Lent and Living with Probabilities

1 Lent B      February 18, 2024
Gen. 9:8-17           Ps    25:1-9  
1 Peter 3:18-22         Mark 1:9-13

Lectionary Link
 

Holy Scripture sometimes places together in proximity the notion of temptation, trial, and ordeal.

In the Our Father, we pray, "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."  Or the contemporary translation, "save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil."

Temptation, trial, ordeal, and evil have to do with probabilities in life, which for many are unavoidable.

The lessons from Scripture for today, might pertain to some insights about the covenant that we live in with God, each other and with life itself.  The covenant that we live is our baptismal covenant.  And what is this covenant?  It is a strategy within community to live best with the probabilities of life.

The probabilities of life include everything that may happen to us and how does one prepare for such a great task?  What does one desire when faced with many weals and woes of what may happen to us?

We cannot be unrealistic about freedom; freedom is.  Things happen.  And we have only varying degrees of control over what happens to us in life.  So to have a baptismal strategy is prepare ourselves to live with the probabilities in life.

And what do we desire in living with the probabilities in life?

We want good timing.  We want to be doing the right things, at the right time, and in the right way.  This means that we need training, wisdom, and insights about avoiding what is harmful and unworthy.  We also need to be taught about what is good and beneficial to us and those in our life.  And we also need training to know how to bear up when the things over which we have no control confront and afflict us.

Good timing in life is a desirable goal to have, but to find good timing and to have optimal responses to trouble we need to have training and practice.  And this is part of the reason we have the season of Lent.  Because we know that things can go wrong, how do we purposeful deny ourselves so as to be better prepared to face the conditions of unchosen exigent threats.

The reason athletic teams have pre-season extended training periods is so they can simulate actual game conditions in preparation for the possible game events.

What did Jesus actually have to experience in his life?  Rejection by his family, criticism and persecution by religious leaders, being called crazy or mad, being called one who had a demon, being threatened, being called a drunkard, being called a sinner, being called blasphemous, mocked, betrayed by a disciple, denied by his disciple, abandoned by his disciples, tried for false charges, being  flogged, and being crucified.  How could Jesus be prepared for these?

Those who knew Jesus best believed that he was prepared in an ordeal of an extended temptation.  In his interior life, Jesus had to be prepared for everything that was going to happen to him.  The synoptic Gospels give us accounts of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, a time like a Vision Quest which would tempt his role in controlling the timing of his life.

Jesus understood that he had to live in God's will, God's timing.  The temptations of Jesus in the wilderness are presented as efforts of that inward accuser to get Jesus to do things in the wrong way, at the wrong time, for the wrong motive.  The result of the temptation was Jesus being true to the timing of God for his life.  He was to eat, he was to attain glory and fame, and he was to die, in God's time and way and not in the timing of the evil one.

Where you and I have freedom, means that mistiming is the chief temptation of our lives.  Lent is a season for you and I to ponder continuously good timing for what we do and say.  If probability is the rule of the freedom of life, then you and I need to have insight and wisdom about where we exercise our freedom in what we do and say.

Lent is a good season of probability training for us.  We can use this time to simulate what might happen to us and prepare for how we can maintain ideal timing in our potential responses.  Prayer, Study, discerning from Scripture strategies of ideal timing, seeking community support, and doing the good preventive work of giving alms; these are ways that we can prepare in constructive ways for living with the vast probabilities of life.

So much of this, like the temptation of Jesus, is interior work, because we have to be inwardly prepared before we take on the details of our mission and work in our lives.

Today, let us continue to pray, "lead us not into temptation, save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil,"  but let us also work during this season of Lent to learn good timing in our lives, doing and saying the right things, at the right times, for the right motives, and so progress in our desire to be more Christ-like.  Amen.

Ash Wednesday: How Will We Be Recycled?

Ash Wednesday   February 14, 2024
Isaiah 58:1-12 Ps.103
1 Cor. 5:20b-6:10 Matt. 6:1-6, 16-21

Lectionary Link

Did you ever think that before we came to know about atoms and other sub-atomic particles, that a fragment of dust or ashes might have been regarded to be the smallest entity in life?

Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return. The mere observation of the body put on fast forward either through fire or through long decaying in an ossuary, rendered the conclusion that when the bodies breaks into its smallest fragments, it is but a collection of dust. As dust and ashes the body is eventually recycled into the environment over time depending upon the environment into which bodies are disposed.

How should we think about dust and ashes now that we have come to believe in the existence of atoms and sub-atomic particles? What does our delving into the hyper-microscopic world do to our dust and ashes metaphors? And how does our knowledge of atoms and the sub-atomic world affect our understanding of our Ash Wednesday Scripture readings?

The ancient people, like us, knew of the mystery of the unseeable microscopic and the sub-microscopic worlds. They used metaphorical words like heart and spirit to speak about the inner mystery of life within our bodily flesh. The ancient people, like us knew that the flesh has a shelf life, and the flesh has a event of separation of the inside sub-microscopic life of heart, spirit, and soul from the body.

Even though humanity in many ways has believed in the inward life of soul and spirit, it does not diminish the preferred connection of our inward life with our bodily lives. For all intents and purposes, we rather be living, so much so that we cherish living, and we mourn when we lose people from the realm of the living, and we hope that they continue to live in some way. We hope that they have some substantial continued being, one even as substantial as they were in their bodies which become ashes.

St. Paul wrote about having treasure in our earthen vessel. The words of Jesus exhort us to build up treasures in heaven, in such a way that they cannot be degraded like our bodies which break down back to dust.

Ash Wednesday is about contrasting how our bodies will eventually be recycled with how the mystery and worth of our personhood will be recycled.

Most of us will not make the history books, even while we might be retained for a generation or two in memories within our family and friendship circles. So how will the mystery of our lives be recycled and retained? This is the building of treasure part of our future.

An act of kindness, mentoring a person, and myriads of deeds of love and justice will remain recycled as the fuel of hope forever. Building up the secret treasures of heaven means that we will be bricks in the wall of time forever, unable to be removed and forever contributing with what has been, is, and will happen.

The liturgy of Ash Wednesday is about cherishing our mortal lives so much that we "make hay while the sun shines." That is, we develop our inward lives of language to code our body deeds, our speech, and our writing with the mystery of the treasures of heaven, even the mystery of love and justice played forward forever through our interaction with the people of our lives.

When we think about it, words are mysterious in what they are and how they come to be within us. They are sub-atomic, even sub-microscopic but they are poignantly effective in manifesting the values of our lives through deeds, saying, and writing.

We are given this life in our bodies so that we can develop the treasures within, about which the words of Jesus and Paul refer to. Let us cherish our lives in our bodies so much by developing our words in action lives which determine the legacies that we have with the people in our lives now, but also become the future chain of becoming for the people whom we influence who live beyond us and influence people for their futures.

May God help us cherish our lives in our declining bodies, so that we are mindful to build the basis to influence the enhancement of goodness for people now and in the future. Let the treasures of love and justice from us be how the best part of us is recycled forever. Amen.

Sunday School, February 18, 2024 1 Lent B

  Sunday School, February 18, 2024   1 Lent B

Themes:

The temptation of Jesus

What is temptation?

Temptation is about being tricked into doing things at the wrong time.

If you see a piece of chocolate cake in the kitchen and it is only an hour before dinner, you may want to eat the lovely piece of cake.  But you also know that your mom wants you to wait until it is time for dessert after you eat a good healthy meal.

But you really want to eat the chocolate cake right now.  And so you do and when it comes supper time, you are not hungry to eat good food.  And your mom wants to know about the missing cake.

We are tempted all the time.  We are tempted to have lots of mis-timing in life.  We desire things, right now and we don’t want to wait, even though by not waiting we get into trouble.

So we need to practice doing the right things at the right time.  The church has an entire season for learning how to practice doing things at the right time.  We fast.  That is, we say no to certain foods and things so that we can develop our muscles of choice to be strong enough to do the right things at the right time.

We don’t like to say “no” to ourselves.  But we need to learn how to practice self-control.  The season of Lent is a season to build our muscles of self control.  How do we do this?  One way is to say no to some of our favorite pleasures and to use our time and our money to share with people who do not have as much as we do.  We do more community service.  We take on projects to help others because we are using the energy that we used to use for ourselves for others.

The season of Lent helps us to learn self control so that we can practice good timing in our lives, do the right things at the right time.

Exercise:

Think about things that you really like to do but that may not be good for you if you do too much or do them at the wrong time.

Then develop a strategy, a plan during Lent to practice self control so that you can learn the very best timing for doing everything in your life.

Sermon

What season of the Church are we in now?  Lent.  And what is the color for Lent?  For the season of Lent we make some changes.  We change colors.  You noticed that we changed candle holders on the altar.  We have changed our collection plates from silver to basket.  We have change our wine cup and bread plate from silver to pottery.  And we have dropped a very, very happy word that means “yeah God” out of the service.  And we won’t say it during Lent, at least not on purpose.

  Why do we do all of this?  Because the season of Lent is not a season of celebration.  It is a season of hard work and preparation.  And it lasts 40 days, not including Sundays.   And when does it end?  It ends on the biggest celebration of the year, on Easter Sunday.

  Why do we have Lent?  Why does a baseball team have spring training?  Why does a football team have training camp?

  To get ready for the real games.  What are the baseball players doing right now?  They are in spring training.  They are do lots of exercises.  They are practicing fielding and throwing the ball.  They are practicing making double plays.  Over and over again.  Why?  So, their team can be ready when the real games start.  And why do they want to be ready?  Because they want to win as many games as they can and go to the most important game of all, the World Series.

  Lent is a Season of Practice.  And there are lots of things that we need to take time to practice.  We need to practice taking care of our health and our bodies.  So, we try to practice something new in health and safety.  Eating good food.

  We practice helping other people.  We might do something to help people in our world who are in need.

  We practice loving God.  How do we do this?  We learn how to pray a little bit more.  We spend more time talking to God.  And we learn more about the Bible and we learn more about God.  Why do we do this?  Because, we need to have faith.  Why do we need to practice our faith?  Because there are things in life that are hard and difficult.  There are things that might make us afraid.  Things that might make us worry.  And so we have to build our faith to help us be prepared for some of the difficult things that we might have to do.

  During Lent, we try to spend more time together.  We are a church family.  We are like a team.  And if we are going to be a good team, then we have to spend some time together, getting to know each other so that we can work together.

  So we have the season of Lent as a season of training and preparation to become better Christian.  Sometimes practice is hard work and sometimes it is not fun.  Most baseball players would rather play games than practice.  But if we want to do well in the game, we must practice.  So, too, if we want to be better Christians, and a better parish team, we need to practice.  In the season of Lent, we work on practicing our Christian faith.   Are you ready for practice?  I hope you and your family can find some things to practice during the season of Lent.  Amen.

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

February 18, 2024: First Sunday In Lent

Gathering Songs: Yield Not to Temptation, Change My Heart, O God, Eat This Bread, Peace Before Us

Liturgist: Blessed the Lord who forgives all our sins.

People: God’s mercy endures 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.

Opening Song: Yield Not to Temptation (LEVAS # 170)

Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin, each victory will help you some other to win.  Fight pressing onward, dark passion subdue.  Look ever to Jesus, he will carry you through. 

Refrain: Ask the Savior to help you. Comfort, strengthen and keep you.  He is will to aid you.  He will carry you through.

Shun evil companions, bad companions disdain.  God’s name hold in reverence, nor take it in vain.  Be thoughtful and earnest, kind-hearted and true.  Look ever to Jesus, he will carry you through.  Refrain

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Litany phrase: Praise the Lord (chanted)

O God, you are Great!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have made us! Praise the Lord

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Praise the Lord

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

A Reading from the Book of Genesis

God said to Noah and to his sons with him, "As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." God said, "This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth."

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 25

Show me your ways, O LORD, *and teach me your paths.

Lead me in your truth and teach me, * for you are the God of my salvation;

in you have I trusted all the day long.

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 Mark

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

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 (chanted)

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.

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 Anthem: Change My Heart O God,   (Renew! # 143, gray paperback hymnal)

Change my heart, O God.  Make it every true.  Change my heart, O God, may I be like you.  You are the Potter, I am the clay; Mold me and make me, this is what I pray.  Change my heart, O God, make it ever true; change my heart, O God, may it be like you.

(Repeat)

Doxology

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

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

Prologue to the Eucharist.

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

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of 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 friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

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

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

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

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

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

(All may gather around the altar)

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

You have made us in your image

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

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

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

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

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

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

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

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

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 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:       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: Peace Before, (Wonder, Love and Praise # 791) 

Peace before us, peace behind us, peace under our feet.  Peace within us, peace over us, let all around us be peace.

Love before us…

Light before us..

Christ before…

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Prayers for Epiphany, 2024

Tuesday in Last Epiphany, February 13, 2024 (Shrove Tuesday)

Steel our hearts, O God, on this eve of our Lenten fast and teach us the positive discipline of converting energy by taking on tasks of justice and kindness to replace habits of indulgence, and so integrate and make permanent new habits of grace for the Easter season.  Amen.

Monday in Last Epiphany, February 12, 2024

Gracious God, worthy of praise, we prepare to fast from using a defining word of praise not because it does not apply, but as a practice in penting up our energies for a greater release in our praise on Easter Day.  Amen.

Last Sunday after the Epiphany, February 11, 2024

God of Light, would that the peoples of the entire world would experience a tsunami of inward light, not to blind or remove freedom, but to inform us toward the best ways of peaceful harmony.  Amen.

Saturday in 5 Epiphany, February 10, 2024

Eternal Word, move deeply within us in the very deep word structures of our inward lives where dwells the springs of our volition and let our deep words be re-scripted to comport our body language with deeds of kindness and justice, and let our language performance in speech and writing evoke your sublime presence.  Amen.

Friday in 5 Epiphany, February 9, 2024

Eternal Word of God, in having words we ask for the wisdom of good word arrangement in content and style so that we can have our interior lives shuffled in a way that what we call light or enlightenment occurs.  And in you as Word, we see you as the Light which is enhanced wisdom in how our lives are ordered by the words of our life.  Give us all more experiences of light in the ordering of our lives by and through words.  Amen.

Thursday in 5 Epiphany, February 8, 2024

God, we would want to confess you as the categorical imperative, as that which is universally recommendable, and yet we can only do so from such limited locations in space and time meaning that we do not have the appropriate capacity to speak with precise experiential knowledge about you.  But we can have the humility to always confess a expansive MORE than we or anyone has, can, or will know.  And we take liberty to project upon the great MORE love and justice as the best intentions of existence.  Amen.

Wednesday in 5 Epiphany, February 7, 2024

Christ, Light of the World, Word of words; would that you could or would flood the interior worlds of all people so that we could together see our way toward acting out the requirements of love, kindness, and peace with each other.  Amen.

Tuesday in 5 Epiphany, February 6, 2024

Christ of the Transfiguration, light is the fitting metaphor for the ability to see in a different way to enable a different kind of discourse; grant to us the ability to see poetically so as to add moral and ethically seeing to the scientific materialistic discourse which we cherish for wisdom in everyday commonsense living.  Amen.

Monday in 5 Epiphany, February 5, 2024

God of the cycles in nature, give us grace to learn in the spiraling advancing repetitions of our lives, and let us remember the butterfly moments so as to survive and learn in the phases between the releases from our dark nights of soul.  Amen.

Sunday, 5 Epiphany, February 4, 2024

God, we exist in many states of health on this side of the event of our deaths; let us not be too religiously preoccupied with health after our deaths that we neglect the many health needs of people who are living, especially the great health needs of adequate food, clothing, and shelter.  Amen.

Saturday in 4 Epiphany, February 3, 2024

God of us who are people with unavoidable favorites; give us wisdom to accept the justice of everyone being exceptional even while everyone is required to be on their path of always surpassing themselves in love and justice.  Give us humility to accept the esteem of being loved even while we offer that esteem to all with the requirement that all us are on the educational program of repentance.  Amen.

Friday in 4 Epiphany, February 2, 2024

God, we thank you for preserving forever the Holy Mystery of the Negligible which baffles our accuracy of prediction and precision in knowing all causality; give us courage in doing what we know to be just and kind to others even while we respect the sunlight of sustenance with falls upon the just and unjust proving that mercies prevails even for the unjust and means that God's love is also our judgment.  Amen.

Thursday in 4 Epiphany, February 1, 2024

God of today, we awaken to create in the now all that has gone before because it is born in contrast with the newness of the now; let us be good stewards and interpreters of the memorial traces of what has gone before and act in good actuarial wisdom for a better future.  Amen.

Wednesday in 4 Epiphany, January 31, 2024

God of epiphanies, you continue to provide new insights in new times as people seek to apply what love and justice means for people in various situations today.  Give us grace to repent toward what is true kindness to all.  Amen.

Tuesday in 4 Epiphany, January 30, 2024

God of health and salvation; give us grace to perceive the limits of health in time when the aging effects are inevitable because of the eventual entropy of death; let the terminus point of death inspire us to add quality to life while we live and give us the faith to leave legacies of love and justice in this world.  Amen.

Monday in 4 Epiphany, January 29, 2024

God, the work of Adam was naming signifying our vocation in language; we have generated naming traditions for everything inside us and outside us, states and conditions, and we have come to prefer peace, love, and justice because we have also had to name war, terror, and cruelty.  Give us cause today to name peace and justice as the experience for more and more people today.  Amen.

Sunday, 4 Epiphany, January 28, 2024

O Whispering Spirit, the interior lives of billions of people need to be whispered for manifold peace to be realized and we beseech you to do irresistible peace whispering to the chaotic interiors which cause the acting out of the selfish conflicts of war.  Amen.

Saturday in 3 Epiphany, January 27, 2024

God of peace, grant this world a massive interior wave of peace within the restless hearts of billions of people and so change us from within that we might conform our exterior world to habits of peace.  Amen.

Friday in 3 Epiphany, January 26, 2024

God of freedom, shared in portions with all, help us not to minimize the significance of our limited freedom in the seemingly small and consistent acts of kindness which can drip forth from us to gradually erode the presence of evil in our world.  Amen.

Thursday in 3 Epiphany, January 25, 2025

Lord Jesus Christ, you are a people whisperer to those who inward lives are troubled; help us to learn how to whisper people to receive the renewal of right spirits within their lives.  Amen.

Wednesday in 3 Epiphany, January 24, 2024

God, we accept our place in a very limited location within the greatness of Plenitude; let our ecological words and deed create concentric effects of love and justice as we endeavor to send energy of kindness into the future.  Amen.

Tuesday in 3 Epiphany, January 23, 2024

Great One, help us not to discount the value of our smallness in the deeds of kindness which can preserve the future of goodness in our world.  Amen.

Monday in 3 Epiphany, January 22, 2024

Eternal Word of God, move over the interior springs where language arises to constitute spoken word and acted out deeds; let your angels of coherent messaging tame the diabolic incoherent chaos of our interior language going awry, and let us act out messages of justice and peace.  Amen.

Sunday, 3 Epiphany, January 21, 2024

God of epiphanies, grant to us new awakenings which help us in our practice of love and justice as we have our heart stretch to extend empathy to more people. 
Amen.

Saturday in 2 Epiphany, January 20, 2024

God of justice, give us wisdom and grace to change things in the direction of a more perfect expression of justice when it become evident of continuing in the sins of our inherited less than just cultural practices.  Give us honesty about our traditions when they do not exemplify love for all.  Amen.

Friday in 2 Epiphany, January 19, 2024

God, you continuously adjust to everything in Time by including the ever happening new occasions; give us grace to adjust to the new that is happening while not passively accepting injustice but actively working to overcome the evil of injustice with reparative good.  Amen.

Thursday in 2 Epiphany, January 18, 2024

God of Time and creative advance, with Jesus, Peter, and Paul significant innovation was processed to articulate divine love in new situation for more people; give us insights and wisdom to continue to articulate divine love for more people so as to let all no that no one is excluded from your grace.  Amen.

Wednesday in 2 Epiphany, January 17, 2024

God who is always calling, help us to discover our calls as the gifts given to us to release our best creativity and benefit us to live together with love and justice.  Amen.

Tuesday in 2 Epiphany, January 16, 2024

Jesus Christ, you called fisher folk and gave them a spiritual and social mobility that they never dreamed possible, taking a very rural Peter to the great city of Rome; let your call to each of us surprise us by taking us to places we never dreamed possible, especially as it means using us to surprise others in their adventurous callings.  Amen.

Monday in 2 Epiphany, January 15, 2024 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day)

God, you raise up prophets to speak truth to power when the powerful are neglecting the obvious dignity which is due to each human being; give us courage to resist the creeping selfish powerful who through greed and oppression prohibit the full practice of justice.  Amen.

Sunday, 2 Epiphany, January 14, 2024

Christ, the are the eternal Word, through which all things come to have known being; let your angelic specific word messengers come to awareness upon this vast ladder continuum of possible words and let these specific angelic words constitute our lives in love and justice today.  Amen.

Saturday in 1 Epiphany, January 13, 2024

Christ, the eternal Word, you manifest your word in all the images of our vision and forgive us for misperceiving what we see; let us grow up to have corrective lenses of wisdom help us to see aright.  Amen.

Friday in 1 Epiphany, January 12, 2023

Christ, being Word, you are the manifestation of the central meaning of humanity, namely, language using beings; we cannot understand having being without being first constituted by word and we seek wisdom in living and moving and having our being as knowers in language; give us the wisdom of knowing always the better value choices to make in a world of vast differences and let our better value choices be in the service of the values of love and justice today.  Amen.

Thursday in 1 Epiphany, January 11, 2024

Christ the Word, you are the Ladder from the interior word on which the angelic messenger words proceed; help us to discern the very best and telling Christ-like words to constitute the speech and actions of our lives in the practice of love and justice.  Amen.

Wednesday in 1 Epiphany, January 10, 2024

God of truth, help us to live with the honesty of who we are and what we have done, even when the sum total of the occasions of our lives can never and should never be on public display; give us the honesty of knowing fully what we might do and be so as to live with forgiveness toward others.  Amen.

Tuesday in 1 Epiphany, January 9, 2024

God, on whom we project the great purposes of plenitude; we thank you that each person can find specific purpose in life which becomes their call to know the joy of personal creativity on behalf of creative advance for love, knowledge, and justice within the human community.  Amen.

Monday in 1 Epiphany, January 8, 2024

Gracious God, give us wisdom to model what is truly excellent in justice from the witness of people in the past and give us courage to reject things that were regarded as true simply because everyone was doing it; and grant that the witness which we leave for people of the future be behaviors which are lastingly worth imitating.  Amen.

Sunday, 1 Epiphany, January 7, 2024

God of all, why did we need an Epiphany to tell us that you are manifested to everyone by an inside job in storing your image within everyone?  We thank you for the witness of the Risen Christ to make manifest what has always already been for all people as children of God.  Amen.

The Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 2024

God of all possibilities, let us be lured by possible love and goodness to be manifest in actual words and deeds of love and goodness and so make the Epiphany of Christ and Christ-likeness a current event in our lives.  Amen.

Transfiguration: Mystagogy, Language and Light

Last Epiphany B February 11, 2024
1 Kg 19:9-18 Psalm 50:1-6
2 Corinthians 4:3-6 Mark 9:2-9

Lectionary Link

People who often are referred to as "fundamentalists," are people who prefer a particular form of interpretation of the texts of Scriptures.  But such fundamentalists are selective in applying their method of interpretation, and they would say that they are not totally locked into one form of interpretation.  For example, when the words attributed to Jesus indicate that he is light, life, resurrection, shepherd, door, gate, way, vine, bread of heaven, or the words about him such as lamb of God, fundamentalist interpreters would says that such uses of words are metaphorical and figurative, but not literal.  By not being literal, it would mean that Jesus could not be empirically verified to be actual light, life, shepherd, lamb of God, door, gate, vine or bread from heaven.  Fundamentalists, then are not people who interpret everything in the Bible as though they are events that have to be able to be empirically verified to be meaningfully true.  But they will then regard events presented by biblical writers which truly defy natural law and the laws of science as being empirically verified.    Such things like biological actual virgin birth, chariots carrying people into heaven, walking on water, and other impossible natural events which are done by Jesus and the biblical heroes, are not seen as figurative, teaching, visionary events, but as events which were empirically verified.

What is lost in such inconsistencies in biblical interpretation is the nature and purpose of the biblical writers and how the nature and purpose of the writers chose to present their sublime message within the style of their preaching and writing.

What governed the writings of the writers of the New Testament?  It was the mystical experience of the Risen Christ.  Jesus who was dead and gone, was being experienced in a different way by many people, and the people who had these experiences joined together and invited others to be facilitated into this experience of the Risen Christ.  Experiences of the Risen Christ were different for different people, and so they could not be related in the way which science replicates the experiments of natural science.

The biblical writers were pushed into the moving language of aesthetics to try to express the sublime experiences of their lives.  Sharing these experience were less like boiling water in beakers in a laboratory with fellow lab mates, but more like being with a group of concert goers in being moved by the sublime presentation in a work of art.  Literal language of science is too drab to express the sublime experiences which happen because of art, the experience of being loved, the experiences of seeing justice realized, and the mystical experiences of a human superlative which gets confessed poetically as God and Son of God.

The very practical, didactic and very poetic tradition of St. Paul, and the Pauline traditions, pre-date the writings of the Gospel.  The mystagogy or instructions in the spiritual mysteries of the Risen Christ came to different presentation in the Gospel form of writing which came to promulgation after the writings of St. Paul.

The Gospels are a different kind of mystagogy than the writings of St. Paul.  They re-present the experience of the Risen Christ within a narrative of Jesus as parable, a figurative writing encoding the mystical practices of the church.

By taking the narratives of Jesus and reading them as empirically verified, historical eye-witness accounts, reader miss the important spiritual practice of the early communities of people who confessed and shared this experience of identity with the Risen Christ.  This identity was stated by Paul, as "Christ in you, the hope of glory."

The transfiguration, which literally, means metamorphosis, is part of the presentation of a spiritual parable of Jesus, as the Risen Christ who is given a visualized Jesus narrative as a way of inspiring the imagination of how Christ is in us.

Mystagogy is language used in a way so that it can bear witness to experience of the sublime.  The Gospel writer of Mark knew the body of symbolism found in the Hebrew Scripture.  The Gospel preacher believed/knew that Jesus was in succession with the great heroes of the past, with Moses and Elijah.  Their reputation was such that in the literature of time of Jesus, they were regarded to be time-space travelers.  They could and would be apparitional figures who would reappear to mark new paradigms of spiritual advance.

So, we have the parable of the transfigured Jesus.  Jesus takes his disciples up a mountain alone, into the clouds and he becomes the filament for an event of light.  And the apparitional Moses and Elijah appear with him to affirm him as the logical succession of their mission, and such event happens on behalf of the disciples in this event of Mystery and Light, in knowing Jesus in a very special way.

In two events in the Gospel of Mark, God the Father, declares with an audible voice to Jesus in the presence of others, "You are my beloved Son."  There is another declaration of Jesus as Son of God in the Gospel of Mark, and that is at the death of Jesus on the cross, when the Roman centurion declares, "Truly this is God's Son."

Mystagogy is teaching about the interior event when Christ in us is the hope of glory, the hope of having esteem and worth in our lives. We can appreciate the figurative audience positions of the identity of Christ as Son of God.   One is at the Jordan with John and the crowds there, the other is with James, John, and Peter in the encounter with Jesus, Elijah and Moses, and the other is the outsider, the Roman Centurion, who was able to recognize the sublime even being such an outsider.  We have our own "audience" position in knowing the Risen Christ, within us as Son of God, helping us to realize ourselves as child of God.

The Gospel of Mark encodes in a parable of Jesus the mystical experience of the people who know that the Risen Christ in within themselves and as he is glorified in being manifest as God's unique Son, so too we are invited to know ourselves as sons and daughters of God.

And in this path of mystagogy, we are invited to the being made Christ-like metamorphoses of spiritual growth.  Yes, we may prefer the mountain top and butterfly events, but they accentuate sublime points in the continuous metamorphosis that we are called to in ever become more Christ-like.

Let us embrace the metamorphosis in becoming more Christ-like, which the event of the transfiguration invites us to.  Amen.