Sunday, June 5, 2022

Prayers for Easter, 2022

Sunday, The Day of Pentecost, June 5, 2022

God of all and in all, we look for what is most interior about our interiors.  In vain we look for precise causation since it rests upon so many unknowable precedences and we feel limited to the surfaces which language creates by naming.  As we flit from words referring to other words, help us to accept our lives as language art lived before the Holy Spirit whom we presume to be beneath the surface of every word.  Amen.

Saturday, Eve of Pentecost, June 4, 2022

Holy Spirit, you are the clean Heart of divine immanence which we seek as a resource to cleanse our interior springs which drive the motivations of our lives.  We confess you to be God Accessible to all and we want all to respond to the Accessibility of Holy Spirit as the Clean Heart of divine immanence.  Amen.

Friday after Ascension Sunday, June 3, 2022

God of Creative Plenitude, Redemptive specificity, and Holy Spirit personal glue of everything; teach us that since we are stuck together forever we need to learn to honor our connections with the best of love and justice.  Amen.

Thursday after Ascension Sunday, June 2, 2022

Gracious Knower of all possibilities, we thank you for being patient with our freedom for things to move from the possible to the actual; and so we pray that the perfect will of the heavenly actual will find expression in the hard actualities of the free conditions of our world that includes the probability of the clashes within infinite number of things in an oft seeming bumper car existence.  We ask for resilience to survive the clashes and for alchemical grace to see golden outcomes from the pre-golden developmental states.  Amen.

Wednesday, after Ascension Sunday, June 1, 2022

Holy Spirit, we do not see you and yet we confess your Being from your effects that are known in our world and life.  You may be the sub-microscopic sustainer of the world, even of those who violate their freedom with evil behaviors.  Inspire us to use your power of sustenance for the intervention of doing the good which overcome evil.  Amen.

Tuesday, The Visitation, May 31, 2021

Gracious God, we commemorate in the bonding of Elizabeth and Mary, that natural birth is marvelous, and spiritual birth carries with it the designation of miraculous since it comes with realization of being over-shadowed by the Holy Spirit for the knowing of Christ in the us, the hope of glory.  Let us know the spiritual birth which makes us poets to declare a Magnificat on behalf of all the lowly in our world. And let Blessed Mary lead us into the liberation of all who are vulnerable.  Amen.

Monday after Ascension Sunday, and Memorial Day, May 30, 2022

Lord Jesus Christ, you had the greater love to lay down your life for your friends; we are thankful for those who put themselves in the place to do the same, and we pray that we might live lives worthy of those who sacrificed their lives in the cause of love and justice.  Amen.

Ascension Sunday, May 29, 2022

Christ of the Ascension, it often seems that you have left the "Jesus on the Cross" forsakenness experience with us when we observe the needless slaughter of the innocent due to people of greed and power who seem to make guns omnipresent to be available to people who suffer anger and crazy whims.  Please help people who have much realize that much is required in the care of the vulnerable and let not greed be promoted as a virtue.  Amen.

Saturday after Ascension Day, May 28, 2022

Creator God, you could call all creation good because you regarded yourself to be Goodness and you impart goodness as the supernature of our lives.  Help us to live up to that goodness in what we do and say today.  Amen.

Friday after Ascension Day, May 27, 2022

Holy God, Jesus is gone from our sight but Christ is closer to us that we are to ourselves.  Give us grace to live from the Christ Nature within us that we cannot see but to whom we make available to be seen through and acted through.  Amen.

Ascension Day, May 26, 2022

Ascended Christ, we confess you to be the continuation of Jesus of Nazareth in an invisible mode but with returning effects found within all, and particularly within those who have discovered their personal identity formed and constituted within the story of One who sets us on the path to bring Risen Christ effects incarnate again in lives lived toward love and justice.  Amen.

Wednesday in 6 Easter, May 25, 2022

God, our parent, we ask what would Jesus pray in the midst of a prolonged war with the deaths of the innocent, and in the continuation of gun deaths affecting us in frequent intermittent events.  We observe the heavenly weakness in submitting to the condition of human freedoms to hurt each other by people unpersuaded by the wisdom of care and love for each other.  We ask for the preponderance of good in people to turn the tide against the freedom for people to be evil in hastening the deaths of others.  Amen.

Tuesday in 6 Easter, May 24, 2022

God of time, who made time and who becomes in time, let us not see the coming of Christ as second or final but as continual and serendipitously available at any moment in time to hearts open to the discovery of their original blessing.  Amen.

Monday in 6 Easter, May 23, 2022

Eternal Word, you inspire us to become more versatile in being worded-beings in your likeness; give us grace to know the language which has physical and outer objectivity and the language which has inward and spiritual objectivity, and teach us the spiritual objectivity which creates the concrete situations of love and justice in the exterior environments of our lives.  Amen.

Sunday, 6 Easter, May 22, 2022

Eternal God, many in our world are in need of an Advocate, a Holy Lawyer, a Holy Friend, who will make the case for their well-being to themselves and within their material and social situations.  As the suffering Job found his Redeemer, let the suffering people of our world today find the Redeemer Advocate tailored to the specifics of their needs.  Amen.

Saturday in 5 Easter, May 21, 2022

Eternal God, let the Christ-effect continue to descend upon the people of this earth especially as it is known in peace, justice, and love.  Amen.

Friday in 5 Easter, May 20, 2022

Eternal Christ, we the world lost sight of Jesus of Nazareth a long time ago, but the Christ-identity remains with us.  We pray that the Christ-identity will not be misrepresented by people who do not endeavor to practice truth, justice, and love of one's neighbors.  Amen.

Thursday in 5 Easter, May 19, 2022

O God, we are told that we cannot see you and live and that may be the poetry of our lack of capacity in face of your greatness; we ask only to see you in part, in the parts of your immanence within creation and the sum total of all of the parts of being, becoming, and time with still be surpassed by your future greatness.  Amen.

Wednesday in 5 Easter, May 18, 2002

Gracious God, send us the Interior Advocate so that we may be convinced about the divine likeness which is upon our lives.  Let us be convinced today that the valuing of our own lives goes hand in hand with the valuing of the lives of others in our world.  Remind us that racism is fear about the value of our lives which results in the wrong belief that people different from us are a threat to us.  Help us know that the Christ nature in us is the Christ nature in each person.  Amen.

Tuesday in 5 Easter, May 17, 2022

God, we live our lives often in the state of being misplaced and living as alienated from our true God-given identity; give us the homing direction to return to the place of being at home in the family of God.  Amen.

Monday in 5 Easter, May 16, 2022

God of all-encompassing greatness, we need a profound Advocate to mediate the harmonious interaction of our particular lives within the orchestra of all that is.  Give us the Holy Spirit to help us find our complementing roles within the human community as we seek to be good stewards of the gifts of the earth.  Amen.

Sunday, 5 Easter, May 15, 2022

God of the future of everyone and everything, we hold to a reconstituting resurrection of all things because the very painful transitional event of death is so pronounced in our lives.  You have made everything good, even though good things have gotten revised often to be less than good.  As Easter people, we ask for grace and faith to live toward the goodness intended in creation, as we hope for newness in heaven and and earth.  Amen.

Saturday in 4 Easter, May 14, 2020

O God, whose theophanies seem to suspend our sense of time and space with the sublime; we seek grace to transform the experience of the sublime into the basic grit of life when the meaning of love is not for us to be spiritually high, but to do the hard work of justice.  Amen.

Friday in 4 Easter, May 13, 2022

God of Plenitude who seems to keep us unknowing and lost in Plenitude; there is too much that has happened and is happening for us to be able to collate and issue final judgments about anything, since there is always tomorrow with the arrival of more qualifying information.  Help us to accept the filters of love and justice in our immediate contexts as being reliable to do your will in our lives.  Amen.

Thursday in 4 Easter, May 12, 2022

Gracious God, the gift of providence to each of us is the gift of heuristics in coming to insightful purpose.  And we seek humility regarding the insights of purpose because we know that our current and future experience will continually adjust how we assess the purpose of the events of our past lives.  Give us the humility to admit that our life stories are always in process.  Amen.

Wednesday in 4 Easter, May 11, 2022

Gracious God, it is hard to believe in Easter in a war torn land of continuous death and dying.  The positive providence of war seems impossible or too far off to bring hope to the suffering and the dying.  As we apply the resurrection as a band aid to the dying, let the resurrection also be healing to wounded, and courage to those caught in the throes of the hell of war.  Let Easter hope take all of the forms it needs to take in the lives of those who are threatened by harm.  Amen.

Tuesday in 4 Easter, May 10, 2022

To the One that which none greater can be conceived, the vision of there being a new heaven and new earth proposes a radical new orientation when inward reality includes the reality of different kind of physical life.  And is there coming a day when we only live by Eternal Word as spiritual reality without any reference to the physical world?  Keep us in our bodies and in our world and give us grace to know how to use the eternal Word as an analgesic in our times of pain.  And let our pain be evidence of our love for our lives and the lives of other.  Amen.

Monday in 4 Easter, May 9, 2022

Gracious God, as we believe in redemption and reconciliation, let us not be proud in thinking we can declare what reconciliation might be while people are in the midst of horrendous suffering.  The lives of people in the moment are too valuable to trade them for a future perceived good.  As we hope for redemption and reconciliation for the people of Ukraine, let us not minimize their suffering now.  There is no greater good known in the moments of suffering and in the name of Jesus who suffered, we oppose the harming agents of evil.  Amen.

Sunday, 4 Easter, May 8, 2022, Good Shepherd Sunday

Lord God, called our Shepherd, and who sent Jesus to be our Good Shepherd, you call us to be good shepherds in our world today when we have power, knowledge, and wealth to use to help the vulnerable.  As we want help when we are vulnerable, let us be those who are ready to help the vulnerable and so get the reward of being empowered shepherds.  Amen.

Saturday in 3 Easter, May 7, 2022

Eternal Word of God, the words we have are like filters through which the light of our seeing is projected and these words become our versions of reality.  Help us to continually update our word filters so that they can help us to see in ways which motivate us to walk humbly, love mercy, and do justice.  Amen.

Friday in 3 Easter, May 6, 2022

Eternal Word of God, our most significant impairment in life is language impairment, in that we have learn so many patterns of misinterpretation of both external and internal reality, and we are prone to act out on habits of bad interpretation.  Let us hear the Good Shepherd voice as a way to correct our language impairment through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.

Thursday in 4 Easter, May 5, 2022

Eternal Word of God, whose essence is communication; we want our interior lives altered so that we might hear and see you with different kinds of perceptive ears and eyes within the circumstances of our lives today.  Let us know new seeings and hearings of you today.  Amen.

Wednesday in 3 Easter, May 4, 2022

Gracious Christ, we have come to poetic meaning of you as Shepherd and Lamb, not to confuse us with contradiction, but to appreciate that God is with us in the mode of sustaining care, but also submits to the genuine freedom of the world in also being with us as a Lamb who went to the slaughter of his death.  Even as we prefer the Shepherd mode, we ask for grace to accept the identity of suffering with and together that is represented in the presentation of you as Lamb of God.  Amen.

Tuesday in 3 Easter, May 3, 2022

Christ the Eternally Good Shepherd; you commission us to use our power, knowledge, and wealth for the care of others.  Forgive us when we have failed in our call to use our resources for the general good of others, especially for the those in immediate indigent need.  Amen.

Monday in 3 Easter, May 2, 2022

Christ, our eternal Word, your infinite wordiness, has left open the possibilities of of many, many, voices to be heard.  We seek the discerning capacity of loving justice, doing mercy, and walking humbly as the perceptive guidelines for knowing which voice to follow in our lives.  Amen.

Sunday, 3 Easter, May 1, 2022

Gracious Christ, who is All and in All, yet who is often not seen because our lenses of perception are so unpracticed in reading divine in-breaking in our experience; let us have a barrage of showings of the Risen Christ so that we might be converted to the kind of love which helps us live together well.  Amen.

Saturday in 2 Easter, April 30, 2022

God, who inspires us with the normalcy of freedom from pain and harm, be with those for whom the threat of harm is an ever-confronting reality in their defense of their homes and families during war.  Inspire vigilance and heroism to protect the vulnerable and homes and give the defenders a vision of future safe homes for the children of the future.  Amen.

Friday in 2 Easter, April 29, 2022

God of Surpassing Excellence, give us grace to forge our identity on what we seek to be in surpassing ourselves in excellence rather than thinking we want to avoid being like the people for whom we have no affinity.  Let us build our identity upon the God of goodness rather than the weakness and frailty of humanity.  Amen.

Thursday in 2 Easter, April 28, 2022

Christ, the Eternal Word, through having words, we confess that you are the Word which is wisdom in linguistic manifestation which organizes and creates because you provide the filter for every human perception in knowing that we can know in the ways in which we know.  As you are the eternal playwright, give us grace to follow the script which you have written to have us walk the stage of life in love and justice.  Amen.

Wednesday in 2 Easter, April 27, 2022

Eternal Christ, if you are All and in All, since Word is implied in any consciousness or perception, the limitations of you as the Jesus of history has distilled into becoming an omnipresence of the relational essence of all things.  Keep us on our toes today to be ready to find you under the rocks of human experience which we turn over today.  Surprise us with your "peek a boo" presences.  Amen.

Tuesday in 2 Easter, April 26, 2022

God of Peter and Paul, you took some strong personalities and made their strengths work for and with you rather than against you and others in community.  Send to your transforming Spirit upon us and give us the strength even where we have been weak as we prove the alchemy of God in our lives.  Amen.

Monday in 2 Easter, April 25, 2022

God of Peter and Paul, you embrace and inspire different pieties and different missions in and for different people.  We are but funnels of your Plenitude and sometimes the limitations of our funnelling filters get in the way.  We thank you that you disperse your grace uniquely different in and through each person.  Amen.

The Second Sunday of Easter, April 24, 2022

Gracious God, forgive us when we doubt the reality of the experiences of the Risen Christ of others, especially when they include the signs of your Spirit, peace, the evidences of being sent to do the work of Christ's love, the practice of forgiveness in community.  Thank you for giving us Word in the form of the inspired words of others in speaking and writing to help us come to the persuasion of faith.  Amen.

Easter Saturday, April 23, 2022

God of creative process, in an ever-changing world, we can easily doubt the stability of any understanding; give us grace to move with you in a moving of occasions of befores and afters, and give us the ability to articulate the newness of resurrection life to new situations which we encounter today.  Give us wisdom to make the adjustments to the new without being stuck in old answers to former situations.  And let us confess that what does not change about you and all things is continuous change to the destinies of surpassing reconciliations.  Amen.

Easter Friday, April 22, 2022, also Earth Day

God of creation, we might question your managerial wisdom in making us tenants in the world.  We have usurped ownership rights from you as the landlord of the universe and trashed our planet without regard for you and those who will need to live here after us.  We confess our abuse of the gift of the Earth, and we ask for grace to be restored in the stewardship role which you intended for us.  Amen.

Easter Thursday, April 21, 2022

God of all time, you did not exhaust your presence within the thirty something lifespan of Jesus of Nazareth; you have been always, already manifest as Eternal Word and immediate present in communicative ways to all who have come to language.  Let us not doubt the efficacy of your many presences as we explore the meaning of Christ as All and in All.  Amen.

Easter Wednesday, April 20, 2022

God, who presides over the changing and expanding world in total occasions of becoming; what is left behind from yesterday is reason for doubting of yesterday's answers to today's situation.  Help us to be really willing to embrace something new even if it surpasses our previous preconceptions, so like Thomas we can come to a new experience of saying, "My Lord and My God!"  Amen.

Easter Tuesday, April 19, 2022

God of full spectera of truths; I do doubt the competence of my knowledge of you and life as being yet complete, and I seek greater adequacy in meaningful truths so that I might articulate the multifarious presences of the Risen Christ, whom we confess to be All and in All.  Amen.

Easter Monday, April 18, 202

God of everlasting life, as we awaken in the immediate aftermath of the celebration of Easter joy, we are challenged by how much Resurrection work there is left to do in our our world.  Give us grace to access the joyful energy of resurrection life through the power of the Holy Spirit so that we might help make your will be done on earth as it is in heaven in intentionally special ways with the people and places of our lives.  Amen.

Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022

God of everlasting hope, the hope that is not a taunting us for what we cannot be, but an invitation to be be on a path that has self-surpassing in goodness as an everlasting quest; give us grace not to delay the good things to an afterlife, if we have the ability to achieve them now, especially the deeds of love and kindness which are within our power to do.  And though hope means things in our life will be unfinished, let not the attainable be left unfinished.  Give us your apparentness in Easter grace to do the things that we need to do.  Amen.

Wednesday, June 1, 2022

Sunday School, June 5, 2022 The Day of Pentecost C

 Sunday School, June 5, 2022   The Day of Pentecost C


Themes

Pentecost is a celebration of the birthday of the church
Song:  Sing Happy Birthday to the Church
You will need about 1988 candles for the number years

What is one of the first signs of life when a baby is born?
A baby begins to breathe.  The baby’s lungs start working and we know that a baby is alive because the baby is breathing.

Breathing is a sign of first life or birth.

Pentecost is a celebration of the birth of the church and this was known because of the signs of its birth.

The sign of the birth of the church was the presence of the Spirit of God.

Spirit means “breath” or “wind.”  You cannot see breath or wind but you know that they are there.  You can see the leaves of the trees move when the wind blows on them.

Unseen “breath” or “Wind” became the name for God who is presence but not seen.  God’s Spirit became known within the community of people who followed Jesus.  Jesus died, he rose and he left this earth but he promised to leave his Spirit with his friends and with anyone who wanted to simply discover God’s presence in their lives.

Pentecost is when a rally happened in Jerusalem and people gathered and realized that even though Jesus was gone, His Spirit was still in them and gave them power and energy to do the same things which Jesus did.  God’s Spirit was discovered within their hearts and they had power to preach good news, to practice healing and good health, to share with one another and to love one another.  They also received the ministry of letting all of the people in the world know about how close that God was too them because of God’s Spirit.

Pentecost is a celebration of the discovery of God’s presence in all people and how we can all be different and yet still live together in love and peace.

We can celebrate Pentecost best by taking time to discover the Spirit of God in our lives and in the lives of other people.  We can honor the Spirit of God through peace, love, caring, forgiveness and sharing the Good News of Jesus.  Jesus came to show us how close God is to us.  The Spirit is proof that God is close to us now and that we can know ourselves to be sons and daughters of God.

Pentecost Sermon (use harmonica or Pan Flute)

Do you know what kind of instrument I have in my hand?    It’s called a harmonica?  And do you know how this instrument is played?    It’s played by putting it up to my mouth and blowing.
  How is this instrument different than a whistle?    A whistle usually makes just one sound, but this harmonica can make many different sounds.
  It is a reed instrument.  If we open up the harmonica, we can find many differ little pieces of thin metal and they are different sizes.  Some are short and some are long.
  When I blow air across the short ones a high sound is made.  When I blow air across the long ones, a lower sound is made.
  So if we blow in the correct way, we can play many different notes and different kinds of music.  A harmonica is not like a whistle because a harmonica can make many different sounds.  And we can play many different songs with the harmonica.  We can even bend the notes and make it cry….or we can make it sound like a train.
  What is it that makes the harmonica play.  It is blown air or wind that comes from the lungs.
  Did you know that one of the ways that we talk about God is to call God, the Holy Spirit.  The Special Spirit.  The Special Wind or Breath.  Can you see Wind or Breath?  Well we can see clouds or we can see our breath when it’s cold.
  But we don’t actually see the Wind or Breath.  We know Wind and Breath are here because we can feel and see the movement that is caused by Wind and Breath.  When you blow on a Wind mill, you can see the wind mill turn.
  So today in when we celebrate the Invisible presence of God who is everywhere, just like wind and breath. 
  And we celebrate the fact that God’s wind or breath is within us blowing us…or playing us, just like I blow air into this harmonica to play the different sounds to make music or noise.
  We cannot see God Spirit…But God’s spirit is blowing through us and playing us as music.
  So we need to see ourselves as God’s musical instruments.  All different sizes and shapes, ages, with different appearances, different abilities and gifts.  God enjoys that we are all so different.  Because we’re different God can play lots of different songs through us.
  And what kind of music does God’s breath or Spirit play through us?  We call that music love, joy, peace, faith, self-control, gentleness, patience and all of the other good things that God wants to do through us.  How many of you want to be God’s instrument today?  Do you want the Wind or Breath of God to be blown through you today?
  Today, we remind ourselves that the Breath or Wind of God, the Holy Spirit is filling us today to help our lives be like a beautiful song for God today.  So today we let God the Spirit play a beautiful song through us.  Amen.



Gospel Puppet Show

Day of Pentecost

Characters:
Dovey the Dove
George


Dovey: (singing) Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you.  Happy birthday Christian Church.  Happy birthday to you!  And many more!

George: Why did you sing Happy Birthday to the Church Dovey?

Dovey:  Well today is the Day of Pentecost and the Day of Pentecost is the Birthday of the Church.  Let’s see the church is 2019 minus 33 equals 1986.   Happy 1986th birthday to the church.  But who’s counting?

George: Obviously you are counting.  We are a pretty old group of people.

Dovey:  Yes, you are one of the oldest and long lasting organizations that ever existed.

George: I wonder why the church has lasted so long.  Do you think that the church will still be here after I die?


Dovey:  Well George, you’re not going to die for awhile but yes the church will be here after you die to have more birthdays.

George:  How do you know Dovey?

Dovey:  Well, because even though you are a member of the church, the church is really not about you.

George:  Well, what is the church about?

Dovey:  The church is about Jesus Christ.  His message of love was so wonderful and it created so much excitement in people they called his message Good News or Gospel.  And Jesus said if we just keep sharing this good news to each new group of people who are born then this message will live forever.  This is why the church will continue to have birthdays forever.  Do you know what Pentecost means?

George:  Do I have time to Google it?

Dovey: Goo..goo…goo…Google it?  What’s that?

George:  It’s like a big storage brain outside of me where I store all of the information of the world and maps.  Google maps can even tell me where to go.

Dovey:  Well, I’ve got a built in Google maps and GPS.  Did you know that my family has been making a nest and laying eggs in the same tree for more than a hundred years.  I’ve got GPS in me that automatically tells me where to go.

George:  Wow, where did you get that?  That’s better than Google maps.

Dovey:  God made me this way and God the Holy Spirit is everywhere like a divine GPS system.  But the Holy Spirit became better known to everyone on the Day of Pentecost.

George: So what does Pentecost mean?

Dovey:  It means 50 days after Easter and it is the day when the Holy Spirit became known to the friends of Jesus.

George:  What happened on the Day of Pentecost?

Dovey:  Well, the Holy Spirit was discovered by the friends of Jesus and they were happy and joyful and they found that the Holy Spirit helped them to tell the Good News about Jesus in every language.

George:  So the Holy Spirit is like a great Google translator?

Dovey:  I guess you techies might say it that way.  Yes, the Holy Spirit is the wonderful personal energy of God’s love with us to help us to continue to tell the Good News about Jesus so that the church will continue to have birthdays into the future.

George: Wow!  Pentecost and the Holy Spirit are exciting.  But where are we going to get 1980 candles for the birthday cake?  Oh well, at least we can sing Happy Birthday.  Sandra, can you hit it on the piano and help us sing?

Everyone:  Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you.  Happy birthday Christian Church.  Happy birthday to you!  And many more!

George:  Do you think I can have some chocolate cake for the church’s birthday party?



Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist
June 5,  2022: The Day of Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Every Time I Feel the Spirit; Butterfly Song; Lord, Be Glorified

Liturgist: Alleluia, Christ is Risen.
People: The Lord is Risen Indeed.  Alleluia.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.
And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.
Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Song: Every Time I Feel the Spirit, (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 48)
Refrain: Every time I feel the spirit moving in my heart, I will pray.  O every time I feel the spirit moving in my heart I will pray.
1-On Pentecost day, the Spirit came.  The people praised with joyous tongues.  The Spirit came to everyone.  Jews and Gentiles, all the same. Refrain
2-God’s Spirit lives within the church.  He gives us gifts to build us up.  God’s Spirit fills us with his love.  O blessed Spirit, heavenly dove.  Refrain

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.
People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray
Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia
O God, you have made us! Alleluia
O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Alleluia
O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Alleluia
O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Alleluia
O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia
O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Alleluia

A reading from the Letter of Paul to the Romans

All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ-- if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord
People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 104

You send forth your Spirit, and they are created; * and so you renew the face of the earth.
May the glory of the LORD endure forever; * may the LORD rejoice in all his works.
I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; * I will praise my God while I have my being.
May these words of mine please him; * I will rejoice in the LORD. Hallelujah!

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:
For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!
For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!
For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!
For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!
For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!
For work and for play. Thanks be to God!
For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!
For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!
For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.
   Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John
People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Philip said to Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.  "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you."  "I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid."

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 Butterfly Song, (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 9)
If I were a butterfly, I’d thank you Lord for giving me wings.  If I were a robin in the tree, I’d thank you Lord that I could sing.  And if I were a fish in the sea, I’d wiggle my tail and I’d giggle with glee, but I just thank you Father for making me, me.
 Refrain: For you gave me a heart and you gave me a smile.  You gave me Jesus and you made me your child.  And I just thank you Father for making me, me.

If I were an elephant, I’d thank you Lord by raising my trunk.  If I were a kangaroo, you know I’d hop right up to you.  If I were an octopus, I’d thank you Lord for my fine looks and I just thank you Father for making me, me.  Refrain
If I were a wiggly worm, I’d thank you Lord, that I could squirm.  If I were a billy goat, I’d thank you Lord for my strong throat.  And if I were a fuzzy wuzzy bear, I’d thank you Lord for my fuzzy wuzzy hair and I just thank you Father for making me, me.  Refrain

Song:  Spirit of the Living God

Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist
Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of heaven.”
All become members of a family by birth or adoption.
Baptism is a celebration of 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,
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:        Spirit of the Living God, (Renew # 90)
1          Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.  Spirit of the living God fall afresh on me. Break me, melt me, mold me, fill me.  Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.
2          Spirit of the living God, move among us all; Spirit of the living God, make us one in love: humble, caring, selfless, sharing— Spirit of the living God, fill our lives with love.    

Post-Communion Prayer
Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;
We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.
And His Presence has been known to us.
We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers
    and sisters in Christ.
Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the
     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,
As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Closing Song: Lord, Be Glorified (Renew!  # 172)
1- In our lives, Lord, be glorified, be glorified, in our lives, Lord, be glorified today.
2- In our homes, Lord, be glorified, be glorified, in our homes, Lord, be glorified today.
3- In our church, Lord, be glorified, be glorified, in our church, Lord, be glorified today.
4- In your world, Lord, be glorified, be glorified, in your world, Lord, be glorified today.

Dismissal:   
Liturgist: Alleluia!  Alleluia!  Let us go forth in the Name of Christ.
People: Thanks be to God!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!


Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Aphorism of the Day, May 2022

Aphorism of the Day, May 31, 2022, The Visitation

The Visitation evokes some insights.  It is two expectant mothers who are in a bonding event.  The encounter is the later church presenting a parable of contrast between the marvelous and the miraculous in birthing, natural marvelous birth, and miraculous spiritual birth.  Mary is also presented as a poet and the Magnificat can be seen as a song of feminist liberation.  The uniqueness of women in the past was their child-bearing ability which left them often trapped in a "limited" role.   Mary as poet was one who was inspired in wordsmithery and proclaimed that she was a "lowly one" lifted up.  Women have long needed to be freed from their unique status as child-bearers and honored with equality for their multifarious gifts with which they might have blessed, can, and will bless this world.  Women can do anything plus bear children.  Let the Visitation be seen as gateway from child-bearing to poet prophetess anticipating the full liberation of women.

Aphorism of the Day, May 30, 2022

The writer of Genesis thought that having a world with many languages was a curse to prevent a monoglottic society from being united in challenging God.  There is a naivete in thinking that people who speak the same language are actually united in how they interpret life.  Language itself is about differentiation in time, and there being different languages, means that there is differentiation within differentiation and such is the source of creativity, the very possibility of "some more" language products in the future.

Aphorism of the Day, May 29, 2022

As one might say that everything has equality in having existence itself, we say this because everything has equality in and when it comes to language.  Valuation within language is a further feature of the differentiation which takes place because language and because language users come to assert value systems of how we might be best language users.  Common good, harmony, cause no harm, love and justice are value terms and ways of being language users which we associate with the life of Jesus and we are called to promote these values as the chief values.

Aphorism of the Day, May 28, 2022

One can notice that language outcomes, products in speech, thinking, and writing seems to make everything into a "surface."  This may account for the use of "topic" to speak about language products.  Topic come from "topos" as site or place in "topography."  We can't see soul or spirit or heart but somehow we come to name them.  We give our interior geography "surfaces" when they come to language.  And the most reflexive self spoof of language?  Language makes itself a surface in how it comes to language about itself.

Aphorism of the Day, May 27, 2022

To presume to know exactly what an author, artist, painter, or poet means might be a presumption of appreciation for their work.  But it is crossing the boundary in that one cannot assume the same interior space of the artist or author.  The Bible is the artistic writing of inspired artists in different times and different places and the words became public for shared empathy, but even with the sharing we cannot presume to know any final original meanings implied in the inspired writing.  Art is always open for projections upon the work for further meanings to be known by those who are projecting the meanings from their subjective situations.  Artistic meaning cannot be "controlled" and neither can biblical meanings.

Aphorism of the Day, May 26, 2022

It is curious to note how the language of the church still uses the language of altitude to speak of the Ascension in our time when we know we don't live in a three-tier universe of netherworld, flat earth, domed sky with a trap door opening to the heavenly abode.  Elevation as a metaphor is one of superlative location within the importance index for human values.  The Ascension is the place of assignment for Christ who has gone beyond in being a valued being who set the standard of values for humanity.

Aphorism of the Day, May 25, 2022

The longest prayer of Jesus includes the words of Jesus, "while I was with them."   That could mean that his prayer is actually a "channelled prayer of his post-Ascension" by the Johannine writer, a "what would Jesus pray" exercise of one who was inspired by Jesus.

 Aphorism of the Day, May 24, 2022

Many interpreters of the Bible write about a second and final coming of Christ.  We should perhaps be interpreting another and other comings of Christ as being more accurate.  We can be so "selfishly" temporally provincial in thinking that our age and our suffering and our sin is worthy of a catastrophic interventional end.  Most of the interpreters who confidently "predict" this final coming are those who think that they are the "favored and special ones" for whom Christ is going to intervene.  Many have "martyr" complexes even while not practicing love and justice for their neighbors.

 Aphorism of the Day, May 23, 2022

In the poetic mystagogy of the early church, language as the interior realm was given a parallel reality to complement and supplement common sense exterior reality.  It provided its own topography for the inter-realm movement of Jesus as he morphed to the Risen Christ.  In this topography, the Ascension was a spiritual explanation for the variation in the impending appearances of Christ.  Ascension and glorification are words for two post-resurrection appearance events to account for the future kinds of human experiences of the Christ aspect of the no longer present Jesus.

Aphorism of the Day, May 22, 2022

Are we worried that the Christ-identity in this world might become dissociated from groups which call themselves churches and when churches lose their "social" success? What about "churches" which invert the teaching of Christ by behaving as though the love and justice of Christ were "liberal" propaganda?  The Christ-identity is incognito wherever love and justice is manifest in human practice even when it does not have "church" subtitles on it.

Aphorism of the Day, May 21, 2022

The transfer of the physical presence of Jesus of Nazareth to the transhistorical spiritual identity of the Risen Christ in myriads of presences is one of the greatest phenomenon of human history.

Aphorism of the Day, May 20, 2022

The New Testament is a literature of building the identity of a movement becoming an institutionalized community on the absence of Jesus of Nazareth, and the presence of the phenomenon which comes to language in the interpretation of inward experiential events as being God-touched by the Holy Spirit.

Aphorism of the Day, May 19, 2022

It could be said that the New Testament is in short a persuasion literature about how the real absence of Jesus equals the real presence of the Risen Christ through the experience of the Holy Spirit.  And it is mediated and understood through word, since language is way in which human beings have any orientation within life.  Before one interprets an "event" of the Holy Spirit, one assumes living, moving, and having being within the language matrix which comprises consciousness which has the specificity of awareness.

Aphorism of the Day, May 18, 2022

Everyone needs a lawyer.  The Holy Lawyer, is the one called the Advocate.  Sometimes we need an Interior Advocate, to the make the case for ourselves to ourselves, unless we suffer from the narcissism of the worship of our own uniqueness.  Sometimes we need an Advocate to stand against an interior Accuser, the one who intertwines as a parasite on every bad thing that has happened to us and been said about us.


Aphorism of the Day, May 17, 2022

Homing is the ability of an animal to return to the from which it has been displaced.  This could be metaphor for the human animal learning to return to the "home identity" of having been made in the image of God.  Jesus promised that the heavenly Parent would come and make a home with us.  So God says to us, "You are my dwelling place," and we should say to God, "I want to be at home with you."

Aphorism of the Day, May 16, 2022

In an equality of Trinitarian persons, why would Jesus be quoted as saying the "Father is greater than I am?"  It could be words of Jesus regarding how he was in his "emptying phase of his equality with God," as the Pauline Christological hymn suggest.

Aphorism of the Day, May 15, 2022

Transferring visionary literature to the world of empirical verification is impossible since the correspondences between the experiences which occur in a dream versus commonsense reality are very inexact and not transferable.  One can funnel some "insights" from dreams and visions which seem to have the advantage of having been experienced by the unconscious mind which seems to take in more and different kind of data.  Much of biblical writing is visionary writing and to read it as we do modern history which assumes empirical verification is to misread the Bible badly.

Aphorism of the Day, May 14, 2022

What does it mean to say that time will be no more?  From being in time, it is difficult to falsify our context.  It could be that "timelessness" is really poetic hyperbole to reflect the experience of time, such as one might experience in a dream or in the phrase, "time flies when one is having fun."  Eternality or timelessness is poetry for the experience of theophany, the sense of the sublime.

Aphorism of the Day, May 13, 2022

It is said that "hindsight is 20/20.  However, the mere fact of "seeing" the past because one is perched in being the "latest,' does not make the seeing of the past particularly insightful.  Hegel wrote that we learn from the writing of history that people don't learn from the reading of history.  The conclusions which biblical readers arrive at from reading the Bible seem to be as diverse as the number of readers, proving that people are often trapped within their hermeneutical circle, their "group programming."

Aphorism of the Day, May 12, 2022

By its very nature language is a reduction to language products of speech and writing vast amounts of experiential data which impinges upon us from within and without.  Language is a filtering system within us which works with both involuntary and voluntary selection capacity.  Everything which is not selected to come to language within us still exists.  Dreams and visionary language occur when in Blakean terms, the doors of perception have been "cleansed" or opened and threatens the egos control of the data.  The plenitudinous overload creates the dream-state or mystical experience, if you will.  Insights can come from such incidents, as what came to language in the Revelation of John the Divine.  But to try to reduce such overloaded events to empirical verification of prediction of specific future history is the folly of misappropriation.

Aphorism of the Day, May 11, 2022

Is what we call providence the reflection of hindsight?  If after many years, one begins to reflect upon some good outcomes from some previous horrendous events, what does this mean?  And what if in telling the story of those horrendous event, the "historian" inserts the positive outcomes as being presaged by the participates in the the horrendous events.  What is missing in the providence reflections?  All the actual terrible outcomes besides the good outcomes, on which the "historian" of providence choses to reflect.  What such reflections on one's favored providence misses is all of the other "might have beens" as well as the subsequent pain caused in the lives of those directly affected by horrendous events.  Those who write "providence" end up censoring or neglecting what does not fit with the positive features of the focused providence.

Aphorism of the Day,  May 10, 2022

John the Divine's vision included a "new heaven and a new earth" and no more death.  In short, his vision seemed to imply "timelessness," but is a static state a kind of death itself with the cessation of teeming changing life?  Is the deathless state, simply the removal of harsh transitions?  Will everyone attain the ability to live in always already synchronicity so that time and the ineffable are "reconciled."  His vision is impossible to convert into the categories of time, because even the sequencing of visions and word imply "befores and afters."

Aphorism of the Day, May 9, 2022

By the time John's Gospel is written, the story of Jesus is mainly a "heavenly" story, a story of continuous spiritual providence, provoking the continuous irony between the physical and the logical and the spiritual.  John's Gospel seems to present a superseding of the wills of Judas and Pilate, implying that the great Puppeteer of Heaven was merely allowing Judas and Pilate to have the appearance of "free will" when in fact they were but following a "salvation plan script."  No better exemplified than when at supper Jesus exposes the betraying Judas who leaves, and the saying occurs, "Now the Son of Man is glorified."  There is no logical/visual/empirical reason for that to be said.  I hope we appreciate that the Johannine church is quite sure that the Risen Christ is here to stay and the heavenly history is written to tell why they believe it is so.

Aphorism of the Day, May 8, 2022

Interesting that the lectionary of the church often has Jesus saying on Good Shepherd Sunday and American Mother's Day, "the Father and I are one."  The irony is that Jesus and his Mother Mary were "one" in a very literal way for the nine months of gestation.

Aphorism of the Day, May 7, 2022

It is a misinterpretation of the Gospel of John to read it with crassly literal eyes assuming that everything presented was empirically verifiable.  What is verifiable is that it was mystagogy of the Johannine communities trying to show how parables of physicality were used to carry spiritual interpretation.  Seeing, walking, tasting, drinking, living again; all are modes of perception of the mystical experience of Christ in us.

Aphorism of the Day, May 6, 2022

We can live meaningfully and mystically by the poetry of the Bible even while we can't live by the very "out-dated" science of the past.  And we should not try to import modern science with empirical verification into biblical contexts.  We can accept the meaningful truths of mystical poetry and the meaningful truths of modern science as an effective method of living by actuarial wisdom.

Aphorism of the Day, May 5, 2022

The senses in John's Gospel are metaphors of perceptions of encounter with the Risen Christ.  When the channeled Christ in the Johannine says, "My sheep hear my voice," it means that they have understood the non-literal spiritual or inner and experiential aspect of the life of the Holy Spirit.  The writer of the Gospel of John tells us over and over again, to be spiritual is to be non-literal.

Aphorism of the Day, May 4, 2022

In the metaphorical fluidity of the New Testament the Lamb can also be the Shepherd, indicating that the Jesus Movement is more of a poetic meaningful presentation of the life of Jesus rather than the empirical verification mode.  To mistake poetry for empirical verification is a misuse of both science and poetry.  Empirically, Jesus was never a shepherd or a lamb, but in the poetic continuity with the themes of Hebrew Scriptures, he was meaningfully both in the lives of people who were forging their spiritual identity around their mystical experiences with the Risen Christ through Holy Spirit inward events.

Aphorism of the Day, May 3, 2022

How far does the shepherd-sheep metaphor go?  It works as long as we can regard ourselves as "God's favorite pets" under divine control and care.  It does not work in actual animal husbandry because sheep are not pets, they are livestock to be used for wool and meat.  Hence a scheduled death on behalf of the shepherd is the economic plan.  I guess each person has an eventual death and one may hope that the "commodity" products of one's life are beneficial to others who can use such products, and that one's spirit-essence is retained in reconstituted ways in the memory of the Divine, which is the "dwelling in the house of the Lord forever?"

Aphorism of the Day, May 2, 2022

Shepherd-sheep relationship was a Gospel metaphor.  About the relationship, the channeled words of Jesus state that "my sheep know my voice."  There were sheep who did not know "the voice."  Apparently there were many different voices to hear.  In fact, John the Divine noted at least seven different spirits of the churches in different locale.  The many voices of many shepherds and the voices contradict each other to the point of the seeming cacophony of the Christian religion.  What voice should be listened to today is an issue for us and how does one discern what to follow?  Love justice, do mercy and walk humbly before God.

Aphorism of the Day, May 1, 2022

Epiphany, revelation, apocalypse, showing, theophany, seem to be synonyms for the events when the inward parallel world of Spirit-Word provides an experiencer with an event of the Sublime which touches one with the manifestations of hope.

Prayers for Advent, 2024

Saturday in 3 Advent, December 21, 2024 God, the great weaving creator of all; you have given us the quilt of sacred tradition to inspire us...