Prayers for Lent, 2023

Holy Saturday, April 8, 2023

O God, on this Holy Saturday, we enter into the Sabbath Rest of Jesus in his death to all that is unworthy in life and in our lives in particular.  From our rest from what is unworthy we await the resurrecting Spirit of Christ to use the members of our body for goodness and love.  Amen.

Good Friday, April 7, 2023

God of Great Creative Freedom, you shared aspects of that freedom with all even to the point of Pontius Pilate freely condemning Jesus to death on a cross; give us grace to use the freedom that we have to live toward loving and just outcomes.  Amen.

Maundy Thursday, April 6, 2023

Providing and Sustaining Holy One, you reveal the survival of human community found in eating holy and life giving meals together, and in the service to each other; we commit ourselves again to offering Eucharist and to mutual service.  Amen.

Holy Wednesday, April 5, 2023

O Christ the sun, your light was eclipsed by the darkness and shadows of death for your Tenebrae; give us grace in our tenebrae to survive the hours and days when it seems as though Hope has lost.  Amen.

Holy Tuesday, April 4, 2023

O Continuous Plenitude, we know you by having Eternal Word found us as human beings with language, and we define the beginningless and the endless Continuity with stories; we thank for the stories of Holy Week which challenge us to come to meaningful engagement with life and death and to enhance the meanings of our lives with justice.  Amen.

Holy Monday, April 3, 2023

God of time, give to us a week of holy remembering of the events in the life of Jesus and so interweave their meanings with our lives in search of continuous meaning of what love means for us and our world.  Amen.

Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday, April 2, 2023

God of justice, when just people hear either Hosanna or Crucify him, let us be with the crowd who valorizes love and justice for all.  Amen.

Saturday in 5 Lent, April 1, 2023

Encompassing God beyond life and death, help us not to use the cross of Jesus to minimize the actual horrors of the event of death in the feelings of those who suffer the loss of their loved ones.  Give us faith to live with uncertainty and the delay in knowing the meaning of pain and death.  Amen.

Friday in 5 Lent, March 31, 2023

God of freedom, we suffer under the deeply sad inconveniences of death and harm when they happen before reaching the ages of life expectancy; in our untimely losses the field of probability becomes changed and we beseech your grace to live hopefully within new horizons of imminent probabilities.  Amen.

 Thursday in 5 Lent, March 30, 2023

God of all, give us grace to discern what we do within our identity in the crowd with whom we lodge; give us boldness to leave the former influences of our lives when love and justice is not the motive for peer actions.  Amen.

Wednesday in 5 Lent, March 29, 2023

God, whose Son ask for his killers to be forgiven because of their ignorance; enlighten us to move each day from our ignorances to see more clearly what wisdom asks of us in the cause of love and justice.  Amen.

Tuesday in 5 Lent, March 28, 2023

God of Mystery, we are amazed at the continuity of the confessed personal relationship with Jesus of so many throughout history when so many others in history are forgotten; we honor the knowable Christ found in our lives today.  Amen.

Monday in 5 Lent, March 27, 2023

Gracious God, the death of Jesus came to be called a good death in the providential confession of those who knew him in his afterlife; let us not diminish life by over-glorifying his death unless we use the power the inspiration of his death to prolong abundant life for as many as possible.  Amen.

Sunday, 5 Lent, March 26, 2023

Everlasting God of Time, we continually wait with hope for ordinary history to be understood as a surpassing providence of goodness for our lives and the life of our world, and in faith we hold on to resurrection reparation of all things with justice, forgiveness, and love. Amen.

Saturday in 4 Lent, March 25, 2023

God, whose image is buried within everything, you creatively are always already resurrecting previous occasions to new occasions which retain likeness of the previous.  Give us grace to be in the flow of creativity and with freedom add to new life with excellence.  Amen.

Friday in 4 Lent, March 24, 2023

God, you are the poetry of Plenitude, the endless reservoir of Word creating words to come along side what we experience and provide us with the meanings to grow in love and justice.  Inspire us to translate the poetry of Plenitude into the words and deeds of love, grace, and just today.  Amen.

Thursday in 4 Lent, March 23, 2023

God, who is Word, you have give the words Bread, Way, Life, Resurrection, Truth, Vine, and Lamb of God as metaphors for teaching us the many ways in which you are with us.  Thank you for being as close to us as our language is close to us.  Amen.

Wednesday in 4 Lent, March 22, 2023

God of former times, current time and future time; you let us know in Jesus that the divine omnipresence is resurrection life always for everyone.  Give us the grace of aware of such resurrection life even now.  Amen.

Tuesday in 4 Lent, March 21, 2023

God of all seasons happening everywhere, when it is spring for us, it is fall for others; we invoke your presence upon the time of our life today and we beseech your favor upon us to spread love, kindness, and justice in all the seasons of our life.  Amen.

Monday in 4 Lent, March 20, 2023

God of life, you give us the sense of afterlife before we die and this hope strengthens us in our progressive demise; let the hope of betterment motivate our lives today.  Amen.

Sunday, 4 Lent, March 19, 2023

God of such Light, our seeing eyes are ever adjusting to your brightness; help us to see more clearly today the ways in which we can be rightly related to everything, everyone, our own histories, and in ways which are honest, just, and loving.  Amen.

Saturday in 3 Lent, March 18, 2023

Gracious God, your perfection keeps us moving and changing and improving our seeing of what is good, right and just.  Forgive us our judgments from our continuous comparisons of each other and of we once were and let not our imperfection make us timid in progressing toward what is more just and loving.  Amen.

Friday in 3 Lent, March 17, 2023

God of love and justice, keep us on alert about new paradigms of thought and action which will make more manifest the practice in our world, the truth of love and justice.  Amen.

Thursday in 3 Lent, March 16, 2023

God of Time and Future, as we wait for the future to fill the fuller meanings of what is happening now, let us not procrastinate to do love and justice now.  Inspire us to know that justice and love always results in a better future.  Amen.

Wednesday in 3 Lent, March 15, 2023

All-Knowing God, we are grateful that you do not hold us accountable for what we do not yet know because of our situation and capacity; keep us open hearted and open minded about the new insights which can yet transform our lives in excellence.  Amen.

Tuesday in 3 Lent, March 14, 2023

God of Light, let your light enlighten us to see beyond mere appearances and plumb the nuances of inward grace and let us be inspired to let the moving words of Scripture make us very literally and externally loving and justice.  Amen.

Monday in 3 Lent, March 13, 2023

Gracious God whose Spirit inspires self control, give us grace to be good orchestrators of the multiverses which can accompany our conscious lives from within.  Give us wisdom and arising insights to propel us to be better at love and justice in our various situations.  Amen.

Sunday, 3 Lent, March 12, 2023

Gracious Word of God, let our words and deeds today give cause to know that love and justice can be empirically verified by those who consistently experience them in our lives.  Amen.

Saturday in 2 Lent, March 11, 2023

Eternal Word, you have made us to realize that we are worded beings who come to signify everything in and with words; give us the grace of good word ability to be able to sew together our inward lives from which words are born, with our outer world as we try to make the life of love and justice actual in our various locations.  Amen.

Friday in 2 Lent, March 10, 2023

God, who is All, let us not reduce you to dogma to divide us from people who don't agree with us; let us respect the mystery that is appropriate to the Infinity which should make our humility inevitable.  Amen.

Thursday in 2 Lent, March 9, 2023

Creating God, from the plenitude of all that is past a new present arrives; give us grace to integrate the old with the new arisings and let that integration be completed with the goal of more kindness and justice.  Amen.

Wednesday in 2 Lent, March 8, 2023

O God, on whom we project language use even to the confession as the equivalence of God with Eternal Word; give us the grace of wise use of the language in our lives in our speaking, writing, and behaviors.  Amen.

Tuesday in 2 Lent, March 7, 2023

Gracious Word of God, words have come to code and classify our interior lives and our outer world; give us grace on how we use classifying words and let the qualifying words of love and justice be prominent is how to elevate our worded lives in speaking, writing, and body language acts.  Amen.

Monday in 2 Lent, March 6, 2023

God, whom we don't see; help us to be awaken to our perpetual inwardness as what often is seen as seeming negligible inner linguistic programming of how we have been coded to act.  Let the insight of Christ as eternal Word open us to new inner re-programming toward becoming more Christlike and allowing the divine nature to be through us.  Amen.

Sunday, 2 Lent, March 5, 2023

Gracious God of past, present, and future; keep us curious about what might be new in our future especially the potential insights which might help us to surpass ourselves in excellence.  Amen.

Saturday in 1 Lent, March 4, 2024

Grant us, O God, the grace to ever be born again as we embrace our continuous future rebirths int time as surpassing ourselves in the practice of love and justice in our future states.  Amen.

Friday in 1 Lent, March 3, 2023

God, who is mighty, our world lives too often by conferring on the mighty the right to own the majority of land and resources; teach us the power of restraint and the power to transform wealth, education, and power to care for others.  Amen.

Thursday in 1 Lent, March 2, 2023

God of time and history, Jesus left so that the Risen Christ could become fresh in new unfolding of love and justice within all time; give us grace to do the hard and necessary adjustments to the requirement of love and justice in our time.  Amen.

Wednesday in 1 Lent, March 1, 2023

God of love, who is love, and who loves the world; you sent Jesus to be for us the example of love and when his body was killed out of life, his love continued with many more showings.  Give us more showings of love today that we too might be showings of your love.  Amen.

Tuesday in 1 Lent, February 28, 2023

God of our spiritual transformation, you lead us into even new interpretations of spiritual meanings; give us grace to leave misreadings for our lives which have kept us in bad thinking, emotional infancy, and wrong behaviors.  Amen.

Monday in 1 Lent, February 27, 2023

Gracious Lover of the world, your Son Jesus became manifest as a sign of your love for us and as an Exemplar for us to love and be loved; keep us occupied in the perpetual enterprise of loving today.  Amen.

First Sunday in Lent, February 26, 2023

Second Adam Jesus Christ, you met the serpent who seeks to poison humanity with constant mistimings of words and deeds; give us grace to bring our lives in a holy timing of always doing the propitious things.  Amen.

1 Saturday in Lent, February 25, 2023

Gracious Christ, following your example let the human gifts of creativity be used for good and not for megalomaniacal exhibitionism of prideful person; give humanity the grace to resist using their abilities divorced from the service of others.  Amen.

1st Friday in Lent, February 24, 2023

Jesus Christ, most gifted of all; you were tempted to use your gifts for the wrong motives; in humility you chose the path of suffering with us so that our suffering could known as God with us in the worst probable conditions of life and death.  Amen.

1st Thursday in Lent, February 23, 2023

God, who presides over all probabilities, we are faced with inward and outward ordeals which challenge us to lose appropriate timing in when and how we should behave.  Give us the Christly timing and Christly resistance to the temptations which seek to throw off the timing to do right at the right times.  Amen.

 Ash Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Creator God, the story of our dust spiritualized into our unified being reminds us of our future separation from our bodies as they become dust again; Give us grace to cherish and care for our lives in our bodies with love and justice and let our Lenten journeys be known to result in progress in repentance.  Amen.

The Voluntary Weakness of God: The Emptying of Apparent Divine Power

Good Friday   April 7, 2023
Gen 22:1-18 Ps 22
Heb.10:1-25 John 18:1-19:37

Lectionary Link

How many times do we observe life situations and ponder whether the bad, the evil, the greedy, the haughty proud, and the tyrants are winning?  It can appear that the strongest, the wealthiest, and the smartest people are using strength, wealth, and intelligent to be bullies, economic tyrants while they purchase the best of creative intelligence to expand their power and their greed.

And it does not seem like nature has a way of correcting the situation, even the natural event of death, since when one tyrant dies another arises.

The death of Jesus illustrates how the web of evil works in our world.  The Roman Empire created condition of peace referred to as the Pax Romana, a world peace due to the ability of the Romans to crush any opposition and so impose their "enlightened" laws everywhere.  And such a peace does provide a framework of stability for government and commerce to be conducted.

But with such forced peace, what has to be tamped down is resentment; the resentment caused by memories or aspirations for more local and individual freedoms.

How do the various parties within Judaism try to fly under the radar and avoid the Roman soldiers from crushing them totally?  How do the religious leaders in Jerusalem negotiate with the Roman authorities to try to make the best out of a circumstance of an occupied country and city?  How do the Jews have freedom of religious practice while being occupied by the Romans whose most prominent religion is the cult of a divine Emperor?

On Good Friday, we read the Passion account from the Gospel of John.  If the Gospel of John has come to writing after the year 90, what can we assume about the writer and the readers of this Gospel?  We can assume that they know that Jerusalem was destroyed in the year 70.  We can assume that the inhabitants of Jerusalem and environs who were from all different groups of Judaism, became scattered to the various other cities and towns of the region.  We can assume that there was blaming happening among the various groups of Jews, the Sadducees who lost the Temple for their priests to offer the sacrifices, the Pharisees, who were more adaptive to being able to live without the Temple, the Essenes in the desert, the Zealots who probably suffered great losses in the battles, the followers of John the Baptist, non-practicing Jews who had learned to do business with Romans, and the members of the Jesus Movement.  Part of the blame game was to assign providential reasons for the bad events incurred by the people of Jerusalem.  And that is what prophets of all stripes did: These bad things happened because you did not practice obedience to God in the way that God truly wanted.

What can we also assume about the community which generated John's Gospel?    They were a community which knew the frequent break down between the various Jewish parties, even to know the mutual practice of excommunication or not being welcoming to each other.  What did the Johannine community also experience?  They experienced the appeal of the Gospel being offered to non-Jews who also were not required to adhere to the ritual practices of Judaism.  They were a mixed and mongrel community, of dislocated people who were trying to forge their continuing existence in new places.  But being such nomadic people and open to befriending all people, they also became clubs of mutual support of people in transition, who did not have long local roots in the places where they had come to reside.

If the Johannine community had become welcoming to Gentile members and had become enemies with the parties in Judaism that could not embrace Jesus as their Messiah; such a situation would influence how the narrative of Jesus would be told.

The Passion Gospel of John is the latest Gospel Passion; it is quite advanced in hindsight providence.  Such a Gospel writes a narrative of about the voluntary self emptying of the divine Jesus to the point of death.  The Romans were responsible, the rival Jewish parties were seen as complicit, but what does John's Jesus say to Pilate?  "You have no power over me unless it was given to you from above."

Does it matter that the Jews and Pilate were involved in the crucifixion according to the Gospel of John?  No, they had no power over Jesus unless it was given from above.

Another factor to consider in the passion recounted by the writer of John.  The writer is quite confident about how effective the Gospel has been within the communities throughout the Roman Emperor.  The Jesus Movement is here to stay.  It is inherently winsome.  It is spirited and charismatic.  It is irresistibly converting of many, many people.  And because of the successful outcome, the message of the Cross of Jesus has to be told with the confidence of convincing providence.  "God meant it to happen."

What we can say today is that God is still being emptied into the many dire weaknesses which have and continue to inflict our lives and world.  We still have not experienced enough overcoming success to declare most of the profound suffering in our world as worthy to be called "providential."  We do not feel confident to call the evils of the past, "God's will."  We would not want to minimize suffering by proclaiming it as providential even if we have seen some redeeming outcomes.

Let us accept on Good Friday today that you and I identify with the dilemma of God.  The dilemma of God is known in the self-emptying of apparent divine power.  Why is it a dilemma?  Because the greatest gift of God is freedom.  Why is freedom great?  Because it is what make morals and ethics significant and truly valuable.  Why is it a dilemma?  Because the Great Freedom that is God shares with agents of lesser freedom and this means that Great Freedom allows the play of lesser freedoms within all the agents who are not God.  So there is the freedom for an entire array of probabilities of occurrences.

And on this day we pause at the occurrence of the Cross of Jesus.  We share the dilemma of God in God taking identity with the suffering ones who have lost the power to prevent their suffering.

Today also reveals another principle:  When unjust suffering happens, it has the invisible power and force to transform in the inner realm.  And for this reason, we can come to confess with St. Paul in identifying with God's dilemma: "I have been crucified with Christ, and I live, yet not I, but Christ lives within me."  By the time the Gospel of John was written, the cross had become the mystical power to die to the selfish self.  To this ironic power today we submit in our contemplation of the Cross of Christ.  Amen.

Liturgy: Holy Play with a Purpose

Maundy Thursday April 6, 2023
Ex. 12:1-14a Ps. 78:14-20, 23-25
1 Cor 11:23-32 John 13:1-15

Lectionary Link

Prelude means "before the play."  Have you ever thought of liturgy as Holy Play?  That might seem embarrassing since as people of faith we would want to say that we are not childish in our thoughts and habits.  And we don't want to be accused of being disconnected with actual living situation.

It could be that liturgy and ritual have become disconnected from life situations and have lost their sign value for people who may be coming to church out of social habit or simply to obey church leaders.

Maundy Thursday is Holy Play and with profound connective purposes which are important for our lives.

A crucial issue for the church is being a significant community negotiating the survival of people among other communities of people.  The Jesus Movement communities of the Gospels and those presided over by St. Paul were communities threatened by the great social force of the first centuries, namely, the Roman Empire.

What are the key elements for a community of people to survive within a Empire.  One element is that they needed to stay together to provide some very basic support for each other.  If we understand the need to stay together for mutual support, then we can understand Holy Eucharist as a meal with a purpose.  The Holy Eucharist is the most concrete expression of the social reality of the church.  It shares some of the same functions as a family meal.  Why does a family have meals?  To make sure that each member is fed with the basic sustenance of life.  The family meal is not just about food; it is also about fellowship, a mutual checking in with each other to express care, concern, stories, and prayer.

St. Paul and the early church leaders understood that Holy Eucharist was a gift and command of Jesus to keep the church together as a continuing community into the future.  The early church understood Jesus to be a leadership of hospitality, the kind of hospitality which keeps people together.  And so on Maundy Thursday, we commemorate the gift of the Holy Eucharist as the gathering which is always an anticipation of the next gathering in the future with those who care for each other and for those who want to invite others to the same benefit of a mutual caring community.

The Holy Eucharist is also an evangelical aspiration of hope because it expresses the ideal desire for all the people of the world to be able to sit down together in hospitality and the care which sees to everyone having enough.

The aspiration the future fellowship of all humanity is met with reality of the differences of the egos of the people of this world.  Not only is it difficult for heterogenous people to get along and have fellowship; it is also a challenge for homogeneous people to get along and share unbroken fellowship.  People from the same society and backgrounds and from the same family still face the individual ego that demands that "it is my way or the highway."

And that brings us to the second feature of the Holy Play of Maundy Thursday: Foot-washing.  Jesus, is the Rabbi, the chairman of the board, and yet he emptied himself of exalted position and did something which no one else would do for the meal.  He perform the task which was forgotten by his disciples.  He took the role of a servant and washed their feet.  By so doing, he was showing them that is was only in service that the community and fellowship could survive and be perpetuated into the future.

Many Christians in America do not find themselves in servant roles.  Why?  Because we have so much that we can pay to get things done.  We can pay and so seeming to "not need other people."  We act as independent financial agents paying for the goods and services of our lives.

This means that we have a greater challenge.  If we don't need the Holy Eucharist for checking in or we don't need the services of others, then we miss the point of Maundy Thursday. 

The point is that we "check our egos" to comprise the community and we "check our egos" to serve to pay the community forward into the future.  In our baptisms, each Christian is an "ordained" minister with gifts for the community.

Let us remember tonight, not to forsake the gathering of the Holy Eucharist.  It is still the most concrete social expression of the church.  And let us also remember the Holy Play of foot-washing; serving and loving to serve in knowing that we are usefully beneficial to each other.

May God open our eyes to the connection of the holy play of Holy Eucharist and foot-washing to reality of community and service tonight.  Amen.

Sunday School, April 9, 2023 Easter Sunday, Cycle A

 Sunday School, April 9, 2023  Easter Sunday, Cycle A

Theme:

 Life after life

Bring pictures of the same person over the span of their lives. 

Does the person look the same when 15 as at the age of one?

Does the person at 50 look the same as at 20?

How do we know it is the same person?

The person has Self memories.  He or she knows that he or she is the same person at 5 as at 25.

The people who know the person for a period of time know that a person is the same person at 25 and at 30.

We have DNA and we have fingerprints which stay the same and so we can be identified as the same person.

The questions today:  Will we be able to recognize ourselves after we have died?  Will others be able to recognize us after we have died?

Answer: Yes, we will.  We change in our appearance as we grow and age in our lives.  And when we died we will also change in our appearance but we will continue to have an appearance on another level of living, heavenly living.  How do we know?

After Jesus died, he reappeared to life.  Living people saw Jesus again after he died.  The resurrection of Jesus is God announcement to us that we will be preserved after we die in a wonderful way.  This is why we can have hope in our lives because we know that we will always have a future.

Children’s Sermons:

Easter Sermons for Children

In this sermon, have the entire congregation, one by one share the Easter Message "Christ is Risen."  Make a baton and write on it the traditions that the church has passed on.  This is to illustrate to the children the transmission of the Easter message for all of these years.

Sermon One: Passing the Baton in the Great Relay Race

   What Christian Feast Day is more important? Christmas or Easter?  They are both very important but Easter is the most important Christian day of the Christian year.  Why?  If Jesus had not come back alive, we would not celebrate Christmas and we would not even exist as a church

  When the resurrection of Christ happened, the friends of Jesus who saw him alive again after his death began to share the story.  And now that story has been share for about 2000 years.  If the church is about 2000 years old, that means that there has been about 100 generations using 20 years as the average length of a generation.  So how has the message of the life, the death and resurrection Jesus been remembered for 2000 years?  By one parent sharing the message with their children and their children share the message with their own children. 

  If we have about 100 people here let us see how long it takes to share the message. One by one, let’s share the message, one time for each generation.  Let’s see how long it takes to say Christ is Risen around this entire gathering.  Okay start.

   But the church has not just passed on spoken message.  We have passed it on in things that we can see and touch and feel.  And so I have made a baton for a relay race and I’ve written some things on the Baton.  The Bible.  The Old Testament Stories.  The New Testament Stories.  Creeds. Holy Spirit. Water of Baptism. Oil of Baptism and Confirmation.  Fire of Baptism.  Bread and Wine of Eucharist.  Prayers for the Sick.  Bishops, Priests, Deacons and Lay Persons.  Marriage Rings.

  These are things of the church that have been shared for 100 generations.  These things have been passed on from family to family for 2000 years.  And that is why we are here today, because someone told us the message about Jesus Christ and because the church has passed on the various things that have helped us to remember that Jesus rose again.  And because the Holy Spirit is inside us giving us the hope that we are going to live beyond our deaths.  And why do we believe that we will live beyond our deaths?  Because Jesus Christ lived beyond his death; he did it to show us what will happen to us after we die.  We will live beyond our death and we will live with God.  That is why this day is such a happy day and it is why we shout: Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!  The Lord is risen indeed.  Alleluia!  Amen. 

Sermon Two:  The empty Easter Egg

  Let me tell you today about an Easter Egg hunt that took place on Easter Sunday in a church.  And the Sunday School teacher wanted to teach a lesson to the children on Easter Sunday.  So Mr. Jones during Sunday School on Easter Sunday, said to his class, “Today is Easter Sunday and so we want to do something special.  We are going to have an Easter Egg hunt.  I’ve have already hidden the eggs.  So let’s go outside and look.  And I want each of you to find only one egg.  And when everyone has found one egg, then we will come back to the classroom and each of us will open our egg in front of the entire class.  So the entire class of twelve children ran outside to look for the eggs in a place on the lawn where Mr. Jones had hidden the eggs.  One by one each child found an egg.  One child said, “I’ve found my egg.”  Another child said, “Please help me find my egg.”  And finally after about 10 minutes each child found an egg.  Mr. Jones rang a bell and said, “Come into the classroom.”  And so the children came back into the classroom each holding an egg.  Now these eggs were not real eggs, they were plastic hollow eggs so that there could be a hidden treat inside of the egg.

   When they were seated in the classroom, Mr. Jones said, “Now one by one we are going to open each egg to see what’s in the egg.  And let me tell you, there is a surprise in one of the eggs and whoever has the surprise will get something special.”

  One by one the eggs were opened.  Johnny said, “I have a dollar bill in mine…I bet I won the prize.”  Mary opened hers and she found some very nice chocolates so she said, “No, these are really the best chocolates, so I bet I won the prize.”  Jimmy opened his egg and he had a little Lego man so he said, “I think I got the best prize.”  Grace opened her egg and she had a cute little furry bunny rabbit and she said, “I won!”  Gloria opened her egg and found a silver dollar and she said, “Wow!  I hit the jackpot!”  Jeremy opened his egg and he found a lovely ring that fit his finger and it had a red jewel on it, so he said, “Surely this must be the best prize.”  Betsy then opened her egg and she found a cute little baby chick, and she was thrilled because she knew she had won.  Todd opened his egg and found a shiny whistle and he blew the whistle because he thought he had won.  Everyone who heard the loud noise, said, “Stop blowing the whistle, it hurts our ears.”  Joey opened his egg and he found a little race car…just what he wanted, and so he believed he was the winner.  Margaret opened her egg and she found a cute little teddy bear and she was happy.  Harry opened his Easter Egg and he found a porcelain little Dalmatian.  And he just loved those spotted dogs.  And then there was only one person and one egg left to open and it was Lucy’s egg.  Everyone said, “Hurry and open it let us see.”  But Lucy got very shy and so she hid her egg under desk so that no one could see her open it.  She looked down as she opened it and when she got it opened, her face turned red and said.  Everyone shouted, “What did you get Lucy?  Did you win?  What did you get?”  And Lucy looked up and said, “I lost…I did not get anything…my egg is empty.”  And the children laughed at her and said, “Mr. Jones really played a joke on you.”

  Then the children asked Mr. Jones, “Tell who won the best prize?”

 And Mr. Jones said, “Children, Lucy won the best prize and so she get this special prize, a new Bible.”  The children said, “Why did Lucy win?  Her egg was empty?”

  Mr. Jones said, “Today is Easter.  And when the women went to the tomb of Jesus what did they find?”  They found that the tomb was empty and because it was empty they were winners, because that meant that Jesus was still alive.

  And so Lucy’s egg was empty.  And she wins the prize on Easter to remind us that the empty tomb of Jesus means that Christ is alive and that he is still with us today. 

   So as winners today let us be happy about the empty tomb of Jesus.  Let us say, Alleluia, Christ is Risen.  The Lord is risen indeed.  Alleluia! 

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

April 9, 2023

Gathering Songs:

Alleluia, Alleluia, Give Thanks; I am the Bread of Life; Jesus Christ is Ris’n Today

The Return of Alleluia out of Lenten Hibernation

Bringing Back Alleluia from Lenten Hibernation

Song: Alleluia, Alleluia, Give Thanks, Hymn # 178, in the Blue Hymnal

Refrain: Alleluia, Alleluia, give thanks to the Risen Lord, Alleluia, Alleluia, give praise to his Name.

1-Jesus is Lord of all the earth. He is the King of creation. Refrain

2-Spread the good news o’er all the earth: Jesus has died and has risen. Refrain

3-We have been crucified with Christ. Now we shall live forever. Refrain

4-Come, let us praise the living God, joyfully sing to our Savior. Refrain

Liturgist: Alleluia, Christ is Risen.

People: The Lord is Risen Indeed. Alleluia.

Holy Noise!

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

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

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

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Liturgist: The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Liturgist: Let us pray

Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord's resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Alleluia (chanted)

O God, you are Great! Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

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

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

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

O God, you have forgiven our sins! Alleluia

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

A reading from the Letter to the Colossian Church

If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 118

The right hand of the Lord has triumphed!* the right hand of the Lord is exalted! the right hand of the Lord has triumphed!"

I shall not die, but live,* and declare the works of the Lord.

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

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 Matthew

People: Glory to you, Lord Christ.

After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” 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 with you always.

People: And also with you.

Anthem:  

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 our birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his family 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 good and right so to do.

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 & 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 neighbors.

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, 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 (Sung): (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 by 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.

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: Jesus Christ is Risen Today! (Blue Hymnal # 207)

1-Jesus Christ is Ris’n today, Alleluia! Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia! Who did once upon the cross, Al-leluia! Suffer to redeem our loss. Alleluia!

2-Hymns of praise then let us sing, Alleluia! Unto Christ our heavenly King, Alleluia! Who endured the cross and grave, Alleluia! Sinners to redeem and save, Alleluia!

4-Sing we to our God above, alleluia! Praise eternal as his love, alleluia! Praise him, all ye heavenly hosts, Alleluia! Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Alleluia.

Dismissal:

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

People: Thanks be to God! Alleluia! Alleluia!

What Would God Have to Do to Be Fully Human?

Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday Cycle A April 2, 2020
Is.45:21-25 Ps. 22:1-11
Phil. 2:5-11 Matthew 26:36-27:66

Lectionary Link

Christianity is based upon the belief that Jesus Christ is the example of a person who is completely bilingual in divinity and humanity.

What would the Divine have to do to be completely identified with human experience?First, the Divine would have to live a human life.  And the Divine would have to die as a human being to identify with one of the crucial qualifications of human experience.

The Christological hymn in the letter to the Philippians is a poem about the emptying of the divine into human experience, the funneling of the largesse of the divine through a specific human being.  And in this poem, the person became obedient to death, and not just a natural death, but the horrific death of the mode of capital punishment of the Romans, death on a cross.

This death of Jesus on the cross became within the Christian communities, a glorified death.  The death of a human being who was divine has become a glorified symbol for the entire Christian movement.

But what we can't do with the glorified death of Jesus is to remove the actual horror of his death.  What we can't do with the glorified death of Jesus is to remove or minimize the actual hurt and loss of those who are going through dying, and the loved ones who are with the dying at their ends and who survive their deaths.

It could be that the liturgy of the church gives the death of Christ two days of observance for good reason, Passion Sunday and Good Friday, when the event stands alone without the resurrection being added as the resolutions of that death.  As much as we want to be optimistic in life, it is more realistic to be brutally honest about death for the person and their loved ones.

In the immediate aftermath of death, we in the church call the Requiem a celebration of the resurrection of Christ, but in so doing we can often shove the resurrection in the faces of those who have suffered the loss of their loved ones, perhaps too forcefully, and perhaps too quickly.  The loved ones who has lost their best friend or family members are not going to have post-death appearances of their deceased loved ones three days after their deaths or for the rest of their lives.

The resurrection of Jesus in his appearances after he died, were just after a few days.  So his death and his re-appearances are totally unique to him and such experiences do not happen for us in having such access to our faithful departed loved ones in such a short time after their deaths.

St. Paul used the death and resurrection of Christ as the mystical explanation for spiritual process.  Such identity with the death and resurrection of Christ was to be a power that directs the inward spiritual transformation of our lives.

The writers of the Passion accounts in the Gospels cannot hide the fact that they adhere to the subsequent events to the death of Jesus.  Yet, they also emphasize the identity of Jesus with the sheer torture and agony of death.

On Passion Sunday and on Good Friday, we try to forget the resurrection of Jesus so as not to minimize the horror of death, and not minimize the profound value of human living.

We cannot minimize death of people in our world today, the many deaths of gun violence, those who have died early from many different diseases and afflictions, and those who have died in the Ukrainian war.  The crying loneliness of those who have suffered loss of loved ones is put on a "Freeze Frame" today in being coupled with the death of God in human form.  That God is with us in death indicates to us that God tolerates divine weakness when it comes to honoring the freedom of some of the worst things to happen in human experience.

Resurrection has its Sunday.  Today, we pause in horror at the death of Jesus and the horror of death itself.  On Passion Sunday, we pause to give death its day because we are honest to human experience.  And again we cry with all the dying, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken us."  Amen. 

Aphorism of the Day, March 2023

Aphorism of the Day, March 31, 2023

St. Paul made the death of Jesus into a mystical event of identity with the death of Jesus in becoming an ironic power to die to one's selfish self.

Aphorism of the Day, March 30, 2023

St. Paul seems more hopeful about Judaism being united by the acceptance of Christ.  He wrote that the Gentiles received grace to make the Jews jealous.  By the later times when the Gospels were written, it seems as though the divisions within Judaism had become more deeply set

Aphorism of the Day, March 29, 2023

The presence of the Passion accounts in the Gospel is proof of the antipathy that had developed between parties of Judaism.  It involves a rather ironic message.  Those who were complicit in the lead up to the crucifixion were those who did not know they were setting up the climax, namely, the resurrection appearances.  So if one's sins are overcome by some subsequent and necessary good it leads to the guilty by ignorance plea and the absolution, "Father, forgiven them for they do not know what they do."  Was the Passion written in part to present the insight: "You can't plea ignorance anymore?"

Aphorism of the Day, March 28, 2023

Palm Sunday and The Sunday of the Passion includes insights about the break down between parties within Judaism, the followers of Jesus and the parties who held positions with the Sanhedrin or the leadership group which negotiated with the Roman authorities.  The implication is that the Sanhedrin were complicit with the Romans in trying to crush Jesus and his followers.  The political truth is that the Roman authorities acted in their own interest.

Aphorism of the Day, March 27, 2023

Jesus is perhaps the greatest "post-life savant" of all time.  Which other person of history can have so many people claim having with them a personal relationship?  Yes, many Buddhists will speak about realizing the Buddha nature within themselves, but does that characterization have the same "personal" overtones as those who claim  relationship with Jesus?

Aphorism of the Day, March 26, 2023

When one writes about the past, one is super-imposing the present on the past, presenting a present version of the past.   The Gospels super-impose what was happening decades after Jesus upon a narrative Jesus.  The sub-text involves the dynamics of the communities which were responsible for the writing.

Aphorism of the Day, March 25, 2023

Might be good to link image of the divine upon life with resurrection life.  The image of the divine is what propels the eternal return of the same or traces with surpassing differences.  Resurrection life should be seen as something impossible, namely static life.

Aphorism of the Day, March 24, 2023

Life and death are continuously juxtaposed in the mysticism of St. Paul.  They become metaphors for identifying with the life, death, and "re-life" of Jesus as the path of spiritual transformation.  The Lazarus story is a way to proclaim an identity with Christ while "dead in sins."  Lazarus is symbolic of the two resurrections, namely, the experience of resurrection life before we finally die, and the resurrection to come in our "re-life."

Aphorism of the Day, March 23, 2023

Lazarus the resurrected one, came back to life, only to die again.  Or is Lazarus a figurative one in a parable of Jesus told by the early Jesus Movement of the continuity of resurrection life that is present in all through God's omnipresence and made manifest with the Risen Christ known to be present in the lives of people who will die even while having resurrection life.

Aphorism of the Day, March 22, 2023

The Lazarus story emphasizes the resurrection is not a last day event but the experience of a new quality of life while we live.

Aphorism of the Day, March 21, 2023

The disciples and interlocutors of Jesus in John's Gospel are often presented as literalists who don't understand the use of figurative language.  From the first word of John's Gospel, the writer is writing about Word and coming to nuanced use of language in perceiving "inner" meanings is one of John's writing goals.

Aphorism of the Day, March 20, 2023

The Lazarus story encodes the teaching that while people are dead in sin, they can received the resurrected life of the Holy Spirit through the words of Christ.

Aphorism of the Day, March 19, 2023

The Gospels were written years after the first writing of St. Paul.  One can read them as manual wherein the reader puts oneself in identity with the disciples who are initially trapped in literal/plain understanding and being gradually trained in the "inner meaning" of things such as the meanings which Paul had from his mystical experiences.

 Aphorism of the Day, March 18, 2023

We see what we see and are "blind" to what we don't yet see and such seeing and blindness differences among people most often accounts for the conflicts between them.  Seeing and blindness are relative to ego construction based upon one's contexts and this involves education, cultural conditioning, and one's age and exposure to informational sources.  We can project a perfect outside arbiter for "correct or enlightened" seeing but whoever delivers such a perfect message colors the message by being an imperfect seer.

Aphorism of the Day, March 17, 2023

Why do people who live in the same religious milieu disagree, and sometimes profoundly?  People belong to different paradigms or reside in different hermeneutic circles.  This means people can use the same words and yet do not share the same meanings of those words.  How does one move from on paradigm to the next? Conversion.  One is blind to the insights of another paradigm until one has a seeing conversion experience.  The Jesus Movement was another hermeneutical circles in first century Judaism.  Not ever member of the Jewish society could embrace the features which came to define the Jesus Movement.

Aphorism of the March 16, 2023

The future fruition may be the answer to past causation questions, like, why are there seeds?  So that they can become trees.  Why are people unenlightened or blind?  So that they can come to see and be enlightened.

Aphorism of the Day, March 15, 2023

Blindness and sight are the metaphors used by the writer of John channelling the mind of Christ, to describe why persons in a former paradigm cannot "see" the wisdom of the new paradigm.  Nicodemus was a Pharisee of a former paradigm who was coming to "see" the wisdom of the Christ paradigm.

Aphorism of the Day, March 14, 2023

Biblically, looking only on "outward" appearances is called in the words of Jesus, "blindness," while looking and seeing inwardness virtues of gentleness, kindness, and pure motives is what the words of Jesus calls "seeing."  Literalism is blindness regarding the Scriptures and it assumes that writers did not know the difference between common sense naive realism and artistic presentations with langauge.

Aphorism of the Day, March 13, 2023

The inner languaged person can be multiverses with access to one's conscious life in actual time.  Such a realm of possibilisms can be a legion which is both a resource for creativity and the instincts for acting out wrongly.  The conscious life as being an ego orchestrator of one's multiverses calls each of us to enlightened insightful wise agency.  Such wisdom would include kindly acting with other people.

Aphorism of the Day, March 12, 2023

In the beginning was the Word.  John's Gospel tells us that human life distinctively is known because we are worded beings.  Without words, nothing that is known could have been known.

Aphorism of the Day, March 11, 2023

In John's Gospel the physical or plain meaning is often the set up for the words of Jesus to relate the inward meaning.  The literal water of Jacob's well set up the living water phrases.  The disciples' reference to food to eat is the set up for Jesus to say, "I have food to eat that you do not know about."

Aphorism of the Day, March 10, 2023

One of the subtexts of the Gospel of John is this: Don't read it literally, because the physical is but a metaphor for the spiritual.

Aphorism of the Day, March 9, 2023

How is it that one might understand biblical words different at the age of 70 than one did at 16?  Could it be that learning and insights involve continuous conversion to new interpretative paradigms?  But aren't the words the same?  Or does time reduce words to but traces that have new meanings in time?

Aphorism of the Day, March 8, 2023

Should we worry about the Mystery of all that is negligible in causing the events of our life?  What we don't and can't know isn't relevant?  Or should we remain humble about what we don't yet know?

Aphorism of the Day, March 7, 2023

The Samaritan woman at the well spoke about a messiah to Jesus.  Since the Samaritans only had their version of the Torah, which is pre-Davidic, who is the messiah of the Torah?  Is it the prophet who would be raised up?  In the development of ideas one wonders how the notion of messiah was wedded with the notion of a future prophet in Torah.

Aphorism of the Day, March 6, 2023

One of the reading cues of John's Gospel is the cryptic presentation of non-literal reading as indicative of being spiritual or born from above.  Non-literal understanding of life does not eschew the empirical verification of science, it is but a complementing truth of how to be related to the fullness of reality.

Aphorism of the Day, March 5, 2023

The writer of the Gospel of John unifies the faith or works debates by citing words of Jesus saying, "this is work, that you believe, i.e. have faith.  If having faith in the right object, i.e., the redeeming work of Christ, is the Christ appointed work, then faith and work are united.  A rather interesting twist on the issue since Paul is seen as making such a stark distinction between the two.

Aphorism of the Day, March 4, 2023

From the words of Jesus, Bible readers have come to stereotypically shame the Pharisees as being those who act religious on the outside but when the cameras are turned off, behave differently.  This, of course, could be any of us.  However, the only three Pharisees who are named in the New Testament, actually get good reviews: Nicodemus, Gamaliel, and Paul.

Aphorism of the Day, March 3, 2023

One of the collateral military effects of reading the Bible is the model of people who heard God telling them that they have been given land that they did not previously possess.  "I'm taking your land because God told me too."

Aphorism of the Day, March 2, 2023

The writer of John's Gospel presents the contrast between earthly things and heavenly things.  The heavenly things in a practical sense referred to seeing from having been converted to a new paradigm of thinking.  The new thinking was thinking which surpassed the thinking of how previously the faith life was to be interpreted.

Aphorism of the Day, March 1, 2023

An important way to read the Gospel of John is to note the scorning words of Jesus about literalism, eg. how can I an old man get back into my mother's womb, and Lazarus' sleep good, or that he is dead.  The Gospel of John does not invite us to the language of empirical verification  but the artistic language of poetic and moving spirituality.