Sunday School, December 5, 2021 2 Advent C

 Sunday School, December 5, 2021   2 Advent C

Topic: The Role of John the Baptist

Why is John the Baptist important in Gospels?   There is much information about John the Baptist in the Gospel.  That must mean he was important.

John the Baptist was a popular preacher and prophet.  There were many people who followed him.  There was something like a “John the Baptist Church.”  But John the Baptist died; he was killed by King Herod.  His friends and the members of his community were sad.  What would they do?  John the Baptist baptized Jesus and Jesus became the leader for those who used to follow John the Baptist.

When you are in first grade and really like your first grade teacher, you want to keep your first grade teacher forever.  But when you go to second grade, you have another teacher and at first that might make you sad.  You might miss your first grade teacher.  But as you learn new things from your new teacher you learn that you can like more than one teacher.  You learn that you can graduate to a new teacher.

John the Baptist was the first teacher of many of the people who later graduated and became students of Jesus Christ.  During Advent, we always read about how John the Baptist was the first important teacher for many of the followers of Jesus. 

During Advent, we learn about how important John the Baptist was because his community became the first churches of Jesus Christ.

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 of the time.  He lived out amongst the wild animals all of 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 a 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 5, 2021: The Second Sunday of Advent

Gathering Songs: Light a Candle; He’s Got the Whole World; This Little Light; Jesus Stand Among Us; Lord I Lift Your Name on High

Lighting of the Advent Candle:   Light a Candle

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 for ever.  Amen.

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

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

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

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Song: He’s Got the Whole World (Christian Children’s Songbook # 90)

He’s got the whole world; in his hands he’s got the whole wide world in his hands.  He’s got the whole world in his hands; he’s got the whole world in his hands.

Little tiny babies. 

Brother and the sisters  

Mothers and the fathers

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Litany Phrase: 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

A reading from the First Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians

Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Canticle 16

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; * he has come to his people and set them free.

He has raised up for us a mighty savior, * born of the house of his servant David.

Through his holy prophets he promised of old, that he would save us from our enemies, *  from the hands of all who hate us.

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 Luke

People: Glory to you, Lord Christ.

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People: Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon:  Fr. 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.

Song: This Little Light of Mine (Christian Children’s Songbook # 234)

This little light of mine.  I am going to let it shine.  This little light of mine, I am going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Hide it under a bushel, no.  I am going to let it shine.  Hide it under a bushel, no.  I am going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Don’t let anyone blow it out; I’m going to let it shine.  Don’t let anyone blow it out, I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Shine all over my neighborhood, I’m going to let it shine.  Shine all over my neighborhood, I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

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 birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.  Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we forever sing this hymn of praise:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might.  Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

All may gather around the altar

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

You have made us in your image

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

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

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

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

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

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

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

The Prayer continues with these words

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Bless and sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbor.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.

Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ.  May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory

 is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. Amen.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,

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

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

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

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

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

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

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Breaking of the Bread

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

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Jesus Stand Among Us, Renew! #17

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.

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.

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 the   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 2021

Aphorism of the Day, November 30, 2021

In the Lucan communities, the parables about the special birth of John the Baptist were important.  And this probably is based upon a specific appeal for members of John's community to make the transition to become members of the Jesus Movement.  So, John the Baptist is presented as one who was a crucial link in the succession of the Gospel, a threshold person between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant of the Holy Spirit.

Aphorism of the Day, November 29, 2021

Personal identification is metaphorical without being actual.  John the Baptist was seen to be the one who prepared way as found in the writings of Isaiah.  He was identified as a return of Elijah by Jesus.  We define current greatest with the greatness in our past in other to relate significance.  The Jesus Movement writers and preachers believed that John the Baptist had an important succession role in how the Gospel of Christ came about.

Aphorism of the Day, November 28, 2021

There is something unreal about the Garden of Eden and an Advent of Christ because such U-topias (no such places) imply the loss of the possibility and the field of probabilities of what happens in freedom and time.  True freedom is the basis of non-robotic, non-innocent moral maturity.  In our lives we hold together the state of innocence when naivete makes one unaware of good and evil, and the mature state of holiness, when genuine moral choices for goodness and justice have become the character and practice of one's life.  Between innocence and holiness or accepting complete failure at holiness is where we find ourselves.  Rather than wish away the human condition, let us exercise our moral muscles in a path toward the characteristics of holiness during this Advent season.

Aphorism of the Day, November 27, 2021

The last are always the first, first in having the latest say on how to interpret the past.  In time, it is wiser to say the "latest" rather than the last, because in humility one should acknowledge that there will always be people "later" than ourselves.  And they will have the power to remake the story of us in ways which would not be possible without future outcomes to "rewrite" our significance.

Aphorism of the Day, November 26, 2021

What happens with the proliferation of texts and the growth of world knowledge?  The "classics" like the Bible suddenly are placed within a larger linguistic universe and like a sugar cube in the ocean whose sweetness get dissipated and spread thin, the word-flavoring of the classics suffer.  The loss of their influence is partially due to fact that some of their expositors do not do the work of hermeneutics to translate how the universals embedded in the ancient contexts have corresponding insights today.

Aphorism of the Day, November 25, 2021

It is good to experience thanksgiving within whatever circumstance that one finds oneself; it is better to be tending with love and care and distributive power to be able to increase the reasons for those without much to be thankful.  Let us honor thanksgiving by activating our distributive powers so that all might have enough.

Aphorism of the Day, November 24, 2021

On the Eve of Thanksgiving, it might be good to ponder thanksgiving in the way in which Jesus regarded the notion of neighbor in the Good Samaritan parable.  To those who were worried about "which neighbors" the law required one to love, Jesus made neighbor into a "verb."  The Good Samaritan was one who said, "I neighbor anyone in need."  No selfish passive notion of neighbor was allowed.  It is one thing to to be thankful, but the Christ-issue, is are we mobilized to create the conditions for those who need what we have to offer so that they can be thankful?  Thanksgiving should not be just a sense of feeling blessed for all that we "have;" in the Christ-mode, it is working to give those who don't have a reason to be thankful.

Aphorism of the Day, November 23, 2021

Reading the Bible by some involves genre confusion.  If one reads a story as an eye-witness account when it is really parable, then there is genre confusion.  Persons who try to make the words of biblical cosmology into scientific explanation get their genres confused.

Aphorism of the Day, November 22, 2021

What post-structuralism revealed is that in time, synchronicity is an impossibility because time does not stop to reveal a stable synchronicity.  In language, we use words to name and such names seem to imply a "stability" to things, yet all things are always, already changing creating difference across time and space.  Stability is the illusion which language creates but language itself is unstable because by and through language, we reflect upon language itself and all of its products in trying to record what language users have come to say that they are experiencing.

Aphorism of the Day, November 21, 2021

What does one do when an ancient metaphor has lost valid currency, like the notion of a "king" in the world of democracy?  With Christ as the King, one has to use analogical imagination to propose a perfect "king" with an omni-competence that no earthly king can have.  Christ the King is then seen as the ultimate in human omni-competence, particular as it pertains to wielding power.  The power of Christ the King is the force which is used for love and justice.  This is how the very earthy notion of "kingship" is rehabilitated, even though the metaphor would still lack the notion of the omni-competent feminine.

Aphorism of the Day, November 20, 2021

We cannot avoid in theism, the notion of God as pure Freedom being the greatest juxtaposition of Power and Weakness combining in the Divine. Great divine Freedom is the power to share degrees of freedom with everyone and everything that is not the greatest and in so doing becoming "sacrificially" weak to guarantee genuine moral integrity for secondary agents, meaning that our free will really means something and contributes to total expanding outcomes.  The Greek word kenosis, meaning emptying of divinity into Jesus, even the dead Jesus, is iconic of God's weakness in submitting to the relative freedom of secondary agents.

Aphorism of the Day, November 19, 2021

Freedom seems to inconsistent with the notion of perfect harmony since in the conditions of freedom and in time there will always be competing egos and systems.  It might have to be concluded that there is Great Freedom for everything that can and does happen and lesser freedom required for moral significant among the hierarchy of secondary agents who/which only have the freedom relevant to their capacity.

Aphorism of the Day, November 18, 2021

Christ as King who has power is seen mainly in the power of restraint and not selectively intervene within an expansive realm where degrees of freedom consistent with capabilities of lesser beings is honored by the power of restraint.  Why the power of restraint?  To make spiritual and moral freedom real and significant for all "secondary" agents who live and move and have being within the plenitude of God.  Christ as eternal Word means that Christ is always already the conditions of knowing existence for any language user.  That is the strong "passive" intervention of Christ the King.

Aphorism of the Day, November 17, 2021

We proclaim Christ as King, as our hope that there is one Being who is perfect in power, meaning having absolute power does not corrupt such a being absolutely.  The irony of being perfect in power means the power to restrain one's own power and not violate the freedom which is so necessary to authentic moral and spiritual integrity.  We probably cannot be perfect in power in our world of freedom because we often have to use power to intervene against power used to abuse and oppress.  We who are not perfect have to see sides of ourselves that we wish we didn't have to see in the situations of the seeming oxymoron of a "just war, or just defense."  It may not seem fair for the divine to be seemingly aloof from negative side of probable outcomes in the free conditions which define an infinite number of beings, things, and occasions, all in infinite numbers of free causal mutual relationships.

Aphorism of the Day, November 16, 2021

The notion of a "king" /monarchies lost relevance for modern liberal governments because of the observation that "absolute power, corrupts absolutely."  The succession of leadership in a monarchy has little to do with merit or appeal to the will of the populace.  Modern monarchies tend to be romanticized nostalgia and used for totemic iconic identity of a people and for tourism, when they are not out and out dictatorships.  In America, we romanticized monarchies to show up in the Disney kingdoms.  The Messiah notions and Christ the King were also spiritual romanticism in that they never have been actual in human history.  Notions of Christendom have always corrupted the messianic and attempts at theocracy end up with manifestations of corrupt power.  The New Testament writers were wise to keep Jesus as an interior king whose kingdom of justice can be made the will of the earth when we act justly.  

Aphorism of the Day, November 15, 2021

The only way that the metaphor of the "king" can be rehabilitated from the fact that the concentration of power in any one such person, is to be absolutely corrupt, is to envision an ideal heavenly being whose omni-competence is such that we can project on a figure to guide the ultimate direction of improvements which we want in our oft corrupt lives.

Aphorism of the Day, November 14, 2021

I would invite everyone to an enlightened apocalypticism through the understanding of "last days" really being the fact that when everyone lives, they are living in the latest time, in terms of human history.  Living in the latest time, means we have the liminal position between the past and the next "latest time" in the future.  It means we always live in the now as a threshold so we seek the "unveiling" of what is next.  The threshold "now" or latest time, means that we review the success and failure of human community to love and care for people and environment and being the "latest" ones, we respond to help unveil the future as a better caring world.  The dire warnings of the future are based upon the belief that humanity at our worst will be the stronger probability of the future.  We can understand such probability of the future as useful scare method to shock us to adopt better behaviors now.

Aphorism of the Day,  November 13, 2021

Apocalyptic thinking is the spiritualization of the world; it is the accepting that the knowing and experiencing the outer world is done only through having inner and spiritual word life.  Jesus, was the sign of eternal Word of God life coming to us and enlightened word life is the unveiling of the always already returning Christ.  Do not limit apocalyptic imagery to one time events in a supposed future; the imagery is valid to all dire situation when the ending of what is unworthy is called for.

Aphorism of the Day, November of 12, 2021

Apocalyptic words and sayings are visualizations about having a greater advocate and savior when there is no visible signs of favorable conditions.

 Aphorism of the Day, November 11, 2021

Rather than turn the Apocalyptic words of the Bible into words that predict future specific events, let them be understood as imagery of the "unveiling" that is always happening in time as the new happens as the after, makes everything else, "Before." And from what has happened before, extrapolative repetitions can anticipate the recurrence of universal human habits and happenings of weal and woe.  Don't hold the apocalyptic words as some "insider" with conspiracy theories about who and when things happens.  Understand the images as providing insights for us to live better.

Aphorism of the Day, November 10, 2021

A way to appropriate the biblical apocalyptic is not to view it as an "ending of time," or the end of all language users who experience the binary of before and after, the "clock" of time, rather to see the apocalyptic as the always already threshold between the binary of before and after which bespeaks continuous "ending" of life as we know it and to take life as we will know it in perpetual aftermaths.  There are "big endings" because of catastrophic happenings, like the destruction of the Temple or Twin Towers, and these big endings change the social psyche in such profound ways that they don't permit life to be same as they were before the "big" event.  The apocalyptic of the Bible is an invitation to "unveil" what will become after the "big" events in adjusting to know a "higher/later" experience of time that through faith becomes to be called Providence.

Aphorism of the Day, November 9, 2021

Life is negotiating between "concentric" homes.  We live in the home or realm of God, overwhelmed by what we don't know or see in terms of the infinity of causal relationships in a free system.  Within the home of God, our having language colonizes lesser realms to name them and we are born into traditions of all our lesser homes or realms.  God who is in all in a general sense is both home and personally indwelling in all, but that's too general and mysterious.  God came to be understood as having a home, a dwelling place in a made-of-wood-and-stone Temple.  This designated sacred dwelling place and home of God with the people of Israel was certainly a limitation of divine presence for sake of human senses.  The destruction of God's home, meant the revitalization of God's omnipresence becoming known linguistically particular within the life of all who want to know themselves as indwelt by a God who is a "homing" God.  Wherever there is a language user, God as eternal Word is always already present.  What about the non-language using trees and animals?  They inhabit the linguistic universe of language users in passive but significantly delightful and entertaining ways so that anything that can come to language is imbued with the personality of the eternal Word, God.

Aphorism of the Day, November 8, 2021

When do we realize that we have an "edifice complex?"  When an important building to us is threatened, destroyed, or when we are very proud of a place which expresses something crucial to our identity.  The very notion of "home" is about identity.  When the Temple was destroyed in Jerusalem, this building in the iconic city of identity for people, forced people to believe in a very "portable" God who could make a home within each person.

Aphorism of the Day, November 7, 2021

It might be said that the New Testament was not meant for the ordering of society since it was written for an underground persecuted minority who believed that the world was to end soon and so there was no need to build a social order; only maintain in "cell" churches.

Aphorism of the Day, November 6, 2021

How do God's people believe in God after the homeland is overrun by Roman armies and the most intense dwelling place of God, the holiest of holies is destroyed?  One begins to believe and practice belief in a different way, like not limiting intense divine presence to any place but understanding that Holy Spirit omnipresence can make God's presence become known as intense everywhere.

Aphorism of the Day, November 5, 2021

The New Testament can be seen in part as "crisis literature" and people like us who are not in crisis due to having safety in our societies to worship as we like, cannot properly appreciate the crisis literature.  Crisis literature includes removing oneself from the physical world of reality with its harshness and losses like homeland, Jerusalem, and the Temple and re-constituting the same as spiritual realities in parallel heavenly topography.  Persons today who want to over-identify the Messianic with modern day people and movements see themselves in conquering roles, and we have an entire history of "subjugation" of people in the name of "Christian" countries that represents a departure from the crisis literature of the values of the beatitudes being the spiritual martial arts of oppressed people.

Aphorism of the Day, November 4, 2021

Much of the New Testament is about appropriating the places and themes from Hebrew Scriptures and spiritualizing them in the Jesus Movement.  12 patriarchs of the tribes of Israel become the 12 apostles.  Jesus Movement became the New Israel (how thrilled could those who continued in Judaism be about this?).  Jerusalem and the Temple became heavenly locations.  The actual priesthood was subsumed under Jesus the great heavenly High Priest serving at the heavenly altar.  A persecuted movement of people found consolation in making the movement an interior spiritual conversion with external circumstances of trying to fly under the radar of Roman authority detection.  Now ponder how the Christian Movement became over-identified with Empires, which in turn became subjugators of people around the world.

Aphorism of the Day, November 3, 2021

For empires to become empires, for ruling people to be ruling peoples, they have done some incredible cruelties in becoming rulers.  How does one live with the benefit of the aftermath of sustained cruelty to subjugated peoples as one who professes the love of Christ as one's chief value?  Perhaps the greatest dilemma facing the church is converting governments to the values of the beatitudes.  And it is perhaps impossible.  Ruling class revert to "manifest destiny" theology rather than beatitude theology to justify religious association with ruling class.

 Aphorism of the Day, November 2, 2021

Interesting to note how Empire and colonial Christianity came to use the pejorative for how indigenous peoples acknowledged their connection with people of their past.  These so called "pagans" were ancestor worshippers.  Whereas Christians had resurrection living ancestors with the heroic being called Saints and the local ancestors being "mere souls."  Not surprisingly, Christian evangelism used the universal regard of ones forebears by strategically placing the Christian "versions" of the same on calendar dates to woo indigenous peoples to adopt the Christian "resurrection version of ancestor veneration."  Can we all just admit we came from people from our past, some who were known to be outstanding and well known, while others were just regular moms and dads and grandparents and friends but beloved?

 Aphorism of the Day, November 1, 2021

Long before all of the sports halls of fame there arose the corporate remembrance of those who emulated the virtues of Jesus best.  All Saints' Day is still the best human hall of fame since it celebrates the lived virtues of love and justice instantiated in the lives of people like us. 

Quiz of the Day, November 2021

Quiz of the Day, November 30, 2021

How long has St. Andrew been the official patron saint of Scotland?

a. since 1320

b. unknown since legends say his relics were brought there over 1000 years ago

c. since apostolic age

d. since the Crusades when Scottish soldiers adopted him as their saint

Quiz of the Day, November 29, 2021

Hanukkah, a feast of the rededication of the Temple, commemorates the rededication for what reason?

a. it was rebuilt after destruction

b. it was remodeled

c. the menorah was restored

d. it had suffered desolating sacrilege at the hands of Antiochus Epiphanes

Quiz of the Day, November 28, 2021

What Gospel is used the most in Cycle C of the Lectionary Cycle of the Book of Common Prayer?

a. Matthew

b. Mark

c. Luke

d. John

Quiz of the Day, November 27, 2021

"Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, I am in the midst..."  These word of Jesus were in what context?

a. the Last Supper

b. resolving a church dispute

c. a healing event

d. sending of the evangelists

Quiz of the Day, November 26, 2021

Which hymn was not written by Isaac Watts?

a. When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

b. Amazing Grace

c. Joy to the World

d. O God Our Help in Ages Past

Quiz of the Day, November 25, 2021

According to the Book of Common Prayer, Thanksgiving Day is called

a. a Rogation Feast

b. a Principal Feast

c. a Holy Day

d. a Major Feast

Quiz of the Day, November 24, 2021

Where is the reference to a "Royal Priesthood" found in the Bible?

a. Leviticus

b. Psalms

c. Jeremiah

d. 1 Peter

Quiz of the Day, November 23, 2021

What does the "Matthean Exception" refer to?

a. purification laws regarding washing of hands

b. divorce

c. kinds of work permitted on the Sabbath

d. levirate marriage 

Quiz of the Day, November 22, 2021

What Anglican and Christian apologist wrote the well-known Narnia Chronicles?

a. T.S. Eliot

b. Charles Williams

c. J.R.R. Tolkien

d. C.S. Lewis

e. G.K. Chesterton

Quiz of the Day, November 21, 2021

Which language was not included in the posting the kingship of Jesus on the inscription on the Cross?

a. Latin

b. Hebrew

c. Greek

d. Aramaic

Quiz of the Day, November 20, 2021

What is the language and meaning of the word "maranatha?"

a. Greek-Come O Lord

b. Latin-the king comes

c. Hebrew-Royal arising

d. Aramaic-Come, O Lord or the Lord is coming

Quiz of the Day, November 19, 2021

The feast of Hanukkah derives from what era?

a. Mosaic

b. Davidic

c. Exilic

d. Maccabean

 Quiz of the Day, November 18, 2021

In biblical tradition who was Gorgias?

a. a Greek rhetorician referred to by Ben Sirach

b. an opposing military commander to Judas Maccabeus

c. a Philistine general

d. a Gentile companion of St. Paul

Quiz of the Day, November 17, 2021

Besides the post-resurrection appearance of Christ to the disciple on the the road to Emmaus, what else was Emmaus known for?

a. famous olive groves

b. former pre-Temple shrine location

c. encampment for the Maccabean army

d. the place where David wrote the 23rd Psalm

Quiz of the Day, November 16, 2021

Where are elephants mentioned in biblical canon?

a. Psalms

b. Job

c. Kings

d. Maccabees

Quiz of the Day, November 15, 2021

What location is associated with St. Herman?

a. Mt. Hermon

b. St. Petersburg

c. Alaska

d. Hawaii

Quiz of the Day, November 14, 2021

What does Maccabee mean?

a. the sword

b. the bow

c. the hammer

d. the mace

Quiz of the Day, November 13, 2021

Which of the following happened in the year 70 C.E.?

a. the Bar Kochba revolt

b. the mass suicide at Masada

c. the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem

d. the Maccabean revolt

Quiz of the Day, November 12, 2021

Which of the following is not named in the Bible as an afterlife place?

a. hades

b. Gehenna

c. heaven

d. Sheol

e. Tartarus

f. Styx

Quiz of the Day, November 11, 2021

Where in the Jewish canon of Scripture can the origin of the feast of Hanukkah be found?

a. it can't be found in Jewish canon of Scripture

b. the book of Daniel

c. Maccabees

d. Psalms

e. Leviticus

Quiz of the Day, November 10, 2021

Which pope negotiated with Attila the Hun?

a. Gregory the Great

b. Leo the Great

c. Pius II

d. Sixtus III

Quiz of the Day, November 9, 2021

Who wrote "The Ladder of Perfection?"

a. Teresa of Avila

b. Walter Hilton

c. Margery Kempe

d. Richard Rolle

Quiz of the Day, November 8, 2021

The phos hilaron is a hymn associated with what liturgies?

a. an order for evening

b. Evening Prayer

c. any evening liturgy

d. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, November 7, 2021

What "sin" distressed Ezra the most of the men in Jerusalem?

a. worship of idols

b. marrying foreign women

c. not keeping the Sabbath

d. not rotating the crops according to the Torah

Quiz of the day, November 6, 2021

The first observance of Rosh Hashanah can be found in what book of the Bible?

a. Genesis

b. Exodus

c. Leviticus

d. Deuteronomy

e. Ezra

Quiz of the Day, November 5, 2021

In what book of the Bible does the number seven figure significantly?

a. Genesis

b. Daniel

c. Ezekiel

d. Revelations

Quiz of the Day, November 4, 2021

In what book of the Bible does Babylon stand as a symbol for something that is not Babylon?

a. Ezekiel

b. Daniel

c. Obadiah

d. Revelations

Quiz of the Day, November 3, 2021

Which Anglican theologian is most responsible for articulating the "Middle Way" or Via Media identity for Anglicanism?

a. Thomas Cranmer

b. F. D. Maurice

c. Richard Hooker

d. C. S. Lewis

e. Lancelot Andrewes

Quiz of the Day, November 2, 2021

Dia de los muertos, is on what day of the church calendar?

a. November 2nd

b. All Souls' Day

c. All Faithful Departed Day

d. All Hallows Eve

e. All Saints' Day

f.  All of the Above

g. a, b, and c

Quiz of the Day, November 1, 2021

Where is the phrase "cloud of witnesses" used in referring to heroes of faith who are also called saints?

a. Revelations

b. Psalms

c. Wisdom of Ben Sirach

d. Hebrews

Apocalyptic and Looking for Super Heroes

1 Advent C  November 28, 2021
Jer. 33: 14-16 Psalm 50:1-6
1 Thes. 3:9-13 Luke 21:25-31

Lectionary Link

In our modern arrogance we can be very dismissive regarding those primitive people of the Bible. Those poor people lived in such conditions and ignorance they had to fantasize to survive their terribles lives; they had to invent super heroes like the Messiah, the Son of Man, and the Son of God. They had to have wild visions about human/animals beasts hybrids, dragons, angels, and magic trees of life, and big battles with fire coming down from the sky, and the bad guys being confined to lakes of burning fire. Those poor people of the past with their silly myths.


O but wait, O arrogant post-modern people; what about your list of your messiahs?

Ant-Man

Aquaman

Asterix

The Atom

The Avengers

Batgirl

Batman

Batwoman

Black Canary

Black Panther

Captain America

Captain Marvel

Catwoman

Conan the Barbarian

Daredevil

The Defenders

Doc Savage

Doctor Strange

Elektra

Fantastic Four

Ghost Rider

Green Arrow

Green Lantern

Guardians of the Galaxy

Hawkeye

Hellboy

Incredible Hulk

Iron Fist

Iron Man

Marvelman

Robin

The Rocketeer

The Shadow

Spider-Man

Sub-Mariner

Supergirl

Superman

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Thor

The Wasp

Watchmen

Wolverine

Wonder Woman

X-Men

Zatanna

Zatara

And this does not include all of the fantasy figures of Disney and the animated world.  This does not include all of the people in science fiction, the Spocks, the Terminators, the Yodas, Chewbaccas and seeming endless more.  We cannot say that biblical people were more obsessed with super heroes and apocalyptic end of the world as we know it scenarios than we are.  We are much more obsessed and we are much more proud of all of the media that we have to bring our myths to the virtual experience of our populace.  Those poor biblical people only had writings and oral story-telling prophets and preachers.  

But are all myths and fantasies equal?  They are equal in the sense of expressing the universal human feeling of hope, hope for a future, a better future, a future that is free from pain for us and everyone, a future where the good guys win and the bad guys are sent to significant situations of reform.

In the Gospel today, we see the oracles words of the Risen Christ, coming to the very vulnerable small Jesus Movement communities, who were spinning the story of a "Son of Man" that had been written about by their D.C. Comic-like visionary who speculated and entertained the fire of hope with narratives of hope, narratives of salvation and refuge, of what was coming in different ways, ordinary way but also great and cataclysmic ways when God had to do something very big.

Let us as modern people not feel smug about ourselves and look down upon the biblical people as being inferior in their hope.  They like us had access to the very same hope that we have access to hope.  And hope always inspires narratives, and visualizations and these narratives and visualization have less to do with the future, but a lot to do with coping in the now with whatever our current distress is.

This is the human history of hope; hope is time always providing a future.  Hope is the continuous transitions of time, like the cycles in nature of the fig tree or any aspect of organic life.

The words of the Risen Christ invite us to have the wisdom of understanding the transitions in life, the little repetitive ones, and the great and impactful changes like war, and plagues, and ravages of the environment, when the sky seems like it is falling on large swatches of people close to us or in other parts of the world.

Why do we regard our apocalyptic practices in our modern genres of comic books, cinema and the like as being superiorly different that the genres of biblical people?

I believe it is because in our use of language, the proliferation of world knowledge has grown exponentially great that we have come to divide our language products into separate and contradicting genres.  This has occurred because of the rise of modern science, which has created a standard for us reporting what is happening to whatever we observe.

The fantastic messiah of the Bible became the fantastic imagination of science fiction with the messianic becoming the alien Superman coming from another far away planet to work to put things right on earth.

But our genres are so divided, that we say Superman is not real; he is but part of our entertainment genre.  But it is real that our world is full of entertainment genre as being truthful to human wishes and dream.  That realness is also objectively true.  Why would we deny the objective truth of the narratives about the Messiah, Son of Man, and Son of God as functioning in hopeful ways for people of all ages?

Can we see how we can be so "temporally provincial?"  Locked into the prison of our time and thinking that we are superior simply because we are the latest people to exist on earth.

Let us have some temporal humility, and this will allow us to return to the words of transitions and endings which was present in oppressed people who were always looking for narratives of what is best about human life, namely hope for a better future, and love for what is better in the future, namely justice for all people in the world, of all times.

Let us give up our sense of modern superiority, which is made hypocritical by all our own modern fantasy of the apocalyptic, and let us enter freshly into the Advent of Christ, who came as a replacement reality for the cruel Caesars and the Empire of oppression.  Let us partake of Advent endings for all cruel Empires, even the large Leviathans of States which we have benefited from the cruel oppression of many people.  Let us accept the Risen Christ as the Super Person of the world who inspires us to lift up the lowly.  Amen.