Sunday School, August 6, 2023 The Transfiguration

  Sunday School, August 6, 2023     The Transfiguration

Metamorphosis

What if a caterpillar saw a butterfly and thought:  “Someday I am going to look like you.  I won’t have to crawl on the ground.  I will be able to grow wings and fly.”

Transfiguration means metamorphosis

It means we are always changing.  We change in cycles.  Why cycles?  Because we repeat things that we done in the past but when we repeat things they are different and we are different.

The meeting of Jesus, Peter, James,John, Moses and Elijah on a cloudy mountain top with a dazzling light show seen on the face of Jesus was a way of showing the disciple about the past and the future.

Moses and Elijah represented the past.  They were present to show how the great people of the past supported the appearance of Jesus and his ministry.  The shining appearance of Jesus gave his disciples a vision of the future.  Jesus would have to go through a “cocoon-like” time in his life.  Jesus would be arrested, he would die on the cross and he would be placed in a tomb.  But after Jesus was place in the tomb, he rose again.  Before Jesus died and rose again, Jesus gave his disciples a special vision.  This vision would help them keep their hope even when Jesus died and was buried.

As a pretend caterpillar seeing a butterfly might think, “Someday I’ll be a butterfly,” so when the disciple saw the shiny Jesus on the Mountain, they thought, “Someday Jesus and us will be all shiny with the wings of the resurrection.”

Metamorphosis means that change happens.  But there is a shiny spiritual light within us that lets us know that even when things changes God’s Holy Spirit is always going to be the life of the resurrection within us.

Sermon:

  When it dark at night and you can’t see, what do you do?  You turn on the light, right?  And suddenly everything that once was a big black cloud of darkness becomes colorful and you can see the shape of everything.   Aren’t you glad that we have lights at night?

  Light is very important to the life of our world.  What is the name of the big light that we see in the sky each morning?  And what do we call those lights in the sky at night?

  Light is so important because we could not see if we didn’t have light.  Light is so important, it was used by the friends of Jesus to talk about the importance of his life.

  Jesus said that he was the light of the world.  Today, we’ve read in the Gospel about how the disciples saw the face of Jesus shine when they went up a mountain with him.  In this vision that they had, Jesus appeared to them as a bright light.

  Did you know that education and learning is like light?  When we don’t know how to do something; it is like living in darkness.  But when someone shows us how to do something suddenly it's like a light that comes on.  Your parents and your teachers and grandparents are like lights in your life, because they show you and teach to do some things that you didn’t know how to do.  And your life becomes better when you learn how to do new things.

  Jesus is the light of the world.  He came to show us how to live better lives.  He showed us that the best way to live is by loving each other, caring for one another and forgiving one another.

  And he also said to his friends:  You too are lights in this world, because you have to live in such a way to show people God’s love.  You are a light in this world if you help people to live better lives.

  So that is why we sang the song, “This little light of mine.”  To remind us that Jesus is the Light of the world because he showed how to live better lives.  And we too are supposed to be lights in this world, to show people how to live better lives.

  Today is the feast of the transfiguration when the disciples of Jesus saw that his face shone with a bright light.  They knew that Jesus was the light of the world.

  Today is a day that we remind ourselves that we are to be lights in this world to help people live better lives and to help people know that God loves them.

  Okay let turn on our lights today and let our lives shine with God’s love. Amen.

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

August 6, 2023: The Feast of the Transfiguration

Gathering Songs: This Little Light, Awesome God, Climb Up Sunshine Mountain, Shine, Jesus Shine

Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and for ever.  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: This Little Light of Mine (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 234)

1-This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.  This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

2-Hide it under a bushel, No!  I’m going to let it shine.  Hide it under a bushel, No!  I’m going let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

3-Don’t let anyone, blow it out.  I’m going to let it shine.  Don’t let anyone blow it out.  I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

4-Shine all over my neighborhood, I’m going to let it shine.  Shine all over my neighborhood, I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

O God, who on the holy mount revealed to chosen witnesses your well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening: Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith behold the King in his beauty; who with you, O Father, and you, O Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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 Book of Exodus

Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them. Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face; but whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining; and Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 99

Let them confess his Name, which is great and awesome; * he is the Holy One.

"O mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; * you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob."

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 Luke

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

About eight days after Jesus had foretold his death and resurrection, Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah"--not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

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

Song: Our God is An Awesome God (Renew!  # 245)

Our God is an Awesome God, He reigns from heaven above, with wisdom, power and love.  Our God is an awesome God.

Sing three times

Doxology

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

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

Prologue to the Eucharist

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

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

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

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

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

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

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

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

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

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

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

All may gather around the altar

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

You have made us in your image

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

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

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

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

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

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

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:       Alleluia! Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!

Words of Administration

Communion Hymn: Climb Up Sunshine Mountain (The Christian Children’s Songbook,  # 30)

Climb, climb up sunshine mountain, heavenly breezes blow.  Climb, climb up sunshine mountain, faces all aglow.  Turn, turn from sin and doubting, look to God on high; Climb, climb up sunshine mountain, you and I.

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: Shine, Jesus, Shine  (Renew!, # 247)

Refrain: Shine, Jesus, shine, fill this land with the Father’s glory, blaze, Spirit, blaze, set our hearts on fire;  Flow, river, flow, flood the nations with grace and mercy, send forth your word, Lord, and let there be light.

1-Lord, the light of your love is shining in the midst of the darkness shining; Jesus, Light of the World, shine upon us, set us free by the truth you now bring us.  Shine on me, shine on me. Refrain

2-Lord, I come to your awesome presence from the shadows into your radiance; By the blood I may enter your brightness, search me, try me, consume all my darkness.  Shine on me, shine on me.  Refrain.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Aphorism of the Day, July 2023

Aphorism of the Day, July 31, 2023

In John's Gospel the Christ, according to Paul is "all and in all," is also Word, which is in all that is known, and Christ is Light of the world.  Word is Light or that which allows seeing, and it reiterates the words, "let there be light."  The Bible, like life itself, is being lost in words, and occasionally claiming to be "found in words" with insights or "light."

Aphorism of the Day, July 30, 2023

In the kingdom of heaven parables, the words of Jesus encourage the most global type of thinking, namely, we live and move and have our being in the divine environment or realm.  In practice we are forced to think and act locally in our respective lesser realms of nation, states, cities, neighborhoods, parishes, businesses, schools, jobs, and family.  Thinking in such a global way should at the very least be humble contemplation about relative greatness and this is good for negotiating our local commitments.

Aphorism of the Day, July 29, 2023

The kingdom or realm of heaven/God referred to in the parables of Jesus are not about Jesus announcing suddenly that the created order is now the location of the divine realm; the realm of God has always been the reality of the oneness of all with the divine image perpetuated in everything.  The parables of Jesus are more about the events of recognizing that we live and move and have our being in God.

Aphorism of the Day, July 28, 2023

Language invites continuous rhetorical versatility.  Biblical leaven or yeast is used in contradictory ways.  In one parable of Jesus, it used to connote the hidden divine within nature which swells to recognition and the tastiness of the sublime within the ordinary.

Aphorism of the Day, July 27, 2023

The realm of God as a mustard seed and becoming an unimpressive shrub (when compared to other majestic trees) indicates that the divine is mostly invisible and really able to be missed in its ordinariness.  One must ponder how greatness is an accumulation of very small things done and when small kindnesses are ordinary one does not obviously recognize the fact that cumulative kindness is what sustains the world.

Aphorism of the Day, July 26, 2023

The parable of the pearl of great value is about the discovery of the superlative around which to organize one's life.  Too often the words used to organize one's life around that which is elusively great become the replacement for the superlative over which one does not have control.  Institutionalized religion seems to pretend to domesticate God's wild presence.  If the great is omni-present in time, then we spend each day re-arranging the furniture of words to revisit what we always must revisit in time.

Aphorism of the Day, July 25, 2023

Some parables of Jesus are about sorting out the traces left us from the past.  We cannot help but offer value judgments on what has happened, and different sorters use different criteria in appraising what has happened.  What is the safe criteria? Using the criteria of the words of Jesus, justice for the forgotten, the poor, and the afflicted should be the main criteria, not the dogmatic minutiae of our particular party or church affiliation.

Aphorism of the Day, July 24, 2023

The Bible is a dynamic textual event which includes its own undoing and re-doing.  Textual idolaters seems to think that biblical texts not only fix words, but also a self evidential meanings which they as "insiders" know.  But there are many contradictory "insiders" who know differently to debunk the "self evidential meanings" implication of the "there is only one true meaning crowd."  The wisdom scribe is always bringing from textual treasure the syntheses of new and old because application of what is old in the new presents the old as differently new in a fresh setting.

Aphorism of the Day, July 23, 2023

Most language product is inner dynamic within people and never reaches the empirically verifiable products of speech, writing, or body language deeds.  One could say that each person as a language user is mostly unpublished.  For every potential sublime literary production not realized, thankfully the most are have gone to be doubly deleted in the interior trash bin.

Aphorism of the Day, July 22, 2023 (Anniversary of 11 years of daily aphorisms, 4015 straight days)

We should be humble about holding a final theory or answer for everything and content ourselves to find insights on the journey to share and help others in their journey.  The quest to have the best and right answer for everyone stems from pride.

Aphorism of the Day, July 21, 2023

Many have failed to learn the lesson of reading Scripture about reading itself.  Scripture teaches us to read and understand the contrast in the human discursive practices.  Stories which include accounts of violating rules of empirical verification are meant for presenting the kinds of contrast which evoke abstract thinking.  It encourages the reader in a conscious dividing of discursive genres.  Human being are dreamers and day dreamers and create texts of accounts of things which cannot be empirically verified.  Failure to learn this can trap people in crass literalism which gives birth to all sorts of conspiracy theories, i.e. taking the fantastical as literal.

Aphorism of the Day, July 20, 2023

Hope that is seen is not hope?  The possible is not yet the actual.  Wanting to know  the future as the present is like the gambler who wants to know the outcome before it occurs.  Hope isn't the guarantee of a specific future, but the evidence now of there always being a future.  Hope is submitting to the reality of time.  Pretending to know the specifics of the future means that one will be disappointed when it arrives.

Aphorism of the Day, July 19, 2023

Even as we say that the mixture of stuff in life make it interesting, we would rather not be interested in the bad things which can befall us and so the mixture in life includes our displeasure of things we do not like.  The mixture of life is a continuing compilation of everything including our reactions.

Aphorism of the Day, July 18, 2023

The field of probabilities is so diverse with good and bad happening in context specific ways to myriads of parties within that field, to fantasize about the destruction of the whole field would be to sacrifice the good and glorious just to remove their opposites.  The good, the glorious, and the just may be so wonderful as to tolerate their opposites and live in the latest day to retrospectively designate the past evils to their dustbin in history.

Aphorism of the Day, July 17, 2023

In the cycles of life, the earlier cycles do not get resolved until a later time.  Many weed survive until harvest when things get sorted out.  The nature of interpretation is the sorting out of what happened earlier at a later time.  The later brings into existence what happened before because the past become known as the past when it is contrasted with the present.  The past is always becoming in the present.  We go forth each day to make our past.

Aphorism of the Day, July 16, 2023

We confess randomness because we do not have the capacity to know the casual relationship between everything that was and is.  There is plenty of room to confess that we don't know and with humility.

Aphorism of the Day, July 15, 2023

Scientists declare as negligible the causal factors which cannot be observed or measured like the flapping of butterfly wings on weather patterns.  What are the causes of specific beliefs?  The answer to this is presented in the parable of the sower, though the answer is not so precise, it is a rather vague statement about probability: "It depends upon the conditions."

Aphorism of the Day, July 14, 2023

The parable of the sower is an insightful allegory about the mystery of the conditions for persuasive message to gain success.  Farmers and gardeners believe that they know the conditions for successful harvest, even as they know that there are enough things outside their control to keep the gardening mystery alive.

Aphorism of the Day, July 13, 2023

You shall and you shall not.  This is the law of recommended behaviors, and keeping them all are impossible especially the one regarding coveting.  How does one cease desiring wrongly even if one does not act wrongly?  Biblical jurisprudence seems to link the inevitability of sin with the inevitability o death as the punishment for the sinful condition.  Paul introduces the life or law of Spirit as a way to live forever in a way that also is compatible with our sinful condition with an expire date in time on our bodies.

Aphorism of the Day, July 12, 2023

Time means that nothing is ever complete and we ever await completion.  In the meantime we must settle for ever better approximations of what love and justice means in actual life situations.

Aphorism of the Day, July 11, 2023

The mystery of how one is persuaded and how one changes one's belief exorcised he early Jesus Movement.  Why did some accept Jesus as Messiah and others did not?  The parable of the sower presents an allegory that does not give final causal answers but does give insights about it happening.

 Aphorism of the Day, July 10, 2023

The parable of the sower is an attempt to provide insight about the serendipity of why people come to or arrive at persuasive experience in our lives.  Serendipity remains a mystery and the parable provides insights about it even as it cannot indicate an infallible prediction, but only insightful explanations.

Aphorism of the Day, July 9, 2023

For "sleep deprived" people, the words of Jesus promise rest for souls.  The external strife for the people who were part of the early development of the Jesus Movement required a spiritual martial arts practice such as one can find in the Beatitudes and the other rather enigmatic words of Jesus.  Spiritual martial arts was required for survival.

Aphorism of the Day, July 8, 2023

John the Baptist's acetic practices did not give him fellowship with the kind of people whom Jesus came to have fellowship.  It is not wise to make one's own lifestyle the norm for everyone else.  Wisdom involves finding the lifestyle proper to oneself with regard to also being winsome with the people to whom one is called.

Aphorism of the Day, July 7, 2023

Rest for the soul was the mystical program offered by the early Jesus Movement when their external world was all but restful.

Aphorism of the Day, July 6, 2023

Rest for the soul was the promise from words of Jesus.  Interior rest is different from physical rest and if learned is the state of existence to accompany whatever is happening in one's external life.

Aphorism of the Day, July 5, 2023

"Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds."  Wisdom is in part knowledge plus excellent action and is the kind of truth as pragmatism uniting synchronic knowing (frozen essentialism in words) with diachronic action, ie., truth in motion, truth in time, truth in process of becoming better.

Aphorism of the Day, July 4, 2023

People of faith always need to balance their citizenship in the universal family of God with their location and loyalties to their country of citizenship.  The Declaration of Independence locates us in the universal family of humanity and so being an American invites us to be examples of what universal citizenship should mean in seeking justice for all.

Aphorism of the Day, July 3, 2023

Some of the sayings of Jesus are so enigmatic as to defy attempts at understanding.  One such is when Jesus purports to withhold knowledge from the wise and reveal it to infants.  No one is more undeveloped and ignorant than a pre-language user baby.  What is the state of wisdom of infanthood?  Unreflective vulnerability without significant agency and left to the total care of caretakers.  Our existence amid vast Plenitude is the wisdom of such vulnerability?  But why should we not value the limited agency which we have?

Aphorism of the Day, July 2, 2023

My life is unwittingly censored from the things that I do not yet know, perhaps things both glorious and horrifying.  Even as I accept what I do know now, I must let such be gradually dissolved by the wider concentric circle of what I do not yet know.

Aphorism of the Day, July 1, 2023

In the morass of words, we find ourselves located in stories given to us in our contexts.  Many biblicists have come to assume the story of science does not consistently co-exist with the stories of the world's literature including biblical stories.  Balance in life is learning the different discursive purposes of the stories of life in which we are located.

Quiz of the Day, July 2023

Quiz of the Day, July 31, 2023

What might John's Gospel use in place of the Transfiguration?

a. Christ as Word

b. Christ as Resurrection

c. Christ as Light

d. Christ as Shepherd

e. Christ as Vine

Quiz of the Day, July 30, 2023

How many years did Jacob have to work for Laban to receive his daughter Rachel hand in marriage?

a.3

b.4

c.7

d.14

Quiz of the Day, July 29, 2023

Who in the biblical story was intentionally cremated to preserve the dignity of the dead person(s)?

a. Lot's wife

b. the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah

c. King Saul

d. the residents of Jericho

Quiz of the Day, July 28, 2023

Which of following is true about the masses composed by Johann Sebastian Bach?

a. as a Catholic, he composed them for the Catholic liturgy

b. as a Lutheran he composed all for Lutheran liturgical use

c. as a Lutheran and musician, he composed for the mixed Lutheran/Catholic environment

d. as a Lutheran, he forbade the use of his music in Catholic parishes

Quiz of the Day, July 27, 2023

What is the location of Endor known for?

a. the place of a famous battle

b. the place of King Saul's wizard

c. the cave where David visited Saul at night

d. the home of Uriah and Bathsheba

Quiz of the Day, July 26, 2023

What were the names of former husbands of King David's wives?

a. Uriah

b. Nabal

c. Adriel

d. all of the above

e. a and b

f. b and c

Quiz of the Day, July 25, 2023

How many possible Jameses could be referred to in the New Testament?

a. 3

b. 6

c. 4

d. 7

e. 8

Quiz of the Day, July 24, 2023

Which devotional classics has been translated into more languages than all books except the Bible?

a. Pilgrim's Progress

b. The Imitation of Christ

c. The Interior Castle

d. The Practice of the Presence of God

Quiz of the Day, July 23, 2023

The "Song of Moses" might be better called

a. The Song of Aaron

b. The Song of the Red Sea

c. The Song of Miriam

d. The Song Sinking Chariots

Quiz of the Day, July 22, 2023

Of the following, who was the first apostle of the resurrection?

a. Mary Magdalene

b. Peter

c. the disciple whom Jesus loved

d. angelic humanoid figure at the tomb of Jesus

Quiz of the Day, July 21, 2023

Which of the following would be David's chief ritual fault?

a. he used Goliath's sword

b. he danced naked in front of a crowd

c. he married Bathsheba

d. he ate the bread of Presence

Quiz of the Day, July 20, 2023

Of persons on the calendar of Episcopal saints, whom of the following was not at the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 which dealt with women's right, abolition, and temperance?

a. Elizabeth Cady Stanton

b. Sojourner Truth

c. Harriet Ross Tubman

d. Amelia Bloomer

e. Frederick Douglass

Quiz of the Day, July 19, 2023

Who did David love as his "own life?"

a. Bathsheba

b. Samuel

c. Jonathan

d. Michal

e. Absalom

f.  Abigail

Quiz of the Day, July 18, 2028

David married the daughter of King Saul whose name was

a. Bathsheba

b. Tamar

c. Michal

d. Abigail

Quiz of the Day, July 17, 2023

Why did Jacob leave his home and travel to Haran?

a. to find a wife

b. to buy some livestock

c. to see angels in a dream

d. to escape his angry brother

Quiz of the Day, July 16, 2023

What ministry of Jesus is not explicit in the Gospel of John?

a. walking on water

b. multiplication of loves

c. casting out demons

d. healing blind person

Quiz of the Day, July 15, 2023

The sling shot wielding shepherd boy David took how many stones to fire at the Philistine Goliath?

a. one

b. two

c. three

d. four

e. five

Quiz of the Day, July 14, 2023

According to Mark's Gospel, what happened to Jesus after his baptism?

a. he began his public ministry

b. he went to Jerusalem

c. he made statements about the destruction of the Temple

d. he was driven to the wilderness to be tempted

Quiz of the Day, July 13, 2023

Which role was not David's for Saul before his battle with Goliath?

a. shepherd for Saul's flock

b. armor bearer

c. musician

d. being one in Saul's good favor

Quiz of the Day, July 12, 2023

What was the position of Cornelius?

a. Prefect

b. Centurion

c. Captain

d. Publican

Quiz of the Day, July 11, 2023

Benedict's Rule was most influenced by

a. the Psalms

b. St. Antony of the Desert

c. Athanasius

d. The Rule of the Master

Quiz of the Day, July 10, 2023

Which of the following is not true?

a. Saul was God's messiah for Israel

b. Saul was rejected as God's for Israel

c. Saul's son became the second king of Israel

d. Saul's son Jonathan supported David's kingship

Quiz of the Day, July 9, 2023

Where does the phrase "weeping and gnashing of teeth" occur in the Bible?

a. Genesis

b. Revelation

c. Psalms

d. the parables of Jesus

Quiz of the Day, July 8, 2023

For eating what was Jonathan under the curse of his father Saul?

a. grasshoppers

b. honey

c. Philistine lamb

d. figs from Philistine

Quiz of the Day, July 7, 2023

Who was David's best friend?

a. Samuel

b. Bathsheba

c. Abigail

d. Jonathan

Quiz of the Day, July 6, 2023

Rebekah was the wife of 

a. Moses

b. Isaac

c. Jacob

d. Joseph

Quiz of the Day, July 5, 2023

Which of the following is not true regarding the The Song of Solomon, aka Song of Songs, or the Canticles?

a. it is an erotic love poem

b. it includes the name of God

c. it does not mention God

d. it is read as an allegory by both Jewish and Christian commentators

Quiz of the Day, July 4, 2023

Isaac married

a. his first cousin

b. his first cousin, once removed

c. his first cousin, twice removed

d. his first cousin, thrice removed

Quiz of the Day, July 3, 2023

Who wrote the laws and duties of kingship for Israel?

a. Moses

b. Solomon

c. David

d. Samuel

Quiz of the Day, July 2, 2023

The root meaning of messiah comes from

a. presenting of mace to the king

b. pouring of oil

c. ritual water purification

d. the divine rights of the king

Quiz of the Day, July 1, 2023

What Episcopal priest did ground breaking legal work that was used by Thurgood Marshall in his judicial rulings?

a. William Porcher DuBose
b. Pauli Murray
c. John E. Hines
d. Absalom Jones

Wisdom Writing about the Realm of Heaven

9 Pentecost, Cycle A Proper 12, July 23, 2023
1 Kings 3:5-12 Psalm 119:129-136
Romans 8:26-39 Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Lectionary Link

The punchline of today's Gospel may be a clue about the author of Matthew, and perhaps a shameless promotion of the writer's craft: ".. every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

The Gospel of Matthew involves a writer who perhaps is referring to the writing craft, called in those day, the work of a scribe.  A scribe was one who was involved with language, and in particular, with text, and with reading and writing.  The scribe was to be a wise reader of the many written texts and the texts found on the pages of reality, but not just read, but also bring to written word wise observations about what the wisdom scribe has read.

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An important insight of the wisdom scribe is the acknowledgement of the reality of time.  The wisdom scribe is one who believes that one has to be rightly related to the reality of time.  With the use of two qualifying adjectives, the wisdom scribe acknowledges the reality of time.  Time means before and after; it means old and new.

People can be wrongly related to what is old and to what is new.  People wrongly related to the past can be called conservatives or traditionalists or originalists.  They can believe that meanings were fixed in the past and that those same fixed meanings can be transplanted into the present without any different meaning than what they meant in the past.  Some people believe that the words of Holy Scripture fix both the words and their meaning forever as if the present could not contribute anything new in terms of important insights about living.  People wrongly related to the present can think that relevance is only what happens in the present, and the past is to discarded like old food whose shelf life has expired.

The wisdom scribe of the Gospel of Matthew knows that it is not either old or new, but rather old and new united in the new scribal commentary about what is truly applied meaning in the current situation.  This scribe did not invent this notion; he inherited from the long tradition of scribes who read the apparent "fixed words of the Torah and the sacred writings" and offered living commentary in making these old words have a current applied relevance within the life of the community.  Treasures then, are both new and old as the scribe offers wisdom commentary of the wedding of the past and the present.  Certainly, this was part of the rabbinical textual practice of the scribe's time.

The wisdom scribe was writing about the newness of Rabbi Jesus within the oldness of the inherited traditions of Judaism.  This wisdom scribe perhaps honored the custom of venerating the name of the divine by referring to the kingdom of heaven, rather than the kingdom of the unpronounceable Holy One.

The scribe understood the apparent innovation of Rabbi Jesus to be about the realm of heaven, the kingdom of heaven.  Everyone in the reading audience knew about three kingdoms.  They knew about the kingdom of Israel whose climax had been reached perhaps in the reign of King David.  They knew about the kingdom of the Caesar, who had followed the kingdoms of the generals of Alexander the Great, who had conquered the Persians, who had conquered the Babylonians.  Each of these "foreign" kingdoms had taken control of the former kingdom of David.  The third kingdom known by the reading audience of Matthew was the future kingdom of someone like David who they hoped would bring rescue and deliverance.

The scribal writer of Matthew was trying present how the new kingdom words of Jesus fit in with the existing and older kingdom thinking of the reading audience.

The scribe of Matthew's Gospel understood Jesus to be the herald of this kingdom message: "If we're going to use the metaphor of king and kingdom, then let's be sure that the tradition from ancient time acknowledges that the world is God's and therefore we always already live within the realm of God."

So, what is the problem?  The problem is recognition of the kingdom of heaven.  We are so involved in the pain and hurt, and the winning and the losing within the realms of human power structures that we miss the big and obvious picture.

The kingdom parables are crafted to evoke insights about the always already kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of the divine.

One insight is that we trip over the small and insignificant and miss the very causation of the great and the large.  Where did the large shrub come from?  The tiniest of seeds, the mustard seed.  Where did the swelling and tasty bread come from?  From the tiny leaven or yeast that had been hidden within the dough.

The wisdom scribe presented Jesus as saying, "everything that seems big and obvious now, derived from the small and trivial event of divine sustenance accumulating in time."  Big things don't just happen and self-generate; they are the result of living and moving and having being within the sustaining realm of God. Realize it and don't forget it."  When our earthly moments have come and gone, then the surviving world witnesses to our momentary smallness.  But don't forget the small; the momentary accumulates into what is great and obvious.

Jesus also said that the kingdom is like a stock market no-no:  It's like the delicious secret of "insider trading."  It is investing in front of people who do not know the value of what they already have.  Rabbi Jesus said, if you know you live in the realm of the divine, then you have incredible insider information.  And that sounds unfair, but it isn't because everyone can be an insider.  The knowledge is open to everyone.

The wisdom scribe of Matthew also believed that Jesus prescribed organizing one's life values around the worth of the highest value, namely knowing that one lives and moves and has being within the realm of God.  Once one knows this, it devalues everything else in comparison so one sells things of lesser value to devote one's attention to acquiring the chief value of living, namely, knowing one's living and being within the realm of the divine.

Finally, the wisdom scribe understood Jesus to promote wisdom living as the continuous retroactive sorting of what has gone before and assigning and applying new values now. Being a wisdom scribe means continual reassessment of what has happened so that one can craft new and fresh actions of love and justice in the present.  The wisdom scribes can look at biblical cultures which were permissive and supporting of slavery, subjugation of women, and other tacit practices of ancient cultures, and the wisdom scribe can sort these things out as truly being bad for our time in how we have newly come to understand what love and justice means in truly being kind and welcoming to people.  The wisdom scribe is to always be re-appraising the past so that new and creative justice and love can happen in our lives today.

Today, you and I are invited to be wisdom scribes.  No, we don't have to be writers; but if we allow our minds to be written with the insights of what it means to live well in the realm of the divine, then perhaps we will let the words distill into the body language of our lives which will speak through actions the love and justice of Christ who invited us to know that we live and move and have our being within this exalted realm of heaven.  Amen.