Sunday School, May 3, 2020 4 Easter A

Sunday School, May 3, 2020   4 Easter A

Themes:

Discuss the role of shepherd as it is presented in the Bible

The most famous chapter in the Bible is Psalm 23.  It begins, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.”

This poem was believed to be written by the famous King of Israel, King David.  Before David was a king, he was the youngest boy in the family and his family job was being a shepherd.  He would take the flock of sheep out into the wilderness and on the hills.  He would look for places that had grass to eat.  He would take the sheep to rivers, brooks and streams so they could drink water.  He would protect them from being attacked by wild animals.  If they got hurt or cut, he would tend to their wounds.

David knew that he was a good shepherd.  And he believed that God was like a good shepherd because he believed that God loved him and cared for him.

David became the model king for what we call “Messiah.”  Messiah means that to “anoint” with oil.  Anointing with oil was the ritual that was used to make a person a king in ancient Israel.  In the Greek language, messiah is translated as “Christos” or in English Christ.

Christians believe that Jesus is a God Chosen Messiah.  Jesus was a Good Shepherd because of his care for people in need.

A shepherd is someone who takes care of people in need.

Sheep represent people who have needs.

Some people who are not good shepherd do not care for people in need.  They run away from taking care of people in need.

We all are sheep at times because we need help from others.  But when we have ability, wealth and knowledge to help others, we need to be good shepherds too.  We need to help others, because that is what we want when we have needs.

Sermon

Today we have read about the Good Shepherd and we have learn that Jesus is like a Good Shepherd.

  A Good Shepherd takes good care of his sheep.  How does he do that?  He finds them a pasture with grass to eat.  He finds them water to drink.  He keeps them safe from wolves and coyotes.  He takes care of them when they are injured or sick?  Why?  Because the sheep need care.

  Do you know that we are both like shepherd and sheep?  A shepherd is one who gives care to someone who needs it.  A sheep is someone who needs care.

  I’m going to play a quiz game with you?  You tell me who is the shepherd and who is the sheep.

  When a person is really, really sick, she goes to the doctor and the doctor helps by giving her some medicine.  Who is the shepherd and who is the sheep.

  A father and mother go to work and they provide money for their children to have food and clothing.  Who is the shepherd and who is the sheep?

  A boy has a dog and the boy feeds the dog every day and brushes the dog furry coat.  Who is the shepherd and who is the sheep?

  An older sister is with her baby brother, and mom leaves the room.  And the baby brother drops his bottle and starts to cry.  So the older sister picks up the bottle and gives it to her little baby brother.  Who is the shepherd and who is the sheep?

  So any of us can be a shepherd or a sheep.  Why?  Because sometimes we need things and sometimes we need care.

  But most of the time we have the ability to provide care for someone else.  So when someone needs care, we need to be like a good shepherd.

  Jesus is the good shepherd because he cared for people who needed his care.

  So, we too need to be good shepherds too.  Why?  Because people need us, and we need people too.

  Just as you and I often need help and care for ourselves.  We should learn to give care to others when we can.

  Jesus as the good shepherd has taught to care for people in need. 

How many of you are going to try to be good shepherds this week?  I know that you can be a big help to your family and friends and to other people who need your care

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

May 3, 2020: The Fourth Sunday of Easter 

Gathering Songs: The Lord is Present, What Wondrous Love, Soon and Very Soon

Liturgist: Alleluia, Christ is Risen.

People: The Lord is Risen Indeed.  Alleluia.

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 Lord is Present (Renew! # 55)

1-The Lord is present in his sanctuary, let us praise the Lord.  The Lord is present in his people gathered here, let us praise the Lord.  Praise him, praise him, let us praise the Lord!  Praise him, praise him, let us praise Jesus!

4-The Lord is present in his sanctuary, let us love the Lord.  The Lord is present in his people gathered here, let us love the Lord.  Love him, love him, let us love the Lord!  Love him, love him, let us love Jesus!

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First 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 First Letter of Peter

For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 23

The LORD is my shepherd; * I shall not be in want

Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, * 

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

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.

Jesus said, "Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheep yard by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers." Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So again Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them.  I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." 

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:  All Things Bright and Beautiful,     (# 405, blue hymnal)

1-All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful,

The Lord God made them all. 

2-Each little flower that opens,Each little bird that sings,He made their glowing colors,

He made their tiny wings.

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 our 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.

(Children may gather around the altar)

The Celebrant now praises God for the salvation of the world through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;

You have made us in your image

And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:

Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.

And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph

And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.

Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat 

  the bread and drink the wine, we can  know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as   

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. 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:       Alleluia.  Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!

Words of Administration

Communion: He Leadeth Me, 

                               

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: Soon and Very Soon  (Renew!, # 276).

Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King.  Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King.  Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King.  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  We are going to see the King.

2.  No more dying there, we are going to see the King.  No more dying there, we are going to see the King.  No more dying there, we are going to see the King.  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  We are going to see the King.

Dismissal:    

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

People: Thanks be to God!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Aphorism of the Day, April 2020

Aphorism of the Day, April 30, 2020

How does the After change the Before, if the Past is Absolute?  Since the After includes more occasions of becoming, the entire field has increased and so through interpretation the enlarged contextual environment necessarily changes the Past.  The Past is "re-contextualized" and so becomes something different in the state of Subsequency.

Aphorism of the Day, April 29, 2020

Good shepherding, exploitation and being like a dependent sheep are three power mode positions which any person might find actualized in one's circumstance.  Often we are in the "sheep" position of needing the care of one who can give it and in such situation we'd rather not have one who "exploits" our weakness.  Using one's "power" for care rather than exploitation is an important message which the Good Shepherd discourse of John's Gospel promotes

Aphorism of the Day, April 28, 2020

The Good Shepherd metaphor needs to be a model generalized to be what anyone aim for in excellence in service in the utilization of one's gifts for the common good.

Aphorism of the Day, April 27, 2020

Shepherds were symbolic of leadership in the Hebrew Scriptures and the metaphor was adopted for Jesus.  The Good Shepherd Discourse highlights sheep in need and good shepherd to tend to the vulnerable and the "hirelings" who exploit the vulnerable for their own purposes.  All leadership should be judge as to whether it results in care and service or self-serving exploitation of others.

Aphorism of the Day, April 26, 2020

St. Paul believed that the Risen Christ was mostly incognito so that he could be known as all and in all.

Aphorism of the Day, April 25, 2020

Notice in the Emmaus Road story, the Risen Christ has the ability to hide his identity but turn it on when he blesses bread.  It could be an oracle in the early church illuminating the practice of Eucharist.

Aphorism of the Day, April 24, 2020

A lesson of the Emmaus Road story is that the Risen Christ is mostly incognito until the serendipitous surprises.  And the afterthought?  Wow, he was walking with us all along.

Aphorism of the Day, April 23, 2020

The Emmaus Road appearance of the Risen Christ was a "surprise."  How does one prepared oneself for such "surprises" without it losing its very meaning.  If one can prepare for a surprise then it is not a "surprise."  Surprises are the serendipitous; they stand out from the normal, the probable, the predictable.  Faith life, in part, involves adjusting "on the fly," based upon the deviations of the "surprises" of life of all sorts.  Christ was known in the ordinary, in the breaking of the bread.  Can we know the Risen Christ within the pandemic which has become our ordinary existence?

Aphorism of the Day, April 22, 2020

The post-resurrection appearances of the Risen Christ in the New Testament were written to be exemplars, not replacements for each person to have his or her own variety of the manifold appearances which Christ as All and in All can have.

Aphorism of the Day, April 21, 2020

Time means difference.  The difference of before and after, even is one is "doing or experiencing" something that is classified the same.  The carrying over of "same" identity in time is a reductive abstraction of "being" from "becoming."  The proliferation of the class of post resurrection appearances of the Risen Christ in time is a study in differences and they partake of such subjectivity that they cannot be tied down to replication except in the most general formula for mystical experience.  Do two people ever experience the exactly same dream at the same time.  No.  Because they are different people it could not "be" the same dream.  So too people have different experiences of what the appearance of the Risen Christ would be to them.  The New Testament is full of such diversity regarding the appearances of the Risen and this instantiates the subjectivity of each experience.

Aphorism of the Day, April 20, 2020

For those so certain about knowing precisely about the composition of the Risen Christ, they should read the Gospel accounts.   His appearances are seen and involve interaction but it probably is better to defer to Paul to explain that his body was now an imperishable spiritual body.  You can quote Paul on that, even though I doubt that anyone can explain precisely what an imperishable spiritual body is.

Aphorism of the Day, April 19, 2020

Compare the post-resurrection appearances to Thomas and Paul.  Thomas insisted to see and touch the Risen Lord.  Paul had an involuntary, visionary experience of the Risen Christ which caused temporary blindness.  Paul went on to have his writing achieve canonical status, so apparently his experience of the Risen Christ was blessed even though it was not empirical in the sense that Thomas experienced.  The Doubting Thomas story is evidence that the early church understood a blessing conferred upon the manifold ways that they Risen Christ became known to people.  Empirical encounter was not to define the validity and blessedness of encounters with the Risen Christ.

Aphorism of the Day, April 18, 2020

The great event of poetic license is Jesus of Nazareth becoming Christ who is  all and in all.  What this meant was that post-resurrection appearances of Jesus could happen under the many guises which can possibly occur for human seekers of God.  The Doubting Thomas story is a "launching" story; a detaching from the physical body of Jesus and the filling of the plethora of occasions in which the Risen Christ might be known in blessed ways, some of which are presented in the Thomas story: experience of peace, being sent or having mission and purpose, forgiving rather retaining sins, the words of Jesus as Spirit being breathed into the disciples, and Gospel reading being a mode of coming to persuasion about Jesus.  

Aphorism of the Day, April 17, 2020

Part of the writing program of John's Gospel is to indicate that "Signs" of Christ and their meanings occur in the ordinary, (wine at a wedding) and in the extraordinary (death of Lazarus) and in loss of health and in Nature's fury.  The writing purpose of including these Sign are intended for the mystical initiate in the community to understand the events which convert one to a new paradigm in being persuaded about how the Risen Christ is present within all the events of one's life.

Aphorism of the Day, April 16, 2020

John Gospels teaches that Word permeates everything that can be known in knowing itself.  Christ is the Word, signifying God speaking Word to make creation happen.  Things are known to happen because we have language.  By Word we know human life as language users and Word's best exemplar became flesh in Jesus.  And Jesus said his words were spirit and life.  The absent physical Jesus could still be validly and persuasively known (faith and belief) through another Word product, viz., writing.  In fact, the Johannine author said about the Gospel itself, "these things are written that you might believe, be persuaded about..."  So writing was the way to "freeze" Jesus in time for future believers and Word as interpretive process in time is the Spirit of application of the life of Christ in new settings.

Aphorism of the Day, April 15, 2020

Text and Spirit.  Text is fixed but interpretation of the text is always in application process.  So to try to fix a text with a singular meaning in one time period is futile.  Why?  Because we can be there, literally; we can only be here.  But one should be guided in all textual interpretation by does it promote love and justice of one's neighbor in the trying to please God.

Aphorism of the Day, April 14, 2020

In John's Gospel, Christ is Word and he speaks words which he said were Spirit and Life.  The writer of of John believes that his written word can lead to belief (being persuaded about) Jesus and from such persuasion one can know life.  Get to know John's Gospel internal symbolism and how they repeat and permeate the entire Gospel.

Aphorism of the Day, April 13, 2020

The Sunday after Easter might be called the "Feast of the Doubting Thomas."  But if one reads it closely, one finds it to be a wisdom oracle of the Risen Christ declaring that experiences of the Risen Christ are different but equally blessed.

Aphorism of the Day, April 12, 2020

Easter is the pure utopia, since it is "no such known event or place" for anyone and yet it ministers to the hope that each has for an endless personal continuity.  Do we deserved to "live forever?"  It is not a matter of deserving since one cannot apologize for having hope.  Hope attained anecdotes in the reappearances of Christ in the many ways that such reappearances have been happening for two thousand years.  Easter is the full artistic, deeply moving evidence of hope, the evidence of the faith we live by that we have a future of more completeness as persons and people.

Aphorism of the Day, April 11, 2020

Why do we read so many of the Psalms of distress, Lamentations, and prophets' descriptions of afflicted people during Holy Week?  These were the templates that the New Testament writers used to tell what happened to Jesus.  And there is not a one-to-one correspondence of all things but enough to provide the vocabulary to indicate the unjust violence that has happened in every age in nearly every place.  We see that Jesus "borrowed" the "my God, my God, why have you forsaken me from Psalm 22," but we can't find evidence of him dealing with bulls of Bashan unless they are figurative inner demons.  The past is always generally predictive of the future, in that bad behaviors of violence repeat in different contexts in different ways.  But it is a stretch to say that the past specifically predicts the future.  We can content ourselves to know that the human repetoire tends to get repeated or as Nietzche called it, the "eternal return of the same."

Aphorism of the Day, April 10, 2020

A very bad thing happened to a very good person on Good Friday.  This bad thing came to be regarded as meant to happen Providence by the followers of Jesus.  The superlative Subsequent Outcome made the former event necessary.  Providence is when a subsequent good overcomes and relies on a previous bad for its very goodness.  This is the strange contradictory secret of living with a belief in redemption.  A pandemic is a terrible uneven affliction over our world and even the subsequent human response of care and redistributing the assets of society to help people get through is already goodness at work to overcome this affliction.  If we build up a track record of knowing redemption, it helps us to live knowing that Good Friday and Easter are coincidental realities.  Faith allows us to view an event like the duck/rabbit optical illusion.  We can switch and see Good Friday and Easter working separately but at the same time.

Aphorism of the Day, April 9, 2020

Did it ever seem to you as though the Psalms were the release to the public of private therapy notes of patients recorded by the Therapist.  "Did he really say he wanted to do that to his enemy?"  "Was he really that paranoid?"  "Was she really that depressed?"  "But in a seeming bi-polar switch, he is high as a kite in ecstasy sometimes."  "Was his chief gift in life complaining?"  One way to use the Psalms is a model for one's "talking cure" with God, as catharsis.  It is better than "acting out."

Aphorism of the Day, April 8, 2020

The Feast times on liturgical calendars are day when the crucial identity is markedly stamped upon the and new members are inculcated into the chief values.  There are Christmas and Easter Christians who live on the collateral fumes of Christian identity and then there are persons who are on the mystical path of transformation because of the experience of the power of the Christ events.

Aphorism of the Day, April 7, 2020

As we move toward the Easter Vigil, regard this week as a sort of ancestry.com read out of our spiritual genealogy.   We are tracing our spiritual heritage as it has constituted us through the most relational DNA of humanity, language.  In language, we have become constituted in our identity by the stories we have received and thus become the people who we are and responsible for passing on all of the traces of the stories we have received to next generation.  Children are important at a Passover meal  because the spiritual DNA in the story is being passed on.  Children are important during Holy Week and Easter to represent those who will continue to bear our spiritual DNA in their storied lives in the future.

 Aphorism of the Day, April 6, 2020

In Holy Week through Easter with full participation, one gets a crash course in the biblical tradition.  The Easter Vigil includes long readings in "Salvation History."  The Hebrews Scriptures might be regarded as the writing attempt to form an identity of a people.  It moves from general humanity to particular people, the Israelites, who in fact are supposed to host a House of Prayer for all people, but in particular practice, there are too many particular rules to allow everyone in.  The Jesus Movement claimed to be a "more" universal movement in offering admission to the Gentiles, but churches have not been able to remove the dynamic between the general and the particular, because we tend to take on the temporal provincialism of our own time and place.  Holy Week and Easter is a good time to explore what identities we have taken on and how we have taken them on, particularly in how we have innovated ourselves out of the synagogues even as our "innovations" are so dependent upon on the significant Christian make-over of the symbolic themes of the Hebrew Scriptures.

Aphorism of the Day, April 5, 2020

The Palm Procession represents the same kind of logical foolishness which St. Paul said the Cross of Jesus was for the Greeks.  How can this country bumpkin prophet march into a city under Roman control and allow a mob to declare him as a king and not be considered a threat of insurrection?  Was this an instigating event for the crucifixion?  It was a milestone on the journey of Jesus to become the king of the Interior of many lives of people without power in the Roman Empire.

Aphorism of the Day, April 4, 2020

In the conditions of freedom there is the juxtaposition and the volley of good and evil occurrences depending upon one location in Time.  St. Paul used the notions of redemption as the potential counter-logic when one experiences good overcoming evil by the redemptive subsequent event which forces a re-valuation of an earlier event.  So, the cross of Jesus was re-valued by the subsequent events which occurred to the followers of Jesus and the preponderances of the glorious value to those followers meant that they re-wrote the meaning of a particular event of capital punishment to be a "launching" pad to elevated life experience.

Aphorism of the Day, April 3, 2020

In Hebrew Scriptures, the stories are presented of Nature being so symbiotic with God and with God's people that the "acts of Nature" as "acts of God" were seen to express God's providence on behalf of God's will for God's people.  The Flood and the Plagues were told as God's providential response to the evil of people in general and the enslaving Pharaoh. The catastrophic acts of Nature which reek havoc have the magnitude of being "divine," even as our insurers refer to such as "acts of God."   They are only acts of God in the sense of them having occasion of occurrence within the magnitude of the overall Becoming of the Divine Self.  They are occasion within the total play of Freedom which characterizes God who shares freedom with everything that is and that means competition among the systems of weather, animals, et. al. and the goals of particular people in local places.  Providence is the subsequent interpretation placed on such events of competition.  We are aware of "presumptuous" prophets saying that hurricanes bring damage to a particular place because God is angry at the behaviors of certain people in that place.  The use the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah story is given as validation for such pronouncements.  One should be very wary of anyone who purports to know causative connections in precise ways of what happens in Nature and the behaviors of any certain people in certain place.  Certainly one could look at the Covid19 pandemic as the Deluge of God's wrath if one is inclined to such silly and crassly literal biblical applications.

 Aphorism of the Day, April 2, 2020

The power of God is seen in the ability to empty the Divine Self into everything or as Paul wrote "Christ as All in All."  Jesus was the witness to the emptying of God into everything and this accounts for God taking identity with the perpetual weakness which is always local and contextual but not comprehensive.  The weakness of God, God's Achilles heal is that the One who is Most Free, subjects One's Most Free Self to the conditions of that freedom within the local contexts which make up everywhere.  In poetic "double-speak" the weakness is the power to be all and in all and it allows those limited by context to confess that "God is with us." 

Aphorism of the Day, April 1, 2020

April Fools Day.  St. Paul called the cross foolishness to the Greeks.  It may be counter-logic to think that a good person becoming a victim of capital punishment would be regarded as representing the "power" of God to empty the Divine Self to death or human lifelessness.  Logically, it might have been regarded as a political necessity practiced by the Romans to quell any revolts in the Empire.  But the Resurrection appearance subsequences that occurred to many people to change their moral lives resulting in verifiable behavioral changes as a result of these interior events gave them a different kind of wisdom than what one regards to be wise scientific method.

Quiz of the Day, April 2020

Quiz of the Day, April 30, 2020

The 10 Commandments are listed in the Book of Exodus.  What other book of the Bible has the list?

a. John
b. Judges
c. Deuteronomy
d. Genesis

Quiz of the Day, April 29, 2020

What topic does Psalm 23 and John 10 have in common?

a. Messiah
b. Truth
c. Shepherd
d. Resurrection

Quiz of the Day, April 28, 2020

What is the Holy Mountain of God in Hebrew Scriptures?

a. Gerizim
b. Zion
c. Sinai
d. Tabor
e. Nebo
f.  Carmel
g. Olives
o. Hermon

Quiz of the Day, April 27, 2020

What was the best lesson that Jethro, his father-in-law, taught Moses?

a. how to parent
b. how to raise sheep
c. how to delegate authority
d. how to design the tabernacle

Quiz of the Day, April 26, 2020

What was the name of Moses' father-in-law?

a. Reuel
b. Jethro
c. Hobab
d. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, April 25, 2020

According to Church traditions about Mark the Evangelist, which of the following is not true?

a. he may be John Mark, cousin of Barnabas
b. he may not be John Mark, cousin of Barnabas
c. he was one of the 12 disciples
d. his Gospel may have been written from Peter's perspective
e. he went to Alexandria

Quiz of the Day, April 24, 2020

Why was Manna not placed in the Ark of the Covenant when it first appeared?

a. Israel had not yet reached Sinai
b. The tabernacle had not yet been constructed
c. Manna had a one day "shelf life"
d. God did not give such instructions until Moses went up Mt. Sinai

Quiz of the Day, April 23, 2020

Manna, derives from the Hebrew, meaning?

a. bread
b. bread from above
c. frost
d. "What is it?"

Quiz of the Day, April 22, 2020

Marah was the place of bitter water, unfit to drink.  How did Moses make the water sweet?

a. said a prayer
b. threw some special wood into the water
c. touched it with his staff
d. had Miriam sing and dance a prayer

Quiz of the Day,  April 21, 2020

Who is associated with the ontological argument for the existence of God in which God is defined as "that which none greater can be conceived?'

a. Thomas Aquinas
b. Peter Abelard
c. Anselm
d. Albert Magnus

Quiz of the Day, April 20, 2020

Where was Jesus seen in his post resurrection appearances?

a. Jerusalem
b. garden near his tomb
c. Galilee
d. road to Emmaus
e. Mount of Olives
f.  all of the above

Quiz of the Day, April 19, 2020

Which of the following is not true about the Apostle Thomas?

a. he was called the twin
b. there is a Gospel with his name
c. he is believed to have traveled to India
d. the Mar Thoma church derives from his witness
e. he asked to sit on the right hand of Jesus in his kingdom

Quiz of the Day, April 18, 2020

How did Moses know where to the lead the people of Israel in their journey?

a. he had Caleb as a scout
b. he commission Joshua as a pathfinder
c. pillars of clouds and fire guided them
d. God would speak directly to Moses

Quiz of the Day, April 17, 2020

What was the disciples first response when the women told them about the resurrection?

a. they ran to the tomb
b. they didn't believe them
c. they believed them
d. they decided to meet in secret

Quiz of the Day, April 16, 2020

What is the origin of the "unleavened bread?"

a. the Israelites had a law against yeast
b. leaven was a metaphor for sin
c. Egyptian ate "puffy" bread, Israelites didn't
d. unleavened meant no time to rise because they ate on the run in their escape

Quiz of the Day, April 15, 2020

"Eat, drink, for tomorrow we die," is associated with what Greek philosophical school?

a. Stoicism
b. Epicureanism
c. Sophism
d. Platonism


Quiz of the Day, April 14, 2020

Which of the following is not true regarding Mary Magdalene?

a. she was the first apostle of the resurrection
b. she had been possessed by seven demons
c. she had been a prostitute
d. she mistook Jesus for a gardener

Quiz of the Day, April 13, 2020

What is the feast of the unleavened bread?

a. another name for Passover
b. seven days before Passover
c. seven days after Passover
d. derived during the wilderness sojourn of Israel

Quiz of the Day, April 12, 2020

Who was the first Resurrection apostle?

a. Peter
b. Mary Magdalene
c. angel/messenger at the tomb
d. Thomas

Quiz of the Day, April 11, 2020

Who took care of the burial arrangements for Jesus?

a. Mary, his mother
b. Joseph of Arimathea
c. Mary Magdalene
d. Mary, Martha and Lazarus of Bethany

Quiz of the Day, April 10, 2020

Which Passion Gospel is always read on Good Friday?

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

Quiz of the Day, April 9, 2020

What does the word "Maundy" specifically connote?

a. foot washing
b. Institution of the Eucharist
c. the betrayal of Judas
d. the new commandment

Quiz of the Day, April 8, 2020

What is a Triduum?

a. singular of Tridua
b. any major Christian celebration lasting three days
c. Maundy Thursday evening through Easter
d. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, April 7, 2020

Which of the following plants were cursed by Jesus of Nazareth?

a. mustard
b. palm tree
c. olive tree
d. fig tree

Quiz of the Day, April 6, 2020

Who is the prophet associated with the Book of Lamentations?

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

Quiz of the Day, April 5, 2020

Which prophet does the Gospel writer quote to understand the continuity in symbolism between the Triumphal Entry in the Palm Procession and Hebrew Scriptures?

a. Isaiah
b. Jeremiah
c. Zechariah
d. Haggai

Quiz of the Day, April 4, 2020

What Jewish festival derives from the last plague upon Egypt?

a. Succoth
b. Yom Kippur
c. Passover
d. Purim
e. Pentecost

Quiz of the Day, April 3, 2020

Which of the following musicals uses lyrics from Richard of Chichester?

a. Jesus Christ Super Star
b. Godspell
c. Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat
d. Phantom of the Opera

Quiz of the Day, April 2, 2020

Of the following, who was dismissed from a university for being a "Christian Socialist?"

a. William Temple
b. Joseph Butler
c. Frederick Dennison Maurice
d. C. S. Lewis

Quiz of the Day, April 1, 2020

What was the first plague inflicted on Egypt?

a. lice
b. bloody waters
c. frogs
d. hail storm

Process Your Surprises with the Risen Christ

3 Easter A    April 26, 2020 

Acts 2:14a,36-47   Ps. 116:10-17

1 Peter 1:17-23    Luke 24:13-35              

Lectionary Page
Do you like surprises?  You probably immediately are thinking, well it depends upon what it is.  The pandemic has been a surprise, probably the biggest surprise in our lifetimes and it is so dominating our lives and making us change our former routines for such a long time, we know that there will be a sea change and there cannot be a going back to the ways things were formerly.  It is a surprise which has permanently altered our lives.

What is the main ingredient in a surprise?  The main ingredient for the one or ones who experience it is that it is unplanned.  I am going to have a planned surprise happen to me.  That an oxymoron.

The disciples of Jesus on Easter Day were trying to cope with a very unfortunate surprise. Their friend and mentorJesus, who was a champion and a King, was taken by the Romans and crucified and he was buried.  What kind of Messiah who did all of those wonderful things ends up dying on a cross?  Surprise.  "Well, we have to pack up and go home.  The Movement is dead.  Let get back to our village of Emmaus, even though we've heard some rumors about body snatching in Jerusalem,  it is time to try to figure out what we're going to do next.

Let's just walk in silence and lick our wounds.  But then we're joined by another person walking the route and he joins us and inquires about us and we talk about the hubbub in the Jerusalem and how Jesus was not who we thought he was and he was not a triumphant king like we wanted and hoped for.  Messiahs and kings don't get put on a cross.

But the traveler seems to know his Hebrew Scriptures.  We use the Hebrew Scripture as a template for understanding what greatness means for us and our people.  But this traveler tells us that we've missed something in the Hebrew Scriptures, the part about the Person of God's anointing and choosing, being a Suffering Servant.  He leads us to a different view of the Messiah and what greatness means for God's Messiah.  The Messiah is Emmanuel or God with us, and where is God with us?  Everywhere including in death and after death."

The two disciples of Jesus in their grief were engaged by this unrecognized traveler and they were challenged to change their model for what the Messiah would look like.  They were presented with Suffering Servant model from the prophet Isaiah.

They were so engaged, they invited the traveler to their home for some food.  And as they sat to break bread together, "Poof,"  the incognito Risen Christ suddenly became known to these forlorn disciples.  And they were surprised, this time in a completely differently way.  They had been surprised negatively in the death of Jesus on the Cross; but now they were surprised by this unique ability of the Risen Christ to be with them incognito and then suddenly be recognized and then suddenly spirited away.

St. Paul wrote that the resurrection involves our spiritual body which reconstitutes a fuller incorruptible self.  And the appearances of the Risen Christ indicates that he was in his resurrected spiritual body which could be reconstituted as actual and apparent physical appearance to some, and then be gone.  One could even believe that the love for Jesus and the loss of Jesus caused such a profound grief that it was a grief which invited Jesus to re-appear and encounter those who deeply mourned his loss.

The disciples on the road to Emmaus had a "peek a boo, I see you" encounter with the Risen Christ.  And they were surprised.  They did not control the surprise.  They did not control how the Risen Christ became known to them.  But they, in joy, received the surprise and responded with hope.  "Let's get back to Jerusalem and see if the gang is still together.  If someone can reappear after death, that would qualify as being a candidate for being the Messiah."

The Emmaus Road story encodes the two ways in which we believe that the church is given to known the presence of Christ.  In Scriptures and in the breaking of the bread.  But these two means of knowing the presence of Christ do not exhaust the many other ways that Christ can be known.

One of the narratives of Hope is the narrative of surprise.  Our lives have been given content, timeline, and identity by the surprises in our lives.  Each person has had Christ incognito surprises  in life and maybe without even acknowledging it or knowing it.  Hope also is the creative force that gives us some anticipation about some more surprises of the Risen Christ variety.

One of the first games we teach our babies is the game of Peek a boo, I see you.  Unwittingly, we in this simple game are trying to wean our baby from our visual presence and then surprise them suddenly.  We are trying to teach our babies that even when we are not with them by sight, sound, or touch, we still are with them with profound loving presence.

And that is what God is playing with us in our lives today.  Seemingly absent or incognito and suddenly, "Peek a boo, I see you, I am alway seeing, I love you, I care for you."

I hope that you have known God to be a loving parent playing with you, "Peek a boo, I see you."  God respects the world enough that God created such that even under every stone unturned there can be a surprise, "Peek a boo, I see you, I love you, I care for you."  Amen