Sunday School, June 3, 2023 Trinity Sunday A

 Sunday School, June 3, 2023   Trinity Sunday  A

Theme:

The Holy Trinity

The confession of God, being One God but in three Persons

Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Why is the Trinity an important meaning for us?

To understand God, we believe that God has to come in some “bi-lingual” way to us.   Somebody has to speak about the meaning of God in the language of human beings.

The first part of the Bible is called the Hebrew Scriptures.  In the Hebrew Scriptures, God is written about by prophets, leaders, priests, poets and teachers.  Inspired people wrote about God.  When Jesus appeared, we believe that God became fully manifest as God would appear as a person. 

The appearance of Jesus who understood himself to be the Son of his Father is important because each of us is taught that we are sons and daughters of God.  We are persons and if we are created in the image of God, God has personality too.  And in our relationship with God we can know God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

By confessing God as Father, we admit that we did not make ourselves; we came from a great Past and Began with God.

By confessing God as Son, we believe that God became known in human experience as a person who lived in this world.  This means that we accept our human experience as a valid way to know God.

By confessing God as Holy Spirit, we believe that God is invisible like breath and wind, but just as we can see the effects of breath and wind when we blow or when wind blows the leaves on the tree, we believe that we can see the effects of an invisible Holy Spirit everywhere.

We confess the Trinity because we believe it expresses what is honestly true in how people understand God.

Sermon

   When Jesus left this earth, he gave some instruction to his friends.  He told them to make friends with other people, just as he had made friends with them.  And how did Jesus make friends?  He told them about how God loved them like the very best father in the world.  He told them that just as he was a special son of God, that everyone was a special child of God.

  Wouldn’t it be sad to have a wonderful parent but not be able to know it?  If you had a mother and father but if you did not know about your parents, it would be sad.

  Lots of people in this world do not know that they are a member of the great family of God.  Lots of people do not know that they are children of God and that God is their father.

  Jesus came to teach us that even though we have mothers and fathers in our birth families, we also have God as our Father of the greatest family of all, the family of the entire world, the entire universe.

  Jesus came to show us how much God loved us.  And Jesus told his friends, that even though he was leaving and even though they could not seen God, he would still be with them always.  How would Jesus be with them?  He would be with them as the Holy Spirit.  This means that God is a close to us as our breath.   Take a breath.  How close is your breath to you?  Very close.  Well that is how close that God’s Spirit is to us.

  Jesus gave his friends a special job to do. He said that he wanted them to make friends and gather those friends together so they could help each other and help other people in this world to know about God’s love.

  What was the job he gave them to do?  He told them to make friends for God and he told them to baptize in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.  In doing this they would be celebrating their membership in God’s family.

  Baptism is a celebration of our birth into the family of God and when we baptize, we say, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”  The family of God begins in heaven and we celebrate on earth that we are members of the family of God.

   We call the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity.  And this is what we celebrate on Trinity Sunday.

  I want you to remember that we believe in the Trinity, because we believe that God loved us so much that God included in God’s family…so we have Jesus as our brother.  But we also have the Holy Spirit and that means God is with us always and very close to us.

  Let us remember the Trinity today.  And let us remember our baptism too.  Amen.

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

June 3, 2023: Trinity Sunday

Gathering Songs: Holy, Holy, Holy, The King of Glory,  Eat This Bread, Peace Like a River

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:  Holy, Holy, Holy,  (# 362 in blue hymnal)

1-Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!

Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;

Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!

God in three Persons, blessèd Trinity!

2-Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee,

Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;

Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,

Who was, and is, and evermore shall be.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

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

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

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

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

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

A reading from the Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians

Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.  The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord.

People: Thanks be to God.

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 8

O LORD our Governor, *how exalted is your Name in all the world!

Out of the mouths of infants and children * your majesty is praised above the heavens.

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.

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father Phil

Children’s Creed

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

Since God is so great and we are so small,

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

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

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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

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

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

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

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

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

People:                        And also with you.

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

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

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

1-Who is the King of Glory; how shall we call him? He is Emmanuel, the promised of ages.

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

3-Sing then of David’s son, our savior and brother: in all of Galilee was never another

Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of heaven.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

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

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

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

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

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

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

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

(All gather around the altar)

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

You have made us in your image

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

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

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

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

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

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

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:       Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast. 

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Eat This Bread, (Renew! # 228)

Eat this bread, drink this cup, come to me and never be hungry. 

Eat this bread, drink this cup, trust in me and you will not thirst.

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: I’ve Got Peace Like a River (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 122)

I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river in my soul.  I’ve          got peace like a river; I’ve got peace like a river.  I’ve got peace like a river in my soul.

I’ve got love…. 

I’ve got joy…

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Aphorism of the Day, May 2023

Aphorism of the Day, May 31, 2023

Christians try to reduce Total Synchronicity to linear space time unfolding; hence the Trinity.  Let trinitarian thinking lead us back to incomprehensible Synchronicity.

Aphorism of the Day, May 30, 2023

Personhood is known to be significantly meaningful in human experience because of language.  Language and personhood go together.  Everything which comes to language is personal, including the divine.

Aphorism of the Day, May 29, 2023

Language is evidence of relationality within which personhood resides.  Personhood is a superlative of relationship.  It has become obvious to many to project personhood on "that which none greater can be conceived."  Why would greatness not possess supreme personhood?

Aphorism of the Day, May 28, 2023

Spirit is the name we give to the impossible task of harmonizing diversity not to erase the immense differences but to celebrate the wholeness of peaceful functioning togetherness.

Aphorism of the Day, May 27, 2023

Sometimes the stories and the poetry get old and do not speak in the say way in which they used to.  When the poetry gets old, write your own.

Aphorism of the Day, May 26, 2023

The space between us is not empty, it is like a copper wire which conducts electricity, it is Holy Spirit Being conducting dynamic mutual reciprocal experience between beings.

Aphorism of the Day, May 25, 2023

How can mutual experience happen in separating distances between beings?  The space between beings is not empty, it is a Reality that enables the conducting of mutual experience.  That Reality might be named Spirit.

Aphorism of the Day, May 24, 2023

Is Spirit another Signifier of explaining the omnipresence of Word in all that can be known?

Aphorism of the Day, May 23, 2023

The Jesus Movement was founded upon the resonance of the poetry of the Risen Christ within the hearts of so many, resonant enough to create social identity and cohesion.

Aphorism of the Day, May 22, 2023

A meaning of Pentecost?  Turning the once held belief of polyglottic humanity into the blessed state of harmony amid diversity.

Aphorism of the Day, May 21, 2023

The main relic of human existence is language.  It purports to carry traces of the past to the present with stability of meanings even when we know that what is stable is that all meanings evolve and change as they get altered with new contexts in time.

Aphorism of the Day, May 20, 2023

The place to locate biblical discourse is mainly in aesthetic discourse, a language to move the heart.  If one is led to believe that only scientific discourse is meaningful, then one has to present biblical discourse as scientific discourse, or one can maintain the meaningful truths of beauty in its many discursive forms.  Religionists have been fighting wrong battles with science for years; there need not be a battle if multi-discursive being can walk science and chew aesthetic discourse at the same time.

Aphorism of the Day, May 19, 2023

Persons who have had biblical words form their vocabularies from their childhood can go through adjustments of how to process those words.  Most of the words get relegated to poetic status as language of the heart rather than words which report empirically verifiable events.

Aphorism of the Day, May 18, 2023  (Ascension Day)

The Ascension is the explanation for the absence of the historical Jesus and the transition to the mode of knowing the Risen Christ through inward "spiritual" experience.  The outer Jesus became the inward Christ within the Jesus Movement and the Ascension is the transition story from the particularly located Jesus in space and time to the Christ of being All and in all.  This is a crucial poetic explanation in Christian mysticism.

Aphorism of the Day, May 17, 2023

The prayer of Jesus in John's Gospel comes from a liminal location as Jesus says, "I am no longer in the world."  It could be the inner world is always a liminal location since the inner world is a world of multiverses.  The words of the Gospel derived from the multiverses experienced by Gospel writers.

Aphorism of the Day, May 16, 2023

Johannine belief was that Jesus was one with his Father-God.  In the prayer of Jesus as written by the Johannine writer, Jesus asks that his followers might be one with the Father-God too.  This might be called the ever emptying of the divine within the order of existence, the All that is within all.

Aphorism of the Day, May 15, 2023

The Gospels mix the Risen Christ experience of the Jesus Movement decades after Jesus lived with a narrative of the life of Jesus.  It mixes the past life of Jesus with the present life of the Risen Christ.  In old film life, one would call it double exposure.

Aphorism of the Day, May 14, 2023

For around nine months, in our pre-birth states, we lived, and moved, and had our being within our mothers.  If we live and move and have our being in God, we can never leave the God-womb.

Aphorism of the Day, May 13, 2023

If we live and move and have being in God, we are contained.  And God as greatest conscious container perceives all that is contain with care, but an extremely mature care which does not violate the freedom which makes moral significance.  You and I contain in limited ways all that we perceive and yet we can't control all that we perceive.  We, too, are vulnerable, like God, to the genuine freedom which we perceive to be happening.  Perception as containment does not mean strict and coercive control.

Aphorism of the Day, May 12, 2023

Can we accept the superiority of freedom with an entire field of probable occurrences even when specific events of freedom do not seem to favor us?

Aphorism of the Day, May 11, 2023

When we forget time and process, we can present being bereft of becoming and assume a synchronous everywhere, everything, in an all at once fatalism.  Time and newness needs to be honored.  We need to understand "last days" as merely "latest days."

Aphorism of the Day, May 10, 2023

In the account of St. Paul's response to the inscription "to an unknown God," Paul expounds his belief in a personal God, One who contains all, and One who can be a personal presence to all.  That language is the personal medium, means that all things including the Greatness of All is personally perceived.  Having language, in our anthropomorphic prison, we cannot help but project the personal on everything.  The degree of projecting reciprocal personal divine response toward us is to answer Einstein's question of "Is the universe friendly?" with a resounding "yes."

Aphorism of the Day, May 9, 2023

If as St. Paul of the Acts of the Apostles is cited saying, "We are all God's offspring," the Jesus unique divine offspring serves as the one who calls us to realize our divine familial likeness.

Aphorism of the Day, May 8, 2023

St. Paul understood God as being the outer most horizon creating the ultimate environment as expressed in a saying attributed to him in the Acts of the Apostles: "In God we live, and move, and have our being."   In the processive mode it would be stated as this: In omni-Becoming, we are all becoming.  This mode acknowledges continuous expanding creation.

Aphorism of the Day, May 7, 2023

How could Jesus promise that his disciples would do greater things?  An endless future is quantitatively greater than the three years of his earthly ministry.

Aphorism of the Day, May 6, 2023

"If you have seen me, you have seen the Father."  These words of Jesus in John's Gospel are model words which reflect the incarnational theology of Genesis of humanity being made in the image and likeness of God.  This likeness is the foundational basis for the validity of being anthropomorphic regarding the divine.

Aphorism of the Day, May 5, 2023

John's Gospel presents Jesus as preparing his disciples for his eventual absence.  An orphan is one who might worry about having a future home.  Not only do the words of Jesus indicate that the disciples would not be left as "orphans," perhaps spiritual orphans and parentless; rather God as heavenly parent will continue to have many places for all to dwell.

Aphorism of the Day, May 4, 2023

In Johannine metaphors, Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  These correspond to the signs in John's Gospel, of making a man ambulatory to walk in the way, of healing a blind man to see truth, and of raising Lazarus to life.  Reading John's as a self-referential work is crucial to understanding implied meanings.

 Gospel Aphorism of the Day, May 3, 2023

The "fatherization" of God is most pronounced in the words of Jesus channeled in the Gospel of John.  "Show us the Father," says Philip.  As a child bears the genetic likeness of the parents, so the Jesus of the writer of John uses the Father/Son metaphor to indicate that the divine likeness can be seen in all that has being.  If we see anything, we see it in the context of Plenitude.

Aphorism of the Day, May 2, 2023

Another name for God's house is time.  Everyone and everything always already lives in time.  Time is cumulatively everlasting making past and present synchronically equal in existence.  The present can never make the past to never have existed.

Aphorism of the Day, May 1, 2023
The Johannine words of Jesus about his Father having dwelling places is the poetry of a homing God who indwells the people of this world. 

Quiz of the Day, May 2023

Quiz of the Day, May 31, 2023

Who was Elkanah's wife?

a. Ruth

b. Naomi

c. Hannah

d. Gomer

Quiz of the Day, May 30, 2023

What was the year of the First American Book of Common Prayer?

a. 1789

b. 1778

c. 1928

d. 1795

Quiz of the Day, May 29, 2023

The command of Jesus to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is found where?

a. Acts of the Apostles

b. Luke

c. Matthew

c. Mark

d. John

e. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, May 28, 2028

Which of the following is not a metaphor for the Holy Spirit?

a. Paraclete

b. Advocate

c. Dove

d. Redeemer

e. Comforter

f.  Wind

g. Breath

Quiz of the Day, May 27, 2023

Which biblical writing present Christ as a heavenly High Priest, officiating at a heavenly altar?

a. John

b. Revelations

c. Hebrews

d. 2 Peter

Quiz of the Day, May 26, 2023

Long after David had died, what prophet experienced an oracle about David becoming the shepherd of the sheep?

a. Isaiah

b. Zechariah

c. Ezekiel

d. Jeremiah

Quiz of the Day, May 25, 2023

Of the following, who would not be considered a "church historian?"

a. Bede

b. Eusebius

c. Thomas Aquinas

d. Jaroslav Pelikan

e. Roland Bainton

Quiz of the day, May 24, 2023

About what biblical figure was it written as one without father, mother, or geneaology?

a. Jesus

b. Wisdom, Sophia

c. Logos

d. Melchizedek

Quiz of the Day, May 23, 2023

In the account of the Day of Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles, who heard the Gospel in their own languages?

a. Jews of the Diaspora who were in Jerusalem

b. Gentiles who were friendly to the Jews

c. All Gentiles living in Jerusalem

d. All of the above

Quiz of the Day, May 22, 2023

Which of the following is not true regarding St. Helena of Constantinople? 

a. she was Queen with the Emperor Constantius

b. she was Constantine I's mother

c. she made a pilgrimage to the Holy Lands

d. she purportedly found the true cross

e. she became a protector of the holy sites

Quiz of the Day, May 21, 2023

The longest prayer of Jesus is found in which Gospel?

a. Matthew

b. Mark

c. Luke

d. John

Quiz of the Day, May 20, 2023

What offices pertain to Alcuin of York?

a. Bishop

b. priest

c. deacon

d. abbot

e. a and c

f. a,b, and d

g. c and d

Quiz of the Day, May 19, 2023

God told persons to literally eat words, the words written on scrolls.  Who were these persons?

a. John the Divine

b. Jeremiah

c. Ezekiel

d. Daniel

e. David

f.  a,b, and c

g. b,c, and d

Quiz of the Day, May 18, 2023

Where is the vision of the four living creatures with four faces of human, lion, ox, and eagle appearance found in the Bible?

a.Revelation

b.Daniel

c. Ezekiel

d. Jeremiah

Quiz of the Day, May 17, 2023

Which Supreme Court Justice is on the Episcopal Calendar of Saints?

a. John Jay

b. John Marshall

c. Thurgood Marshall

d. John Rutledge

Quiz of the Day, May 16, 2023

Versions of the Lord's Prayer are found in which Gospels?

a. Matthew and Mark

b. Matthew and Luke

c. Matthew and John

d. Mark and Luke

e. Mark and John

f. Luke and Mark

g. Luke and John

Quiz of the Day, May 15, 2023

To whom was the epistle of James addressed?

a. to the Gentile Christians

b. to the twelve tribes of the dispersion

c. to church leaders

d. to the church at Antioch

Quiz of the Day, May 14, 2023

Of the following, who had the most likely birth of mothers in the Bible?

a. Mary

b. Jochabed

c. Hannah

d. Sarai

e. Elizabeth

Quiz of the Day, May 13, 2023

Architect of Social Security on the Episcopal Calendar of Saints.

a. Franklin Roosevelt

b. Elizabeth Seton

c. Dorothy Day

d. Frances Perkins

Quiz of the Day, May 12, 2023

Of the following rules, which one did St. Paul not dispense of for Gentile converts?

a. prohibition of eating pork

b. circumcision

c. adultery

d. observing the liturgical calendar of Judaism

Quiz of the Day, May 11, 2023

Of the following, which is not associated with Gerasenes?

a. demoniac

b. demon possessed swine

c. an inner entity call Legion

d. exorcism

e. purity rituals

Quiz of the Day, May 10, 2023

In which city did Paul quote non-Christian poets who spoke of humans as being "offspring of God?"

a. Corinth

b. Rome

c. Athens

d. Philippi

Quiz of the Day, May 9, 2023

Of the following, who was not a member of a famous Cappadocian family?

a. Basil

b. Gregory of Nyssa

c. Gregory Nazianzus

d. Macrina

e. Peter Sebaste

 Quiz of the Day, May 8, 2023

Of the following, who is not canonized by the Roman Catholic Church?

a. Teresa of Avila

b. Julian of Norwich

c. Hildegard of Bingen

d. Catherine of Siena

Quiz of the Day, May 7, 2023

What famous apostle to part in the stoning of Stephen?

a. Peter

b. Saul

c. Silas

d. Barnabas

Quiz of the Day, May 6, 2023

Who was the first martyr of the Jesus Movement?

a. Stephen

b. James

c. Matthew

d. Peter

Quiz of the Day, May 5, 2023

According to the Book of Wisdom, what is the assurance of immortality?

a. adherence to the laws of wisdom

b. the Torah

c. Love

d. the giving of alms

Quiz of the Day, May 4, 2023

Monica was the mother of what famous saint?

a. Augustine of Canterbury

b. Augustine of Hippo

c. Francis of Assisi

d. Benedict of Nursia

Quiz of the Day, May 3, 2023

In the Pauline writing, what is the mystery of the ages?

a. the Eucharist

b. the faith of Abraham

c. the calling of ministry

d. Christ in you, the hope of glory

Quiz of the Day, May 2, 2023

Which of the following is not true?

a. Athanasius of Alexandria has a Creed with his name

b. The opponent of Athanasius at Nicaea was Arian

c. Athanasius attended the Council of Nicaea as the bishop of Alexandria

d. Athanasius wrote at biography on the founder of monasticism

Quiz of the Day, May 1, 2023

Who told Nathaniel about Jesus?

a. James

b. Peter

c. Andrew

d. John the Baptist

e. Philip

Invisible Omnipresence Given a Name

Day of Pentecost A  May 28, 2023
Gen. 11:1-9Ps. 104: 25-32

Acts 2:1-11 John 14:8-17, 25-17

Lectionary Link

To see if one is still alive, one can place a mirror under the nostrils of the one near death.  If there is breath in that person, the mirror may cloud and that cloud is an effect of the breath and life of the person.

When we see tree branches and leaves rustling, but we don't see a visible material pushing against them, we name the invisible wind as the cause of such movements.

And we understand how the ancients arrived at breath, wind, ruach, pneumatos, Spiritus, as metaphorical words to speak about great Life itself.

How do we come to name what is invisible?  Why do we name the invisible when the invisible cannot be made visible by the sheer act of naming?

First of all, we name everything that is visible and invisible by what is invisible.  Words are invisible.  They have sensorial products of speech sounds and writing, but words themselves are invisible phenomenon.  Words also have the products of body language deeds.

Is that which is visible or sensorial the only criteria for something to be meaningful?  Using words and naming things is also psychological, in that it occurs from the constitution of our inner invisible being.

The biblical story purports to be writings about events when the effect of the invisible Spirit became known in meaningful ways to the people who experienced these events of the Spirit.

The naming of the Spirit was found in the creation story.  In this story, the words of God spoke things into existence and the Spirit moved over the un-worded chaos and brought the incredible diverse world into being.  Diverse things which came to have names.

The world is experienced as both an ordered cosmos but also as internally competitive cosmos experienced as chaos in the clash of systems which the reality of genuine freedom requires.

It is very difficult to detach Spirit events from Word Events.  The Bible itself is a conglomeration of textual word events spanning the hundreds of years of its compilation.  The Bible includes words about word events, events of the effects of God's Spirit being made evident to people.

The crowning Word and Spirit event of the Hebrew Scriptures was the arising of the Law and the attending writings and stories of the people who were inspired to create such milestone remembrances.

The Law was words about how to live best case scenario lives given the limited experience of the contexts of the biblical writers.

Word and Spirit have never been finished in the visible world.  Words always have subsequent interpretations into the new contexts in which they are read.  As such, the Torah, and the Hebrew Scriptures were still growing and becoming during the time of Jesus.  Jesus was living Word and Living Spirit in human form; Jesus was a Spirit event both for Mary and for humanity.  He intertwined the meaning of his life with the great words of the Hebrew Scriptures.  As the Word made flesh, he instantiated the Spirit in human flesh.  He as the Word made flesh, said that his words were Spirit and life, and so united word and spirit.

If Jesus is the fullest visible effect of God's presence, what does most of humanity have to experience who were not privileged to experience such a full visible effect of God's presence in the life of Jesus of Nazareth?  Are we indeed divine orphans because God only blessed a few people with the visible presence of the Spirit made flesh in Jesus of Nazareth?

The feast of Pentecost is a feast of word, language, and Spirit.  The Feast of Pentecost is the celebration of what the followers of Jesus discovered after he could no longer be seen, namely, the discovery of his continued presence by the Great Force of Life Itself, the Holy Spirit.  And just as Jesus was the Holy Spirit life in the flesh, the followers of Jesus understood themselves as Holy Spirit life in the flesh which would effect their lives in word and deed such that the effects could be known and transmitted to other people.

The Day of Pentecost is when in our story,  God's Omnipresence is given the name of Holy Spirit.  Naming is what people do because we have language ability.  Our very lives are organized by language, and so we too are word and language made flesh.  The Day of Pentecost is a day to celebrate that God can be translated into the lives of people of all languages.  God can be known as relevant to everyone.  And the Holy Spirit is the great translator of the life of God into anyone's language.

The Day of Pentecost is a day to celebrate that Word and Spirit in human experience means specific direction toward the life of love and justice that has been exemplified in Jesus Christ.  It is not enough to know words and life force;  Christ as the Eternal Word of God and Holy Spirit as the life force of God give superlative direction to the words and the energies of our lives which are ever in need of having God's love translated into the words and deeds of our lives.

Let us observe this day in our corporate story when God's Omnipresence has been named as the Holy Spirit.  And let us accept the Holy Spirit as the direction of our lives toward the love and justice of Jesus Christ.  Amen.