Sunday School, February 9, 2025: The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany C

Sunday School, February 9, 2025: The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany C

Themes

Theme:  Speaking the language of fishermen

When Jesus taught people he used language that they could understand.  With farmers he spoke about sowing seeds and about grapevines.  With shepherds he spoke about raising sheep. With fishermen, he spoke about fishing.  Jesus told them that he was a fisherman and he did not fish for fish, he fished for people.  Fishing might be fun to do for recreation but if it is your every day job, it might not always be so fun, especially if the fish are not biting.  Jesus told Peter, Andrew, James and John that he could teach them how to fish for people.  What did he mean by this?  It meant that he would teach them how to make friends in a special way by teaching them how to bring good news to the lives of other people.  Jesus told people God love them and forgave them.  He told them they did not have to fear death because God would preserve their lives after death.  He taught people.  Teaching people makes their lives better.  When we learn new things, we can do new things and it is like light comes on.  Jesus was a teacher and he brought light to James, John, Peter and Andrew.  They saw that Jesus was such a good teacher for them, they wanted to learn how to teach and help others.  So that is how Jesus taught them to fish for other people.

How can you fish for other people?  How can you make friends?  How can you help other people learn about God?

Learning how to be friends with others is learning how we can share good news about God’s love and care.

Sermon

What is the biggest light in our life?  We see it every day unless it is covered by clouds.  What do we call that big light in the sky?  It is the sun.  The sun is really a star that is just close to us than the other stars.  What do we need the sun for?  Many things: heat, light, growing our plants.  If we did not have the sunlight, we could not live. So it is very important.

  Today we have read from the Psalm that God, the Lord is our Light.  And we read in our Gospel story how people called Jesus as great light.

  How can God and How can people be like a light?

  A light allows us to see things that we cannot see if we don’t have a light.  A light allows us to see things differently.

  When it is dark in your bedroom sometimes a shadow can look like a big tree or something else?  But when you turn on the light you find out it was just a shadow of the curtain.

   God helps us to see things differently.  God’s light is shared with people.  God’s light was in Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ is light because he showed us how to live better lives.  His life was like a light because he taught people and he healed people and he helped people.

   So you have people who are like lights in your life?  When you lose your toys, your mom says, did you look under your bed?  And her words are like a light shining to help you find your toys.  Your parents are like lights for you because they care for you and teach you new things.  Your teachers are like lights for you because they teach you new things.

  Do you know what Jesus said to his friends?  He said, “You are the lights of this world.”  What did he mean by that?

  He meant that we all have to live in a way to show others how to live better lives.  How do we live our lives to be like lights?  By loving and caring for one another and by making friends.  Jesus told his friends who were fishermen that they should fish for people.  What does that mean?  Does it mean we should try to catch people with a net or try to get them to swallow a fish hook?  No.  Jesus liked to speak in riddles; to fish for people was his way of saying, they needed to become very good at making friends.  How do we make friends?  By loving and caring for them, by helping them,

  Today we have learned how our lives can be like a light.  By teaching others.  And we’ve learn how to fish for people.  By learning how to make friends.

  Okay let turn on our lights now.  Let me see you shine.  And lets go fishing.  Let go and make some friends.

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

February 9, 2025 The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany

Gathering Songs: Holy, Holy, Holy; Here I Am Lord; Eat This Bread, I Will Make You Good Fisher Folk

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: Holy, Holy, Holy  (Renew # 204)

1.      Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.

Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty! God in three persons, blessed Trinity.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

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

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

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

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

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

Liturgist: A reading from the prophet Isaiah.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said:  "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory."  Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!"

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 138

I will give thanks to you O LORD with my whole heart; * before the gods I will sing your praise.

I will bow down toward your holy temple and praise your Name, * because of your love and faithfulness.

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 Luke

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen were washing their nets. Jesus got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When Jesus had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets." When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father Phil

Children’s Creed

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

Since God is so great and we are so small,

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

We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us 

     by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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

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

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

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

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

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

People:                       And also with you.

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

Offertory Hymn: Here I Am, Lord (Renew!, # 149)

1        I, the Lord of seas and sky, I have heard my people cry.  All who dwell in dark and sin my hand will save.  I who made the stars of night, I will make their darkness bright, Who will bear my light to them?  Whom shall I send?   Here I am, Lord.  Is it I, Lord?  I have heard You calling in the night.  I will go, Lord, if you lead me.  I will hold Your people in my heart.

2        I, the Lord of snow and rain, I have borne my people’s pain.  I have wept for love of them.  They turn away.  I will break their hearts of stone, give them hearts of love alone.  I will speak my word to them.  Whom shall I send?   Here I am, Lord.  Is it I, Lord?  I have heard You calling in the night.  I will go, Lord, if you lead me.  I will hold your people in my heart.

3        I, the Lord of wind and flame, I will tend the poor and lame, I will set a feast for them.  My hand will save.  Finest bread I will provide till their heart be satisfied.  I will give my life to them.  Whom shall I send?   Here I am, Lord.  Is it I, Lord?  I have heard You calling in the night. I will go, Lord, if you lead me.  I will hold your people in my heart.

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,

(Children may 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: 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 Hymn: Eat This Bread   (Renew! # 228)

            Eat this bread, drink this cup, come to me and never be hungry.

            Eat this bread, drink this cup, trust in me and you will not thirst.

Post-Communion Prayer

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

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

And His Presence has been known to us.

We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God

    and brothers and sisters in Christ.

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

     remembering that the blessing in the bread and wine spreads into each time,

place and person in our lives,

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

Closing Song: I Will Make You Good Fisher Folk (All the Best Songs for Kids, #131)

1.      I will make you good fisher folk, good fisher folk, good fisher folk,

I will make you good fisher folk if you follow me.

If you follow me, if you follow me,

I will make you good fisher folk if you follow me.

2.      Hear Christ calling, “Come unto me, come unto me, come unto me.”

Hear Christ calling, “Come unto me, I will give you rest.

I will give you rest, I will give you rest.”

Hear Christ calling, “Come unto me, I will give you rest.”

Dismissal:  

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

People: Thanks be to God!

Jesus Added a Final Ritual

The Presentation    February 2, 2025
Malachi 3:1-4   Ps.84:1-6
Heb. 2:14-18    Luke 2:22-40

Lectionary Link

In the theology of Paul, Jesus was the emptying of the divine into human.  In John, Jesus was the Word made flesh.  The Gospel writers in Matthew and Luke borrowed from Isaiah to name Jesus as Immanuel, meaning God with us.

How could God the great one know how we as humans feel if God did not have a showing of some actual identity with the human situation?

The writer of Hebrews wrote, "Jesus was tested by what he suffered, so that he might help those who are being tested."

Jesus Christ is one who Christians believed to be bi-lingual; speaking divinity and humanity equally well.

The Word who is from the beginning, the Christ who is all in all becomes made flesh in peoples of all cultures but the image of God upon all people was lost in generality; there needed to be a particular exemplar as a showing within a particular family.

The Gospels present Jesus as being God with us as his community is presented as learning to be with each other.  How does human community learn and practice being with each other?  We do it as being ritually inclined.

The Jewish people, like all people are ritually inclined.  We have real life theater events of ceremony and rituals.  Rituals are community celebrations of belonging together with common identity.

Today is the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord, and so occurring on Sunday, it takes liturgical precedence over what would have otherwise been the fourth Sunday after the Epiphany.

The writer of Luke Gospel is keen to present Jesus as being ritualized into his Jewish faith and culture.  And we might assume the liturgical nature of the entire Infancy narratives in Luke because they are interspersed with songs.  The Canticles of our liturgy come from the Lucan Canticles, the Gloria or song of the angels, songs of impending birth by Mary and Zachariah, the Song of Simeon on the occasion of the Presentation of Jesus to the priests.

This Presentation event is the pidyon ha-ben ceremony, which literally means the redeeming of the son, and derives from a pillar event of community identity for Jews, the events which comprise Passover.  The oldest male child after a month of life is presented to the priest in this ceremony as a remembrance of how the lives of the first born males were spared through the act of obedience in the offering of the Passover lamb.  This salvation event for the Jews is dynamically remembered in this redemption ceremony.

Jesus is proclaimed as God with us, and he is one with us in our ritual behaviors, in our ceremonies of how we observe our belonging behaviors with each other.

The conception of Jesus was announced, and Mary composes a song.  Mary and Elizabeth perhaps had a baby shower event together.  Jesus was circumcised, Jesus was presented to the priest after thirty days, Jesus was found in the temple at the age of 12 perhaps instantiating a "coming into adulthood" occasion.  Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and the words of John commissioned his ministry, his vocation.  And Jesus died and was given the proper ritual burial.

Jesus as God with us, was also Jesus with us in the burial rite of passage which his friends observed for him.

There is an interesting appendix to the burial ritual of Jesus.  It is an innovating rite of passage, called the resurrection:  The belief that there is the preserving grace of God in our afterlives.  

If the Passover event was a redemption event which became a ritual for the Jewish people, and one which Jesus took part in; the addition of the ultimate redemption event which we call the resurrection is the rite of passage which we observe in our Annual Easter liturgy, and in our Sunday Masses.

Let us be grateful for the emptying of the life of God into Jesus who came to belong with us within a specific community which had specific rituals of belonging.  Let also be grateful for the Easter Ritual of belonging which was initiated because of the afterlife of the Risen Christ, who became known widely by those who knew his mystical re-appearances in manifold ways tailored to the specifics of each person.

Jesus was God with us going through all the life rituals including death and burial, so that he might add the great Easter Ritual to help us belong forever in the preserving grace of God.  Amen.

Aphorism of the Day, January 2025

Aphorism of the Day, January 31, 2025

A "doctrine" of the similar means that human experience and language though always having new and fresh occasion of articulation, will include experiences with language description of things which will happened in the past.  Do things which happened in the past predict that similar things will happen in the future?   They are predictive in a statistical approximate way; things similar to the past can happen again under new circumstances.  The New Testament writers told the stories about Jesus across what the believe represented his witness in similar words of accounts found in Hebrew Scripture.  Did Babe Ruth's record of homeruns predict Hank Aaron's breaking of that record?  No, but the story of Hank Aaron is told with direct reference to Babe Ruth.  The future only become a fulfilled prediction of the past in that same future.  From current interpretation we write about the past with the future anterior, writing, "it will haven happened in this way."

Aphorism of the Day, January 30, 2025

Is it meaningful to state that there is a master narrative and a total view of the world?  To do such would imply an everlasting language user who could comprehend everything across time.  No human can be an everlasting language user; the best that we can do is use discourses of totality based upon an assumption that imply specific relative differences in our time and place exists in the entire universe of differences across all time.  We cannot speak for Totality, because Totality is not yet finished; Totality still in becoming.

Aphorism of the Day, January 29, 2025

Words continually refer and defer to something that they are not but they cannot "stick" to that something because they only defer to other different words.  Words may seem to have an objective connected identity to their referent but it is fleeting because of future falsification or deconstruction.

Aphorism of the Day, January 28, 2025

American founders who were influenced by the elevation of Reason in the Enlightenment, wanted to apply that reason to governing, which meant removing the influence of things which did not comport to reason, i.e., religion, from the political process.  They believed that religion could be a para-cultural phenomenon to the political process without interfering in the process itself.  Initially, such separation was primarily done to keep Christians from harming each other because of varying beliefs and practices within the members of different Christian bodies.  Keeping religion as a para-cultural phenomenon has been the perpetual challenge especially when politicians push for a national religion to be established through government.  If the Christian religion were to be the established religion, what variety would it be and who would get to decide?  Christians in practice are those who are divided while even having a common savior and founder; why would it be wise to import Christian disagreement into national government?

Aphorism of the Day, January 27, 2025

The problem with religious apologists and their critics is that they are arguing with misconceptions.  Humans have language and having language means we are multi-discursive.  We are poetic and we are commonsensical or scientific, i.e., we believe in significant consistency in sensorial data, i.e., a uniformity of natural causes.  But if religionists try to argue that the poetic is scientific and the scientists treat such misuse of genre as definitive of what being religious is, then we have a very confused discussion.  Religionists and scientists can both be persons who are poets and scientists at the same time.  The moral of the story is get your discursive practices rightly identified and used accordingly.

Aphorism of the Day, January 26, 2025

The Gospel as good news is view by Christians as Jesus exemplifying the goodness which was declared by God on all things in creation in the creation story.  We are made in and for goodness and Jesus exemplified what human goodness can mean for us even in the most dire circumstances when so many human behaviors are not very good.

Aphorism of the Day, January 25, 2025

Paul did not see Jesus during his life.  He wrote before the Gospel writers and it was his mystagogy which in part gets put in Gospel genre format years after he wrote.

Aphorism of the Day, January 24, 2025

Humanity reached a point in being language users as to ponder that our origin derived from some superior language user who spoke us and everything into existence.  Naming is the human supreme human ability, so One greater than us from whom we derive must be so great in Naming as to speak and have that speaking made flesh in what we know to have come to existence.  Language and knowing existence is inseparable.

Aphorism of the Day, January 23, 2025

A person of faith might say that God works in unseen ways.  The skeptical scientist might say that not seeing God's work means that God is not.

Aphorism of the Day, January 22, 2025

Probability means that a variety of things are going to happen and we cannot know specifically the future even though we can have good statistical prediction about many things, like water will boil at a certain temperature.  In the realm of how things personally effect regarding a fortune or a woe, it may be simple religious fatalism to say God creates weal and woe.  Beyond probability is the Creative Freedom of God which can appear weak when it submits to the lesser but genuine agents of freedom.

Aphorism of the Day, January 21, 2025

Constitutional scholars call the American Constitution brilliant and flawed, flawed because women, non-property owner, black persons who were slaves, indigenious peoples, were not regarded to be persons in the image of God who had the  equal rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  The Bible is called the Word of God, and Psurely, nothing could be a more brilliant bestowal, but it was written from the context of cultures which practiced slavery and subjugation of women and other works deemed unthinkable today.  Can we say that the principles of God are found therein while at the same time judging ancient cultures that could not fully practice what love and God and neighbor meant in its fullness?  It is ironic that we read how God told the armies of Israel to slaughter all living beings of their enemies, and then the public lector ends the reading by saying, "The word of the Lord."

Aphorism of the Day, January 20, 2025

The distillation of the message of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., into the every day fabric of American life has not yet been achieved.  Mary's Magnificat declaration still has not been achieved: God has cast down the mighty from their thrones; the rich God has sent away empty.

Aphorism of the Day, January 19, 2025

Meditation is the art of pretending that we don't live and move and have our knowable being in Words.

Aphorism of the Day, January 18, 2025

The beginning of knowing anything begins with the mystery of how Word or language is co-extensive with anything that can be known to exist.  The world without language is designated by language as "the world without language."  Hence even it comes to identity through the contrast of having language.

Aphorism of the Day, January 17, 2025

There are no existing "autographs" or original copies of any biblical books.  There are various texts which have been discovered and dated to many years after the purported "originals."  What existed before any original were the communities and people who "received" and wrote them.  

Aphorism of the Day, January 16, 2025

It could be that John's Gospel's does not have parables because the stories about the Jesus are used as "sign parables" to illustrate in teaching stories the presence of the Risen Christ to the Johannine community.  The subtext of John's Gospel is words are "spirit" and non-literal meanings are the preferred meanings.

Aphorism of the Day, January 15, 2025

A sign is a constellation of socially coded meanings and does not have sign value for those who don't know the codes.

Aphorism of the Day, January 14, 2025

The story of Helen Keller illustrates that language ability an inner innate ability has to be activated from one's exterior world through sensorial interaction or one's inner language is so individual that it manifests frustrating behaviors as interpreted by those who possess language.  A pre-language baby may have its language ability expressed in a similar way.  Why can't anyone understand me?  Eventually the baby has no choice but to conform by learning the imposed language of his or her environment.  Individuality then becomes expressed as how can I be non-conforming me while conforming to the language of them.

Aphorism of the Day, January 13, 2025

The archaeology of who we are is found in history as a "test pit" hole to look at strata of word use in the various streams of traditions of language use which have come comprise our lives.  Life involves the impossible task of trying to name the mystery of everything all at once in words which feign to freeze mystery in an observable form, and the best we can do is to attain some insights to cope with where we are now.

Aphorism of the Day, January 12, 2025

When people read the Bible, they do what Roland Barthes called "writerly reading," i.e., the reader is in the role of the writer because the reader essentially filters or writes the texts from the biases of ones particular context.  There is no way to confirm a coincidence of meaning with the writers of the ancient texts since exact meanings conveyed in words that derive from oral traditions and having been transcribed and translated in various ways creates such a range of meanings some of which can be contradictory.

Aphorism of the Day, January 11, 2025

Modern science has contributed to the clarification of language genres or discourses exposing the need to distinguish between discourses and their appropriate meaning values.  A scientist can enjoy fantasy, science fiction, and all sorts of utopian cinematic presentations as having the meaningful truths of the sheer expression of the imagination.  But if one tries to tell the scientist that such imaginations are or could be empirical true, the scientist would say you are trying to switch the meaning appropriate to one mode of discourse to another resulting in wrong meaning application.  A scientist who can read the Bible with mystagogic imagination does not have to say every event reported in the Bible has to conform to natural laws to be meaningful true.

Aphorism of the Day, January 10, 2025

It has been the goal of some modern biblical scholarship to disprove the accounts of the Bible as being reliable historical records while forgetting the very historical reality of communities who have forged their identities to survive within hostile situations bringing language products in text to inculcate their community values.  It's like scholars are saying, "I wish it hadn't happened in this way, and I wish that such community forming mysticism didn't happen now, and surely we have to stamp out this silly mystagogic phenomenon."  At the same time, faith communities have to hold themselves responsible for the outcomes of their community identity behaviors as to whether they truly represent what love of God as highest value means as well as loving our neighbors, remembering that love practices always have to be updated in time or we still would justify the subjugation of women, the horrors of slavery, and the treatment of some peoples bodies as inconvenient to the assumption that psycho-social-gender identities were forged by cookie cutter infallible binary ways.  Faith communities have to be responsible to not be bad thinkers and bad actors in representing the best way to live.

 Aphorism of the Day, January 9, 2025

On the day when eulogists praised a departed president for his character and the importance of character for elected presidents, it became starkly evident that the major of American voters have not had the character to vote for the better person of character.

Aphorism of the Day, January 8, 2025

Rituals happen because repetitions happen within human community.  Brushing one's teeth is a personal ritual, a hygienic ritual in which children at an early age are given initiation into a behavior of self care, in the way in which one's community defines self care of one's teeth.  Rituals have contexts; baptism or water purification rites have their meanings contextually defined within the various communities which practice such rites.  Jesus is presented as being baptized by John the Baptist.  John's baptism was different from the proselyte mikvah baptisms admitting non-Jews into Judaism.  Perhaps John brought a baptismal practice that he had learned in a wilderness community such as the Essenes, and even though there seemed to be a community following of John the Baptist, there is no indication that baptism was a membership requirement.  Jesus did not need a baptism to become the Jew that he already was; his baptism, I think, is viewed by writers as another moment in his history of becoming completely identified with humanity and having specific location within the area of influence of John the Baptist and his followers.

Aphorism of the Day, January 7, 2024

Many Bible readers in temporally provincial ways have been genre-benders when they misread the Bible.  Beginning with common sense reality and/or scientific perspective as the only meaningful criteria for truth, mis-readers do not think biblical writers had the contextual writing sensitivity to use the available genres available to write about their sublime experiences of mystery of the survival of a continuing community of people who were constituted by their interpretive claims of having mystical experiences of the afterlife manifestation that came to named the Risen Christ or the Holy Spirit.

Aphorism of the Day, January 6, 2025

The Epiphany for Christians is celebration of what they view as entering the era of strategic universal offering of the love of God being always already available to everyone.  Christians deny such a reality when they make requirements to membership as being equal to the fact that everyone is a member of God's family because God did an inside job on everyone by placing the divine image there.

Aphorism of the Day, January 5, 2025

To say that there are "errors" in the Bible is like saying to a poet, "There are errors in your poem."  The Bible includes in its textual forms what it is and one can say I don't like this for such and such reason or I don't like the particular way that you read it, but to say there are errors is irrelevant to it having meanings.  We don't say about Plato's Socratic dialogues, "There are errors in his dialogues."  Persons need to be in a right reading relationship with the Bible or any writing.  It seems as though some people are angry about the existence of the Bible as ancient literature and/or upset about how many humans have interpreted and misinterpreted and applied its profoundly influential meanings in the cultures of people who have been formed by reading it.

Aphorism of the Day, January 4, 2025

The way some people read the Bible has led some people to atheism or to the unwitting falsehood of implying that one cannot be a poet and a scientist at the same time.  Persons wrote the Bible as multi-discursive users of language; readers of the Bible are multi-discursive users of language and should read the mystagogic aesthetic portions as such and the portions written with common sense perception as such.  Bible readers should be simply encouraging readers to stay within their discursive lanes when explicating biblical meanings.

Aphorism of the Day, January 3, 2025 

It is historical true that portions of manuscripts of New Testament writings have been found dating from the second century to the most complete manuscript being found in the 4th century.  These writings would indicate a tradition which came to writing of authors who employed the writing genres available in their times to communicate a message about how Jesus of Nazareth defined for them the most cherished human values in their lives.  They wrote about his life and his afterlife experienced as mystical experience as it pertained to the crucial human questions about the meaning and mission of one's life and the vision of what one's afterlife might be.  The life of Jesus was written "under the influence" of mystical experiences.  Other writings about Jesus written under the influence of mystical experiences have not made it into canonical Scriptures.

Aphorism of the Day, January 2, 2025

The word perfection as a state of being should be replaced with the notion of completeness a the last occasion in continuous omni-becoming.  One can say from one's position that all is not what one wants everything to be but one cannot say that all is not completely at that it has become.  The partial does not have the capacity to make a value judgment upon completeness, even while one sees and knows in part about the partial things that one sees and knows and on which makes continuous value appraisals.

Aphorism of the Day, January 1, 2025

Plato imagined perfection as being changeless.  Trying to merge changelessness while being limited to the effects of time is impossible unless a final future already has been determined and integrated all of the imperfections in time as having to have been necessary for some final changeless state.  Perfection which does not allow for genuine freedom of the perpetual surpassing occasions of time makes it some robotic state negating moral and spiritual validity.

Quiz of the Day, January 2025

Quiz of the Day, January 31, 2025

The nunc dimittis was offered at what occasion?

a. the birth of John the Baptist

b. the Presentation 

c. the Circumcision of Jesus

d. the angels in the sky at the birth of Jesus

Quiz of the Day, January 30, 2025

Which Gospels have two multiplication of fish and loaves stories?

a. Mark and John

b. Matthew and Luke

c. Luke and John

d. Matthew and Mark

e. Matthew and John

Quiz of the Day, January 29, 2025

Paul had a serious disagreement with which of the 12 disciples of Jesus?

a. Philip

b. Mark

c. Cephas

d. James

Quiz of the Day, January 28, 2025

Thomas Aquinas favored which two philosophers in his writings?

a. Plato and Aristotle

b. Aristotle and Avicenna 

c. Plato and Augustine

d. Aristotle and Augustine

Quiz of the Day, January 27, 2025

What did Paul say about people who followed Christ but preached a "different Gospel" than the one which he preached?

a. there are many sheep but one Shepherd

b. they are accursed

c. they need to repent

d. they need to submit to his authority

Quiz of the Day, January 26, 2025

What is not a difference between the Apostles and Nicene Creeds?

a. liturgical use

b. Pronouns of the reciters

c. confession in communion of saints in one

d. confession that Jesus is consubstantial with the Father

e. confess that Jesus descended into hell in one

f.  belief in the resurrection of the body

Quiz of the Day, January 25, 2024

Two persons named Ananias appear in what book of the New Testament?

a. Acts of the Apostles

b. Galatians

c. Philemon

d. Luke

Quiz of the Day, January 24, 2025

The Mustard Seed parable is not found in which Gospel?

a. Matthew

b. Mark

c. Luke

d. John

Quiz of the Day, January 23, 2025

The following was not called a "messiah" in the Bible?

a Jesus

b. David

c. Cyrus the Great

d. John the Baptist

e. Joash

f.  Jacob

Quiz of the Day, January 22, 2025

In what country did Biblical Fundamentalism begin?

a. Israel

b. England

c. Bohemia

d. U.S.A

Quiz of the Day, January 21, 2025

What Gospel pericope would indicate best whether Jesus was literate?

a. arguing with the Temple leaders as a young boy

b. writing letters in the sand

c. being called the Word of God in John

d. being called the Word made flesh

e. account of him reading Isaiah in a synagogue liturgy

Quiz of the Day, January 20, 2025

According to the words of Jesus, where might be the origin of the word "Gospel?"

a. Matthew

b. Mark

c. Luke

d. John

e. Isaiah

f.  Psalms

Quiz of the Day, January 19, 2025

Of the following, who is first associated with the city of Jerusalem?

a. David

b. Saul

c. Samuel

d. Melchizedek

Quiz of the Day, January 18, 2025

What saints bookend the week of Prayer for Christian Unity?

a. Hilda and Augustine

b. Peter and Paul

c. Peter and John

d. Paul and John

Quiz of the Day, January 17, 2025

Who are the Father and Mother of monasticism?

a. Francis and Clare

b. Anthony and Scholastica

c. Anthony and Emma

d. Paul the Hermit and Emma

Quiz of the Day, January 16, 2025

What is not true about glossillaia?

a. it is the gift of tongues

b. it can refer to speaking a human language not ones own

c. it can refer to sounds that are not a known human language

d. it is a gift of the Spirit

e. Paul did not have this gift

 Quiz of the Day, January 15, 2025

In John's Gospel, where did Jesus perform his "first sign?"

a. Capernaum

b. Nazareth

c. On the Jordan River

d. Cana

Quiz of the Day, January 14, 2025

Of the following, which would not be an element of John's Gospel?

a. I am sayings

b. a book of signs

c. parables

d. long discourses

 Quiz of the Day, January 13, 2025

Which of the following is not in the gifts of the Spirit list of Paul in 1 Corinthian 12?

a. love

b. faith

c. miracles

d. healing

e. tongues

d. utterances of knowledge and wisdom

e. interpretation of tongues

f.  prophecy

g. discernment of spirits

Quiz of the Day, January 12, 2025

What is not true about the baptism of Jesus?

a. it was in the Jordan River

b. John the Baptist presided

c. Jesus insisted that it was necessary

d. the voice of God declared Jesus as beloved Son

e. his baptism is recorded in the Gospel of John

Quiz of the Day, January 11, 2025

Where in the Bible is it written that the Spirit appears in bodily form?

a. in the creation story

b. in the Word Made Flesh

c. at the baptism of Jesus

d. at the resurrection of Jesus

Quiz of the Day, January 10, 2025

What biblical prophets were used to explain the ministry of John the Baptist by the Gospel writers?

a. Malachi

b. Isaiah

c. Elijah

d. Jeremiah

e. Hosea

f. a and b

g. a,b, and c

h. a,b, and d

Quiz of the Day, January 9, 2025

King Ahab's wife Jezebel is mentioned in what New Testament book?

a. Romans

b. Jude

c. Revelations

d. 2 Peter

Quiz of the Day, January 8, 2025

Which Gospel begins with the baptism of Jesus by John?

a. Matthew

b. Mark

c. Luke

d. John

Quiz of the Day, January 7, 2025

The Nicolaitans are mentioned in which book of the Bible?

a. Jude

b. Luke

c. Ephesians

d. Revelations

Quiz of the Day, January 6, 2025

When did December 25th replace January 6th as the date for Christmas?

a. in the 1 A.D. when Jesus was born

b. in 1582

c. when the Romans made the winter solstice the date for Christmas

d. the date didn't change for many Christians

e. when Western Christendom changed from the Julian to Gregorian calendar

f. two of the above

g. three of the above

Quiz of the Day, January 5, 2025

Who said to Jesus, "Show us the Father?"

a. Thomas

b. Peter

c. James

d. Nathaniel

e. Philip

Quiz of the Day, January 4, 2024

What is the other names for Mt. Sinai?

a. Nebo

b. Horeb

c. Har  ha-Elohim

d. Har Bashan

e. Har Babnunim

f. all the above

g. b through e

Quiz of the Day, January 3, 2024

Which Gospel has the distinctive "I am" statements of Jesus?

a. Matthew

b. Mark

c. Luke

d. John

Quiz of the Day, January 2, 2024

What people mentioned in the Bible did not experience death?

a. Melchizadek and Elijah

b. Melchizadek, Elijah, and Enoch

c. Enoch and Elijah

d. Jesus, Enoch, and Elijah

e. Melchizadek and Enoch

Quiz of the Day, January 1, 2024

Circumcision was the sign of a covenant with whom?

a. Adam

b. Noah

c. Abraham

d. Abram

e. Eve

f. Sarai