Sunday School, August 18, 2024 13 Pentecost, B Proper 15

 Sunday School, August 18, 2024 13 Pentecost, B Proper 15

Sunday School Opportunities

Can we use the “pronoun” she for God?  There are feminine pronouns for God in the Bible.  When David died, his son Solomon became King and his son Solomon asked God for the gift of wisdom to rule his people wisely.  Solomon is known for his search for wisdom and there were schools gathered around wisdom teachers and prophets in the times of the Bible.

Wisdom in the book of Proverbs is the name that the writer gives to God's Presence in our world  and is responsible for organizing everything.  Why does everything seem to work?  How can an eagle see a tiny little mouse on the ground?  Because there is wisdom present in everything that makes it work.  The writer of the book of proverbs said that Wisdom is present and is another name for God’s presence everywhere.  The name for Wisdom in Proverb is Chokmah and this is a girl’s name.  In Greek, Chokmah is Sophia and we know that Sophia is an often used girl's name.  So God’s  being with creation has the name Chokmah because there is Wisdom in everything that exists.

Teaching Opportunity about liturgy and ritual

In the churches of St. Paul, when they gathered they sang the Psalms and hymns together.  Singing in a group together and directing the sung words toward God with each other creates an experience of God's presence in our worship together.  This is what we call liturgy.  It is gathering so that we help each other know about the experience of God.

Why do large crowds go to football games?  They want to celebrate their favorite team which is on the field.  They want to help them win by cheering.  They want to create excitement for themselves, their team and enjoy the event of being together.

In liturgy and worship, God is our “team” on the field whom we are cheering with our hymns and our songs and our prayers.  And we are doing it together to encourage each other in knowing the presence of God.  If we didn’t do it we are more likely to forget and miss something in our lives.

Another part of worship and liturgy also involves receiving communion.  The Gospel of John was written long after Jesus gave the words to his disciples when he commanded them to eat bread and drink wine in such a special way and do it with prayers, Bible readings, teaching about faith and with songs so that they could make the presence of Christ known to them in a special way.  When Jesus said that we eat his flesh and drink his blood when we take the bread and the wine, he was saying in a riddle that he would actually be closer to us than the bread that we and the wine that we drink.  What we eat and drink becomes such a part of us; our food becomes us.  And Jesus was saying that as we study and live by his Words then he actually becomes a part of us and that we abide together.

We have a Gospel lesson about Jesus teaching us about himself as the bread of life because he is like coming to know the Wisdom, who is the presence of God everywhere, inside of us and outside of us.  Knowing Christ is like knowing Wisdom as what is basic to life.

Liturgy and Ritual, prayers, songs, and our ritual meal of communion are the ways in which we leave our private selves and join with each other to remember in a profound way the presence of Christ in our lives.

Sermon or lesson about Communion

13 PTp15  August 19, 2018

Proverbs 9:1-6  Psalm 34:9-14

Ephesians 5:15-20  John 6:51-58

  Jesus sometimes spoke in riddles.  And sometimes people did not understand his riddles.  And when you don’t understand the riddle, it is easy to be confused.

    And today we continue this riddle of Jesus.  When we come today to receive the bread and the wine what do I say when I give you the communion bread?  The body of Christ, the bread of heaven.  And when you are given the wine?  The blood of Christ, the cup of salvation.

  Now, you and I know that we are eating bread and we are drinking wine, but the bread and wine carry also the presence of Christ.  Why?  Because Jesus told his friends that he would be with them always.  And he told them that he would be with them in a special way when they eat the special meal of remembrance.  The meal that we call Holy Communion.

  Jesus was born in Palestine and he was an Israelite.  He followed the religion of his family.  He learned about the Jewish religion.  He learned about the law of Moses.  And do you know what they often used to call the Law of Moses?  They called it bread.  That is a riddle too.  So how can you eat the Law of Moses.  Well, you don’t chew on it with your teeth.  You study it and memorize and take it into your heart so it becomes a part of your life in the way in which you live.

  The early Christians believed that Jesus was even better than the Law of Moses.  Jesus was not just rules that were written down; he was a person who was an example of what God would look like as a human being.

  And so when we are told to eat the body and drink the blood of Christ, this is a riddle.  It is a reminder to make Jesus the most important example of our lives, to study his life and his words so that his life becomes so close to us that it is in our hearts.

  If we take the life of Jesus close into us, then we will start acting like Jesus.  And when we start acting like Jesus, we love one another and we make our world better.

  So I want you to understand this riddle of Jesus; when we eat the bread and drink the wine of communion.  It becomes a part of us.  And we get really close to it.  And when we think about how close the bread and wine get to us, then we need to remember that Christ is that close to us too.

  And that is the riddle of Holy Communion.  We receive Holy Communion to realize how close Christ is to us.  Amen.

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

August 18, 2024: The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: O Be Careful!; Seek Ye First; Eat This Bread; This Little Light of Mine

Song: O Be Careful!  (Christian Children Songbook  # 180)

O, be careful little hands what you do.  O be careful little hands what you do.  There’s a Father up above and he’s looking down in love, so be careful little hands what you do.

O, be careful little feet where you go.  O be careful little feet where you go.  There’s a Father up above and he’s looking down in love, so be careful little feet where you go.

O, be careful little lips what you say.  O, be careful little lips what you say.  There’s a Father up above and he’s looking down in love, so be careful little lips what you say.

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 God, you have given your only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of his redeeming work, and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Litany Phrase: 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 of Paul to the Ephesians

Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

 

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 34

Come, children, and listen to me; * I will teach you great respect for the LORD.

Who among you loves life * and desires long life to enjoy prosperity?

Keep your tongue from evil-speaking * and your lips from lying words.

Turn from evil and do good; * seek peace and pursue it.

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, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" So Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever."

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: Seek Ye First (blue hymnal, # 711)

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.  And all these things will be added unto you, Allelu, alleluia.   Refrain: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, allelu, alleluia.

Ask, and it shall be given unto you, seek, and ye shall find, knock, and the door shall be opened unto you; Allelu, alleluia. Refrain: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, allelu, alleluia.

Doxology

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

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

Prologue to the Eucharist

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

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

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

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

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

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

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

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

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

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

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

All may gather around the altar

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

You have made us in your image

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

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

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

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

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

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

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Bless and sanctify us by your Holy 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:  Eat This Bread (Renew!  # 228)

Eat this bread.  Drink this cup. Trust in 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: This Little Light of Mine (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 234)

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

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

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

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

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Mere Bread, Living Bread, What's the Difference

12 Pentecost Cycle b Proper 14 August 11, 2024
1 Kings 19:4-8 Psalm 34:1-8
Ephesians 4:25-5:2 John 6:35, 41-51

Lectionary Link 

We live long past the Age of Enlightenment and into the modern Age of Science.  Science with its successful method and with the practical applications of science into industry has come to make such an impact upon our material world, that we have subtly come to believe that to be truly human in a meaningfully true way we must comply our lifestyle with the scientific method particularly of the natural sciences kind since empirical verification is much easier to attain and gain community consensus on.

The inferior step-sisters of the natural sciences have clamored for equal standing hoping to bring precise objectivity to the human sciences.  The inferiority complex comes from failing to come to the same kind of objectivity in the fields such as psychology, sociology, political science, law, ethics, anthropology, and others, because the subjective observer and the observations have not been able to achieve the same kind of consensus as seemingly attained within the natural sciences.

In the attempt of linguistic philosophers to comport philosophy and logic to the methods of the natural scientists, they proclaimed that a statement is meaningfully true, if and only if, it can be empirically verified.  But what an incredible limitation upon truth and how the truth of beauty can be known in language.  Why not just confess the truth of poetry and the truth of science while encouraging them to stay within their own lane of discursive practice.  We can live knowing the overlapping truths of science and poetry without implying a notion of a superior truth criteria. 

And if the human sciences have had to bear the inferiority complex in comparison with the natural science, where does that leave poetry, spirituality, theology, ethics, art, music and all other which goes under the classification of the aesthetically sublime?

What we can easily forget is that it is empirically true that human beings are aesthetic beings.  It is rationally true that human beings know supra-rational experiences of beauty which do not comport themselves to the same kind of test tube methodology as the natural sciences.

Humans are involved in social interaction and understanding how to live together well; we try to understand personal motivations; we find endless ways of the imagination to entertain ourselves and while we think we know so much because of science, we still deal with what forever mystifies us in myriads of ways.

My wordy digression is but a prologue to deal with the metaphor of John's Gospel, Jesus as the living bread which comes down from heaven.

Let us appreciate the aesthetic spiritual discourse of the Gospel of John.  The writer is not writing about laboratory scientific experiments.  The writer is not writing like a reporter who has witnessed a live event.

The writer is writing from the perspective of a life practice which came to a significant community of people, and it derived from Jesus of Nazareth, and it derived in continuity with many who had inherited the writings of the Hebrew Scriptures.

The mode of discourse is not scientific writing; it is mystagogy.  It is trying within a community of people to inculcate the mysterious experience of knowing the presence of the Risen Christ.

Therefore for John's Gospel, the physical is but a place to be humble about what one does not yet fully know.  The physical world is a place to be mystified.  The writer of John and his community have been mystified by the witness of Jesus Christ.  This mystery is a life within life, another kind of life within apparent natural living.

In the writing of John's Gospel, natural language is problematized.  What is living bread?  What is living waters?  What is the seeing which is blind and the blindness which is seeing?  What is the dead who can live and the living who are dead?  Who are the lame who can walk?  Who are the walkers who don't know their way?  

With language such as "living bread" and the like, the writer of John's Gospel is expressing a way to accept living with both common sense reality, and the sense of life being imbued with another quality, even the quality of the Sublime.  And if one is missing the sublime, then one is only living in denial about a completing and complimenting dimension of life which pertains to the very image of God as great Mystery indwelling human life.

The Gospel of John is a program, a presentation for a community of people to know the mystification of life, the sublime life.  We need to know that life is not just about getting enough bread as fuel for our physical lives; we need to partake of the kind of sustenance which fills out the dimensions which we know are beyond our bodies working as machines which consume bread as the fuel of existence.

The Gospel of John program is the program about Jesus Christ, in his life and afterlife bringing to us expediting insights in being open to our fuller selves as brothers and sisters with Jesus and children of God.

Let us compliment our natural lives with the grace of being mystified by the Risen Christ.  Amen.

Sunday School, August 11, 2024 12 Pentecost, B proper 14

 Sunday School, August 11, 2024   12 Pentecost, B proper 14

 

Sunday School Themes

In the Epistles there is good advice on how to live together well with other people:

1-Don’t be bitter.  What does that mean?  It might that we might get angry and disappointed when we don’t get our way all of the time.   How can we keep from getting bitter?  We need to learn how to share and we need to learn that sometimes we get what we want and sometimes we don’t and we need to learn how to accept not getting everything that we want when we want it.  If we learn patience, then we can avoid being bitter.

2-Don’t be angry.  Anger often happens because we don’t have patience.  We don’t know how to wait our turn.  When we live with other people we have to share lots of things.  And if we learn sharing then we can learn not to be anger.  You may want to talk about good anger and bad anger.  What would good anger be?  We might be mad when people are hurting someone.  That is a good anger.   Bad anger is when we get mad because we don’t want to share or take turns.

3-What is wrangling?  Wrangling is always arguing about things.  Sometimes we are always arguing because we don’t want to share or we don’t want to agree with other people or we don’t want to accept the good things that they have to do and say.

4-Don’t slander.  Slander is when we say something bad about someone which is not true and we say it in order to hurt them.  We might call someone a “cheater” because we might  be jealous when they win a game.

5-Put a way malice.  Malice is when one might wish bad things for someone or do things purposely to hurt another person.  If we can accept that God loves us for who we are, then we don’t need to wish bad things for anyone.

There is also a list of good and recommendable attitudes and behaviors

1-Be kind to one another.  Think about what kindness is for you and for others

2-Be tender-hearted.  This means that we don’t treat each other harshly or rudely but being tender means that we try to please other people by doing things for them which we know that they enjoy.

3-Forgive one another.  Each of knows that we are not perfect and we still need to grow and to learn how to be better and so we need to forgive each other as we are trying to be better each day.  If we think that it is hard to forgive then we need to remember that people did some very bad things to Jesus and he still forgave them.  We need to look to Christ as the example of forgiveness.

4-We need to live in love with one another and love means that we make sacrifices.  The sacrifices which we make means that we share and we help each other do our best and we do it all together.

The Gospel is again this week about the riddle of how Jesus is the bread of heaven.  We eat bread and food to grow strong but we know that by eating bread it will not prevent us from dying some day.  We know that there are parts of our life which will die.

Jesus reminds us that there are parts of our lives which will not die.  It is the inside part of ourselves the Spirit.  And we need to feed the part of ourselves which will never die, the part of ourselves which will live forever.

That is why Jesus said that he was like bread that one could eat and live forever.  When we hear and follow the words of Jesus we are eating the words of the bread of heaven which will help us live forever because those words of Jesus are the words which build our spiritual lives, the part of us that will live forever.

Here is a children’s sermon about relating the Holy Eucharist to the feeding of the five thousand and understanding how our communion is related to giving all people enough to eat.

  What if I were to order pizza today for everyone but I only ordered one kind of pizza, all pizza had anchovies on them.  Would you eat my anchovy pizza?  What are anchovies?  They are little fish and many people like them but many more people don’t like them.  But what if I said, everybody has to eat anchovies, would that be fair?  You might say, well more people would eat just plain cheese pizza so why can’t we have that?  But even if we had cheese pizza some people might not like that.

  If I took a food survey do you think that I could get everyone to agree about a food?   How many people like candy?  Not everyone does and some people cannot eat it.  How about cake?  How about broccoli?  How about pickled herring?  How about fish?  How about ham?  How about rattle snake?  How about bread?  Well, not even bread is liked by everyone? 

  If I cannot get us to agree about what food we like, what can I get us to agree about?  How about this?  Will you agree that everyone needs food to live?  Great we can agree on this.

  A baby needs food but how does a baby know that he or she needs food?  Parents have to teach a baby to eat and provide the baby with food to eat.

  So we agree that everyone needs food to eat.  Does everyone in the world have enough food to eat?  No.  And they didn’t have enough food to eat in the time of Jesus.

  Jesus had a great idea about how to get people enough food to eat.  If people eat alone in their own homes only with their own families, they would not see that some families and some people did not have enough to eat.  So Jesus thought, “What if we had a meal for everyone and what if we had meals in every neighborhood where people would be invited to eat together, then that would be a way to make sure that everyone had enough to eat, because everyone would be seen eating something.  A hungry person could not be hidden anymore if all hungry people were invited to eat.”

  So we have the Eucharist, this meal of bread and wine.  This was the meal that Jesus gave to solve the problem of hungry people in the world; because Jesus believed that if everyone ate together, then hungry people would not be hidden and unknown.  If everyone ate together in public then we have a way of checking that everyone would have enough food.

  We have lost something today in our church meal of bread and wine.  It has become more like a religious meal and not a real meal to feed hungry people.  But even though it is a religious meal, we should not forget that Jesus ask us everyone to come and eat together in public as a way of making sure that everyone had enough food to eat.

  We still have a hungry people in our world today.  And hungry people are hidden from us.  And we don’t see them.  Let us remember that Jesus gave us the Holy Eucharist as a way to remind us that hungry people are invited to have food.  The Holy Eucharist is a Meal that Jesus gave to us to remind us to love and care for everyone in world.  So let us remember why we have the Holy Eucharist today and let us pray and work for ways to feed all of the people in our world.  Amen.

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

August 12, 2024: The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs:Hallelu, Hallelujah!;  The Foolish Man and the Wise Man; Change My Heart; Hosanna

Song: Hallelu, Hallelujah!  (Christian Children Songbook  # 84)   

Hallelu, hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah!  Praise ye the Lord!  Hallelu, hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah!  Praise ye the Lord!  Praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah!  Praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah!  Praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah!  Praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah!  Praise ye the Lord!

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

Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; 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 Letter of Paul to the Ephesians

Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

 

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 34

I will bless the LORD at all times; * his praise shall ever be in my mouth.

I will glory in the LORD; * let the humble hear and rejoice.

Proclaim with me the greatness of the LORD; * let us exalt his Name together.

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 the people, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.  Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." They were saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, `I have come down from heaven'?" Jesus answered them, "Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, `And they shall all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."

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: The Foolish Man and the Wise Man (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 250)

O the foolish man built his house upon the sand.  The foolish man built his house upon the sand.  The foolish man built his house upon the sand.  And the rains came tumbling down.  O, the rains came down and the floods came up.  The rains came down and the floods came up.  The rains came down and the floods came up.  And the house on the sand went crash.

O, the wise man built his house upon the rock.  The wise man built his house upon the rock.  The wise man built his house upon the rock, and the rains came tumbling down.  O the rains came down and the floods came up.  The rains came down and the floods came up.  The rains came down and the floods came up and the house on the rock stood firm.

So build you house on the Lord Jesus Christ.  So build you house on the Lord Jesus Christ.  So build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ and the blessings will come down.  The blessings will come down as the prayers go up.  The blessings will come down as the prayers go up.  The blessing will come down as the prayers go up, so build your house on the Lord.

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.

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.  Bless and sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighor.

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:  Change My Heart, O God (Renew!  # 143)

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

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: Hosanna (Renew!  # 71)

Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest!  Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest!  Lord we lift up you name with heart full of praise; Be exalted, oh Lord my God Hosanna in the highest.

Glory, Glory, Glory to the King of Kings!  Glory, Glory, Glory to the King of Kings!  Lord we lift up you name with heart full of praise; Be exalted, oh Lord my God. Glory to the King of Kings

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Bread and Circuses

11 Pentecost Cycle B, Proper 13 August 4, 2024
Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15 Psalm 78:23-29

Ephesians 4:1-16 John 6:24-35

Lectionary Link

One often can be amazed at the lack of wisdom of wealthy, powerful, and greedy people vis a vis the peasants and poor masses.

Economic insight would indicate that if the masses were all paid enough so they could be comfortable, and have enough money to have enough food and entertainment then they would never be in the mood to revolt against those who were wealthy, powerful, and greedy.  It is amazing to see the oligarchical class act for their own luxurious situation while taking away from the working class which provides the labor basis for their very style of living.

The Roman satirist Juvenal writing around the year 100 was decrying the situation of the atrophying of the enlightened participation of people in governance.  He wrote, "Give the people bread and circuses, and they will not revolt."

If people have enough to eat, enough sports, cinema, television, games, dance, music, and arts of every sort, then they are likely to be pacified within their political situation.

Give the people bread and circuses....this was written around the same time for the dates  given for the Gospel of John coming to textual forms.

The Gospel of John, unlike the synoptic Gospels does not have the famous parables of Jesus; rather the Gospel of John is constructed around signs followed by expansive discourses.  I would suggest that these discourses are about coming to an enlightened use of language.  The literary presentation of the signs of Jesus are a triggering mechanisms for one to experience a different aspect perception, as illustrated in the well-known picture of the duck or rabbit.  An interior switch within oneself allows one to see a rabbit in seeing in one aspect perception, and a goat in another aspect perception.

Just like the duck and rabbit are both present in the picture, it is the perceptual interior switch that opens up what one confesses one is seeing.  The duck/rabbit dichotomy in the Gospel of John is the natural/spiritual dichotomy.

In the multiplication of loaves story which resides within the tradition of Moses and the Manna in the wilderness story tradition, what comes to the fore again is the ancient insight, "humanity does not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God."

In John's Gospel the creating word which proceeds from God is Christ, the eternal Word.  Before we know and access the physical and outer world, it is pre-constituted by the fact that we as human beings have language which is the valuing and sorting system of life for everything.

Word or language as our sorting or valuing system creates the very meaning of our human experience.  The Gospel of John written within a group of followers of Christ six to seven decades after Jesus, was writing the value system of their movement which they believed derived from Jesus of Nazareth.

The words of Jesus relayed in the bread of life discourse in John, impart a similar nuance as the words of Juvenal about Bread and Circuses.

The words of Jesus are words to wean us from the mere physical, or the addiction to the physical.  A baby eventually is to be weaned from only breast milk and the constant entertainment of contact with the maternal body or surrogate substitutes.  The result of being weaned from exclusive breast milk and exclusive maternal body is to grow into the fullness of a worded life and within the life of language the telling presence of many kinds of sustenances come to be known as well as the generalization of the delight of the maternal body to many other kinds of presences.

The writers of the Gospel of John were also those who lived within a practicing Eucharistic community.  The spiritual significance of the Eucharist was the practice of a spiritual aspect perception.  No, the bread is not literal flesh and blood of Jesus in a crass cannibal perception; no the partaking is not in bread alone but in the Word, Christ the Eternal Word, who proceeds from the eternal creating God and is renewed in the Eucharistic event.

Let us not reduce Eucharist or Christian liturgy to the mere aspect perception of bread and entertainment; let us enter into the aspect perception of participation with the Eternal Word which always already proceeds from that which none greater can be conceived.  And let us be delivered from the physical world as like the limitation of a babe to breast milk and the maternal body and let us be enlightened to know how diffuse the Word as God helps us to know endless spiritual presence.  Amen.