Living on the Continuum of Health, Justice, and Freedom

18 Pentecost, C proper 23, October 12, 2025
2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c Psalm 111
2 Tim. 2:8-15 Luke 17:11-19

Lectionary Link

Our Scripture readings laid out before us today presents us with two utterly different situations of human existence, both calling for a radical redefinition of faith: one defined by exile and imprisonment, the other by disease and isolation. How does one express faithful living when one is ill and shunned and when one is oppressed without significant agency for resistance? 

One of the most terrifying situations of faith is being forced to adjust to situations of oppression and injustice.  The history of the world includes the history of people having to adjust to situations of injustice.  The people of Israel were conquered and carried into exile several times in their history.  They had no military means of defense or freedom from their conditions.

And what about the many African American slaves who for years were forced into their condition?  What about the conquered native people of America who were forced from their lands and imprisoned on designated reservations within the land that once was their own?

The birth of Christianity came to a minority people within the Roman Empire.  The notion of slavery was so pronounced that "being a slave" became a prominent metaphor within the Jesus Movement.  The thinking might have been, "if we live in the social condition of slavery and oppression, then let us accept the only valid condition of slavery, "namely being a slave or servant of God, even as Jesus the Son accepted the conditions of human slavery, of being the divine emptied into human life."

How do people who profess being slaves and servants of God live in a world which practices slavery and oppression because in a kind of social Darwinism, "Might makes Right, so deal with it?"

To survive in this world, Native Americans and African American slaves were forced to live in their conditions.  From their situation Native American spirituality helped to keep their identity as peoples of the Great Spirit.  From their situation of slavery, African American with their spirituality lived the essence of the Beatitudes of Jesus far better than their white slave owners could even dream about.  From the position of Justice being what is Normal about good human living, it is horrifying to think about the kinds of adjustments forced upon Native Peoples and African Americans in slavery.

We find a similar compromising solution to Israelites in captivity offered by the words of Jeremiah.  Jeremiah encouraged the exiled peoples to make peace with their conditions, and live winsomely and gain the favor of their overlords with life examples.  The alternative was to be in open resistance and lose their lives.

Israel in exile created what we know that Judaism has become, and the exile also influenced what the Jesus Movement became.  While in exile, crucial theological insights borrowed from Babylon and Persia came into the tradition; things like resurrection, heaven, hell, messianism, and the eschatology which created the conditions for the apocalyptic genre of literature which so defined the ministries of John the Baptist, Jesus, and St. Paul.

As the people of Israel lived winsomely in exile, they won the right of return to their land, and they brought with them an identity which had become supplemented without having access to the Temple and their homeland.  From abroad they were able to build the myth of a homeland and a past which formed their identity as a people which became the spiritual cement of their survival.

If being a slave of God and Christ became a major metaphor of the New Testament, one could also say that salvation is a major theme of the New Testament.  In some circles salvation is reduced to the post-death event of being "saved" and going to heaven, or being "unsaved," and going to hell.  Such are trivializing of the holistic notion of health which is implied in a true Gospel which meets its definition of being "good news."

The stories of Jesus are presented as indicating that God is the God of health and salvation for all people.  They are presented as rebukes to people who present God as one who shuns certain people, especially ones own "enemies."

The story of the lepers healed by Jesus instantiates several theological themes of the early Jesus Movement.  First, health is a universal need.  No one's community deserves it more than another community of people.  Jesus is presented as the one representing a God who offers health to all and not just to a "supposed favored" community.  The story also includes an embarrassing poke: one's enemy can actually be more thankful about God's healing and goodness.  It is a rebuke to those who think that our own community deserves health and salvation more than others, hence why should we be thankful for what we think we deserve as God's favored people?  

The story reminds us that we all live on the continuum of degrees of health, and as such we need both the grace of an inclusive God and an inclusive community to help us live on the continuum of health, a life that ultimately will know the entropy of death.

Finally, we are reminded about a favorite metaphor of St. Paul, which is reiterated in the reading from Second Timothy : the prisoner.  Paul was a prisoner for Christ and for the Gospel.  Paul regarded this as part of his identity of being a servant or slave of Christ.  His spiritual life involved him knowing himself to be in an identity with Christ, with his life, death, resurrection, ascension and glorification.

St. Paul saw his identity with Christ as his way of adjusting to the prison conditions of life, the conditions of oppression, the conditions of affliction, and the condition of being exiled from his heavenly abode.

The Gospel challenge for us today might be this: Let us not be those who oppress, shun, enslave and imprison.  Let us be those who proclaim God as the welcoming one for the salvation and health of all.  And to the degree that we know sickness, shunning, enslavements, or oppression, let us seek grace to know how to live with faithful winsomeness.  But let us never forget to be thankful because Thanksgiving is the sealing of the relationship between the giver and the receiver.  Amen.

Sunday School, October 12, 2025 18 Pentecost C proper 23

 Sunday School, October 12, 2025    18 Pentecost  C proper 23

Themes:

Health, Thanksgiving and Inclusion

Health is both about a person and about the community which a person lives in.

We know about infectious diseases.  When one child get a cold or the flu, the virus or the germs spread and sometimes many of the classmates get sick too.   When one is sick, one has to stay at home to get better but also so as not to spread the germs of sickness.

In the time of Jesus, there were people who had a skin disease of leprosy.  Whenever the skin of a person showed the signs of a skin disease, the priests had a system of rules which required them to keep the person with leprosy away healthy people.  So a sick person could be made to feel doubly bad.  He was had a disease but he also was kept about from people who could care for him.  He would have to go live with other sick people until he became better.  And people who were not sick would be afraid of how a person with a skin disease looked.  They would avoid that person.

Jesus was not afraid of people who were sick.  He did not think that they should be separated from people.  He healed 10 men who had leprosy.  He told them to go and show themselves to the priests.

Out of the 10 men who were healed, only one of them returned to say “thank you” to Jesus.  The one who said, “thank you” was a Samaritan.  The Samaritans and the Jews were enemies.  Jesus was a Jew but he did not treat this Samaritan man with leprosy as his enemy.  And this Samaritan did not treat Jesus as his enemy.  He returned to say “thank you.”  Jesus told him that his faith had made him well.

What does it mean to be well?

To be well means to have faith.   In our lives we can get sick many times and there are many people who have very serious illness.   So how can we be well, even when we are sick?  By having faith.  We can also be well as a community of people who care for people who are sick.  Today we have hospitals, doctors and nurses and many others who help people get better.  We as a parish community need to be well; we need to have the kind of faith in the goodness of Christ to take care of each other when we are sick.

Being well is having faith as a person but also as community of people who care for each other and include people who are sick in our prayerful care.

Sermon:

  How many of us like to be left out?

  What if I said today, only the people wearing the color red today can come and receive communion today?  How would you feel?

  What would you think about that kind of rule?

  You would think that rule was unfair.  You would think that rule does not make any sense.

  Some times in our life we get left out.  And one of the times that we get left out, is when we are sick.

  When we’re sick, we can’t go to school or to church.  And so we get left out.  We don’t get to go to public places when we’re sick.

  But when we’re sick, does everyone leave us out?   No, our moms and dad take care of us.  They give us medicine and orange juice.  They take us to the doctor.  They give us special attention to help us get better.  So even though we are left out of school when we’re sick, we’re not left out of the care of our family and friends.

  During the time of Jesus, there were people who had some skin diseases that did not make them look good, and so people were so afraid of them, that even the priests had made rules to make those sick people live outside of the towns and cities.  They had to beg to get food.

  What did Jesus do?  He was not afraid of their skin diseases.  He told them they could be made better and they did not have to be left out.

  So Jesus invited these sick people to receive care.

  And Jesus taught us that God does not leave anyone out.  Everyone is welcome into God’s family.

  And if we feel welcome into God’s family, that will help us to be healthy and well.  Because we become healthy and well because no matter what sickness we have, we are well if we have people to love and care for us.

  So Jesus teaches us to love and care for sick people and for all people who might feel left out.

  This is a very good lesson that we have learned today: To love and care for all people and always welcome them to be with us in our community of prayer and worship.  Amen.

 A Child-Friendly Holy Eucharist

October 12, 2025: The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Hallelu, Hallelujah; O Be Careful; Wait for the Lord; Awesome God

Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and 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.

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

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

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

Praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah.  Praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah. 

Praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah.  Praise ye the Lord.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Litany of Praise: 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

A reading from the Second Letter to Timothy

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David-- that is my gospel, for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 66

Be joyful in God, all you lands; * sing the glory of his Name; sing the glory of his praise.

Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds! * because of your great strength your enemies cringe before you.

All the earth bows down before you, * sings to you, sings out your Name."

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God!

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.

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."

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

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

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

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

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 God.”

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 that we may love God and our neighbor.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.

Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ.  May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory

 is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. AMEN.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,

(Children rejoin their parents and take up their instruments) 

Our Father: (Renew # 180, West Indian Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father who art in heaven:  Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.

Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

And forgive us all our debts: Hallowed be thy name.

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory: Hallowed be thy name.

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:       Alleluia, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia.

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Wait for the Lord (Renew! # 278)

Wait for the Lord, his day is near. 

Wait for the Lord: be strong, take heart

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: Awesome God (Renew! # 245)

Our God is an awesome God.  He reigns from heaven above, with wisdom, power and love. 

Our God is an awesome God.

(Sing three times)

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Faithfulness in Quantity and Quality as its Own Reward

16 Pentecost, C proper 22 October 5, 2025

Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4 Psalm 37:1-10
2 Timothy 1:1-14 Luke 17:5-10

Lectionary Link

It is easy from the hyperbolic words of Jesus to literalize them and then to present the real Christian life as the stage performance art of having the faith magic to cast mulberry trees into the sea.  

Or we could understand the enigmatic words of Jesus as sayings in the tradition of a wisdom teacher who is presented as having both a public ministry and a very private and individual master/disciple relationship with individuals.

These words of Jesus are being written down by teaching scribes who are trying to present a new way of life within the religious landscape of the various expressions of Judaism as well as the many forms of the Mystery Religions which were part of the Romanizing habit of an omnivorous empire using both sheer force as well as political syncretism of local religious traditions to promulgate the Roman legitimacy to be the ruling glue of the world.

The words and the traditions which surround the life and ministry of Jesus needed scribal teachers, and the writing of the Gospels were evidence of a movement that had widespread communities with local charismatic leadership but without the coherence to be a viable institutional entity within the Roman Empire.  The coming together of the Gospel writing traditions and the eventual formation of a canon or collection of writings with enough widespread usage to attain status as the official text book of the church that could represent many local churches with a degree of standardization was part of the unifying dynamic of a movement becoming institutionalized for longevity within the Roman Empire situation.

When we read the various paragraphs that have come to the canonical Gospels, we might ask the questions about the origin of the written words.  Do they retain fragments of how Jesus of Nazareth speaking in the Aramaic language and having become transmitted for decades to be used as subject matter for writers in the Greek languages to create, as it were, disciple manuals for their various gathering of disciples?

And as we ponder the great difficulty of knowing the original contexts of these Gospel words, we are left to our own readerly intuitions based upon our own contexts of how we have understood and used these words in our own lives.  And we cannot presume to have final authoritative meanings for these words, even while we seek for their functional relevance to our own lives of faith, and we know that various confession communities try to assign final or preferred meanings which is basic for their own community cohesion and discipline.

In our appointed Gospel reading for our liturgy, we have read two vignettes about faith.  There was a request from the disciples to Jesus: Increase our faith.  This might beg the question, how is faith a matter of quantity?  The answer includes the riddle of comparing the smallest with perhaps a very great event.  Having faith the size of a mustard seed could result in some great supernatural act.  The point is that faith is a quality of living, and whether one is doing something very small like helping one's neighbor or something big and heroic, each is but a single act of faith, the very same faith.  But where is faith as quality related to faith as quantity?  How does one come to have the quality of being faithful?  By the continuous accumulation of single faithful acts.  With the collection of faithful acts, one's life is likely to become habitually faithful in small deeds and great and heroic deeds.

The second vignette provides a different sort of insight about faith.  A slave or a modern day worker lives in a situation of having a job description.  There is a contract which defines the tasks of the worker.  A typical job description does not include the clause: "Upon the completion of a task, the employer is required to heap boundless praise upon the employee for doing his job."  Yes, it would be nice if the boss would occasionally thank the employee but the typical work situation is governed by the contractual definition of duties.

The hidden wisdom in this vignette might be this: doing faithful acts are their own reward; one does not do them in order to be praised.  And because each small mustard seed acts of faith is its own reward, the eventual award of coming to have the habitual character of faithfulness is its own reward as well.

The Gospel message for all the various people, including us who processed these Gospel words attributed to Jesus might be this: Being faithful is not for getting some future reward of praise; rather being faithful is its own reward for doing what is good and right both in the specific act of faith itself, but also in the value that each act of faithfulness has in contributing to the accrual of such body of deeds to form the habitual character of a life of faithfulness.  This is an important lesson for each of us as disciples of Christ to learn.  Amen.

Aphorism of the Day, September 2025

Aphorism of the Day, September 30, 2025

Temporary heroic faith or accidental faith might be contrasted with "mustard seed" faith which involves the accumulation of consistent acts of being faithful into the character of being faithful.  Character is when faith has taken over the entire person as a quality of life.

Aphorism of the Day, September 29, 2025

In life the greatest things are not universally experienced or even widely spread, like freedom from sickness and disease, freedom from dying, world peace, world wealth being equally shared by everyone, et. al.  In the probability field of what might happen the luck and misfortune might seem randomly spread even though the persons with the most wealth and power tend to have a greater control in amassing things which they actually can control.  Religion provides people with a sense of being universal and eternal when in fact we are very local and very temporal and such gives us an inflated sense of personal and communal meaning in the face of our actual smallness and our vulnerability to what probably will happen.

Aphorism of the Day, September 28, 2025

The biblical writers used visualization of the afterlife for motivating corrections for behaviors in this life.

Aphorism of the Day,September 27, 2025

We are always living outside of language because language only is used to signify what is not language.  The problem is that when we try to speak about what is outside of language we end up using language to do so.

Aphorism of the Day, September 26, 2025

The Christian faith is really what has come to language in the many traces that we have and when there are not autograph documents about Jesus and no certainty about specific provenance of any writings what has prevailed is the reality of almost as many versions to Christianity as there are confessing Christians.  Even people who think that they agree about their faith specifics cannot be certain because no two minds are the same in how they have been constituted by their language experience.  This is further problematized by the vast use of metaphors found in biblical writings which are subjectively appropriated in their meanings in many different ways, which for more sanguine interpreters should be the humble confession, "I don't know what the biblical writer was really trying to say."

Aphorism of the Day, September 25, 2025

Life is about what has come to language.

Aphorism of the Day, September 24, 2025

A baseline for all axiology, including science, art, religion, and the quotidian, might be simply what comes to language in products like speech acts, writing, sound, body language acts, and the interpretation of visual events when they too come to language by being "named" or identified, or communicated.  While Longinus wrote about the Sublime becoming found within the text, one could expand this notion of the Sublime coming to "textuality" of all human experience.  The Sublime is an experiential marker both social and individual which in turns sets the value of human experience.  The Sublime as a confession of one who who experiences noticeable awe from an occurrence has a hierarchy of value set.  The sublime can occur on the continuum of everything which can come to language within the many areas of life which is really undifferentiated Life categorized into things like the experience of science, art, religion, the every day mundane et. al.  The Sublime occurs and values get set based upon how an individual or society process the event of the Sublime.  The Sublime has various "intensities" for people in very individual ways particularly the one's which purport to be socially shared experiences.

Aphorism of the Day, September 23, 2025

Would that practitioners of all discourses would acknowledge that in existence, everything which comes to language and in all attending manifestation, has linguistic existence having entered some human language tradition.  Life is about sorting out what has come to language giving appropriate discursive usefulness to the many areas of life which govern the ways in which the various language games of humanity are played.  Science, religion, and aesthetics play different language games which have their own appropriate meaningful truth statuses.  No need to pit them against each other unless one tries to be proverbially in a chess game playing by checker game rules.  Each should stay within their own game rules realizing that the "meta" is language itself.

Aphorism of the Day, September 22, 2025

The afterlife is some place that one cannot be until one enters it.  Since it is a mystery it is the ideal topic of visualization, and religions have been built both comforting and threatening visualization on the great mystery of the afterlife.

Aphorism of the Day, September 21, 2025

Interpreting the apocalyptic genre in Scripture and other places should not be a reference to the last day of life on earth but should be understood as the latest day on earth of people who are under stress and oppression visualizing hopeful immediate outcomes.

Aphorism of the Day, September 20, 2025

Serving God or wealth may require a sublimation of desire.  Desire of the energy of life over focused upon people or things can become idolatry or addiction.  Its intensity needs to be directed toward "no thing" and "no person" as the contemplation of worship.  Such exercise may give one the ability to enjoy and use things without addiction or idolatry.  God as the always beyond context should give us the ability of contextual priority for good stewardship habits.

Aphorism of the Day, September 19, 2025

There are as many views of what wealth means in the Bible as their are of interpreters of the various places where references to wealth occur, even contradictory responses to it.  A monk believes the words of Jesus requires a vow of poverty while others regard wealth to be the actual blessing of God upon one's life.  There are a variety of relationships to wealth articulated in the Bible.

Aphorism of the Day, September 18, 2025

Is capitalism the worship of wealth, a system to serve wealth rather than God?  Probably for some people, especially for those who are successful at greed.  Wealth is the goal in life for some.  Capitalism makes the erection of golden calf idols into a vital practice of supply and demand chains based upon viewing the human subject as an engine of desire who needs products.

Aphorism of the Day, September 17, 2025

What is the mathematical insight about not being able to serve God and wealth?  In Math terms: God > Wealth, there wealth is not worshipful since it is much less than what we would define as the greatest, however, one might want to conceive of the greatest.

Aphorism of the Day, September 16, 2025

In temporo-provincial-centrism, persons of any era want to claim ultimate and final truth status for their uniquely discovered insights.  However, in the morning yesterday's truth was only yesterday's latest truth; today involves the amassing of more occasions of generated language products which re-shuffles yesterday's truth in a different way with a different perspective.   Today's final truth is only the latest pronouncement of arrogance of making my telephone booth the universe of all truth.

Aphorism of the Day, September 15, 2025

The perception of the success of sin and greed in a parable of Jesus had him wishing out loud about a similar success for the children of light in doing good with the same passion.

Aphorism of the Day, September 14, 2025

The past as a continuously moving date is continuing proof that we have survived and that the world has survived is too general to specify how the world has survived and the specific conditions of the various entities of those who have survived.  Does death mean that whoever and whatever has been did not survive?  Or with word tricks do we say that all of the past is constitutive of what is and what will be and remains continuous in what is in invisible ways.  How is it wise to try to pretend to subtract what has been from what is and what will be?  How does the past remain present and in the future?  How does time accumulate all past experience when the apparent changes of the state of material existence is empirically proved?

Aphorism of the Day, September 13, 2025

Without community, subjectivism can easily be egocentrism.  My view is not the only view and while I am a prisoner of my unique view, it behooves me to know that my subjectivism has been coded by my communities and my subjectivism involves my freedom in choosing to learn from and take on in influential ways, the views of others.

Aphorism of the Day, September 12, 2025

Faith is a time-based experience of being persuaded about one's preferred highest values and should be accompanied with the humility that such values have not always been held in completely consistent ways or in the ways that future notions have come to falsify.  One may be persuaded about the excellence of Jesus while admitting that he in his time did not express the enlighten views on slavery which we have come to regard as common love and justice.  One may be persuaded about Thomas Jefferson's insights on justice while noting that his practice of slavery made him quite a hypocrite about equality of people created in God's image.

Aphorism of the Day, September 11, 2025

The paucity of writing and literacy meant that writers and writing of the ancient world were much rarer than writing and literacy in the modern world, and one could say that they have over-valued treatment because of their rarity.  Ancient writing today gets diluted in its value because it has become like a sugar cube dissolving in an ocean of all language products.

Aphorism of the Day, September 10, 2025

What is basic about human identity is that we are language users knowing ourselves as such who are born into traditions of language use which constitute the paradigms of our self understanding within linguistic contexts.

Aphorism of the Day, September 9, 2025

With the Enlightenment and the advances in modern science and statistical probability theory, for many apologists for theological credibility, began to understand theology in anthropological sound ways, beginning with the obvious admission that all experiences of the divine were human experiences.  This meant that the divine became the human way to characterize the uncanny, shared experiences of the sublime with communal interpretations of the same, and the retaining of wonder in the face of prideful humanism which can become a forgetting about how small we actually are in the face of plenitude.

 Aphorism of the Day, September 8, 2025

Why is it foolish as the Psalmist wrote, to say there is no God?  It would be definitionally meaningless to say that there is no greatness beyond any human experience of a plenitude greater than human experience.  One can argue about the nature of the greatest plenitude in time but it would be foolish to deny it.

Aphorism of the Day, September 7, 2025

The words of the Psalms are words to use to cope with life situations in the ecstasy, their agony, and sheer mundaneness of drudgery.  They can be used to parallel the running words in one's own mind that are always happening even if one does not recognize that they are happening as one's own hymn to cope with life.

Aphorism of the Day, September 6, 2025

Philosophers can be those who are making the observation about everything happening all at once, including that real time observation, while those with less examined epistemology, act pragmatically in the moment for their own immediate material needs, living the meaning of I act, therefore I am (acting).

Aphorism of the Day, September 5, 2025

It may be more insightful to consider that books of the New Testament derive from "schools" of thoughts or something like a "rabbinic" circles.  These various schools derived from people with the literacy to speak, write, and teach.  They may have had direct or indirect access to the various schools of about Jesus and his oral traditions and they collaborated in ways which ended up with writings which are like most academic topics among interested parties; they agree, they offer what they think are corrected views, they disagree, they add traditions and in the existing writing styles specific to their own experience, and they write for their particular school of students seeking to communicate what they thought their students needed to be brought to faithful discipleship.

Aphorism of the Day, September 4, 2025

The New Testament is writing within the "slave mentality" of the Roman Empire, even to the point of the word slave, "doulos" becoming a metaphor for one's relationship to God and Christ.  Neither Jesus nor Paul opposed the institution of slavery as it was practiced in the Roman Empire.  They were "slaves" to the social practices of their time even if they promoted a love ethic for both slaves and their owners.

Aphorism of the Day, September 3, 2025

A range of interpretations regarding the hard sayings of Jesus about hating one's own family members can be considered, from a completely ironic reading whereby one might note that the intonation of orality is lost in the textual version.  In the ironic reading the implication would be "if you really think that following me is bad for you and your family, then don't do it."  Another possible meaning would be apocalyptic imminency requiring the avoiding of settling in and having a "normal" family situation. One would be loathe of family life if the world is going to end.

Aphorism of the Day, September 2, 2025

The words of Jesus about hating one's family members as a requirement to be a disciple contrasted with his words to love one's enemies seems to present extreme contextual differential interpretive nuance.  The proverbial Pharisees, Sadducees who are perhaps presented as foes in the Gospel would also be enemies to love, as well as the Romans and conspirators who are presented as those who brought Jesus to death.   Gospel pericopes need to be read with irony and appreciation for a range of contextual meanings because we cannot know the specific meaning of the writing occasion.  One contextual reality that preceded Jesus and has continued within the Christian tradition is a brand of apocalypticism which often includes life denying, family denying values since one is living in preparation for not being here.

Aphorism of the Day, September 1, 2025

This has happened in this way.  I have come to accept what has happened.  I now write about my past heroes and present them as those who knew the future as present.  It gives me a sense of God's control of chaos to say that someone in the past knew that it would happen.  The above is how much of the Bible is penned.