Sunday School, May 26, 2024 Trinity Sunday B

  Sunday School, May 26, 2024 Trinity Sunday B

Theme of the Day: The Holy Trinity

Use the metaphor of translation for understanding God’s Greatness

When we go to another country or when we hear other people speaking languages other than our own, how can we understand what they are saying?

We need a translator or someone who knows both language who can change what is said in another language into our own language.

Imagine God as being foreign because of God’s Greatness.  God is so great that God is in some way foreign unless God can be translated into human language and experience.

Faith in a Great God means that we believe that God is approachable enough to allow God to be translated into human language and experience.

So how is God translated into human language and experience?

We take the greatest things of human experience and since we believe that God is greater than everyone, then God must be the best example of everything great in human experience.

Make signs of the Names and Attributes of God to show how we translate and understand God in human language and experience.  The last three Sign would be Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  We understand that being a person is what is greatest about being human.  And  if we are persons, then God must be the greatest Person and so he is known to us in how his Personality is shown to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Holy or Special or Uniquely Greatest, I AM or Highest Being, Infinite: Too big for anyone to measure,

All Powerful, Creator, Good, Merciful, Lovingly Kind, Love, Compassionate, Caring, Cares for the Poor,  Sustainer: Keeps all things,  Perfect in Greatness, All Containing, Every in Inside of the Boundaries of God’, Salvation and Health, All Knowing,  Omnipresent: Everywhere, Wise, With Us,

Gracious,  Comforter, Advocate: One who prays for us,  Strength, Courage,  Power, Hope, Father, Son,

Holy Spirit

Why do Christians believe in the Trinity?  God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit?

It was the ancient baptismal formula.  The command of Jesus to his disciples was to teach and make disciples and to baptize in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The Apostles' Creed is the creed of Holy Baptism.  Each person is asked to believe in the Father and in the Son and in the Holy Spirit.

Later, the church decided to teach about the relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  The result of this teaching is called the Nicene Creed.  In it the Church confesses that Father, Son and the Holy Spirit are three persons but one in substance.  We confess God in One God, in three Persons.  Why do we do this?  Mainly because we rely upon the words of Jesus in the Gospels that tell about the relationship between Jesus, his Father and the Holy Spirit.

Sermon:

Can you be a brother or sister, and a son or daughter, and student all at one time?  Can your father be a father, brother and husband all at one time?  Can your mother be a mother, sister and wife all at one time?

  So, one person can be many different personal roles at one time.  I am a father, a brother, a son, a cousin, a priest, and yet I am still just one human being.  I am a father person, a brother person and a son person, but still just one human being.

  Today is called Trinity Sunday.  Does anyone know what Trinity means.  Whenever you see the three letters TRI at the start of a word, what number are we talking about?  The number three.  Trinity refers to three persons.

  As Christians we say that God is One God but in trinity of persons.  And what are the three persons?  Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

  If you are talking to your Dad, then you know him as your father.  But if your uncle is talking to your dad, he will know your dad as a brother.  And if your mother is talking her your dad, she will know your dad as her husband.

  So, whether we know God as Father, Son or Holy Spirit, it all depends on how we are knowing God.

  If we are talking about God as the great creator, we will be speaking about God as our Father. 

  But if we are talking about God as God became known to us as a human being, then we will talk about Jesus Christ, God’s Son.

  And if we’re talking about how God can be present everywhere at one time, then we will talk about God as the Holy Spirit.

  So God can be one God and be also known as three different persons, depending upon what we need to know about God.

  And that is the wonderful thing about the Trinity.  God can be known to us in different ways.  Because sometimes we need to know God in different ways.

  Today let us be thankful that God can be known to us in different ways, as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  This is the Trinity that we celebrate today.  Amen.

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

May 26, 2024: Trinity Sunday

Gathering Songs:

Bless the Lord; Holy, Holy, Holy; Father, I Adore You; Our God is an Awesome God

Song: Bless the Lord (Renew! # 114)

Bless the Lord my soul and bless His holy name.  Bless the Lord my soul, he rescues me from death.

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.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

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

Litany Phrase: Alleluia (chanted)

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

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

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

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

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

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

A reading from the Letter to the Romans

When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ-- if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together Canticle 13

Glory to you, Lord God of our fathers; * you are worthy of praise; glory to you.

Glory to you for the radiance of your holy Name; *  we will praise you and highly exalt you for ever.

Glory to you in the splendor of your temple; *  on the throne of your majesty, glory to you.

Glory to you, seated between the Cherubim; * we will praise you and highly exalt you for ever.

Glory to you, beholding the depths; * in the high vault of heaven, glory to you.

Glory to you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; * we will praise you and highly exalt you for ever.

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 there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, `You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?  "Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And 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."

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.

Song: Holy, Holy, Holy (blue hymnal, # 362) vs. 1 and 3

Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, Early in the morning, our song shall rise to Thee.  Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity.

Holy, holy, holy, though the darkness hide thee, though the sinful human eye they glory may not see, only thou art holy: there is none beside thee, perfect in power, in love, and purity.

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 with your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbor.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Breaking of the Bread

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

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Father, I Adore You (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 56)

Father, I adore you, lay my life before you, how I love you.

Jesus….

Spirit…

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) Sing Three times

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! 

Word as Spirit, Spirit as Word

Day of Pentecost   May 29, 2024
Acts 2:1-21  Psalm 104: 25-35,37
Romans 8:22-27  John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

Lectionary Link

Would it be too far fetched on this Day of Pentecost to consider Word as Spirit, and Spirit as Word?

Word as the linguistic penetration of all human life in anything being known at all, is the hidden essence of living.  Word as hidden has many evidential products so as to be hiddenly known.

The word Spirit, and Holy Spirit, come to language and "spirit" is a personification of invisible phenomena which have external and visible effects.  Spirit is personified "wind" or "breath."  The wisdom of wind being a macro-equivalent of breath in a person is a fitting metaphor.  Wind is unseen but it manifests itself in visible effects, storms, and blowing branches on trees.  Wind's eroding effects could be seen as creation or alterations in process, and the ancients could proclaim, God's life is breathing in this world, and God's life at large in the world might be called God's Spirit.  We can appreciate wind as a fitting metaphor for God's creative omnipresence whose effects are continuous but only intermittently registered by human beings at various times in their contexts.  The Spirit of God might be called the Divine effect that is and can be known in the lives of people who often confess the coincidences called providence.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus is referred to as the Word made flesh.  And Jesus is presented as saying, "my words are spirit and life."  Jesus breathed his Spirit-Words upon his disciples and told them that Spirit would relay his words to them in their futures when they could not seen him.  And the Spirit would speak in and through them.

The event of Pentecost couples Word and Spirit.  What is a supreme issue of difference among humanity?  In the ancient curse of Babel, the curse on the world was regarded to be a poly-glottic humanity.  One humanity but divided into many different linguistic communities.

The curse of Babel came because the previous one language people used their unity to commit the act of pridefully replacing themselves as and for the divine.  So, God cursed them with many languages and the resulting confusion sent them in exile from the land of Shinar throughout the world to be settled in their various linguistic communities.

The event of Pentecost is seen as God's healing of the ancient curse.  In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  Unique Word became flesh in Jesus Christ, and the Christ-Word could be translated into every language and so bring the harmony and the humility of diverse peoples having diverse languages being able to overcome the pride of God-replacement tendencies in our ethnocentric practices.

Pentecost is an event when we accept Christ as the Word of God within all language use and language users, as the way to translate the universal accessibility of God to everyone.  Pentecost is when we proclaim that God speaks every language and that God can be translated into every language and cultural situation.

And when God is translated into each life situation, we know it in the manifestations of the Holy Spirit of God: In love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, hope, self control, justice, active care for one another.

Sometimes we limit the Pentecost event to different languages; but no matter what language we speak, the more important language that we speak is our body language.  What is our body code language?  What are our morals and ethics?  How do we act out our good language use with the practice of justice in our world?

Let us regard this day of Pentecost as a language event.  As an event when as Christians we can regard Christ as the image of God upon us being the Word of God within us even as the Holy Spirit making the Word of God communicate through us the good words in speech, writing, and body language, the love of God for our world.  

May God's Spirit today tame our differences into the harmony of respecting diversity while coaxing each person to realize one's importance within the entire symphony of humanity.

Jesus said, "my words are Spirit and they are life."  And today the Holy Spirit says within us, "I am Spirit, and I am the life of Christ the Word of God in you today.  Amen.

Prayers for Easter, 2024

Saturday in 7 Easter, May 18, 2024

Gracious Holy Spirit, as we seek to accept that our continuity as an existing being, we seek such in your greater connecting reality of stringing together the mystery of how identity is carried forever in time.  Amen.

Friday in 7 Easter, May 17, 2024

God who represent the highest of human value, give us the grace to continue to value in better ways the best ways to apply justice and love to the people in our world.  Amen.

Thursday in 7 Easter, May 16, 2024

Lord Jesus who is Word of God, you said that your words are Spirit and they are life; let the Spirit words of our lives be inventive and creative of the order of love and justice in our world so that we might be connected in the best possible ways.  Amen.

Wednesday in 7 Easter, May 15, 2024

God, we confess you as the Great Spirit of the infinite negligible, the mystery of what we cannot know and see in terms of direct causation effects of what is happening in our lives; in faith we hold to a profound connecting Thread of Love within all things to make all manner of things well, indeed.  Amen.

Tuesday in 7 Easter, May 14, 2024

God of unity, we seek a string of unity of the connection of all things in time; give us grace to assist the creative evolving of love and justice in time and the Spirit of Wisdom to hold diversity together in harmony.  Amen.

Monday in 7 Easter, May 13, 2024

Holy Spirit, we seek to know the influence of the expanding greatness of One in the midst of incalculable diversity; give us wisdom to know how to direct the magnetism of the gravity of One into local phenomena of the peace of harmony.  Amen.

 Sunday, 7 Easter, May 12, Sunday after the Ascension

Jesus Christ, you gave us the example of prayer, not as a way to believe that we can micromanage God's interventions in the world, but to embrace Christ the Word who calls to the communication vocation of being language users who bear the image of Christ the Word.  Give us the grace of perpetual communication with you as all and in all and let our prayers be perpetual intercessional requests for the outcomes of love and justice.  Amen.

Saturday in 6 Easter, May 11, 2024

Ascended Christ, Word of God; let your intercessors sustain us continually to live with the dreadfully wonderful and frightening freedom which is aboard in this world.  Grant us the wisdom to live with all the probabilities which freedom implies, and help us the shape the direction of the future with love and justice that creates a stronger probability of more future love and justice.  Amen.

Friday in 6 Easter, May 10, 2024

Ascended Christ, you have become a metaphor for everything having been freed from the limitations of being bodily in Jesus of Nazareth; give us grace not to use your "all and in all" status to justify words and deeds unworthy of what love and justice means in practice.  Amen.

Thursday, Ascension Day, May 9, 2024

Lord Jesus Christ, you have left this world in your particular bodily form, but you did not have to leave us a double portion of your spirit because you awakened us to the always, already Holy Spirit as the continuous omnipresence of the divine in our world.  In your absence and memory, O Jesus, let us manifest spiritual Christliness in our world through love and justice.  Amen.

Wednesday in 6 Easter, May 8, 2024

Lord of the Ascension, you ask of us to be continually drawn upward in surpassing our former vision and panorama of what has happened so that we might integrate all that has happened in making down to earth better choices of love and justice today.  Amen.

Tuesday in 6 Easter, May 7, 2024

Lord of the Ascension, you have mystically allowed us to ride your elevator to sit with you in heavenly places in profound inward and peaceful places to give us insightful and refuge perspective upon our exterior world which often are far from peaceful or heavenly.  In your ascension we are elevated to find perspectives of love, joy, peace, love, and justice.  Amen.

Monday in 6 Easter, May 6, 2024

Lord of the Ascension, we seek the eddying vortex of your rise to be the spiritual energy for us to rise in the ability to offer the highest love and serve for God and for our world which needs to rise Godward rather and sink to be our lesser angels.  Amen.

Sunday, 6 Easter, May 5, 2024

God of Love, let us receive each day greater love, surpassing love to meet the needs of love and justice which continually confront us.  Amen.

Saturday in 5 Easter, May 4, 2024

God who has befriended us to feel like we belong; give us befriending gifts to help others feel that they belong in this world with enhanced dignity or worth and acceptance.  Amen.

Friday in 5 Easter, May 3, 2024

Jesus Christ, Friend of humanity, let friendship come to the people who need it the most today and in the forms which are most telling to their individual needs.  Amen.

Thursday in 5 Easter, May 2, 2024

O God of Love, be the connecting string of permanence within all the transitory immensely varied events of our lives and give us the sense that all things are always already held together for ever with purposes known and yet to be known.  Amen.

Wednesday in 5 Easter, May 1, 2024

God of Time and Change, living process is the continual laying down of the life of what was for the life of what will be; where we have the volitional power let us influence the life that will be with words and deeds of love and justice.  Amen.

Tuesday in 5 Easter, April 30, 2024

God, our playwright, Language Originator and Language User, you have give us love and justice as scripts for our lives but you require us to ad lib within the emerging events of our lives; let our acting also be our real lives of seeking to apply justice and love in the circumstances of our lives.  Amen.

Monday in 5 Easter, April 29, 2024

God of Love, how can you bear all things without pinpoint restraining intervention? In freedom you call us to be your weakness and we ask you to give us the greatest strength while being weak to prevent harm, hate, and persecution in our world.  Amen.

Sunday, 5 Easter, April 28, 2024

Christ the Vine, through you flows the holy sap of our connectedness with God and all things because the experience of the sublime makes us poets.  Amen.

Saturday in 4 Easter, April 27, 2024

God who is love, we extoll and overuse the word love as a superlative cliche of human existence; grant us the ability to do love rather than just talk about its importance.  Amen.

Friday in 4 Easter, April 26, 2024

Risen Christ, as the all and in all, you are connecting vine within all things; teach us to learn the best way to be connected with you, each other, and our island home.  Amen.

Thursday in 4 Easter, April 25, 2024

Jesus Christ, the impression that you made while you lived was unleashed by how you became known as the Risen Christ; and while we confess you poetically as being all and in all, let us instantiate your poignant intentional presence in events of love and justice.  Amen.

Wednesday in 4 Easter, April 24, 2024 (Genocide Remembrance Day)

God of love, let the rainbow in the sky be a sign to us that the destruction of people on this earth by anyone is a violation of love and justice which proceeds from the essence of who you are.  Amen.

Tuesday in 4 Easter, April 23, 2024

God, for a world in which love has become a cliche, we confess you as Love, from which every other love is but an imperfect reflection; give us strength for the hardy love of the practice of justice which is applied love for those who need it the most.  Amen.

Monday in 4 Easter, April 22, 2024

Christ the Vine, you are the organically spiritual connection residing in all; grant everyone access to the deep image upon all so that the flow of the divine might make us our best human selves.  Amen.

Sunday, 4 Easter, April 21, 2024

Good Shepherd Christ, give us discernment and willingness to be shepherding people who in kindness make pets of those in need to nurture them to be grateful shepherds, who like us learn from our needs to minister to others.  Amen.

Saturday in 3 Easter, April 20, 2024

Shepherd us O Christ, in the care that we need when we need it through your agents who are inspired to help us; and grant us also to be inspired agents of shepherding care when others need such care.  Amen.

Friday in 3 Easter, April 19, 2024

Good Shepherd Christ, when we need help please send us good shepherds; and when we see others who need help let us arise to be good shepherds.  Amen.

Thursday in 3 Easter, April 18, 2024

Lord Jesus Christ, citizens of great empires have come to regard themselves as Christians and yet we as Christians have allowed and been complicit in unChrist-like actions be done in our name; we ask for the impossible in asking that you would convert empires into good shepherds who care for the most vulnerable.  Amen.

Wednesday in 3 Easter, April 17, 2024

Lord Jesus Christ, you are the good shepherd not of us a commodities in your flock for our human product equivalent of wool and meat; you have made us to be favored pets who bring you joy even as we learn the delight of being drastically inferior to you in the very best ways of love and justice.  Amen.

Tuesday in 3 Easter, April 16, 2024

God, you are the great collective of all life, give us grace in our various human collective to admit what we done wrong to knowingly and unknowingly harm others and our environment; give us the wisdom of a reparative mission to creatively have authentic repentance with genuine actions to redress the results of the harmful actions of those who have left us with some obvious clean up.  Amen.

Monday in 3 Easter, April 15, 2024

Good Shepherd, give us the grace of shepherding so that we as mere sheep might help other needy sheep to their full life potential.  Amen.

3 Easter, April 14, 2024

Risen Christ, you ate with your disciples in your appearances; let you appearance continual be known in the adequate food supply for everyone in our world.  Amen.

Saturday in 2 Easter, April 13, 2024

Risen Christ, let your presence be multiplied over and over again under the guise of adequate food for all people in this world as food supports life.  We accept your omnipresence in the enough food for all today.  Amen.

Friday in 2 Easter, April 12, 2024

Risen Christ, you appeared to your disciples variously including in partaking of food; we receive the Eucharist as partaking of the Risen Christ presence again and again.  Amen.

Thursday in 2 Easter, April 11, 2024

Almighty God, let the power of the Gospel be known by your winsome Holy Spirit; let us never adopt coercive practices to prove the validity of love and justice even as we embrace good laws for the protection of the freedom of all.  Amen.

Wednesday in 2 Easter, April 10, 2024

God of creative freedom, it is awesome to confront what freedom means in our world; it often seems a high price to pay for the free possibility for bad things to happen.  Give us a deep appreciation for the real freedom which we have to create the probability that good things can happen through our agency, especially in acts of love and justice.  Amen.

Tuesday in 2 Easter, April 9, 2024

God, we believe in the substantial world which confronts our senses, but we humbly recognize that we only process and perceive this world through the inward and invisible faculty of language; give us renewing inward Easter grace for the lenses of our language to perceive your graceful presence in our world, but not just for perceiving but for expediting creative acts of love and justice.  Amen.

Monday in 2 Easter, April 8, 2024

Holy Spirit, you overshadowed Blessed Mary for her to realize the special child to be born to her; you overshadow us to help us realize the Christ-image born within us to enable us to realize our destiny as children of God.  Amen.

Second Sunday of Easter, April 7, 2024

Gracious Risen Christ, let us be doubters like Thomas of having any superior experiences of you which would deny the validity of your presence to so many other people in ways which are telling to their specific circumstances.  Amen.

Easter Saturday, April 6, 2024

God of our faith, give us continual doubt about the final adequacy of what we think we know about you and everything and so keep us humbly open to new understanding in new times of what love and justice requires of us.  Amen.

Easter Friday, April 5, 2024

Everlasting God, we know in time we die and we mourn the loss of our compositional state of being dependent upon seeing, hearing, and touching for empirical verification; grant us faith to accept the absolute past of our lives and the lives of our loved ones and let us accept that such objectivity of the absolute past is never lost but contained in the composition of everything which continues including us while we can be empirically verified.  Amen.

Easter Thursday, April 4, 2024

Come again O Risen Lord and be apparent in new ways to our world; in adequate food for everyone, in justice for everyone, in the defeat of greed and cruelty, be known in our lives.  Amen.

Easter Wednesday, April 3, 2024

Risen Lord, we ask again and again when your manifest reappearances will occur; will we find you appearing when peace, love, and justice breaks into our human experiences?  Amen.

Easter Tuesday, April 2, 2024

Risen Christ, we wait for your surprise "peek a boo" sudden appearance which can arise at anytime and place because all things are filled with the glory of God butt sometimes experienced as pain, suffering, and loss.  Give us grace to do our part in shaping the sustaining glory of life toward the outcomes of love and justice.  Amen.

Easter Monday, April 1, 2024

Lord Jesus Christ of resurrection continuity; we review the record of your re-appearances, even as we ask for wisdom and insight to recognize your appearances to our world especially within the works of love and justice which happen for people who need the sense of your presence.  Amen.

Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024

Eternal Word and Risen Lord, we look to you for our sustaining continuity beyond the seeming discontinuous event of death; preserve and retain us in your mercy and improve us as we are being continually remade in your image.  Amen.

Sunday School, May 19, 2024 The Day of Pentecost B

 Sunday School, May 19, 2024   The Day of Pentecost B

Theme:

Meanings of Pentecost

Pentecost is fifty days after Easter

Anglicans call it Whitsunday or “White” Sunday, called that perhaps because of the white robes worn by the candidates for baptism.

The English Church, retains the color white for Pentecost while the Episcopal Church and other churches use the color Red for Pentecost, symbolizing the red flames of the tongues of fire that is reported in the Pentecost event.

The tongues of fire seem to appear on the disciple in Jerusalem and the disciple began to speak about Christ in other languages.

This means that the message about Christ can be translated into all languages and all people can be united by the One Spirit of God even though all people are different in many ways.

Pentecost is a celebrate of our unity, perhaps, better called a “harmony.”  It is how God’s love is lived and expressed among people who have many differences.

When Jesus left this world, he reminded us that God’s Holy Spirit was with us to let God’s presence be known to us.

Sermon:

Many churches have a musical instrument with big pipes.  This instrument is called a pipe organ.  A pipe organ is made up of lots of pipes.  A pipe is just like a whistle.  You blow air through the pipe and it makes a sound.  But each pipe makes a different sound.  And when they play together, it like having an entire band all within the cabinets.  Some of the pipes can been seen and many are hidden and cannot be seen.

  To make the pipe organ work there has to be a powerful fan which can blow air through tubes and into chests so that when the holes under each pipe are opened the air blows the pipe and makes the sounds.

  Today, is the Day of Pentecost.  It is a day when we celebrate that God is known as the Holy Spirit.  We say God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The word Spirit means Wind or breath.  Take a deep breath and blow.  Can you see your breath?  No.  But how do you know it is there?  You can feel it blow against your hand.  Can you see the wind?  No.  But can you see the wind blow the branches of a tree?  Yes.

  The Holy Spirit is like the wind and breath.  We cannot see God but we can see the effects of God in our world.  When we see love and kindness and beauty we know that God’s Spirit is present. 

  When a pipe organ is played there is one wind that plays all of the different sounds of the pipes.

  This is how we can understand God’s Spirit.  There is one Spirit of God who lives in each of us, but each of us are different and each of us have different things that we can do to make this world a better place.

  Today, we are baptizing Bishop.  It is like we are adding a new pipe to the wonderful pipe organ of God.

  Today, we know that the life of God’s Spirit is in Bishop and he is going to make some wonderful sounds with all of the good things which God will do with his life.  And he joins all of us as pipes in the great pipe organ of God with the Wind of God Spirit blowing through us.

  And so each of is like a different pipe in this great pipe organ of God.  Let us be thankful today that each of us is special and different.  But let us also be thankful that God’s Spirit is in us to help us make beautiful music together as we live together to love and care for one another.  Amen.

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

May 19, 2024: The Day of Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Glory be to God on High, Creating Spirit, Every Time I Feel the Spirit

Liturgist: Alleluia, Christ is Risen.

People: The Lord is Risen Indeed.  Alleluia.

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:  Glory be to God on High,     (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 70)

Glory be to God on high, alleluia.  Glory be to God on high, alleluia.

Praise the Father, Spirit, Son, alleluia.  Praise the Godhead, three in one, alleluia.

Sing we praises unto thee, alleluia, for the truth that sets us free, alleluia.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

O God, who on this day taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

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

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

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

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

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

A reading from the   Letter to the Romans

We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 104

You send forth your Spirit, and they are created; * and so you renew the face of the earth.

May the glory of the LORD endure for ever; * may the LORD rejoice in all his works.

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 his disciples, "When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.  "I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But, now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, `Where are you going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.  "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father Phil

Children’s Creed

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

Since God is so great and we are so small,

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

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

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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

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

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

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

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

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

People:                        And also with you.

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

Offertory Song Spirit of the Living God, (Renew # 90)

Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.  Spirit of the living God fall afresh on me. Break me, melt me, mold me, fill me.  Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.

Spirit of the living God, move among us all; Spirit of the living God, make us one in love: humble, caring, selfless, sharing— Spirit of the living God, fill our lives with love.

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. Sanctify us 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 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 Song: Creating Spirit, Holy Lord  (Renew! # 283

Creating Spirit, holy Lord, the gentle breeze, the mighty wind, with warmth and pow’r and graciousness in grace refashion heart and mind.

O comforter of all who toil, gift from the fountain head of light, O Spirit of all love and fire, anointing chrism of all might.

 

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: Every Time I Feel the Spirit, (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 48)

Refrain: Every time I feel the spirit moving in my heart, I will pray.  O every time I feel the spirit moving in my heart I will pray.

1-On Pentecost day, the Spirit came.  The people praised with joyous tongues.  The Spirit came to everyone.  Jews and Gentiles, all the same. Refrain

2-God’s Spirit lives, within the church.  He gives us gifts to build us up.  God’s Spirit fills us with his love.  O blessed Spirit, heavenly dove.  Refrain

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Ascension in the Phases of Jesus Christ

 7 Easter  B    May 12, 2024
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26   Psalm 1
1 John 5:9-13  John 17:6-19

Lectionary Link

Some assumptions that I make when I read the New Testament writings are: 1-They were written decades after Jesus was gone. 2-They were written in the koine Greek, not in the language of Jesus and his Galilean disciples, Aramaic.  3-As later writings, these writings represent first the concerns of their writing contexts, and pertain less to the years zero to 30 when Jesus actually lived. 4-The writings of Paul in his letters regarding church order and the mystical experiences of the Risen Christ, pre-date the writing of the Gospels. This means that the teaching, preaching, and mystagogy of Paul and other leaders are programmatically interwoven in the Gospel narrative presentations of the life of Christ. The early communities were teaching the meaning of their experiences of the Risen Christ through a narrative of the life of Jesus.

The New Testament writings occurred in communities which were under great stress.  On one hand, followers of Jesus felt so favored and blessed with their mystical experiences even while being a minority group subject to situations of persecution which could arise at any moment.  The stress had created the situation of resorting to a coping phenomenon through a belief in a divine cosmic rescue.  

Preachers like St. Paul believed in a double ascension.  St. Paul wrote that in our mysterious relationship with Christ we are already raised and seated with Christ  in heavenly places, bespeaking the visionary state of the mystical experience.  At the same time, in the earliest New Testament writing, the first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul comforted his readers by referring to the event of being caught up in the air to meet the Lord.

One could say that the early Christians were like Paul, people waiting to be caught up in the air in some future cosmic divine rescue of being taken from this visible world into the invisible world, at least invisible to how the eyes now see.

Being caught up in the air in some divinely cosmic rescue is visionary language with a long tradition.  From writings of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Apocrypha, and other writings, now called the apocalyptic genre, we can find this tradition of being caught up in the air.  The apocalyptic genre functioned in oppressed communities to help them cope with their horrendous situations.  The apocalyptic literature provide visualizations as an analgesic for the pain of their life situations.

Being caught up in the air, in the apocalyptic tradition has also been called an "assumption."  Enoch, Moses, Elijah, and significantly later, Blessed Mary, are figures who are regarded to be those who were assumed into the afterlife in ways that stood out as being unique passings from this visible realm.  One of the features of these "assumption" personalities is how they reappear in the visionary realm, such as what Moses and Elijah did in the event of the Transfiguration.  And who has more apparitional re-appearances than the Virgin Mary?

The presentation of Jesus as the Ascended Lord and Messiah is comprised within this tradition of the Assumptions and being "caught up in the air."  But the Ascension of Jesus is seen as being very unique within this tradition of being caught up in the air.

It is in fact seen as but a phase in how God came to be manifested to humanity.  The Divine has such a capacity of Plenitude that nothing but Plenitude can comprehend Plenitude.  In order to be known by those who can know within the realm of Plenitude there had to be phases or manifestations or emptyings of the Divine into perceptible forms by humans. In the phases of the divine for human beings, we have the tradition of the phases of Jesus Christ.

What are the phases of Jesus Christ?  They include his state in the Beginning as Word who is God, his emptying phase as Word made flesh in Jesus in his birth, and the phases of his life highlighting his ministry and teaching, his continuing quest to manifest complete identity with human experience in his death on the cross, his burial, his resurrection re-appearances, his Ascension, and arriving at a glorified status with the fullness of his sojourn within human experience.  The Ascended Christ is one who has known full human identity so as to be the appropriate advocate and intercessor for humans living within the realm of God.

A famous prayer of Jesus is presented by the writer of John's Gospel, as his oracle of the ascended Lord.  Notice how the writer has Jesus speaking in the past tense: 

 "While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them."

What verb tense is "was," "protected," and "guarded?"  Past tense.  If Jesus prayed, "While I was with them," does this imply that he is no longer with them in the way that he had previously been with them?

And if Jesus is no longer with his disciple during this prayer, where is he?

The writer of the Gospel of John believed, like Paul, that he had the mind of Christ, and could speak and write in his name.  The writer wrote as an oracle of the Ascended Christ, and presented the Ascended Christ in the role which the early Christians understood him to have.  He was an intercessor on behalf of humanity and on behalf his friends who were committed to get his message of the love of God for the people of this world spread far and wide.  

The Ascension of Jesus, on this Ascension Sunday, resides in the tradition of the Assumptions, namely, that there is communicative connection or communicative travel between the invisible realms, the realm of words within each person, with the external world where the words take on the flesh through our sensorial experience.  Words are externalized outside of their interior origins within people, but they "ascend" inwards to be refreshed and edited for further occasions of being made flesh.  This process of the word being made flesh needs higher guidance so that word being made flesh is known in its best form of love and justice.  Jesus as the prime exemplar for how word is made flesh best continues to be an interior Word editor in our attempts to live out the best words of our life.

On this the Ascension Sunday, we as Christians believe that Christ exists in an invisible realm, the worded realm, where Word is God.   By word we are connected  with the divine and we can be given perpetual editorial guidance in how our lives are to be scripted.  Pray is word life in editorial process.  The ascended Christ is our Word editor, interceding for us and continually offering us new ways to script our lives, in making our words flesh in the practice of love and justice.

Let us be thankful for the phases of the life of Jesus Christ, who now resides in his ascended and glorified phase to intercede for us, to be the continual editor of our worded lives,  and to continually send us the connected procession of the Holy Spirit to aid us in the main experience of life, knowing ourselves as one with our heavenly parent.  Amen.