

a. horse
b. ox
c. lion
d. eagle
e. man

Quiz of the Day, December 17, 2019 

The desolating sacrilege mentions in the Gospel words of Jesus have their precedence in which book of Hebrew Scriptures?

a. The Psalms
b. Zechariah
c. Daniel
d. Haggai


Quiz of the Day, December 16, 2019

Which architect designed churches which came to be dubbed as "carpenter Gothic?"

a. Frank Lloyd Wright
b. Richard Upjohn
c. Louis Sullivan
d. E. Fay Jones Quiz of the Day, December 15, 2019

Gaudete is

a. Latin for "rejoice"
b. An Advent Carol
c. Third Sunday of Advent
d. All of the above

Quiz of the Day, December 14, 2019

The "Dark Night of the Soul," is spiritual metaphor which derives from whom?

a. Walter Hilton
b. Jacob Boehme
c. John of the Cross
d. Author of "The Cloud of Unknowing"

Quiz of the Day, December 13, 2019

Which of the following is not one of seven churches referred to in the Book of Revelations?

a. Thyatira
b. Smyrna
c. Rome
d. Laodicea
e. Philadelphia
f. Pergamum

Quiz of the Day, December 12, 2019

Who is St. Juan Diego?

a. a disciple of St. Juan de la Cruz
b. a second generation Jesuit
c. a recipient of a Marian apparition in Mexico
d. a Spanish mystic from the 15th century

Quiz of the Day, December 11, 2019

Which theologian is called the architect of "neo-orthodoxy?"

a. Paul Tillich
b. Karl Barth
c. Richard Niebuhr
d. J.A.T. Robinson

Quiz of the Day, December 10, 2019

Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk.  Of what order were the Trappists?

a. Jesuit
b. Dominican
c. Benedictine
d. Cistercian


Quiz of the Day, December 9, 2019

The  Nunc dimittis, Benedictus and Magnificat are found in which Gospel?

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

Quiz of the Day, December 8, 2019

Zechariah gave his son the name John?  From what language did this name derive?

a. Hebrew
b. Classical Greek
c. koine Greek
d. Aramaic

Quiz of the Day, December 7, 2019

Which of the following is not true about St. Ambrose?

a. he was a governor when he was asked to be bishop of Milan
b. he was not baptized when he was asked to be bishop of Milan
c. he had not been a priest or deacon when asked to be bishop of Milan
d. he was member of the Arian doctrinal party
e. he ran away and hid when he was asked to be bishop
f. he had to be baptized before being made a bishop

Quiz of the Day, December 6, 2019

Which of the following did not derive from St. Nicolas of Myra?

a. Sinter Claus
b. Baba Noel
c. Kris Kringle
d. Santa Claus
e. Père Noël
f.  San Myra

Quiz of the Day, December 5, 2019

Which of the following is not regarded in the scholarly analysis of biblical genre?

a. Law
b. Prophecy
c. Apocalyptic
d. Narrative
e. Wisdom
f.  Poetry
g. Fiction

Quiz of the Day, December 4, 2019

Of the following which is not true of John of Damascus?

a. he worked as a civil servant of a Muslim Caliph
b. he was an iconoclast
c. he defended the validity of icons
d. he was a musician

Quiz of the Day, December 3, 2019

Francis Xavier was the sole founder of which order?

a. The Society of Jesus
b. The Jesuits
c. The Society of St. Mary
d. none of the above

Quiz of the Day, December 2, 2019

Who of the following regarded Jesus to be primarily prophet proclaiming an imminent apocalypse?

a. Bart Ehrman
b. Albert Schweitzer
c. Marcus Borg
d. The Jesus Seminar
e.  a and b
f. b and c

 Quiz of the Day, December 1, 2019

Advent comes from "adventus," and was a translation of what Greek word referring to the Second Coming of Christ?

a. epiphania
b. maranatha
c. parousia
d. apocalupsis

Having a Word Transplant

1 Christmas  A     December 29, 2019

Is.61:10-62:3     Ps. 147:13-21

Gal. 3:23-25,4:4-7  John 1:1-18

Lectionary Link

In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God.  All thing came into being through Him.  In him was life and the life of the light of all people.

This revisit of the creation story has always made me think of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan, the so called "Miracle Worker."

Helen was unable to see, to hear or speak.  She despite her impairments was a very capable person, but she was locked off from discovering her capacities.  She thrashed around being organized and domesticated by people who had their full language ability.  Her life was an interior chaos.  What could move over the deep of her chaos?

One day after repeated efforts of her teacher to sign into her hand; the association of water running over her hand and w-a-t-e-r being signed into her hand suddenly created her life.  She suddenly became a word fanatic; she wanted to know every word.  She wanted the full creation of her life.  In the word is life or John's Gospel says "zoe."  Helen Keller had life, she since birth had had "bios" or biological life; but she needed "zoe" life or abundant, creative, telling, spirit-life.  It is Word which create human life and makes us different among the other biological life.

I have come to believe that you and I are constituted by the words of our lives.  How we have taken on the words of our lives forms the character in that they have become the repetitive scripts of our lives that we live out.

We are at the end of our year and we might be pondering some New Year resolutions, in hopes of making some change.  How can we change some to the repetitive scripts that we have been living out?  The one's that we or others have come to call losing scripts, scripts which are not good for our physical, psychological, social or spiritual health.

Words are life.  Words are spirit.  Words are the driving scripts of our lives.  In John's Gospel, Jesus is quoted as saying, "My words are spirit and they are life."

So if we are going to be involved in changing our lives, we are going to have to have a "word transplant" in our lives.  We are going to have to dissolve existing word conditions which are losing scripts.  How do come into word transplants in our lives toward the positive change of repentance?  Through words.  We expose ourselves to new words.  We read, we look for new models and mentors who can give us new direction.  We practice new words in doing things different with our body language.  We change our dance choreography; we change the choreography of our body behavior toward health, love and justice.

Here we are; we are comprised of language, life scripts that we cannot help but live out.  And yet we still want something more; we want "zoe" creative, abundant life, beyond our biological existence.  We want to be explorative, even like Helen Keller who discovered that words were the creation of her life, and she really ended up having her life created very well by words.

Please make the year 2020 a Word year for yourselves.  Discover how your life and your behaviors are constituted by the ways in which you have taken on language even into the programming of your body behaviors.  Journal, write, speak, pray, read, learn, get in touch with the words that you have and how they use you for good and bad in your life.

How do you and I change our lives?  The best way is to have our socks knocked off by some new insights, new awareness when we come to say, "Wow, I'm never going to be the same."

This is what I hope for each of us in our Word life in 2020: That we will come to some very insightful "Wow!" experiences which will make life changes exciting and not drudgery.

In our beginning of significant human life has been the Word.  The Word was with God.  The Word was God.  The Word is our life.  The Word is our Light.  The Word is being made flesh in us.  The Word is trying to take over our body language toward love, kindness and mutual regard.

We see so much of dark human words and behaviors on display today in our media.  We truly need Christ as the Enlightened and Creative Spirit Word in our lives today.  Amen.

Sunday School, December 29, 2019 1 Christmas A

Sunday School, December 29, 2019    1 Christmas A

Theme:

A different kind of Christmas Story

If we say that Jesus is the eternal Son of God, that means he has always been.  So, where was Jesus the eternal Son of God, before he was born to Mary in Bethlehem?

The Gospel of Jesus gives us the answer to this question.  In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  The Word was made flesh…the Word was found to be in the baby Jesus who grew to be a grown adult man.  So, the Word, which created everything, lived with us in the person of Jesus.

The Gospel of John tells us about Jesus, the Christ, before he was born in Bethlehem.

Word is a very good metaphor for Christ and for God.  Why?

Word is the most distinguishing thing about being human.  People have and use words in a way that no other creatures do.  Words make us human.  The only way that we can know that we know anything at all is by having and using words.

Why is it important that Jesus as WORD AND GOD?  To be the very best human beings, we have to learn how to use words in the very best way.  We have to learn to use words to be wise, to know as much as we can, to speak with love and kindness, but we have to remember our body language too.  We have to have our body perform deeds of love and kindness.  Jesus is the Word made Flesh and though the life of Jesus, God showed us how we can create our lives in the very best way through the ways in which we use words, with our speaking and with our writng and with our body language.

As we begin the new year, let us make a resolution to improve our word use, in our speaking, in our learning new things, in our writing and in our body language.

Remember God as Word is everywhere, inside of us and outside of us because God as Word is Life and Light.

My Word to You:  Happy New Year and God bless you in how you use your words in 2018

Sermon

  Let’s pretend for just a minute.  Let us pretend that we cannot see.  Let us pretend that we cannot hear.  Let us pretend that we cannot speak.

  It is hard to pretend this.  Because if we had never learned the word pretend, we wouldn’t know what pretend.

  Maybe we should think about a little baby who is crying.  Do we know why a baby cries?  Can the baby tell us why exactly he or she is crying?  No, but we try to guess.  Do we need to change a diaper, or give the baby some milk, or give the baby some medicine?  Do we need to burp the baby?  Does the baby have a tummy ache?  Or is the baby cold?  Or is the baby too hot?  Or is the baby lonely?

  We try to guess why a baby is crying, but we cannot be sure why a baby is crying.  Why?  Because a baby does not yet know how to speak or to use language.  And when a baby begins to use language, a baby starts to become more like a grown-up.  Why?  Because the baby can now talk to mom and dad and to brothers and sisters and Grandmothers and grandfathers.  And so we always celebrate when a baby says the first words, because we know that the baby is becoming able to tell us how she feels.

  There once was little girl named Helen Keller.  When she was a baby she had a sickness and she lost her ability to see, to talk and to hear.  Because she could not see, talk or hear, she had no way to learn how to talk.  Can you imagine what her life was like?  She was not happy and she was very hard to care for, because she had no way to talk with her parents.   Her parents hired a teacher to try to teach her.  And it is very hard to teach someone who cannot see, hear or talk.  But the teacher used her hands to make letters in her hand.  But she did not even know the letters, until one day when water was pouring over her hand, the teacher spelled “w-a-t-e-r” into the hand of Hellen Keller.  And Helen suddenly understood what words meant.  And she was so excited she wanted to know the name of everything that she could touch.  And when she could use words, her life was suddenly new, because she could now talk with her parents using her hands.  Helen Keller grew up to be a famous and well-educated person, and she helped and inspired people who did have the ability to see, hear or speak.

  Jesus Christ is called the Word of God.  And from the life of Helen Keller, you and I can understand how important Words are for us.  Everything in our world is created with Word, because we don’t know what anything is if we don’t have words.

  Let us be thankful today that we have words.  With words we don’t have to live alone and be lonely, because with words we can talk with the important people in our lives.  And let us be thankful that God our creator made us special because we were made to use words.  And so today we use our words to thank God who made us to have words in our lives.  And we should be very careful about how we use the words of our lives.  Our words can create love and kindness; or our word can cause war and fighting.  Let remember when we use words; they are special gifts to us that God gave us to use. Amen.

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

December 29, 2019: The First Sunday after Christmas

Gathering Songs: What Child Is This?;   Go Tell It On the Mountain; God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

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

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

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

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

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

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

What Child Is This  (Blue Hymnal # 115)

What child is this, who, laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping?  Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, while shepherds watch are keeping?

Chorus: This, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing;

   haste, haste to bring him laud, the babe, the son of Mary.

Why lies he in such mean estate where ox and ass are feeding?  Good Christian fear: for sinners here the silent Word is pleading.  Chorus

So bring him incense, gold and myrrh, come, peasant, king, to own him; the King of kings salvation brings, let loving hearts enthrone him.  Chorus

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

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

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

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

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

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

A reading from the Letter of Paul to the Galatians

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God..

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 147

Hallelujah! How good it is to sing praises to our God! * how pleasant it is to honor him with praise!

Great is our LORD and mighty in power; * there is no limit to his wisdom.

The LORD lifts up the lowly, * but casts the wicked to the ground.

Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; * make music to our God upon the harp.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:

For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!

For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.

   Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.  There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.  And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'") From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.

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

Song: Go Tell It On the Mountain, (Blue Hymnal, # 99)

Chorus: Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere; go tell it on the mountain, that Jesus Christ is born!

While shepherds kept their watching o’er silent flocks by night, behold, throughout the heavens there shone a holy light. Chorus

The shepherds feared and trembled when lo above the earth rang out the angel chorus that hailed our Savior’s birth.  Chorus

Down in a lowly manger the humble Christ was born, and God sent us salvation that blessed Christmas morn.  Chorus

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.

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: 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 :    

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: God Rest You Merry Gentlemen (Blue Hymnal # 105)

God rest you merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay; remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas day, to save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray.  Chorus: O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy; O tiding of comfort and joy!

From god our heavenly Father a blessed angel came and unto certain shepherds brought tiding of the same: how that in Bethlehem was born the Son of God by name.  Chorus

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Hidden from the Wise; Revealed to Babes

Christmas Eve         December 24, 2019     

Is. 9:2-4,6-7          Ps.96:1-4,11-12        

Titus 2:11-14        Luke 2:1-14  

  Lectionary Link  

   Why has Christmas taken over the world in way in which Easter never has?  Why has Christmas had more influence in the secular world and in the non-Christian world than Easter?

    Christmas is about a baby.  It is about the  wisemen bringing gifts to a baby, and what is more universal than giving gifts to children?  And you are wise if you keep the children happy with gifts, right?

    But beyond the popularity of Christmas due to the birth of the Christ child it is also about having hope in this life as we are now in it.  Easter is much about hope for the afterlife and we can wait for the afterlife, we would like to ponder hope for life as it is now.

    I think that the value of Christmas is reinforced by the child motif that is presented in the Gospel words of Jesus.  Jesus said some rather enigmatic things about infants and children.  He said, "Let the children come to me; for to such as these belong the kingdom of heaven."  Sorry adults; those are the words of Jesus.   Jesus also said that unless one became like a child, one could not understand the kingdom of God.  Sorry adults.   Jesus also said that he thanked God that these things were hid from the wise but revealed to infants because such was God's will.  Sorry adults.

    There is an Arab riddle which is based upon the belief that there are 100 names of God but human beings can only know 99 of those names.  They can never now the hundredth name of God.  So the question: Why does the camel have this silly smirk on his face?  Well, he knows the 100th name of God and he's not telling.

    Why does the baby have the angelic grin on his or her face?  She knows and is living the reality of original joy and we adults can only look on as being perpetually locked out.

    If we understand the mystery of being locked out of original joy; we understand the appeal of Christmas and the celebration of the birth of the Christ-child.

     What is the conversion experience called?  It is called a new birth.  It is called being born-again.   How much closer to childhood can one get than the experience of a new birth.

      New Birth is what the early Christian mystics called spiritual awakening.  St. Paul said the mystery of the ages of revealed:  Christ in you the hope of glory.

         I believe that the Christmas Story encodes the new birth theology of the early church.  They believed from their experience, that a person could have as an adult, a renewal into the essence of the original joy of our birth into this world.  The smiling baby can be alive and well within us.   We can have the experience of original joy within us.  We can access this original joy even as we live within all the harsh realities of our adult worlds.  This is not an escape from our adult worlds; this is the great complement to our adult worlds.  This experience of new birth, of our child-likeness, is not a childish denial, it is not the childish and inappropriate emotions of an inebriated state, it is a spiritual birth of renewal that is available to us.  And we should not cease in our quest for life experience until we have found it and its effects.

     Why do we love Christmas?  Not because all of the family pressure to please everyone by finding the perfect presents to give.  We love Christmas because we want to recover wonder and joy in our lives.  We want to know that Christ has been born in us and for us and with us.  We want to know that the divine affirms the validity of our lives.

    Tonight, the celebration of the birth of Christ invites us to joy, wonder and renewal.  And with God's gift of the Spirit, we can all find this tonight.  Let us hear the whisper of God say to us tonight, Merry Christmas, my children, Merry Christmas.  Amen.

     

Multi-Genre Beings

4 Advent A, December 18, 2016

Isaiah 7:10-16 Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18

Romans 1:1-7 Matthew 1:18-25

 Lectionary Link

       Just so you won't think my sermon is pointless, here are four points.  1-We use the past to explain the present. 2- Translation of the Bible can affect our theology.  3-As language users people have always employed genres.  4-The Gospels were spiritual manuals which encoded the mysticism of the early churches.

       We often are left with the impression that the ancient prophets who are in the Hebrew Scriptures specifically predicted Jesus of Nazareth.  To use the Bible to predict the future may be comforting for people who want to assert their sense of God being in control of the world but such predictions have not and cannot be proven with the exactness that some fundamentalists often imply.  What is true is that history is a spiral; similar patterns of human behavior recur and so the past is used to explain what is happening now.  Did Babe Ruth predict the appearance of Roger Maris, Hank Aaron or Barry Bonds?  No.  But do we speak of Roger Maris and Barry Bonds using Babe Ruth as the one who exemplified hitting home runs?  Yes, and so the past anticipates the future and we use the past to explain the present.  The early Christians preachers who read the book of Isaiah certainly understood that Jesus Christ exemplified meaning of the Isaian child who was called Immanuel.  Jesus Christ was understood as God with us or God being on our side.  Or God becoming completely bilingual of both divine and human life.  The past anticipates the future without being explicitly predictive; such belief in exact prediction would be a violation of the conditions of freedom.

     Second point.   The translation of the Bible can affect how we understand theology.  We have read from seventh chapter of Isaiah today which refers to a young woman bearing a child.  The Hebrew word for young woman is "alma."  The famous Greek translation of the Hebrew Scripture is called the Septuagint.  The Septuagint translators translated the Hebrew word "alma" as "parthenos," which is the Greek word for virgin.  The New Testament Greek uses "parthenos" indicating their Septuagint reading of the Hebrew Scriptures.  In the history of the church's translation of the Bible the Virgin Birth theology has been reflected.  The famous King James Version of the Bible translate the Hebrew word as virgin and not as "young woman."  What this reveals is that sometimes the theological perspectives of the church are highlighted by the way in which a translation of language is done.  But I will later show how we have sometimes diminished the mysticism of the church for literal meanings of words.  Sometimes we use the literal almost like idols and we end up avoiding the mystical experience.

    Third point.  As language users we employ genres.  As babies we are passively coded with all of the language meanings of the caretakers of our lives.  As we activate our language ability, we take on language use with its glorious multivalent meaningful practices.  We employ genres of language use.  We know literal, common sense, empirically verifiable meanings.  We know figurative, allegorical, moral, metaphorical, aesthetic and spiritual meanings.  We are amazing language users, but we can make mistakes in how we think that genres are being employed.

     Imagine the young boy in his Superman pajamas with a lovely cape.  He has just been watching a Superman movie.  So what does he do?  He takes a flying leap off his upper bunk bed dressed as Superman and he discovers that gravity crashes him to injury on the floor below.  The boy has confused his genres.  But from this experience the boy does not have to give up his genre of magical realism nor does he have to give up the genre of scientific natural laws.  The key is to learn to transact appropriately with the various language genres of life.   The biblical writers were not stupid, primitive language users.  And even though they existed long before modern science, they still understood naive realism and commonsense perceptual reality.  They understood mystical and allegorical genre of writing.  The Gospel writers wrote at a time when the Roman propaganda said that a comet attended the birth of the Caesar and that his mother had a miraculous conception in a Temple and that he was the Savior of the World who brought peace to the earth and he was called divi filius, son of god.  The great fault of modern fundamentalists is to deny Bible writers the intelligence of knowing how they were writing in their own time fully cognizant of the writing genre which they deployed in their context.    We need to appreciate how fluid all language users can be with genres.  We need to beware of reading a genre in the wrong way.  

    Finally, the fourth point.  The Christmas story encodes the mystagogy of the early church.  What is mystagogy?  It is instruction of teaching in the mystery of Christ.  According to St. Paul, the mystery of the ages was this:  Christ in us the hope of Glory?  How is Christ born within us?   We are overshadowed by power of the Holy Spirit.  We are baptized by the Holy Spirit and the life of Christ is conceived and grows within us.   In being overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, one's heart is made clean and virginal to bear the presence of Christ.  This was the chief reality of the early church.  This is the reality which the mystics of the early church encoded in the story of the Virgin Mary.  Blessed Mary is the paradigm of every Christian who has had the life of Christ born in them when they have been overshadowed by the Holy Spirit.  Can we appreciate how the Gospel writers were writing in the mystical genre and how it could only be pierced by the early initiates into the mystical transformation program promulgated in the early churches?  Do you see how often the church throughout the ages have externalized all of this and literalized it and missed the mystical significance?  Let us learn how to deploy our genres appropriately.

     I would leave you with a quote from one of the most profound mystics of the Christian Church, Meister Eckhart.  He wrote:  What a shame it would be if Jesus was only born to the Virgin Mary in the first century and not be born in our lives today.
   
     My prayer for us today is that we would experience the current reality of the birth of Christ.  Amen.