Tuesday, December 31, 2024

Aphorism of the Day, December 2024

Aphorism of the Day, December 31, 2024

Putting a "last day of the year" designation on time is like calling a delta the end of water.

Aphorism of the Day, December 30, 2024

Unity cannot be known as we are lost in diversity of things over time; unity is probably the feeling of "withness" with everything past, present, and future within One Big Expanding Container.

Aphorism of the Day, December 29, 2024

When did the world begin?  Modern science is interested in being able to date with the various methods available like carbon dating and radioactive dating techniques.  Historians want to date with reliable records and accounts to establish what happened when.  Beginning is a mystery and John's Gospel states the mystery with a mystery.  In the beginning was the word.  The coming to language by humanity is the mystery of human beings knowing the self consciousness of existence.  We are always in quest of trying to plot the time line of befores and afters with specificity yet there is something poetically true about the beginning of humanity or any person in WORD.

Aphorism of the Day, December 28, 2024

All biblical literature is true in the sense that it has come to written form through historical processes of community.  Biblical literature content is meaningful true according to the discursive purposes in which it is interpreted.  Biblical literature is not yet complete because it will be read and interpreted into the future and continue to become.  AI textual analysis will render many new insights about stylistics of the many authors.

Aphorism of the Day, December 27, 2024

Reading the Bible requires that one appreciate the wide varieties of discursive styles to generate meaningful truths for readers who can be poets, mystics,  and scientists at the same time.

Aphorism of the Day, December 26, 2024

Historical accuracy and the Bible?  It is historically accurate to say that biblical writers wrote accounts of events which don't comport to the rules of empirical verification.

Aphorism of the Day, December 25, 2024

Christmas is essentially a evangelistic and teaching curriculum strategy of the church.  The church has always divided Christian knowledge into teachable annual patterns for inculcating their values to their membership but also for presentation to people outside of their membership.  

Aphorism of the Day, December 24, 2024

The word "birth" as in the "birth of Jesus" presumes to isolate a singular event or occasion in time.  Birth is a reductive word trying to isolate an event which is like putting a bridge over a river and pretending the spot of the bridge makes permanent the particular water which flows under the bridge at any given time.  Birth is an apparent beginning and we need apparent beginnings and apparent endings within continuous Continuity to have identity in Time.

Aphorism of the Day, December 23, 2024

Propaganda is the gradual creation of "tacit truth," such that a metaphor is repeated so often that it becomes the "goes without saying" accepted reality of people.  Popular culture and popular political culture happens by the mass production of message such that the frequent presence of such messages implies that "volume equals truth."  The public can be gullible to make falsehoods their "truths," thus overthrowing the meaning of truth.

Aphorism of the December 22, 2024

God, you have given us Mary as paradigm of the life of Christ being born within each having been overshadowed by the ever creating Spirit who moves over the wordless instinctual life of humanity and brings forth creative words of identity.  Help us with the kind of Spirit words to organize our lives in love and justice.  Amen.

Aphorism of the Day, December 21, 2024

Scripture should be viewed more like a continuously redone quilt rather than a precise linear genealogical tree.  Language fragments from various periods are re-presented, edited and redacted into a "final" quilt, final because of community canonical process determining the composition of the "final" quilt.  The existence of "canons" of Scripture means that they are closed to additions, however the plethora of commentary in how the "canons" are used within communities results in an ever expanding quilt of sacred textual traditions.

Aphorism of the Day, December 20, 2024

Atheists are those who wish that billions of people hadn't confessed and shouldn't confess within certain communities with language traditions of the Sublime, the uncanny human experience with the name of God being designated for such a superlative experience.  ALL exists for everyone; an atheist is one who does not want to project certain human superlatives of theisms upon ALL.

Aphorism of the Day, December 19, 2024

A story theme of the Bible is that special people had to have special birth events.  This satisfies the predestination to greatness trope.

Aphorism of the Day, December 18, 2024

People usually decry the "utopian" because of its impossibility of happening due to the violation of natural laws.  The presentation of an uncanny future transformation of things is but an exaggeration to highlight the lure of the direction of perfection.

Aphorism of the Day, December 17, 2024

Thinking about the future is always "utopian," in being no such time, or place, with no such conditions.  But we always live toward such myth.

Aphorism of the Day, December 16, 2024

In our lives we live by the "illusion" of the utopian, i.e., no such perfect place with no such perfect people.  Hope is the perpetual creation of what is not yet and will not ever be within our worded lives.  When the actual comes to pass, and happens it has used hope's utopian illusion as a target.  The religious violation of hope is to pretend that hope's utopian illusions will be or have been actual in telling what has happened.  At the same time, imagination about the past, present, and future is valid human endeavor for inventiveness of all sorts, even if but for entertainment purposes in a life which needs can always use uncanny motivations.

Aphorism of the Day, December 15, 2024

One can understand the conditions of living within genuine freedom of what can probably happen as the life of being in a perpetual ordeal.  Even being in states of apparent ease and comfort are challenges to our freedom, because in such states of well-being we have the challenge to help alleviate the suffering of those not in ease.  To be baptized with fire is to live in the conditions of the ordeal.  Accepting that about life helps one be honest that we always already live in the age of the suffering servant Messiah.  Get used to it.

Aphorism of the Day, December 14, 2024

The Apocalyptic is the generalization of one pondering one's own eventual death upon everyone else in hope that a higher power will give new beginnings which ameliorate suffering and pain and injustice.

Aphorism of the Day, December 13, 2024

It is easy to call biblical religions the future of illusion since so much of the writings are "utopian," i.e., no such place and no such angelic persons inhabiting them.  We cannot deny the function of the utopian though for establishing the direction of our moral aspirations.  To call America a "light on the hill," is also such utopian language impelling us to be our better angels.  Our world cannot escape the human propensity of the "illusion of utopian vision" because no one escapes a vision of how one might be better.  The shadow of this hope is that many think that they can be better through greed, lying, and oppressing others.

Aphorism of the Day, December 12, 2024

The New Testament was written by people who found a way to rejoice when they did not always have the ideal conditions to do so.  They learned to rejoice when they had no social or political power.  Today many believe that rejoicing should happen because we have political power and conditions of ease when we should be working to enable the dispossessed to have reasons to rejoice.

Aphorism of the Day, December 11, 2024

One needs to be honest that the notion of messianism was diverse and developing in the New Testament and the communities which generated the writings.  The presentations of the Messiah reflected the needs and situations of the communities which were writing and preaching about Jesus, all of which happened into the second century when in fact the world had not yet ended with an apocalyptic event.

Aphorism of the Day, December 10, 2024

The "under the radar" of the Roman Empire success of the Jesus Movement resulted in the defining of the current reality of the Messiah being a Risen Christ figure presiding as king of an interior kingdom discovered by those who were "baptized" by the Spirit.

Aphorism of the Day, December 9, 2024

The writing of history is more about the time when the writing is done than about the period studied in the writing.  Why?  In writing history, we ask and frame the question according to our current interest about what we think is important about the past because we already know what has happened between now and then.  So the Gospels written decades after Jesus are mainly about the conditions of the the writers in those decades than they are about the conditions which Jesus actually faced in his situation.  Everything about the presentation of Jesus is edited and redacted according to the needs of the writers and the writers' readers/listeners.  Writers do not write into a past vacuum; they write to a living audience.

Aphorism of the Day, December 8, 2024

When describing the significance of the lives of Jesus and John the Baptist, the writers of the Gospels, particularly the synoptics were obliged for matters of rhetorical authority to use phrases from the Hebrew Scriptures, meaning that their lives had precedence in message and intent within the Judaic tradition.

Aphorism of the Day, December 7, 2024

The person who forgets that he or she is using language, uses language while doing such forgetting.

Aphorism of the Day, December 6, 2024

Santa Claus is the end result of a most radically altered saint in history.  How did this fourth century bishop morph into the totally secular children's saint to be Santa Claus from the North Pole using a sleigh with reindeer to deliver Christmas Eve gifts to children?  We can go bah humbug on this seeming commercial exploitation of children, or we can accept that the Christ Child and Nicholas of Myra roll through history with manifold collateral effects, including helping some businesses stay in the black because of excessive end of the year spending.

Aphorism of the Day, December 5, 2024

John the Baptist was a perpetual faster while Jesus was accused of being a drunkard, a glutton, and one who ate with sinners.  The fasting of Jesus might be describe as being in the world but not "of" the world, or his perfection in being moderate in all manner of impulse control.  John the Baptist with his extreme asceticism and wilderness isolation might be said to be "not in the world," and not "of" the world.

Aphorism of the Day, December 4, 2024

Long before intermittent fasting became a dieting trend, such fasting has been a part of a spiritual rule of life for holistic living.  John the Baptist with his ascetic lifestyle is perhaps a chief model for the "fasting" lifestyle.

Aphorism of the Day, December 3, 2024

Latest or end times are attempts to put a book end upon Continuity.  It can't be actually done but we need telling beginnings and endings to tell the stories which give us identity in our contexts from which we project our stories upon Continuity.

Aphorism of the Day, December 2, 2024

The Gospels piggyback John the Baptist and Jesus.  Their story is told together and one can only assume motives and purposes for coupled presentation.  It must be that the two movements, of John and Jesus were inextricably linked.

Aphorism of the Day, December 1, 2024

What does the "end of the world" mean?  That there will no longer be human beings alive to experience a continuing material world?  Or that both human experience of the material world and the material world will be gone?  Does it mean time ends?  Will there no longer be a process in the material world that has continuous before and after occasions?  It might be a better appropriation of "apocalyptic" and "eschaton" by switching the notion of "end" to mean merely the latest.  In the latest occasion, there is always already continuous beginnings and ending occurring with every degree of human experience on the continuum of weal and woe.  In language we try to "stop" time by positing an ever "latest" occasion as if we could convert diachronicity into synchronisticity.  The illusion is to think that structuralism can defeat processual time by "stopping" things from development when the use of language is treated as a "pause" button on time, presuming a "freeze-frame" effect.

 

Quiz of the Day, December 2024

Quiz of the Day, December 31, 2024

Which of the following pericopes are not in all manuscripts of John's Gospel?

a. I am the Vine
b. The Good Shepherd
c. The woman taken in adultery
d. The Raising of Lazarus

Quiz of the Day, December 30, 2024

According to the Revelation of St. John the Divine, what color is the hair of the one like the Son of Man?

a. golden
b. bright yellow as the sun
c. white as wool
d. black as bitumen

Quiz of the Day, December 29, 2024

In what Gospel is the primordial Jesus called Word who is God?

a. Matthew
b. Mark
c. Luke
d. John

Quiz of the Day, December 28, 2024

What feature of the infancy narratives does not present Jesus like Moses?

a. the holy Innocents
b. flight to Egypt
c. the Magi
d. humble place of birth
e. the angels appearing to the shepherds

Quiz of the Day, December 27, 2024

The "disciple whom Jesus loved" is assumed to be?

a. Mary Magdalene
b. Lazarus
c. John
d. Peter

Quiz of the Day, December 26, 2024

Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus were

a. the first martyrs
b. companions of Paul
c. deacons
d. early Gentile converts

Quiz of the Day, December 25, 2024

Which Gospels have the infancy narratives of Christmas?

a. Matthew and Mark
b. Mark and Luke
c. Luke and John
d. Mark and John
e. Matthew and Luke

Quiz of the Day, December 24, 2024

What aphrodisiac was involved in the family birth efforts of Jacob, Rachel, and Leah?

a. figs
b. leeks
c. mandrakes
d. pomegranates

Quiz of the Day, December 23, 2024

The Phos Hilaron

a. is a hymn for evening prayer
b. is a hymn for Easter morning
c. is a hymn for Good Friday evening
d. is a hymn for morning prayer, Maundy Thursday

Quiz of the Day, December 22, 2024

Of the follow, who is not responsible for wording in the famous prayer, Ave Maria?

a. Gabriel in Luke
b. Elizabeth in Luke
c. Pope Leo I
d. Pope Pius V
e. Pope Urban IV
f.  Petrus Canisius

Quiz of the Day, December 21, 2024

St. Thomas the apostle did not

a. have a namesake Gospel
b. have the name of Didymus
c. did not become the apostle to India
d. did not become known as a doubter
e. have a feast day determined by the solstice

Quiz of the Day, December 20, 2024

Katharina von Bora was not

a. a Cistercian nun
b. a Reform leader
c. married to Martin Luther
d. a convent escapist
e. Swiss

Quiz of the Day, December 19, 2024

The Angel Gabriel did not appear to

a. Moses
b. Mary
c. Daniel
d. Zechariah

Quiz of the Day, December 18, 2024

The seven-fold gifts of the Spirit as originally stated resided upon whom?

a. the shoot arise from the stump of Jesse
b. Jesus
c. each baptized person
d. David

Quiz of the Day, December 17, 2024

What English Christian humanist wrote the Lord Peter Wimsey stories?

a. Madeleine L'Engle
b. Dorothy Sayers
c. G.K. Chesterton
d. Charles Williams

Quiz of the Day, December 16, 2024

Of the following, which was not an architect of any existing church buildings?

a. Richard Upjohn
b. Ralph Adams Cram
c. Christopher Wren
d. Frank Lloyd Wright
e. Frank Gehry

Quiz of the Day, December 15, 2024

The gaudete theme, "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice," is found where?

a. Psalms
b. Philippians
c. Galatians
d. 1 Corinthians

Quiz of the Day, December 14, 2024

The Carmelite Order gets its name from a mountain made famous by what prophet?

a. Isaiah
b. Elisha
c. Ezekiel
d. Elijah

Quiz of the Day, December 13, 2024

What saint wears a crown of lighted candles?

a. Mary
b. Lucy
c. Brigitte
d. Pepetua

Quiz of the Day, December 12, 2024

Gaudete  is

a. Christmas carol
b. Rose Sunday
c. Latin word for rejoice
d. all the above

Quiz of the Day, December 11, 2024

About whom did Jesus say, "the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he?"

a. Judas
b. Herod
c. John the Baptist
d. Pontius Pilate

Quiz of the Day, December 10, 2024

Repentance in New Testament Greek means most literally

a. getting better
b. amendment
c. improvement
d. after mind


Quiz of the Day, December 9, 2024

What biblical preacher referred to his audience as a "brood of vipers?"

a. Paul
b. Jesus
c. Elijah
d. John the Baptist
e. Stephen

Quiz of the Day, December 8, 2024

Which of the following High Priests are not mentioned in the New Testament?

a.Simon ben Camithus, 17–18
b.Joseph ben Caiaphas, 18–36 (son-in-law of the high priest Ananus ben Seth)
c.Jonathan ben Ananus, 36–37
d.Theophilus ben Ananus, 37–41
e. a and d
f. a and c
g. d

Quiz of the Day, December 7, 2024

What saint was baptized, confirmed, ordained a deacon, priest, and bishop in one day?

a. Augustine of Hippo
b. Athanasius
c. Ambrose
d. Pope Leo I

Quiz of the Day, December 6, 2024

Santa Claus derives from

a. Nicholas of Myra
b. Sinter Klaus of the Netherlands
c. Nicholas of Sion
d. Nicholas of Tolintino

Quiz of the Day, December 5, 2024

Which Gospel does not have an account of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist?

a. Matthew
b. Mark
c. Luke
d. John

Quiz of the Day, December 4, 2024

Besides Jesus, who of the following gets the most coverage in the Gospels?

a. Peter
b. John, son of Zebedee
c. James, son of Zebedee
d. John the Baptist

Quiz of the Day, December 3, 2024

"The Son of Man coming on the clouds" is not found in

a. Matthew
b. Mark
c. Luke
d. John
e. Daniel
f. Revelations

Quiz of the Day, December 2, 2024

The father of John the Baptist was 

a. a prophet
b. a scribe
c. a priest
d. a rabbi

Quiz of the Day, December 1, 2024

Apocalypse is

a. the name of book of Revelation
b. refers to the "end times"
c. means unveiling
d. All of the above

Saturday, December 28, 2024

Word Always Already Being Made Flesh

1 Christmas C      December 29, 2024
Is.61:10-62:3     Ps. 147:13-21
Gal. 3:23-25,4:4-7  John 1:1-18

Lectionary Link


In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.... This singular verse in the Bible is perhaps the greatest human insight of all on which rests the central identity of humanity.


In the beginning; the Greek word for beginning is arche which in philosophy can also mean first principle. Word is the first principle of humanity in knowing anything at all including knowing that we exist. Everything has existence because word creates in being co-extensive with anything being known to exist.


This verse gives us insights about the profound analogical imagination that we have about the nature of God. With this verse we assume that God is a language or Word User and that creation is an insightful human experience because we have language. If God is a Language User, then the fact that human life is meaningfully constituted by language means that having language is a chief reflected image of the divine upon our lives.


People might be understood as existing on a continuum of language use ability. Human life is fully language-ified, or Word-ified. The world has been completely choreographed by language. We live on this language continuum. As infants and babies we are on one end of the continuum being lost in the void of reactionary instincts as our adults encode our lives with the values and meanings which they place upon us. And eventually we become active users of the precoding products which we have received from our cultures. We learn to organize the instinctual desires which drive us from birth in language-channelled ways.


The importance of word creating our lives was poignantly illustrated in perhaps one of the greatest biographical stories of our time, the story of Helen Keller. Helen had early lost her sight and hearing, and she was viewed by her parents as a poor soul lost in the void of instinct and desire without any meaning. Enter Ann Sullivan, the heroic miracle worker. Ann Sullivan found a way to activate the language ability of Helen, by associating sign language letters formed in her hands as she ran water over them. Suddenly Helen's life was created by activating her language ability.


All things came into being through Him, the Word, the Christ. Can we appreciate how profound it is that knowing the existence of anything is co-extensive with the accompanying language experience of it?


This verse is a return to the creation story, which in fact is the primordial birthing story of the Christ. The author of John was saying that the Christ, the Word, predated the Bethlehem event. The author of John who wrote after the Pauline confession that Christ was all and in all, saw that Christ as the Word was the poetic coherence of Christ being all and in all. The father of Credal orthodoxy, Athanasius, used this verse to explicate how Christ was present within the creation story. According to the book of Genesis, God is a Language User. God spoke and said, Let there be Light. Athanasius said that the Word which the Father spoke was Christ, via the John 1:1 insight, and then the Spirit moved over the abyss to make the differentiated order evident. Certainly one can see the creation story as figurative of how each baby comes to be oriented into the world of language though which one comes to know that one exists among many other existing things revealed by their names given through language.


If our lives are created by us having language, then how can we best know how to speak, write, and comport our body language in the very best of moral, ethical, and just behaviors? How can we best know how to live our worded lives?


What does the Johannine writer say about this? And the Word became flesh and lived among us. What would God look like in a human worded life so that humanity could have a par exemplar of how to best live? Jesus Christ is confessed to be what divinity would best look like within a human being from birth to death and beyond death. Jesus Christ is Word made flesh, God with us completely in being human and such complete identity of the divine with the human experience provides us with direction toward which we are to live in loving God and our neighbor as ourselves.


The Word is still able to be made flesh in your life and mine today. We are to let the example of Christ as Word, be made flesh in all our language products today, in our speaking, writing, and in our body language.


Let us endeavor to enable the Christ-Word become made flesh again and again and again, as we seek to live creatively in love, justice, kindness, peace, and faith in our lives today. Amen.

Sunday School, December 29, 2024 1 Christmas C

   Sunday School, December 29, 2024   1 Christmas C


Theme:

A different kind of Christmas Story

If we say that Jesus is the eternal Son of God, that means he has always been.  So, where was Jesus the eternal Son of God, before he was born to Mary in Bethlehem?

The Gospel of John gives us the answer to this question.  In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  The Word was made flesh…the Word was found to be in the baby Jesus who grew to be a grown adult man.  So, the Word, which created everything, lived with us in the person of Jesus.

The Gospel of John tells us about Jesus, the Christ, before he was born in Bethlehem.

Word is a very good metaphor for Christ and for God.  Why?

Word is the most distinguishing thing about being human.  People have and use words in a way that no other creatures do.  Words make us human.  The only way that we can know that we know anything at all is by having and using words.

Why is it important that Jesus as WORD AND GOD?  To be the very best human beings, we have to learn how to use words in the very best way.  We have to learn to use words to be wise, to know as much as we can, to speak with love and kindness, but we have to remember our body language too.  We have to have our body perform deeds of love and kindness.  Jesus is the Word made Flesh and though the life of Jesus, God showed us how we can create our lives in the very best way through the ways in which we use words, with our speaking and with our writng and with our body language.

As we begin the new year, let us make a resolution to improve our word use, in our speaking, in our learning new things, in our writing and in our body language.

Remember God as Word is everywhere, inside of us and outside of us because God as Word is Life and Light.

My Word to You:  Happy New Year and God bless you in how you use your words in 2022

Sermon

  Let’s pretend for just a minute.  Let us pretend that we cannot see.  Let us pretend that we cannot hear.  Let us pretend that we cannot speak.
  It is hard to pretend this.  Because if we had never learned the word pretend, we wouldn’t know what pretend.
  Maybe we should think about a little baby who is crying.  Do we know why a baby cries?  Can the baby tell us why exactly he or she is crying?  No, but we try to guess.  Do we need to change a diaper, or give the baby some milk, or give the baby some medicine?  Do we need to burp the baby?  Does the baby have a tummy ache?  Or is the baby cold?  Or is the baby too hot?  Or is the baby lonely?
  We try to guess why a baby is crying, but we cannot be sure why a baby is crying.  Why?  Because a baby does not yet know how to speak or to use language.  And when a baby begins to use language, a baby starts to become more like a grown-up.  Why?  Because the baby can now talk to mom and dad and to brothers and sisters and Grandmothers and grandfathers.  And so we always celebrate when a baby says the first words, because we know that the baby is becoming able to tell us how she feels.
  There once was little girl named Helen Keller.  When she was a baby she had a sickness and she lost her ability to see, to talk and to hear.  Because she could not see, talk or hear, she had no way to learn how to talk.  Can you imagine what her life was like?  She was not happy and she was very hard to care for, because she had no way to talk with her parents.   Her parents hired a teacher to try to teach her.  And it is very hard to teach someone who cannot see, hear or talk.  But the teacher used her hands to make letters in her hand.  But she did not even know the letters, until one day when water was pouring over her hand, the teacher spelled “w-a-t-e-r” into the hand of Hellen Keller.  And Helen suddenly understood what words meant.  And she was so excited she wanted to know the name of everything that she could touch.  And when she could use words, her life was suddenly new, because she could now talk with her parents using her hands.  Helen Keller grew up to be a famous and well-educated person, and she helped and inspired people who did have the ability to see, hear or speak.
  Jesus Christ is called the Word of God.  And from the life of Helen Keller, you and I can understand how important Words are for us.  Everything in our world is created with Word, because we don’t know what anything is if we don’t have words.
  Let us be thankful today that we have words.  With words we don’t have to live alone and be lonely, because with words we can talk with the important people in our lives.  And let us be thankful that God our creator made us special because we were made to use words.  And so today we use our words to thank God who made us to have words in our lives.  And we should be very careful about how we use the words of our lives.  Our words can create love and kindness; or our word can cause war and fighting.  Let remember when we use words; they are special gifts to us that God gave us to use. Amen.



Family Service with Holy Eucharist
December 29, 2024: The First Sunday after Christmas

Gathering Songs: What Child Is This?;   Go Tell It On the Mountain; God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and for ever.  Amen.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.
And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.
Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

What Child Is This  (Blue Hymnal # 115)
What child is this, who, laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping?  Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, while shepherds watch are keeping?
Chorus: This, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing;
   haste, haste to bring him laud, the babe, the son of Mary.
Why lies he in such mean estate where ox and ass are feeding?  Good Christian fear: for sinners here the silent Word is pleading.  Chorus
So bring him incense, gold and myrrh, come, peasant, king, to own him; the King of kings salvation brings, let loving hearts enthrone him.  Chorus


Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.
People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray
Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia
O God, you have made us! Alleluia
O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Alleluia
O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Alleluia
O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Alleluia
O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia
O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Alleluia

A reading from the Letter of Paul to the Galatians

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God..

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord
People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 147

Hallelujah! How good it is to sing praises to our God! * how pleasant it is to honor him with praise!
Great is our LORD and mighty in power; * there is no limit to his wisdom.
The LORD lifts up the lowly, * but casts the wicked to the ground.
Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; * make music to our God upon the harp.


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.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.  There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.  And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'") From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.

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

Song: Go Tell It On the Mountain, (Blue Hymnal, # 99)

Chorus: Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere; go tell it on the mountain, that Jesus Christ is born!
While shepherds kept their watching o’er silent flocks by night, behold, throughout the heavens there shone a holy light. Chorus
The shepherds feared and trembled when lo above the earth rang out the angel chorus that hailed our Savior’s birth.  Chorus
Down in a lowly manger the humble Christ was born, and God sent us salvation that blessed Christmas morn.  Chorus

Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist
Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of God.”
All become members of a family by birth or adoption.
Baptism is a celebration of birth into the family of God.
A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.
The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you
And also with you.

Lift up your hearts
We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.
It is right to give God thanks and praise.

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

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might.  Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 
Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

All  may gather around the altar
Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;
You have made us in your image
And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:
Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.
And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph
And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.
Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat
  the bread and drink the wine, we can  know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as  
  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.


And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Bless and sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbor.

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

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

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

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

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory
 is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. AMEN.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,
(Children rejoin their parents and take up their instruments)

Our Father: (Renew # 180, West Indian Lord’s Prayer)
Our Father who art in heaven:  Hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.
Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.
But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

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

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

Breaking of the Bread
Celebrant:       Alleluia! Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!

Words of Administration

Communion :  
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: God Rest You Merry Gentlemen (Blue Hymnal # 105)

God rest you merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay; remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas day, to save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray.  Chorus: O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy; O tiding of comfort and joy!
From god our heavenly Father a blessed angel came and unto certain shepherds brought tiding of the same: how that in Bethlehem was born the Son of God by name.  Chorus

Dismissal:   

Liturgist: Let us go forth in the Name of Christ. 
People: Thanks be to God! 

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