Sunday School, March 17, 2024 5 Lent B

  Sunday School,  March 17, 2024    5 Lent B

Theme: Change

Time means that things and people and everything change

People change

Have you ever looked at your baby picture?  Are you different now?  You have changed in many ways.  In fact, you have changed so much that only your parents would know that it is you in your baby pictures.

Sometimes we can see change as it is happening.  Sometimes we can see change right now.  You blow a bubble, it floats into the air and pops and disappears.  You see clouds in the sky and they change shapes and they pass across the sky.

A seed is a tiny thing planted in the soil.  It disappears out of sight.  A root grows from it and a stem pushes out of the soil and the little seed is gone.  It has disappeared.  It seems to have died, but it became something else.  It changed.

Jesus told the people that his life would be like a seed put in the ground.  The seed would be buried and would die.  But when Jesus died he came back to life to show people how God would change all of our lives after we die.  We will live again.  We will always be changing.  We change in a big way when we die.  But the life of Jesus came to us from God to tell us that we will change again after we die.  We will become something like the butterfly breaking out of the cocoon.

Let us accept change.  Let us try to make good changes in our lives, being kind and loving and in learning more and more.  We can keep changing in good ways and live with hope even though we know that at death we will change in a big way.

Because Jesus changed in a big way when he died and when he reappeared, he gave us the message that when we died we will reappear to be with God.

Everything is changing in big ways and little ways.  We can see some changes and some change is so slow we don’t recognize it.

Jesus said at the big change that happen at his death, he would change and live again.  And now we do not have to fear the big change of death.

Sermon

  I would like to tell you about Mr. Rose.  Mr. Rose like to plant a garden every spring.  He loved to plant vegetables.  And he liked to have some fun doing it.  When Mr. Rose planted his garden, his garden looked like it was decorated for Halloween.  At the end of each row in the garden, he would put little tomb stone markers.  On one tomb stone, he would write, “Carrot seeds, RIP,(Rest in Peace).  On another, “corn seeds, RIP (Rest in Peace). And he would do the same for the other rows of vegetables.  And he would set up a Ghost Scarecrow in his garden.

  All of the kids in the neighborhood would watch Mr. Rose and his garden that looked like a grave yard.  And the joke around town about Mr. Rose was this:  “Mr. Rose is burying his seeds in the ground.”

  We have read some words of Jesus today.  He said, “If a seed is not buried in the ground and die, it will always remain a seed, but if it is put into the ground, it dies, and it becomes a plant that produces fruit and many more seeds.”

  Jesus said this to teach us about the change that occurred in his life.

  When Jesus lived, only a few people knew who he was.  But when he died and rose again, he became the most popular person in the history of the world.  Jesus has been gone for more than 2000 years, but we still celebrate his life today.  Jesus once lived in Palestine, in Israel.  But today, Christ lives in our hearts.  Jesus went through many changes in his life.  He was a baby, a young boy, and he was great teacher and prophet.  And he died.  But when he died, he did not stay buried, he became the risen Christ who could be presence to people all over the world.

  You and I are going through changes in our lives.  We all started out real small and tiny….and we were born as babies and we became children….and we keep changing and growing.  When we grow big we lose our smallness and we gain our bigness.  When we go to second grade in school, we lose first grade.  So we are always losing things in life, but we are always gaining things too.

  And when we look at death, we can think that we are losing someone in a very important way.  And we are.  But Jesus tells us to have hope, because when people die, then we know that God is taking care of them, because we no longer can.

  Jesus tells us that our lives are always changing.  We are losing some things, but we are gaining better things.

  So, when a seed is put into the ground and we know that it is gone forever, we know that the seed will sprout and become a beautiful plant.  Jesus wants us to know that God can always bring something beautiful out of everything that happens to us.

  This is the hope that we can have today.

 

Intergenerational family liturgy with Holy Eucharist

March 17, 2024: The Fifth Sunday In Lent

Gathering Songs:

Jesus Loves Me,   When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, When Jesus Wept, May the Lord

Liturgist: Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins.

People: His 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: Jesus Loves Me This I Know (All the Best Songs for Kids, # 54)

1 Jesus loves me! This I know, For the Bible tells me so.  Little ones to Him belong; they are weak but He is strong.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  The Bible tells me so.

2 Jesus loves me!  He who died!  Heaven’s gates to open wide.  He will wash away my sin, Let His little child come in. Yes, Jesus loves me.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  The Bible tells me so.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Praise the Lord

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 Prophet Jeremiah

The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt-- a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD;

The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 51

Create in me a clean heart, O God, * and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence * and take not your holy Spirit from me.

Give me the joy of your saving help again * and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.

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 John

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. "Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say-- `Father, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him." Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon:

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.

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: When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,   

1-When I survey the wondrous cross where the young Prince of Glory died

    All the vain thing that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood.

2-Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small; love so amazing so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.

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 the 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 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 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. 

Word of Administration.

Communion Hymn: When Jesus Wept (blue hymnal, # 715)

When Jesus wept, the falling tear in mercy flowed beyond all bound; When Jesus groaned, a trembling fear seized all the guilty world around.

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: May the Lord (Sung to the tune of Eidelweiss)

May the Lord, Mighty God, Bless and keep you forever, Grant you peace, perfect peace, Courage in every endeavor.  Lift up your eyes and seek His face, Trust His grace forever.  May the Lord, Mighty God Bless and keep you for ever.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Do We Believe God Loves the World?

Lent B March 10, 2024
Numbers 21:4-9 Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2:1-10 John 3:14-21

Lectionary Link

It is said that Einstein's once opined that the most important question in life had to do with a belief in a friendly universe.

Indeed, what do we project upon everything, everywhere, all at once?  Do we project a God involved in the universe with a divine presence, diffusely immanent and omnipresent?  Is divine omnipresence a friendly presence?  How could we know?  

Is the universe but God throwing the dice resulting of an infinite play of probabilities and giving all probabilities a degree of freedom, such that communities of freedom can unite to do collective evil or collective good?

The biblical witness and the Christian witness perhaps frames the Einstein question in a different way with a bit different language.  The biblical witness like the articulation of everything is necessarily anthropocentric because as language users we are limited to human experience.   But we also believe to be human means to partake of the sublimely human and touch the horizon of a deeper connection of all things, the connection we name as the divine presence, which contains us and always engenders a future.

In the biblical witness we posit a divine presence which is the residing place and the cause of the presence of everything, including us.  And we believe that the great Presence responsible for our becoming, made us good, so that we might be on the path of becoming better.  The lure for us becoming better is the lure of the Presence of the One we have come to call Love.

We deal with Einstein's question of a friendly universe by the belief that God is love.  The one who is love is able to make other beings who have the free capacity to also love and be loved.  The act of creation is a love act, and the continuous renewal of everything in time is the labor of the sustaining love of someone who wants every being to become continuously better or part of comprising a better surpassing whole.

One of the most quoted words of the New Testament is from our appointed Gospel.  "God so loved the world...."  So, such an expression is a belief that an omnipresence God is loving everywhere, and what could be more friendly than that?

Einstein, in knowing the potential misuses of scientific discoveries, thought that a friendly universe issue was important as it pertained to the morals and ethics of how we use our science and technology to treat each other.  We know that we have not been enlightened in the practice of friendliness toward each other so as to give everyone an equality in the pursuit of happiness and well-being.  Believing that human beings are mostly unloving and not perfectible in love might make us act as though selfish behavior is the central motivation of life.

If we, like the writer of John's Gospel, believe that God is love, how is such to be known and experienced?  Why does it often seem like God is love is the unknown secret of the universe?

The biblical writers often write about the failure of people to be loving toward God and toward each other.  The people of Israel, who are presented as God's experiment in bringing love to the world, are shown to be people who continually failed to represent a God of love.  The proliferation of the failure to love can seem to be the prevailing trend of life itself.

How does the biblical witness deal with the continual failure of people to love God and each other?  The God who has and will out live all and yet include every other being, is seen to be the best of parent.  God is seen as one who has the duration to forgive and give endless chances for amendment of life to people.

The God of love gave exemplars within human community of how people are supposed to love and be loved.  "God so love the world," that God gave a specific divine child of love to show his brothers and sisters the life of loving and being loved.  Jesus is the example of God not giving up on us and showing us the tolerant loving forgiveness of our parent God who always believes we can get better because we are made in having a genuine freedom to chose in the direction of love.

The Gospel questions for each of us today include: Do we believe that God is a loving presence everywhere in this universe?  If so, how can we and others know?  We can only know by experiencing love from others and passing that love on to others.

And if we believe that God is love, how should we live?  Following Christ, we should always chose love and try to speak and live lovingly with our lives.  Amen.

Sunday School, March 10, 2024 4 Lent B

  Sunday School, March 10, 2024    4 Lent B

Theme:

God’s love

One definition of God is this:  God is love.  But if God is love, how does God show that God loves us.

Can an elephant love an ant?  I don’t know.  An ant might get in the ear of an elephant and tickle the ear drum.  An ant might be too small for an elephant to see.  An elephant might be so different from the ant that it might seem like a silly question to ask.  If an elephant could magically be reduced to become the same size as an ant, then the elephant might be able to let the ant know that an elephant to love and care for an ant.

God is love.  And God is great.  God is greater than us, even greater than the elephant is greater than the ant.

So how can a great God, who is love, show the people of this world that God loves us?

God reduced the divine life into baby Jesus in Bethlehem.  Baby Jesus grew up and lived with us and understood human life even better than we understand it.  God showed us that God loves us by giving us God Son, Jesus.  And Jesus did what every human eventually does, he died.  He died on the Cross.  But Jesus lived again after his death to show us that God is great enough to save and preserve our lives after we die.

God is love and God showed love to us when God gave us Jesus.

God so loved the world that he gave us his Son Jesus.  And if we see and look at the death and resurrection of Jesus, it is a path that we follow in this life.  If we believe in God’s love and in what Jesus has shown us and done for us, then we have the hope of living again after our deaths.  And that means we don’t have to live with fear in our lives.  We can live with faith and hope.  And if we live with hope we can have more fun and joy and success in our lives.

Sermon

Text:

  Do you like snakes?  Real snakes?  There are all kinds of snakes.  And some snakes are poisonous.

  There is story in the Bible about Moses and the children of Israel.  One day their camp was infested with poisonous snakes and many people were getting bitten.  So, Moses asked God what he should do and God told him to make a snake out of bronze metal and put it on a tall pole.  And when people looked at the snake on the tall pole they would get healed from their snake bites.

  When Jesus was talking to a man named Nicodemus, Jesus said, “just as Moses put the snake on the pole so that the people of Israel could be healed of their snake bites, Jesus said that he would be put up on the tall pole called the “Cross.”  And this cross would be something that everyone would know about and when they understood how much that God loved this world, they would know that God’s love could make us better.

  God love us in sending Jesus to teach us about living and dying.  About living Jesus taught us to love and care for one another.  He taught us to forgive each other; he taught us to accept God’s forgiveness when we know that we fail to do what is best and right.

  Jesus taught us about dying.  He taught us that some dying is heroic.  When a soldier dies to protect his or her country that is heroic.  When a fire-fighter dies to save a child that his heroic.  When Jesus died for us, that was heroic.

  Jesus taught us some other things about dying.  He taught not to be afraid of dying because it is only a gateway to another kind of life, called eternal life.

  Jesus taught us that we could die and live at the same time.  We die to our selfish self and let our kind and helping selves live.  When we go to school and learn, we die to our ignorant self and let a new self with more learning be born.

  So Jesus taught us that dying can mean saying good bye to bad things in our lives so that we can welcome better things and new ways to act and behave which will make our world better.

  Today, Let us remember that God loved the world so much that God gave us eternal life.  And now I want you to repeat one of the most famous verses in the Bible:  Say: John 3:16.  God so the loved the world that he gave his only Son.  Amen.

Intergenerational Family Liturgy with Holy Eucharist

March 10, 2024: Fourth Sunday In Lent

Gathering Songs:

  He’s Got the Whole World, Lord, I Lift Your Name on High, Eat This Bread, Awesome God

Opening Song : He’s Got the Whole World, (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 90)

1.         He’s got the whole world in his hands, he’s got the whole wide world, in his hands.  He’s got the whole world, in his hands, he’s got the whole world in his hands.

2.         He’s got the little tiny baby in his hands, he’s got the little tiny baby in his hands, he’s got the little tiny baby in his hand, he’s got the whole world in his hands.

3.         He’s got the boys and the girls..

4.         He’s got the mommies and the daddies..

Liturgist: Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins.

People: His 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.

 

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Praise the Lord

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 Numbers

From Mount Hor the Israelites set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food." Then the LORD sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD to take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live." So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 107

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, * and his mercy endures for ever.

Let all those whom the LORD has redeemed proclaim * that he redeemed them from the hand of the foe.

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 John

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.  "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

"Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon –   

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.

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:  Lord I Lift Your Name on High, Renew! #4

Lord, I lift your name on high; Lord, I love to sing Your praises.  I’m so glad you’re in my life.  I’m so glad you came to save us.  You came from heaven to earth to show the way, from the earth to the cross, my debt to pay.  From the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky; Lord, I lift your name on high!

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 the 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.

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. 

Word of Administration.

Communion Hymn: 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.

(Repeat during communion)

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: 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.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

   

The World as God's Temple

3 Lent B March 4, 2024
Exodus 20:1-17 Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 1:18-25 John 2:13-22

Lectionary Link

What is undeniable about the Bible is that it is a collection of texts, a collection words.  And it is evidence of the age when writing arose as technology of memory.  Text was a way of preserving the spoken words of people who had once been present.  A text is also an art form creating stories about people who never existed but were inventions of writers who believe that creation in writing was a way of forming community identity and passing that identity with certain values onto another generation.

The Bible like many of the classics, is revered because of the general paucity of writing in ancient times and the lack of general literacy of ancient people.  It is our task today to look at the words which convey the art of living for ancient people and who provide us not only with their words but with the example of being active language users to promote the very best of what language users should be doing.

In our appointed lessons for today, the famous ten commandments are presented to us.  These words are evidence that people in community were seeking best practices for how they could live together in the very best possible way.  In their wisdom story, they present Moses as a wise medium between the greatness of God and how that greatness could be funneled into human living.  The ten commandments assert that love and justice are the best ways to live in life.  The ten commandments are based upon loving one who perpetually greater than us so that we might then practice love as justice with each other, with parents, spouses, families, property, knowledge, truth, life.  This is accomplished by learning of impulse control, stated as "thou shall not covet."  Namely, if only God is worthy of the profundity of our desire, then from worship we learn to direct our desire to mere enjoyment rather than be driven to harmful addiction.

The appointed Psalm today is in part a poem of praise about the great insight of living in love and justice because of the discovery of the great insight of a law which was founded upon respecting first the one who is greater than us and then living with such loving respect for those who are most like us.

The words of the Bible include a narrative of judgments about the behavior of people when they failed to live up to their highest insight or for when they misused the very notion of being lawful.  If the commandments of loving God and neighbor are great, then so is the precise specification of what laws could mean in all of the specific circumstances of life, in how to wash dishes in the temple, or how to eat, or what is appropriate offerings to present to God.  Certainly every society knows about the proliferation of rules and law, even to micro-manage the cleaning up after our pets in the park.  All kinds of law are good, useful, and functional for community order, but when minor laws are treated with the same respect as the great laws of love and justice, then the priorities of the community can get skewed.  When legalism becomes the only valid use of language, the fullness of human experience is missed.

One might say that philosophy, the love of wisdom, is the great gift of the ancient Greeks to our world.  But what if such wisdom get reduced to saying that something is only meaningfully true if and only if it can be presented in a logical proposition?

When St. Paul had his life completely renovated by a mystical experience, he had to confront some contradiction regarding what was meaningfully true.  Jesus is God's Son, who is the Messiah, who died, reappeared, and is mystically known after he can no longer be seen.  What kind of heroic Messiah is this?  Compared with a Messiah like David, Jesus dying on the cross is a scandal.  Paul's experience also seemed to be logically inconsistent with the wisdom of the Greek as it came to the Roman era. This foolishness is presented in the skepticism of Pilate about to crucify Jesus: "So, Jesus, you are a King?"   St. Paul could have easily pointed to fact that the Greeks and Romans held to their law and logic even while believing in stories of gods and goddesses with quite fickled behaviors and violating all norms of empirical verification.

What St. Paul was showing is that in the mystical experience of love, law and logic must give way to other kinds of meaningful events within the life of people.  He, and others had this mystical experience which changed their lives and it contradicted preconceptions of people who were Jews and Gentiles.

St. Paul and the Gospel writers were trying to persuade regarding meaningful presence of God everywhere, which was made known through the appearance of Jesus Christ.  In the past one could intensively locate the divine in stories of the gods and goddesses, or in meeting places such as temples and shrines, or in revealed writings such as the law.  In St. Paul and in the Gospel, Jesus became known as the unique temple for the dwelling of God in human experience, so that each person could come to know oneself as a dwelling place of God as well.

This is the meaningful and mystical truth of Paul and the Gospel writers who knew themselves to be temples of the God Holy Spirit who proclaimed this as a meaningful experience for everyone.

The Gospel for us today is that if the heavens declare the glory of God, so God's glory can be declared everywhere, and especially within each human being.

This is the witness of Jesus as God's Temple in history, who became the Risen Christ who is able to make everyone today a temple of God's Holy Spirit.  Amen.