Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Sunday School, November 6, 2022 22 Pentecost, C proper 27

 Sunday School, November 6, 2022   22 Pentecost, C proper 27 


Some ideas:

Present this Riddle and get the answer:


As I was going to St. Ives,
I met a man with seven wives,
Each wife had seven sacks,
Each sack had seven cats,
Each cat had seven kits:
Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,
How many were there going to St. Ives?

Jesus had a discussion with some other religious people and they gave Jesus a riddle.

Imagine a woman who got married and her husband died.  And because there was an ancient Jewish rule, her husband’s brother was required to marry her.  But imagine that her first husband had six brothers and she had seven husband who died who were all brothers.  The riddle question for Jesus was this:  Jesus, when the woman lives again in the resurrection, which man will be her husband?

This question was asked by people who did not believe in the resurrection or living again in the afterlife.

How did Jesus answer the question?  He said the afterlife is not like this life.  He said that we will be like angels and angels do not get married.

Jesus said that it is more important to believe in God than in ourselves because God is a strong living God and when we die and when others die, we know that we are not great enough to preserve ourselves after we die.  So we believe in a very Great God who is able to preserve, but not just preserve us but make us into our angel-like selves.  In our angel-like selves we will not have the same limitations that we have in our lives now.

The message of Jesus is a message of faith and hope

Why are faith and hope important?

Because we live better when we have faith and hope instead of fear.
If we always are afraid of getting hurt or if we are afraid of death, then we will not be free to try new things and to learn.  Fear makes us too timid to try new things.  Fear makes us sad and it paralyzes us.

When Jesus gave people the hope of the resurrection, this hope allows us to quit being fearful and so we can live our lives in an adventure of faith or always trying to do things to make our lives better.

If we know that we will continue to live after death in an angel-like life, it means that we will still get more time to work on everything that we don’t finish in this life.  And this is hopeful for us.  It can help take away the “fear” of death.  It can help us know that God is fair to all people who don’t get to live as long as some other people because of accidents and misfortune.
The resurrection allows us to believe in fairness.  There will be plenty of time for everything to be made fair.

So Jesus showed us that everlasting life will bring about fairness and because we know this we can live with faith.

The people who argued with Jesus only wanted to win an argument.  Jesus was interested in giving people hope for the future so that they live with faith and adventure now in their lives.



Discussion:

What happens to you when you live in fear?
What happens when you are hopeful about good things?

Talk about the difference between living with fear and living with hope.

Sermon

  Can you and I know everything there is to know in life?  No.  Would we like to know everything?  Yes.  But why can’t we know everything?  We are too small.  Our minds, our brains cannot collect and remember all of the information.  And we cannot know some things because of who we are.  I know how to be a father, but I don’t know how to be a mother.  Why, because I can never be a mother.  So there are some things that I can never know.
  So I have to rely upon other people knowing what being a mother is.  Since there is so much to know, I have to rely on other people to know some things that I don’t know.  I have to rely upon a mechanic to fix my car.  I have to rely upon the doctor to take care of my health.  I have to rely upon many different teachers who know many different things.  I have to rely upon people who know more about music than I do.
  And when we add up everything that all people in the world know, do people still know everything?  No we still don’t know about distance stars and planets that we have never seen.  So there are still many,
many things that we do not know.  
  Why is every thing knowable?  Because we believe that God is knowledge and truth and life itself.  And God’s life is bigger and greater than our lives, so we always have more to learn about in life because God is so big and great.
  One of the things that we do not have a lot of information about is about what happens to people after they die.  And that is important for us because we want to know that the important people in our life are going to be with us forever.
  Jesus had a discussion with some people about what happens after we die.  And what Jesus says is this:  Since God lives and since God is the God of the living, all people will always live on in God.  Why?  Because God’s life is so great that God can preserve everything and everyone in a very special way.
  So if you ever begin to think about what’s after life, just remember how big God is and remember that God is big enough to preserve and keep everyone and everything that was ever made, even though we
may always be able to see everyone and everything.  God is a God of the living.  So all people will always live in God.  And so will you and I and so will all of the important people in your life.  Doesn’t that make you happy.  Remember that God is a living God and all of us live in God.  Amen.


Holy Eucharist for an intergeneration gathering
November 6, 2022: The Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Alleluia, Give Thanks; I Am the Bread of Life; The King of Glory 

Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and 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.

Song: Alleluia, Give Thanks   (Blue Hymnal # 178)
Refrain: Alleluia, alleluia, give thanks to the risen Lord.  Alleluia, alleluia give praise to his name.
Jesus is Lord of all the earth.  He is the King of creation.  Refrain
Spread the good news o’er all the earth: Jesus has died and has risen.  Refrain

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

Liturgist:  Let us pray
O God, whose blessed Son came into the world that he might destroy the works of the devil and make us children of God and heirs of eternal life: Grant that, having this hope, we may purify ourselves as he is pure; that, when he comes again with power and great glory, we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom; where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Litany of Praise: 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 Second Letter to the Thessalonians

But we must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth. For this purpose he called you through our proclamation of the good news, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter.  Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word.

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

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 17

I call upon you, O God, for you will answer me; * incline your ear to me and hear my words.
Show me your marvelous loving-kindness, * O Savior of those who take refuge at your right hand
from those who rise up against them.
Keep me as the apple of your eye; * hide me under the shadow of your wings,
.

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.

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and asked him a question, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her." Jesus said to them, "Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.
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: I Am the Bread of Life (Blue Hymnal, # 335)
I am the bread of life; they who come to me shall not hunger; they who believe in me shall not thirst.  No one can come to me unless the Father draw them. 
Refrain: And I will raise them up, and I will raise them up, and I will raise them up on the last day.
I am the resurrection, I am the life.  They who believe in me, even if they die, they shall live for ever.  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 God.”
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:       Alleluia, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia.

Words of Administration

Communion Song:   I Come With Joy   (Renew! # 195)
1.         I come with joy a child of God, forgiven, loved, and free, the life of Jesus to recall, in love laid down for me.
2.         I come with Christians, far and near to find, as all are fed, the new community of love in Christ’s communion bread.
3.         As Christ breaks bread, and bids us share, each proud division ends.  The love that made us makes us one, and strangers now are friends.

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: The King of Glory (Renew! # 267)

Refrain: The king of glory comes the nation rejoices.  Open the gates before him, lift up your voices.

Who is the king of glory, how shall we call him?  He is Emmanuel, the promised of ages.   Refrain
In all of Galilee, in city or village, he goes among his people curing their illness.  Refrain
Sing then of David’s son, our Savior and brother; in all of Galilee was never another. Refrain

Dismissal:   

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


Monday, October 31, 2022

Aphorism of the Day, October 2022

Aphorism of the Day, October 31, 2022

Words Jesus logic: God is the God of the living.  Hence nothing ever dies?  In this logic change does not mean death, it only means transformed to something of some future state of difference than how one/it was previously manifested.

Aphorism of the Day, October 30, 2022

If religion is having a group identity which stands in the place of doing love and justice, then it is group deception.

Aphorism of the Day, October 29, 2022

The Gospels often portray Jesus as reaching out to people who do not have significant social or religious advocacy.  There are people of power and greed who make people fall between the cracks, and there are people who lift up people who have fallen between the cracks and those are the Jesus-people.

Aphorism of the Day, October 28, 2002

"I'm not religious but spiritual" is less accessible than "I'm not religious, but I have faith."   "Spiritual" is but a metaphor for mystery of some notion of inner being; whereas faith as persuasion is known by the actual priorities of our lives and so one can identify one's "faith values" by being honest about one's priorities.

Aphorism of the Day, October 27, 2022

Everyone has faith, if faith means "persuasion."  Everyone is persuaded and it shows in their life values spoken and lived.  The question becomes which are the best values to be persuaded about and what would count as good reasons for holding one's highest values.  We might promote love and justice as the highest values for the most people and then promote the persuasive lures that can get us there?  It is terribly counter-productive for promoting Jesus as the lodestar of our values if we are using "Jesus-persuasion" language in words and deeds to go against love and justice.

Aphorism of the Day, October 26, 2022

Zacchaeus was a Jesus-voyeur from his tree perch.  Watching others who don't know that we're watching them.  Being watched by people whom we don't know are watching us.  People watching happens which is why we should act as though our behaviors could model recommended behaviors for love or justice, or as expressed by the Kantian categorical imperative, to do something that one could wish to be a human universal.

Aphorism of the Day, October 25, 2022

The Gospels often portray the opponents of Jesus referring to the fact that Jesus hung out with "sinners."  Sinner can easily be used to designate the "other," the one who is not in our group.  The negative aspect of such use of sinner is that implies that God too stamps one's opponent as a sinner.  This misuse of God as designating the people whom I find disagreeable as sinners was the attitude of contempt which Jesus was exposing as not being worthy of God or true loving faith.

Aphorism of the Day, October 24, 2022

Zacchaeus, a converted tax collector,  represents the end outcome of conversion. Conversion means deliverance from dishonest greed and restoration and reparation for all previous dishonest transactions.  If wealthy greedy society wants to be converted and since our court has called social units like corporations, persons, then social persons who have exploited the poor and who have enslaved and invaded, need to have their Zacchaeus moment and begin the work of reparation.

Aphorism of the Day, October 23, 2022

One of the reasons to be merciful is that humility of accepting our limited knowledge of other peoples inner and outer, past and present circumstances which comprises their lives.  We don't like to be judge by person who don't know us and our circumstances well.  Mercy begins by not imputing bad motives for the actions and words of other people.

Aphorism of the Day, October 22, 2022

We can regard ourselves vis a vis other as those who do not need as much mercy as other people.  We should not confuse juridical mercy with divine mercy; everyone needs divine mercy for divine clemency which God allows us in always being able to get better.  In terms of juridical mercy in citizenship behaviors persons may be at significant different places of needing amendment of life and degrees of reparative requirements.

Aphorism of the Day, October 21, 2022

If one's sense of being right is coupled with a contempt for those whom one believes is wrong or not in good standing with God, then such a one has lost the sense of being on a path of becoming better in the future.  If we are measuring ourselves with the self-surpassing selves of the future then we are humbly admitting perpetual lack and our own disqualification for judging the individual paths of other people.  Such faith journeys in perfectability are not incompatible with the juridical rights and wrongs needed for law and order in society.

Aphorism of the Day, October 20, 2022

In our primary naïveté, we read the Gospels as if they were reporting exact people and events contemporary with Jesus of Nazareth.  Our secondary naïveté involves being informed that Jesus traditions were being shaped and applied to the dynamics in the early Christ-communities several decades after Jesus lived.

Aphorism of the Day, October 19, 2022

People who read Scriptures do so on the continuum of words of disfavor to words of favor.  Because of presumed sense of favoritism, and downright ethnocentrism, most people read the Scriptures as I/we are the good and favored ones as we project our own desire for favor on biblical words.  Conversely, those who seems to be in our disfavor or "enemy" categories are identified with the disapproving words of Scripture.  It should be admitted that Scripture is read mainly, "selfishly."  Even the words we receive as "personal rebukes," are received as favoring our amendment to live better lives.  And sometimes we don't ponder that those in our disfavor are amending their lives too.

Aphorism of the Day, October 18, 2022

Three Gospels have P's in P, parables within the Parable of the narrative life of Jesus.  Teaching about Jesus teaching about life through an allegorical method.  The big Parable of the life of Jesus is presented with roman a clef features because believable empirical features point to the substantiality of the chief faith issues of the Gospel writers.  The P's in P mode is not used in John's Gospel where the author uses vignettes of Jesus as the occasion for longer discourses explicating the mysticism of the Johannine community.

Aphorism of the Day, October 17, 2022

It could be that the Jesus Movement used the Gospel genre as a means of communicating the life of Jesus in parable form and his parables are like parables within the parable presentation of his life narrative.  A tax collector as a "lapsed" Jew, could represent a group of people who had Jewish heritage but for business relationship with the Romans could not maintain the ritual purity required by adherent Jews.  So this target group of "sinners," publicans, and tax collector became symbolic of one of the groups of people who were embracing the ritual dispensing followers of Jesus.

Aphorism of the Day, October 16, 2002

The events of life in the freedom abroad often seem like a recalcitrant unjust judge, and it can appear that evil is actually winning.  Jesus said that we should be like a faithful nagging widow crying out against the seeming deprivation of the normalcy of justice.  The total ground of becoming allows both the unjust and the just; the message of faith is to be naggers and doers of justice.

Aphorism of the Day, October 15, 2022

Odd that Jesus would compare having faith and prayer to a nagging widow wanting justice.  In the world of freedom where much that happens is freely unjust and bad, we need to be deliberate, intentional, and continuous naggers for what is just and good.  And when we have power to speak and do justice, we need to back up our nagging with practice of what is right.

Aphorism of the Day, October 14, 2022

The parable of Jesus about the widow and the unjust judge, presents prayer as a continuous holy nagging.  If we are nagging God, the cosmos, and all in our situation about justice, then we hope the cumulative effect will bring events of justice to fruition.  Keep nagging, but do it for justice.

Aphorism of the Day, October 13, 2022

In the field of probable occurrences, it often seems as though we are facing unjust judges in facing such unfavorable conditions.  In such situations, the words of Jesus encourage us to continue to offer nagging prayers which are anchored upon a persuasion about just and loving outcomes.

Aphorism of the Day, October 12, 2022

When the Son of Man comes will he find faith?  Will the future self-surpassing humanity arrives, will faith as living being persuaded about the high values of love and justice be the result of finally learning our lesson?

Aphorism of the Day, October 11, 2022

What does the conditions of freedom in the field of probabilities seem like?  They can seem favorable to one's lifestyle, unfavorable, or without caring personality.  We cannot extricate our own freedom from the field of freedom in what is and will happen to us.  The question is: How do we use our freedom to fill the field of future probability.  With prayers, some of which include us being the answer to our own prayers with action, but also the endless "Hail Mary" prayer nagging the seeming crooked judges determining probabilities.  Nagging prayers fills the ballot box of future probabilities and helps to bend the arc of future probability to be favorable toward justice and love.  So, keep nagging.

Aphorism of the Day, October 10, 2022

The "weakness" of God would be in the divine refusal to interfere with freedom in the world and so the conditions of the world in part are left to the "democracy" of the free agents of the world to choose good and resist evil.  Sometimes it seems as though the good side is losing, except the entire all resides within a totally expanding Container which is more than any relative situations of seeming triumph of evil.

Aphorism of the Day, October 9, 2022

The Gospel stories of Jesus are another level of parable, and the parables of Jesus are parables within the parables of presentations of stories which encapsulate and encode the spiritual practices of the early communities.  The Gospel is a genre which has developed the sheer didactic mode of Paul and his mystical theology into a narrative of Jesus of Nazareth.

Aphorism of the Day, October 8, 2022

An aspect of the Gospel was the not so subtle message that foreigners were returning to give thanks to God.  When we think that we have a "lock" on God, we need to remember that people who are foreign to us are giving thanks to God is ways which we might miss because we are biased.

Aphorism of the Day, October 7, 2022

Faith as persuasion has more to do with the Persuader's Values who informs the direction and quality of being persuaded, i.e., having beliefs.  If those values don't include love and justice for all, then one is shooting one's arrow at the wrong target.

Aphorism of the Day, October 6, 2022

Having one's persuasion focused on and defined by Jesus and his values is what the health of salvation meant in the early Christ communities.

Aphorism of the Day, October 5, 2022

"Your faith has made you well."  How does faith make us well?  If we reduce wellness to a "cure in time" then we are perhaps never well since the process of entropy toward death would imply that we are never really well, in terms of being freed from the shelf-life expire dates on various aspects of our physical lives.  Faith making us well has to do with our being persuaded in time always about another future with a variety of personal and social continuities based upon the grand hunch of hope that we will know ourselves and others into an indefinite future.  

Aphorism of the Day, October 4, 2022

If St. Francis is one of the very few who practiced Christ-likeness, there certainly are not many Christ-like people who claim to be Christian.  O we say, but we did not have the same calling as Jesus or Francis.

Aphorism of the Day, October 3, 2022

The message of Jesus is that health and healing belongs to everyone including the people who are regarded by one's society as being enemies.  Yes, rain and sun is available to everyone following the probabilities of the conditions in contextual situation.  We are very presumptuous if we try to limit what God is love means.

Aphorism of the Day, October 2, 2022

Pragmatism means that true value must include functional outcomes.  The same is true of faith; casting trees into the sea is not really a functional outcome; feeding and clothing people is a functional truth of faith.

Aphorism of the Day, October 1, 2022

One needs to treat the words of Jesus as literary artistic words evoking the truth of moral, spiritual, and faith actions and not a language of empirical verifiable phenomenon.

Quiz of the Day, October 2022

Quiz of the Day, October 31, 2022

All Hallow's Eve occurs at the same time as what Druid festival?

a. Imbolc
b. Alban Arthan
c. Samhain
d. Alban Eilir
e. Lughnasadh

 Quiz of the Day, October 30, 2022

Who wrote, "we know only in part and see dimly?"

a. the Psalmist
b. the preacher of Ecclesiastes
c. St. Paul
d. Isaiah

Quiz of the Day, October 29, 2022

In biblical numerology, what is the number of the beast?

a. 6
b. 66
c. 666
d. 6666

Quiz of the Day, October 28, 2022

Who might St. Simon and St. Jude be, who share a feast this day?

a. both saints of hopeless causes
b. Simon the Zealot and Jude Thaddaeus
c. both martyred in Rome
d. writers of Epistles of Jude and Simon

Quiz of the Day, October 27, 2022

Of the followings animals, which is not mentioned in the book of Revelations?

a. horse
b. locusts
c. frogs
d. lamb
e. vulture
f. scorpions
g. lions
h. eagle
i. jackal

Quiz of the Day, October 26, 2022

Where is the writing about the seven-headed dragon found?

a. Medieval alchemy texts
b. the Greek hermetic writings
c. Ezekiel
d. Revelation

Quiz of the Day, October 25, 2022

According to the writer of Ecclesiasticus, what might be considered to divine immanence?

a. Love
b. Power
c. Beauty
d. Wisdom

Quiz of the Day, October 24, 2022

Which of the following is not true about James of Jerusalem?

a. he is called the "Just"
b. he could be the author of the epistle of James
c. he presided at a council permitting Gentiles converts to remain uncircumcised
d. he is called the brother of our Lord
e. his father was Zebedee

Quiz of the Day, October 23, 2022

What is the context for the words of Jesus, "where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am present?"

a. disagreement among church members
b. Holy Eucharist
c. send of evangelists in twos
d. baptism

Quiz of the Day, October 22, 2022

Where is it written that God created humankind and left them with the power of their own free choice?

a. Ecclesiastes
b. Ecclesiasticus
c. Psalms
d. Genesis

Quiz of the Day, October 21, 2022

The parable of the Good Samaritan is found where?

a. Matthew
b. Matthew and Luke
c. Luke
d. Luke and Mark
e. John

Quiz of the Day, October 20, 2022

Who is the angel of the bottomless pit?

a. Abaddon
b. Apollyon
c. Sheol
d. Gehenna
e. a and b
f. c and d

Quiz of the Day, October 19, 2022

Of the following, who might be called a thurifer?

a. Abraham
b. Melchizedek
c. An angel in heaven
d. the prophet Isaiah

Quiz of the Day, October 18, 2022

Which of the following is not unique to the Gospel of Luke?

a. a destination reader named Theophilus (lover of God)
b. Songs and Canticles
c. story of the magi
d. eighteen unique parables

Quiz of the Day, October 17, 2022

Why is the number 144,000 important in the book of Revelation?

a. the symbolic significance of 12 times 12
b. the number of Jews who will be "saved"
c. the number from the twelve tribes that are "sealed"
d. it deals with the Ezekiel prophecy

Quiz of the Day, October 16, 2022

Where did Simon Peter make the messianic confession?

a. Capernaum
b. Jerusalem
c. Caesarea Philippi
d. Bethany

 Quiz of the Day, October 15, 2022

Of the following, who is not a Carmelite?

a. Teresa of Avila
b. Juan de la Cruz
c. Thérѐse of Lisieux
d. Philip Neri

Quiz of the Day, October 14, 2022

What island did Paul end up on after he was ship wrecked?

a. Cyrus
b. Malta
c. Crete
d. Rhodes

Quiz of the Day, October 13, 2022

What destroyed the shade bush over the sleeping Jonah?

a. a grazing deer
b. a worm
c. a hot wind
d. a large bird

Quiz of the Day, October 12, 2022

Which of the following might be the main message of Jonah?

a. God belongs to everyone
b. God uses big fish to do God's will
c. God's call takes one where one does not want to go
d. it okay to be angry about God loving our enemy

Quiz of the Day, October 11, 2022

The city of Nineveh is associated with what prophet?

a. Nehemiah
b. Ezra
c. Jonah
d. Obadiah

Quiz of the Day, October 10, 2022

According to the Acts of the Apostle, what language did the heavenly voice speak in to Saul of Tarsus when he was struck down on the road to Damascus?

a. Hebrew
b. Aramaic
c. Greek
d. Latin
e. it does not say

Quiz of the Day, October 9, 2022

"Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly before your God," is found where?

a. Isaiah
b. Jeremiah
c. Amos
d. Obediah
e. Micah

Quiz of the Day, October 8, 2022

Who was Agrippa's wife?

a. Candace
b. Eunice
c. Bernice
d. Sapphira

Quiz of the Day, October 7, 2022

Who succeeded Felix in convening a trial for Paul?

a. Herod Antipas
b. Agrippa
c. Festus
d. unknown prefect

Quiz of the Day, October 6, 2022

Of the following, which was an early designation of the "Christian religion?"

a. The Way
b. Christianity
c. the rabbinical school of Jesus
d. Resurrection Path


Quiz of the Day, October 5, 2022

Which of the following was not a pejorative opinion regarding Jesus in his time?

a. demon possessed
b. friend of sinner
c. glutton
d. drunkard
e. mad
f. blasphemer
g. greedy

Quiz of the Day, October 4, 2022

What did St. Francis of Assisi do in the fifth crusade?

a. recruited soldiers
b. traveled to Egypt to convert the Sultan
c. organized a prayer crusade
d. joined as a soldier in a crusade deployment

Quiz of the Day, October 3, 2022

Of the following religious leaders, which one did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize?

a. The Dalai Lama
b. Desmond Tutu
c. John R. Mott
d. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
e. Martin Luther King, Jr.
f. Mother Teresa

Quiz of the Day, October 2, 2022

Which is not true regarding the prophet Hosea?

a. he was a prophet of the northern kingdom
b. he was a prophet of Judah
c. he was commanded by God to marry a harlot
d. he prophesied during the reign of Jeroboam II

Quiz of the Day, October 1, 2022

What saved St. Paul from being significantly harmed in Jerusalem?

a. he was a Pharisee
b. his appeal to a belief in the resurrection
c. being a Roman citizen
d. his tentmaking was needed by authorities

Sunday, October 30, 2022

The "Zacchaeus" Motif in the Early Churches

21 Pentecost, Cp26,  October 30, 2022
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4 Psalm 119:137-144
2 Thessalonians 1:1-5 (6-10) 11-12 Luke 19:1-10

Lectionary Link

Is there hope for the dishonest greedy rich people of the world?  If we believe the story about Zacchaeus, we believe that the message of Jesus can transform those who are dishonest, greedy, and rich into those who restore and perform significant reparations for their greedy dishonest ways.

Who is Zacchaeus and what could he represent as a trope in a Gospel story being told within the communities which were reading the Gospel of Luke?

The Gospels often portray Jesus as interacting with tax-collectors, publicans and sinners.

The tax collector in the Gospel setting, was presented as a figure who was a traitor to his people.   The tax collector was a Jewish person, who collected taxes on behalf of the Roman authorities, from his own people whose land was occupied by the Romans.

A tax collector could get wealthy by exacting his own share of the tax allotments.  A tax collector was one who would have found it difficult to be Jew, adhering to the ritual purity customs of the synagogue, because he would have to interact so closely with the non-Jewish authorities for his occupation and his very status in the synagogue would be compromised.

The price that a tax collector had to pay for dishonest wealth was the loss of social acceptance.  He really wasn't welcome to fellowship with the Roman authorities and he was ostracized by his fellow Jews from whom he had to collect taxes.

Zacchaeus represented perhaps an entire class of Jews in the first century who lived in the cities of the Roman Empire and who had to do business with Gentiles on a regular basis.  Such constant interaction with Gentiles meant that in they had lost a sustaining connection with their heritage.  They were, as it were, lapsed Jews in their ritual practice of Judaism.

Certain mystical social clubs arose throughout the cities of the Roman Empire became a magnet for "lapsed" people, persons who had lost contact with a significant social identity group because of the nature of their interaction with the commercial circles within the Roman Empire.

These social clubs which came to be called churches, were like a new extended family identity group.  The story of Zacchaeus encapsulates the kind of social health, social salvation which was being provided by the spread of these home clubs, called churches.

An encounter with the Risen Christ, gave a person entrance into a new family, a new club, a place of significant belonging.   The belonging experienced in the fellowship of these social club provided a space for people to get free from their states of ostracized loneliness.

But what was the cost of initiation into this new social club, the fellowships known as churches?  The cost was the fruit of transformed behaviors; dishonesty to honesty.  Stealing to restoration and reparations. 

In the Zacchaeus Gospel story, one can find an identity story of the stories of the newly arrived members of the fellowship of the church.

And what is the fellowship of the church today?  It is the gathering of people who have the story of a mystical encounter with the Risen Christ which has changed their lives and who from that encounter have said to Jesus, "You make me want to be a better person."  And then begin to the live those better ways of being a better person, the ways of love, justice, restoration, reconciliation and reparations.

Zacchaeus is symbolic of the converted person by the charisma of the grace of Christ, and who is given a place to belong in the family of Christ.

Let us today be those who have been converted by the Risen Christ, and who have come to belong within the fellowship of Christ and who now offer the experience of Christian belonging to all who want it.  Amen.

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...