Sunday School, September 20, 2015: The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost B proper 20

Sunday School, September 20, 2015: The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost  B proper 20

Themes

You might discuss the difference between knowledge and wisdom.

Wisdom is more than collecting facts and information, it is knowing what to do with facts and information so that you benefit your life and the lives of other.

Wisdom is learning how to think with one’s heart.  It is adding feeling, compassion and love and the sense of right and wrong to knowledge, information and facts.

With knowledge we can discover the use of atomic energy; with wisdom we can understand it is better to use atomic energy for the purposes of medicine and providing electrical energy rather than build bombs which can destroy.

With wisdom we can learn to ask God in our prayers for the good and right things for our lives and for the lives of others, rather than just asking for whatever we may desire.

The Gospel Lesson is a lesson about being great as taught by Jesus.

The disciples thought that Jesus was going to establish a kingdom on earth and that he would pick them to be the presidents and leaders of his kingdom.  They argued with each other about who Jesus should pick to be the greatest.

Jesus gave them a riddle: The first shall be last.  The last shall be first.  The one who serve is the greatest.  We should ask ourselves about what we really want to be great at and why we want to be great.  The goal of our lives should be to be great so that we can help other people.

Jesus used the example of a child.  Sometimes children are just ignored in the world of adults.  But Jesus told his disciples that if they wanted to be great, they should not neglect the children.  They should welcome children.  Being great means that we make the world safe for children.

Children’s Sermon

Today, we have heard some important words of Jesus.  The friends and disciples of Jesus were talking about who would have the best place in the kingdom of God. 

  So Jesus decided to teach them a lesson.  He brought a child to them and said, if you welcome a child then you are welcoming me.

  This is an important lesson for adults.  Sometimes we think that the most important things in life is having a more important job, or making more money and sometimes adults forget the really important things, like welcoming children, taking care of the people who need help until they grow up.

  Jesus loves children.  He said that the kingdom of heaven belongs to children.  He said that adults need to become child-like to understand the kingdom of heaven.

  Jesus loves children and adults.  So children and adults should be together.  That’s why we have this service on Sunday, because children and adults can be together to worship God.

  Children and adults need each.  Adults really need children.  Well, can’t adults take care of themselves?  Yes they can, but they need children.  Children do something special for adults.  We adults have forgotten most of what our lives were like when we were children.  And the only way we can recover memories is to see children in our lives.  That is why Jesus said that adults have to become like children to understand the kingdom of heaven.  Adults have to “be born again,” to become child-like again to have hope, faith, joy, wonder and curiosity to be alive in them.

  So we adults, need children.  But you children need adults too.  You need teachers.  You need people to drive you around.  You need people to provide you with food, clothing and home while you are young and can’t provide it for yourselves.

  So we need each other.  And that’s way it should be.

  We have this special family service on Sunday because we believe that children and adults should worship God together.  Today, I want to thank you children for all that you do for us adults.  And I want to thank you adults for what you do for the children in your lives.  I think that is what Jesus wants us to do.  But let us not forget that there are other children and adults who need our help too.  And let not forget to pray and work to help all of the children in the world.  That is what Christ would want us to do.  Amen.

 St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

September 20, 2015: The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs:  Jesus Loves the Little Children, He’s Got the Whole World,  Let Us Break Bread Together, Seek Ye First

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.

Song: Jesus Loves the Little Children  (Christian Children’s Songbook,  # 140)

Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.  Red and yellow, black and white all are precious in his sight.  Jesus loves the children of the world.

Jesus cares for all the children, all the children in the world.  Red and yellow, black and white all are precious in his sight.  Jesus cares for all the children in the world.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Litany Phrase: Alleluia (chanted)

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 James

You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

 

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 54

 Save me O God by your Name; * in your might defend my cause.

 Hear my prayer O God; * give ear to the words of my mouth.

 Behold God is my helper; * it is the Lord who sustains my life.

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 Mark

People: Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus and his disciples went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again." But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him. Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the way?" But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all." Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People: Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon:  Fr. 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. (chanted)

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.

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: He’s Got the Whole World  (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 90)

1          He’s got the whole world; in his hands he’s got the whole wide world in his hands.  He’s got the whole world in his hands; he’s got the whole world in his hands.

2          Little tiny babies. 

3          Brother and the sisters  

4          Mothers and the fathers

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.

The Prayer continues with these words

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Bless and sanctify us by your Holy Spirit 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, 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:  Let Us Break Bread Together (blue hymnal  # 325)

Let us break bread together on our knees.  Let us break bread together on our knees.  When I fall on my knees, with my face to the rising sun, O Lord have mercy on me.

Let us drink wine together on our knees. Let us drink wine together on our knees.  When I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun, O Lord have mercy on me..

Let us praise God together on our knees.  Let us praise God together on our knees.  When I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun, O Lord have mercy on me.

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: Seek Ye First  (blue hymnal  # 711)

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.  And all these things will be added unto you, Allelu, Alleluia!

Refrain: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Allelu, Alleluia!

Ask and it shall be given unto you, seek, and ye shall find.  Knock and the door shall be open unto you, Allelu, Alleluia! Refrain

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

  

Reconciled Notions of the Messiah

16 Pentecost Proper19  September 13, 2015

Proverbs 1:20-33 Psalm 116:1-8

James 3:1-12  Mark 8:27-38
Lectionary Link
Do you subscribe to the denial cliche "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me?"  Or more realistically, "Sticks and stones may break my bones and words can often hurt me?"

One of the habits of the human use of language is to personify almost everything.  We personify most of our body parts....my eyes see...my ears hear...my tummy hurts.  We do this in part to try to refer to the involuntary function of a body part over which we do not seem to have a choice.  And when things  happen to and through a body part over which we don't have a choice or control then we ascribe to them a freedom and the more freedom they seem to have, the more personality they seem to have.

I do not want my tummy to ache, but it does so against my will and so it seems to have an independent freedom and therefore more personality.

The writer of the epistle of James wants to assign some major freedom to the small little muscle known as the tongue.  The writer seems to assume that the tongue is not just a major speech organ but it is an organ which apparently has a "mind of its own."    Apparently the tongue can be completely out of control.  The body is the location of the Self and the Self is a corporation body parts and members.  All of the parts are going through the involuntary aging process, each with its own aging code and each with a certain random vulnerability to environmental exposure, things like bacteria, germs and viruses.

Why would the writer of James ascribe such independent and personal power to the flopping muscle in our mouths, the tongue?  Really, that flopping muscle cannot be seen as independent from the greater Self or the One with the function of volition to make choices about the use of the tongue in conjunction with the throat, larynx and without participation in the entire word formation universe of language and words themselves.

Is the issue really about the independence of the tongue or is the issue really about personal control in the use of our words?

One could say that life is all about the control of our words and language.  The world of words and language is larger than speech acts, hearing acts or writing acts; word and language encompasses the body language in that everything that we do is actually coded by the structure of language in our lives.  We live and move and have our being in Word and in language and because this is so, it makes the particular occasion of articulation of language in speech acts to have greater prominence because a speech act can be productive and creative for better community or it can wreak havoc with verbal missiles which can destroy relationships and community.

I would like to expand the notions of James writing about the speech acts of the tongue to the notion of the overall performance of words and language in our speaking, writing, hearing and in the body language acts of our moral and ethical behaviors.

Following the writer of the Proverbs, I would propose that the best way to articulate word and language in our lives would be called the life of wisdom.  The belle lettres schools of rhetoric named one the goal of rhetoric to be "propriety."  Propriety is the saying of the appropriate thing to fit each specific occasion.  Of course, agreement about what is appropriate is always the issue; dad thinks that Johnny needs a rebuke and mom thinks Johnny needs praise.  So who determines what is appropriate and when and isn't that always the censorship question when it comes to language use?

The wisdom standard of propriety for the Christian faith might be governed by the great law, to love God with all of our hearts and to love our neighbors as ourselves.  And each of us is given the task given our current state of knowledge and awareness to work to organize our worded lives towards articulations of words and deeds which are appropriate to each of our life situations.

One of the wisdom questions of the early church concerned the question of the identity and the function of the idealized figure known as the messiah.  The early churches in their first days of gathering came to be divided between those with Jewish background and those with Gentile backgrounds.  The early followers of Jesus had inherited various notions about the messiah.   There were some with messianic expectations who expected a heroic figure to come and liberate Palestine.  This of course did not happen in life and ministry of Jesus, so the people who had this image of a military and political liberator as their ideal messiah did not find that Jesus measured up to this image.

The Gospel writers in the confession of Peter and the rebuke of him by Jesus are using the narrative of the life of Jesus to highlight this disagreement within the early  church about the nature of the messiah.

When Jesus taught his disciples about a messiah who suffers and dies and rises again, Peter became the teaching example of all of those who could not accept the messiah as a suffering servant.  Why would I say that it  is a teaching narrative of the early preachers in the church?  The disciples in the time of Jesus would not have understood the symbolism of "taking up of one's cross."  Taking up of one's cross became within the church a phrase which referred to a spiritual method and practice.  The death and resurrection of Christ were used as events of power within the souls of people as the death of Jesus was seen as a power to help a person conceive of ending the power of sin in one's life.  The resurrection of Christ was seen as the positive energy of the Spirit of God.  The Spirit of God gave a person the power of transformation.  Christ as the great liberator was not one to lead army; Christ was to convert people one by one in the privacy of their inner lives through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Transformation was happening as people were losing their old soul lives and receiving newly born selves with power to perform new  deeds.  This was the sublimation of energy once used for idolatry and addiction, and now transformed as the ability to perform new deeds and new words.

So how did the church reconcile the two notions of the messiah, the triumphant messiah and the suffering messiah?   The early Christians believed that the messiah had to suffer and in the death of Jesus there was provided a power for believers to die to what is unworthy within us.  The early Christians believed that the resurrection appearances of Christ were evidence of his kingly nature and power.  At the same time, they also proclaimed a future return of Christ as a king who would rule and reign in justice.  One can see how the need to reconcile the two notions of the messiah meant that many in the early church believed that this would happen in their own time.  They hoped that this dual notion of the messiah would be proved by the imminent return of Jesus.

We have inherited the images of both notions of the messiah.  Both are present within our Eucharistic liturgy.   But a more functional notion of the messiah for us is to be able always to visualize the ascendancy of justice for everyone, even when don't see it happening.  We need to visualize an intervening finality about events of justice as a way of asserting the ascendancy of justice.  We like endings in stories where the good guys win because we have hope for their being heroes who will assert the conditions of justice into our life stories even though we know that pure and direct intervention is never complete or perfect.

So what is the wisdom of the messiah for us, the one who suffered and died and rose again?  We need the power of a sublime story to be a personally experienced power of transformation in our lives.  We need to have the heroic happen in our interior lives to complete repentance by continual dying to imperfect states of our minds and souls and behaviors.  We need to know interior Higher Power to take on new states of mind towards thinking, saying, doing the new appropriate deeds and speaking of the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

The early Christians knew that the tongue and other members of one's body could seem to have minds of their own and in face of the habits which made people feel enslaved, there needed to be a spiritual method of transformation.  And so Christian hitched themselves to the power of the Passion of Christ and of his resurrection to break the power of old habits and come into the freedom of new life expression.  The Gospel story encodes this wonderful transformation process which characterized the habits of a very successful and growing fellowship in the first century.  The Gospel relate that the secret of the kingdom of God is that it is a secret interior world within us causing  transformation and change at the heart of word center of our lives.  The kingdom of God then does not become visible with armies and weapon; it become visible with deeds and words of our lives articulated in ways appropriate to each situation.

We today know too that we need the wisdom process in our lives to find tactics and strategies of transformation so that we can come to the freedom of self control.  And maybe we will be able to learn to tame the tongue, which often seems to have a mind of its own.   And maybe God will grant us the transforming grace to bring through deed by deed, and word by word, the interior peace of God to our external worlds.   Amen.