Pentecost: Let Us Consider the Holy Spirit

Day of Pentecost   May 23, 2021
Acts 2:1-21  Psalm 104: 25-35,37
Romans 8:22-27  John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

Lectionary Link

Today is the feast of Pentecost, fifty days after the day of the resurrection and it is a day which is associated with the "coming out" event of the Holy Spirit of God.

There are many insights which we can ponder on the feast of Pentecost, but I would like to highlight several from the appointed Bible readings for today.

I like the reading from the Psalm on Pentecost.  The poet refers to God like someone who really enjoys a creative hobby.  God creates all of the variety of beings in the world and God creates the great Leviathan for the sports of it, for the frolic in delight.  And the Spirit is the renewing creative force of the play of God.  You and I can appreciate the play, the sport, the frolic of the vast diversity in the world of the creatures.  We are bird watchers, whale watchers and we love National Geographic Nature shows.  We are thoroughly entertained by the beautiful diversity of nature, and the fact that we are entertained in wonderment at our world must be evidence that God created in delight, in playfulness and in wonder.  Today is a day of pondering the personal force everywhere in the manifold diversity of creation, the personal force of the Holy Spirit.  I do hope that each of us know the Holy Spirit in our lives, through wonder, delight, sport, and playfulness.  In playfulness we need to awaken the eternal child within us, being ever born again, even as we face all of the not-so-playful clashes and competition in life of conflicting systems of nature and human selfishness.  In church we often have a "prelude," which literally means before the "play or playfulness" begins.  Our liturgy is to be a holy playfulness inspired by the Holy Spirit who inspires us to wonder at God because we can be in wonder with all that is created.

Another insight that we have this day is the fact that the Holy Spirit is the aging power of the universe.  We are not finished yet; we've not yet grown up.  As Paul writes, "creation is in labor pains."  Labor pains are very ambiguous since no pain is pleasant, but the payoff of labor pains is a new child coming into one's life.  The Spirit is the power of continuous new births of new moments in time.  The Spirit is known through hope and hope is always focused on what is not yet.  Hope is focused upon growing up.  And St. Paul says that our bodies are the location in which the Holy Spirit can pray.  The prayers of the Spirit are often wordless, they are deep sighs and groans, they are the birth pangs for being renewed into the next occasions of our lives.  Let us accept that we are not yet finished and the Spirit within us is proof of the birth process.

Next, the feast of Pentecost is about unity in diversity called harmony.  The Good News about God and Christ can be spoken in all languages.  Harmony is the diversity of separatist egos submitted to the order of being together.  Does individual identity change over time?  Are we the same person we were at the age of two or sixteen?  Yes and no.  Change has brought many differences in the phases of our lives, but we are in some essential way still one and same person.  The Spirit is the sustaining guarantor of Unity across distance and time.  In the Spirit we are One with the soaring bird and the blooming flowers; in the Spirit we can be One with people all over the world and with people of different ethnic backgrounds, and with people who lived before us and who will live after us.  On Pentecost, we celebrate the Spirit as the essence of e pluribus unum.  When we want our own personal style and language and race to replace Spirit as what unifies us, we can fall into fascism.  The Holy Spirit is the great unifier and orchestrator of harmony.  And the Holy Spirit is saying to us today, "Yes you can be yourself in your unique individual gifts, as long as you are checking your egos to blend to the common good."  May we let the Holy Spirit as Profound Unity, melt our egos so that we see the beauty of making room for everyone.

Finally, according to the Gospel of John, the Holy Spirit is the best lawyer that anyone can have.  "When the Holy Spirit, the Advocates comes...."  you know that your case in this life is being made.  Great you say, "now that I have the best lawyer, I should be winning all of my cases.  Then why do I often seem to be losing?"  The Holy Spirit isn't about individual winning issues in ego disputes.  The great Advocate the Holy Spirit is like the advocate that the suffering Job cried out about:  "I know that my redeemer, my advocate lives and this advocate will my case in this life and in the world to come."

You and I and can know the Holy Spirit as our Advocate for the foundation of our esteem, which is the graceful sense of personal worth in this life and the life to come.  Let us give the Holy Spirit, our lawyer, a dollar today, so that we have this holy Attorney on retainer, to help us make the case for the personal and special meaning of our lives in the middle of some very personal histories and circumstances.

Come Holy Spirit, let us know the unity of harmony in diversity.  Let us know the wonder of delightful play.  Let us accept that we are not yet finished but our growth pangs are labor pains for the birth of hope's children.  Holy Spirit, come and be our advocate today to make our case before God, to make the case of our esteem and integrity to ourselves and to the communities within which we live.

Come Holy Spirit, Come.  Amen.

Prayers: Easter Season 2021

Saturday in 7 Easter, Eve of Pentecost, May 22, 2021

O God of Time, as Eastertide comes to an end, we seek to retain Easter reality throughout all of the seasons of the year; let us move from the sheer joys of Easter alleluias into the dynamic sending of the Holy Spirit to bring the hope and optimism of the resurrection into the places where we reside.  Amen.

Friday in 7 Easter, May 21, 2021

O God, we confess you today since we experience vast mutual togetherness but only in our limited contextual portions; we ponder you as the omni-contextual Being who encompasses the collection of all contexts even as they manifest competition, conflict, contradiction and agreement.  We ask for the wisdom to know peaceful negotiation of our context with the contexts of our interactions today.  Amen.

Thursday in 7 Easter, May 20, 2021

What shall I call thee today, most High, Father, Son, or Holy Spirit?  When I speak to One, I am speaking to each, and when I favor one, I know that there resides no jealousy within the Godhead.  O Dynamic Trio, you are the model for Fellowship and Communion and we beseech you to ever spill this glorious Communion of Trinitarian love into our human community.  Amen.

Wednesday in 7 Easter, May 19, 2021

O God, you have made each being to have one identity through temporal states of manifesting incredible differences; and we fear the loss of continued identity after our bodies die.  We thank you for being Spirit God who retains Divine identity through infinite states of surpassing greatness and we commit our personal identity in this life and the next to the Great Spirit who will allow us to know ourselves when we leave our bodies.  Amen.

Tuesday in 7 Easter, May 18, 2021

Divine One who is the Pure Creativity of Freedom, we are thankful for the moral validity of the shared freedom in our world, even as we are horrified and suffer under the hurtful choices and the collisions of free agents; we ask for your loving grace to bear up under the condition of freedom and we ask for strength and wisdom to know how to overcome evil freedom with good freedom as we seek to be agents of the goodly grace of love, justice and kindness.  Amen.

Monday in 7 Easter, May 17, 2021

God of all time, we spiral in time in the traditions of how we measure time, spiritual time, and in the last week of Easter Season we move toward the Day of the Spirit, not to celebrate the coming into being of the Spirit, but a coming into human awareness of the always already Holy Spirit omnipresence of God.  And as always we hear the divine rebuke of "what took us so long to know Thee?"  Amen.

Sunday, 7 Easter, May 16, 2021

Ascended Christ, the land that Jesus and David walked has been called "holy," and yet it has ever been the place of horrendous wars and conflict; we beseech the divine Shalom and Peace of God to come to the land of Israel, which cannot truly be holy until peace becomes the lifestyle of the people who inhabit it.  Send the angels of peace to this land.  Amen.

Saturday in  Easter, May 15, 2021

Gracious One in the Divine Realm, we thank you that we have been welcomed into your realm as we have ridden the ascension of Jesus to be united with you even as we still traverse the visible realm.  Give us grace to negotiate the parallel realms as we hope to bring as much of the will of heaven to earth as we can today.  Amen.

Friday in 6 Easter, May 14, 2021

Risen Christ, it is recorded that you prayed that your followers would be One with your heavenly Father; we seek to embrace and know the reality of this mystical union in our time and place as it can be gracefully adapted to our circumstances.  Give us courage to embrace the implication of such mystical union in what it might require of us.  Amen.

Ascension Day, Thursday, in 6  Easter, May 13, 2021

Omnipresence God, you have always been with us; we thank you on this day, the day when Christ became invisible again and was received back into the omnipresence Eternal Word, we thank you that through that Word, Christ remains with us as all and in all.  We thank you that you became particularly apparent in Jesus Christ, and that now in the divine invisible, you still can be known in unseen ways which have very visible consequences for our lives.  Amen.

Wednesday, Ascension Eve, in 6 Easter,  May 12, 2021

God, who is invisible but who became apparent in how the Eternal Word created human language life, with us being conscious of ourselves as language-users; with the Ascension event Jesus re-entered the invisible realm but as a metaphorical elevator for us to ride to be seated in heavenly places, places where the vision of a panorama of human experience helps us the negotiate the very micro-incidences of our daily life.  Keep us on the elevator of the macro and the micro so that the will of heaven can be relevantly worked into the details of human life, always in need of the specific application of love and justice.  Amen.

Tuesday in 6 Easter, May 11, 2021

Gracious God, in the prayer of Jesus he asked that we might be made one with you as he was one with you.  We ask that we might embrace the profundity of this prayer request of Jesus and have it fulfilled in our relationship with you.  Amen.

Monday in 6 Easter, May 10, 2021

O God, who is all and in all and personified in Christ; you cry out for us to accept our mystical union with you, but we have so suppressed consciousness of you that we often live in alienation.  Let your Christ consciousness surface in us in apparency so that we might enter into the marriage of our souls with the divine presence.  Amen.

Sunday, 6 Easter, May 9, 2021

God of the Communion known as friendship within the Godhead, you have spilled the befriending grace into the people of the world.  Let us receive the befriending grace so that we can know the fellowship and communion of peace with each other in our world.  Amen.

Saturday in 5 Easter, May 8, 2021

Gracious Father-Mother God, we seek psychical balance in being true to our male/female natures.  And in the Risen Christ, if there is neither male nor female as separate gender competency, there is both male and female in the fullness of complementarity which we seek to enrich us as we struggle to find meaning on the vast continuum of diversity in which we live.  And in you God as our Mother, and Blessed Mary as our Mother, we find a special kind of nurture for our souls.  Amen.

Friday in 5 Easter, May 7, 2021

Gracious God, we thank you for giving us Jesus to initiate us into the art of living well, the art of learning the applied meanings of love.  Let us not try to measure how much we have loved; let us pine for how we can love better in our future as we aspire for the realm of love to guide the life of the world.  Amen.

Thursday in 5 Easter, May 6, 2021

Heavenly Parent, you commanded that your Son lay down his physical life for his friends and in love for you and his friends, he did it; empower us to lay down our ego lives for each other as we embrace the spiritual power of the physical death of Jesus to live sacrificial lives for the common good.  Amen.

Wednesday in 5 Easter, May 5, 2021

Creator God, you have made us with inner conscious lives to be vacuums of what we experience and most importantly we experience other people in our lives.  Give us grace to abide in each other with mutual love as we follow Jesus and become better people whisperers toward peace.  Amen.

Tuesday in 5 Easter, May 4, 2021

O God of love, you ask of us a love that is more than feeling or affinity or compelled by impulse; you ask of us the love in action, called justice.  And giving what belongs to each is not always convenient to us and so we ask for grace to love beyond what is convenient to our immediate ease.  Amen.

Monday in 5, Easter, May 3, 2021

O Love Divine, O God who is love, we know such love is beyond the good and evil which is always happening even as it is the sustaining conditions for everything that  is happening and becoming; let us aid the force of good in the field of freedom by being drawn toward reconciling love and making cosmic love, particular love events in our lives today.  Amen.

Sunday, 5 Easter, May 2, 2021

Divine Holy One, you draw from us all of the best names we can think about and so we confess about you in the superlative what we believe to be best about us when we are best: you are Love itself.  Amen.

Saturday in 4 Easter, May 1, 2021

O God, who is the One about whom nothing greater can be conceived; the conception of your greatness cannot help but be all and in all.  May we stumble over the divine presence wherever we go today and proclaim, "O, it's you God again; forgive me for forgetting your presence." Amen.

Friday in 4 Easter, April 30, 2021

O timeless God, you accept our artificial ways of presenting time and measuring it because we are compelled to convert time to our stories with meaning and value, even as we whistle in the dark of knowing our stories have endings, but in the timeless resurrection hope we seek to always have new beginnings.  Amen.

Thursday in 4 Easter, April 29, 2021

O unseen God, who still has come to our language because with it we register the divine effects in our life and world; let us see and name the divine effects of goodness in a way that significantly overcomes the free agents of evil, pain and the entropy of stable appearances on which we have been tempted to anchor false hope. With resurrection grace, let us always be hopeful about the Divine Some More, some more of you and all that will continue to evolve upon your divine ground.  Amen.

Wednesday in 4 Easter, April 28, 2021

God, who has identity with the Eternal Word, we confess that you are signified "beyond language," even as we use the words in language, "beyond language," to signify you.  As we are humanly trapped in words and language, we accept the relational essence of language as being something of the Divine essence and so we pray using the relational creations of language, words themself.  Amen.

Tuesday in 4 Easter, April 27, 2021

O Vine-dresser God of an organic universe, you provide the "holy sap" of enriching sustaining Spirit care and connection through the Eternal Word-Vine Christ and flow into us as branches in the holy organic relational universe.  And you ask us to abide in this connection and so today, we say, again, we abide into you.  Amen.

Monday in 4 Easter, April 26, 2021

O God, we confess you to be the glue of the universe through whom we are all connected.  We confess the illusory sin of pretending separation from you and each other even while everything is always, already rippling the great pond of being causing mutual wave effect of everything by everything and so we humbly confess, we are connected in and by you.  Amen.

4 Easter, April 25, 2021

Eternal Christ, you are confessed to be all and in all and as eternal Word, you are the very basis of communication itself.  Help us to bring out of the Eternal Word, shepherding care in word and body language deeds, especially so that everyone can be on the receiving end of love and justice.  Amen.

Saturday in 3 Easter, April 24, 2021

O God who is the Great Shepherd of the universe; you gave Jesus to be the earthly model of what shepherding care would look like for us in the superlative.  Help us to receive good shepherding when we need it and to give it when we have the power, knowledge and wealth to do so.  Amen.

Friday in 3 Easter, April 23, 2021

O God, who was called a shepherd by the Psalmist, we embrace the general sustaining care in the continuance of life as we know it even as we are deeply challenged that in freedom you have left the significant nurturing, applied care to us a people who are at the top of the freedom chain.  Give us grace to follow the shepherding care of your Son, Jesus as we use our freedom to care for each other and our world.  Amen.

Thursday in 3 Easter, April 22, 2021

O God, who inspires the mixed metaphors of Christ as Shepherd and Lamb of God, we ask for the power of sacrifice to be made manifest in making us little good shepherds for the care of those who are vulnerable in this world.  Amen.

Wednesday in 3 Easter, April 21, 2021

O God, who gave us the resurrection to give us hope for being further finished in our moral and spiritual progress; forgive all evangelists when they repent, who preached the Gospel to people whom they would not let become their equals in grace, justice and human dignity, in social, economic and educational status.  Forgive us the laziness of putting off actual justice in some future resurrection perfection rather than in the here and now for all people everywhere.  Amen.

Tuesday in 3 Easter, April 20, 2021

God of poetic imagination, best words can code our inner worlds and result in total personal outcomes and so become made flesh in bodily actions of love and justice.  And forgive us for denying the empirical effects of inspiring poetry to change our world through moral action.  Amen.

Monday in 3 Easter, April 19, 2021

O great God, greatness inspires the freedom of language to no longer be bound by the gravity of the natural laws because the inner imaginary space is limitless with metaphors to perpetually respond to the greatness of All.  Amen.

Sunday, 3 Easter, April 18, 2021

Loving Maker, we are made to become what we consume and the Risen Christ gives us himself as our "food and drink" of life as we interiorize our identity with Christ to aid us in filtering all of life experience which we have occasion to consume.  Grant, O God, that our life experience be filtered through the redemption of the Christ experience.  Amen.

Saturday in 2 Easter, April 17, 2021

Risen Christ, be known in the breaking of the bread as we gather to realize the complementing Presence of joy, peace and love in the fellowship of gathering.  Amen.

Friday in 2 Easter, April 16, 2021

God of Omnipresence and of particular Presence in Jesus:  the resurrected Christ was known in a particular way in the fellowship of eating together.  Grant that we would understand the aspiration of the Eucharist to be the fellowship of everyone in the divine banquet of the universe.  Amen.

Thursday in 2 Easter, April 15, 2021

O God, who can tax the universe because the divine image is stamped upon us like coins; we offer our tribute to you giving from your own back to you as we remove egotistical ownership because the Risen Christ has converted us from "mine" to Thine.  Amen.

Wednesday in 2 Easter, April 14, 2021

Gracious and Processive God, in your sustaining continuous creation, we witness the turn of the kaleidoscope of the the created order today.  And most things look exactly like they did yesterday even as we know that they are aged.  Your cycles of nature repeat with the return of the traces from what we remember and within the sameness of all, we acknowledge the unique and catching events, like the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus, which will not be repeated, but remain in the memory of our traditions as the promise of our future post-death apparent states within the divine order, somehow, someway.  Amen.

Tuesday in 2 Easter, April 13, 2021

God of Beauty, you reveal beauty in the play of the very simple and the very complex and we extol the meaningful truth of beauty in all of its manifestations.  Give us grace to accept the truth of beauty which moves us in different ways than the meaningful truth of science and logic and teach us how to appropriate the beautiful art of the resurrection of Christ which has come to us in the words from the One who has been called Word, Itself, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Monday in 2 Easter, April 12, 2021

God who oversees a continuously altering world; give me grace to perceive the Risen Christ, who was an altered state form of Jesus of Nazareth, yet with a continuity which linked them across the divide of death as One Being.  Help me to live with a sanguine feet-on-the-ground ground objectivity for the material goodness of this life, even while knowing inward altered states of seeing beyond the curtain of the physical to what can inspire beneficial action for all beings in this life.  Amen.

Second Sunday of Easter, April 11, 2021

God of perpetual Presence, like Doubting Thomas there is part of me which believes in the primacy of sensorial existence and yet the invisible intuitive presences continuously interweave my experience to give your holy indications of other presences which are equal to or greater meaningful truth for me than what I see, hear or feel.  And so I am grateful for invisible, evocative presences which come to language with million megaton "imprecise" words like love, peace, joy or Wow!  Amen.

Easter Saturday, April 10, 2021

Gracious God, the absence of Jesus became the presence of the Risen Christ and we offer our thanks for the expansion in how we might perceive divine presence at almost anytime as the "anointed" occasion becomes messianic in how it is perceived.  Amen.

Easter Friday, April 9, 2021

God of omni-presence, whose presence is so general like the hum of all sounds happening together, thank you for providing us "stand out" and apparent and particular presence in Jesus of Nazareth, but also as mystical apparent presence in the Risen Christ known through what has come to words as the Holy Spirit presence.  Amen.

Easter Thursday, April 8, 2021

Gracious God, we who live in our bodies are physical thinkers as we privilege the substantiality of our physical lives; and so you have allowed us to use the empirical verifiable as a metaphor for what is really, "Real;" grant us to have faith in the substantiality of the experiences of the extra-physical since our language can honestly meaningful respond to things not-seen but things that are meaningfully real.  Amen.

Easter Wednesday, April 7, 2021

God, who is the blessing of pure freedom behind and within the things visible to human eyes; you gave us the Easter story to lead us to be restored in the "Christliness" of all beyond the limited sentimental visualizations of Jesus of Nazareth and hereby revealed that all things were "anointed" with the designation of good in the creative event.  Amen.

Easter Tuesday, April 6, 2021

God of the unrepeatable events and occasions of time, give us grace to accept the uniqueness of the resurrection of Christ, and as unrepeatable for anyone else in the very same way, because you reserve for each a unique way to know resurrection Give grace to enable each to know hope's particular narrative in life. Amen.

Easter Monday, April 5, 2021

O Easter God, the resurrection of Jonah was being puked by fish onto the seashore; how your Son Jesus escaped the tomb to be an endless apparitional being is marvelous to think about even as I know that through the Eternal Word, all things are linguistically possible.  Amen.

Easter Sunday, April 4, 2021

O Easter God, with the dynamic preserving of the life of Jesus as the Risen Christ, you remade the meaning of a terrible means of capital punishment.  Even as I cannot believe that all things can be well in real time, with resurrection hope I hold out for a final all manner of things being well indeed.  Amen.

Sunday School, May 23,2021 The Day of Pentecost B

Sunday School, May 23, 2021   The Day of Pentecost B

Theme:

Meanings of Pentecost

Pentecost is fifty days after Easter

Anglicans call it Whitsunday or “White” Sunday, called that perhaps because of the white robes worn by the candidates for baptism.

The English Church, retains the color white for Pentecost while the Episcopal Church and other churches use the color Red for Pentecost, symbolizing the red flames of the tongues of fire that is reported in the Pentecost event.

The tongues of fire seem to appear on the disciple in Jerusalem and the disciple began to speak about Christ in other languages.

This means that the message about Christ can be translated into all languages and all people can be united by the One Spirit of God even though all people are different in many ways.

Pentecost is a celebrate of our unity, perhaps, better called a “harmony.”  It is how God’s love is lived and expressed among people who have many differences.

When Jesus left this world, he reminded us that God’s Holy Spirit was with us to let God’s presence be known to us.

Sermon:

Many churches have a musical instrument with big pipes.  This instrument is called a pipe organ.  A pipe organ is made up of lots of pipes.  A pipe is just like a whistle.  You blow air through the pipe and it makes a sound.  But each pipe makes a different sound.  And when they play together, it like having an entire band all within the cabinets.  Some of the pipes can been seen and many are hidden and cannot be seen.

  To make the pipe organ work there has to be a powerful fan which can blow air through tubes and into chests so that when the holes under each pipe are opened the air blows the pipe and makes the sounds.

  Today, is the Day of Pentecost.  It is a day when we celebrate that God is known as the Holy Spirit.  We say God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The word Spirit means Wind or breath.  Take a deep breath and blow.  Can you see your breath?  No.  But how do you know it is there?  You can feel it blow against your hand.  Can you see the wind?  No.  But can you see the wind blow the branches of a tree?  Yes.

  The Holy Spirit is like the wind and breath.  We cannot see God but we can see the effects of God in our world.  When we see love and kindness and beauty we know that God’s Spirit is present. 

  When a pipe organ is played there is one wind that plays all of the different sounds of the pipes.

  This is how we can understand God’s Spirit.  There is one Spirit of God who lives in each of us, but each of us are different and each of us have different things that we can do to make this world a better place.

  Today, we are baptizing Bishop.  It is like we are adding a new pipe to the wonderful pipe organ of God.

  Today, we know that the life of God’s Spirit is in Bishop and he is going to make some wonderful sounds with all of the good things which God will do with his life.  And he joins all of us as pipes in the great pipe organ of God with the Wind of God Spirit blowing through us.

  And so each of is like a different pipe in this great pipe organ of God.  Let us be thankful today that each of us is special and different.  But let us also be thankful that God’s Spirit is in us to help us make beautiful music together as we live together to love and care for one another.  Amen.

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

May 23, 2021: The Day of Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Glory be to God on High, Creating Spirit, Every Time I Feel the Spirit

Liturgist: Alleluia, Christ is Risen.

People: The Lord is Risen Indeed.  Alleluia.

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:  Glory be to God on High,     (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 70)

Glory be to God on high, alleluia.  Glory be to God on high, alleluia.

Praise the Father, Spirit, Son, alleluia.  Praise the Godhead, three in one, alleluia.

Sing we praises unto thee, alleluia, for the truth that sets us free, alleluia.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

O God, who on this day taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

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

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

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

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

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

A reading from the   Letter to the Romans

We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 104

You send forth your Spirit, and they are created; * and so you renew the face of the earth.

May the glory of the LORD endure for ever; * may the LORD rejoice in all his works.

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 John

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus said to his disciples, "When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.  "I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But, now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, `Where are you going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.  "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you."

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 Spirit of the Living God, (Renew # 90)

Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.  Spirit of the living God fall afresh on me. Break me, melt me, mold me, fill me.  Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.

Spirit of the living God, move among us all; Spirit of the living God, make us one in love: humble, caring, selfless, sharing— Spirit of the living God, fill our lives with love.

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 so that we may love God and our neighbors.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Breaking of the Bread

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

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Creating Spirit, Holy Lord  (Renew! # 283

Creating Spirit, holy Lord, the gentle breeze, the mighty wind, with warmth and pow’r and graciousness in grace refashion heart and mind.

O comforter of all who toil, gift from the fountain head of light, O Spirit of all love and fire, anointing chrism of all might.

 

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: Every Time I Feel the Spirit, (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 48)

Refrain: Every time I feel the spirit moving in my heart, I will pray.  O every time I feel the spirit moving in my heart I will pray.

1-On Pentecost day, the Spirit came.  The people praised with joyous tongues.  The Spirit came to everyone.  Jews and Gentiles, all the same. Refrain

2-God’s Spirit lives, within the church.  He gives us gifts to build us up.  God’s Spirit fills us with his love.  O blessed Spirit, heavenly dove.  Refrain

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Is the Prayer of Jesus being Answered for Us?

7 Easter  B    May 16, 2021
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26   Psalm 1
1 John 5:9-13  John 17:6-19

 

Lectionary Link

Here's a quote from the long prayer of Jesus recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John:   "While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them"

What verb tense is "was," "protected," and "guarded?"  Past tense.  If Jesus prayed, "While I was with them," does this imply that he is no longer with them?

And if Jesus is no longer with his disciple during this prayer, where is he?

Today is Ascension Sunday.  So what this prayer may be considered is a post-Ascension prayer.  The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews wrote: Jesus ever lives to intercede for us.  Jesus is one who prays for us; he did it while he was visible on earth; he does it in the invisible realm after the ascension.

The prayer of Jesus in John appears to be a post-Ascension prayer.  So how did the words of Jesus get written down when he is already ascended?

There was a method of delivering the post-Ascension words of Jesus.  It is what I call the oracle function of the Risen and Ascended Christ within the communities of the followers of Jesus.  How is this oracle function introduced in the New Testament writings?  In various ways, like when Jesus told his disciples to speak in his name.  This means that the words that he inspired in them would be His Words too.  This means that when Paul said that he had the mind of Christ, that some of his words would be channeling the words of the Ascended Christ.  The entire Gospel preaching tradition involves a rather great presumption: presuming to speak in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

That presumption has been widespread but only a few of those words have been written down and through a long process of church meeting votes, some have become the official text book of the church, the New Testament.

So what is this prayer of Jesus we have read?  It is an inspired writer answering the question, "When Jesus is no longer with us, "what would Jesus pray?

And this is where it really gets exciting, because it is quite profound what Jesus asks God his Father for?

He asks God the Father that each of his followers would come to be one with God as he is one with God.

Jesus is asking for nothing less than that you and I experience a mystical union with God.  This is almost too deliciously holy to even ponder.  Why?

What would happen if we really accept this and believed that we too could be such children of God?

If we believed and lived our mystical union  with God, we would be living an inspired life in our time and place just like Jesus lived an inspired life in his time and place.  Our time and place is completely different from the time and place of Jesus; so we are inspired to do things which are appropriate to the meaning of love and justice within the very specifics of our time and place.

Lot of people think to be in a holy oneness with God means one has to be somewhere completely different than in the very ordinary lives which you and I inhabit.

What do you mean?  Mystical union with God in Ramona?  At St. Mary's-in-the-Valley Episcopal Church?  Yeah right, that's even laughable.

Mystical union happens everywhere because God as the great originator is omnipresent; God is everywhere and in everything.  We human beings have the exalted privilege of consciously recognizing to very high degree of how much God is in and through us.

And this is what the prayer of Jesus is asking for us to realize.

And so the question for you and me is this?  Is the prayer of Jesus being answered in you and me?  And if it is, by accepting our mystical union with God through Christ, how are we going to live?  And what kind of parish are we going to make St. Mary's-in-the-Valley?

Let us open ourselves to the possibility of the prayer of Jesus being answered in us today.  Amen.