Daily Quiz, December 2014

Daily Quiz, December 31, 2014

What are other names for the Feast of the Holy Name?

a. the churching of women
b. the Purification of the Virgin Mary
c. the Circumcision of Christ
d. New Year's Day


Daily Quiz, December 30, 2014

"Angels We Have Heard on High" is a Christmas carol which originated in what country?

a. England
b. Belgium
c. France 
d. Germany

Daily Quiz, December 29, 2014

The Coventry Carol begins "Lullay, Thou little tiny child"  and is based upon a 16th Pageant portrayal in Coventry of what event?

a. the birth in Bethlehem
b. the Holy Innocents
c. Mary's struggle in child birth
d. the slaughter of male babies by Pharaoh 

Daily Quiz, December 28, 2014 

"What Child Is This" has a tune that was supposedly composed by whom as a love song?

a. Elizabeth I
b. Thomas Tallis
c. Henry VIII
d. Louis XIV

Daily Quiz, December 27, 2014

Why could it be said that St. John the Divine is a saint without a feast?

a. Scholars believe he was not the same person as John the Evangelist
b. he was decanonized in 1952
c. the members of the church who believes John of Patmos and the evangelist are the same can live in denial
d. parishes of John the Divine patronage, claim December 27th for him


Daily Quiz, December 26, 2014  

December 26th is known for what?

a. Boxing Day in the U.K.
b. The day good King Wenceslaus went out 
c. Feast of St. Stephen  

d. all of the above

Daily Quiz, December 25, 2014

"Adeste fideles" is the Latin title for what famous Christmas Carol?

a. The First Nowell
b. O Come All Ye Faithful
c. What Child Is This
d. Hark, the Herald Angels Sing

Daily Quiz, December 24, 2014

In the Carol, "Away in a Manger" the words in the second verse, "the little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes" got the writer accused of what heresy because such infant stoicism  seemed to imply the human nature of Christ was an illusion?

a. Pelagianism
b. Arianism
c. Docetism
d. Donatism


Daily Quiz, December 23, 2014

From what country did the Christmas carol, "Silent Night, Holy Night" derive?

a. Germany
b. Austria
c. Switzerland
d. The Netherlands

Daily Quiz, December 22, 2014

The game played at Hanukkah involves a dreidel with four Hebrew letters on the 4 faces of the top.  They are נ (Nun), ג (Gimel), ה (Hay), ש (Shin), an acronym for what phrase?

a. light the menorah each night
b. the Maccabees brought deliverance
c. a great miracle happened there
d. next year in Jerusalem



Daily Quiz, December 21, 2014

"Veni Emmanuel" is

a. an Advent hymn
b. the name of the tune associated with the hymn "O come, come Emmanuel"
c. the Latin for " Come, Emmanuel"
d. the Latin name for the Advent hymn
e. all of the above

Daily Quiz, December 20, 2014

Who is the composer of the familiar tune "Antioch" used with the words, "Joy to the World?"

a.Hoyt Axton, for the Three Dog Night Band
b.G.F. Handel
c. J.S. Bach
d. J. Pachelbel

Daily Quiz, December 19, 2014

How recent is the singing of the common Christmas Carols within the church?

a. 3rd Century
b. 15th Century
c. late 19th Century
d. Early 20th Century

Daily Quiz, December 18, 2014

What American Episcopal Bishop and famous preacher wrote the Christmas Carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem?"

a. John E. Hines
b. James Pike
c. Phillips Brooks
d. Samuel Seabury

Daily Quiz, December 17, 2014

The most referred to book of the Bible for the words of Handel's oratorio, Messiah is what?

a. Malachi
b. Isaiah
c. Romans
d. The Psalms

Daily Quiz, December 16, 2014

The words of the "Hallelujah" Chorus of Handel's "Messiah" come from which book of the Bible?

a. Zechariah
b. Isaiah
c. Revelations
d. The Psalms

Daily Quiz, December 15, 2014

What is the name of the mother of the famous judge Samuel?

a. Sarah
b. Ruth
c. Hannah
d. Naomi

Daily Quiz, December 14, 2014

The Third Sunday of Advent is called "Gaudete" or Rose Sunday or Refreshment Sunday.  What does "gaudete" mean?

a. Laetare, in Latin
b. Rejoice
c. Rose
d. Relax
e. a and b

Daily Quiz, December 13, 2014

Who is the patron saint of Syracuse in Sicily?

a. Rosalia
b. Agatha
c. Lucy
d. Dominic

Daily Quiz, December 12, 2014

Who is St. Juan Diego?

a. a 16th century Spanish Carmelite saint
b. a mission Padre of California
c. the man who received the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe
d. the man for whom San Diego, CA was named

Daily Quiz, December 11, 2014

Who is the popular modern monk who entitled his biography, The Seven Storey Mountain?"

a. Basil Pennington
b. Thomas Keating
c. Thomas Merton
d. Henri Nouwen


Daily Quiz, December 10, 2014

Natural theology begins with an assumption that the divine can be found within Nature; Neo-Orthodoxy challenges this by saying God is known only through "revelation."  Which of the following has been associated with "Neo-Orthodoxy?"

a. Thomas Aquinas
b. Karl Barth
c. Paul Tillich
d. J.A.T. Robinson

Daily Quiz, December 9, 2014

The writer of the Gospel of Luke reported that Jesus spent his nights where?

a. in the home of Mary and Martha of Bethany
b. on the Mount of Olives
c. in the Garden of Gethsemane
d. in the home of his disciples

Daily Quiz, December 8, 2014

The earliest New Testament writing is believed to be a letter of Paul to Christians who were worried that some of their members had died before the Lord had returned.  Which church was this?

a. Corinthian
b. Ephesian
c. Colossian
d. Thessalonian


Daily Quiz, December 7, 2014

The life occupation of Zechariah, father of John the Baptist was what?

a. a priest in the line of Aaron
b. a shepherd
c. a rabbi
d. an elder in the desert Essene community where John was raised

Daily Quiz, December 6, 2014

St. Nicholas of Myra is not the patron saints of which of the following?

a. children
b. sailors
c. falsely accused
d. falconers
e. broadcasters
f.  merchants
g. fishermen


Daily Quiz, December 5, 2014

Which of the following is not true about St. Clement of Alexandria?

a. his name was removed from the Roman Catholic Calendar of saints
b. he was a teacher of Origen
c. he was the fourth Pope
d. he wrote against persons who have come to be called gnostics

Daily Quiz, December 4, 2014

What saint was perhaps the last Church Father, lived in a city under Islamic Caliph control, read the Qur'an and Greek philosophy and defended the veneration of icons against the iconoclasts?

a. St. Thomas Aquinas
b. St. John of Damascus
c. St. Juan de Ribera
d. St. Alphonsus Liguori 

Daily Quiz, December 3, 2014

A college or universities with Loyola or Xavier in its name would be associated with what religious order?

a. Dominican
b. Benedictine
c. Franciscan 
d. Jesuit
e. Lasallian


Daily Quiz, December 2, 2014

Which of the following was a chief architect in the formation of the Holy Catholic Church of Japan, the Nippon Sei Ko Kai?

a. Robert Nobili
b. Henry Martyn
c. Channing Moore Williams
d. Francis Xavier

Daily Quiz, December 1, 2014

How did St. Andrew become the patron saint of Scotland?

a. according to a William Blake ode, he traveled there
b. his relics were brought to Scotland in the mid 10th century
c. it was a Links golf tradition which started in the 15th Century
d. his intercession was deemed important in the defeat of invaders 
e. b and d

New Scripts for the New Year

1 Christmas       December 28,2014

Is.61:10-62:3     Ps. 147:13-21

Gal. 3:23-25,4:4-7  John 1:1-18

Lectionary Link

    What is the biggest elephant in the room which we all take for granted and because we do,  we miss the most obvious thing about human life as we know?  And what is the elephant?  It is Word or language.  We are people who have language and through language our human world is completely created.

  And so you ask?  A baby does not yet have language and does a baby exist?  Indeed a baby has potential language ability but is a passive recipient of the language of the parents. Parents impose language upon a baby's world and Sigmund Freud tried to build a narrative around how parents treat certain sensual areas of the body in the very formation of their personal narratives.

  For the author of the Gospel John it was not enough that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.   One could infer that the community where John's writer preached and wrote no longer used the Christmas narratives for their main liturgy or their method of teaching spiritual transformation. 

  The community of John were further away in time from the actual presence of Jesus on earth. The Jesus of Nazareth, a very historical figure had given way to the corporate body of Christ.  The Jesus of Nazareth was gone, but the risen Christ had become an omnipresence metaphor for the immediate and intimate awareness of God’s presence known to people in a very engaging and personal way.

  The physical birth of Jesus was not adequate to account for the Christ of the resurrection who had returned in the power of the Holy Spirit.  The Risen Christ was such an experience of omnipresence of God's personal presence, the writer of John's Gospel could only confess in very poetic terms that the Risen Christ was the very basis for human life being aware of anything at all as  the Word which is before all human existence and which is within all human existence.

  If something is known or it is experienced, awareness of something being known or being experienced has to have passed through language or Word.  So Word is what is omnipresent in organizing and creating all of human life as we know it.  And this Word is pervasive and the confession of the Risen Christ as the  Word accounts for our belief that we live in a personal universe.  The world is totally Christianized by identifying the Risen Christ with the eternal Word, who had a phase of fleshly existence in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

  You and I might think that we have unworded states of existence, or pre-linguistic states of existence, but in thinking that we have already used words to identify such states of existence.

  Word is the like the nano-second time delay on every human experience consciously articulated.  Word products exist passively in all of the products and actions of human civilization.    And if we did not have words, we would not even be aware that we had consciousness or existed.

  We are beings with language.  This is inescapable so don't try to escape it.  Language like music has rests, and silence is but a programmed features of having language.  By the time we learn to speak and use language we have already been thoroughly pre-coded with many meanings in our lives, and so we have already been passively formed by the value words which our nurturing environments have provided for us.

  In many ways, language uses us more than we use it because of this unconscious cultural coding of every aspect of our lives.

  One of the reason that the Word became Jesus Christ was because the worded scripts of humanity were losing scripts.  People were living out scripts of alienation from God and from each other.

  There needed to be an intervention into the human community.  And so the Word became flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth and he became dynamic word in actions and in teaching.

  Jesus of Nazareth came to show us that we don't have to be passive slaves in the great play of life with fixed and rigid scripts.

  Jesus of Nazareth was new playwright.  He came to show us that even though we have inherited some very losing scripts, we in our lives can learn to write and live new outcomes, better outcomes for our lives.

  Even though we are always pre-coded with certain habits of thought and actions, the very notion of repentance and education means that there is always a great task before us to overcome our many ignorances.

  If we understand that we are pre-constituted and coded by the word paradigms within which we live, Jesus as the preacher was one who showed us that we can receive progressive intervention in our Word lives so as to learn new acts and new habits and ways of thinking which will change our lives and the lives of our families and communities.

  Even though we are highly determined by our pre-coding in our cultural settings, Jesus was the Word of God made flesh to show us that we still have lots of freedom to exercise in our word lives.

  We are on the verge of a new year.  Where do you and I want some intervention today in the scripts of our lives which we are living right now?  Where do we want to have the freedom to know and act differently in the New Year?

  Words are power.  We know the power of words in political and commercial propaganda which seeks to guide and persuade the various behaviors of our lives.

  Let us today link up the Risen Christ with the power of Words in our lives and seek to find the words of power which can change our lives in the direction of love and justice in our world.  Let the Risen Christ as the eternal Word of God be the power to write and perform new scripts in our lives in the New Year.

  So, you and I are not going to escape language and Word.  We are going to be barraged by the words of our culture, by all sorts of persuasive propaganda.  The reason we gather here today is because we confess the need to have resistance against harmful words and we need the intervention of good and powerful words which can give us new and winning scripts of love, joy, hope and justice in our future.

  Let us submit today to the risen Christ whom we can know today as persuasive and powerful words of change in our lives today.  Happy New Year and God bless us as we find new and better scripts for our lives in the coming year.  Amen

Called to Be Christmas Midwives

Christmas Eve         December 24, 2014  

Is. 9:2-4,6-7          Ps.96:1-4,11-12        

Titus 2:11-14        Luke 2:1-14  

Lectionary Link

  Imagine tonight that you and I are like trees who are constituted by layers or rings of experiences.  And so tonight we are constituting our outer most layer of the occasions of our personal experience, fortunately I am speaking of the expansion of our consciousness and not of our waist lines because of all of the Christmas time sweets.

  People who study trees can look at a cross section of the successive layers of rings of a tree and measure age and they can also tell by analysis something about the weather and climactic condition which the tree faced in a certain annual cycle.

  Let us look at ourselves tonight and at the life of church as comprising successive but expanding concentric circles of something like a conical spiral.  We are ever surpassing ourselves in future and subsequent states in the sum total occasions of existence.  (This is the subtle and poetic way of saying that we age and get older.)

  To provide us a visualization of ourselves as the outer container of all previous states of our becoming, I would like to use the Russian nesting dolls also call Babushka dolls.  They are dolls within dolls

  I would like to use these Babushka dolls to illustrate a two parallel trips to the Christmas birth event in Bethlehem.  The first of the two parallel trips to Bethlehem is the corporate trip of the church in how the Christmas story came to functions within the church.  The other is the personal trip to Bethlehem which we make in our own spiritual lives.

  For the outer nesting doll, I have used a word and picture collage to represent the presence of Christ by the Holy Spirit in the Christian communities of over 1900 years.  Indeed this is quite a collage.  It includes Luther, Calvin, Cramner, Aquinas,   Baptists, Amish, St. Francis, Pope Leo the Great, Jonathan Edwards, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mennonites, Episcopalians, Crusades, Martyrs, Monastics, Mormons, Monophysites, Martin Luther King, Jr. Shakers and Methodists, Presbyterians, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and more, because the outer container has to include all of the historical manifestations of the Christ event.

    We take the outer shell off to see what is contained beneath.  What we find beneath are some of the earliest communities of the Jesus Movement.  What we find is a Christ-centered Judaism within the various cities of the Roman Empire.  This Christ center Judaism caught on with a significant number of Gentiles.  This Christ-centered Judaism provided social identity clubs for people involved in the migration to cities as significant urbanization was taking place in the cities of the Roman Empire.  This age of the church includes people who were surprised by the very success of the message of Jesus Christ and the authentic spiritual experience which took root in people's lives to bring about moral and spiritual change.   This experience also provided such an excitement of discovery that people wanted to share this excitement with others.  This age includes the collection and distribution of  Christian writings including the collection of the writings of the apostle Paul and his disciples and other writing which later became accepted as books of the official textbook of Christianity, The New Testament.  In this phase of the church we find martyrs who died for their faith.  The conversion of the Gentiles to the Gospel led to the Emperor Constantine and the Council of Nicaea.  

  In an earlier phase of the Jesus Movement, we find persecuted minorities communities who found great hope in holding on to justice in the form of narratives about an imminent apocalyptic ending of the world with a super hero Son of Man and Messiah coming to the rescue at any time. This was the time leading up to the Roman siege of Jerusalem and the aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70.  The followers of Jesus were forced into exile out of Jerusalem and portions of their homeland.  Could the Christian movement survive if it lost its birthplace and homeland?  This exile proved providential for the Christian movement but it also became crucial in the separation of the followers of Jesus from the synagogue, since the success of the Jesus Movement came to reside in the Gentile converts who lived in the cities of the Roman Empire.

  The next layer is the layer of the theology of St. Paul found in his writings which are the earliest writings of the New Testament.  This time was also the era of the collection of authentic oral traditions which surrounded the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth.  St. Paul did not write a biography of Jesus of Nazareth and he did not meet him in the flesh.  St. Paul had a spiritual encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus and his life was changed.  And he preached this message of spiritual encounter with the risen Christ.  He used the great Christ events as a spiritual metaphors of personal transformation.  He said that he had been crucified with Christ and that Christ had come to live within him.  He wrote that he had been raised with Christ into heavenly places and so the ascension of Christ was also an experience of being transported to another reality which was both parallel and interactively influential with the material reality of his world.  St. Paul wrote that Christ dwelled in each believer, not by natural means but through the experience of a person becoming overshadowed or baptized by the Holy Spirit of God.

  And that brings to us the Christmas Event.  The event which would have been first chronologically, was in fact a later addition to the writings of the Christian communities.  The Christmas stories are not even included in the earliest written Gospel of Mark.  So why do we have the Christmas Stories and why do we arrive to encounter the infant Jesus in Bethlehem?  If we have the Christmas stories of Jesus, why not his early childhood and stories of his young adulthood?  The success of the Jesus Movement in incorporating new members meant that something happened which happens to all successful movements or businesses.  They become institutionalized.  Popularity and growth necessitates institutionalization and incorporation.  How does one teach the message that Christ is born within the human person by the power of the Holy Spirit?  How does one encrypt this message and encode it within a story which is only for the eyes of the ones being initiated into what was called the "mystery" of the revelation of Christ?

  So we have the Christmas Story.  It purports to come first but really it was the spiritual genre to provide the encrypted reality of "Christ within us" the hope of glory.  Blessed Mary is the paradigm of every believer.  She has the encounter with the angelic messenger from the parallel heavenly realm with the annunciation of conception and birth events which would not come by natural inducement.  Sure enough, the birth happened and there were many midwives to that birth event.  Did you know that St. Paul wrote that he "was in travail of birth" while he waited for Christ to be born within the members of his community.  The birth of Christ as a spiritual event attracted the foreign Gentile community as signified by the magi who came from afar.  The birth of Christ into a believer was not limited by socio-economic conditions; it could be witnessed and experienced by peasant shepherds and it could be witnessed and experienced by those wealthy enough to provide gold, frankincense and myrrh.  The birth of Christ within the life of a believer was not without consequences; one's life might be threatened by those who were opposed to this life change. The Christmas story includes the temporary flight to Egypt to escape death. This encodes the flight from Jerusalem for many during the time of  Roman siege.  And those who were newly born might die because of this spiritual birth of Christ within them. Martyrdom was a possibility.  This reality is encrypted in the events of the slaughter of the Holy Innocents.  The Christmas story writers used the genre of story-telling which was known by the Roman audiences.  Roman readers knew the miraculous stories of the immaculate conceptions of the divine Emperors who had comets arrive at their births and who had propaganda which proclaimed them as bringers of peace and saviors of the world.  The Emperors had the Roman senates who voted to make them divine beings and sons of gods.  In contrast, angelic hosts proclaimed Christ to be the Savior and Son of the Most High.  One could understand how such Christian literature could have been perceived as a threat to the Emperor in its composition.  This is why it was a literature read within the communities of Christ and it proclaimed this parallel kingdom of God which silently was happening at the same time as the kingdom of the Caesars.  This was a rich literature of spiritual transformation as each person came to find this supernatural birth of Christ within one’s very own being.

  And so we seek the reality of the birth of Christ again tonight, not locked up in the cute little story; rather the Christmas story is evidence of the reality which we share with all Christians, namely, Christ has been born in us.   The birth of Christ is the mystery of the life of God and the life of this parallel kingdom becoming a reality within our lives.  It is a true incarnation because it changes the flesh and blood of our being; it changes our body language to be and act differently.  Do not let anyone say to you that the spiritual birth of Christ is without material or bodily effect.  The effect is real and certain.

  What about you and I and the birth of Christ and our own layers of experience within us?  Can we with imagination take our histories apart something like the layers of nesting dolls?  How have you and I been constituted to arrive to be all of the stages and phases of our history which we now contain in ourselves?

  Are we constituted by nagging doubt about the personal relevance of God, Christ, the church, love and justice?  Are we constituted by uncertainty about grace and blessing because we have experienced or seen too much harshness and cruelty to be able to believe in the normalcy of goodness and justice?  Do we bear the wounds and the scars of our own failures and the failure of other people to be perfect or even adequate to our needs?   Are we constituted by our own American Episcopalian self-reliant success and we have the power and wealth to negotiate our own independent well-being and the well-being of our family so that we don't think we "need" others and we often show that we don’t need that troublesome body, the church, except for a few social functions?  It is ironic that the church grew among people migrating to a new identity in the Roman cities.  It is ironic that the church is still strongest with immigrating people trying to survive in a new country or place and the church is the place for networking of people who don't have the means of independent survival.

   As you and I assess our currently constituted spiritual existence tonight, I would ask us to ponder two things?  Have we lost freshness in life because we have limited ourselves to sheer intellectual and the brute factual methods of science tonight?  Have we forgot the aesthetic genres which enable us to cry, and giggle and play and access the memory of our being born as smiling, joyful babies who were that way for no reason at all?  The Christmas story invites us to access and recover our native joy tonight.

  The second thing that we need to ponder is that because we have the power and wealth to be self-reliant and independent, can we repent of this self-reliance and independence which has caused us to forsake our roles within community?  Can we repent of our self-reliance and use power and strength and wealth to become midwives for the birth of the Holy Child of Jesus into the lives of people in this world who exist in various states of vulnerability?

  The Christ child is found in the conditions of vulnerability; the story of the Christ child includes a host of midwives, Mary, Joseph, the angels, the shepherds, the magi, the star of Bethlehem and the sheep and the cows.  We are all together in the midwifery of the birth of Christ into the lives of people in our world.  The chief alternative to self-reliance is ministry which is being present to help others who cannot be so self-reliant.

  So my friends, let us find in the Christmas Story, the new experience of our native joy of birth and let it be for us tonight a renewal.  But also my friends, let us forsake our self-reliant and independent ways which our power and wealth has allowed us to attain, and let us embrace this ministry of midwifery, of being those who are present to help others find and discover the birth of Christ in their lives in this wonderful experience of joy.

  Tonight as we live in the latter days, or in our latest days, but let us return to the impossible, the event of our births.  We can do this as we project upon the story of the birth of Christ and as we behold in the eyes of infants and children this state of nascent joy.

  Merry Christmas, to all who have had the Christ born within you.  And Merry Christmas to all of us who now are called to be midwives for the birth Christ in others and who are also called to tend to those who are in the state of vulnerability.  Let us become midwives for the birth of Christ, tonight.   Amen.

Beyond the Childification of Christmas

4 Advent         December 21, 2014

2 Samuel 7:4,8-16     Ps.89       

Romans 16:25-27     Luke 1:26-38  

Lectionary Link

  We all love the fact that Christmas is for children and we have childified Christmas to the hilt.  We've done it in many ways.  We taken St. Nicholas of Myra and dressed him up with a fancy red duds and given him the perpetual grandfatherly role of making children happy.  We elevated the new St. Nicholas to a status which rivals the status of Jesus and we often wonder if Jesus get upstaged by Santa Claus at Christmas.  The elevation of Santa Claus allows Christmas to have relevance way beyond the church walls but Santa Claus is mainly associated with the commercial efforts to drive the giving of gifts and help boost the economy at the end of the year.  Apparently, our economy is really bad if people are not maxxing out their credit cards and completely in debt.  Go figure.
  With the extreme childification of Christian we can diminish the fact that the Gospel writers actually had specific purposes in writing what they did.  And because of fact checking and science we would like to keep the Christmas stories in being read only in the state of "primary" naivete (see Paul Ricoeur), the same kind of state which fascinated children have when they watch a Disney movie.  And that is a good state and not to be all bah hum bugged on.  But there is more to the Christmas stories and some of the more concerns what Americans are supposed to be best at, "pragmatism."  Truth has to have actual function, pragmatic function for people who use "truths."
  And what could be the pragmatic function of the story of an Angel who comes to the Virgin Mary and tells her that she is going to have baby.  And this baby is going to be a ruler of the house of Jacob, also known as Israel because he is going to be like David.  And Mary, "you will not come to have this baby by regular means, you will be over-shadowed by the Holy Spirit."  Surprise?  Well, nothing is impossible with God.  Mary's response was, "Let it be."
  Let us talk about literal prediction.  Was Jesus ever King of the house of Jacob?  Did he ever reign over Israel?  And did the Jews of his time all embrace him as a King?  In fact, he was mocked as a "false and pretending King" when over his head on the cross were written the words "This is the King of the Jews."
  What is going on in the writing of the Christmas stories?  What is their actual pragmatic function of the stories during the time of their writing and promulgation?
  Since the stories are collections and represents subsequent editing and redacting, one can assume that the stories had more than one function depending upon how they were applied and used as teachings within the various communities which read them and used them for liturgy and teaching.
  The earliest writer of the New Testament writings was St. Paul.  St. Paul did not write about Jesus of Nazareth or his early life.  We have no record of St. Paul meeting Mary or Joseph, but one assumes that  if he met James, the brother of our Lord that he would have at least asked for some historical background about Jesus.
  Paul, the earliest writer of the writing which appear in the collection of New Testament writings, wrote mainly letters giving instructions about his spiritual experience and how it changed his life and how this experience could also change the lives of others.
  This experience of spiritual change happened in this way:  A person had an encounter, an interior event which included the understanding that the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Risen Jesus was present after he had died and rose again.  The Spirit of Jesus was a higher power which could change one's life morally and socially.  The Spirit of Jesus could unite a person with like minded people to form a new community of people who could support each other as they faced the stresses of living in the cities of the Roman Empire.
  So what does one do with the theology of St. Paul's spiritual experience of the risen Christ?  What does one do as one notices how successful it has become in forming communities within the Roman Empire?  The leaders of the Christian Movement had a growing audience and they needed to have methods of inculcating and teaching this spiritual practice such as had been experienced by St. Paul, who said that Christ was born in us as the hope of glory and that this happened by the power of the Holy Spirit.
  So in the program of mystagogy or the teaching about the mystery of Christ being born within us by being overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, the early Christian spiritual directors Christianized genres of stories which were present in their cultures and they presented the Virgin Mary as the example of every Christian who received the birth of Christ within them, not by the natural human means, but by presence of the Holy Spirit.  And when one knew this birth of Christ, one was initiated into the program of the Kingdom of God, the new House of Jacob and the New Israel.  It was a hidden but profound and omnipresent kingdom but it was a sure and certain kingdom because everyone in this kingdom had the uncanny experience of knowing Jesus as the kingly and transforming power of their lives.
  And so do you understand the very pragmatic function of the annunciation story in the mystagogy of the early church?  It took the didactic theology of St. Paul and put it into a story form and hid the spiritual mysticism because the Christ event was not something that happened by thinking or by external force;  it was an inward event of being over-shadowed by the Holy Spirit.
  And how did one know that it had happened?  One could know that it had happened in the event of being so persuaded that one completely acquiesced even while not understanding fully what and why it had happened.
  This acquiescence is expressed perfectly in the words of Mary to Gabriel: "Let it be to a servant of the Lord according to your word."  Let it be, let it be, let it be.  The result of persuasive faith is acquiescence when we cannot help but say, "Let it be" because we have been over-shadowed by the Holy Spirit in having Christ be born within us.
  So as we encounter all of the childification of Christmas this year, let us not forget the Christmas events of our souls when God's annunciation to us brought our acquiescence and we said to God, "Let is be."  Christmas becomes an every day event when we acquiesce to God's birthing presence and say to God, Let it be, let it be, let it be.  Amen.

  

World's Most Child Friendly "Lessons and Carols"

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

December 21, 2014: Fourth Sunday of Advent

Service of Lessons and Carols

Opening Carol: The Little Drummer Boy

Come they told me, pa rum pum pum pum, A newborn King to see, pa rum pum pum pum

Our finest gifts we bring, pa rum pum pum pum,

To lay before the King, pa rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum,

So, to honor Him, pa rum pum pum pum, when we come.

Priya: A Bidding Prayer:

Dear People who love God:  Christmas Season is approaching so let us renew our lives by hearing the Christmas Story.  Let us hear the message of the Angels.  Let us go to Bethlehem and see the baby Jesus lying in the manger.  But let us also review the long story of our salvation.  Let us remember that God created us.  Let us ponder why we have the tendency to sin.  But let us remember that God redeemed us from our sins by promising a special Savior and sending us the special Savior Jesus Christ.  Let us also thank God for all of the good things in life that we enjoy and remember those in this world who do not have enough food, clothing or shelter.  Let us remember those who suffer because of war and fighting and human cruelty.  Let us also remember with thanksgiving the blessed Mother of Jesus, Mary and let us remember the great number in the family of Christ who share the same hope that we do, now and evermore.  Amen.

Alex: The First Story In Salvation History:  God Creates Man and Woman

In the beginning God created the world.  After creating the sun, moon, the stars, the plants and the animals, God created a man and a woman who were named Adam and Eve.  Adam and Eve lived in a beautiful garden call Eden.  Since Adam and Eve had the ability to talk, they were given the job of naming everything.  And God told Adam and Eve to take good care of their beautiful garden. 

Divine Jubilation Handbell Anthem: Creation Dance, by Gaspar Sanz, arr. K.  McChesney

Catherine : The Second Story in Salvation History: How Good and Bad Came to the World

God created Adam and Eve as innocent people in a perfect world.  God created Adam and Eve to be able to make free choices.  God did not make them to be like robots who could not make their own decisions.  God gave Adam and Eve a test so they could know that they had real freedom of choice.  He told them that they could not eat the fruit from one tree in the middle of the garden.  God allowed a very sneaky serpent to talk to Eve and Adam.  The serpent told them that they could be like God if they ate the fruit that God told them not to eat.  Eve was tricked into eating and she tricked Adam into eating the fruit too.  Perhaps that fruit was an apple or a pomegranate.  So Adam and Eve knew that they had freedom to choose, but they made the wrong choice.  Since imperfect people could not live in the perfect garden, they had to leave the garden.  They started a family and began to farm, but they missed the beautiful garden.

Choral Anthem: Adam in the Garden, West Indies

Adam in the garden, hidin’, hidin’, hidin’, hidin’, hidin’, hidin’. 

Adam in the garden, hidin’, hidin’, hidin’ from the Lord.

Tell me where is Adam hidin’, hidin’, hidin’, hidin’, hidin’.

Tell me where is Adam hidin’ from the Lord.

Sam: The Third Story of Salvation History: A special person from the family tree of Jesse

The prophet Isaiah said that a special person would be born from the family tree of Jesse, King David’s father.  This special person would have God’s Spirit upon Him and He would begin to be a wise leader.  The prophet Isaiah wrote about a vision of wolves and lambs being able to play together because some day no animal will harm another animal and men and women will live in peace.

Carol: Baa, Baa, Little Lamb (Tune: Baa, Baa, Black Sheep)

Baa, baa, little lamb, did you lose your way?  Yes sir, yes sir, I was lost today.

Far from my shepherd, far from my home.  Far from my flock, I ran off alone.

Baa, baa, little lamb, did you lose your way?  Yes sir, yes sir, I was lost today.

Baa, baa, little lamb, who found you? My Good Shepherd who loves you too.

Left His flock of ninety-nine, Looked for me with love so kind.

Baa, baa, little lamb, your Shepherd looked for you.  Yes sir, yes sir, And He found me too.

Dear little children, does your Shepherd love you?  Yes sir, yes sir, He loves you too.

If we sin and go from Him, Jesus brings us back to Him.

Dear little children your Shepherd loves you.  Yes sir, yes sir, and He loves you too.

Rylie: The Fourth Story of Salvation History:  A voice will cry out in the wilderness to prepare the way

The prophet Isaiah said that a voice would cry out in the wilderness to prepare the way for the Lord.  This voice would announce the coming of one who would be a strong and good Shepherd.  The voice belonged to John the Baptist who help to announce the importance of Jesus Christ.

Chancel Choir: Where Once There Lay Dragons, arr. Carol McClure

Caroline: The Fifth Story of Salvation History: A Promised Child Named Emmanuel

The prophet Isaiah promised that a sign would be given to God’s people.  A child would be born to a young woman and his name would be called Emmanuel, which means, God is with us.  Emmanuel is another name for Jesus because when he was born, he was proof that God was with us.

Carol: Soon and Very Soon

1-Soon and very soon, we will go to Bethlehem.  Soon and very soon, we will go to Bethlehem.  Soon and very soon, we will go to Bethlehem.  Alleluia!  Alleluia!  We’ll go to Bethlehem.

2-Soon and very soon, Mary will give birth.  Soon and very soon, Mary will give birth.  Soon and very soon, Mary will give birth.  Alleluia!  Alleluia!  Mary will give birth.

3-Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King.  Soon and very soon we are going to see the King.  Soon and very soon we are going to see the King.  Alleluia!  Alleluia!  We are going to see the King.

William  : The Sixth Story of Salvation History: The Angel Gabriel Delivers a Message to Mary

The Angel Gabriel came to Mary one day in the city of Nazareth.  She was surprised to see the Angel.  The Angel told her not to be afraid because God was going to give her a very special child who would be called the Son of God.  And Mary said, “Let it be according to your word.”  And Mary obeyed God.

Carol: Mary and the Angel (Tune: Reuben and Rachel)

Mary, Mary, look beside you.  There’s an angel standing there! 

It is Gabriel, sent from heaven with Good News for you to hear.

Mary, Mary, don’t be frightened.  God is with you favored one.

You will have a little baby, Jesus Christ, God’s own dear Son.

“How can this be?” Mary wondered. “ I’ve not married anyone.”

“God can do all things,” said Gabriel. “The baby will be God’s own Son.”

“As you say, “ then Mary answered, “As God says, so let it be.”

We join Mary in her praises; Jesus came for you and me.”

           

Daniella: The Seventh Story of Salvation History: Jesus is born in Bethlehem

Mary and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem to register to pay taxes.  While they were there, they tried to get a room at an inn but there was no room for them.  So they had to spend the night in a stable.  While they were in the stable, Mary gave birth to the little baby Jesus.  That same night shepherds came to the stable because the Angels in the sky had told them about the birth of a special Christ Child who would bring peace on earth.

Carol: Christ Was Born In Bethlehem  (Tune: Michael Row the Boat)

Christ was born in Bethlehem, Hallelujah. Born to save us from our sin.  Hallelujah.

Songs of joy the angel sang, hallelujah.  To see Jesus shepherds ran, Hallelujah.

Every girl and every boy, hallelujah, Join us in our song of joy, Hallelujah.

Andrew : The Eighth Story of Salvation History: Angels tell the shepherds to come to the manger

When future kings are born it is announced throughout the kingdom.  When Jesus was born a choir of angels announced his birth in the heavens.  When the shepherds heard the angels announce the birth of Jesus, they were told to go to the manger and worship the Christ Child.  They obeyed and went to be the first visitors to see baby Jesus.

Choral Anthem with Handbells:  Away in a Manger,  arr. Susan T. Nelson

Abigail: The Ninth Story of Salvation History: Jesus is called the Word of God

The writer of the Gospel of John calls Jesus the Word of God.  And as the Word of God, Jesus was with God from before the beginning of time and he was God before the beginning of time.  The Word of God became the man Jesus who was born into this world.  And many people did not accept this man Jesus but those who received him became children of God.

Carol:  Hymn # 83  (blue hymnal) Adeste fideles v. 6

Yea Lord we greet thee, born this happy morning; Jesus to thee be glory given.  Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.  O Come, let us adore him.  O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord.

William   : The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John     (Please stand)

     Reponse: Praise to you Lord Christ.   At the end: Glory to you Lord, Christ

The Peace of the Lord be with you always.

People:                        And also with you.

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

Offertory Anthem:   We Three Kings, Divine Joy Handbell Choir

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 our 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 family 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 up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give him thanks and praise.

It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.

Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we

   Forever sing this hymn of praise:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

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

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

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

(Children may gather around the altar.)

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

You have made us in your image

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

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

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. Bless and sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we can we 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 (Sung): (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 by thy name.

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

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name. 

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

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

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!

Words of Administration.

Communion Anthem:  The First Noel,   arr. Gary R. Smoke    

 Divine Jubilation Handbell Choir

 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 Carol: Good Christian Friends Rejoice (Blue Hymnal #107)

Good Christian friends, rejoice with heart and soul and voice; give ye heed to what we say:  Jesus Christ is born today; ox and ass before him bow, and he is in the manger now.  Christ is born today!  Christ is born today!

Good Christian friends, rejoice with heart and soul and voice; now ye hear of endless bliss;  Jesus Christ was born for this!  He hath opened heaven’s door, and we are blest for evermore.  Christ was born for this!  Christ was born for this!

Dismissal: Blessing for Advent and Christmas

The Almighty God bless us with his grace; Christ give us the joys of everlasting life; and to the fellowship of the citizens above may the King of angels bring us all.  Amen.

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

People: Thanks be to God!