Sunday School, March 23, 2025 3 Lent C

Sunday School, March 23, 2025   3 Lent C

Sunday school themes

What happened to Moses after his disappointment and failure?

The Story of Moses

The life of Moses was spared as a newborn baby when an Egyptian princess adopted him and raised him in a palace.  But Moses was a Hebrew man and when he saw that the other Hebrew people were treated like slaves by the Pharaoh of Egypt, he knew that God wanted him to help to make the lives of the Hebrews better.  He tried to help but in his first attempt he was opposed by both the Egyptians and also his fellow Hebrew.  He felt like a failure so he ran for his life to a faraway place.  He became a shepherd and got married and he worked for his father-in-law.  When he was tending the flock, Moses saw a bright burning bush and he heard God call him.  God wanted him to go back to Egypt to help the Hebrew people.  Moses told God that he could not do it and that he had failed.  But God told him that God is greatest of all and that God would help him.  God said that Moses would be given another chance to go and help the Hebrew people be freed from slavery in Egypt.

We can learn from our failures.  Sometimes when we fail we want to give up and quit and run away.  We may want to say, “I can’t do that.”  But our teachers and parents come to us and say, “Keep trying and you will be successful.”  Our teachers and parents forgive us and accept us and they help us because they understand that we learn through our failures.  When we are not yet perfect, God does not forget us.  God keeps coming to us and inviting us to keep trying.  When we fail to love or be kind, God keeps inviting us to learn how to be better.  The lesson that we can learn from Moses is that God does not give up on us.  God keeps coming to us and asks us to do the good work that we know that we’re supposed to do.

The Gospel Riddle of Jesus

Jesus told a riddle about the patience of God.  When a fig tree did not have any fruit, the orchard owner wanted to cut it down.  What good is a fig tree if we can’t get figs?  The gardener of the orchard said, “Don’t cut it down; let me fertilize the soil around the tree; give the tree another chance to bear fruit.”

God is love because God always gives us more chances.  God tells us to use all of the things of our past, things that are dead and gone, but things like the memories of our failures can be used to help us grow new Christian fruit in our lives, like the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, faith, self control and gentleness.  Compost is dead plant and animal remains which are used to fertilize new plants.  God is always using the human compost of our past life experience to help us produce new and wonderful fruits in our lives, the fruits of love and kindness.

Remember God did not give up on Moses when he failed.  God does not give up on us when we fail.  So we should not give up on ourselves or on each other when we have failure and some difficult times.  Let us remember that God is patient with us.  God will allow our lives to be fertilized with all that has happened to us to make us better in the future.

Children’s Sermon: Growing Christian Fruit

  If you are a fruit grower, and you plant an apple tree, what do you want to get from the tree?

  When it is time to harvest, you want to be able to pick some fruit don’t you.  You want some nice big red apples, don’t you?

  But what if harvest time comes and you go to your apple tree and you don’t find any apples to pick?  You have a lot of questions don’t you?  If the tree looks healthy and has lots of pretty green leaves, you ask why doesn’t this tree have any apples.  It looks good and it looks healthy; why doesn’t it have good apples.  Did I make a mistake?  Did I plant the wrong seed?  Did it have some hidden plant disease?  Did the bugs get under its bark?   Did it get enough water?

  What should I do with an apple tree if it doesn’t have any apples?  It looks like a good tree but I have to sell apples to make money.  What should I do?

  I will wait until next year.  I will water it better.  I will dig around it and puts some special fertilizer around the tree, some special tree food to make it grow some good apples.

  Jesus told a story about a tree farmer who grew a fig tree, but the fig tree did not have any figs on it.  So the tree farmer decided to keep the tree and put some fertilizer, some tree food around the tree in the soil and wait until next year to see if it would grow some figs.

  The story about Jesus is a story about God.  You and I are like trees that God plants in this life.  And God does not just want us to look pretty, God also wants us to be like trees that produce lots of good fruit.

  Now you and I cannot grow apples and figs can we?  What can we produce and grow?  What kind of fruit can we grow?  We can make deeds of love, joy, faith, patience, gentleness, goodness, self-control and kindness.

  Those are the kinds of fruit that God wants us to grow.  And God is always giving us more time to produce these wonderful fruits.

  Just as the tree farmer gives fertilizer to help grow good fruit, so God gives us things to help us learn how to love.  We have the Bible, we have God’s word and God’s law to teach us how we should live.  We have parents and teachers who teach us how we should live good lives.  And sometimes we have some difficult tests that we have to pass to help us get strong and get better.  Some times we don’t know how to help others until we have had a hard time and learned to get help from God and other people.  And when we learn to help other people, then God is happy because then God says, I have planted a good tree and it is producing good fruit.  I have made a good person and that person is kind and loving, so I have been a very successful God.  We can help make God a very successful God by learning to grow good human fruit.  And the fruit that you and I are supposed to make are the fruits of love and kindness.

A Family Eucharistic Liturgy

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

March 23, 2025: The Third Sunday in Lent

Gathering Songs: Simple Gifts, The Butterfly Song, Jesus Stand Among Us, My Tribute

Song: Simple Gifts (Christian Children’s Songbook # 206)

‘Tis a gift to be simple, ‘tis a gift to free, ‘tis a gift to come down where you ought to be, and when we find ourselves in the place just right, ‘twill be in the valley of love and delight.  When true simplicity is gained, to bow and to bend we won’t be ashamed.  To turn, turn will be our delight till by turning and turning we come out right.

Liturgist: Bless the Lord who forgives all of our sins.

People: God’s mercy endures forever.  Amen.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.

And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.

Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Litany of Praise: Chant: Praise be to God!

O God, you are Great!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have made us! Praise be to God!

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Praise be to God!

O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Praise be to God!

Liturgist: A reading from the Book of Exodus

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." He said further, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 63

For your loving-kindness is better than life itself; * my lips shall give you praise.

So will I bless you as long as I live * and lift up my hands in your Name.

My soul is content, as with marrow and fatness, * and my mouth praises you with joyful lips,

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

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.

Then Jesus told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?' He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put fertilizer on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'"

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 of 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: If I Were a Butterfly (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 9)

1-If I were a butterfly, I’d thank you Lord for giving me wings.  If I were a robin in the tree, I’d thank you Lord that I could sing.  If I were a fish in the sea, I wiggle my tail and I’d giggle with glee, but I just thank you Father for making me, me. 

Refrain:  For you gave me a heart and you gave me a smile.  You gave me Jesus and you made me your child.  And I just thank you Father for making me, me.

2-If I were an elephant, I’d thank you Lord by raising my trunk.  If I were a kangaroo, you know I’d hop right up to you.  If I were an octopus, I thank you Lord for my fine looks.  But I just thank you Father, for making me, me.  Refrain

3-If I were a wiggly worm, I’d thank you Lord that I could squirm.  If I were a billy goat, I’d thank you Lord for my strong throat.  If I were a fuzzy-wuzzy bear, I’d thank you Lord for my fuzzy-wuzzy hair.  And I just thank you Father for making me, me.  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.

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,

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:       Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast. 

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Jesus, Stand Among Us (Renew! # 17)

1-Jesus, stand among us at the meeting of our lives, be our sweet agreement at the meeting of our eyes; O, Jesus, we love you, so we gather here, join our hearts in unity and take away our fear.

2-So to you we’re gathering out of each and every land, Christ the love between us at the joining of our hands; O, Jesus, we love you, so we gather here, join our hearts in unity and take away our fear.

3-Jesus, stand among us at the breaking of the break, join us as one body as we worship you our head.  O, Jesus, we love you, so we gather here, join our hearts in unity and take away our fear.

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:   To God Be the Glory (Renew!  # 68)

To God be the glory, to God be the glory, to God be the glory for the things he has done.  With his blood he has saved me; with his power he has raised me; to god be the glory for the things he has done.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Abrahamic Covenant to Our Baptismal Covenant

 2  Lent C      March 16, 2025    
Gen.15:1-12,17-18   Ps. 27
Phil.3:17-4:1   Luke 13:22-35 

Lectionary Link

We've read about the institution of the Abrahamic covenant which included a ritual of smoking pot passing between animal carcasses and included one of the participants falling into a deep sleep.  Thankfully, even High Church ritual have not come to copy such expressions, though one can imagine babies and the bored sleeping deeply through church liturgies.

God's covenant to Abraham, "I will give you a child even when you and your wife are beyond child-bearing years.  And from this child, there will come countless descendants. "

Abraham's covenant to God, "Okay, I don't know how it will happen but I will act with the persuasion that it will come to pass, not because I will ever see many descendants, but because I know you and I am persuaded about you."

Such persuasion, trust, and belief was regarded to be his imputed righteousness.

The Abrahamic covenant was re-visited in the writings of St. Paul.  With this covenant, St. Paul wrote the adoption papers for the non-Jewish followers of Jesus Christ into the family of God.  St. Paul was very certain about what he called, "my Gospel."  He received it by direct revelation from Christ with whom he had such an identity that he wrote that God was pleased to reveal Christ, not to him, but in him.  Christ in him revealed a version of the Gospel which has become known to us in the Pauline writings.  The Gospel revealed to Paul included a two-path system of membership.  Jews who followed Christ were to continue to keep their adherence to the requirements of the Torah.  Non-Jewish persons were not required to fulfill the ritual requirements of Judaism in order to know an adoption into the Abrahamic family of faith.  Their belief, their faith in Christ was regarded to be the rightness of their standing with God.

Paul was very outspoken and harsh about people who wanted to mix the two paths of membership into the family of God.  The faction of people who were called Judaizers were Jews who insisted that non-Jews had to become proselyte Jews first by adhering to dietary custom and the initiatory rite for males requiring circumcision.

Paul said that if Jewish ritual adherence was required of non-Jews, it would negate the salvific work of Jesus and faith in him as the requirement of being right with God and being an adopted member of God's family.  Paul insisted that in Christ, Jews and Gentiles could live in a new spiritual family as citizens of another order of life while waiting to be caught up in the air at the second coming of Christ.

A cursory honest reading of Paul and many of the words attributed to Jesus indicate that they and their communities believed that they were living in the last days.  They were waiting to be "caught up in the air" at a second coming.

The lament of Jesus over Jerusalem, was recited in the Gospel writing of Luke some while after the destruction of Jerusalem.  A promised land was part of the Abrahamic covenant and Jerusalem was central to this promised land.  The destruction of Jerusalem meant that the land covenant had to be revised and understood in a spiritual way, in being a heavenly one, a new Jerusalem, with realization of a heavenly citizenship which would include not just the Jews but all people.

The lament of Jesus over Jerusalem expresses the grief of seeing how people could not accept the insights of prophets who discerned that new understanding about God needed to be attained.  The Jewish Wars were in part inspired by the apocalyptic fervor of zealot Jews who believed in a God who would help Davidic-like messianic forces expel the Romans from their land, but alas this kind of Messiah was not the suffering servant Messiah who Jesus turned out to be, at least in his first coming.  The lament of Jesus shows that the followers of Jesus regarded him to have the heart and compassion of a mother who wanted her children to come into their mature adulthood status in God's family.  But many were held back by their preconceived notion about the extent of God's plan for all the people of the world.  And Jesus, in apocalyptic words, proclaims that in some future they would be able to say, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."

How are you and I supposed to honestly appropriate the writings from Holy Scriptures which we have read today.  Our liturgy and Scriptures incorporate a belief in a future coming.  We can affirm the function of being apocalyptic without pretending to think that we know specifically what it means or pretending to make the coping with oppression imagery of suffering people into specifically predictive events in our own time.

We like Paul, can affirm a universal heavenly citizenship known through particular covenants within our lives.  As Episcopalians, we express our covenant in baptismal vows in which we promise to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves.  This how we honor the Abrahamic covenant as well as our covenant with Christ to invite everyone to the love of God.

We can understand the apocalyptic function, namely, the visualization of the end of suffering, particular suffering, for some better after suffering state when justice for the oppressed is restored.  Too many comfortable Christians today, literalize the apocalyptic as a way of falsely implying, that "God is for me and my correct positions on God, Christ, and the Bible, and my God is going to come show you that I am right, and you are wrong, and my God is going to do it with force."  This kind of apocalyptic God is not the loving and attractive and mothering hen of Jesus who laments over those who are hindered by their own immature smallness of heart and who need to be overwhelmed by a loving God experience which draws them to confess "Bless is he who comes in the name of the Lord."

Let us today live in the train of the Abrahamic covenant of letting the extent of God's family be known to all.  Let us visualize the end oppression and seek solace in visions of justice as we seek to live the attraction of the life of the Risen Christ, who in us is calling this world to love and justice.  Amen.

Sunday School, March 16, 2025 2 Lent C

  Sunday School, March 16, 2025   2 Lent C

Themes:

St. Paul wrote that our citizenship is in heaven

Discussion about what Heavenly Citizenship means

Contrast with American citizenship.

How does one become an American?  Being born here or being naturalized

  For a non-American, one has to study and take an oath of allegiance to become a citizen

  How does become recognized as a member of the church?

    By baptism.  We study for baptism and for confirmation and we make vows to God at baptism and

    confirm.  We keep making those vows over and over again to remind ourselves of what it means

    to be a “heavenly citizen.”

People who are born in America and are citizens by birth still say the pledge of allegiance over and over again to remember who they are and to remember that there are things that we have to do to be good American citizens, like following our laws and voting and public service.

Have a discussion on what it means to be a good citizen of the church because in the church we celebrate the fact that we are citizens of God’s world and this is as important as being citizens of a country.

Abraham celebrated that he was a citizen of heaven by making a covenant or promise with God and he believed God made a covenant with him to be the father who would the founder of a great family, the family of people with faith in God.

Jesus reminded us that human governments are not perfect, in fact sometimes they kill good people.  They kill prophets or the people who try to help us live better.

Jesus said that he wished that he could be like a “mother hen who protected the baby chickens under her wings.”  He was speaking about all of the people who suffered in the city of Jerusalem because they did not want to obey God’s plan for them to become better. 

Like Jesus we should want to protect those who cannot protect themselves.  Like Jesus we should always stand up for what is fair, loving and kind, even if we get punished for it.

A sermon about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  A modern prophet who was killed

  We have read today about a time when Jesus was sad.  He was sad about the city of Jerusalem because of how they treated the people who came to show them how to live better lives.  He was sad that the leaders of Jerusalem even killed the prophets.

  And you and I should be glad today about where we live.  Why?  We live in a country where we have religious freedom.  Prophets and preachers and priests of all sorts can live in our country.  They have the freedom to start their own churches and their own religions and everyone can choose to go to church or not go to church.  Everyone’s freedom of worship is protected by law.  And this is one of the greatest gifts that our country has given to us.  And it is one of the greatest gifts that we have to give to other countries in our world.

  So if we don’t kill prophets in our country, does that mean we’re perfect?  Well, no.  What is a prophet?  A prophet is someone who comes and gives us a message about how to live our lives better.  Your parents and your teacher may be prophets sometimes.

  And we do not always like to hear the voice of the prophet.  We may get used to bad habits.  We may get lazy.  We may also want to choose the easiest way.  And so when a prophet comes to us and tells us how to live better, sometimes it is not easy to change our habits.  And sometimes we don’t want to change our habits.  Sometimes we will disobey the prophets in our lives.

  In our country we have had a prophet who died because of his important message.  A person disobeyed our laws and killed this important prophet.  Do you know who that prophet was?  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Martin Luther King, Jr. was a prophet.  Did you know that in our country, if the color of your skin was black, you used to have to sit in the back of bus?  If you were black you could not go to same schools as people who were white and you could not eat at the same restaurants?

  Martin Luther King came and he told us how we could be better people.  He told how we could live together and how we could treat everyone with fairness.  And some people did not want us to live together with fairness.

  Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American who died as a prophet in our country.  And we were saddened by his death.  But we are glad for what he taught us about living together as friends.

  Let us remember a lesson.  We are never so good, that we can’t get better.  So let us pay attention to the messages of the people who want us to get better.  Those people are prophets in our lives.  And you too will be prophets if you can show and tell other people how to be better

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

March 16, 2025: The Second Sunday in Lent

Gathering Songs: O Be Careful, Peace Before Us, I Come with Joy, I’ve Got Peace Like a River

Song: O Be Careful (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 180)

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

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

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

Liturgist: Bless the Lord who forgives all of our sins.

People: God’s mercy endures forever.  Amen.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.

And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.

Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Litany of Praise: Chant: Praise be to God!

O God, you are Great!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have made us! Praise be to God!

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Praise be to God!

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Praise be to God!

O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Praise be to God!

Liturgist: A reading from the Letter to the Philippians

But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 27

Therefore I will offer in his dwelling an oblation with sounds of great gladness; * I will sing and make music to the LORD.

Hearken to my voice, O LORD, when I call; * have mercy on me and answer me.

 You speak in my heart and say, "Seek my face." * Your face, LORD, will I seek.

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.

Some Pharisees came and said to Jesus, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." He said to them, "Go and tell that fox for me, 'Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.' Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

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 of 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: Peace Before Us (Wonder, Love and Praise, # 791)

1-Peace before us.  Peace behind us.  Peace under our feet.  Peace within us.  Peace over us.  Let all around us be peace.      2-Love, 3-Light, 4-Christ

Doxology

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

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

Prologue to the Eucharist

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

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

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

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

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

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

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

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

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

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

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

All may gather around the altar

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

You have made us in your image

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

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

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

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

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

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

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  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: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:       Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  

Words of Administration

Communion Music:  I Come With Joy   (Renew! # 195)

I come with joy a child of God, forgiven, loved, and free, the life of Jesus to recall, in love laid down for me.

I come with Christians, far and near to find, as all are fed, the new community of love in Christ’s communion bread.

As Christ breaks bread, and bids us share, each proud division ends.  The love that made us makes us one, and strangers now are friends.

Post-Communion Prayer. 

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

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

And His Presence has been known to us.

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

    and sisters in Christ.

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

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

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

Closing Song:   I’ve Got Peace Like a River (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 122)

I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river in my soul.  I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river in my soul.

I’ve got love like the ocean, I’ve got love like the ocean, I’ve got love like the ocean in my soul.  I’ve got love like the ocean, I’ve got love like the ocean, I’ve got love like the ocean in my soul.

I’ve got joy like a fountain, I’ve got joy like a fountain, I’ve got joy like a fountain in my soul.  I’ve got joy like a fountain, I’ve got joy like a fountain, I’ve got joy like a fountain in my soul.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Second Adam as Hero in Eden Turned Wilderness

1 Lent C March 9, 2025
Deut.26:1-11    Ps.91
Rom.10:5-13     Luke 4:1-13

Lectionary Link

The Gospels might be said to include the sub-genre known as the heroic. They are literary products and they are written in the discourse of the fantastic. They are literary parables of Jesus as the hero for people who never lived during the actual time of Jesus. The stories are drastically time-lapsed presentations the deed of greatness by the heroic stands alone for the persuasion efforts about the worshipfulness of the Risen Christ. The Gospel give us a very limited selection of stories about a man's life, so they are crafted with teaching for the persuasive teaching purposes found in the form of the written records which we have come to have. The Gospels serve as narrative teaching parables for the mystagogy of Paul and those who first wrote and preached, not because they actually saw Jesus, but because they were members of communities of people who confessed experiences of the sublime which came with the specific interpretations of being interior encounters with the Risen Christ or with the Spirit of the Risen Christ. In trying to teach about their mystical experiences, the Gospels appeared in communities to connect the experience of the Risen Christ with the heroic person of Jesus.

To tell the story of this heroic Jesus, the writers did what all writers do; they knew their audience and they borrowed the vocabulary and the genres which are available to them to persuade about what for them was their highest insight of life, namely, their experience of the Risen Christ. Their goal was to persuade others about what they had already become persuaded about, namely, their experience of the Risen Christ. Ironically, the very word for faith or belief, is the Greek word pistos which in Aristotle's Rhetoric means persuasion. The Gospels are persuasive writings about what they were persuaded about. This is literally the dynamic of the New Testament Greek word for faith, pistos, which means persuasion in classical Greek.

The Gospel writers were using persuasive language appropriate to their era to be persuasive about that which they were persuaded about. The great heroes that were known from the Hebrew Scriptures had fantastic stories written about them. The Greco-Roman context from which the Gospels were written included the traditions deriving from Homer and Virgil who integrated heroic presentations of Roman Caesars with their interactions with the various deities including their deifications and their eventual designations as sons of gods. When contrasting heroes the hero sub-genre was a culturally received mode of presentation.

The Gospel writers made use of the existing models for the presentations of heroes while being inventively unique for their own persuasive and teaching purposes with their communities. They were practiced rhetoricians who studied the heuristics of their time for being able to persuade for their preaching and writing occasions.

How did Jesus become the Risen Christ known to Paul and to the Gospel writers communities? How was the mystical experience of the Risen Christ going to be connected with an understanding of the person of Jesus who was known in varying ways by Peter and James and others?

The Gospels are thus teaching parables about Jesus who achieved more fame and notoriety in his afterlife as the Risen Christ than he would have had in his actual life in his limited location in Palestine.

How does the story of the temptation of Jesus get told using the symbols within the existing cultural contexts? And how are those symbolic meanings found in the presentation of the temptation of Jesus by Satan which we read on this first Sunday in Lent? And what are the teaching insights that we might be able to translate from the ancient contexts into our postmodern lives because we believe that words have the ability to bear our projected interpretations upon them to inform how we choose to live our lives now?

Adam is the symbol of the first child or son of God. For St. Paul we are all like Adam the first son of God in that we fail in significant moral tests which come to us in life. And the accrued failures of being like Adam are so massive, it would seem like that we and our world is doomed to drastic failure. How can this great pattern of failure and the mis-timings of doing things at the wrong time in the wrong way ever be interdicted?

The story of the Garden of Eden includes the features about how a created being of God, and a permitted agent of God, the serpent was a superior trickster within a perfect environment but such perfect environment only included good people, who were not yet persons of mature completeness. Adam and Eve were naively innocent who could be tricked out of following the maturational path to mature completeness which God meant for them. This story itself should not be used as a literal cause and effect event; rather it is a parable by wisdom writers who was trying in story form to provide insights in how everyone fails in passing from child-like non-culpable innocence to be culpable guilty offending adults. The Garden of Eden story is in part a story about the mystery of human agency as moral beings.

In biblical cosmology, the assumption is that we're causally in this altogether in a kind of cosmic symbiosis. Because Adam and Eve fail in their efforts to be responsible moral beings as prescribed by their creator parent; the rest of creation responds by taking on the human failure and voila, we as imperfect adults live in an imperfect world. Imperfect people only spoil the perfect world of innocence.

Biblical writers often express the hope and longing for getting back to the Garden, even with fantastic utopian presentations of lion and lamb being playmates with the ending of preditor-prey relationships. The prophet aspire for a new age and this gave rise to what we call the apocalyptic intervention. John the Baptist, Jesus, and St. Paul all had the meaning of their mission formed within apocalyptic aspiration for a catastrophic intervention.

The Gospel writers knew that they didn't live in Eden anymore and hadn't ever done so; they lived under the oppressive conditions of the Roman Empire which had the collateral suppression effect of being the Pax Romana, the peace of a big bouncer Empire maintaining public order to allow the functions of life.

Knowing that they didn't live in the Garden of Eden, the Gospel writers told about a heroic revisit to the spoiled Garden of Eden, now a wilderness inhabited by the wild beasts who are not friendly to each other or to human beings. The wilderness might be a metaphor for the human condition of the wildness of probabilities. How do we live with the uncertainties of anything that could happen? We need a hero guide to carve a path for us to live in the wilderness to survive live with the results of the harsh collisions among probable occurrences which can harm us in various ways.

The temptation story about the hero Jesus is a story about Jesus as the second Adam returning to the metaphorical site of the original failure, and making the right choices, at the right time, in the right way, by resisting the trickster now known to be great Accuser, Satan. And this hero Jesus also gave the trickster an edge; he purposely weaken himself by fasting for forty days. Our hero made himself most vulnerable and which only enhances his victory in his heroic clash with Satan.

The temptation of the first Adam was not about whether fruit from a tree was bad or whether moral beings should know the difference between good and evil, or whether they could ultimately eat from the tree of life in the middle of the Garden; the issue was about obedience to God in the timing of moral education as to eating, knowing good and evil and being brought in good timing to partake of the tree of life. The insight from the story of the Garden of Eden is that humanity fails to find the best timing in our moral education and in our trial and errors, our errors end up accumulating to the point of overwhelming us so that we in fact need the enforcement of the law to teach us.

The Garden of Eden story indicates that the human condition of our errors is juxtaposed with our basic goodness because God does not make mistakes unless one would regard creating free agents to be a mistake. The dilemma is that freedom is so wonderfully good that it has resulted in the manifold range of probable outcomes, some of which are wonderful and some horrific, if not evil.

How do we live now with the wilderness, the wildness of our own interior lives as we try to articulate in word and deed the best way to live? I believe that the story of the temptation of Jesus is a hero story of Jesus, the second Adam, dealing with the interior life as the wilderness. Our interior lives can be a wilderness, a kind of devil's playground, as interior forces within us influence how we come to express agency in our lives as words and deeds.

The temptation themes provide insight for us on features of our own interior dynamics which influence us in how we come to express our agency in words and deeds.

Ideal human agency has to do with saying and doing the right things at the right time. We get in trouble when we have mistiming in our words and deeds of human agency.

Temptation is about getting us to mistime how we fulfill our bodily needs. Temptation is about how we choose to use and interpret language. Temptation can be about how and when we die. Temptation can be about choices we make to experience personal esteem. Satan, the trickster and interior accuser psychical feature within Jesus and us, tried to get Jesus to mistime these crucial facets of his life.

Everyone needs food, drink, clothing and the physical necessities of life. The timing of how we use the provision is a major issue of life. Mistiming can lead to gluttony, drunkedness, addiction, and greed. Satan wanted to get Jesus to depart from his fasting and self-control; Jesus affirmed that the self-control facet of his life was governed by God's word. We need higher insights to teach us good timing in organizing the things we need for life for our healthy benefit and for the ideal benefit of the common good. We need the organizing principle of God's word to inform our timing in the use of the wonderful provisions of life. Fasting is ability to have regulating self-control in how we use the materials of our lives. The church recommends fasting as a way to exercise our self-control muscles for the enlightened use of the good provision of life, particularly as we make sure that everyone has enough.

Another thing that we need good timing on is when to be literal and when to be metaphorical in our language. Satan tried to get Jesus to understand the poetry of the Psalms as being a literal invitation for Jesus to leap from a tall place to prove that God's angels would allow the laws of gravity to be violated. This could be understood as a tricking Jesus to die before his appointed time. You and I need to learn in our language use when to be literal and when to be poetic and metaphorical. And we need to have dying a good death, not a self chosen early death, as a goal in the good timing choices of our lives.

A basic issue of life is esteem. The biblical view of human esteem is that it comes from the realization of being made in the image of God as God's child. Adam as representing any human being experienced sin as a forgetting of his heritage as a son of God. Sin is living as though we don't belong to God. The temptation of Jesus is presented after his baptism when the heavenly voice declared him to be the beloved Son. A major temptation in life is to seek esteem wrongly. One of the great drugs of humanity is the false esteem which we call fame. People can excessively want fame as a barometer of their sense of esteem. Satan promised to give Jesus the fame of having everyone adore him but it would come at the price of worshipping the prince of lies and darkness. Jesus knew the foundational esteem of being God's beloved Son, and as he was true to his heritage he would receive recognition, not that would come for some narcissistic ego trip, but the recognition that comes from benefiting many, many, lives. Living in the esteem of being the children of God, we know that healthy recognition comes from being beneficial in helpful ways to other.

Let us on this first Sunday in Lent work on the good timing our lives following the insights of our hero Jesus in his temptation by Satan. Let us adopt the fasting lifestyle of self-control for the regulation of life provision for ourselves and for the common good. Let not be tricked into literalism when we need to appreciate poetry; let us not be poetic about food for souls, but be very literal about the people who actually need to be fed. Let us live so as to arrive at the good timing for good deaths and fulfill our callings. And let us anchor our egos not on the drug of popularity and social fame; but let the image of God upon our lives as God's child be a profound event of esteem because we know that God loves us, and Jesus as God's unique Son, show us how to live in good timing of our lives as God's children. Amen.

Leaving Fraudulent Religion and Embracing Intercession

 Ash Wednesday   March 2, 2022
Isaiah 58:1-12 Ps.103
1 Cor. 5:20b-6:10 Matt. 6:1-6, 16-21

Lectionary Link

On this day we begin the season of Lent, a penitential season, not because any of us feels any more sinful or inadequate to good living now than at other times of the year, but as a reminder that our greatest sin is when we live and act like we don't need God and each other.

Lent is not about my sin or your sin; it is about our separatistic individual ways of living in denial about communal responsibilities.  It is also about our fearful individual ways when we allow our communities to act in harmful ways against the common good and feel absolved because "I am not responsible that people in my community do not have enough to eat or have places to live."  Lent is a time to confront our own communities about where we are failing the common good, taking absolution in the "majority that rules made us do it" excuse.

The readings from Isaiah and Matthew remind us that being religious is not a matter of individual performance in public of religious acts without the attending deeds which bear out the truly religious virtue of loving one's neighbor as oneself.  Dividing the practice of religious acts from the actual practice of loving our neighbors is the dilemma that we must confront and if we don't, we make Lenten observances simply more individual performance in public of religious pieties.

Lent is a time of confronting ourselves with the question: Do we practice pieties and religious behaviors as a way of justifying ourselves as we actually avoid doing the hard religion of performing the justice of loving our neighbors?

What good is our fast, when so many in the world have the involuntary fast of being hungry?  We can treat fasting as an intermittent diet regime for improving our individual health (which is true) and leave our fasting unconnected from the practice of denying ourselves excess so as to share more with people who do not have enough.  Lenten fasting is not about our individual diet program; it is about a reorientation of our life assets for the common good.

Lent is about understanding our lives being communally connected.  Yes, it is good to practice some intentional deprivations so that we are better prepared when actual and unplanned deprivations are forced upon us.  What did St. Paul learn about all the forced situations of deprivations that came to him?  He interpreted them as his communal connection with the people to whom he ministered.  Lent may be a time for us to learn the interpretation of living intercessory lives.  We don't live unto ourselves; we don't suffer unto ourselves; we don't experience joy or success unto ourselves; we do it in community in a very shared way.  If we can learn the intercessory secret of living, we don't have to be people who are people bitter about being picked on by God with bad luck.  We don't have to be people who feel better than other people because of our good luck.  Rather, we can always feel together with other people who do experience the same things, and this intercessory insight gives our prayers a poignant relevance, because we're always walking in the shoes of someone who is going through a similar experience.

Today as the ashes are applied as the fast-forward presentation what our bodies will eventually be, let us cherish our lives in our bodies now by validating our religious piety with the necessary love of our neighbor, so that our piety isn't fraudulent.  And let us learn the secret of the intercessory life; our lives are deeply connected.  We matter to each other because our lives are always sharing common experiences.  The intercessory secret is to know that we are sharing common experiences which enables us to find significant ministerial matches in our prayers and in the gifts that we share with others.

In this Lent, let us leave fraudulent piety by making sure that we are loving mercy, doing justice, and walking humbly before God.  And let us learn the secret of intercession; we are deeply connected with others in human experiences so let us pray with authenticity and minister with graced timely sensitivity.  Amen.