Sunday School, March 6, 2022 First Sunday in Lent C

 Sunday School, March 6, 2022                      First Sunday in Lent C

Themes and Topics

Learning Self Control

Learning to be one’s own hero

Fasting is a practice of learning self-control

Gospel Story:  Jesus went away to a place to be alone and fast

When you feed a dog, you put the food in the dog dish and set it on the floor.  And what do many dogs do?  They immediately try to eat all of the food as fast as they can.  Now some dog owners will try to teach a dog to wait until he or she give the command to the dog to eat.  A dog owner may try to teach a dog to wait before eating.

When babies are hungry, they want their milk right away.  They don’t want to wait and if mom makes them wait, what do they do?  They cry.

Growing up means we learn how to control our selves when we have to wait for something that we need.

So you may be hungry right now, but mom says the food is still cooking and besides we’re waiting for dad to come home so we can eat together.   So even if you are hungry right now, you learn to wait so that you can eat with the rest of the family.

Learning to wait to eat is “fasting.”  It is learning how to control yourself.  It is learning to not let your desire for something make you unhappy if you cannot get it right away.

Fasting is about learning to wait and have patience so that you can learn to do things together with other people.  Fasting is about learning other people’s schedules.

When you teacher asks you to be silent and raise your hand, this is also fasting because it is waiting for your turn to speak so that you can honor the schedule of your class.

Jesus was a hero because he learned to fast; he learned to do things according to God the Father’s time.  He did not obey the voice of Satan which tempted him to do the wrong things, at the wrong time in the wrong way.

Lent is about learning how to be our own superhero by learning how to control ourselves.

Jesus was a superhero of self-control;  And we can learn from Jesus about being our own superhero as we learn self-control.  An important part of self-control is learn how to share in how we live with other people.

Lent is a season of learning self-control for the purposes of sharing the gifts and good things of our lives with others, especially those who do not have enough.

A sermon about learning to be one’s own hero

  How would you like to be a hero?  How do you think you can be a hero?  Do you have to fly like Superman, Batman and Spiderman in order to be a hero?  Do you have to save someone from drowning to be a hero?  Do you have to rescue some one from a burning building to be a hero? Doing those things would make you a hero, but there is another way to be a hero.

  And Jesus wants us all to be heroes.  How can all of us be heroes?  By being strong.  Let me see your muscles.  But the muscles in our arms are not important muscles that we need.

  We need some other muscles.  We need strength to be able to not do things that are bad for us.  We need strength to be able to do things that are really, really good for us.

  And so we need to do some training to be heroes.  That is what the season of Lent is for..it’s for doing some special training.

  Is it easier to eat four pieces of chocolate cake than to eat our vegetables?  Chocolate cake is good and vegetables are good.  And we need to be heroes by becoming strong enough to choose the right amounts of good food for us.  Say, I am strong.  I am powerful.  I will be a hero.  I will choose good food.

  Is it easier to watch cartoons on TV or clean your bedroom or do your school work?  It is fun to watch TV but when there are other things that we need to do, we need to have the power to choose to do other things to help our families and to help us get good grades at school.  Can you flex your muscles and say: I am powerful.  I will be a hero.  I will choose to do good things.

  Jesus was a hero because he learned to have power to do the good things that he was supposed to do.  When he was given the choice between doing some good and doing something bad, he chose what was good.

  You and I have to practice being good.  And how do we practice being good?  We have to build the muscles of our choosing power.  We have to practice making the right choices.  Our teachers and parents help us to make the right choices.  Even though they are not perfect; they still are able to help you make good choices.  And if we learn to make good choices, then we become powerful and we become heroes of our own lives?

  Can you learn to be a hero today?  Let’s see your muscles.  Say:  I am strong.  I can make good choices.  I can be a hero today. 

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

March 6, 2022 The First Sunday in Lent

Gathering Songs: On Eagle’s Wings, Just As I am, I Am the Bread of Life, Thy Word

Song: On Eagle’s Wings (Renew! # 112)

You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord, who abide in his shadow for life, say to the Lord: “My refuge, my rock in whom I trust.”

Refrain: And he will raise you up on eagle’s wings, bear you on the breath of dawn, make you to shine like the sun, and hold you in the palm of his hand.

The snare of the fowler will never capture you, and famine will bring you no fear: under his wings your refuge, his faithfulness your shield.  Refrain

Liturgist: Bless the Lord who forgives all of our sins.

People: God’s 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, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Litany of Praise: Chant: Praise be to God!

O God, you are Great!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have made us! Praise be to God!

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

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Praise be to God!

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

Liturgist: A reading from the Letter to the Romans

For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, "No one who believes in him will be put to shame." For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 91

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, * abides under the shadow of the Almighty.

He shall say to the LORD, "You are my refuge and my stronghold, * my God in whom I put my trust."

He shall deliver you from the snare of the hunter * and from the deadly pestilence.

He shall cover you with his pinions, and you shall find refuge under his wings; * his faithfulness shall be a shield and buckler.

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.

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'" Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God,  and serve only him.'"  Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you,  to protect you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up,  so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"  Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father Phil

Children’s Creed

We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.

Since God is so great and we are so small,

We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.

We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.

We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.

And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever.  Amen.

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.

For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.

For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.

For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.

For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.

For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.

For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.

Youth Liturgist:          The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

People:                        And also with you.

Song during the preparation of the Altar and the receiving of an offering

Offertory Hymn:  Just As I Am (Renew! # 140)

Just as I am without one plea but that thy blood was shed for me,

and that thou bidd’st me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come. I come!

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: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:       Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.   

Words of Administration

Communion Hymn: I Am the Bread of Life (Renew!  # 246)

Unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink of his blood, and drink of his blood, you shall not have life within you.

Refrain: And I will raise you up, and I will raise you up, and I will raise you up on the last day.

Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who has come into the world.  Refrain

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: Thy Word (Renew! # 94)

Refrain: Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

When I feel afraid, think I’ve lost my way, still you’re there right beside me.  And nothing will I fear as long as you are near.  Please be near me to the end.  Refrain

I will not forget your love for me, and yet my heart forever is wandering.  Jesus, be my guide and hold me to your side; and I will love you to the end.  Refrain

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Prayers for Epiphany 2022

Shrove Tuesday, March 1, 2022

God of Time, who inspires good timing in our lives, we bemoan the many mistimings in our life when in ignorance and willfulness we have done things to foster the tendency of things unworthy for our well-being and the well-being of the people in our lives.  On the eve of the season of Lent,  provoke us to work on our intentions to get into wise timing with the insights of love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, and faith.  Amen.

Monday in The Last Sunday of the Epiphany, February 28, 2022

God of Time and the one who inspires good timing for all occasions of life, your permissive real freedom allows all sorts of mistimings to occur to the harm of many and the clashes and conflicts within human systems and eco-systems; give us grace to find the wisdom of good timing to act and say in our lives as we resist the forces of temptation which seek to get us off the schedule of love and justice for all.  Amen.

The Last Sunday after the Epiphany, February 27, 2022

O God of time's patterns of metamorphosis, representing the spiraling of time creating the differences of before and after, let us be transfiguring in an spiraling evolution toward the love and justice of all people which befits the dignity of the glory of Christ which resides in people whether they know it or not.  Amen.

Saturday in 7 Epiphany, February 26, 2022

God of time, death is permitted in time, and we ask that all deaths might be good deaths appropriate to the dignity of life of each person.  We ask that forces which seek to make death happen before its time be restrained, especially the aggressive forces of war.  Amen.

Friday in 7 Epiphany, February 25, 2022

God, we ask for threshold angels in passage between life and death especially those who are trapped in the banality of war, on the side of having to fight for a tyrant, and on the side of defending one's home and people.  We ask that life that need not die be spared to bear the normal actuarial life expectancy uninfluenced by the horrors of war which skew the statistics toward more dying.  Lord have mercy and deliver us from war.  Amen.

Thursday in 7 Epiphany, February 24, 2022

O God, whose image upon all is our dignity, we fear the loss of the dignity of life in aggressive wars.  We ask that all non-aggressors and the vulnerable will be protected as the forces of greed seek to take more on behalf of the very few.  We pray for the mercenary soldier who is trapped in having to fight to secure the wealth and power of the few.  We ask for the overturning of the interests of the most greedy, and that protection and care comes to those who need it the most.  Amen.

Wednesday in 7 Epiphany, February 23, 2022

God of everlastingness, help us not to isolate our current moment from the reality of what has been, what is and everything that will be.  But let not the immensity of the everlasting dissolve the poignant significance of making the current moment count toward love and justice.  Amen.

Tuesday in 7 Epiphany, February 22, 2022

O God, who supports the cycles of life, which include transfigurations; help us to retain the hope and optimism of the transfigured moments of apparent presence in the time when the sublime does not seem as apparent.  Amen.

Monday in 7 Epiphany, February 21, 2022

O God, in your sustenance of this life, we use the memorial traces of what has happened to us before as explanatory vocabulary for the freshness of our experience now, and we hope that the freshness of the now is able to add to our experiential reservoir in a positive way so that we might be more inclined in our future experience to interpret, act, and speak in the ways that are consistent with love and justice.  Amen.

Sunday, 7 Epiphany, February 20, 2022

Lord Jesus, to whom we attribute the beatitudes; help us to receive the Spirit of the beatitudes in converting people of privilege and power to put our resources to overcome the oppressive conditions of our world.  Amen.

Saturday in 6 Epiphany, February 19, 2022

God, we know that our lives are not endless residence in our bodies, even as we cannot be blind to the great Continuity of Existence which we live in and which will survive when we are no longer visible in the realm of physical sight.  Give us grace to leave as a legacy God-inspired acts of love and justice in the visible realms of our lives today, even as we know that the work of love and justice also works in the invisible interior realm of people but has external consequences.  Amen.

Friday in 6 Epiphany, February 18, 2022

Oh God, known through Jesus and the early Christians, our tradition was born among those who proclaimed an imminent end of all, and to carry this imminent end of all as a dominion of not caring for our environment, we have not loved and cared for this world enough to leave a pristine place to our children of the future.  We have mistaken the longevity of this world and we ask that our behaviors of apocalyptic fatalism find ways of corrective preservation for people of the future.  Amen.

Thursday in 6 Epiphany, February 17, 2022

O God, who has shared the divine image within all that is visible and invisible; we ask for insight and wisdom to know what the divine omnipresence requires of us today for excellence in using our freedom in the very best situational way for the common good of all.  Amen.

Wednesday in 6 Epiphany, February 16, 2022

O God of love, the words of Jesus promote radical love and forgiveness and we shudder in our failures in both.  Keep the ideals before us so that we might ever be working to convert possible love to actual love in our words and deeds.  Amen.

Tuesday in 6 Epiphany, February 15, 2022

O God, originator of marvelous diversity, we give thanks for the Black people of our country who built the original wealth of our country without reward and as slaves without the justice ideals permitted to them by persons of extremely blind hypocrisy.  Grant honest justice to work an overcoming and equal good for people who have been so harshly wronged by the cruelty of the past, so that the future of people so wronged by past oppressors can be one of hope.  Amen.

Monday in 6 Epiphany, February 14, 2022

God who cares for those without power, how can we adjust the values of the beatitudes to lifestyles of plenty?  Teach us the value of to whom much is given, much is required.  Amen.

Sunday, 6 Epiphany, February 13, 2022

God who is mysterious and unnameable because human's version are not adequate, we live by our versions of you and each other, and we need help in having our versions of you and each other be cleansed by the influence of love and justice.  Amen.

Saturday in 5 Epiphany, February 12, 2022

O God, who has given us interior lives to process all that we experience in our exterior lives; give us emotional intelligence, wisdom in sentiment especially to work the kind of empathy which can bring healing in our life settings.  Amen.

Friday in 5 Epiphany, February 11, 2022

God of abundance, we seek to be rich in the kind of treasures which are lasting and which contribute to a better future of our world.  Let the gems of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, and justice be the legacy of our wealth today.  Amen.

Thursday in 5 Epiphany, February 10, 2022

Gracious God, we seek you as the complementing immanence of all that we face in life and we seek your inside work on the hearts of people even away from our knowledge of what you are doing as a compensating presence in the middle of conditions which seem hopeless.  We trust that apparent woes are being experienced as alchemical blessings through the magic of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Wednesday in 5 Epiphany, February 9, 2022

O God of justice, we have law as a process of trying to approximate in practice an elusive justice since time is so open and continuous, justice is not something to reach but something to always be reaching for.  Help us not to grow weary in the ceaseless reaching to approximate justice with laws which can teach us recommended behaviors worthy of the quest for justice.  Amen.

Tuesday in 5 Epiphany, February 8, 2022

God of Creative Freedom, I fear many of the negative consequences of true freedom that has been shared with all things, even my own misdeeds, and the freedom of people to be hurtful and hateful, as well as the seeming mistiming between systems of nature and the presence of people which results in harm.  Give the created entities the inner wisdom to effect harmonious outcomes so that the harms might be limited to but the results of aging in time, and beyond our aging in time, let us hope that nothing good will ever be lost but will resurrect in transforming future goodness with the personal continuity to recognize that goodness.  Amen.

Monday in 5 Epiphany, February 7, 2022

God of fully disperse immanence; the traces of you are everywhere and leading us to the right relationship with you, everything, and everyone  Please verify for us in our life situations that love and justice is what is definitive of being in a right relationship with you, everything, every happening, and everyone.  Amen.

Sunday, 5 Epiphany, February 6, 2022

God, you are presented as holy and Other from us even while we assume the experience of your Otherness is a valid human experience; Isaiah heard the visible in the invisible sing "holy, holy, holy," in Hebrew, and we too seek the realm of the sublime to inform the directions of our lives invoking the energy of holy becoming the work of love and justice in our world today.  Amen.

 Saturday in 4, February 5, 2022

God, beyond our capacity to full know, but who has come to us in language in our dominate identity as language users, give us grace to do an inventory of the values of our lives and be honest about how our words and deeds are connecting with what we are proclaiming to be the chief values of our faith.  And give us humility to accept that we are not yet where we want to be, and at the same time not give up the high standard to which we must be called if we are going to be better today than we were yesterday.  Amen.

Friday in 4 Epiphany, February 4, 2022

God who is eternal Word, in Word there is a call happening toward us at all times in a wide variety of ways.  We seek to have the discerning filters into our life to screen and isolate the particular callings to us as they arise, develop, change and expand our capacities to experience the further calling of the Eternal Word.  Amen.

Thursday in 4 Epiphany, February 3, 2022

God who is also the Call that is happening at all times; we cannot avoid you as a Plenitude and the Personhood of Plenitude because having language means that everything has the relationship differential relationships of personhood.  Give us grace to respond to your Call as sheer Presence first, but then also specifically articulated in events of response to this Call in deeds of love and justice.  Amen.

Wednesday in 4 Epiphany, February 2, 2022

O Jesus, in your Presentation, you were a ritualized person within a community and a family that valued you because you were God's gift presented to us so that we might know how we can be presented as living sacrifices to God in this life and in our afterlives.  Amen.

Tuesday in 4 Epiphany, February 1, 2022

Holy God, we are given the word holy to proclaim the difference of your divinity known in the sheer quantity of what you include in your everlastingness, but also in the unique quality of continuously creating in freedom and allowing all that is created to partake of freedom in the significant ways which make choosing love and justice the highlight of human existence.  Grant us the grace to honor the divine gift of freedom through the practice of love and justice as the best way for creative harmonies to occur.  Amen.

Monday in 4 Epiphany, January 31, 2022

O God who is everywhere, forgive us for our willingness to be spiritual but not religious, when it means that we avoid the particular call of God which comes to us to be God's messenger in particular times and places to particular people who might be just as imperfect as we are.  Amen.

Sunday, 4 Epiphany, January 30, 2022

O God of Love, your love is unique in capacity to be able to endure all things and so impart moral significance by the appearance of weakness in singular free events, even while being the entirety of the field of probable free outcomes in the world.  The greatness of your complete love swallows up the unfolding events freely happening in time and inspires us to never be weary in the efforts to freely overcome evil with goodness which partakes best with particular divine love.  Amen.

Saturday in 3 Epiphany, January 29, 2022

O God of hope, if love is hoping all things, forgive us for hoping only for things that pertain to the outcomes of love and justice, even while we know that the realm of the possible indicates some unpleasant probabilities because of freedom.  But in hope, we seek for the overcoming surpassing of evil with Goodness.  Amen.

Friday in 3 Epiphany, January 28, 2022

God of everlastingness, since you will be the last and latest One, we believe that Providence rest in your composition, and because we also call you Love, we ask that love become providential in actual ways in our lives now.  Amen.

Thursday in 3 Epiphany, Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, 2022

O Great Preserving God, we remember the six million people who were not regarded as having worth to live the expected probable conditions of life because they were Jews.  We commit their lives to your preservation in an everlasting rest, and we shudder at the human depravity which perpetuated such a diminution of life itself.  In remembering, let us not forget, and in not forgetting let us affirm and value the life of every person.  Amen.

Wednesday in 3 Epiphany, January 26, 2022

O Holy One, about which none greater can be conceived and the realm of pure Possibilisms, let us bring forth in time from the infinite realm of the possible, things which are actual to love and justice today in the lives of the people we meet.  Amen.

Tuesday in 3 Epiphany, Conversion of St. Paul, January 25, 2022

God who must be universally promulgated if the reality God is to have full meaning, we give thanks for the conversion of Saul, who underwent changes to receive a new name as Paul, and who understood that the Risen Christ was the means of promulgating the God who was available to all and become self-consistent for those who confessed the Divine One.  Amen.

Monday in 3 Epiphany, January 24, 2022

O God of the Love which bears all thing, believes all things, hopes all things; such is unattainable for us because we want to limit what is actual to what is most convenient for us and for how we view what is best for our world.  The Awesome Love of the purely possible and what has become actual in human experience is beyond our bearable limits, and in faith we defer to greater Love to be our Guide.  Amen.

Sunday, 3 Epiphany, January 23, 2022

O God, who gives the good news of Love to us who are poor.  Help us to realize our poverty and be in the humble state of mind to accept the good news of love which we need to motivate us to spread this good news to people in the diverse states of poverty.  Amen.

Saturday in 2 Epiphany, January 22, 2022

O God who anoints with the Spirit to bring good news to the poor; forgive us for using the words of the Bible for mainly bringing good news to those who are not poor, while failing in our bringing good news to the poor because we too often are on the side of the free market which favors the rich.  Help us to get back to the basic task of the Gospel, bringing good news to the poor.  Amen.

Friday in 2 Epiphany, January 21, 2021

Holy God, whom we need even when we don't think so; forgive us for treating other people as though we don't need them and expose our own rebellion against relationship with you and others.  Give of willing hearts to acknowledge that we are always already related with All.  Amen.

Thursday in 2 Epiphany, January 20, 2022

God, who cares for the lowly, your Son Jesus Christ said that the Gospel was good news to the poor; we confess that we have not had this as our Gospel value in the way that we have constituted our societies.  We ask for the grace of becoming converted to a creativity which results in the spread of good news to all who suffer poverty.  Amen.

Wednesday in 2 Epiphany, January 19, 2022

O Spirit of God, you have inspired and created such diversity and poured the blessing of freedom into us a willful human beings which even allows us to exalt diversity over unity and get ourselves in petty disputes at best, and wars at worst.  We ask for the power to use our wills to freely return to the power of you as a Spirit of unity and thus have grace to become those who orchestrate the beauties of harmonies.  Amen.

Tuesday, in 2 Epiphany, Confession of St. Peter, January 18, 2022

Gracious God, forgive us when we confess Jesus to be Christ, Son of the Living God, Savior, Prince of Peace, and much more, but then fail woefully to understand and live up to these high confessions.  Give us the faith of Peter to persevere in coming to know and live in honest ways what we confess about Jesus the Christ.  Amen.

Monday in 2 Epiphany, January 17, 2022

O Eternal Word of God, when you were made flesh in Jesus, you said that the good news was to be for the poor.  Help us to have the same priority as Jesus did in bringing good news to the poor.  Amen.

Sunday, 2 Epiphany, January 16, 2022

Transforming God, you have given us the spiritual alchemist, Jesus Christ who united all things so that the ordinary can bear the extraordinary and allow us the intoxication of the divine presence in the outer appearance of drinking ordinary water.  Let us know the intoxicating divine presence in the water of our ordinary lives.  Amen.

Saturday in 1 Epiphany, January 15, 2022

O God our Maker and Creator, you have made us people who can create, as people who have gifts, and you have attached to our creativity the awesome burden of freedom.  Help us to wed freedom and creativity with strategies and actions for the common good as is expressed in loving our neighbor as ourself.  Amen.

Friday in 1 Epiphany, January 14, 2021

O God, we ask for signs in our lives of you, even as we use the derivative features of God as Eternal Word to do so; help us to know that the Sign of your presence is always already within the worded existence.  Amen.

Thursday in 1 Epiphany, January 13, 2022

Let us O God, know that the ordinary water of life experience can also be tasted as the vintage wine of the inner fountain of the Holy Spirit, accompanying everything that we do.  Amen.

Wednesday in 1 Epiphany, January 12, 2022

Holy Spirit, giver of gifts, let us not take and develop our gifts from you unless we also receive from you the greater gift of love which we need to regulate all gifts for the common good of the community.  O Spirit, let us seek the greater gift of Love.  Amen.

Tuesday in 1 Epiphany, January 11, 2022

Immanent God, your presence is in the profound and the trivial, when we experience great gain and the uncanny, but also when we experience the losses due to the free conditions of constant change.  Help us to have faith in your presence as the great equalizer in all things that are going through constant change.  Amen.

Monday in 1 Epiphany, January 10, 2022

O God of spiritual alchemy, to know the Risen Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit is to know intoxication with joy while drinking but the seeming ordinary water of life.  Give us this intoxication so that a domino effect of delight can come to the people we serve.  Amen.

Sunday, 1 Epiphany, the Baptism of Our Lord, January 9, 2022

Gracious Jesus, your baptism was one more occasion of the divine Word being made flesh and expressed as God's solidarity with us as people, in all our messiness and imperfection.  You went into the waters of the Jordan at your baptism and raised the boats of human moral and spiritual expectation because we are now asked to be more Christ-like each day of our lives.  Amen.

Saturday after the Epiphany, January 8, 2022

Gracious God, we were made to be initiated into the image of God upon our lives but we have lost and often lose our direction; we thank you that Jesus represents God as immersed or baptized into full human life even to a human death, so that we might ride the elevator of the resurrection of Christ to restoration in the image of God on our lives.  Amen.

Friday after the Epiphany, January 7, 2022

Omni-present God, your immanence is found everywhere and so epiphanies can occur when we allow our gates of perception to be open to the always-already Christ nature which can arise within us.  Let the manifestations happen today for many and let it result in love and justice.  Amen.

The Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 2022

God whose very concept would imply univerality, and whom we believe to mark the existence of language users with signs of sublime presence; we thank you for the manifestation of the Christ-nature, as in former days known as the image of the divine upon each life, and in the days of Jesus Christ and his post-resurrection reality, as the spiritual baptism manifest arising of the Risen Christ to be the epiphany in the lives of those who desire it.  Amen.

Transfiguration: Event and Spiritual Process

Last Epiphany C February 27, 2022
Exodus 34:29-35 Ps. 99
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 Luke 9:28-36
Lectionary Link



Did your elementary school science teacher ever say, "Okay, class today we are going to study the life cycle of a cocoon?  Of a pupa?  Of a larva?  Of a caterpillar?"  No, it is always the life cycle of a butterfly.  Why is that?  Probably, it is because the butterfly represents the most adult phase of the cycle even though we know that a butterfly is also just a phase to lay eggs and die.

The story about baby Jesus would not have been written if Jesus had not had the butterfly phase that we call the resurrection experience of him by his disciples and followers.

We know that like the preface for Requiem Mass says, "life is changed, not ended," because perpetual cycle and metamorphosis is descriptive of our lives.  What does metamorphosis imply?  Life continuity with significant changes because of time.  Baby Jesus is Jesus, just like Transfiguration Jesus, but there is significant difference and change because of time.

In our life of faith, we may say that "Life is changed, not ended," but we know that we grieve the losses of phases of our lives and the people who have been in them.   We can be honest about saying we prefer life to death, even if we have come to believe that death is but a change and not an end.

The reason that I speak about the language of metamorphosis, is because the Greek word for transfiguration is the word in English, metamorphosis.  This word sums up two notions; a highlighted event in the phases of the life of Christ, but also the entire mystical process of the life of Christ for Jesus of Nazareth and for us who have experienced the post-resurrection phase of the life of Christ.

Looking at the metamorphosis of Jesus Christ, at his transfigurations, one can note certain butterfly events in his cycle: His birth, his baptism with the dove and voice from heaven, his transfiguration on the mountain with clouds and lights and the voice from heaven, his resurrection appearances to his disciples, his glorification in the heavenly realm known by his many reappearances to people in many ways through the work of the Holy Spirit.  I would like to call these not "reappearances" but re-apparencies, that is in reference to the many ways which Christ has become apparent to us that are not the same as the visual appearances experienced by the disciple

The highlight moments of Jesus are compared with the highlight moments from the great stories in the Hebrew Scriptures; the shiny faced Moses on Mt. Sinai when he received the law from God, the fire from heaven for Elijah on Mt. Carmel, and the still small voice to Elijah in the mountain cave.

The mount of transfiguration was a butterfly moment for Jesus, but it was more important for the disciples who witnessed it.  It became a teaching moment for Peter, James, and John who were Jews.  In this visionary event they witnessed two of the greatest figures of their own tradition, Moses and Elijah, with Jesus.  What does this mean?  This means that Jesus was in succession with the great prophets but he had a surpassing difference.  Did the heavenly voice say about Moses or Elijah, "This is my chosen Son, listen to him?"  Among Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, the heavenly voice only said to Jesus, "This is my chosen Son, listen to him."

The purpose of the transfiguration account is to establish Jesus as the successor of the traditions of the law and the prophets, as signified by the presence of Moses and Elijah.  Jesus had a butterfly moment, but not for himself, but for those who were seeing the nature of Jesus revealed to them.  It was a foretaste of how they would see him again in his post-resurrection life.

Yes, Jesus was transfigured on the mountain.  But Jesus and the disciples did not live in a continuous visionary high.  What did they do?  They descended the mountain to find people in the real world who were tormented by inward forces of darkness that had to be expelled by the holy sanity of Jesus the people whisperer.

Let us remember that transfiguration is both the events of our highest vision but it is also expressive of the entire spiritual process of transformation.  A butterfly includes in it the egg, the larva, the caterpillar, the cocoon, and the potential regeneration in the next generation in being able to lay birthing eggs of the future.

This process of transfiguration is what we are in.  We rely upon the visionary moments of our greatest insights to carry us from one mountaintop, and then down in the valley, to make our way toward the next mountain top of spiritual insight.

Transfiguration is both the entire process, but also the individual moments of highest insights where our spiritual maturity is given advancement.  And in those high moments, we are to remember, because we need them to get us through the continual cycle of spiritual growth.

The Gospel for us is that we have transfigured events with Christ, as markers of the entire process of spiritual transfiguration which we are called to go through because we have been baptized into an identity with Christ.

We end the season of Epiphany with a spiritual high, and we need to remember that, because next week, we will be with Jesus, tempted in the wilderness of the apparent absence of God's help.

Let us recommit ourselves to this wonderful journey of transfiguration that we are on.  And thank God for the spiritual highs, because we need them when the journey seems dark.

And to prepare ourselves for our Lenten journey, and our Lenten fast from the ecstatic Alleluias, let us say loudly three times.  Alleluia.   Amen.

Lectionary Link
Have you ever done an honest axiology review of your life? You might say, "Well, I don't know. Depends upon what axiology means." Axiology is a study of values. Have you done a Values Review of your life? In a general sense we know that our values are expressed in how we use the time, talent and treasure of our lives. But how can one do a more thorough and explicit value review? An honest value review. We can sometimes be like those who answer the poll questions with the politically correct answers which betray what we really feel or believe.
How can one do an honest axiology review? It does no good to say our values are what we wish them to be if our current life is not expressive of those desired ideal values. To do an honest value review, I suggest people do in private their own top 10 lists. What are the best 10 things that have happened to you? What are your top ten favorite things to do? Who are the 10 most influential persons in your life? Who are the 10 people you have loved the most in your life? What are the 10 top ideas which have influenced you or changed your life.
By doing these top 10 lists we can attain an honest distribution of our real values because our values are truly reflected in how the desires and loves of our lives are projected upon the people, things, ideas and activities of our lives. And if we can do a personal axiological review, what about doing one on our parish community? What are the true values of St. John the Divine as a community?
The entire New Testament was written because continuous groups of people came to value the life, ministry and the continuing witness of Jesus Christ. The early Christian embedded the ways in which they valued Jesus in the stories which they shared about him. And in sharing their stories they had their own top 10 lists of valued people. Who did the contemporaries of Jesus value? They valued the living; they valued John the Baptist. But they also valued people in their tradition, the great figures who had given them their community identity. Who were these great people? Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, Deborah, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah, Elisha, Ezekiel, Nehemiah and Ezra. And when times are really bad what does one wish for? One has a nostalgia for people who are like the great people of the past to return and bring back the order of life that was represented by these great people. And what happens when one meets the new person of value, the new love of one's life. The new love is so special and beyond comparison and one waxes poetic to speak about a special person, but one also has to use comparison to speak about the surpassing greatness of the one who is the new love of one's life.
The early Christians were in love with Jesus Christ. They could be said to be "madly" in love with Jesus. And they inherited comparative ways to speak about how much they valued Jesus. The used the poetic comparative forms to speak about Jesus. They compared him with other great people. They used geographical metaphors, metaphors from physics and metaphors from weather and climate.
A common metaphor for a superlative experience is to say, "it was a mountain top experience." This is a common expression whether one is speaking about a religious experience or whether a hippie is praising a pharmacological event. Mountain top experiences have biblical bases. Moses and Elijah were mountain men; they were regarded to be people who went to the highest human experiential places where the natural met the spiritual and the two became so mingled that experience became fuzzy and cloudy and yet within the mingling of natural and spiritual there occurred the experience of light. For the spiritual experiences of highest value the Gospel writers used the familiar poetic metaphors of the geography of mountain top, the physics of light, and the weather and climatic effects of clouds to extol the value of the experience.
Christians came to know the value of Jesus; he was valued more than the law of Moses; he was valued more than the prophetic witness of Elijah. The followers of Jesus fell in love with him and this love determined his value to their lives. This love of Jesus shared within their community created an effervescence which resulted in the creation and maintenance of communities of "lovers of Jesus Christ." The New Testament is the literature which derived from the communities of people who came to love Jesus Christ.
The Gospel story of the Transfiguration is a story of the superlative axiology or value of Jesus Christ to the people who were completely taken by Him. And why is the word Transfiguration important? Transfiguration is a translation of the Greek word from which derives the English word metamorphosis.
What does love do to a person? Love transforms the person. It can make one "bat silly" and irrational. Love of the Risen Christ is the power which drives Christian metamorphosis, Christian transfiguration and spiritual transformation.
What is the one of the results of conducting an honest value survey? Self-disillusionment. Now that I am honest about the things which I value, how do I change some of the habitual value behaviors which I seem to be so programmed to follow?
In the experience of self disillusionment about some of our inferior values which control our lives, we come to know that we always need the intervention of the power of the One with the Highest Values. And this is when we experience the need to be in Love of Jesus Christ because that love attraction is the experience of the Higher Power which is going to drive our metamorphosis into the Christly values which we do not yet fully express in our lives.
The story of the Transfiguration of Jesus is the story of the love which the early Christians had for Jesus; they believed that their love for Jesus could drive the continuous transformation, transfiguration, metamorphosis of their lives toward the higher values which could help in the continuous process of surpassing of themselves in future states.
Today, we are welcomed to the transfiguration of our lives through our love of Jesus Christ. May this love always beckon us to higher values as we seek to surpass ourselves in future states. Amen.