Sunday School, March 7, 2021 3 Lent B

 Sunday School, March 7, 2021    3 Lent B

Theme:

10 Commandments

In our world today, we don’t use instruction manuals.  When we want to put something together or fix something, we just Google it and find a video on Youtube to show us someone giving and showing us specific instruction on how to put things together and how things work.

In the time of the Bible there were no videos.  What did God give to this world to show men and women and boys and girls how to live life in the best way.

God inspired the famous Ten Commandment as an old-fashioned video for how people should live.

Answer these questions:

How can I show God that I love God the most?

What things am I tempted to value more than God?

How can I misuse God’s name wrong?  When do I say I love God and yet I do not act as if I do?

What special time do I give to God to show and prove that I love God?

What do I do to show that I respect my parents?

What do I do to honor the marriage promises of others?

What do I do to show that I respect the value of life?

What do I do to show that I value what is true?

What do I do to show that I respect the property of other people?

What do I do to show that I am thankful and content with my life?

If you answer these question, then you can understand how the 10 Commandments are teaching you how to live your life in the very best way.

Sermon:

  When you get a new car, or new television, or new set a Legos, or a new bike, what do you get with them?

  You get a book or an instruction manual.  This manual tells you how to put something together.  This book tells us how to take care of our car, our bicycle or our toys.  It tells how to treat our car or bicycle or toy to keep it from breaking.

  When a baby is born, do mommy and daddy receive an instruction manual about how to take care of a baby?  Well, yes, we have many books that tell us how to take care of babies.  And we have books to tell us how to take care of young children, teen age children, young adults, middle age people and older people too.

  And there is a very famous instruction manual for how all people should live.  We read it today.  It is called the 10 commandments.  If we want to live a good life, then we will try to follow the 10 commandments.

  If God made us, then we need to make God the most important thing in our lives.  And that means everything else is less important than God.  And how do we make God important in our lives.  We give God time by thinking about God and by praying and by worshipping God when we gather together.  And if we make God important, then we won’t misuse God’s name.  If we make God very important in our lives, then we all also know how to live with each other?

  And how are we to live with each other?  We respect our parents and families.  We respect the importance of everyone’s life.  We respect the things that belong to each other.  We respect marriage.  We tell the truth.  And we learn to be happy and contented with the good things that God has given us.

  Those are the 10 commandments that God has given us.

  And if you can’t remember all 10 commandments, Jesus gave us two commandments that will help us to always know what to do with our lives.

  Jesus said, We should love God, with all of our hearts, our mind and our strength.  And he said that we should love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

  Love God, love our neighbors, and love our selves.  Can you remember that?  If you can remember these three things, you will always know how to live a very good life.  Amen

Intergenerational liturgy with Holy Eucharist

March 7, 2021: Third Sunday in Lent

Gathering Songs:

  Jesus in the Morning; Let All That Is Within Me,  Ubi Caritas; Oh, When the Saints

Opening Song: Jesus in the Morning, (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 134)

1.         Jesus, Jesus, Jesus in the morning, Jesus at the noontime.  Jesus, Jesus, Jesus when the sun goes down.

2.         Love him…

3.         Praise him…

4.         Serve him…

Liturgist: Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins.

People: His mercy endures 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

Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Praise the Lord

O God, you are Great!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have made us! Praise the Lord

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Praise the Lord

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

A Reading from the Book of Exodus

Then God spoke all these words: you shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself an idol, You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Honor your father and your mother, You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet. 

The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 29

The law of the LORD is perfect and revives the soul; * the testimony of the LORD is sure
and gives wisdom to the innocent.

The statutes of the LORD are just and rejoice the heart; * the commandment of the LORD is clear
and gives light to the eyes.

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.

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!" His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me." The Jews then said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews then said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?" But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

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.

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:  Let All That Is within Me,  (Renew! # 262) 

1-Let all that is within me cry, “Holy,” Let all that is within me cry, “Holy.”  Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lamb that was slain.

2-Let all that is within me cry, “Glory,” Let all that is within me cry, “Glory,” Glory, Glory, Glory to the Lamb that was slain.

3-Let all that is within me cry “Jesus,”  Let all that is within me cry, “Jesus,” Jesus, Jesus, Jesus is the Lamb that was slain.

Doxology

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

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

Prologue to the Eucharist.

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

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is the 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.

(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 might love God and our neighbors.

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 by thy name.

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

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:       Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast. 

Word of Administration.

Communion Hymn: Ubi Caritas (Renew! # 226)

Ubi caritas et amor, ubi caritas, Deus ibi est.

(Repeat during communion)

Post-Communion Prayer

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

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

And His Presence has been known to us.

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

    and sisters in Christ.

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

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

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

Closing Song: When the Saints Go Marching in, (Christian Children’s Songbook,  # 248)

Oh when the saints go marching in.  Oh when the saints go marching in.  Lord I want to be in that number.  When the saints go marching in.

Oh when the girls go marching in…

Oh when the boys go marching in..

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Aphorism of the Day, February 2021

Aphorism of the Day, February 28, 2021

Jesus as the suffering servant "Messiah," is derived from Isaiah 53.  And since the Hebrew word for "messiah" is not found in that passage, and yet the Hebrew word for messiah is associated with Cyrus the Great, a foreign dictator, in Isaiah, how is Isaiah 53 a reference to the Messiah?  Rabbinic interpretation of Isaiah 53, equate the suffering servant as a collective for Israel.  One can see that New Testament era interpreters believed that the post-death-on-the-cross manifestations of Christ, gave him the qualities of a "powerful" Messiah, and yet his suffering and death at the hands of the Romans aligned him with the "suffer servant" template found in Isaiah 53.  It also fit with the actual political realities of the time: The Roman Empire was not going to suddenly disappear.  The way to "save" the more kingly and Davidic notion of Jesus as the Messiah, was to proclaim another coming of Christ, in the kingly mode.  Such a return would then be the kind of Messiah for the Jews who didn't accept Jesus as Messiah in his first coming, would do so at his "Second Coming."  One should note the interpretive "finesse" of the New Testament writers.  The New Testament writers presented in various ways a "two track" system of "salvation;" one for the Gentiles and another for the Jews and they involved phases of identifying the "Messiah" and the manifestations of the "Messah."

Aphorism of the Day, February 27, 2021

In reading the Gospel one has to deal with different interpretations of how the "Messiah" would be manifest.  In the political reality of Palestine, the expectation was was for an heroic David-like figure to evict the Romans.  Any "Messiah" should at least restore Israel to be in control of their geographical borders.  The Jesus Movement, in order to make the messianic claim for Jesus, had to center on the figure of the "Suffering Servant" as being the valid manifestation of the Messiah.  This had some political realism about it since the Romans would not be evicted from Palestine.  Jesus as a "Davidic" Messiah was a "failure" in his own day, since he did not free Israel from the Romans.  Jesus as the Suffering Servant Messiah became an interior Risen Christ Holy Spirit force of conversion without the use of military force.  So, Jesus as a Messiah was the "spiritualization" of the Davidic Messiah.  The Risen Christ was seen as one who prevailed over the "interior" principalities and powers, not the very earthly and external Caesar of Rome.

Aphorism of the Day, February 26, 2021

Peter's misunderstanding about the nature of the Messiah represents the divide between the "wishful thinking" in Palestine about an imminent liberating hero and the reality of the Roman Empire.  If the Caesar's representatives are able to put the Messiah to death on the cross, what kind of Messiah can he be?  Not the Zealots Messiah who wanted the Romans evicted from their land.  Jesus as the Messiah made his conquest in the inward lives of people as he reappeared in various ways over and over again through an apparent "transmitted" presence.  The Risen Christ was an interior Messiah and to give the Messiah a "material" credibility, his next return would be as the one who would intervene in the external world.  One of the fallacies is to assume that the interior reality of the Messiah does not have external consequences.  Persons who know an internal Messiah end up changing their bodily habits in their exterior world.  It could be that every appearance of the "Messiah" is an interior arising and not an external intervention from a divine military figure who arrives from the trap door entrance at the top of the sky dome, the "physical" abode of God.

Aphorism of the Day, February 25, 2021

The words of Jesus to his followers: "Take up your cross and follow me."  If this is a "real time" saying of Jesus, would he be implying to all of his followers that they should be prepared daily to carry the instrumental of capital punishment?  It would be very confusing if it were a real-time expression during the actual life time of Jesus.  Can you imagine the disciples looking at each other confused, "Huh, what does that mean?  Are we supposed to prepare for crucifixion to prove to be good followers of Rabbi Jesus."  But what if we understood the Gospels as oracle words of the Risen Christ within the Gospel communities?  In these Gospel communities, the Pauline like "identity with the death and the resurrection of Christ," became poetically descriptive of the spiritual method of transformation.  In the Gospel genre, then one can understand how "taking up one's cross" had become a metaphor and catch phrase for the spiritual practice of taking identity with the death of Christ on the cross.  In this way, the expression "take up one's cross" has literal significance.

Aphorism of the Day, February 24, 2021

Peter, a church hero, is presented by Gospel writers as an example of misunderstanding of how the Messiah would become manifest.  Peter is rebuked by Jesus when Jesus said that the Messiah had to suffer and die. What kind of Davidic Messiah would suffer and die?  If Peter misunderstood the Messiah and came to be corrected in his understanding, then the Gospel readers are encouraged to accept the "suffering servant" model for the Messiah as validly applying to Jesus of Nazareth.

Aphorism of the Day, February 23, 2021

The "living sacrifice' and "being crucified with Christ" identity spirituality of Paul becomes the die to self and take up one's cross in the Gospel narrative of Jesus and his oracular words within the Gospel "Christ communities."

Aphorism of the Day, February 22, 2021

By the time the Gospels were written, the oracles of Jesus in the Jesus narratives were presented to place the death and rising identity with Christ metaphor of Paul within the "logia" of Jesus.  When Jesus is presented as saying you must lose your life to save it, the words don't refer to physical/biological life, but the process of the continual renewal of "soul life" or pseuche life.  Identity with the death and resurrection of Christ was seen as dying to the "old mind" and being "renewed" in one's mind.  This is also a metaphor for transformative education.

Aphorism of the Day, February 21, 2021

One could say that the entire human situation is a constant test.  Living is the test of dealing with the harmonies and disharmonies of the experience of freedom.  Some harmonies and disharmonies just "happen" to us.  Others involve us being in the orchestra of life and having lyrical choices to make in our practice and being predisposed toward either the resulting disharmony or harmony in musical outcomes.  And how do we "harmonize" the unwanted disharmonies which come to us unawares and integrate such unwanted events into faithful living without special exemption from what may happen to anyone?

Aphorism of the Day, February 20, 2021

The writer of 1 Peter presents Jesus during his three day of "grave time," as an evangelist to the spirits of the departed.  This belies a belief in the endless work of reconciliation which in on-going.  When do we get over wanting eternal punishment for people we perceive to be the worst?  Why would they get a second chance even as we declare that their evil is a sign of deep mental disorder?  God as reconciling love is never finished in the task of persuading, "don't you think love would have been better, and don't you think that love is the way that one heals toward the future?"

Aphorism of the Day, February 19, 2021

"Save us from the time of trial," or "Lead us not into temptation?"  The Greek word is translated as temptation and trial.  A temptation involves the volitional factor in impulse control and delaying gratification so that things can be done at the right time and in the right way for the right purpose, i.e. according to the "law."  Trial implies things which happen to a person which are out of the person's control and thus threatens how a person might continue in a faithful relationship with God, or be so crushed by the trial and so blaming of God's permissive will as to be disillusioned about a God who wouldn't exempt one from such a severe trial.  There is quite a difference in translating a word as "temptation" or "trial."

Aphorism of the Day, February 18, 2021

Jesus is referred to as the "second Adam," or the one whom God started over again with to build a different kind of family, a spiritual one, not a flesh and blood one.  The second Adam had to be a hero against the tempter to be contrasted with the failure of the first Adam against the tempter.  The temptation of Jesus is presented to show how second Adam succeeded where first Adam failed.  The presentation of the temptation of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark does not go into the details of the event, but represents Jesus as the one who was "tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin."  Reading the Bible involves understanding the symbolic presentation and then dealing with the distance of modern life from the symbolic structures of ancient time.  The making of Scriptures relevant to our time involves finding correspondences for the universal patterns embedded in language.  Temptation or the mistiming between desire and action is relevant in our time since delaying gratification and impulse control are features of person in community in any age or time within any symbolic structure.

Aphorism of the Day, February 17, 2021

An ordained thumb redrew the cross of ashes on my canvas forehead again.  An ordained thumb once drew a branding cross there in invisible chrism stating that I was sealed by God's Spirit and belonged to Christ.  I belong to Christ even as my body belongs to the earth.  Perhaps God will use my best tiny ash to clone a future version of my best self in continuing the path of self-surpassability.   Imagine that on Ash Wednesday as we cherish our lives in our bodies.

Aphorism of the Day, February 16, 2021

Interesting to note in "Catholic" areas how Mardi Gras became excessive days of bacchanalia, gluttony, glitz, glitter, parades and the removal of public inhibitions regarding all sorts of behaviors.  New Orleans Mardi Gras and the Carnivale of Rio are two prime examples.  Whereas those "drab puritanical Protestants"  eschew such shameless display of excess.  In social systems of control, the notorious and very creative sinners were perhaps kept under control through the rite of private confession.  The confessor and absolver on behalf of God was something of a referee who sent members to the "sin bin" with assigned penance.  One can get the impression from the Prodigal Son tradition of the New Testament that God prefers really excessive sinners who convert excessive sin to excessive deeds of goodness, over the boring older brother of the Prodigal Son who just followed the rules.  Are excessive social public events like Mardi Gras pressure valve release mechanisms for desire?  How does the pressure get released when the rules of suppression are in place?  Things can remain hidden and secret as in the statistic that online pornography is more widespread in "Bible Belt" states, where biblical values of suppression are supposed to reign.   Do Protestants and Catholics have different traditions of social sublimation of desire and its misdirection and their systems for the taming of it?  Interesting to ponder on Mardi Gras.

Aphorism of the Day, February 15, 2021

The ashes of Ash Wednesday symbolize the biblical metaphor for the human body.  In the creation story God creates the human body from the dust of the earth.  And if a dead body is left in the ground long enough, it will become one with the dirt again.  The ashes of Ash Wednesday represents the bookends of the life of the body.  In the Ash Wednesday imposition of ashes, with imagination we "fast-forward" the life of the body to its ashen phase.  Is this a macabre fascination with death?  Is this an attempted inoculation from death?  Or is it a reminder that bodily life in time is short and therefore we should make the most of life in our bodies, for individual good and for community good, because bodily life is good and precious.

Aphorism of the Day, February 14, 2021

The appearance of Elijah and Moses at the Transfiguration event was apocalyptically significant.  They both figured in the apocalyptic writings available during the time of Jesus.  They both had unique "departures" from the world; Moses died unwitnessed and was "buried by God" and Elijah was assumed into heaven on the chariot of fire.  So they were "apocalyptic" time-travelers who could "reappear" as they did at the Transfiguration to affirm the significance of Jesus Christ as one is special continuity with the Law and the Prophets.

Aphorism of the Day, February 13, 2021

The short life cycles of a butterfly means that the phases are visible and easily recognizable.  The traversing of phases is the process of metamorphosis.  Human metamorphosis would be the span of human life from conception to death, and there are physical age markers and social "rites of passage" to distinguish human phases.  But there can be metamorphoses within the Life Metamorphosis of a person.  There can be explicate recurring cycles of intellectual, emotional and spiritual events in what we call growth process.  Living a "transfigured" life is accepting that Spirit-life is impelling one through cycles of progressive spiritual insights which have ramifications for social, mental and physical life as well.

Aphorism of the Day, February 12, 2021

Metamorphosis refers to repeating cycles of life and the phases of the cycles have limited duration in the cycle of the life of a butterfly.  How do we transfer the notion of metamorphosis to the life of a human being who lives 70 plus years?  There is a limited "vocabulary" of human experiences and a repetition in time of experiences.  In the transfiguration-metamorphosis phase of the Shining Jesus on the Mountain, one can find the Gospel writer implying a Shining Divine Spiritual Energy which flowed in the life of Jesus through the phases of his life.  The transfiguration was like the "resurrection" which was different and later in the life cycle of Jesus.  Spiritual life can be seen as life cycles between mountain top experiences, or phases of enlightenment which subsequently get tested as we make the effort in the valley to continue to live up to the highest ideals and insights of our lives received in the clarity of sublime moments.

Aphorism of the Day, February 11, 2021

The Transfiguration event happened on a mountain.  A mountain is a metaphor for "being high" or elated with the experience of a theophany that one confesses to be divine and sublime.  Transfiguration means "metamorphosis" and it includes events of the same as well as designating the continual process.  Spiritual metamorphosis is a rising spiral of phases of metamorphosis, and when we return in spiritual experience to another "mountain top" experience, we are given a vision to live up to while we transverse seeming less exciting phases of being spiritual eggs, larva, caterpillars and cocoon.  On a spiritual spiral, we return to butterfly and and mountain top phases.  Embrace the mountain, even while you can't live there as metamorphosis assumes all of the phases of spiritual transformation.

Aphorism of the Day, February 10, 2021

Why might an extremely elated person say, "I'm high as a kite?"  Elevation is used as a metaphor for interior experiences which might be characterized as "sublime." In biblical geography, mountains are the highest place between flat earth and heaven and mountains are metaphors for the meeting of heaven and earth.  The theophanies recounted in the Bible took place on mountains.  Theophanies are more likely interior events in people and to explain them they need the exterior mountain to express the height symbolizing the closeness to God in heaven of the theophany.  The Transfiguration has all of the elements of the spiritual geography of biblical theophanies.

Aphorism of the Day, February 9, 2021

The Gospels are narratives of Jesus used for the purpose of connecting the practices in the early Jesus Movement and churches to the life of Jesus.  One of the narrative methods is to present Jesus in events which correspond to the heroes of Hebrew Scriptures as a way of indicating connection with them even while being a new representation of what God was doing in a new way and new time.

Aphorism of the Day, February 8, 2021

The presentation of Jesus is laden with the templates from Hebrew Scriptures.  One cannot miss the comparison of Mt. Sinai and the Mount of the Transfiguration.  The use of comparison in the presentation of Jesus is obvious in the appeals that were being made to people who would have the background in Hebrew Scriptures to understand the comparison.  The Christian religion has made the reading of the Hebrew Scriptures equal to reading the New Testament because the persons who "voted" on the canon of Scriptures self-consciously wanted to keep the derivation of the church from the synagogue identity.  In church history, those who were less committed to the Hebrew Scripture moorings of the Jesus Movement, came to be called "heretics," and their Gospels became to be call apocryphal or "Gnostic" in their diminished status.

Aphorism of the Day, February 7, 2021

"I have become all things to all people that I by all means might save some."  This phrase of evangelical empathy of St. Paul also describes what Paul thought about Jesus.  He believe Jesus to be the ultimate expression of God's empathy with humanity.  Jesus was emptied of "God likeness to take on human likeness."  He was "made to be sin so that we might be made the righteousness of God."  By dying, Jesus represented God entering the low point of human experience, death itself.  So Paul could have written, "In Christ, God became all things to humanity so that God by all means might save all."  The poetic Paul also wrote that Christ was, "all and in all."  Think of Jesus as Divine empathy for humanity.

Aphorism of the Day, February 6, 2021

"I have become all things to all people..."  This is the Pauline phrase which enshrines the gift of empathy.  Can we with imaginative hearts and attending words and actions cross the great divides between us and others?  We cannot literally walk in someone else's shoes, but we can acknowledge that we share enough common humanity with others to acknowledge the validity of the life experience of others and from there one can look for bridges to connect one's world with the worlds of others.

Aphorism of the Day, February 5, 2021

When Christianity is reduced to "individualism" as one person being isolated in transacting with God in Christ for one's salvation, it has led to a disengagement from the social sins, things done in our name, for which "I" as an individual has transacted with God and so "I" am not responsible.  Salvation as practiced by Jesus of Nazareth was also social health.  He told a very rich man to sell all he had and give to the poor for this man's "salvation" or health.  The man was very disappointed because he did not see his personal spiritual health as being associated with the health of the persons in his world.  Extreme individual "salvation" has reigned in our country for a long time and in practice we can live as though everyone is completely "individually" responsible for all of the conditions of their lives.  It is easy for individuals living in a context of social privilege to assume that being "born on third base" means that they  have "individually" hit triples.  And those same people can blame poor people for their condition of "not even being invited to the ballgame."  For Jesus of Nazareth, Individual and social health/salvation were not divided.

Aphorism of the Day, February 4, 2021

Paul's evangelism was described as "I have become all things to all people so that I might by all means save them."  This could be regarded as a shady sales technique or a political method of gaining votes, or it could be the results of having an unshaken self-esteem established in knowing God's love, that one does not have to sharp edges to one's ego to prove oneself as important to others.  If God's love melts the edges of our egos and softens them to receive and make room for other people, them we have the freedom to meet people where they are in their life identities.  To save people means that you are an important placebo for them to experience a fuller more holistic health.

Aphorism of the Day, February 3, 2021

If the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it has taught us that health is social in nature.  If we don't choose as a people to "be well" together, the result can lead to the disaster of the number of deaths beyond our imagination.  Health for Jesus of Nazareth was social and relational even while modern day "faith healers" like to reduce Jesus to a "cure zapper."  Health care for Jesus meant restoring people in their relationship to God and with their primary communities.  If we reduce Jesus to a "cure zapper," why not make him a "death zapper" and have it so we don't have to die?  While we live in our bodies health is never final or finished and even though we can know the joy of recovering from various states of disease, we know that we only recover before we will eventually die.  The eternal life of the Spirit is the "death cure" promised in our faith in the resurrected Christ and it is good to know that the overall health of Christ embraces every human condition in this life and the next.

Aphorism of the Day, February 2, 2021

Salvation and healing go together for Jesus.  The origin for Gospel as good news derives from the Isaiah words about the one who could heal, relieve oppression and set the prisoner free.  To reduce salvation to "fire insurance" at the end of one's life is to trivialize the fullness of health implied in the words and deeds of Jesus who was the healer for the whole person within society.

Aphorism of the Day, February 1, 2021

The notion of Shalom Peace, is a very holistic notion comprising personal and community harmony.  The notion of salvation is holistic in the Gospel too.  Certain presentations of salvation seem to reduce it to being "saved" from hell after one has died.  Salvation is illustrated in the Gospel stories in the healing stories of Jesus which often are coupled with the expulsion of the inner unworthy forces within a person, called demons or unclean spirits.  Anyone who has been ill or sick with a variety of maladies knows the singular blessing of coming back to the condition of better health.  Too often Jesus is seen as "cure zapper" and a "demon zapper" and we fail to understand that the Gospel writers illustrate salvation as coming to holistic health in manifold ways.  The stories of healing or coming to health or salvation time-lapse the role of Jesus as Savior into these seeming singular events of "cure zaps and demon zaps", when they programmatically illustrate to the early churches the continuous reality of the saving presence of the Risen Christ.

Quiz of the Day, February 2021

Quiz of the Day, February 28, 2021

Of the following, who received the word of God put "in his mouth?"

a. the Psalmist

b. Moses

c. Jeremiah

d. Hosea

Quiz of the Day, February 27, 2021

What liturgical "vestment" derives from the command to bind the law of God upon one's forehead?

a. miter

b. phylacteries

c. zucchetto

d. humeral veil

e. yarmulke

Quiz of the Day, February 26, 2021

Who said, "He must increase, but I must decrease?'

a. Paul

b. Nathaniel

c. John the Baptist

d. Mary of Bethany

Quiz of the Day, February 25, 2021

What is another name for Mount Sinai?

a. Tabor

b. Nebo

c. Horeb

d. Negev

Quiz of the Day, February 24, 2021

The use of the Greek, "antiChristos" or anti-Christ is found in which biblical writings?

a. Revelations

b. Johannine Epistles

c. Matthew

d. Jude

Quiz of the Day, February 23, 2021

Of the following, who was a follower of the Apostle John?

a. Montanus

b. Tertullian

c. Clement of Rome

d. Polycarp

Quiz of the Day, February 22, 2021

Jesus, not born into a priestly family, is referred to as our "Great High Priest" in which biblical writing?

a. Psalms

b. Genesis

c. Hebrews

d. Acts of the Apostle

e. Jude

Quiz of the Day, February 21, 2021

Forty in biblical numerology is symbolic of test, ordeal or trial; which of the following did not involve the number forty?

a. the temptation of Jesus

b. Moses' stay on Mt. Sinai

c. the years of tribulation promised in Revelation

d. the days of rain in the Flood

e. the years Israel wandered in the wilderness

Quiz of the Day, February 20, 2021

Who asked rhetorically, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?"

a. Saul of Tarsus

b. Philip

c. Nathaniel

d. King Herod

Quiz of the Day, February 19, 2021

Who called Jesus the "Lamb of God?"

a. Mary of Bethany

b. John the Baptist

c. John, son of Zebedee

d. Levi

Quiz of the Day, February 18, 2021

The Greek word for bishop, "episkopos" is found in which New Testament writings?

a. Acts of the Apostles

b. Matthew

c. 1 Corinthians

d. Titus

e. b and c

f.  a and d

Quiz of the Day, February 17, 2021

Jonah was told to go and preach in what city?

a. Tarshish

b. Jericho

c. Damascus

d. Ninevah

Quiz of the Day, February 16, 2021

What does shrove mean?

a. refers to pancakes to end season of the Epiphany

b. English form of Mardi Gras

c. to make confession and receive absolution in preparation for Lent

d. past tense of shrive, meaning to tear apart

Quiz of the Day, February 15, 2021

John's Gospel refers to Christ as the Word who created everything using which Greek word?

a. logos

b. rhema

c. lexi

d. eidese

Quiz of the Day, February 14, 2021

Where are the 10 Commandments found in the Bible?

a. Matthew

b. Exodus

c. Romans

d. Genesis

e. Deuteronomy

f.  a and b

g. d and e

h. b and e

Quiz of the Day, February 13, 2021

Which of the following is not true about Bartimaeus?

a. he was the son of Timaeus

b. he lived in Bethany

c. he was blind

d. he was a beggar

e. he was healed by Jesus

Quiz of the Day, February 12, 2021

Which of the following is not true about the Rev. Absalom Jones?

a. he was the first African-American Episcopal priest

b. he founded St. Thomas parish in Philadelphia

c. he petitioned for the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793

d. he was co-founder with Richard Allen of the AME

Quiz of the Day, February 11, 2021

According to the words of Jesus, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of an needle than for whom to enter the kingdom of God?

a. Pharisees

b. Sadducees

c. chief priests and scribes

d. publicans

e. sinners

f.  rich people

Quiz of the Day, February 10, 2021

St. Scholastica was the sister of whom?

a. St. Bernard

b. Thomas Aquinas

c. St. Francis

d. St. Benedict

Quiz of the Day, February 9, 2021

From the Gospel presentation of the words of Jesus, who is Jesus not an open advocate for?

a. children

b. poor

c. persecute

d. wealthy

e. sick and quarantined

Quiz of the Day, February 8, 2021

Which Gospel does not not include an account of the Transfiguration?

a. Matthew

b. Mark

c. Luke

d. John

Quiz of the Day, February 7, 2021

Which disciple's mother-in-law was healed by Jesus?

a. Andrew

b. Simon

c. James

d. John

e. Philip

Quiz of the Day, February 6, 2021

Of the following gods, which is not mentioned in the Bible?

a. Zeus

b. Hermes

c. Baal

d. Molech

e. Osiris

Quiz of the Day, February 5, 2021

The fruits of the Spirit are listed in which epistle?

a. Romans

b. Colossians

c. Galatians

d. 1 Corinthians

e. Philippians

Quiz of the Day, February 4, 2021

Who is considered the first Gentile convert to the Gospel?

a. Barnabas

b. Cornelius the Centurion

c. Simon the Tanner

d. Lydia

Quiz of the Day, February 3, 2021

Whom of the following was not a child or spouse of Abraham?

a. Eliezer

b. Sarah

c. Ishmael

d. Isaac

e. Hagar

Quiz of the Day, February 2, 2021

Which of the following is not true regarding the Feast of the Presentation?

a. it accrued the Candlemas blessing of candles tradition

b. is the naming and circumcision of Jesus even

c. it was the occasion for the canticle nunc dimittis

d. the meaning derives from the Passover events

Quiz of the Day, February 1, 2021

Where is it written that those who wait upon the Lord will mount up on wings like an eagle?

a. Psalms

b. Revelation

c. Proverbs

d. Isaiah 

Being a Bridge to a Better Future

2 Lent B      February 25, 2018
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 Psalm 22:22-30
Romans 4:13-25  Mark 8:31-38
Lectionary Link

I would like to organize my words today around some verses from the appointed Psalm of the day: "My soul shall live for him; my descendants shall serve him; they shall be known as the Lord's for ever.  They shall come and make known to a people yet unborn the saving deeds that he has done.

How would I characterize this words of poetry from the Psalms?  I would say that they are "forward looking."  They express a hope for the future of people yet unborn, that these people will know and understand the saving deeds of God in the past.

This means that the present as a bridge between the past and the not yet future.  If we are the bridge between the past the future, what kind of traffic do we want to allow on this bridge?

According to Psalmist, what needs to be transported into the future are the saving deeds of God.  What this means is that we are to bring the very best of the past as the model for a better future.

I think that the Apostle Paul and the Gospel communities believed that bridge of Judaism of their day was not bringing the salvation of God to enough people.

St. Paul and the followers of Jesus came to understand that Jesus of Nazareth was the bridge person to bring the glad tiding of God from the ancient past to the future in the a fuller and more complete way.

St. Paul believed that Jesus was the bridge to the future of belief in the One God among the Gentile peoples of the world.

And St. Paul made reference to how the saving deeds of God came to Abraham, this pre-Israelite figure who had a covenant with God, and how Abraham understood that God was going to make him the father of a great number of people.  Yes, this included his great-grand children, the sons of Jacob who became the patriarchs for the tribes of Israel; but Paul understood that Abraham was the father of faith for people who were not Israelites.  He believe that God's saving deeds could be known by God-fearing people who lived by faith, even without the benefits of the traditions of the Israelites.

St. Paul and the followers of Jesus understood Jesus to be a bridge from Abraham to the Gentile people.  Jesus was the bridge to bring the message of salvation to a much wider audience than was happening in the Judaism of his time.   And the early church understood that Jesus qualified to be the Messiah.

To confess Jesus as the Messiah required a change in thinking about the life and ministry of much speculated about figure of the  Messiah.  It also involved being real about the political realities of the first century.

Was the Messiah going to be like David, a king hero, who with military prowess would be able to re-establish the borders of Israel for God's people?  Would such a Messiah re-gather all of the Jews who lived outside of Israel in the Diaspora?  Was it realistic to think that this kind of Messiah would appear?

The reason Jesus rebuked Peter is that even though Peter confessed Jesus to be the Messiah, he did not understand what kind of Messiah Jesus would be.  Peter, in his ignorance, represented everyone who did not understand what kind of Messiah that Jesus was.

Jesus was a Suffering servant Messiah.  He was going to suffer, die, but then manifest the Messianic power by coming back to life in the world and inhabit the interior lives of everyone in the world who wanted to know this inner conquest by a Holy Spirit power.

This is how Jesus would be the bridge from Abraham to the nations with a Gospel of grace, faith and mercy to all.  This was the message God's saving deeds to people yet unborn being fulfilled.

Jesus would be the Messiah manifested as an inward Risen Christ, available to all people in the world.  And how did this happen?

It was happening through the mystical program of coming into an identity with the Risen Christ. It was understanding the death and resurrection of Christ as a directed higher power to die to one selfish tendencies and allow a new life of love to be so profound that one would form the practice of a new community. And this new community was a community of welcome for everyone.

The catch phrases of the Jesus Movement for the continual renewal of one's life, were to "take up one's cross," and "to lose one's life," that is one's soul life to find renewed mind and spirit.

Jesus was the way in which the faith of Abraham became the faith and salvation of the yet unborn people of the future. You and I today, remain as a bridge to the future. We want to leave a better place to the people yet unborn. We want people of the future to know that we cared for this world and that we did our part to leave a witness to the love and justice which befits the life of Jesus Christ.

Let us today accept our role as being bridge people to a better future as we bring the very best practice of the love and justice of Jesus Christ into the future. Amen.