Don't Miss the Too Familiar King and Kingdom

 7 Pentecost Cycle B Proper 9 July 7, 2024
2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10 Ps.48
2 Cor.12:1-10 Mark 6:1-13

Lectionary Link

Many of the people of Nazareth said to Jesus and about him, "We've read about David the Messiah, and Jesus, you are no David. You're only Joe and Mary's boy whom we grew up with. You became a wonder worker and a traveling preacher but you're just Joe and Mary's boy to us. Why do you let so many people idolize you?"

To read the Bible is to appreciate the great gap between the actual and the ideal, the way life is and the utopia that we would like it to be.

To read the Bible is to appreciate the gap between sinful us and the ideal people that we wish we could be for our own benefit and for the benefit of the entire world.

Why is this gap between the actual and ideal even an issue? Why can't we just be brute fact realists unburdened by the illusions of the ideal. Why take the utopian opiates of the people to live in denial about the dreadful material conditions of inequity among the people of any society?

The incredible horrifying cruelty of countless events of human history has not been able to surgically remove Hope from the human psyche. If we did not have indelible hope, we could resign ourselves more easily to inequities and the seeming random distributions of the kinds of weal and woes in the field of probabilities, of what may happen to anyone at any time or any place.

What is the relationship of hope to the actual? What is the relationship of what happens to the utopia of what we would like to happen in ideal situations? What is actual provides the visionary possibilities for what we hope for. How so? Situations and people have been good enough to inform us about what is good, and what is better, and what might be best. Situations and people have been good and favorable enough even when they co-exist with bad and horrible conditions and people acting their very worst. The actual good becomes the visionary inspiration for what might be better.

The genre of the hero happens within human community. The ideal or utopian person tales are generated because of people who have been legendary or specifically impactful in their lives.

For people of the Hebrew Scriptures, King David was one such actual person on whom a future ideal person could be modeled. David was not without his faults, even some serious faults, some faults which would get him imprisoned in our modern notions of lawful behaviors. But David was impactful enough in his long reign in Israel, and his reign in comparison with the many other forgettable kings in their history, meant that he was the model for the future anointed or messiah which Israel hoped for and needed. This hope for a perfect and ideal person was the analgesic which they applied to their pain of having to experience so many long years of oppression and exile.

During the time of Jesus, Israel was an occupied land and the hope for an ideal utopian person based upon the Davidic ideal prevailed. Such hope with visualization is part of the continuing comfort of knowing things could always be better for us and certainly for those who suffer the most. The Psalms, like the appointed one for today, are also about God having a special presence in Zion, the city of the great king. There was a hope that somehow hope's plans could be articulated through Jerusalem and the city of the great king.

What happens when the hope of a liberating king and kingdom does not seem possibly or likely? By the time that Jesus appeared in Palestine, the actual kingdom of the world was the Roman Empire, and it did not appear to be leaving anytime soon. The record surrounding Jesus gave no indication that his message of the kingdom of God had anything to do with the likes of the kingdom of the Caesars, or even a kingdom like the one presided over by king David.

Also by the time that Gospel were written, the Temple had been destroyed, and Palestine had been evacuated. How could the city of the great King with God's special presence in Zion be the place of dissemination of any kingdom at all?

What happened within the followers of Jesus was mystical experience which altered their entire perspective. They attributed this altered perspective to the life, ministry, and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth and to the experience of be baptized by the Holy Spirit.

How could there be a historical kingdom of God when in fact the kingdom or realm of God was always, already from the beginning of creation? To believe that the kingdom of God had to be an earthly political reality was to deny the obvious realm of God everywhere, as the realm in which we live, move, and have our being. The realm of God did not have to come into existence; rather people had to accepts its omnipresent reality. This was the stealth realm of God and Jesus taught in figures of speech and in parables to confuse literal thinking to provoke another kind of perception.

In St. Paul, we have the movement from the one Temple in Jerusalem as the singular special presence of God in the world, to an understanding that the human body, starting with the body of Jesus was God's temple and dwelling place.

St. Paul came to accept his body as the place where he met God in glorious ecstasy of seeming out of the body experiences, but also in the full continuum of human experiences which could happen to him. The understanding of the realm of God became spiritually generalized in accepting omnipresence but in particular accepting the interior of the human body as the special meeting place of realization of oneness with God in this great Divine Realm.

One of stumbling blocks of understanding the Realm of God as being the truth of creation, and understanding the body of Jesus as being the intensely present divine, is that the divine can seem to be too ordinary to be believed. Jesus was just Joe and Mary's boy who lived next door; how can he be God's specialized presence? If Jesus was a general with liberating armies for Nazareth and Palestine, then perhaps he might have been better regarded by his fellow townspeople, who were limited to having but literal external notions of having a king within a kingdom.

Jesus did not come to impose a kingdom upon this world; he came to proclaim that God's kingdom already was and the secret was coming to accept it and to accept oneself as the place where God would be made known.

So, the strategy Jesus was to send his disciples who had realized the kingdom of God to go forth and to teach and instruct people how to realize the realm of God within their own lives.

Today, people still miss Jesus, and the obviousness of the realm of God, and people still miss their own interior lives as the telling meeting place with God.

You and I are sent to spread the Gospel of the realm of God, that we live and move and have our being in God, and God can and does get inside us to meet us with love, peace, joy, and hope. And in the events our our continuous inner meeting with God we are commissioned to help others realize the same in their lives.

Let us not miss the obviousness of the Christ, who is all and in all, in our lives today. And let us not wrongly think that we can replace the always, already, realm of God with some American Christian National government. Let us awaken to the obviousness of God, God's Realm, and the meeting place with the divine within each of us. Amen.

Sunday School, July 7, 2024 7 Pentecost Cycle B Proper 9

 Sunday School, July 7, 2024   7 Pentecost Cycle B Proper  9

 
Dealing with the riddle of St. Paul: , “for power is made perfect in weakness ." So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”

You might discuss the meaning of this riddle.  When we try to rely only upon ourselves and don’t ask Christ or anyone for help, we can find that we are not strong in all of our abilities and so we need other people to be strong in the areas of our weakness.

Remind them about one of the mottos of our country on Fourth of July weekend:  e pluribus unum:  Out of the many, One.  When we unite to do things together we are no longer weak as individual persons.

The Gospel lesson is about how Jesus chose to share the good news.  He wanted to get his message of love out really quickly and so he sent his disciples out two by two.  He told them to pack very light since if they took too many things they could not keep moving from village to village to share the good news.

How do advertisers get people to buy their products?

We are not selling the Gospel.  How can we get people to accept something which is free and wonderful?  How can we get teach and live the Gospel so that people will be able to accept something which can make their lives better?

Explain to children the saying: Familiarity breed contempt.  It means some time when people close to us are very good and marvelous people, we get so use their goodness that we don’t appreciate it anymore and we don’t understand how good it was until we find out that everyone is not as good as the wonderful people in our lives.

Jesus was not accepted by everyone in his family or in his hometown of Nazareth.  People in his family and in his hometown maybe were jealous of his success and because they were jealous of him, they would not accept him and the good things that he wanted to do for them.

We know that things are wrong when we cannot accept the good things that are being given to us because of our pride and jealousy.


A children’s sermon


  When Jesus was a boy, he lived in a town called Nazareth.  His father Joseph was a carpenter, and so he probably helped his father in the carpenter shop.
  But Jesus was a very bright young boy;  he liked to learn and he like to speak.  When he was a young boy, he was arguing with the smartest teachers in the religious law in the temple.  So his parent knew that he was going to have a different career than most boys.
  Soon the work of Jesus took him away from Nazareth.  He became a traveling preacher.  Jesus looked at people and he felt love for them.  He saw that many people needed to have encouragement and hope.  Many people needed to know that God cared for them.  Jesus knew that he was sent to this world to preach a message about God’s love and care.  He also knew that he was supposed to help people who were sick.  He knew that he was to invite forgotten people into the community of faith.
  One day Jesus went back to his home town.  He had become very famous, and he went home, probably to see his Mother Mary and Joseph.
  And Jesus wanted to help people in his own home town.  But they wouldn’t let him.  They said, “We know Jesus, he’s Joe and Mary’s son.  We were raised with him.  Who does he think he is coming here and preaching to us?    They were so jealous and so unfriendly, Jesus just had to leave town without doing something wonderful for them.
  He was very surprised about their unbelief.  Why wouldn’t they let him do good things for them?
  He was too familiar to them.  And they were jealous, so they would not receive any from him.
  Did you ever want to do something good for someone, but they won’t let you?  It hurts when you want to give something good to someone but they won’t take it.
  What about when your parents fix you a wonderful meal and they are so happy to take good care of you, but what you say, “No, I don’t want it.”  Aren’t you glad that your parents don’t stop giving things to you, even if you refuse to receive everything that they offer?
   Sometimes we treat God this way.  God wants us to receive good things…love, forgiveness and kindness, but sometimes we refuse to take God gifts.  And it really hurts us when we don’t receive God’s gifts.
  When Jesus went to his home town, he was very surprised that the people in his town would not let him do some good things for them, because he was so familiar.
  Did you know the best things that happen to us happen to us through the familiar people in our lives.  Friends, family, parents….   So we should not let our jealousy keep us from receiving good things from the people who are familiar to us.
  Remember your parents want to give some very good things to you and sometimes you don’t see how they are good.  But you need to trust your parents.
  So too, God has some very good things for us, and we might not see why they are good for us…..like learning to follow rules and laws.  But if we receive the gifts of God, some day we will see how good they are for us.  Let us always be ready to receive the good things that God wants to give us.  Amen.

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist
July 7, 2024: The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: My Country Tis of Thee; I’ve Got Peace, Eat This Bread, I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light

Song: My Country ‘Tis of Thee   (blue hymnal, # 717)
My country ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing; land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountain side let freedom ring.

Our fathers’ God, to thee, author of liberty, to thee we sing; long may our land be bright with freedom’s holy light; protect us by thy might, great God, our King.

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
O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn: Grant that we and all the people of this land may have grace to maintain our liberties in righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, 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 Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians
Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Liturgist: The Word of the Lord
People: Thanks be to God
 
Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 123

To you I lift up my eyes, * to you enthroned in the heavens.
As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, * and the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
So our eyes look to the LORD our God, * until he show us his mercy.

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!
For our Country and for all of the liberties that we enjoy.   Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark
People: Glory to you, Lord Christ.
Jesus left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, "Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him. Then Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house." And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them." So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.
People: Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon:  Fr. 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: I’ve Got Peace Like a River (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 122)
I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river in my soul.  I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river in my soul..
I’ve got love like a river, I’ve got love like a river, I’ve got love like a river in my soul.  I’ve got love like a river, I’ve got love like a river, I’ve got love like a river in my soul.

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.

Children 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.

The Prayer continues with these words

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 by your Spirit 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,
(Children rejoin their parents and take up their instruments)

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: Eat This Bread  (Renew!, # 228)
Eat this bread, drink this cup, come to me and never be hungry. 
Eat this bread, drink this cup, trust in me and you will not thirst.

Post-Communion Prayer

Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;
We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.
And His Presence has been known to us.
We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers
    and sisters in Christ.
Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the
     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,
As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Closing Song: I Want to Walk As a Child of the Light, (Renew # 152)

1-I want to walk as a child of the light; I want to follow Jesus.  God set the stars to bring light to the world; the star of my life is Jesus.  Refrain: In Him there is no darkness at all, the night and the day are both alike.  The Lamb is the light of the city of God: Shine in my heart, Lord Jesus.

2-I want to see the brightness of God; I want to look at Jesus.  Clear Sun of righteousness, shine on my path, and show me the way to the Father.     Refrain

Dismissal:   
Liturgist: Let us go forth in the Name of Christ. 
People: Thanks be to God! 

Aphorism of the Day, June 2024

Aphorism of the Day, June 30, 2024

Freud's designation of religion as illusion is probably based on his failure and the failure of religionists to properly know the differences between scientific and common sense discourse and discourse which pertains to dreams, myths, faith, love, and poetry.  Freud did not believe one could be a scientist and a theist even though he believed strongly in the "truths" of the language manifestations of the unconscious.  He had his surrogate theology.  We need to free ourselves from either/or thinking about faith and science and resolve it with both/and thinking based upon the truth continuum of the expansive discursive human capacity, which might be religiously justified in the phrase, "And the Word was God."

Aphorism of the Day, June 29, 2024

Hope is the inescapable orientation to a better future.  Religious faiths are built on hope, on what is not yet but what should be.  Freud criticized this as the future of an illusion, or mere wishful thinking.  He saw such illusions as the grist for his language of the unconscious which if read with a guiding therapist could provide insights for our current behaviors so it is concerned with how our past determines our present and how we live with our past in the present.  Faith and hope work together to be related to how we want to surpass ourselves in excellence in the future.  How can we be more concerned about a better determining future than be morbidly burdened by an over-determining past?

Aphorism of the Day, June 28, 2024

Idealism, perfection, and Utopia vision present us with what is not and what cannot be, because everything in contrast is imperfect, sick, and far from ideal.  When we are sick in particular ways, we wish to know specific health and recovery.  Such recovery may not come when death happens or it may come in various ways with different time frames or it may come only partially requiring us to cope and live with "partial healthful condition."  The way to rid ourselves of idealism, perfection, and the utopian as haunting genres is to pretend that "hope" can be somehow psycho-surgically removed from the human experience.  And if such procedure could be accomplished, what we would have is the surrogate hope beyond the hope that was removed.

Aphorism of the Day, June 27, 2024

Is death the ultimate disease or sickness?  If so, we mostly want to have the opportunity to live within the statistical norms of life expectancy and we may designate "early" death as untimely.  On the way to the ultimate sickness of death, we are vulnerable to varying degrees of states of unhealthiness some of which drastically interrupt our normal life patterns and the lives of people who are close to us.  We learn to live as long as possible with unresolvable health issues even as we have the occasion to experience fortunate cures from certain debilitating conditions.  The cures of Jesus are regarded to be uncanny events defying the expected logical patterns of certain diseases.  We often forget that to be cured is to be healed temporarily to still undergo the final sickness of death.  We may get trapped in some strange theodicy if we think that we know the magic formula for why some people have uncanny cures and the vast majority do not.

Aphorism of the Day, June 26, 2024

Sickness is many faceted.  It is a disruption in what is consider the normal condition of not being sick.  There is the biblical sense that our world is perpetually sick in need of constant healing because of the condition of "sin."  While the "healings" of Jesus are stories of individuals' physical, mental, or spiritual conditions, as textual function, they imply the presence of Christ co-exists with our varying states of illness with salvation based upon our existing in everlastingness meaning perfection or health or salvation is the experience of completeness of being with everything else, past, present and future.  That may not be sufficient in the moments of felt forsakenness of pain and suffering.  But then even the sense of forsakenness and suffering cannot be separated from the completeness of everything.

Aphorism of the Day, June 25, 2024

The Bible includes accounts of the common human crisis of sickness, in all of its forms.  Sickness is when one's health is experienced as a significant detriment to one's quality of life or of one's immediate community.  It's not true to say that Jesus cured and cures all sickness.  What are we to make of the seemingly selective few who receive uncanny "cures" from health issues contrasted with those who did and do not?  Faithful people can have longstanding illness and all faithful people also die, even if they receive the resurrection death cure.  It behooves us not to overly literalize the healing stories of Jesus and be involved in theodicy nightmares because of such literalism.  Jesus can be understood to be a healer in coping with the general condition of sickness in time meaning everyone and each of their body organs have a shelf life.

Aphorism of the Day, June 24, 2024

A Yogism goes, "baseball is 90% mental; the other half is physical."  One might say something similar about health.  How much bad health has been facilitated by terrible nurturing contributing to the mental making the physical more vulnerable to be sick in various ways?

 Aphorism of the Day, June 23, 2024

Change and probable outcomes are the challenges of living by faith or being persuaded about meaningful purposes.

Aphorism of the Day, June 22, 2024

We can make the Bible a very foreign book if we treat the writers as those who did not know the difference between aesthetic spiritual writing and common sense observation of what happens in life.

Aphorism of the Day, June 21, 2024

Do language products such as speech acts, written products, and the body action choreography acts, change the reservoir of language from which they derived because the reservoir of language enlarges in time?

 Aphorism of the Day, June 20, 2024

In the calming of the storm on the sea, apparently Jesus worked directly with weather change.  What about Jesus working directly upon humanity whose habits have led to climate change and conditions which threaten us now?

Aphorism of the Day, June 19, 2024

We misread the Bible if we think that biblical writers did not understand the difference between common sense reporting and the genres used in their times to write about their heroes.

Aphorism of the Day, June 18, 2024

In life we prefer the miracle of bad things not happening to us, as in "I prefer the miracle of not getting cancer in the first place to the miracle to successful response to cancer treatment."  What would be the miracle of nothing bad happening at all?  In the clash of the free systems among all entities in life, bad things happen and the life of faith, or in Christian terms, the life of knowing Christly presence accompanying us no matter what happens, means living being persuaded about the good triumph of All remaining a sustaining All, no matter what happens.

Aphorism of the Day, June 17, 2024

In pondering the notion of "divine" intervention and the statistical study of what probably can happen, one might want to add the notion of personal relationship with the times of one's life and the experience of "kairos" or eventful time when one has the intermittent experience of the serendipitous fortuitous.  One does arrive at such interpretations of events in time as they relate to each other.

Aphorism of the Day, June 16, 2024

Language users can discover that the words of language are meant to refer to things which are not words and yet language users cannot escape the worded interpretive and taxonomical pre-programed cultural screens through which the "non-worded" world is experienced.  The non-worded world arrives to us through the mystery of language working within us.

Aphorism of the Day, June 15, 2024

The parables of the kingdom did not make the always already kingdom happened; they describe the serendipitous discoveries of the always, already realm of God.

Aphorism of the Day, June 14, 2024

The "realm or kingdom" tradition of the synoptic Gospels surely invited a comparison of the "worldwide" realm of the Caesar with the realm of God as presented by Jesus and Paul.  The Acts of the Apostles quotes Paul as saying, "we live and move and have our being in God."  That would mean that all other realms including the Caesars were contained by the greater Realm.

Aphorism of the Day, June 13, 2024

The use of language involves reducing what one experiences to the extent of one's language ability within the context of one's life.  This means that one has to offer the perpetual disclaimer about the plenitudinous universe: I just don't know and I might be wrong about what I think I know.

Aphorism of the Day, June 12, 2024

What is the political significance of proclaiming the kingdom or realm of God when the political reality was the kingdom of the Caesar who was regarded to be a god?

Aphorism of the Day, June 11, 2024

Reading strategy for the New Testament:  Read with the possible situations of readers for the years 55-110 C.E., not for the situations for readers in the years 28-31 C.E.

Aphorism of the Day, June 10, 2024

The parable of Jesus are less sayings for his own time but more about how the early Gospel communities were understanding the growing significance of the Jesus Movement.

Aphorism of the Day, June 9, 2024

A feature of most holy books involve the clash between what has been with what is new which is offered.  Since holy books are canonized to being the final say on everything, one is left with the wrong impression that nothing new and surpassing can happen.

Aphorism of the Day, June 8, 2024

Those who wish to be delivered from their prison of anthropomorphism do not wish to be human.  However, from our human prisons we can confess our connection with everything which is not human.  Our continual perception of being part of a great MORE should keep us humble even while not minimizing the significant good collateral effects of being good and kind.

Aphorism of the Day, June 7, 2024

It may be uneasy for us to admit that the Gospels chronicle in story forms of the life of the ministry of Jesus the process of the Jesus party of Judaism becoming separated from other parties which remained ritually adherent to the Torah.  Jesus became associated with the people who did not require ritual adherence in matters of diet and circumcision et. al.

Aphorism of the Day, June 6, 2024

Language is the connecting art by language users with things which are not language but ends up being co-existent with language.  The person who claims to have had a pristine experience without language, used "pristine experience without language" to contradict and instantiate the connection of language with all things.

Aphorism of the Day, June 5, 2024

It is easy to say that one's opponent is out of "his mind."  Perhaps it is more rhetorically proper to say, "he lives in a completely different thought paradigm than I do."

Aphorism of the Day, June 4, 2024

The mission of the early followers of Jesus were to comprise themselves as a family beyond the natural family and local ethnic identity.  They believed that Jesus proclaimed God as the parent of everyone.

Aphorism of the Day, June 3, 2024

According to the Gospel, Jesus was accused of being out of his mind and in league with Beelzebul.  We may be in a similar age of lying when evil is called good and good is called evil.

Aphorism of the Day, June 2, 2024

The principle of the law is to learn to take a rest from the work of doing wrong and harmful things.  The entire world needs to take a rest from the work of hatred, war, and greed.

Aphorism of the Day, June 1, 2024

At the very least, the Sabbath principle is about the basic principle of rest which is a needed renewal phase for human life.  The Sabbath requirement is a legislation of something that is good for our health.

Quiz of the Day, June 2024

Quiz of the Day, June 30, 2024

Of the following, which was a God permitted "graven image?"

a. golden tumors

b. golden mice

c. bronze serpent

d. golden calf

Quiz of the Day, June 29, 2024

Which two early Christian leaders had a disagreement on how Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus should behave with each other?

a. James and John

b. Peter and Paul

c. Paul and Barnabas

d. Paul and John Mark

Quiz of the Day, June 28, 2024

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases," can be found in which biblical book?

a. Jeremiah

b. Lamentations

c. Psalms

d. Ecclesiastes

Quiz of the Day, June 27, 2024

What happened to the staff of Aaron after the rebellion of Korah?

a. it spouted blossoms overnight

b. it produced almonds overnight

c. it was stolen by opponents to the house of Levi

d. it turned into a serpent

e. a and b

f. a and d

 Quiz of the Day, June 26, 2024

Phonetic or transliterate words from which of the following languages can be found in the New Testament written in the koine Greek langauge?

a. Septuagint Greek

b. Hebrew

c. Aramaic

d. Latin

e. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, June 25, 2024

What was the punishment for the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram?

a. leprosy

b. fire from heaven consumed them

c. the earth opened up and swallowed them

d. they were permanently exiled from the camp

Quiz of the Day, June 24, 2024

What is the "Song of the Bow?"

a. A battle song used by Israel against the Philistines

b. A song of Moses for battle

c. A David composition as a shepherd

d. A lament composed by David on the death of Saul and Jonathan

Quiz of the Day, June 23, 2024

St. Alban was a soldier stationed near what city?

a. Canterbury

b. Paris

c. London

d. Glasgow

Quiz of the Day, June 22, 2024

Moses sent 12 spies into Canaan; which spies were hopeful about taking the promised land?

a. Shammua
b. Shaphat
c. Caleb
d. Igal
e. Hoshea (Joshua)
f. Palti, son of Raphu
g.Gaddiel
h. Gaddi
i. Ammiel
j. Sethur
k. Nahbi
l. Geuel

m. a through f

n. h through l

o. c and e only

Quiz of the Day, June 21, 2024

Which of the following is not true?

a. Israel included Judah.

b. Israel and Judah were separate kingdoms.

c. Israel is another name for Jacob.

d. Jerusalem was in the territory of Judah.

e. Moses and David were from the tribe of Judah.

Quiz of the Day, June 20, 2024

Of the following, who was not a sibling of three of the others?

a. Moses

b. Aaron

c. Gershom

d. Miriam

Quiz of the Day, June 19, 2024

Which biblical king(s) played an instrument?

a. Joash

b. Asa

c. David

d. Solomon

e. a and c

f.  Saul

Quiz of the Day, June 18, 2024

Goliath was

a. a Perizzite

b. an Ammonite

c. a Jebusite

d. a Philistine

Quiz of the Day, June 17, 2024

Who was David's best friend?

a. Saul

b. Samuel

c. Jonathan

d. Bathsheba

e. Abigail

Quiz of the Day, June 16, 2024

Where is the Aaronic blessing found?

a. Genesis

b. Exodus

c. Leviticus

d. Numbers

Quiz of the Day, June 15, 2024

Which group of people became a substitute for all the first born of Israel who belonged to the Lord?

a. Levites

b. children of Moses

c. children of Aaron

d. Egyptian first born sons

e. Passover lambs

Quiz of the Day, June 14, 2024

Which disciple was most vocal to Jesus about the possibility of his future suffering?

a. John

b. James

c. Peter

d. Andrew

e. Thomas

Quiz of the Day, June 13, 2024

The baptismal prayer for the newly baptized is 

a. an invocation for the fruits of the Spirit

b. an invocation for the seven fold gifts of the Spirit as listed in Isaiah

c. an invocation for gifts of the Spirit for one's church vocation

d. an invocation for the purifying fire of the Spirit

Quiz of the Day, June 12, 2024

Who wrote, "we walk by faith, not by sight?"

a. Peter

b. Paul

c. Writer of Proverbs

d. Psalmist

e. John

Quiz of the Day, June 11, 2024

Of the following, who was not a traveling companion of Paul?

a. Barnabas

b. Silas

c. John Mark

d. Peter

Quiz of the Day, June 10, 2024

Jesse was not

a. a metaphor for a stump

b. the father of David

c. a resident of Ramah

d. the husband of Ruth

Quiz of the Day, June 9, 2024

According to the words of Jesus, what is the unforgivable sin?

a. sexual immorality

b. killing

c. blaspheming the Holy Spirit

d. using the name of God in vain

Quiz of the Day, June 8, 2024

Which of the following animal has a biblical curse?

a. dragon

b. snake

c. donkey

d. lion

e. bear

f. dog

Quiz of the Day, June 7, 2024

Which disciple tried to walk on the water toward Jesus?

a. Andrew

b. Philip

c. Peter

d. James

e. John

Quiz of the Day, June 6, 2024

Who cut down a sacred oak tree to prove the superiority of the Christian God?

a. Wulfstan

b. Willibrord

c. Boniface

d. Anskar

Quiz of the Day, June 5, 2024

The Yard Birds wrote and sang a song "Turn, Turn, Turn," based on what biblical book?

a. Genesis

b. Psalms

c. Ecclesiastes

d. Proverbs

Quiz of the Day, June 4, 2024

What does the pearl of great value refer to?

a. discovery of the kingdom of God

b. salvation

c. resurrection

d. knowing the Holy Spirit

Quiz of the Day, June 3, 2024

Which is not a warning that Samuel issued regarding having a king of Israel?

a. a king will take your sons for battle

b. a king with take your vineyards

c. a king will take a tenth of your grain

d. a king will disobey God

Quiz of the Day, June 2, 2024

The word "vanity" is most associated with which book in the Bible?

a. Psalms

b. Proverbs

c. Ecclesiastes

d. Isaiah

Quiz of the Day, June 1, 2024

"The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil,"  is found where?

a. Ecclesiastes

b. Wisdom of Ben Sirach

c. 1 Timothy

d. Proverbs

Healing Stories and the Meaning of Health

6 Pentecost Cycle B proper 8 June 30, 2024
Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15; 2:23-24 Lamentations 3:21-33
2 Corinthians 8:7-15 Mark 5:21-43

Lectionary Link

It would seem to me that from extended reading of the Bible, we can conclude that it is a collection of writing containing the insights of people who are struggling to live with the great mixture of life, with the many seeming inconsistencies that cannot be avoided in this great mixture. In terms that we can understand, the mixture of a most powerful loving being whose love would not want innocent suffering to happen seems to be contradicted when that powerful loving being exercises restraint from intervening in the free conditions of the world when innocent suffering happens all the time, sometimes as the deliberate inhumanity of people toward others, and sometimes in the seeming mistimings in the events of nature, particularly like when an earthquake happens under the place inhabited by many people.

Much of the writing of the Bible is generated under the conditions of the seeming conditions of what is evil, bad, suffering, and loss being the dominant experience for those who were writing their insights for living for their communities.

When in the probability mixtures of good things happening and bad things happening, and the bad seem to be the dominant experience, the hopeful thinking arises as a coping mechanism but also as an art of living, namely, the art of having faith or being persuaded about love, goodness, health, and justice.

When so many people seem to be just ordinarily selfish or extremely bad, humanity needs exemplars of something different.  Humanity needs utopian people, people who seem so extraordinary that they provide an example for the direction of how we can live best, given the vulnerabilities of life.

If we can be amazed at how Mozart had a way with music from very early age which blossomed into sheer musical genius; Jesus was the person who had a way with living itself to such a superlative degree that people could only use divine to speak about how this other-worldly person lived a "this-worldly" life.

"This-worldly" life includes sin, loss, sickness, and many other negative probabilities in the field of freedom which is our actual experience.  Freedom in time means that in faith we look for good outcomes in the face of actual bad circumstances.

In the event of disease and sickness, we seek the good outcome of health.  The Gospel writers who wrote decades after Jesus lived, were writing from their belief of the return of the Risen Christ within their lives through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  So they promoted the presence of an eternal life within themselves even as their outward lives showed all of the wear and tear of times, including the events of sickness.

The spiritual message of the healing stories of the Gospel is that we can know the healthfulness of the Risen Christ within us even while we are sick.  Something has come out of Jesus of Nazareth which is continuously healthful for us.

Are selective uncanny healing stories meant to indicate that Jesus and God selectively choose to heal or cure some people and not others?  What is the divine criteria for why some people get uncanny cures and not others?  It is a fact that not everyone who has been or who is sick gets cured or healed by Jesus, so what is message of the healing stories of the Gospels?  Were they meant to indicate that Jesus had gotten rid of all sickness for everyone all the time, if only people had the right kind of faith to activate such healing?

I think that the spiritual meaning of the healing stories is that the higher health of eternal spiritual life co-exists with sickness in time not to unrealistically think that sickness will no longer happen, but to know a greater embracing and integrating experience of all that is happening to us.

The healing of the young girl bespeaks the healing of the "child aspect" of our personalities which is often dead-like because it is buried by our experiences of adult loss and grief.  We have the power of Christ to resurrect our "inner child," the one who is hopeful, joyful, and happy for no reason at all, like a smiling baby in treatment for terminable cancer, or like kids, laughing and smiling in a refugee camp playing soccer with a make shift ball.

Reality would often mock us to believe that we have no reason for hope, joy, kindness, and goodness, because things are just too bad, and too sick.

The health offered to us by the Risen Christ is an integrating everlastingness which we can experience within us and be persuaded about how worthwhile life is, in itself.

Let us accept the rebirth of our inner child who has the wisdom, the naïveté, the innocence, the hope, and the joy, to smile for no seeming reason at all except for being made in the image of the Hope that is God.  Amen.