Sunday School, December 6, 2020 2 Advent B

 Sunday School, December 6, 2020   2 Advent B

Theme:

John the Baptist

Who was he?  He was a cousin of Jesus.  His dad was Zachariah, a retired priest, and his mother was Elizabeth.

John took a special religious vow, the vow of the nazirite.  He did not shave his hair and he did not drink wine.  He lived his life in the wilderness.  Perhaps he learned and studied with a group of people who lived there.

John wore a camel hair jacket and he ate grasshoppers and wild honey.

John began to preach and baptize in the area around the Jordan River.

Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River.

There were many people who followed John the Baptist.  He was their leader and teacher.

His main message was to asked people to repent and be baptized.  To repent is a special kind of education.  We learn how to be better and then we do something about it to make our lives better.

If we have lied, we quit lying and tell the truth.  If we have stolen things, we quit stealing and respect what belongs to others.  To repent means to learn when we have done wrong, to correct it and never do the wrong thing again.

John the Baptist was very bold.  He even tried to correct the bad behavior of King Herod.  And because of this he was killed.

During and after the life of John the Baptist, many of his followers became the first followers of Jesus.

John the Baptist was not jealous of Jesus; he was happy that his followers became followers of Jesus.

Why do we study John the Baptist during the season of Advent?

Advent is a season of preparation for the birth of Christ.

John was a person who prepared people to receive Jesus Christ.

In Advent, we are supposed to live a simpler life and share some of our extra time, food and money with people who are in need.

John lived a very simple life.  He showed us that we do not need much to live   He showed that we can make our lives simpler and if we simplify our lives we have more time to share with God and with other people.

Also from John the Baptist, we learn that we are to live and prepare others to love and accept Jesus Christ.

Questions:

What do you think about John the Baptist’s clothes and his diet?

How do you think that you can simplify your life during Advent?  What is something that you can do without during Advent?

What projects can you do in Advent to help other people who are in need?

Sermon:

  What does a blocker do in football for a running back?  He pushes and shoves tacklers out of the way so the running back can run far with ball.

  What do we use bulldozers and earthmovers for?  We used them to build straight and level roads so we can get places quicker in our cars.

  Today we read about a man named John the Baptist.  And John the Baptist is a person who was like a blocker or like a bulldozer.

  He was like a blocker, in that he pushed aside everything, to prepare a way for Jesus Christ.  He was like a bulldozer in that he was trying to help people come directly to knowledge of God.

  John the Baptist lived a very different life.  He camped out all the time.  He lived out amongst the wild animals all the time.  He probably slept in caves.  He wore a camel hair robe and do you know what he ate:  He ate grasshoppers and honey?

  John came and he wasn’t very popular, because he saw some things that were wrong that needed to be corrected.  And no one likes to be corrected, do we?  When our parents or teachers correct us, it is not always fun.  But why do they correct us?  Because they want us to be better.

  John the Baptist corrected people, because he believed that they could be better.  And he really wanted them to be introduced to Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ was an important gift from God to us.

  Today, when we think about John the Baptist, let us remember that sometimes we need to be corrected so that we can get better. What If we never were corrected, then we could not get better.  It does not always feel good to be corrected, but remember we do want to get better.  And the only way to get better is to have someone show us how.

  Jesus Christ showed us how to be better.  He showed how to love God with all our hearts and how to love our neighbors.  Let us be thankful today for the people that God gives to us to help correct our behavior so that we can become better.  That is what the season of Advent is about: Correcting our behavior so that we can be better.  Amen.

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

December 6, 2020: The Second Sunday of Advent

Gathering Songs:  Light a Candle, Prepare the Way of the Lord;   Jesus Stand Among Us,  Lord, I Lift Your Name on High

Song: Light A Candle   (tune: Jimmy Crack Corn)

Light a candle for hope today, light a candle for hope today, light a candle for hope today.  Advent time is here.  

Light a candle for peace today,…….

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.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Alleluia (chanted)

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

Liturgist:   A reading from the Prophet Isaiah

A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 85

I will listen to what the LORD God is saying, * for he is speaking peace to his faithful people
and to those who turn their hearts to him.

Truly, his salvation is very near to those who fear him, * that his glory may dwell in our land.

Mercy and truth have met together; * righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Liturgist:

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 Mark

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,

"See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: `Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,'"  John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

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. (chanted)

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.

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:   Prepare the Way of the Lord  (Renew! # 92)  Sing four times

Prepare the way of the Lord.  Prepare the way of the Lord,

and all people will see the salvation of our God.                  

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 up 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 can we 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: Jesus Stand Among Us,  (Renew! #17)

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

2-So to You we’re gathering out of each and every land.  Christ the love between us at the

joining of our hand; O, Jesus, we love You, so we gather here, join our hearts in unity and take away our fear.

3-Jesus stand among us, the breaking of the bread, join us as one body as we worship Your, our Head.  O, Jesus, we love You, so we gather here, join our hearts in unity and take away our fear.

 Post-Communion Prayer

Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;

We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.

And His Presence has been known to us.

We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers

    and sisters in Christ.

Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the

     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,

As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Closing Song: Lord, I Lift Your Name on High (Renew!  # 4)

Lord I lift your name on high; Lord, I love to sing your praises.  I’m so glad you’re in my life;

I’m so glad you came to save us.  You came from heaven to earth to show the way,

from earth to the cross my debt to pay.  From the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky;

Lord, I lift your name on high.

Dismissal   

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

People:      Thanks be to God! 

Aphorism of the Day, November 2020

Aphorism of the Day, November 30, 2020

The full time ascetics are people who are called to make a continuous witness to the "fasting impulse" which is needed to remind us that sometimes to interdict a bad habit is to fast from it always in the condition of perpetual sobriety.  John the Baptist is a witness to the fast impulse which is needed to meet the power of coveting desire to enslave into the idolatry of addiction in so many areas of life.  But even fasting can be an addiction when it leads to the pride of "I fast better and more often than you do."  We even need to learn how to "give up things" for the right reason.

Aphorism of the Day, November 29, 2020

There is a saying in rabbinical Judaism that when a person dies, an entire universe dies.  There is something unique about the universe of an individual's experience that is so "snowflake life" that it cannot be replicated or even entered into.  The part of a person above the water line of consciousness is so much smaller than what lies beneath and unknown.  Death is an ending of one, but also the ending of access for the community to ever be able to have dialogue with the deceased.  The apocalyptic is the imagination of the ending of the conscious lives of the entire collectivity of people.  Who has the memory capacity to store and access all of the individual universes which pass from conscious life.  In computer language, one might posit that God, the great One has the memory capacity to store, sort out, and access all of the human experience files of every person.  In our belief in grace, we hope for significant post-life editing our our files for re-presentation in worthiness.

Aphorism of the Day, November 28, 2020

Part of the Advent program is the apocalyptic which makes preachers squeamish to the point of avoiding such topics.  Others don't avoid and jump right into literalism.  The apocalyptic of Scripture is the artistic and imaginative ways in which people of the biblical times dealt with maintaining justice within oppressive conditions and imagined justice outcomes that would bring "after life" corrections.  Such apocalyptic yearnings are universal in all times; the art and the imaginations are different and so are the stories which are generated in different cultures at different times. (Secular America has relegated the apocalyptic to Hollywood; be honest about that).   So, absolutize as inspired the "apocalyptic impulse" which engages imaginations and artistic visualizations, but don't try to overlay historical thinking which involves "empirical verification" on the apocalyptic spiritual artistic imaginations.  One can believe that Bible is inspired (heuristically unique in its time and its canonical modeling for the future) and still have one's feet on the ground in science.

Aphorism of the Day, November 27, 2020

The most realistic way to appropriate the "day of the Lord," is one's own death.  If one adds up all of the death of the past and present and contemplates every death in the future, then one has a collective day of the Lord, or the day when really one's life in one's body finishes and the traces of everything that one has done or said or thought or dreamed contribute to having formed one's character.  One does not want to be judged in a final way on individual occasions and maybe not on the character patterns which have come to dominate one's life.  Perhaps, one wants to be judged on whether one has embraced kindness and has constantly been aware of having needed the kindness of all Others to supplement one's life.

Aphorism of the Day, November 26, 2020

Please don't feel intellectually superior to the ancient people who derived comfort in their oppression from the apocalyptic writings about intervention and justice being meted to make things right.  Our secular culture is more apocalyptic as we have moved it from religion into our entertainment.  We are obsessed with sci-fi and super heroes who really are just surrogates for the Messiah and action adventure heroes who bring justice within a two hour movie, and save the planet while they are at it.  It is artistic to want heroes and justice; the biblical people incorporated such justice into the art of the apocalyptic genre.  Do you feel superior to ancient people because you have modern things and they didn't?  One can exhibit hermeneutic charity to the ancients for not being us, even while we can accept being us who can be poets and people of faith at the same time.

Aphorism of the Day, November 25, 2020

The identity of Jesus as the "Son of Man" is based upon a rather vague reference in the book of Daniel, but more upon the "extra-biblical" writings like 2 Enoch which gave more specifics about this apocalyptic figure.  It is important to know that taking identity with an ideal person means association with the meaning of how such an ideal "final judging Son of Man" embodies justice.  Just as Paul who identified with Christ to the point of saying, "I no longer live, but Christ lives within me," is a poetic spirituality which does not mean that Jesus of Nazareth has now become Paul.  There is much confusion caused by trying to literalize the poetic spirituality of the biblical words.  This is not to diminish the actual physical effects of such identities, since these identities bring about body language behaviors of love and justice and spiritual poetry attains literality when love becomes bodily action.

Aphorism of the Day, November 24, 2020

Remember the first century for people of various parties in Judaism, including the Christo-Judaic party, was a time of living in an occupied land.  How do people whose land is occupied by the rulers and the soldiers of the Empire live?  They live "apocalyptically" and they live with a non-violent passive resistance.  The "apocalyptic" is an art of visualization to give hope that justice will prevail through a "visualized" divine intervention.  The non-violent passive resistance strategy is the martial arts lifestyle of the Beatitudes, helping persons to maintain in situations of constant threat.  It is a shame that we who live in Empire Christianity with social privilege, still have Christians who pretend they need "apocalyptic" intervention when they live in the lap of luxury.  It is a shame that such Empire Christians are actually forcing the poor to live the lifestyle of the Beatitudes because Empire Christians, ironically have become the oppressors, even while assuming they are living the "Beatitudes."

Aphorism of the Day, November 23, 2020

In the beginning of human life as it can be known, is having language.  And reflexively by having language, we can know that we have language and are language users.  And as language users we speculate about language use, one of which involves being in meaningful relationship with other language users.  And we experience awareness of how language structures our existence by noting the portals of our senses to record traces of the outer world into inner memorial traces to be reused and create redundant patterns.  We find the portals of our senses confronted with a river of continuous exterior events and we attempt to stop an unstoppable river with language units like sentences, subject and predicates and periods, paragraph and stories: little stories and big stories.  Biblical big stories are entitled with the impossible: Beginning and End.  How can there be Beginning and End within Pure Continuity?   We cannot speak Pure Continuity in Its Fullness; the big stories help us build identity within "arbitrary" structures.  My birth and death don't seem arbitrary but they do not nullify the Continuity before I was born or after I have died.  Jesus lived within meaningful stories of big endings, like the coming of the Son of Man and the trope of judgment regarding how we practiced of justice.  Such big ending stories were motivational big sticks to enhance the urgency of always attempting the highest practice of justice for all in the NOW.

Aphorism of the Day, November 22, 2020

Christ as King is part of the apparent "unreality" of there also being a kingdom of heaven/God.  The perception of a parallel interpretation of the earthy kingdoms of power, force and politics could be seen as an illusory invention of oppressed people needing to find a way to survive.  Marx was distressed enough by the pervasiveness of religion to call it the "opium" of the people.  Frankly, many religious adherents so live and teach the "irrational foolishness" of the kingdom of heaven by rejecting science, we are left with skeptics denying that people of faith can be poets and scientists at the same time.  The subtle reign of God is hidden in the obvious fact that the survival of the human world necessarily depends upon sacrifice, love, kindness and justice.  Even when tyrants seem to rule,  their buffoonery prances upon the scaffolding of myriads of acts of kindness that have to be done, even to support their aggrandizing delusion that they are the cause of their own "success."  Tyrants live on the "opium" of their own "self cause delusion."

Aphorism of the Day, November 21, 2020

Why would any Christian want the world to end if the work of justice is not yet finished?  Does anyone think that they are going to be guiltless in the neglect of those who need care in our world?  "Well, Judge Jesus, I've just ignored the poor and the stranger most of my life.  I've not been an activists to deal realistically with the wide systemic poverty in the world but I have gone to Mass and gave modest tithe to the church, so Jesus, I'm ready for your judgment?"  Apocalyptic Christians would do better to turn their attention to the here and now and minister to the "Christ" who is hidden in the poor, the prisoner and stranger.  Apocalyptic Christians (those who hope for next day return of Jesus because they see the world as too evil) have given up the Christly ministry of justice.

Aphorism of the Day, November 20, 2020

The trope of God-incognito within the vulnerable of the world is the motivational lure for people to care for the least of these, the "little ones."  Society builds hierarchical preference for the rich, the famous and important people and Jesus said the really important One can be found in the poor, the hungry, the prisoner and the stranger.  

Aphorism of the Day, November 19, 2020

Apocalyptic Christians want to hasten the end of the world and seek the triumphant return of Christ to judge the earth and perhaps they may be a bit too over-confident about how they will fare in the judgment event.  If Christ the judge came now, according to one of his parables, he has hid himself as a suffering servant in the stranger, the prisoner, the poor and the hungry.  The world is full of people in these conditions; the world is full of the presence of the suffering servant Christ who is missed by people who want to find Jesus as their king at the end assuming that he will make them "Lords and Ladies" in his heavenly court.  And the punchline is that if the suffering servant Christ is missed in the lives of people today, then we will not receive a reward for recognizing him when he is "Kingly obvious."  The message: start by ministering to the suffering servant Christ here and now in the stranger, the hungry, poor and prisoner.  Such a one may be nearly omnipresent in the world conditions.

Aphorism of the Day, November 18, 2020

We can interpret the parables of Jesus as only being relevant to an individual at a time and so the individual is responsible for seeing Christ in the poor, the hungry and the prisoner.  Sometimes an individual in our world may not be situated to see many poor, hungry and the imprisoned without a deliberate effort to seek them out, and individuals and churches often do minor "band aid charity" effort in face of such systemic problems.  Our social selves through our state and Federal government also need to respond in systemic ways to find the Christly presence within the poor, the hungry and the imprisoned.  And if one thinks that state and federal policy should not be "Christly," just substitute justice and justice crying out in people who need it is the anonymous Christ.

Aphorism of the Day, November 17, 2020

Did you ever notice how it seems to be in the church, much easier to find the Real Presence of Christ in a small communion host than it is to find the Real Presence of Christ in the lives of the poor?  What kind of logic is in this kind of faith?  Not the logic of justice and love.  Could it be we look for Christ in the bread as a way to avoid finding Christ in the poor?

Aphorism of the Day, November 16, 2020

In the taxonomy of the judging king, the goats are the bad guys and the sheep are the good guys.  How easy it is for us to see such sweeping generalizations as if someone was always already either good or bad.  Could it be that everyone is a sheep or goat depending upon the moment of their actions?  When we do not recognize the identity of the "king" in the socially neglected we manifest the selfish goat behavior and such behavior is cause for the "weeping and gnashing of teeth."  But when we find the revealed "king" incognito in the poor and treat the poor as the presence of the king, then we become the good sheep.  What if all of the "apocalyptic Christians" waiting and hoping for the big entrance of a king who will come and knock heads and affirm that they have been correct in their views; what if such apocalyptic Christians actually accepted the revealing of Christ within the life of the poor and the oppressed and treated them as they would treat a returning triumphant Christ?  If this actually happened, it would mean that the will of heaven was done on earth.

Aphorism of the Day, November 15, 2020

If we freeze frame the parable of Jesus, and look closely and want to present a correspondence for today by saying how would Jesus present a parable today?  We would say that he would not use the demeaning word slave because he would in our time understand how demeaning such a notion is.  When one is "conserving" biblical words, one has to ask what one is conserving, the great principle of love and justice which ever need new applications in time, or the ancient cultural practices.

Aphorism of the Day, November 14, 2020

Nostalgia: freeze framing in one's memory a time that one regresses to when one is stressed out by the present.  Look at the background of the freeze frame: the good ol' days were not so good as to have left much, much unfinished business in the work of love and justice.  Invest in the now and the future with the legacy of the good that you remember from the past.

Aphorism of the Day, November 13, 2020

Finality is like a period at the end of a sentence.  It is punctuation in the words of life which don't and won't stop at a period.  It gives a temporary capsulized meaning insights.  One can go to bed with a sense of finality but it is erased because one wakes up in the morning.  What happened to finality overnight?  Ending, telos, perfection should be seen as meaning milestones in maturation toward the elusive but beckoning ideals of love and justice which can never be finally reached?  Why? Because there is always tomorrow for some more steps toward what the will of heaven of what love and justice looks like in the times on earth.  The man with the one talent buried in the ground resembles persons who think they can "free frame" their favorite states of "being gifted" and they fail to use the "gifted now" occasion as an investment in more gifted occasions of the future.  Believing that one can freeze frame life is the illness of nostalgia, an illusion that anything in life can remain static.  Even the solid rocks of life are changing on levels that we cannot easily see, except when the volcano melts them.

Aphorism of the Day, November 12, 2020

In the parable of the five, two and one talents, the person given one talent buried it in the ground because he feared loss.  Those who received the five and the two talents invested and doubled their talents.  The fearful one wanted to conserve and so didn't invest and so he eventually lost what he had tried to "conserve."  Those who invested, doubled their total and by doing, they "conserved" the original gift total and added to it.   As this relates to time and change, those who try to "freeze frame" the world as it is in a particular time, find out that when they "unfreeze" the frame, the living conditions of the world have passed them by.  Those who were unafraid of investing in the "now," conserved their past by integrating it within the new gains.  They were double winners since they applied the wisdom of the past and used it to make a new, yes and different future.  A good lesson on "fear," faith, and Time and Change.

Aphorism of the Day, November 11, 2020

A way of looking at the parable of the talent might be from the insights of the stewardship of time and how we process change.  The servant who received the one talent and buried it in the ground out of fear of loss, is representative of those who fear time and change and so they resort to the illusion of "staticity."  Everything must remain always, already as it always has been.  Institution which should be constructed for dealing with change, often are constructed only to "conserve" things the way they are.  And meanwhile, slaves need to be freed, women need to be welcomed and encouraged into their full potential, mind, body, spirit, and social, and LBGTQ persons need full inclusion into society and church.  In fear, the talent is buried in the ground to preserve things the way they were.  And others are investing time and change with new and fuller application of love and justice for more people, and eventually the talent of the "fearful conserving one," is taken away and given to those who understood creative freedom and time and the true nature of faith interweaving with Time and change.

Aphorism of the Day, November 10, 2020

One wonders about the exposure of Jesus to first century investment, with the parables of the talents and the shrewd manager.  Growth and time mean that the stuff of life, human stuff, is subject to change as "growth" or as the loss of entropy.  Faith is the attitude of seeing growth as an investment of transformation such that one does more than one ever thought possible even while picking up all of the work of those who let fear bring them into the loss of atrophy.

Aphorism of the Day, November 9, 2020

The parable of the talents is a wisdom story about the truth of outcomes within the conditions of freedom.  It is presented as an "investment" story, but it highlights that in the realm of freedom, people have a different kind of freedom than the other creatures and created things.  We call the freedom of created things or creatures either the process of natural laws or randomness.  The parable highlights that the state of fear can motivate the eventual loss known as atrophy.  Atrophy means something is taken way, and what is taken away has to then be accomplished by others who have been motivated by faith instead of fear.

Aphorism of the Day, November 8, 2020

In the use of language, the "story" has been a unit used to process meaning, and stories have beginnings and endings.  Yet when one tries to force stories upon Time as continuity, the beginning and endings are deconstructed as arbitrary "meaning markers" for interpretive communities.  With Time and continuity, the question of what was before the beginning and what will be after the ending still remains.  Stories are like building two dams in a river, and calling the first dam, the beginning and the second dam, the end.  We can swim in the "meaning lake" created between the two dams as an illusion because the river is still flowing and changing above and below the dams.  Time as the river remains continuous, no matter how many meaningful stories we place upon it with beginnings and endings.

Aphorism of the Day, November 7, 2020

As humanity has evolved, the mythological state within which humanity lived because of having no means of empirical verification has slowly had to yield to modern science as the best form of the statistical approximation for knowing probability outcomes.  Science has not eliminated mystery, the unknown and unknowable stuff, which people still "consult" for meaning in life; however the "truth" status of the mythical vis a vis the scientific has undergone the logical reassessment, meaning that the discursive language of faith has to be assessed as being more like the truth of art rather than the truth of science.  And one can certainly make the case for the complementary truth of art within the "spiritless" machine that science seeks to observe.  "Spiritless" science has often been proven to be bereft of "morality"  because scientific practitioners live within societies say that everything that can be achieved in science, should be pragmatically achieved in societal practice, hence we have bombs to blow up the entire earth.

Aphorism of the Day, November 6, 2020

The kingdom of heaven will be like this.  The Gospels communities seem to play ping pong between it as already happened and is realized by the Holy Spirit as initiating the interior kingdom of Christ and the apocalyptic return of a Christ as a conquering hero.  This is the tension between how the kingdom of God as God's will has been done on earth already and the arc of justice telos being visualized in a persuasive intervening perfect judge.

Aphorism of the Day, November 5, 2020

The kingdom of heaven will be like this.  What is this?  The high point of the arrival of the bridegroom is unknown and life is about being prepared for the unknown events of the future, or in actuarial planning, for the good, the bad and the benign ordinary.  Rather than just be emergency planners attending to our Murphy's Law tendencies (if something bad can happen, it probably will), we also need to plan for the arrival of good events.  People beat up with the bad things in life forget to plan for the good things and miss recognizing them even when such things are "right under their noses."

Aphorism of the Day, November 4, 2020

We should understand science and moral and ethical laws as guidelines on probability.  With science we look at the statistical approximation of what will likely happen?  With moral and ethics, we attempt to deal with how should we act in face of what will likely happen.  So the parable message for the bridesmaids  who ran out oil while sleeping pertains to their failure at both science and behavioral preparation.  Failure to factor in their supply of oil and the uncertainty of the time of arrival of the bridegroom, they were not prepared to fulfill their function at the wedding feast.  Moral and ethics which pertain to best behaviors is related to scientific thinking which is the best of probability thinking.

Aphorism of the Day, November 3, 2020

As "glass half empty" people we can read the bridesmaid parable as being prepared for the fortunate event.  And rather reading it with eyes on the unprepared, we can read it as those who are called to be prepared and ready for the wonderful event.  Or as one once said, "The harder I pray, the luckier, I seem to get."  Meaning, we have to be prepared to actual recognize the good fortunes which are arriving all of the time.

Aphorism of the Day, November 2, 2020

The parable of the bridesmaids seems to be a wisdom parable about being prepared.  Actuarial or statistical wisdom means having the insight to survey the field of probable outcomes or events, and then adjust one response readiness to one's understanding of a hierarchy of probably outcomes.  Be ready for kingdom of heaven events.  Historically and contextually, the understanding of events have changed.

Aphorism of the Day, November 1, 2020

The cloud of witnesses is a belief that the continuing immortality of those beyond the grace also has a corresponding objective immortality for those who continue to live.  In the absolute fact of their having existence, they have left varying traces of their having been here, some that have come to greater general consciousness and some that is very local and personal to specific people who were touched by the holy special people of their lives.  All Saints' and All Souls' are feasts where we proclaim to the departed: You were here and you are here, if only in the mist of the clouds hiding the mystery of how the effects of lives linger for us now in holy hauntings.

Quiz of the Day, November 2020

Quiz of the Day, November 30, 2020

Who introduced Simon Peter to Jesus Christ?

a. John the Baptist

b. his brother Andrew

c. the sons of Zebedee

d. James, the brother of our Lord

Quiz of the Day, November 29, 2020

The Advent wreath originated

a. in a papal bull of Pope Gregory the Great

b. in Celtic Christianity

c. among 16th century Lutherans in Germany

d. because of candle makers in Naples

Quiz of the Day, November 28, 2020

What does the "cleansing of the Temple" refer to?

a. purification procedures for priests

b. the rededication of the Temple during the Maccabees

c. Jesus removing the seller from the Temple

d. the river of life which flows from the altar

Quiz of the Day, November 27, 2020

The exclamatory cry "Hosanna" is associated with what event in the life of Jesus?

a. the Transfiguration

b. the Samaritan woman at the well

c. the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem riding on a donkey

d. the healing of the blind man Bartimaeus

Quiz of the Day, November 26, 2020

In Hebrew Scriptures, who is the wandering Aramean? 

a. Noah

b. Moses

c. Abraham

d. the Messiah

Quiz of the Day, November 25, 2020

Of the following, which man was not a Pharisee?

a. Saul of Tarsus

b. Nicodemus

c. Gamaliel

d. Levi

Quiz of the Day, November 24, 2020

Which prophet wrote about thirty pieces of silver being cast into the Temple treasury and it was used as a correspondence for the thirty pieces of silver bribe of Judas?

a. Isaiah

b. Jeremiah

c. Zechariah

d. Malachi

Quiz of the Day, November 23, 2020

In church tradition in the succession of popes, which number is Clement I?

a. second

b. third

c. fourth

d. fifth

Quiz of the Day, November 22, 2020

Which of the following is not true about the Feast of Christ the King?

a. it originated during the time of the early Church Fathers

b. it began in the 1920's through Pius XI

c. it date has not always been the last Sunday of Pentecost/Ordinary Time

d. it arose a as a response to growing secularization

Quiz of the Day, November 21, 2020

Where can one find reference to the practice of anointing the sick with oil?

a. Romans

b. 1 Corinthians

c. James

d. Hebrews

Quiz of the Day, November 20, 2020

Handel's Oratorio uses the phrase, "for he is like a refiner's fire;" where is this found in Holy Scripture?

a. Isaiah

b. Ezekiel

c. Malachi

d. Amos

Quiz of the Day, November 19, 2020

Which would be the most "literal" meaning of apocalypse?

a. the last great battle of Armageddon

b. the Rapture

c. a Greek word meaning "to uncover" and designated title the last book of the New Testament

d. the end of world

e. the final judgment

Quiz of the Day, November 18, 2020

What was the ultimate result of the Council hosted by Hilda of Whitby?

a. the missionary work to Ireland

b. the establishment of Lindefarne

c. the end of Celtic Christianity

d. the establishment of the Ionian community

Quiz of the Day, November 17, 2020

According to the parable Jesus, when the King returned to judge the people, where did the people find him or miss him?

a. in strangers

b. in poor

c. in hungry

d. in prisoners

e. in the sick

f. all of the above

g. a through d

Quiz of the Day, November 16, 2020

From which prophet did Paul, quote, "the just/righteous shall live by faith?"

a. Joel

b. Amos

c. Obadiah

d. Habakkuk

Quiz of the Day, November 15, 2020

The King James' version of the Bible transliterated the word "mammon;" what does it mean?

a. breast

b. wealth

c. power

d. fame

Quiz of the Day, November 14, 2020

What did the Scottish Church ask of the American Church in exchange for consecrating the first American bishop, Samuel Seabury?

a. Haggis was to be served on Bobby Burns Day

b. the adoption of the Scottish Book of Common Prayer

c. the use of the Scottish prayer of consecration for the Eucharist

d. the addition of St. Andrew's Day on the Calendar of Saints

Quiz of the Day, November 13, 2020

What is one of the myths of the origin of an unlucky Friday, the thirteenth?

a. thirteen steps to Golgotha hill

b. 13th of Nisan, the day of the crucifixion

c. the number plagues in Revelation to reach fulfillment on a Friday

d. Judas as becoming an unlucky 13th after Matthias was elected

Quiz of the Day, November 12, 2020

The parable of the talent is found where in the Bible?

a. Matthew

b. Mark

c. Luke

d. John

e. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, November 11, 2020

Which patron saint of soldiers feast day fall on Veteran's Day?

a. St.Ignatius Loyola

b. St. George

c. St.Martin of Tours

d. St. Michael the Archangel

e. St. Joan of ArcQuiz of the Day, November 10, 2020

What "game bird" was given to the people of Israel to eat in the wilderness?

a. dove

b. pheasant

c. quail

d. duck

Quiz of the Day, November 9, 2020

Which of these women attained the highest role of leadership in Israel?

a. Jezebel

b. Deborah

c. Bathsheba

d. Ruth

Quiz of the Day, November 8, 2020

"Speaking in tongues," is found in which writings in the Bible?

a. Genesis

b. Acts of the Apostle

c. 1 Corinthians

d. Titus

e. all of the above

f. b and c

Quiz of the Day, November 7, 2020

When does Babylon really does not mean Babylon?

a. in the vision of Daniel

b. in the vision of Ezekiel

c. in the vision Zecharish

d. in the vision of John the Divine

Quiz of the Day, November 6, 2020

"When I pray, coincidences happen, when I don't, they don't."  Who said this?

a. Mother Teresa of Calcutta

b. Pope Francis

c. Archbishop William Temple

d. Cardinal John Henry Newman

Quiz of the Day, November 5, 2020

Where in the Bible can one find reference to one hundred pound hailstones?

a. Daniel

b. Ezekiel

c. Revelations

d. Jude

Quiz of the Day, November 4, 2020

Of the following, who is most responsible for establishing the three-legged stool of Anglican authority, as the dynamic between Scripture, Tradition, and Reason?

a. Thomas Cranmer

b. Charles Gore

c. Richard Hooker

d. F.D. Maurice

Quiz of the Day, November 3, 2020

In what biblical book is there found a vision of an angel with sickle who harvests the grapes of the earth to be the grapes of God's wrath?

a. Jude

b. Revelation

c. Daniel

d. Psalms

Quiz of the Day, November 2, 2020

All Souls' Day became uniquely adopted and locally adapted in which of the following countries?

a. Russia

b. Israel

c. Mexico

d. Canada

Quiz of the Day, November 1, 2020

In which of the following books, is Son of God found as a visionary figure of apocalyptic importance?

a. Ecclesiasticus

b. Daniel

c. 2 Esdras

d. 1 Maccabees

Facing Our Day of the Lord

1 Advent Cycle b    November 29, 2020
Is. 64:1-9     Psalm 80:1-7
1 Cor.1:1-9   Mark 13:24-37

Lectionary Link

During the time of Jesus, the native people of Palestine had the long experience of being perpetually occupied.  Such people needed dreams and whispers in their community about hopeful liberating freedom.  The occupations had been for so long that there was much speculation about how a great God would eventually intervene and end the days of occupation.  Without the visual evidence of strong armed resistance to occupation, the underground talk of the community lived on the fumes of dreams.  The politics of the Messiah and the Son of Man was the talk and the whispers, and the entertainment of the oppressed people; it was fueled by writings, some which were in the Hebrew Scriptures and others, "apocalyptic" writings from various sages from wisdom schools of the various eras pre-dating the time of Jesus.

So, Jesus had read the one reference to the "Son of Man" in the book of Daniel, but he surely had read more expansive reflections on the Son of Man in other writings like Second Enoch.

And Jesus identified with the Son of Man, whom he had read about in the various writings about speculation regarding the end of things.

And Jesus said that the generation of people who were with him would witness this end; and of course we know it didn't happen, so how are the words of Jesus true, or wisely meaningful in his own time and in our time?

The literal ending of the world as we know it is what we call death.  What if we add together every death in the past, and every death in the present, and every death in the future into one big collective end, we could spiritually understand the wisdom of the kind of ending Jesus could say would come to all of the people in his time and in every time.

When one dies the sun doesn't shine and the moon has no light and the stars fall from the sky as one loses consciousness of them and everything.  And when one is ushered into the unknown realm of the afterlife, one hopes that the friendly messengers of God, the angels will be our guides to the afterlife.

And we can't quite process the collective death of every human being, past, present and future and so we roll it out into linear time, but we know that continuous life doesn't work that way.  Our science tells us that some kind of life will always go on.

When I die, what I know of heaven and earth dies for me as I experienced them while alive.  But they don't die for everyone else, still living.

The Apocalypse that Jesus was speaking about was about death as the great portal that comes to everyone and when it has collectively come to everyone, it would seem to be the end of the world as we know it.

The people in the time of Jesus live under the threat of death.  Average life expectancy was but thirty something;  you were a revered survivor if you lived to a riper age.  Death defined people; the Roman occupiers could be agents of death and so oppressed people lived under under the certainty of their lives ending.

Every age is attended by the phenomenon of death.  We have had the magnitude of death in the great wars which have defined the life of our country.  We have caused the death of many because we assumed the right to subjugate native peoples and to enslave others, and many to cruel deaths.

And we are living the apocalypse of the pandemic now.  Great death is upon us, death of biblical proportion or statistical magnitude.  More than a quarter of a million people have come to the end of their lives in less than a year because of Covid-19.  Many people are entering into the great collectivity of the end of their worlds.

And the words of Jesus which we read and quote in Advent, is to be ready for the end of one's world as it is known, because death can happen to anyone at anytime.

We could really be depressed by this dose of reality that Jesus gives us; namely, the every present reality of death: The reality  of the end of life as we know it for anyone at anytime.

St. Paul wrote that people were spiritually gifted as they waited for the revealing of the Lord Jesus Christ and that they were strengthened for the end to be blameless for the day of the Lord.

Advent is a time when we reckon with the condition of freedom which in human experience we call death.  Each person's death is the day of the Lord for one person at a time.

During the season of Advent we juxtapose the end of life as we know it, with the impending celebration of the birth of Christ in the Christmas event.  That birth event celebrates the birth of Christ in us who will be our chariot of fire to the next life.

In a way, the season of Advent is learning the discipline of living with the day of the Lord in mind.  It is he discipline of not taking life for granted because we know it will end.  The motivation of pondering the day of the Lord in our lives is to love and cherish life in such a way that we work to bring quality of living to ourselves and to everyone else.

Let us this Advent live into the possibility of a good death, when we will have lost our power to preserve our lives.  Then we will have to commit our afterlife to the preserving work of God and the angels.  To this end, the Advent words of Jesus advise us to, be ready.  Amen.

Devotions for the Lighting of the Advent Wreath