Prayers for Epiphany, 2025

Friday in 3 Epiphany, January 31, 2025

God who has given us language to encode our existence and knowing of it; we find ourselves often encoded with the limitations of our time and place influences when we seem to be but the unthinking pawns of known and unknown habits of bias which prevent us from successful acts of charity; give us grace to expand our cultural codes to love's standard of loving our neighbor as our themselves.  Amen.

Thursday in 3 Epiphany, January 30, 2025

God, whom we are prone to forget because we are so locked into our provincial ghettos; let our rituals of remembrance be for us an invocation of your presence and blessing upon the specific rites of passage through which we transverse on our way to becoming holy humans.  Amen.

Wednesday in 3 Epiphany, January 29, 2025

God, the great expanding Container of All; all belong to you even though all do recognize such; help us to realize that we all belong together and we are challenged with living together in the best possible way for the common good of all.  Amen.

Tuesday in 3 Epiphany, January 28, 2025

God of Time and of our aging, we adopt rituals of remembering You in the times of our lives, so that among all that is lost in the process of time, we can retain community identity bearing our highest values of the love of You and our neighbors.  Amen.

Monday in 3 Epiphany, January 27, 2025

God who is the Great Expanding Container of All in Time; grant that what we add in freedom to the over-all becoming of all that is be works of love, mercy, justice, and kindness and so help to determine a better future.  Amen.

Sunday, 3 Epiphany, January 26, 2025

Good God, whom we confess that you have made us good; we confess that we have not lived up to our original goodness even to descend into acts of incredible inhumanity; we thank you for allowing Jesus to arise in our history as an example and as a grace to restore toward our original goodness and toward a hard won future holy goodness.  Amen.

Saturday in 2 Epiphany, January 25, 2025 (Conversion of St. Paul)

Holy Spirit, you are the dynamic presence of God in the process of history; through you we came to have the paradigm shift arising in the ministry of Paul, who wrote the Gentile people into the line of salvation history; give us grace to invite continuously those who have been deprived of the knowledge of their full inclusion in the family of God.  Amen.

Friday in 2 Epiphany, January 24, 2025

At some point we as language users came to call you God, or the one who used language to create by making word the flesh of existence; and from our experience of delight we have posited an original goodness even in the midst of the freedom for some things to be awful; give us grace to embrace the goodness of the good news which Jesus came to reinforce as what is the most appropriate representation of the original delight.  Amen.

Thursday in 2 Epiphany, January 23, 2025

God, whom we have come to deem as a Language Originator; with language and faith we have come to deem our existence as good, even when we have behaved badly and when the clashes in the conflicts in nature often put us in harms way; give us grace to believe in original goodness and empower us to preach the good news which was so exemplified in the life of Jesus.  Amen.

Wednesday in 2 Epiphany, January 22, 2025

God, who often seems incognito in the non-apparent; when greed and evil intent seem to have become the apparent public norm such that they have overturn values of truth, keep us faithful in the oft unseen works of kindness, love, justice, and mercy.  Amen.

Tuesday in 2 Epiphany, January 21, 2025

God of all probabilities, the presence of so many circumstances of bad news in our world cries out for the good news of healing, sight, peace, love, and the overcoming of greed with a great Spirit of generosity; grant us good news especially to those who are devastated by the bad news of their froward circumstances.  Amen.

Monday in 2 Epiphany, January 20, 2025 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day)

While violence was practiced against his people, O God, you raised up Martin Luther King, Jr., to practice non-violence in trusting that the innate naturalness of love and justice could win the hearts of those who claimed religion but practiced oppression; help us to continue in the work of Dr. King, following Jesus to bend the arc of history toward a more perfect justice for all.  Amen.

Sunday, 2 Epiphany, January 19, 2025

God, you have blessed the human community with innumerable gifts and where they are exercised with wisdom and love, they promote the common good; confuse the gifts of the powerful and the greedy O God, and let the collateral gleanings of their selfish foolishness redound to the benefit of those who are in need.  Amen.

Saturday in 1 Epiphany, January 18, 2025 (Confession of Peter, beginning week of Prayer for Christian Unity)

God, we acknowledge that Christians seem often to be persons divided by confessing a common Messiah; give us wisdom to seek the more significant unity in pursuing outcomes of love and justice for all people in our world.  Amen.

Friday in 1 Epiphany, January 17, 2025

Omni-present God, we often wish that omni-present sustenance of all were more discriminating in what is being sustained as we observe that everything that has happened has the proof of having been sustained, even by the divine omni-presence;  we ask for fearful respect for the genuine freedom which we have in shaping how our world is sustained and help us shape the world toward love and justice.  Amen.

Thursday in 1 Epiphany, January 16, 2025

God of all and in all, individualize the signs of your presence to as many a possible so that our world can survive and be sustained in peace and care for one another.  Amen.

Wednesday in 1 Epiphany, January 15, 2025

God, how can we know your signs unless we first know the codes and translations of what a sign of you would be?  You gave us Jesus as the chief sign revealer of how to be humanly best in knowing the sign of what is divinely human and what is humanly divine.  Amen.

Tuesday in 1 Epiphany, January 14, 2025

God you have given us Christly presence as the power of imagination to supplement the seeming ordinary water of life and make it seem like an extraordinary feast such that others think we drink the elixir of wine, but we must confess that we are Holy Spirited people.  Amen.

Monday in 1 Epiphany, January 13, 2025

God, we like Mary, seek for the Christ to be in the mundane of our lives akin to dealing with shortage of wine at a wedding party; and even though in rebuke of our trivial priorities, we may hear a sigh of "what does that have to do with the higher priorities of the Risen Christ," we thank you for being involved in the child-like ordinary stuff of our lives.  Amen.

Sunday, 1 Epiphany, January 12, 2025 The Baptism of Our Lord

Eternal Word of God, you are coming to full solidarity with all humans in all human experience, and we commemorate your baptism as a event of the solidarity of the divine life with us, thus affirming ways of being human as valid ways to come to know what is more than human, even God as the Great Expanding Container of Life.  Amen.

Saturday after the Epiphany, January 11, 2025

God of Water, Wind, and Fire; who cleanses, quenches, breathes life, and warms and gives light; save us from floods and hurricanes, tornadoes, and devastating fires, and bring us renewing and rebuilding resilience when we know the worst effects of being caught in harms way of nature.  Amen.

 Friday after the Epiphany, January 10, 2025

God, the Container of All, into whom we have all been initiated by being born; we thank you for specific baptism and being received into particular communities of faith so as to continuously remind ourselves that you in Jesus represent the divine with us in such complete solidarity as to allow us to regard our paths as being valid ways of affirming our relationship in and through You.  Amen.

Thursday after the Epiphany, January 9, 2025

Forgive us God of all, for wanting the name of being a Christian country, or Christian community without manifesting the basics of being Christ-like in loving you and our neighbor as ourselves.  Amen.

Wednesday after the Epiphany, January 8, 2025

Eternal Word of God, giver of language which gives us ritual process within community; you became baptized by John to express solidarity with humanity in a particular moment of time and in becoming one with us you now invite us to become one with you in your Risen State in our baptismal states of becoming more Christ-like.  Amen.

Tuesday after the Epiphany, January 7, 2025

God of Omni-Manifestations, your omnipresence often obscures specificity to be known in personal ways; we thank you for the personality of Christ who is human enough to allow us to reduce you to anthropomorphic ways to perceiving your relevance to us in our specific situations.  Amen.

The Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 2025 

God, who existed before our calendars to observe your manifestations to us; we recognize that the Christ nature came from the beginning and came in Jesus, and will continue to come as the Light which enlightens toward the surpassing goals of enlightenment to which we are called; give us grace to adjust our seeing behaviors to the light of Christ today.  Amen.

Aphorism of the Day, January 2025

Aphorism of the Day, January 31, 2025

A "doctrine" of the similar means that human experience and language though always having new and fresh occasion of articulation, will include experiences with language description of things which will happened in the past.  Do things which happened in the past predict that similar things will happen in the future?   They are predictive in a statistical approximate way; things similar to the past can happen again under new circumstances.  The New Testament writers told the stories about Jesus across what the believe represented his witness in similar words of accounts found in Hebrew Scripture.  Did Babe Ruth's record of homeruns predict Hank Aaron's breaking of that record?  No, but the story of Hank Aaron is told with direct reference to Babe Ruth.  The future only become a fulfilled prediction of the past in that same future.  From current interpretation we write about the past with the future anterior, writing, "it will haven happened in this way."

Aphorism of the Day, January 30, 2025

Is it meaningful to state that there is a master narrative and a total view of the world?  To do such would imply an everlasting language user who could comprehend everything across time.  No human can be an everlasting language user; the best that we can do is use discourses of totality based upon an assumption that imply specific relative differences in our time and place exists in the entire universe of differences across all time.  We cannot speak for Totality, because Totality is not yet finished; Totality still in becoming.

Aphorism of the Day, January 29, 2025

Words continually refer and defer to something that they are not but they cannot "stick" to that something because they only defer to other different words.  Words may seem to have an objective connected identity to their referent but it is fleeting because of future falsification or deconstruction.

Aphorism of the Day, January 28, 2025

American founders who were influenced by the elevation of Reason in the Enlightenment, wanted to apply that reason to governing, which meant removing the influence of things which did not comport to reason, i.e., religion, from the political process.  They believed that religion could be a para-cultural phenomenon to the political process without interfering in the process itself.  Initially, such separation was primarily done to keep Christians from harming each other because of varying beliefs and practices within the members of different Christian bodies.  Keeping religion as a para-cultural phenomenon has been the perpetual challenge especially when politicians push for a national religion to be established through government.  If the Christian religion were to be the established religion, what variety would it be and who would get to decide?  Christians in practice are those who are divided while even having a common savior and founder; why would it be wise to import Christian disagreement into national government?

Aphorism of the Day, January 27, 2025

The problem with religious apologists and their critics is that they are arguing with misconceptions.  Humans have language and having language means we are multi-discursive.  We are poetic and we are commonsensical or scientific, i.e., we believe in significant consistency in sensorial data, i.e., a uniformity of natural causes.  But if religionists try to argue that the poetic is scientific and the scientists treat such misuse of genre as definitive of what being religious is, then we have a very confused discussion.  Religionists and scientists can both be persons who are poets and scientists at the same time.  The moral of the story is get your discursive practices rightly identified and used accordingly.

Aphorism of the Day, January 26, 2025

The Gospel as good news is view by Christians as Jesus exemplifying the goodness which was declared by God on all things in creation in the creation story.  We are made in and for goodness and Jesus exemplified what human goodness can mean for us even in the most dire circumstances when so many human behaviors are not very good.

Aphorism of the Day, January 25, 2025

Paul did not see Jesus during his life.  He wrote before the Gospel writers and it was his mystagogy which in part gets put in Gospel genre format years after he wrote.

Aphorism of the Day, January 24, 2025

Humanity reached a point in being language users as to ponder that our origin derived from some superior language user who spoke us and everything into existence.  Naming is the human supreme human ability, so One greater than us from whom we derive must be so great in Naming as to speak and have that speaking made flesh in what we know to have come to existence.  Language and knowing existence is inseparable.

Aphorism of the Day, January 23, 2025

A person of faith might say that God works in unseen ways.  The skeptical scientist might say that not seeing God's work means that God is not.

Aphorism of the Day, January 22, 2025

Probability means that a variety of things are going to happen and we cannot know specifically the future even though we can have good statistical prediction about many things, like water will boil at a certain temperature.  In the realm of how things personally effect regarding a fortune or a woe, it may be simple religious fatalism to say God creates weal and woe.  Beyond probability is the Creative Freedom of God which can appear weak when it submits to the lesser but genuine agents of freedom.

Aphorism of the Day, January 21, 2025

Constitutional scholars call the American Constitution brilliant and flawed, flawed because women, non-property owner, black persons who were slaves, indigenious peoples, were not regarded to be persons in the image of God who had the  equal rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  The Bible is called the Word of God, and Psurely, nothing could be a more brilliant bestowal, but it was written from the context of cultures which practiced slavery and subjugation of women and other works deemed unthinkable today.  Can we say that the principles of God are found therein while at the same time judging ancient cultures that could not fully practice what love and God and neighbor meant in its fullness?  It is ironic that we read how God told the armies of Israel to slaughter all living beings of their enemies, and then the public lector ends the reading by saying, "The word of the Lord."

Aphorism of the Day, January 20, 2025

The distillation of the message of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., into the every day fabric of American life has not yet been achieved.  Mary's Magnificat declaration still has not been achieved: God has cast down the mighty from their thrones; the rich God has sent away empty.

Aphorism of the Day, January 19, 2025

Meditation is the art of pretending that we don't live and move and have our knowable being in Words.

Aphorism of the Day, January 18, 2025

The beginning of knowing anything begins with the mystery of how Word or language is co-extensive with anything that can be known to exist.  The world without language is designated by language as "the world without language."  Hence even it comes to identity through the contrast of having language.

Aphorism of the Day, January 17, 2025

There are no existing "autographs" or original copies of any biblical books.  There are various texts which have been discovered and dated to many years after the purported "originals."  What existed before any original were the communities and people who "received" and wrote them.  

Aphorism of the Day, January 16, 2025

It could be that John's Gospel's does not have parables because the stories about the Jesus are used as "sign parables" to illustrate in teaching stories the presence of the Risen Christ to the Johannine community.  The subtext of John's Gospel is words are "spirit" and non-literal meanings are the preferred meanings.

Aphorism of the Day, January 15, 2025

A sign is a constellation of socially coded meanings and does not have sign value for those who don't know the codes.

Aphorism of the Day, January 14, 2025

The story of Helen Keller illustrates that language ability an inner innate ability has to be activated from one's exterior world through sensorial interaction or one's inner language is so individual that it manifests frustrating behaviors as interpreted by those who possess language.  A pre-language baby may have its language ability expressed in a similar way.  Why can't anyone understand me?  Eventually the baby has no choice but to conform by learning the imposed language of his or her environment.  Individuality then becomes expressed as how can I be non-conforming me while conforming to the language of them.

Aphorism of the Day, January 13, 2025

The archaeology of who we are is found in history as a "test pit" hole to look at strata of word use in the various streams of traditions of language use which have come comprise our lives.  Life involves the impossible task of trying to name the mystery of everything all at once in words which feign to freeze mystery in an observable form, and the best we can do is to attain some insights to cope with where we are now.

Aphorism of the Day, January 12, 2025

When people read the Bible, they do what Roland Barthes called "writerly reading," i.e., the reader is in the role of the writer because the reader essentially filters or writes the texts from the biases of ones particular context.  There is no way to confirm a coincidence of meaning with the writers of the ancient texts since exact meanings conveyed in words that derive from oral traditions and having been transcribed and translated in various ways creates such a range of meanings some of which can be contradictory.

Aphorism of the Day, January 11, 2025

Modern science has contributed to the clarification of language genres or discourses exposing the need to distinguish between discourses and their appropriate meaning values.  A scientist can enjoy fantasy, science fiction, and all sorts of utopian cinematic presentations as having the meaningful truths of the sheer expression of the imagination.  But if one tries to tell the scientist that such imaginations are or could be empirical true, the scientist would say you are trying to switch the meaning appropriate to one mode of discourse to another resulting in wrong meaning application.  A scientist who can read the Bible with mystagogic imagination does not have to say every event reported in the Bible has to conform to natural laws to be meaningful true.

Aphorism of the Day, January 10, 2025

It has been the goal of some modern biblical scholarship to disprove the accounts of the Bible as being reliable historical records while forgetting the very historical reality of communities who have forged their identities to survive within hostile situations bringing language products in text to inculcate their community values.  It's like scholars are saying, "I wish it hadn't happened in this way, and I wish that such community forming mysticism didn't happen now, and surely we have to stamp out this silly mystagogic phenomenon."  At the same time, faith communities have to hold themselves responsible for the outcomes of their community identity behaviors as to whether they truly represent what love of God as highest value means as well as loving our neighbors, remembering that love practices always have to be updated in time or we still would justify the subjugation of women, the horrors of slavery, and the treatment of some peoples bodies as inconvenient to the assumption that psycho-social-gender identities were forged by cookie cutter infallible binary ways.  Faith communities have to be responsible to not be bad thinkers and bad actors in representing the best way to live.

 Aphorism of the Day, January 9, 2025

On the day when eulogists praised a departed president for his character and the importance of character for elected presidents, it became starkly evident that the major of American voters have not had the character to vote for the better person of character.

Aphorism of the Day, January 8, 2025

Rituals happen because repetitions happen within human community.  Brushing one's teeth is a personal ritual, a hygienic ritual in which children at an early age are given initiation into a behavior of self care, in the way in which one's community defines self care of one's teeth.  Rituals have contexts; baptism or water purification rites have their meanings contextually defined within the various communities which practice such rites.  Jesus is presented as being baptized by John the Baptist.  John's baptism was different from the proselyte mikvah baptisms admitting non-Jews into Judaism.  Perhaps John brought a baptismal practice that he had learned in a wilderness community such as the Essenes, and even though there seemed to be a community following of John the Baptist, there is no indication that baptism was a membership requirement.  Jesus did not need a baptism to become the Jew that he already was; his baptism, I think, is viewed by writers as another moment in his history of becoming completely identified with humanity and having specific location within the area of influence of John the Baptist and his followers.

Aphorism of the Day, January 7, 2024

Many Bible readers in temporally provincial ways have been genre-benders when they misread the Bible.  Beginning with common sense reality and/or scientific perspective as the only meaningful criteria for truth, mis-readers do not think biblical writers had the contextual writing sensitivity to use the available genres available to write about their sublime experiences of mystery of the survival of a continuing community of people who were constituted by their interpretive claims of having mystical experiences of the afterlife manifestation that came to named the Risen Christ or the Holy Spirit.

Aphorism of the Day, January 6, 2025

The Epiphany for Christians is celebration of what they view as entering the era of strategic universal offering of the love of God being always already available to everyone.  Christians deny such a reality when they make requirements to membership as being equal to the fact that everyone is a member of God's family because God did an inside job on everyone by placing the divine image there.

Aphorism of the Day, January 5, 2025

To say that there are "errors" in the Bible is like saying to a poet, "There are errors in your poem."  The Bible includes in its textual forms what it is and one can say I don't like this for such and such reason or I don't like the particular way that you read it, but to say there are errors is irrelevant to it having meanings.  We don't say about Plato's Socratic dialogues, "There are errors in his dialogues."  Persons need to be in a right reading relationship with the Bible or any writing.  It seems as though some people are angry about the existence of the Bible as ancient literature and/or upset about how many humans have interpreted and misinterpreted and applied its profoundly influential meanings in the cultures of people who have been formed by reading it.

Aphorism of the Day, January 4, 2025

The way some people read the Bible has led some people to atheism or to the unwitting falsehood of implying that one cannot be a poet and a scientist at the same time.  Persons wrote the Bible as multi-discursive users of language; readers of the Bible are multi-discursive users of language and should read the mystagogic aesthetic portions as such and the portions written with common sense perception as such.  Bible readers should be simply encouraging readers to stay within their discursive lanes when explicating biblical meanings.

Aphorism of the Day, January 3, 2025 

It is historical true that portions of manuscripts of New Testament writings have been found dating from the second century to the most complete manuscript being found in the 4th century.  These writings would indicate a tradition which came to writing of authors who employed the writing genres available in their times to communicate a message about how Jesus of Nazareth defined for them the most cherished human values in their lives.  They wrote about his life and his afterlife experienced as mystical experience as it pertained to the crucial human questions about the meaning and mission of one's life and the vision of what one's afterlife might be.  The life of Jesus was written "under the influence" of mystical experiences.  Other writings about Jesus written under the influence of mystical experiences have not made it into canonical Scriptures.

Aphorism of the Day, January 2, 2025

The word perfection as a state of being should be replaced with the notion of completeness a the last occasion in continuous omni-becoming.  One can say from one's position that all is not what one wants everything to be but one cannot say that all is not completely at that it has become.  The partial does not have the capacity to make a value judgment upon completeness, even while one sees and knows in part about the partial things that one sees and knows and on which makes continuous value appraisals.

Aphorism of the Day, January 1, 2025

Plato imagined perfection as being changeless.  Trying to merge changelessness while being limited to the effects of time is impossible unless a final future already has been determined and integrated all of the imperfections in time as having to have been necessary for some final changeless state.  Perfection which does not allow for genuine freedom of the perpetual surpassing occasions of time makes it some robotic state negating moral and spiritual validity.

Quiz of the Day, January 2025

Quiz of the Day, January 31, 2025

The nunc dimittis was offered at what occasion?

a. the birth of John the Baptist

b. the Presentation 

c. the Circumcision of Jesus

d. the angels in the sky at the birth of Jesus

Quiz of the Day, January 30, 2025

Which Gospels have two multiplication of fish and loaves stories?

a. Mark and John

b. Matthew and Luke

c. Luke and John

d. Matthew and Mark

e. Matthew and John

Quiz of the Day, January 29, 2025

Paul had a serious disagreement with which of the 12 disciples of Jesus?

a. Philip

b. Mark

c. Cephas

d. James

Quiz of the Day, January 28, 2025

Thomas Aquinas favored which two philosophers in his writings?

a. Plato and Aristotle

b. Aristotle and Avicenna 

c. Plato and Augustine

d. Aristotle and Augustine

Quiz of the Day, January 27, 2025

What did Paul say about people who followed Christ but preached a "different Gospel" than the one which he preached?

a. there are many sheep but one Shepherd

b. they are accursed

c. they need to repent

d. they need to submit to his authority

Quiz of the Day, January 26, 2025

What is not a difference between the Apostles and Nicene Creeds?

a. liturgical use

b. Pronouns of the reciters

c. confession in communion of saints in one

d. confession that Jesus is consubstantial with the Father

e. confess that Jesus descended into hell in one

f.  belief in the resurrection of the body

Quiz of the Day, January 25, 2024

Two persons named Ananias appear in what book of the New Testament?

a. Acts of the Apostles

b. Galatians

c. Philemon

d. Luke

Quiz of the Day, January 24, 2025

The Mustard Seed parable is not found in which Gospel?

a. Matthew

b. Mark

c. Luke

d. John

Quiz of the Day, January 23, 2025

The following was not called a "messiah" in the Bible?

a Jesus

b. David

c. Cyrus the Great

d. John the Baptist

e. Joash

f.  Jacob

Quiz of the Day, January 22, 2025

In what country did Biblical Fundamentalism begin?

a. Israel

b. England

c. Bohemia

d. U.S.A

Quiz of the Day, January 21, 2025

What Gospel pericope would indicate best whether Jesus was literate?

a. arguing with the Temple leaders as a young boy

b. writing letters in the sand

c. being called the Word of God in John

d. being called the Word made flesh

e. account of him reading Isaiah in a synagogue liturgy

Quiz of the Day, January 20, 2025

According to the words of Jesus, where might be the origin of the word "Gospel?"

a. Matthew

b. Mark

c. Luke

d. John

e. Isaiah

f.  Psalms

Quiz of the Day, January 19, 2025

Of the following, who is first associated with the city of Jerusalem?

a. David

b. Saul

c. Samuel

d. Melchizedek

Quiz of the Day, January 18, 2025

What saints bookend the week of Prayer for Christian Unity?

a. Hilda and Augustine

b. Peter and Paul

c. Peter and John

d. Paul and John

Quiz of the Day, January 17, 2025

Who are the Father and Mother of monasticism?

a. Francis and Clare

b. Anthony and Scholastica

c. Anthony and Emma

d. Paul the Hermit and Emma

Quiz of the Day, January 16, 2025

What is not true about glossillaia?

a. it is the gift of tongues

b. it can refer to speaking a human language not ones own

c. it can refer to sounds that are not a known human language

d. it is a gift of the Spirit

e. Paul did not have this gift

 Quiz of the Day, January 15, 2025

In John's Gospel, where did Jesus perform his "first sign?"

a. Capernaum

b. Nazareth

c. On the Jordan River

d. Cana

Quiz of the Day, January 14, 2025

Of the following, which would not be an element of John's Gospel?

a. I am sayings

b. a book of signs

c. parables

d. long discourses

 Quiz of the Day, January 13, 2025

Which of the following is not in the gifts of the Spirit list of Paul in 1 Corinthian 12?

a. love

b. faith

c. miracles

d. healing

e. tongues

d. utterances of knowledge and wisdom

e. interpretation of tongues

f.  prophecy

g. discernment of spirits

Quiz of the Day, January 12, 2025

What is not true about the baptism of Jesus?

a. it was in the Jordan River

b. John the Baptist presided

c. Jesus insisted that it was necessary

d. the voice of God declared Jesus as beloved Son

e. his baptism is recorded in the Gospel of John

Quiz of the Day, January 11, 2025

Where in the Bible is it written that the Spirit appears in bodily form?

a. in the creation story

b. in the Word Made Flesh

c. at the baptism of Jesus

d. at the resurrection of Jesus

Quiz of the Day, January 10, 2025

What biblical prophets were used to explain the ministry of John the Baptist by the Gospel writers?

a. Malachi

b. Isaiah

c. Elijah

d. Jeremiah

e. Hosea

f. a and b

g. a,b, and c

h. a,b, and d

Quiz of the Day, January 9, 2025

King Ahab's wife Jezebel is mentioned in what New Testament book?

a. Romans

b. Jude

c. Revelations

d. 2 Peter

Quiz of the Day, January 8, 2025

Which Gospel begins with the baptism of Jesus by John?

a. Matthew

b. Mark

c. Luke

d. John

Quiz of the Day, January 7, 2025

The Nicolaitans are mentioned in which book of the Bible?

a. Jude

b. Luke

c. Ephesians

d. Revelations

Quiz of the Day, January 6, 2025

When did December 25th replace January 6th as the date for Christmas?

a. in the 1 A.D. when Jesus was born

b. in 1582

c. when the Romans made the winter solstice the date for Christmas

d. the date didn't change for many Christians

e. when Western Christendom changed from the Julian to Gregorian calendar

f. two of the above

g. three of the above

Quiz of the Day, January 5, 2025

Who said to Jesus, "Show us the Father?"

a. Thomas

b. Peter

c. James

d. Nathaniel

e. Philip

Quiz of the Day, January 4, 2024

What is the other names for Mt. Sinai?

a. Nebo

b. Horeb

c. Har  ha-Elohim

d. Har Bashan

e. Har Babnunim

f. all the above

g. b through e

Quiz of the Day, January 3, 2024

Which Gospel has the distinctive "I am" statements of Jesus?

a. Matthew

b. Mark

c. Luke

d. John

Quiz of the Day, January 2, 2024

What people mentioned in the Bible did not experience death?

a. Melchizadek and Elijah

b. Melchizadek, Elijah, and Enoch

c. Enoch and Elijah

d. Jesus, Enoch, and Elijah

e. Melchizadek and Enoch

Quiz of the Day, January 1, 2024

Circumcision was the sign of a covenant with whom?

a. Adam

b. Noah

c. Abraham

d. Abram

e. Eve

f. Sarai

The Presentation February 2, 2025

The Presentation    February 2, 2025 

Sunday School Themes for the Presentation

Have the class speak about important personal and family events like birthdays, wedding anniversaries, weddings, baptism, confirmation and graduations.  We celebrate important events in our lives.

Forty days after Jesus was born, the parents of Jesus followed the important family customs of the Jewish religion.  Jesus was presented to the priest in the Temple in Jerusalem.  His Mother Mary, who had spent forty days of special care for her baby Jesus came out into public for the first time.  Mary and Joseph present Jesus in the Temple.  Why?  They were giving thanks to God for giving them such a special child.  They also were presenting him to God and admitting that Jesus belonged to God as God’s son.

We in our church have something like the Feast of the Presentation.  We have a special service for parents to come to church with their new babies and give thanks to God for their new babies.  We also baptize new babies and when we do, we present them to God as a child of God, and as one who has Jesus as a big brother.

Remember Jesus and his Mother presented themselves to God with thanksgiving.  We too have been presented to God and we should live our lives as though we belong to God as sons and daughters of God.

Jesus was a human child but he was the special Son of God.  We are human children, but in our baptisms we celebrate that Jesus presents us to God the Father as God’s children too.

The Presentation    February 2, 2025

Malachi 3:1-4   Ps.84:1-6

Heb. 2:14-18    Luke 2:22-40

  Today we are still in the season of Epiphany but we also have a special day called the feast of the Presentation.

  If you are counting, it is now forty days from Christmas.  So it is fort days after celebrating the birth of Jesus.

  When Jesus was a baby, each mother had were required to take at least forty days of maternity leave from going into the public for worship.  It probably is good to give moms at least forty days to have some private time with their new babies.

  But after forty days, the mothers and fathers would bring the baby to the temple, and if the oldest baby was a boy, then the boy had to be presented to God at the Temple.  The mother would bring an offering to give thanks for the birth and safety of the child.

  The offering was supposed to be a lamb.   A long time ago when Moses was in Egypt many of the oldest sons were dying and God told Moses to tell the families to prepare a lamb to eat and this lamb would be a substitute offering in place of their sons.

  We don’t understand God in the same way today.  But because of this Moses story, the people of Israel had this custom to offer a lamb when they presented their old son to God in the Temple.

  Mary and Joseph did not present a lamb for their son Jesus; they gave turtle doves because they were poor.

  When Mary and Joseph presented Jesus at the Temple, something wonderful happened.  An older man named Simeon saw Jesus and he blessed the baby Jesus with a song.  And he made a prediction about Jesus.  He said that Jesus would be like a light to the entire world.  He said that Jesus would be a Savior.

  This story about the presentation of Jesus teaches us some lessons.  It tells us that after Jesus became very famous and after many people began to know Jesus as their Savior, the church told the story of the greatness of Jesus from the very beginning of his life.

  This story of the presentation is also about you and me.  Jesus was presented to God as a Temple.  You and I are presented to God in our baptisms.  When we are baptized we celebrate that we are sons and daughters of God and so we belong to God.

  And we promise to live our lives as sons and daughters of God.  And so we promise to love and care for each other and to care for this world which belongs to God.

  Today, let us remember that Jesus was presented to God in a very special way by his parents.  But let us also remember too, that you and I are presented to God as well because God receives us as sons and daughters.  So let us remember to live our lives as sons and daughters of God.  And let us remember to honor and obey our parents too, because God has given them a special role in helping us to live as sons and daughters of God.

  Say with me today:  I am a child of God.  I belong to God.  And I present myself to God again today.  Amen.

Intergenerational Service with Holy Eucharist

February 2, 2025: The Presentation

Gathering Songs:

 Hosanna, Hosanna; I Come with Joy; May the Lord

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

People: And Blessed be God’s Kingdom, Now and forever. Amen.

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

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

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

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Song: Hosanna, Hosanna in the Highest! (Renew! # 71)

1          Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest!  Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest!  Lord we lift up your name with hearts full of praise; Be exalted, oh Lord my God! Hosanna in the highest!

2          Glory, Glory, glory to the King of kings! Glory, Glory, glory to the King of kings! Lord we lift up your name with hearts full of praise; Be exalted oh Lord my God! Glory to the King of kings!

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and 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 book of Malachi 

Thus says the Lord, See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight-- indeed, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?  For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the LORD in righteousness.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord.

Peope: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 24

Lift up your heads, O gates; lift them high, O everlasting doors; * and the King of glory shall come in.

"Who is this King of glory?" * "The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle."

Lift up your heads, O gates; lift them high, O everlasting doors; * and the King of glory shall come in.

"Who is he, this King of glory?" * "The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory."  

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:

For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!

For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.

   Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, the parents of Jesus brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, "Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord"), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, "a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons."  Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, "Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word;  for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel." And the child's father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, "This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed-- and a sword will pierce your own soul too." There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.  When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Lesson – 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.

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

   All Things Bright and Beautiful    

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.  Sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbor.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

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

People:           Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!

Words of Administration

Communion Song: I Sing the Mighty Power of God,  

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: May the Lord (Sung to the tune of Eidelweiss)

May the Lord, Mighty God, Bless and keep you forever, Grant you peace, perfect peace, Courage in every endeavor.  Lift up your eyes and seek His face, Trust His grace forever.  May the Lord, Mighty God Bless and keep you for ever.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!