Sunday School, November 3, 2024 24 Pentecost B 26, All Saints' Sunday

  Sunday School, November 3, 2024  24 Pentecost B 26, All Saints' Sunday

Themes:

All laws are not equal in importance.  For example, it is more important not to kill than not to jay walk, even though both laws have special use. 

A religious man wanted to hear from Jesus about which laws of the 601 laws were the most important.  Jesus said, “Love God and love your neighbor as yourselves.”

If we work to please God and do what is fair to our neighbors all of the time, then we will be keeping the most important laws.

Some time we might like to replace religious laws for the more important laws.  For example, if some people made an animal sacrifice to keep a religious law, would that stand in place of having to tell the truth?

If we come to church because we think that it is a religious law for us, do we think that we can lie and steal because we have gone to church?

The practice of less important laws cannot replace the practice of the greatest laws.

The saints are those who became famous models for us because they were successful at keeping the law to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves.  If that is what we are doing in our lives, then we are learning how to be saints too.

Sermon

  Today is All Saints Sunday and in our lessons from Holy Scripture we have read about read about the law.  We read the charge that Moses gave to the children of Israel.  He told them that when they went into the Promised Land, that the Law was to be the crucial identity of their lives.  Today, we believe with the advent of the T-shirt, clothes became the billboard for textual messages of all sorts.  In our day, a T-shirt allows a person to literally wear their language.  But what is our relationship to the text that we wear.  What textual message could I wear that I could live up to?  My T-shirt could read, “I am a gray and balding older man.”  Well, that would be true.

  Long before textual T-shirts, the people of the Hebrew and Jewish faith have worn their texts.  Part of the prayer costume for Jews includes phylacteries.  These are leather boxes with the text of the Torah written within them.  They are strapped around the head and on the wrist.  They literally are the worn text of the Torah and they fulfilled this command of Moses:   “Bind the words of the commandments as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead.”  In a very symbolic way the writing of the commandments worn on the hand and the forehead state the principle that the commandment cannot remain a dead letter upon the page; the commandments has to take control of one’s thought life and the commandments have to be internalized into our hands, into our actions and body language.

  What can happen instead of the Torah living in our minds and in our actions?  We can replace justice and fairness by devising a series of religious ritual behaviors to stand in place of actually doing justice.  So, it became a practice to make the religious sacrifices of the prescribed animals and that kind of religious behavior was done, while the orphans and the widows went without food.  So prescribe religious ritual behavior became a substitute for living a life of justice, compassion and care.  Ritual behavior is easier than justice.  It is very messy business to try to bring justice to everyone.  Clergy are happy with ritual behavior; the ancient priests of Israel could get some of the best cuts of meat for their own tables with the prescribed animal sacrifices.  Clergy can fund the church and their jobs with prescribe obligatory religious and ritual behavior; okay so you’re not perfect and justice is not realized in society, but just come, give your tithe, make your confession, receive your absolution and go to Mass, and you get a clean slate.

 

 On All Saints Day, we confess Jesus to be the Saint of Saints.  Jesus is the Law of all Laws.  When one speaks in generalizations about faith communities, one would say that the Torah or the Law is central to Judaism.  But what is central to Christianity is Jesus Christ.  In Jesus Christ, the message of God does not come on stone tablets as written laws; in Jesus Christ, God comes as embracing the entire personhood.  What is greater?  Writing or Personhood?  Even though language and writing are what make human beings the unique creature, the appearance of God in a human being bespeaks a belief that human beings can only access that which is greater than human life, through human life.  Our belief in Jesus Christ is a belief that God does not just communicate through writing on stone tablets; God embraces the entire human experience as a way for us to know and celebrate the fact that being human, also means recognizing that life involves a recognition of life that is more than human.  It is the more than human life of God that comes to us in the Jesus Christ.

And what it reveals to us is that in a world of time, we are always invited to be More than we are right now.  We are always invited to surpass ourselves in excellence.  Believing in God means that we believe in the immensity of the quantity of future occasions of existence and those future occasions invite us to further invention, further creativity, further excellence.

  The future will likely change the details of human law of the past.  Why?  Because love always requires the details and strategies of love to be worked out in new situations.  We write laws and will continue to writer laws in new situations because love and justice are not fixed states of what can ever be permanently attained.  Practicing love and justice is never completed; we have to keep at it again and again.  As much as the founders of our country believed in their laws that “all people were created equal” they were blinded to achieve that in their actions as long as they accepted tacitly the practice of slavery and the subjugation of women.  Our founders preached a beautiful law and justice but at the same time, they did not fully realize law as a full completion of the work of justice.

  This never finished work of love and justice is perhaps the chief reason that Jesus settled for the summary of all of the law into just two laws; love God and love your neighbor as yourself.  St. Paul did a similar reduction when he said that love fulfills the law.

  Does this mean that love and law are opposed to each other?  Of course not.  Law is the strategy that love and justice need to be actually practiced.  We write laws as approximations of what good and just living means in actual practice.  And how do we know?  Well, you ask people; and people will tell you when they think something is fair or just in how they are treated. 

  All of the written laws can be reduced to love because love is not just having the law written as text on a T-shirt.  Love is not placing little boxes of Torah on your forehead and hand.  Love is when my hands perform deeds of kinds; love is when my thought think thoughts of kindness.  When our body language performs and acts deeds of love and kindness, then we become living law.  We become the law of love and justice.

  And who is it who was the perfect example in life of law and justice?  It was Jesus Christ.  He was the living law.  He was God’s law in Person.  He was love and justice personified.  And on All Saints Sunday, who do we call saints?  We call saints those who embodied love and justice in their very deeds.  These were not people who gave us legal texts on how we should live; they were people who showed how to live by the example of their lives.  They were “living laws.”

  So on All Saints Sunday, we are invited to personify the law and the justice of Christ.  We can be articulate and brilliant in legal reasoning, but law is most effective when we see it in practice.  Children are perhaps the most impressionable when they cannot speak and when they cannot read.  So in the first three years of their lives they are formed mostly by the people who model what it is to be human for them.  Parents and mentors are the living law for the impressionable children.

  But we never lose our childlike impressionability; we forever have this need to be impressed.  And what are we most impressed by?  By the living practice of love and kindness.  We are impressed when we experience justice and fairness.

  All Saints Sunday is a time to celebrate those who lived love and justice with their lives.  It is a time for us to embrace what is saintly in life.  It is time for us to internalize love and justice and let love and justice be lived through every word and deed of our lives.

  Today, we sing the song of the saints of God, and we pray, “God help me to be one too.  God help me to be love and kindness in word and deeds.”  Amen.

 

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

November 3, 2024: The Twenty-Fourth Sunday and All Saints' Sunday

Gathering Songs: When the Saints; O Come Let Us Adore Him, Jesus Stand Among Us; God Is So Good

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.

Song: When The Saints Go Marching In

When the saints go marching in, when the saints go marching in.  Lord I want to be in that number, when the saints go marching in.

When the girls go marching in…..

When the boys go marching in….

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty and merciful God, it is only by your gift that your faithful people offer you true and laudable service: Grant that we may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises; 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 book of Deuteronomy

Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

   

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 119

5  Oh, that my ways were made so direct * that I might keep your statutes!

6  Then I should not be put to shame, * when I regard all your commandments.

7  I will thank you with an unfeigned heart, * when I have learned your righteous judgments.

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.

One of the scribes came near and heard the Saducees disputing with one another, and seeing that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, "Which commandment is the first of all?" Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." Then the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that 'he is one, and besides him there is no other'; and 'to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,' and 'to love one's neighbor as oneself,'--this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." After that no one dared to ask him any question.

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 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 for the Offertory: O Come, Let Us Adore Him (Renew # 1)

O come, let us adore him; O come, let us adore him; O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord.

We’ll give him all the glory.  We’ll give him all the glory; we’ll give him all the glory, Christ the Lord.

For he alone is worthy.  For he alone is worthy.  For he alone is worthy, Christ the Lord.

We’ll praise his name forever.  We’ll praise his name forever.  We’ll praise his name forever, Christ 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 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:  Jesus Stand Among Us (Renew # 237)

1-Jesus, stand among us in your risen power; let this time of worship be a hallowed hour.

2-Breathe the Holy Spirit into every heart; bid the fears and sorrows from each soul depart.

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: God is So Good (# 31 in  All the Best)

1-God is so good, God is so good, God is so good, He’s so good to me.

2-He cares for me, He cares for me, He cares for me, He’s so good to me.

3-I’ll do His will, I’ll do his will, I’ll do his will, He so good to me.

4-He is my Lord, He is my Lord, He is my Lord, He’s so good to me.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

How to Live in the Freedom of What Might Happen

23 Pentecost Cycle B Proper 25 October 27, 2024
Job 42:1-16, 10-117  Psalm 34:1-8
Hebrews 7:23-28 Mark 10:46-52

Lectionary Link

The Psalmist wrote, "I will bless the Lord at all times..."  And the the skeptic might reply, "Really?"  Why would you bless the Lord in this world of diversity which experiences the terrible inhumanity of people with each other?  Why would you bless the Lord when so many innocent people are caught in harms way of disasters and unwanted plagues and sicknesses?

Sometimes people seem to reduce God to a self evidential cosmic karma machine, meaning that God's blessings and curses are evident in what happens to anyone.  And if you have more bad things happen to you, it is because you are more bad than good.  And if you are lucky enough to have more good things happen to you, it must mean that you are more good than bad, so God as cosmic karma authenticates one's goodness through the resulting good luck.

People are often attracted to the "good luck and prosperity theology."  They use it to justify their own comfortable lives as being validated by God.  "I'm lucky because I'm good.  You're unlucky because you're bad."

The writer of Job wrote a rather satirical wisdom story to challenge the naive view that bad things happen only to bad people and that bad things are actually punishment for their corresponding badness.

Job was a good law abiding man and yet in the conditions of freedom in his life lots of bad things happened to him.  Job's friends tried to convince him that he knowingly or unknowingly had been a serious transgressor and his bad luck was an arising punishment for his sins.

Job might be tempted to doubt his Torah lifestyle?  What the use of trying to follow the rules if so many bad things happen to me?  And anyone can look at what happens to people and note that really bad and greedy people can seem to have more success and good luck than those who adhere to the law.

We follow the rules not to guarantee good luck for ourselves; rather we follow the rules to promote the best values for living well with others.  The rules will help us because in the realm of community behavior, they are actuarial wisdom about making careful choices in our community relationships.  And if we follow those rules, we can avoid results that occur from having undisciplined lives.

The Psalmist and the writer of Job present some wisdom about God, and it includes the wisdom about God's weakness.  Ironically, God is the greatest because God encompasses everything as the container of everything.  God is the greatest in freedom, and that freedom is proportionally shared with every creature and thing in creation.  For human life to be truly morally and spiritually valid and not machine like, real and true freedom must exist.  And this is where the weakness of the great God is known; God does not interfere with genuine freedom within the order of things.  Therefore we and God, are vulnerable to the entire field of probability in a truly free world.  So, all combinations of good and bad things happen to good or bad people and we can know about probable happenings but we cannot know why, when, and the precise time schedule for such events.  The inscrutable combinations of causal actions of freely acting agents cannot be precisely known.

We have to accept the vulnerability of the world of probabilities, like Job did, and like the Psalmist did.  But this situation is not the condition to disbelieve God; it is the proof of God's greatness as the purveyor of genuine freedom in our world.

The purpose of the words of wisdom in the Bible and of the Gospel for us today is to know how to live best given the actual conditions of what probably will and can happen to us and anyone in this life.  And how does God inform us how to live given the always already uncertainties of what might happen to us?

Jesus was found among us a the God-person who was to show us how God lives with the freedom of the world and how we should live with the way life actually is.

Given that good and bad outcomes and events occur, Jesus is God's message to us that God shares our vulnerabilities to what might happen.  And the witness of Jesus affirms our preference for good things, like health, sight, salvation, love, kindness and justice.  Jesus is God's affirmation that it is normal and natural to prefer life, freedom, love, justice, health, and kindness.  The ministry of Jesus is presented as a healing ministry bespeaking that health is always a preference over disease and sickness.  The really big cosmic issue of health is what one might call salvation.  Salvation is the holistic well-being of the person in this life and the next, but also for the life of the entire universe.  There is a greater health of reconciliation beyond the individual experiences of health or disease or death which we experience.

God as the great container of this cauldron of freedom in which we live is also the eventual health and reconciliation of all that happens, and Jesus came to proclaim this life of reconciliation health to us.

How should we respond to the biblical readings for today?  We, like the Psalmist can bless God at all times, in spite of the troublesome things which might be happening to us and to our world.   We can be thankful for the genuine freedom abroad in our world because it makes our moral choices truly valuable.  We can follow Jesus, as God's chief exemplar for us, in his ministry for the healing of the people of this world.  We can find our Christ-like vocations in preaching freedom to the captives, by loving mercy, doing justice, and walking humbly before this great God of freedom.

God has given us Jesus as the divine lure for how we can best live within the free conditions of life: Be healers, lovers, and cherish goodness, kindness, and justice.  Amen.

Sunday School, October 27, 2024 23 Pentecost, B proper 25

  Sunday School, October 27, 2024   23 Pentecost, B proper 25

 

Themes

How does everyone do the work of a priest?  A priest is one who prays for others.  In the life of Job, we are told that Job’s fortunes turned when he prayed for his friends.  The lesson of Job shows us that we need to turn everything that happens to us into prayer for others.  Why?  Because the things which happen to us also happen to others.  It means we share common life experiences with each other and so when we have a hard time, we should not just feel sad for ourselves we should also remember that there are other people who will have a hard time as well.  And if we turn our experience to the opportunity for prayer, then we will not feel sorry for ourselves, but we will have faith to believe our lives are connected with other people.

So let us remember our lives are given to us to pray for each other and so in our prayer we act like priests.

The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that Jesus was the best priest of all because he shared our lives and he prayed for us and he continues to pray for us.  Jesus knows how we feel because he lived through some very difficult times.  And so he understands us.

The Gospel story is about Jesus healing a blind man and giving him his sight.  The Gospels tell us that Jesus is the Light of the world and because of his teaching he helps us to see better how we should live.  Education is like light and receiving our sight.  As we learn more we can see how to do more things and live better lives.  Our ignorance is like blindness and as we learn more we receive new sight.

Jesus came to help us to learn more and see our lives better.  We are like Bartimaeus because we are always asking Jesus to open the eyes of our understanding so that we can understand what we should do and say.

A sermon on Seeing

  I want for us to pretend for a while that we cannot see.  Let’s close our eyes and pretend that we are blind, just like the man Bartimaeus.

  When you close your eyes, everything is dark, isn’t it?  Can you imagine living like this all of time?  How could you play?  How could you watch the television?  How could you get dressed? How could you eat?  You and I would have to learn how to do things in special ways if we were blind.

  We might have to get a seeing-eye dog to help lead and guide us to the right places.  People who are not able to see are heroes.  When they learn how to adjust to being blind and keep their hope and their happiness they inspire us to be thankful and also they teach us to live with faith and hope in our lives.

A person who is blind teaches us to never give up at trying to live well in our lives.

  So even though the blind man Bartimaeus had lost his seeing, he did not lose his faith and his hope.  He had more faith and hope than the other people who could see.

  And he had faith and hope to ask Jesus for a favor.  And even when people tried to keep him away from Jesus, he only cried out with more faith and more hope.  And Jesus did a great favor for him.  He helped him to see again.

  I hope that you and I never lose our ability to see.  But in our lives we sometimes will lose some very important things.

  But let us remember that when we lose important things, there are some things that we never have to lose:  We never have to lose faith, or hope, or love, or friendship.  And if we never lose faith or hope, we will be able to know that God is always close to us.

  Can you remember today, always to have faith and hope?  No matter what happens?  These are special gifts from God that we never have to lose.  Amen.

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

October 27, 2024: The Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Open Our Eyes; I Want to Walk As a Child of the Light,  Jesus, Name Above All Names; May 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.

Song: Open Our Eyes, Lord   (Renew! # 91)

Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus, to reach out and touch him and say that we love him.  Open our ears, Lord, and help us to listen, open our eyes Lord, we want to see Jesus.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty and everlasting God, increase in us the gifts of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain what you promise, make us love what you command; 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 book of Job

And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends; and the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then there came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they ate bread with him in his house; they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him; and each of them gave him a piece of money and a gold ring.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 104

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 Mark

People: Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus and his disciples came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" Jesus stood still and said, "Call him here." And they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take heart; get up, he is calling you." So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" The blind man said to him, "My teacher, let me see again." Jesus said to him, "Go; your faith has made you well." Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

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 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

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 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:  Jesus, Name Above All Names, Renew! # 26

Jesus, Name above all names, beautiful Savior, glorious Lord,

Emmanuel, God is with us, blessed Redeemer, Living Word.

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 Edelweiss)

May the Lord, Mighty God, Bless and keep you forever, Grant you peace, perfect peace,

Courage in every endeavor.  Lift up your eyes and see 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! 

  

God in the Whirlwind of Life

22 Pentecost b P.24 October 20,2024
Job 38:1-7, (34-41) Psalm 104:1-9, 25, 37b
Hebrews 5:1-10 Mark 10:35-45

Lectionary Link

In the wisdom book of Job which challenges the shallow idea that good luck is the defining sign of God's love and blessing, Job is presented as the example of bad things happening to a good person.

The various dialogues between Job and his friends, God and Satan, and Job and God are warnings to human beings about being too certain of causality in all manner of things, especially in presuming to know in precise and full ways why bad or good things happen to anyone.

In the last dialogue of God speaking to Job, God does so from the whirlwind, the storm, the tempest.  In a twister all things are put in motion and they lose their permanent location.  All one can do is to watch the spinning and wait for things to land into a location.  The realm of probabilities is the possibility of all things in time getting shuffled and rearranged, particularly from the perspectives that have been familiar to us.  What probably can happen to us and anyone can and will surprise and baffle us at times in our lives particularly when we've gotten used to sameness of the things which have been happening to us.

God from the whirlwind bespeaks to me of the great whirlwind of the body of probabilities which confronts us at anytime in this life.  In this great body of probabilities, all infinite things are in infinite causal relationships with each other, so how can we as particular and limited beings understand precise causality in the great realm of probabilities?

The writer of the book of Job essentially proclaims that Plenitude of Possibilities and Probabilities is too great for us to know because we don't have the capacity to bear them. Hence, we need to be very careful about presuming to know too much about what causes all specific things.

Bad things can make us victims, but when people assume that bad things happen because we have done something bad, then we are made twice the victims.  How can coping and healing and recovery happen when we are made twice the victim by people who victimize people with bad luck by piling guilt upon them?

How are you and I to relate to God as this great realm of probabilities?  We cannot help but be worshipful like the Psalmist.  "O Lord my God, how excellent is your greatness! you are clothed with majesty and splendor." God's greatness is the complete realm of probabilities of creative freedom and this is awesome. We cannot help but be humble and humbled about the genuine freedom of things to happen.

Like Job, we can often wonder if we have an advocate, a lawyer, a redeemer, in the midst of this great realm of what can probably happen.

The witness of the Gospel is that Jesus is the advocate and redeemer of humanity. How so? By being the priest of God to humanity. The writer of the book of Hebrews understands Jesus to be the priest of God to humanity? And what does being such an eternal priest mean, as opposed to the mere temporal priesthood of the Levites or of the church? It means God taking on an intercessory identity with human experience. It is the emptying of omni-probability into a particular probable person Jesus who is made completely vulnerable to the human cycle of birth to death. And he is known in the afterlife as a foretaste of our future afterlife. In short, Jesus is the funneled emptying of the divine into serving the entire human condition, to show a way to live through the varying probabilities of what can happen to any of us.

From the Gospel of Mark to the writer's community, the words of Jesus re-echoed the service nature of what it means to best as a human being. The disciples of Jesus are presented as people who want to be served with high positions in a triumphant Christ the King Empire. And Jesus said, "Wrong, my kingdom, my realm is within the actual conditions of human probabilities, and within this realm, to be your human best is to be one who serves others.

Jesus says that we are given ministry as wisdom, power, knowledge, and material resources to serve those who do not have the same to experience the needed dignity and joy of life. We are called to an enlightened view of causality which is: We are to exercise the ministry of causing justice, forgiveness, peace, and the well being of the vulnerable people in life with the gifts of our lives.

Jesus was the priest of God to this world, the church is the priest of Christ to the world, and the church has particular ordained priests, not to exhaust what priesthood means, but to remind the church about her priestly ministry. Our priestly ministry is to have a identity with people for the purpose of intercession and insightful service to their needs.

Let us embrace the service ministry to which we are called and commissioned by Jesus Christ. We do not know all probabilities in the whirlwind of life, but we do know that with the gift of service to others, we can be in the flow of causing future goodness. Amen.