Sunday School, September 8, 2024 16 Pentecost, B proper 18

 Sunday School, September 8, 2024     16 Pentecost, B proper 18

Themes

The writers of the Bible often wrote that God is interested in the health of all people.  God is interested in physical health of people.  God desires for people to be healed from their diseases.

God desires people to have enough food, clothing and shelter to be healthy.

So if God desires health and for people to have enough, how is this health going to happen?

In the past, people were afraid for sickness and disease.  People worried about infectious diseases.  Sometimes people who were sick were declared to unclean and so they had to be isolated from other people.

Jesus came to show and prove that God is interested in the health of everyone.

Jesus showed that being God’s chosen people did not just belong to the Jews, it belonged to anyone who has faith. 

Jesus healed the spirit of the young girl.  The girl’s mother had great faith even though she was not a Jew like Jesus and the disciples.  Jesus honored her faith and her daughter was healed.  Jesus had such love and kindness that he could calm the heart of a very troubled young girl.

Jesus also healed a man who could not hear or speak well.  Often the healing stories of Jesus were used as riddles to show how when we can hear the good news about God love, then our hearing is healed.  And when we share the good news of God’s love our tongues can speak well because when we learn how to use our tongues properly, then our tongues are healed.

The writer of the letter of James wrote about how it is not enough to say that we have faith in God; we also have to show that we have faith by doing what God wants.  And God cares for the needy and the sick.  So we need to show how we have faith in God who cares for the needy by being the people to do what God wants in helping those in need.  In this way we show that we have faith by what we do and say in our lives.

Homily

  Can a person say something without speaking?

  Can a person say something with his or her body without saying one word?

  Can you read the body language of a person?

  Let’s see if you can read body language?

  Happy….sad….surprised….Angry…

So our body is always talking, even when we don’t say a word.  Your body is talking right now.

  Where are you right now?  You’re in church.  You’re not in bed.  You’re not at the lake.  You’re not at the football game.  And that tells me something.  It tells me that you want to honor God by coming to worship God and obeying the command of Christ to receive communion together.

  What if I say that I love God and my neighbor and I steal something from you.  Or I hit you.

  What if I say I love God but I never pray or go to church.  What is wrong with that?  It means that my body language is saying something different than my words.

  The writer of the epistle of James said:  Be doers of the word of God and not hearer only.

  You hear many things that your parents and your teachers tell.  They want you to learn many good things.  Sometimes it is easy to be lazy and not do those good things.  And so it is easy to hear words about the good things that we are supposed to do, but it is sometimes harder to actually do them.

  But your parents and teacher would not be nice if they were asking you to do impossible things, would they.  Do your parents ever ask you to do impossible things?

  God does not ask us to do impossible things;  God only asks us to do things that we can do.

  Jesus asked us to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves.

  What can you and I do that shows that we love God and our neighbors?  How can we let our body talk?

  So let us remember that it is very important to do God’s word, and not just hear it. 

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

September 8, 2024: The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs:  If You’re Happy; Alleluia, Give Thanks to the Risen Lord; Alleluia; I’ve Got Peace Like a River, May the Lord

Song: If You’re Happy  (Christian Children Songbook  # 124)

If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.  If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.  If your happy and you know it then your face should surely show it, if you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.

If you’re happy and you know it stomp your feet.  If you’re happy and you know it stomp your feet.  If you’re happy and you know then your face should surely show it, if you’re happy and you know it stomp your feet.

If you’re happy and you know it, make a high five.  If you’re happy and you know it make a high five.  If you’re happy and you know it then your face should surely show it.  If you’re happy and you know it, make a high five.

If you’re happy and you know it shout Amen!  If you’re happy and you know it shout, Amen!  If you’re happy and you know it then your face should surely show it, if you’re happy and you know it shout Amen!

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 us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts; for, as you always resist the proud who confide in their own strength, so you never forsake those who make their boast of your mercy; through Jesus Christ 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 James

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

 

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 146

Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help! * whose hope is in the LORD their God;

Who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them; * who keeps his promise for ever;

Who gives justice to those who are oppressed, * and food to those who hunger.

The LORD sets the prisoners free; the LORD opens the eyes of the blind; * the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;

The LORD loves the righteous; the LORD cares for the stranger; * he sustains the orphan and widow,
but frustrates the way of the wicked.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:

For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!

For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.

Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark

People: Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." But she answered him, "Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." Then he said to her, "For saying that, you may go-- the demon has left your daughter." So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, "He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."

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: Alleluia, Alleluia, Give Thanks, Hymn # 178, in the Blue Hymnal

Refrain: Alleluia, Alleluia, give thanks to the Risen Lord, Alleluia, Alleluia, give thanks to his Name.

1.Jesus is Lord of all the earth.  He is the King of creation.  Refrain

2. Spread the good news o’er all the earth: Jesus has died and has risen. Refrain

3. We have been crucified with Christ.  Now we shall live forever. Refrain

4. Come, let us praise the living God, joyfully sing to our Savior. Refrain

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.

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 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,

(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:  Alleluia (Renew!  # 136)

Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.

He’s my Savior, Alleluia….

He is worthy, Alleluia…

I will praise him, Alleluia…

Post-Communion Prayer

Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;

We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.

And His Presence has been known to us.

We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers

    and sisters in Christ.

Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the

     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,

As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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

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

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Aphorism of the Day, August 2024

Aphorism of the Day, August 31, 2024

The American experience in part was formed as a system to "keep Christians in charitable practice with others."  In short, opposing Christian groups were not to burn their religious opponents at the stake.   American Christians are people of faith often divided by having a common founder, Jesus.  In the establishment or our Constitution, not any religious group was given the authority to impose their habits of belief and practice on anyone else.  Obviously, the framers learned from European religious persecution, and the history in the colonies of events like the "witch" trials (or males with power to punish women for being different than men wanted them to be)  in Salem.

Aphorism of the Day, August 30, 2024

Theology is a movement between the macroscopic and microscopic, but it is mostly microscopic projection upon the mysterious macroscopic which is the certainty of the Great Negligible without having precise ability to know it except in how it gets funneled into the bits of the anthropomorphic of the microscopic life of human language.

Aphorism of the Day, August 29, 2024

Counter dynamics occur when narrowing identity features of our lives like country, region, family, socio-economic, educational, religious group status become used for implying other people with other identity in corresponding ways are somehow less favored by God than we are.  One could look at Rabbi Jesus as a reformer who was trying to say that God belongs to everyone and is accessible to everyone in immanent ways which occurs within each person.  Everyone has image of God identity; every other identity is secondary.

Aphorism of the Day, August 28, 2024

The impulse to be completely private and secret is a loneliness which is assuaged by the "limited" sharing within secret clubs, secret societies, or discreet friendships.  Such secret groups have exclusive rules stated or implicit.  When one tries to impose such "secret society insider rules" upon the entire human populace, then the greater part of humanity in the practice of the exclusive is "excommunicated" from God's favor.  Jesus did not believe that the message of God's love should be segregated within secret club practice.

Aphorism of the Day, August 27, 2024

How to live in equilibrium?  To have interior feelings agree with one's speech and body language.  Law abiding society is built upon not acting out in speech and deeds everything that one feels.  Sublimating feeling energy into alternate speech and body deeds may be a part of spiritual practice.  Perhaps meditative poses and mantras.

Aphorism of the Day, August 26, 2024

In publicity religion, we say look at me doing religious things, while at the same time people are hungry, homeless, and generally neglected in the basic life necessities.  

Aphorism of the Day, August 25, 2024

Each day we act from the reservoir and repertoire of the possible language products which heretofore comprise our existence.  Repetition is new, and what we call inventively new is to reconfigure language products of speech, writing, and body language deeds in new order and arrangement.  The inventively new can arise from the traces of what has been and become another trace for a different future.

Aphorism of the Day, August 24, 2024

The central feature of faith is persuasion and persuasion is language based in how our speech, writing, and body language is constituted toward living goals.  The Bible are words of intervention in our lives of language to persuade toward superlative values.

Aphorism of the Day, August 23, 2024

People live and act by their versions of life situations and people and those versions are learned.  Since they are learned, they can be unlearned and new versions can come to the fore.  We should be in the process of learning to refine our versions of life and people toward what love and justice means in application.

Aphorism of the Day, August 22, 2024

Each of us each day has to deal with and learn to accept how the great plenitude of everything that has happen has been funneled into the particular influences upon the specifics of our lives.  We can presume to know too much about how we have been determined, and diminish and excuse our current volitional agency for new action.  Certainly myth and poetry can be an appropriate way to deal with what we do not and cannot know but we should not be theoretical about harm and injustice which are evident and present at hand.  Theoretical fatalism about harm and injustice cannot be an excuse for delaying actions to end both.

Aphorism of the Day, August 21, 2024

Because we see and mediate our world through language, we cannot help but see the world through the order which language imposes upon the world even by naming what is disorder.  In science, we use language to cite predicable, probable, patterns of order in the world.  When we try to understand order in human behaviors, we find less consistent patterns.  From trial and error practices within human behaviors, we have come to posit laws for recommended behaviors for various contexts.  The great laws of love and justice have to be continually applied in new contexts and such applications are not like the consistency of boiling water in different location;  they require the continual wisdom of re-application in situations when more knowledge of the participants is continually being revealed and unfolded.  How do we apply love and justice when situations have come to reveal more diverse identities within participants who are welcomed as have equal place within the community.

Aphorism of the Day, August 20, 2024

Modern anachronistic interpretation of biblical writings occur when there is the assumption that biblical writers were writing in the genre of modern eye-witness journalistic reporting and scientific philosophical language which states, a statement is meaningfully true if and only it can be empirical verified.  Trying to import these genres as the writing genres of biblical writer has lead to diminution of the equally important truth status of the languages of faith, love, community identity, and praise discourse for the truth of one's highest values.

Aphorism of the Day, August 19, 2024

If John's Gospel were written only be taken literally then Christians would be literal cannibals eating flesh and drinking blood.  Would that Christian readers would understand that Scripture is spiritual art written for people trying to succeed in the holistic art of living well.

Aphorism of the Day, August 18, 2024

Using the notion that faith is the manifestation of the values that we are persuaded about, I suggest that we make the very language based notion of persuasion as the starting place to analyze the complimentary and competing persuasions within one's own life and between parties of persuasion.  We can have different faiths at the same time, like we can be persuaded about an America with division between church and state, and at the same time be a part of a community which is persuaded about religious beliefs.  People who want a theocratic state are people who believe that they can be the "perfect" governmental form who exclusively and by law and force require people to conform to their own way of being persuaded about God.

Aphorism of the Day, August 17, 2024

Because we have language, we cannot help but anthropomorphize everything which comes to language.  Language is personal, so we project personality upon everything by virtue of using language.  So, God as Plenitude does not escape having personality from humans who cannot help but use language.  It is unavoidable for humans to conceive and speak in anything other than "personal" terms.

Aphorism of the Day, August 16, 2024

Consuming is a metaphor for how we have taken on the significant words of our lives.  In John's Gospel, Jesus is referred to as the Word, who is God.  So, the consuming of Jesus the Word is to take the Christly values deep within oneself and reconstitute one's life.  Is taking on word real and substantial?  It is as substantial as if one is eating flesh and blood.  Flesh and blood are metaphors for the human common sense tendency to indicate that what is seen and touched is somehow "more real" than the invisible words which have come to comprise our understanding of existence.

Aphorism of the Day, August 15, 2024

"those who eat my flesh and drink my blood?"  The Johannine channeler of words of Jesus when speaking/writing in the name of Jesus, is challenging crass literalism in language use, even while piggy backing the substantiality metaphor of the physical world to indicate that spiritual and non-literal description of experiences like mysticism and Eucharist are very substantially and meaningfully true in ways that are different than common sense reality.

Aphorism of the Day, August 14, 2024

Faith is the life habit of being persuaded.  Being persuaded pertains to different objects of persuasion in different discursive practices.  What one is persuaded about in science and the methods for that persuasion are different than the kinds of persuasions one has in one's spiritual life.  The two shouldn't be confused even as a person can have faith in the spiritual sense and in the scientific sense at the same time without contradiction.

Aphorism of the Day, August 13, 2024

Sometimes the impulse of wanting immediate perfection for others in the political realm blinds us from being practical about very incremental steps towards being better than we have been.  I want complete perfection (as I see it) or nothing is the recipe for a selfish quietism and can result in greater evil of two imperfect options winning the day.

Aphorism of the Day, August 12, 2024

The writer of John's Gospel aim is indicate that spiritual enlightenment is awakening to a different understanding of language.  The crassly literal is mocked by blatantly suggesting cannibal practice: Eat my flesh, drink my blood.  The Gospel of John invites us to be poets who are influenced by a mystical experience which happens to people living ordinary common sense life.

Aphorism of the Day, August 11, 2024

With a certain amount of randomness but also within predictable parameters of what can come to language for any person at anytime, one participates in the events of language production even while one is also a product of language in how one's speech, writing, and body deeds is pre-constituted before another occasion in the linguistic field.

Aphorism of the Day,  August 10, 2024

Heuristics is effort to be creatively inventive in solving problems.  Within a tradition of specialized language use like religion, to be inventive in the task of persuasion about the chief values of one's community, one becomes steeped in the inherited traditions and presents an inventive continuity of the new with the old.  Invention is a new blend dealing with what has arisen in the experience of a new genius value setter arising.  New Testament writers had to deal with the genius of Jesus in continuity with what had gone before.

Aphorism of the Day, August 9, 2024

The borrowing, transference of reference, and repurposing of metaphors occur in the New Testament.  Torah was referred to as living bread and in the living bread discourse Jesus is said to be the living bread which comes down from heaven.

Aphorism of the Day, August 8, 2024

One could call biblical writings and all religious discourse as "identity discourse." Such discourse totemic writing for community identity around the shared highest values.

Aphorism of the Day, August 7, 2024

John's Gospel is a writing about Word and language use, challenging the notion that literal use or empirical verification is the only way to access meaningful sublime truths in our lives.  Life without artistic, spiritual, and aesthetic truths would essentially be removing heart or aesthetic emotional IQ as valid modes of perception which could not co-exist with meaningful empirical verification.

Aphorism of the Day, August 6, 2024 (Feast of the Transfiguration)

The event of the Transfiguration presents Jesus as light.  As the earth turns we are deprived of its light at night, only to have it return in the morning.  Light is symbolic of spiritual enlightenment, which is progressive.  Each day we need new light and new light helps us see new things in different way.  We need to work at uncovering and removing the obstacles which keep us from seeing new things in new ways in the necessary creative advance to which we are called.

Aphorism of the Day, August 5, 2024

Part of appropriating the biblical writings is knowing how the external means the interior, as in "coming down from heaven" means arising from the inner abode to become manifest in the world.

Aphorism of the Day, August 4, 2024

Bread symbolizes the need for food for human life.  What proceeds bread?  Word or language which is the very medium for thinking and doing or even knowing that one needs bread.  Before we live by bread, we live by Word, the profound reservoir of connectedness in which we live, move, and have our being/becoming.

Aphorism of the Day, August 3, 2024

The ancient saying, "humanity does not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God," is expressed the bread of heaven discourse in a figurative way.  In John's God, Christ is the Eternal Word of God, proceeding from God.  Word is the prior condition for being people who have come to make bread for our physical existence but the spiritual Word condition is inseparably present in eating bread, including Eucharistic bread.

Aphorism of the Day, August 2, 2024

St. Paul as a prisoner did not envision a Christian Roman nationalism; his mysticism was more cosmic.  He proposed for everyone to grow into becoming the body of Christ, or living with each other as those who were made in the image of God respecting that image within each other with behaviors of kindness and care.

Aphorism of the Day, August 1, 2024

The "bread of heaven" discourse in John came to writing around the same time as the Juvenal writing, "give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt."

Quiz of the Day, August 2024

Quiz of the Day, August 31, 2024

What saint is associate with the holy island of Lindisfarne?

a. Chad

b. Columba

c. Hilda

d. Aidan

Quiz of the Day, August 30, 2024

Which Epistle exhorts to be doers of the word and not hearers only?

a. 1 John

b. James

c. 1 Peter

d. 2 Corinthians

Quiz of the Day, August 29, 2024

Of the following, who wrote the best known autobiography?

a. Thomas Aquinas

b. Augustine of Hippo

c. Augustine of Canterbury

d. Benedict of Nursia

e. John Chrysostom

Quiz of the Day, August 28, 2024

Of the following, who is not a woman in St. Augustine's life?

a. Monica

b. Justina

c. Una

d. Tacita

e. Helena

Quiz of the Day, August 27, 2024

Of the following, who is not one of Job's "friends?"

a. Eliphaz

b. Shuhite

c. Bildad

d. Zophar

Quiz of the Day, August 26, 2024

The "Song of Songs" is not

a. an erotic love poem 

b. a book which does not mention God's name

c. usually interpreted by Christians as a metaphor for one's relationship with God

d. about King Solomon and his lover

Quiz of the Day, August 25, 2024

The threefold cry, "Holy, Holy, Holy," is found where in the Bible?

a. Exodus and Revelation

b. Ezekiel and Revelation

c. Isaiah and Revelation

d. Psalms and Revelation 

Quiz of the Day, August 24, 2024

Nathaniel might also be 

a. Thaddaeus

b. Alphaeus

c. Bartholomew

d. John Mark

Quiz of the Day, August 23, 2024

Of the following, which does not apply to a theology of Eucharistic presence?

a. transubstantiation

b. consubstanitiation

c. receptionism

d. symbolic presence

e. spiritual presence

f.  verbalism

Quiz of the Day, August 22, 2024

In the Job story prologue, who does God discuss the fate of Job's life with?

a. Baal

b. Beelzebub

c. Astarte

d. Satan

Quiz of the Day, August 21, 2024

In which Gospel does Philip figure most prominent?

a. Matthew

b. Mark

c. Luke

d. John

Quiz of the Day, August 20, 2024

What medieval preacher is known for his sermons on the Song of Songs?

a. Thomas Aquinas

b. Albert Magnus

c. Bernard of Clairvaux

d. Dominic

Quiz of the Day, August 19, 2024

What is not true about Micah in the Bible?

a. he was a prophet who wrote about love, justice, and mercy

b. there are two Micahs in the Bible

c. he made a silver idol and contracted a Levite to be a priest in his shrine

d. Samson was his father

Quiz of the Day, August 18, 2024

Why was Samson's uncut hair his strength?

a. he was superstitious

b. having a marvelous birth his was committed to the vow of the nazarite

c. he fought lions with long manes which became his "trademark"

d. long hair and strength is part of Hebrew mythology

Quiz of the Day, August 17, 2024

What woman's name became synonymous with "temptress" because of her association with Samson?

a. Bathsheba

b. Rahab

c. Gomer

d. Delilah

e. Jezebel

Quiz of the Day, August 16, 2024

Of the following, which was not a feat of Samson?

a. slaughtering a 1000 with the jawbone of an ass

b. killing a lion with his bare hands

c. floating an axe on a river

d. pulling down a building on himself and 3000 others

Quiz of the Day, August 15, 2024

August 15th is the Feast of Mary because it coincides with

a. Mary's birthdate

b. Mary immaculate conception date

c. Mary's commanding her son to deal with the wine shortage at a wedding feast

d. traditional date for celebrating the Assumption of Mary into heaven

Quiz of the Day, August 14, 2024

Of the following, who did not have a "marvelous" birth story?

a. John the Baptist

b. Isaac

c. Samuel

d. Samson

e. David

Quiz of the Day, August 13, 2024

Who built the first Temple in Jerusalem?

a. the king of Phoenicia

b. David

c. Saul

d. Solomon

Quiz of the Day, August 12, 2024

Who was the mother of Solomon?

a. Abigail

b. Bathsheba

c. Ahinoam

d. Michal

e. Abital

f. Eglah

Quiz of the Day, August 11, 2024

Who made a vow to the Lord that ended in the inadvertent sacrificing of his daughter's life?

a. Jacob

b. Absalom

c. Jephthah

d. Gideon

Quiz of the Day, August 10, 2024

How did Abimelech die?

a. in a battle in Thebez

b. a woman dropped a millstone on his head

c. his armor bearer stabbed him

d. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, August 9, 2024

According to John's Gospel, where did Jesus do his first "sign?"

a. on the Jordan River

b. Sychar

c. Cana

d. Capernaum

Quiz of the Day, August 8, 2024

What saint is the founder of the Order of Preachers?

a. John Wesley

b. Aguinas

c. Benedict

d. Dominic

Quiz of the Day, August 7, 2024

Bread of Life and Living Waters are metaphors found in which Gospel?

a. Matthew

b. Mark

c. Luke

d. John

Quiz of the Day, August 6, 2024 (Feast of the Transfiguration)

Which Gospel proclaims Christ as the Light of the World, but does not have an account of the Transfiguration?

a. Matthew

b. Mark

c. Luke

d. John

Quiz of the Day, August 5, 2024

What person used the amount of dew on a woolen fleece to discern the communication of God?

a. David

b. Saul

c. Gideon

d. Isaiah

e. Amos

Quiz of the Day, August 4, 2024

Gideon was from which tribe of Israel?

a. Ephraim

b. Judah

c. Benjamin

d. Manasseh

Quiz of the Day, August 3, 2024

A hymn of Deborah includes extolling

a. Jael

b. a woman who was married to Heber

c. a woman who drove a tent peg through the head of a man

d. all of the above

Quiz of the Day, August 2, 2024

How did Nathan confront David about his sin?

a. through Bathsheba, the woman he forced himself on

b. through a parable

c. with the phrase "thus says the Lord"

d. through his son Absalom

Quiz of the Day, August 1, 2024

Manna, a transliteration from Hebrew, means literally

a. heavenly bread

b. food of angels

c. "What is it?"

d. coriander wafer

God's Commandment and Human Precepts

15 Pentecost Cycle B proper 17 September 1, 2024
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9Ps. 15
James 1:17-27 Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Lectionary Link

If we live and move and have our being and becoming in God, the vastness of God is mediated through the language that is used to give us identity within the lesser concentric circles of existence within the vastness of God, like the universe, the galaxy, the solar system, the earth, our hemisphere, our flora and fauna environments, our country, state, and neighborhood.

We also live in concentric circles of humanity with all of the specific sociological identities which come to define us.

Jesus came to a situation of conflicting sociological, religious, ethnic, and political identities.  The very Jewish identity as formed within the communities based upon the Hebrew Scripture is about an identity of a people concurrent with the promulgation of the identity of the One Lord God who came to be known as the God above all gods and goddesses.  Such a God, and the people who understood their mission to bear witness to this One great God faced the constant challenge of peoples who had identities based upon the pluralities of god and goddesses who functionally provided local and regional identity.

When it came to the Roman Empire and their theologies, the Roman pantheon was receptive to the worship of many gods and goddesses, and this was coupled with a political regulatory theology in the cult of the Emperor.  A divinized Emperor was to be given devotion and allegiance, and one could perform devotion to a variety of gods and goddesses in various Temples to their honor along with devotion to the cult of the Emperor.

If we understand the Roman Empire's tolerance toward all gods and goddesses contrasted with the exclusive God of the Jews, then perhaps we can understand and appreciate the precarious situation which Jesus arrived at in first century Palestine.

The Jewish people needed strategies of resistance to assimilation into the Greek and Roman Empires which had successively controlled their land.  How could they maintain crucial features of their ancient identity?  The council of the Sanhedrin, made up of various members of diverse religious parties functioned to negotiate the survival status for the Jews in Palestine who lived in their homeland which under Roman control.  How could exclusive devotion to the belief in one God be maintained in a situation that asked that their God be but one of the god and goddesses in a pantheon which co-existed with a religious cult of the divinized Emperor?

How could Jews live lives separate from their conquerors?  It was hard to do.  Their own ritual purity rules did not allow them to interact closely with Gentile soldiers, government administrators, and people of commerce.  Some Jews who worked with the Romans authorities had to forgo ritual adherence required to be as it were "Jews in good standing."

We can perhaps understand Rabbi Jesus and the Jesus Movement to be a compromising reform.  It involved being realistic about the fact that the Romans were not going to go away.  The ones who were unrealistic were those who sought comfort in apocalyptic hopes for a quick end of the world which would address the isolation issues with the hope of cosmic intervention.  Quite quickly the obvious delay in the end of the world, meant that a strategy for realistically dealing with the conditions which existed was required.

The Gospels were written during the time when it was obvious that the delay of the end of world was an unending delay.  How could a person of faith live in the Roman World and yet not be personally ruled and persuaded by the polytheism of the Roman Empire?

The Gospel writers understood Jesus of Nazareth to be an innovative strategic thinker for living within the Roman situation while retaining what they believed to be the deepest godly principles from the traditions deriving from the Hebrew Scriptures.

A major issue became, How do we convert Roman and Gentile peoples to a life style which honors the divine principles of the great God of the Hebrew Scriptures?

There occurred an analytical approach to using the Hebrew Scriptures and the traditions of practice as precedence for establishing new community practice.

As the Gospel states it, one had to have the wisdom to distinguish between human precepts and God's commandment.  God's commandment was to love God, and love one's neighbor as oneself.   The human precepts included the accrued cultural practices which pertained within a perceived ideal community which could be shielded from having contact with "foreigners and outsiders."

How could people of the Hebrew Scriptures live within the Roman Empire and make the great commandment to love God and one's neighbor accessible to Gentiles and to Jews who were not devoted in their ritual purity because they had to interact with too many Gentiles in their daily lives?

The Gospels present Jesus as the strategic break through for people who believed in the singular God who invited non-adherent Jews and Gentiles to a community of faith committed to the great commandments of loving the One God and loving one's neighbor as oneself.

The Gospel writers presented conflicts which occurred in the strategic love campaign of Jesus in inviting new people, different people to a community based upon the great summary of the law: Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.  And you could do this as a Gentile and Roman citizens and as Jewish persons who were not keeping the ritual purity codes within the synagogue.

We need to admit that the love strategy which derived from Jesus of Nazareth gave Christians a different mission than the Jews of the synagogue had and have continued to have.  Too often people have used the "family religious" dispute found in the Gospel to justify an endless antipathy between Christians and Jews, and the cruelties of anti-Semitic behaviors witness to the failure in loving of one's neighbor and accepting the different missions which Jews and Christians have in how we strategically practice the love of God and our neighbors.

Religious Movements, even different Christian Movements have continued to evolve and differentiate in their mission strategies.  It is important not to make cultural, liturgical, or linguistic features of our smaller strategic communities in this great love mission the litmus test for the validity of how the message to love God and one's neighbor is being promulgated elsewhere.

We should continually look to the great divine commandment: Love God and our neighbors, and while we can enjoy and appreciate the features of our particular cultural strategies of our own faith community, let us not make our limited "human precepts" a replacement for the great commandment of God:  To love God and our neighbor as ourself.  This is the strategy of Jesus, and it should be ours as well. Amen.