Prayers for Lent 2022

Holy Saturday, April 16, 2022

Almighty God, we remember today that Jesus, the farmer, harrowed the regions of hell in the nether journey of his death.  In preaching good news to all the prior dead, he restored the communion of the people of the past with the people of the present. Thank you Jesus for being a cosmic traveler throughout time and throughout all that is and has been visible and invisible.  Thank you for making good news accessible to every place in creation.  Amen.

Good Friday, April 15, 2022

My God, our God, why have we so often forsaken you and each other with terrible harming behaviors driving people to a trapped loneliness with no apparent intervening aid and comfort?  We denounce the forces which oppress to herd people into the experience of forsakenness, and we ask for the grace to be those who are gifted to keep people in the comfort and esteem of community aid.  Amen.

Maundy Thursday, April 14, 2022

Gracious God, your Son gave us the Eucharist to eat together in public and in so doing you gave us the accountability to make sure that everyone has enough to eat.  Help us not to divorce the ritualized bread and wine from the daily bread and the cup of life joy which all people need.  Amen.

Wednesday in Holy Week, April 13, 2022

God, who comprehends all changes and variations in life, your Son Jesus had three days of significant transitions in his life, and in the different conditions which he bore, he provided a place of spiritual identity for us to abide in as we faces the many transitions in our personal and community life.  Give us grace always to understand the optimism of hope as being the driving energy of change.  Amen.

Tuesday in Holy Week, April 12, 2022

God of the full range of probabilities in the field of freedom, we focus this week on the worst of what can go wrong as a way cherishing the days in our mortality, and as we mourn what has gone wrong and prepare for what can go wrong, we always keep open the power of our lives being surprised by, punctuated by the hope which inspires the analgesic of joy.  As we walk the way of sorrow, let us not forget the Hope that lies before us.  Amen.

 Monday in Holy Week, April 11, 2022

Lord Jesus Christ, we walk with you in sorrow this week for our world, for the suffering in Ukraine, for the evil roles which soldiers are compelled to act because of the evil orders of a deranged powerful person.  And if we don't walk toward resurrection, the grief would hinder us from the work of overcoming evil with good.  Grant us strength in the work of good, O Christ.  Amen.

Palm Sunday and Sunday of the Passion, April 10, 2022

God who bears the diversity of the freedom of humanity, on this day we survey the different crowds of people who received Jesus as king and who mocked you as a pretending king ruling from a cross.  Give us the consistent character to enthrone in our lives the Risen Christ of love and justice for this world.  Amen.

Saturday in the Fifth Week of Lent, April 9, 2022

Gracious God, who suffers and dies with us because you honor the moral significance of true freedom given to humanity; let the power of the cross and suffering be seen in our spiritual transformation to die to all that is unworthy in us because of our selfish formation which does not manifest impulse control in the sublimation of the gift of desire as the energy of our lives.  Let us learn how to make our desire be the energy for love, goodness, kindness, and justice.  Amen.

Friday in the Fifth Week of Lent, April 8, 2022

God of omnipresence, who uses human presence to make apparent your care; help us to accept our roles to be the apparent presence of your love and care for the people whose life experience leaves them feeling forsaken.  Grant us to be real presences of Christ in our world.  Amen.

Thursday in the Fifth Week of Lent, April 7, 2022

O God, whose power is counter-intuitive to the power images of humanity; help us to understand humility, love, kindness, justice, care, empathy, and patience as the expression of divine power in a world which is ever in need of proving moral and spiritual significance in the true freedoms which have been given to us.  Amen.

Wednesday in the Fifth Week of Lent, April 6, 2022

God, our Great Expanding Container, in that you allow our freedom to genuinely contribute to your future Self-Surpassing States; give us grace to fill the divine environment with goodness, love, and justice so that the majority of goodness as normalcy can be seen to triumph over the deprivation of goodness, called evil.  In the name of your sustaining grace we pray.  Amen.

 Tuesday in the Fifth Week of Lent, April 5, 2022

God of Power and Might, strong even to be in conflict with human notions of power and might; teach us to learn from war not to do it anymore instead of using our creative energies to do war in more devastating way.  Teach us that the greatness of power is to be creative in our social, economic and technological lives to care for one another, especially the poor and the underrepresented.  Amen.

Monday in the Fifth Week of Lent, April 4, 2022, Commemorating the Martyrdom of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Gracious God of freedom, such freedom allowed the untimely death of your servant Martin Luther King, Jr., even as we know the dynamic witness of his message of justice, love, and peace has inspired many people.  We ask for the day when there will be no martyrs needed, when your reign of peace orchestrates the lives of all people.  Amen.

The Fifth Sunday in Lent, April 3, 2022

Christ, the Eternal Word, whose presence is as obvious and as close as the words which are always, already constituting our lives; help us like Mary of Bethany to honor your presence by placing ourselves under the feet of your continual presence with the perfume of our contemplation, so that we can arise and attend to the poor who are always with us because of our own human greed.  Amen.

Saturday in Fourth Week in Lent, April 2, 2022

God of patience, for humanity when we cannot keep ourselves from harming each others in degrading ways, even to causing the many untimely deaths and injuries because of war, we ask for the wise to intervene and keep the triggers from being pull or the arms of destruction being propelled against the innocent and undefended.  Teach us to study war no more.  Amen.

Friday in the Fourth Week in Lent, April 1, 2022

Wise God and Eternal Word, let us be fools for Christ, if it means discerning between the inward truth experiences which change our lives toward the helpful wisdom of manifesting love and justice in our lives.  Forgive us the foolishness for the times when we do not present the wisdom of you as the omni-Becoming giver of genuine freedom who is comfortable enough with using love's lure to convince us to use our freedom in the best way for the care of our world and for the practice of love and justice with each other.  Amen.

Thursday in the Fourth Week in Lent, March 31, 2022

Almighty God, how is it that 7.9 billion people cannot stop one person who destroys people, environment, and his own soldiers and country?  Could not one person be inspired to intervene and enable our world to begin to heal from a terrible war?  Humanity is willing to allow one life to be regarded to be worth more than billions of other people.  We pray for help on behalf of 7.9 billion powerless people.  Amen.

Wednesday in the Fourth Week in Lent, March 30, 2022

O Cornerstone of our lives, Jesus, you wept over Jerusalem as a presaged textual musing of its complete destruction.  We and you weep over the bombed out and destroyed cities of Ukraine and we hope for rebuilt cities in Ukraine inspired by the interior symbol of the new Jerusalem being a universal inspiration for renewal of the human family needing each other and you in living together in peace.  Amen.

Tuesday in the Fourth Week in Lent, March 29, 2022

God of our resurrected future reconstitutions in the divine eternal memory; like Lazarus who lived again, we live again in identity with the Risen Christ even before we physically die.  We thank you for the assurance of future reconstitution of ourselves in our afterlives, even as this knowledge gives us pre-death hope now.  Amen.

Monday in the Fourth Week in Lent, March 28, 2022

Eternal Christ, your Jesus feet were anointed by a woman of excessive love; give us the grace to find the direction of our excess as a way of transforming tendency to lack impulse control in our lives.  Let the direction of our love excess toward you reorganize all of the energies of our lives.  Amen.

The Fourth Sunday in Lent, March 27, 2022

Loving God, we confess that we have often been prodigal in our ways, but also proudly judgmental of others whose spiritual paths are different than our own. Teach us to be like you as a loving parent who welcomes all and who is coaxing everyone to accept their heritage as being made in the image of God.  Grant that the rising of the Christ nature in everyone and everything will bring eventual harmonies.  Amen.

Saturday in the Third Week of Lent, March 26, 2022

God of Freedom in Time, the seeming impossible task with freedom and time is to find harmonious timing when harm is avoided and with timing as aging with phases having expiration dates before their transitions, what is our task when faced with many significant transitions in time?  Help us to preserve good timing in the transitions which happen in life and protect all from human caused transitions to death, especially the violence of war.  Amen.

 Friday in the Third Week of Lent, March 25, 2022

God, on this commemoration of the announcement of  the impending conception of the Christ Christ, let the announcement ring eternal in Christ being born within all people and let the Christ nature rise up in all to bring about the peace which our world so badly needs.  Amen.

Thursday in the Third Week of Lent, March 24, 2022

God who inspires good shepherds, after the witness of Jesus; please save this world from megalomaniacal, narcissistic leaders who lead millions astray for their own pride and wealth, and let us know the peace of leaders who care for their people.  Amen.

 Wednesday in the Third Week of Lent, March 23, 2022

Eternal Word of God, you have left us with the task of interpreting al words and how we do it results in how we treat each other.  Help us to interpret all words of life through the lenses of love and justice, through Christ the Eternal Word of God.  Amen.

Tuesday in the Third Week of Lent, March 22, 2022

O God of the Bible, we have inherited a presentation of you as of old being associated with war and taking sides among tribes which fought; In Jesus you submitted to the tyranny of an Empire and left us his impossible words of loving enemies and being good to those who do us harm.  And we do not find much about defending the vulnerable, but Scripture indicates that you defend the poor and the needy and Jesus had harsh words for those who treated children badly.  We beseech the defending Lord of the needy to apply such defense today on behalf of the people of Ukraine.  Amen.

Monday in the Third Week of Lent, March 21, 2022

Gracious God, we live in Nature's clock and we embrace a new spring with the joy that encompasses more than just what is happy in our lives today.  How can we be joyful about falling bombs on the innocent, unless we balance the deeply degrading with all of the heroic which has arisen.  We are joyful for the heroes in Ukraine who never wanted to be heroes in the way that they are, and we ask for a blessing with hope for their heroism today.  Amen.

The Third Sunday in Lent, March 20, 2022

God of great permissive freedom, we ask for the ability of self correction of the free systems in our world so that when evil is given such singular power to harm so many, there may be a rallying of the forces of goodness to expel and end the reign of such concentrated evil.  Let this expulsion of the evil occur for the safety of the innocent.  Amen.

Saturday in the Second Week of Lent, March 19, 2022

God, our sustainer, we hypocritically ask you to sustain even as we do not practice good sustaining habits for the extended life of the world, and especially as horrendous war takes away from duration in sustainability of our planet.  Help us to cherish earth and life on it as our spiritual sacrifice to be pleasing to you, and respectful of others.  Amen.

Friday in the Second Week of Lent, March 18, 2022

God of all power, accurate power, deploy your smart bombs which release atmospheric love and inner love into the warring sides of people, and let your holy angels deliver such smart love speedily, in the name of the gift of love to us Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Thursday in the Second Week of Lent, March 17, 2022

God of all people, who brings love and calling to people in diverse ways; we thank you for Patrick, though a slave in Ireland, came to love the people so much that he was called to return even after his freedom.  We ask for love and calling from Christ to free everyone from slavery, and experience the reconciliation of honest mutual love of people from diverse backgrounds.  Amen.

Wednesday in the Second Week of Lent, March 16, 2022

God, we are dealing with our failure to be able to control the widespread destruction of bombs on innocent people through the concentration of power in one person to destroys so many people and their supporting environments.  Human laws have left us in helpless stalemates to stop tyrants, and we appeal to your high power aid for those who are dying, even as we know that Jesus lived with the tyrants of his time.  We seek an end to tyrants in the name of Jesus.  Amen.

Tuesday in the Second Week of Lent, March 15, 2022

God, we commit to you the person or persons who decide and have the power to indiscriminately bomb helpless people;  we ask for an Ides of March moment that can bring an end to those who for no reason but devilish, and cruel power let the banality of bombing destroy peoples' lives and environments.  We invoke the restraining angels on behalf of the those in harm's way.  Amen.

Monday in the Second Week of Lent, March 14, 2022

Gracious God, let war but be the poignant contrast of the state of war ceasing and people beginning to recover normal life in the conditions of peace.  Let war be but the reminder of what we never want to occur, and bring war to an end in the name of Jesus.  Amen.

The Second Sunday in Lent, March 13, 2022

Gracious God, in the words of Jesus, he could wish to be a mothering hen caring for her brood; whatever is perfect about mothering, is what we need in our world today as there are many vulnerable who need to be protected from the results of war and abuse.  We ask that the presence of a mothering God would be known through just and mercy mutual mothering of people in world today.  Amen.

Saturday in the First Week in Lent, March 12, 2022

O Divine Expanding Container of All, who because of true freedom, allow all lesser free agents to make genuine free contributions to the expanding Context; we ponder the freedom of human agents to wage war especially when the human atrocities rise to such opposite extremes of our preferred definition of you as Love.  We ask for love to begin to win the day, in our hearts, but also even in the hearts of the tyrants who may be contemplating being the last person alive.  Let your love even convert the lonely tyrant who is afraid of more people doing more loving of each other.  We ask for the rise of people caring for each other in such an abundance as to overthrow the monopoly on power of the tyrant. Amen.

Friday in the First Week in Lent, March 11, 2022

O God, we have to adjust our providence of your care for the well-being of the people who are victims of war to the afterlives of those who have died, since they have been cut off from completing their prior opportunity to live to at least the probable average age in achieving a natural death.  Your timelessness embraces the seen and invisible world of the continuing identities of those who have died; we ask for the comfort for the people who have lost family and friends and the places of their homes.  In our helplessness in the face of our own inhumanity, we ask for your help.  Amen.

Thursday in the First Week in Lent, March 10, 2022

O God of peace, convert the warmongers to the ways of peace by exposing the sheer waste of human lives and the environments where people live.  War is its own punishment to the offenders and to those forced to defend and we ask for the offending leaders to be restored to right mindedness or interdicted so that the lives of the innocent can be saved.  O God of angelic messengers, let your angelic messages of peace swamp and spam the warring minds until peace convert them to the reasonable common good of all.  Amen.

Wednesday in the First Week in Lent, March 9, 2022

Holy Jesus, your words relayed in the early church were conferring a blessing on the peacemakers.  We ponder the dilemma of being peacemakers and dying to establish that peace and the right for peace-loving people to defend themselves and their children.  There can be a peace in accepting servitude to tyrants and a peace without equality of love between neighbors is not really the peace of Christ.  Let the peace of equality prevail in Ukraine and in our world and let the tyrant become converted to an equal mutual loving neighbor.  This is peace we seek.  Amen.

Tuesday in the First Week in Lent, March 8, 2022

Holy Jesus, to whom we attribute the martial arts of the beatitudes as a way for oppressed people to survive oppression; inspire the defense of the people of Ukraine as they are attacked and bombed without cause except the sheer singular desire of one man to subjugate.  Holy defender of the weak and vulnerable; let your protection be made known today.  Amen.

Monday in the First Sunday of Lent, March 7, 2022

God of Word and Language, we find ourselves using language hyperbolically and stereotypically to write off entire groups of people because of the behaviors of but a few; as truth is a victim in war, let us be honest about our tendency to cover truth in stereotypes which victimizes many people wrongly, and allows tyrants to falsely claim unanimity.  Restore us in the truth of honest in our use of words.  Amen.

First Sunday in Lent, March 6, 2022

God, whose will is not for innocent suffering to happen, in freedom you have permitted humanity to reveal its cruelty to ourselves.  Let the inhumanity of cruel war be exposed once and for all as no way to value human life and living, and may the Holy Spirit as an interior force of conviction bring all people in power to peace.  Amen.

1st Saturday in Lent, March 5, 2022

O God, when innocent people are dying in an aggressive war, and we are helpless from afar, we can only asks you to do an inside job on people who are ruled by a motive to cause harm to the innocent.  We ask for speedy interdiction in manifold ways to save the innocent.  Amen.

1st Friday in Lent, March 4, 2022

O God, whom we call powerful perhaps because of your restraint when humanity's behavior is at its worst; we ask for your higher power resolution when the world is held hostage by a person devoid of empathy except for his own immediate power needs.  We ask for the malfunction of the war machines of the aggressors who seek to harm innocent people for the selfish gain of one person.  We ask for wisdom in the resolution for one who has been trapped by his own hubris and has come to believe that destroying another country is his only way out.  Good Lord, deliver us from this evil and spare the innocent.  Amen.

1st Thursday in Lent, March 3, 2022

God of freedom, we often feel abandoned to the consequences of our own actions, especially in the fog of war.  Give those who who cause harm a vision of the children in this world for whom we want to leave this world as a better place.   Give our leaders a vision of life for those of the future and interdict the harmful war guided by singular narcissism of evil and corrupt power.  Amen.

Ash Wednesday, March 2, 2022

God who mixed dust with deity to make us, we place ashes as icons of our future bodies upon our foreheads and we mourn the eventual separation of spirit from our dust-to-become bodies.  Teach us to during this season of Lent to honor the original formula of our composition as we seek to honor the divine image on our lives, and upon all existence.  Amen

Eucharist and Service Go Together

Maundy Thursday April 14, 2022
Ex. 12:1-14a Ps. 78:14-20, 23-25
1 Cor 11:23-32 John 13:1-15

Lectionary Link

The liturgical cycles of the church and our phases of spiritual identification are tied to what might be called the transitions in the life of Jesus Christ.  And the most intense days of transition are found in the Paschal Triduum, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil.

We begin the Paschal Triduum tonight, and even though we know the end of the story, we retrace the events with dynamic memory as we hope that the power of these events will continue to affect us and influence our lives in excellence.

As a church, our identity as a community which have survived in the continuity for 2000 years are attached to the two events of Maundy Thursday.

Our identity as a church is being a Eucharistic Church; a church whose most literal social reality is seen when we gather to break bread together.  We are grateful that the Eucharist has helped to keep us together for so many years, so grateful, as to recall that Eucharist means gratitude, thanksgiving, and our very life together is built upon thanksgiving for the life of Jesus Christ.  The church, beginning with St. Paul's writings and the writings of the Gospel, believed that Jesus associated himself with the bread and wine of a meal, and gave us the gift of a ritual identity with him forever.  Do this as oft as you eat, in remembrance of me.  This ritualized presence of Christ to us is a real presence, a significant presence, a giving presence, a corporately experienced presence, and a touching and powerful presence.  The institution of this special ritualized and repeated and continuing presence of Christ in the Eucharist is what we celebrate tonight.  Holy Communion is a renewing event which we practice with Jesus Christ in our goal to be identified with his life and his values.  We are communicants in the church because together we communicate with Christ and each other in this event.

Someone one asked me if I had every excommunicated someone, that is, refused to give them communion.  I said, "no but I have experienced many excommunications."  Just begging to be asked what I meant.  The most excommunications that I have experienced are what I call "self excommunications," when people quit coming to the Mass to receive communion.  I've seen it happen more times than I would like to admit.  I think self-excommunication happens because of failing to understand the second feature of Maundy Thursday, the feature which gives Maundy its name.  From the Latin, mandatum novum,  the new commandment.  And what is the new commandment: To love each other as Christ has loved us.  And how did Jesus exemplify such love?  In the footwashing of his disciples.  The new commandment is the commandment to serve one another.  This is what happens when we are thankful for the life of Jesus.  Eucharist means thanksgiving, and when we do not understand that Eucharist and Service are tied together in an intimate way, we can be on a path of "self excommunication."

We are here tonight to hold together Eucharist and Service as chief values of the identity of our community that have derived from Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.  I thank you for honoring your communication with Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, and I thank you for every act of service, every act of footwashing that you have done to make the witness of the love of Jesus Christ a reality at St. Mary's in the Valley.

Thank you for your service in the name of Christ.  Thank you for being faithful to the real and ritualize presence of Jesus in this Holy Communion.  Amen.

Eucharist and Service are Essences of the Church

Maundy Thursday April 1, 2020

Ex. 12:1-14a Ps. 78:14-20, 23-25
1 Cor 11:23-32 John 13:1-15


When writers were writing about Jesus decades after he left this earth, as much as they might want to pretend to forget what happened in those decades, history cannot be written without acknowledging that the conditions of the writers are more prominent than the actual events in the life of Jesus.

Why?  The writers are presenting Jesus in ways that indicate why the churches came to their practices decades after Jesus was gone.

What were the churches like when John's Gospel was written?  They were groups spread throughout the cities of the Roman Empire.  They had become "social clubs, private house clubs" integrating Jews who followed the teachings of Jesus with Gentiles who also had come to have a spiritual experience of the Risen Christ by the Holy Spirit.

How did the early churches stay together?  By the meal of the fellowship.  When they met they ate together as a way of guaranteeing that all members had enough to eat, but also with the "tag on" of the sacred meal of the Holy Eucharist.  They believed that eating together in the name of Jesus and reciting the words of this is my body over the bread, and this is my blood over the wine,  was a way to keep the gathered people reconstituted in the presence of the Risen Christ.

And this practice was associated with the command of Jesus to "do this as oft as they ate and drank in remembrance of him."  Maundy Thursday, is the commemoration of Jesus instituting the Holy Eucharist as the continuing social reconstituting the church again and again in each gathering.

What did those early social church clubs of diverse people need to stay together?  They could only survive through service.  If everyone lived ego lives of being "bosses and chiefs," then the dishes wouldn't get done nor the trash taken out.  When Jesus washed feet, he was saying, "I'm you're boss and I am also your servant."  Now you too, check your egos and serve each other.  This is the secret to how you can survive and thrive as a community.

Eucharist and Service, that the essence of Maundy Thursday.  It is still today two of the key ingredients in our lives now.

Let us continue to break bread together to realize the presence to Christ who was the servant and taught us service.  Amen.

Why the Weakness of God is Strength of Another Order

Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday  C     April 10, 2022
Is. 50: 4-9a        Ps. 31: 9-16         
Phil. 2:5-11       Luke 23:1-49  

Lectionary Link

 

The genocide in war that is taking place in Ukraine now is the last in a historical train of mass slaughter of people by other people for no other reason than one group with power find another group of people inconvenient to their lives, so their solution is to get rid of the people or at least dominate them into oppression, totalitarian control, and slavery.

We as people of European descent know our own history of how our nation has come into existence in practices that have come to be called genocide.   And genocide was not really defined as such until after the great holocaust of the World War II era in Europe, Eastern Europe and in Stalin's Russia.

As we agonize daily over the killing of the innocent in Ukraine for no reason at all, we are forced to ponder the non-intervention habits of the Great One whom we confess to be God.

The words of Psalm 22, which were carried onto the words of Jesus from the cross, echo for us again.  "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"  My God, my God, why have you forsaken us?  My God, my God, why have you forsaken the people of Ukraine?

And it is really the wrong question, isn't it?  The real questions are these: All you people, who conspired against Me, Jesus, as God's messenger of Peace and Love, why have you forsaken me and brought me to death? People of the earth, why do you often forsake each other with extreme acts of inhumanity committed against each other?

And these real questions regarding the freedom for human beings to do really awful things to each other, begs the theological question:  God, why do you allow us to behave so badly without intervening?  Even a  good earthly parent intervenes when a bully child is threatening a weaker child?

And this brings us to the topic of the weakness of God, which is a strength and power of another order.

Why the weakness of God seen as God's non-action and seeming passivity in face of massive human bullying?

The weakness of God is seen chiefly within the inner contradiction of the Divine life.  And what is that contradiction?  God is perfect freedom, pure creativity, and for creation to share something of the divine nature, means that a degree of that freedom has to be shared with the created order for creation not to be but a robot.  If God intervenes as direct external intervention, then morality based upon having true freedom has no significance.

God's apparent weakness in allowing genuine freedom is contrasted with God's greatness of being the entire sustaining environment within which all actors of the created order live.

So why do these events of genocide and wrongful deaths and harm seem significant?  Evil in its individual performance is like the news.  How so?  Badness and evil get more attention on the news than just plain everyday ordinary goodness.  So Evil gets a megaphone and can present the lie that evil is indeed "normal."  No, evil gets the megaphone of recognition precisely because it is the exception from the general normalcy of goodness.

But for those in the throes of evil, like the people of Ukraine, it is hard to feel the normalcy of goodness; it feels like forsakenness, it feels like goodness and the God of goodness are not apparent in this specific instance.

So, what is our response?  First we continue to uphold the normalcy of Goodness and the God of Goodness.  Next, we teach the real significance of moral freedom, which proves that we are not predetermined robots; we are significant moral agents.  And we recognize the heroic goodness which even now is responding to the terrible evils; people of goodness rally to provide defense, provide help for refugees, provide food, provide political pressure to end this.  As bad as this evil is, the heroic of the assertion of goodness is even more powerful, and we pray that in time this goodness will reassert itself as the goodness of peace and restoration for the people of Ukraine.

Yes, we would rather that heroic goodness in the face of evil not be needed.  We wish that people always and everywhere could be convinced about the superior excellence of kindness and goodness.  But freedom means that evil probabilities can always lurk, which is why we want to be at the task of persuading people about the Gospel of Goodness about the love of God in Christ.

What happened to the event of the forsakenness of Jesus on the Cross?  It became in St. Paul the message of heroic goodness being undefeated by the event of death.  The death of Jesus because a spiritual identity for the early Christians who in the general oppression of the Roman Empire, often felt like sheep being led to the slaughter.  Identity with the death of Jesus as a spiritual practice became the means of learning how to convert our freedom to express the goodness of God and to reject the evil selfishness in its minor and major forms.

The cross of Jesus became a spiritual method to access the inside job that God's Holy Spirit would use to help us promote and live the normalcy of goodness that is proclaimed since creation when God created everything and said, "Everything and you are Good."  Now go live in that goodness and learn to die to every unworthy impulse which challenges that Goodness.

The greater power of God's restraint to honor true freedom and moral significance is seen in the power of the Holy Spirit to be the inside job that God is always, already doing within us to be perpetually overcoming evil with goodness.

Our mission of the Cross of Jesus today is this: when and where God and goodness seem to be inapparent in the lives of people today, let us rise to be the apparent love and goodness of God and so help restore the normalcy of goodness to each life situation.  Amen.

Sunday School, April 10, 2022 Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday

 Sunday School, April 10, 2022   Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday

Themes

Explain the two meanings of this day, Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday

The day of two crowds

One crowd of the followers of Jesus who came to Jerusalem perhaps from Galilee and the countryside wanted to make him the king of Jerusalem.

The people in Jerusalem who received most of their jobs by being employed in the building projects of the Roman government, were worried about the people who wanted to make Jesus a king.  The people in Jerusalem were worried about the Roman soldiers punishing them because of the popularity of Jesus.

During the day time the crowd with Jesus had their parade.  They put him on a donkey and celebrated him as their king.

At night Jesus was taken by the authorities and arrested and put on trial.  The crowd who went to the trial were a different crowd.  And they wanted to get rid of Jesus and so they told the Roman governor that Jesus was trying to be a rival king to Caesar, the Emperor in Rome.

The Roman government put people on a Cross to die in public so all people would be reminded not to rebel against the Roman government.

Jesus really did not want to be a rival king to the Caesar, he wanted to become a “king of hearts.”  He wanted to be someone who ruled the thoughts and feelings of all people with love and kindness.

Let us wave palm branches today to remind ourselves that Jesus is the king of our hearts.

A Palm Sunday Story

Once upon a time in a village near the city of Jerusalem, the village of Bethphage; a little donkey was born in the pasture.  And that donkey was called by his owner, Shorty, because he was so tiny when he was born.

  But the donkey’s mom, called him Christopher.  When Christopher became old enough to talk to his mom, he asked her, "Why does my owner call me Shorty, even now when I've grown to be a tall and strong donkey?"  Christopher's mom said, "Well once you get a name, it sometimes just sticks and people won't let you be anything else."

  Christopher asked his mom, "Then why do you call me Christopher?"  His mom said, "Well, I'm not sure but I just had this feeling that it was the right name for you."

  Christopher looked in the other pasture and he saw a beautiful big stallion prancing around.  He saw important Roman Generals ride this beautiful horse.  And Christopher thought, "I wish that someone important would ride on my back some day.  And Christopher was a little jealous of the stallion.

  But one day something exciting happened to Christopher.  Two visitors came to the farm where Christopher was kept.  They called themselves disciples of Jesus, and they said there was going to be a parade into the great city of Jerusalem.  They also said that they needed a donkey to carry their king.  Christopher's owner Farmer Jacob, said, "I've got two donkeys, that jennet over there and her colt that I call "Shorty."  If Jesus needs the donkeys, take them.  Jesus is my friend, he healed my son, and I owe him everything I have."

  So the two disciples took Christopher and his mom with them and they went to a place just in front of the sheep gate in Jerusalem.  There was a large crowd gathered who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover Holiday.  After waiting for about an hour, the crowd soon got excited.  Jesus arrived and it was time for the parade to start.  The people put some robes on Christopher to make a saddle for Jesus.  Christopher had never been ridden before, and he was nervous.  But Christopher's mom said, "Calm down, Jesus is the nicest man in the world.  You don't need to buck him off."

  Jesus Climbed up on the back of Christopher and the parade started.  The people took some branches from some palm trees and they began to wave and shout and scream, because their superstar was there.  They followed Jesus as he was riding Christopher into the city of Jerusalem and Christopher trotted proudly through the streets.  This was the happiest day of his life.  At night, he and his mom were tied up at the house of one of the disciples in Jerusalem.  Christopher's mom was proud of him and she said, "Well now I know why I named you Christopher.  "Christopher" means, "the one who carries Christ."  And today you have carried Christ on your back, so today you have lived up to your name."  Christopher was so happy he wanted hee haw with joy.  But his happiness didn't last too long.

  He looked out on the street and he saw another parade.  In the darkness he saw a tired and naked Jesus walking with soldiers.  And the soldiers were forcing him to carry this large wooden cross on his back.  He was bleeding and he was too weak to carry the cross, so at one place they forced a man named Simon to carry the cross for Jesus.  The people who were following the soldiers were laughing and making fun of Jesus.  They were saying, "you're going to die Jesus.  You were just pretending to be a king, but you don't have any power, you're going to die Jesus."

  Christopher ran to his mom and said, "If I had known that this would happen to Jesus, I would not have brought him to Jerusalem."

  Christopher's mom said, "It is a terrible, terrible thing, but we must trust God.  Jesus is the best and nicest person who ever lived and God will take care of him.

  Well, Jesus went on to die on the cross.  And he was buried in a grave.  But does the story does not end here.  Come back next week and we will tell you the end of the story.  What happened to Jesus after he died and was put in the grave?

  What was the donkey's name?  Christopher.  What does Christopher mean?  It means "The one who carries Christ."  In a way, every Christian could be called Christopher.  Because you and I are asked to carry the presence of Christ into this world by being nice and kind.  Amen.

An intergenerational family Holy Eucharist

April 14, 2019: Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday

Gathering Songs: Hosanna, Hosanna in the Highest!; The King of Glory Comes, Were You There?; Hosanna! Hosanna!

Liturgist: Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins.

People: His mercy endures forever.  Amen.

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

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

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

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Opening Song: Hosanna, Hosanna in the Highest! (Renew! # 71)

Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest!  Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest! 

Lord we lift up your name with hearts full of praise;

Be exalted, oh Lord my God! Hosanna in the highest!

Glory, Glory, glory to the King of kings! Glory, Glory, glory to the King of kings!

Lord we lift up you name with hearts full of praise;

Be exalted oh Lord my God! Glory to the King of kings!

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Assist us with your mercy and help, O Lord God of our salvation that we may enter with joy as we think about your mighty acts, which have given us life and an everlasting future; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen

First Litany of Praise: Hosanna

O God, you are Great!  Hosanna

O God, you have made us! Hosanna

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Hosanna

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Hosanna

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Hosanna

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Hosanna

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

A Reading from the letter of Paul to the Philippians

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-- even death on a cross.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 118

On this day the LORD has acted; *we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Hosanna, LORD, Hosanna! *LORD, send us now success.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; *we bless you from the house of the LORD.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God!

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.

After telling a parable to the crowd at Jericho, Jesus went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, "Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it.'" So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" They said, "The Lord needs it." Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!" Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, order your disciples to stop." He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father Phil

Children’s Creed

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

Since God is so great and we are so small,

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

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

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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

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

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

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

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

  

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

People:                        And also with you.

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

Offertory Song: The King of Glory, (Renew # 267)

Refrain: The King of glory comes, the nation rejoices. 

            Open the gates before him, lift up your voices.

1          Who is the king of glory; how shall we call him?  He is Emmanuel, the promised of ages. Refrain

2          In all of Galilee, in city or village, he goes among his people curing their illness. Refrain

3          Sing then of David’s son, our Savior and brother; in all of Galilee was never another. Refrain

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 the celebration of our birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

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

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

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

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

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

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

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

(All may gather around the altar)

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

You have made us in your image

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

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

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

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

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

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

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Children rejoin their parents and take up their instruments)

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

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

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

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

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

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

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:       Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast. 

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Were You There? (#172, blue hymnal)

1. Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

2. Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? …

3. Were you there when they pierced him in the side? …

4. Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? …

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: Hosanna! Hosanna, (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 102)

Hosanna!  Hosanna!  The little children sing.  Hosanna! Hosanna! For Christ, the Lord, is King. 

Prepare the way, the children sing, Hosanna to our Lord and King. 

Hosanna!  Hosanna! The little children sing.  (repeat)

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Adult Siblings of Bethany Who Live Together

5 Lent C April 6, 2019
Is.43:16-21 Ps.126
Phil.3:8-14 Luke 20:9-19

Lectionary Link

The three adult siblings of Bethany, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, apparently live together in the same home.  We have no information about any of them being married, though it would be perhaps unusual for us to think of three older unmarried siblings living together.  But that's our problem and lack of full information.

What do the Gospels tell us about the Bethany siblings?  Well Lazarus is not mentioned in Matthew, Mark, or Luke, and only in John.

Mary and Martha show up in the Gospel of Luke, where Mary is presented as the contemplative sitting in awe at the feet of Jesus.  And Martha is the huffy hostess who wishes that Mary would not space out on Jesus so much and come and help with the food preparation.

And then we have the shocking and embarrassing PDA, Public display of affection.  Mary appears to be acting out, out of control, overwhelmed with devotion.  She enters the room where Jesus is with his disciples being served a meal by Martha.  What did she do?  She did Maundy Thursday for Jesus before Holy Week had even happened.  Did Jesus get his foot-washing idea from Mary of Bethany, and the other women who washed his feet?  Though Jesus just used water, not tears and perfume on his disciples.

Mary, not only anointed feet of Jesus with expensive perfume, she wiped them with her hair, symbolically her crown of glory.  She was putting the very top of her being, at the lowest part of the physical presence of Jesus, expressing reverence and a sense of unworthiness.

All of this would have been embarrassing in a culture where men and women were segregated, and in any public meetings the women would be veiled.  Yes, the disciples probably did not understand, and Judas addressed the awkwardness by saying, "Why did you waste such expensive perfume for this?  Such money could have been spent on the poor."

So, I've tried to get us to intuit the feelings as if we were there is such an actual situation.

But what is the textual situation for the writer of John's Gospel about the reality of the Jesus Movement?  No other Gospel has this event or the return to life of Lazarus.  (rather memorable don't you think to be left out of the other three Gospels which were written long before John's Gospel?  Quite scoop missed wouldn't you say?) 

Can we appreciate that the Gospels were written quite a few years after the first writings of St. Paul.  St. Paul was  the mystic who characterized the life of the followers of Jesus as those who lived in a mystical identity with the death and the resurrection of Christ.  And even though they lived on this earth, they had been mystically raised to be seated with Christ in heavenly places.  Paul as a mystic believe he was a citizen of heaven even as he lived on earth.  Paul believed that he lived resurrection life before he had died.

But how did this early mysticism of Paul get put in a narrative form in the later Gospels?  The mystical identity of Christ became encoded in the presentation of a physical life of Jesus, as a parable, and the mystics of the church were the ones who knew the meanings behind the presentations of the physical life of Jesus.

And what is the mystical meaning of the presentation of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in the Gospel of John?

John was written after the Gospel of Luke, and Luke does contain a man name Lazarus in a parable of Jesus.  Lazarus was a leper who begged at the doorstep of a rich man.  They both died; Lazarus went to be with Abraham and the rich man went to Hades, but he could speak with Abraham.  He ask Abraham to send Lazarus back to warn his brothers who were still alive.  And Abraham said if they don't believe Moses and the prophets, they won't believe Lazarus if he were to return from the dead.

And what does the writer of John Gospel do?  He tells a parable about Lazarus and Jesus.  Jesus brought Lazarus back from the dead, and the religious people knew this but they sought to kill Jesus because of this.

It is an amazing literary interaction; a parable told by Jesus is instantiated in a parable about Jesus and Lazarus.  And the declaration of Abraham in the parable is confirmed.  People won't believe even if someone returns from the dead.

This was descriptive of many people who did not believe after the witness of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus.

But what happened to the people who encountered the Risen Lord?  St. Paul encountered the Risen Lord, and he came to believe that he had been resurrected from the life of sin and come under the life and law of the Spirit.

Can we see how the Mary, Martha, Lazarus and Jesus parable in John's Gospel encapsulates this mystical reality which St. Paul wrote about.

Lazarus represents the receiving of resurrection life even though he knew would die again, and stay dead.  The excessive devotion of Mary for Jesus is expressive of a profoundly, irrational devotion to this experience of receiving resurrection life from our sins before we die.  Mary is devoted to the Christ who makes resurrection life possible even when we know that like Lazarus we are going to physically die.

Can we appreciate how this parable so wonderfully encapsulates the mystical unity with Christ, with his death, and his resurrection as proclaimed by Paul.

What is the Gospel here?  Take our best perfume and anoint the very best thing in life, namely the source who gives us resurrection life before we die.  And wash it with the hair on your head, (if you had any), but symbolically allowing our heads to be the resting place for Christ means we live under the highest and best experience of our lives.  And we do it in all that we experience, yes even when the poor and hungry aren't yet all feed and taken care of.  Yes, even in the middle of a terrible war going on.  In good times and bad times as we whistle ourselves towards death, we whistles, but I have life, resurrected life even now.

Like Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, we are all siblings of the resurrected life of Christ because we know it by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So let us smell up our lives with the resurrection perfume of Jesus Christ.  Amen.