Sunday School, April 23, 2023 3 Easter A

Sunday School, April 23, 2023 3 Easter A


Theme:


Heirlooms and Memorial Things


Sometimes when we go away from mom and dad for the first time, we might miss them so much that it is very hard for us to be away. One way that we might help ourselves remember mom, dad and our home when we go away is to take something from our home with us, like our blanket or a toy or a bracelet that mom gave us. Whenever we get sad when we can see and touch mom and dad, we can look at the blanket, bracelet or the toy, and remember how the love of mom and dad is still with us and surrounds us even when we don’t see them.


Jesus left the world and when his friends could no longer see him, he left us things to remember that his love and how Christ was still with them.


The story about the disciples walking to the Village of Emmaus is a story about how the love and presence has remained and continued to be known by us in the church for 2000 years.


Two of the ways that we know about Christ’s love and presence with us is through reading the Bible and by gathering each week for the family meal when we obey Christ and we bless bread and wine and repeat the words of Jesus, “This is my body. This is my blood.” These words show us how Jesus taught his disciples to remember his love and presence. Just like we might use a blanket or a picture to remember our parents when we are away from them; Jesus gave us the bread and the wine as a way for us to remember his life so strongly, that we can feel him still being in us and with us.


Sermon:


How many of you have ever played the game of “Peek-a-boo?” It is one of the first game that we probably learned to play as a baby.
We cover our face with our hands and then we suddenly take them away. And say “Peek-a-boo” I see you.
Or we cover baby’s head with a blanket, and baby pulls the blanket off and we say, “Peek-a-boo.”
What is the meaning of this game? I pretend to be gone away and absent. I pretend that you cannot see me. And then I suddenly return by saying “Peek-a-boo.”
When you are a young baby or a child, can you see and touch your mommy and daddy all of the time?
No, they sleep in another room; they go to work. They go into the kitchen. You go to preschool or school. So sometimes we cannot see or touch or hear our mommy and daddy. But even though we do not see, or touch or hear them we know that they still live. We know that at anytime they can surprise us when they come to be with us.
And that is what our Gospel story is about. When Jesus died, they put his body in the tomb. And suddenly his body was gone from the tomb.
And his disciples suddenly began to have peek-a-boo games with Jesus. Suddenly Jesus would appear to them to let them know that they were okay and he was still alive.
And now God still plays peek-a-boo with us. Although we don’t actual see God or Jesus. We still know his presence.
In the love of our parents and friends, Christ is jumping out and saying “Peek-a-boo, I love you and I care for you.” In the fun that we have, in learning, in seeing the beautiful world that God has made for us, God also has hidden his presence. And God is saying to us, “Peek-a-boo, I see you….I love you and I care for you.”
And you and I, are to be God messengers for the game of Peek-a-boo. When we are loving and kind, when we care for one another and when we help each other, Christ is saying “Peek-a-boo” to this world through us.
So even though we don’t see or touch Christ, let us remember that Christ is still present in many, many ways and he is ready to surprise us at anytime with love and care, and he is saying, “Peek-a-boo, I see you and I love you and I care for you.” Amen.




Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist
April 23, 2023: The Third Sunday of Easter


Gathering Songs: Hallelu, Hallelujah!; I Come with Joy, Amazing Grace; O When the Saints


Liturgist: Alleluia, Christ is Risen.
People: The Lord is Risen Indeed. Alleluia.


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


Song: Hallelu, Hallelujah (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 84)
Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah! Praise ye the Lord!
Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah! Praise ye the Lord!
Praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah! Praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah!
Praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah! Praise ye the Lord!


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


Liturgist: Let us pray
O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.


First Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia


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


A reading from the Letter of Peter


Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.


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



Let us read together from Psalm 116


I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving * and call upon the Name of the LORD.
I will fulfill my vows to the LORD * in the presence of all his people,
In the courts of the LORD'S house, * in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Hallelujah!




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.


That very day, the first day of the week, two of the disciples were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, "What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?" They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?" He asked them, "What things?" They replied, "The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him." Then he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?" Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, "Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over." So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?" That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!" Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Liturgist: The Gospel of the Lord.
People: Praise to you, Lord Christ.


Sermon – Father Phil


Children’s Creed
We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.
Since God is so great and we are so small,
We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.
We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.
We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is
welcome.
We believe that Christ is kind and fair.
We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.
And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever. Amen.
Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.


For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.
For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.
For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.
For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.
For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.
For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.
For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.
For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.
For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.
For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.


Youth Liturgist: The Peace of the Lord be always with you.
People: And also with you.


Song during the preparation of the Altar and the receiving of an offering
Offertory Song: I Come With Joy (Renew! # 195)
1. I come with joy a child of God, forgiven, loved, and free, the life of Jesus to recall, in love laid down for me.
2. I come with Christians, far and near to find, as all are fed, the new community of love in Christ’s communion bread.
3. As Christ breaks bread, and bids us share, each proud division ends. The love that made us makes us one, and strangers now are friends.

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 our birth into the family of God.
A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.
The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his 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,


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: Amazing Grace, (Blue Hymnal, # 671)
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved; how precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.
The Lord has promised good to me, his word my hope secures; he will my shield and portion be as long as life endures.
Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come; ‘tis grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.
When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.


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: When the Saints (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 248).


O when the saints, go marching in. O when the saints go marching in. Lord, I want to be in that number, when the saints go marching in.
O when the girls go marching in. O when the girls go marching in. Lord, I want to be in that number, when the girls go marching in.
O when the boys go marching in, O when the boys go marching in. Lord, I want to be in that number, when the boys go marching in.


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

Playing Comparative Religious Experience

2 Easter Sunday April 16, 2023

Acts 2:14a,22-32 Psalm 16

1 Peter 1:3-9 John 20:19-31

Lectionary Link

You've heard of comparative religions, the study of the various religions of our world.  But have you heard of comparative religious experience?  Probably not, but it is probably a introspective exercise which we have been involved in both in our private thoughts but also in our religious group identities.

Even though in theory, we believe everyone's experience is unique, we can't help but ponder the differences in religious experience and what those differences might mean.

Perhaps, we feel inferior in our spiritual experiences or maybe we feel special because of some Holy God moment which changed our lives.  Maybe we feel sorry that others who have not had a similar life-changing spiritual breakthrough or conversion or enlightenment.  Perhaps we can carry an unwitting superiority complex about our special God-experience or special knowledge.

I would like to suggest to us that the doubting Thomas story was a teaching which arose in the Johannine community in the year 90 or later to address the tendency of either proud or insecure members to get involved in the comparative religious experience habit.

Did this sort of comparative thing happen within the early Christians communities? Wherever there is evidence of strife, the comparative religious experience social phenomenon occurs.

St. Paul did not see Jesus when Jesus walked upon this earth.  He did not see him, touch him, or talk with him.  He was not at the cross or the tomb and he was not with the disciples who had post-resurrection experiences of Christ.

What did he say about himself and his experience of the Risen Christ?  He said he was like one untimely born; he had a dramatic encounter on the road to Damascus as he seeking to imprison the followers of Jesus.  He was stopped in his tracks and compelled into a complete turn around.

Of himself, he said that he was not the least of the apostles.  So even with St. Paul, there is a comparison of his spiritual experience with that of the other eyewitness apostles.

For those of us who are 2000 thousand years from eyewitnesses of Jesus of Nazareth, we may be like the people for whom the Doubting Thomas story was preached.  We might be involved in comparing our religious experience of Christ and perhaps come to some doubt about its authority or validity or worthiness.

Perhaps we sometimes let ourselves off the hook from doing full throttled Christ-like behaviors because we cite the inferiority of our experience.  "God, how can I be held responsible; I've only had second handed experiences of Christ, I've only heard or read hearsay testimonies?"

By the year 90 of the first century, the community of the Gospel of John did not have very many eyewitnesses to Jesus around, perhaps none.  Perhaps they were feeling their zeal for Christ flag and perhaps they were feeling inferior in their experiences of Christ.

If we appreciate this context, we can derive the full impact of the Doubting Thomas wisdom teaching story.  What does the voice of the Risen Christ say to the community of the Gospel of John? "Thomas, you are blessed because you have been an eyewitness and have believed; but what about all those who have not seen, what is their status?  Well, their experience is blessed too, valid, real, certain and sure."

Why?  Because it has brought you to faith and belief in Jesus as the Christ.  The modes of the self-authenticating presences of Christ are many; they cannot be limited to only the people who saw and walked with Jesus in his own earthly lifetime.

How have most people accessed their experience of the presence of the Risen Christ?  Through having the interpretative framework of words to identify the significance of their experience.  The Doubting Thomas story has a direct plug for the significance of word and writing.  John's Gospel begins with Word as God and creator from the beginning.  That Word became flesh in the body language deeds of Jesus who exemplified active love.  Jesus also spoke words, words to remember, and about his own words, he said, "My words are spirit and they are life."  The writer of John wrote:  "I have written these things so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that in believing you might have life in his name."

Can we appreciate that Christ as the eternal Word has become a presence in our lives through the words which have been handed down for many generations and these words have had the spontaneous "spirit effect" to conduct faith and belief which engenders the proof of the presence of the Risen Christ?  

So the Risen Christ is made present in and through written and spoken word.  But the Doubting Thomas story also gives us the following clues of having and knowing the authentic presence of the Risen Christ.

First in the experience of peace.  To live in peace personally and communally is a sure sign of the presence of the Risen Christ.  The liturgy of the church enshrines the evocative peace of Christ in the passing of the peace in our Eucharistic liturgy.  "The peace of Christ be with you."  This transaction of peace with each other is one of the preludes to knowing the presence of Christ in the Eucharistic gifts.

Next, a sign of the Risen Christ is knowing the presence of another Spirit, the Holy Spirit.  In the Doubting Thomas account, Jesus breathed on his disciples and said, "Receive the Spirit."  Knowing the deep and peaceful Holy Spirit beneath all our inward realities of instinct, moods, desire, emotions, and thought is a sure sign of the presence of the Risen Christ.

Finally, the sure sign of the Risen Christ is the practice in community of forgiving sins.  Forgiveness is not always easy, even when we ourselves, know that we ourselves need it.  But the opposite of forgiveness is the demise of community caused by retaining the sins of others.  Most often we cannot forget harm and injury done in willful ways to us so how do we maintain community and move forward?  We activate the grace of forgiveness which enables us to be people who live together resolved to be reconciling with each while being honest about our weaknesses and faults.

In closing, you and I, like the Johannine community of old,  are encouraged to be blessed in our experiences of the Risen Christ as they are tailored to our own personal circumstances and our communities.  And if we are concerned about the authenticity and validity and blessedness of our experiences, let us test them from the criteria provided in the Doubt Thomas story.  Does our inward life exhibit the cleanness of motive and purity of heart of the presence of the Holy Spirit?  Do our behaviors manifest peace within ourselves and in our communities?  Are we practicing the forgiveness of sins?  And do they comply with coming to faith and belief in Jesus Christ as are found in the written words that have been past down to us in the Gospels?

I hope that you will find the Doubting Thomas event as reported by John's Gospel as an affirmation of your experience of the Risen Christ, in Spirit, in peace, in forgiveness and in written word handed down to you to confirm your faith in Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Sunday School, April 16, 2023 2 Easter A

 Sunday School, April 16, 2023    2 Easter A

Theme

How can we believe without seeing?

Can we see Jesus?  Can we hear him talk to us?  Can we touch him?

Can we see God?  Can we hear God?  Can we touch God?

Do we believe in God and Jesus without being able to see, hear or touch them?

How do we believe in God and Jesus without seeing, hearing or touching?

If we believe in God and Jesus without seeing, hearing or touching them is our belief not as good as the early disciples who walked with Jesus, talked with him, saw him and touched him?

All of these questions are answered by the story about the Doubting Thomas.  After Jesus appeared again after his death to his disciple, Thomas was not with the other disciples.  The other disciples told Thomas that Jesus appeared to them.  Thomas did not believe that Jesus was alive.  The next time Jesus appeared Thomas was with them.  When he saw and touched and heard Jesus, he believed.

Jesus said that Thomas was blessed and fortunate to see him.  Jesus said that other people did not see him and they too were blessed because they believed, just from hearing about Jesus.

The writer of the Gospel of John said that he wrote his Gospel so people might believe in Jesus Christ.

Face to face visit with Jesus, hearing about Jesus, and reading about Jesus.  These are all ways that we can come to believe and Jesus said all of these ways are blessed.

You and I do not live at the same time that Jesus lived but the disciples who lived with Jesus told others about him and many believed.  The disciples who walked with Jesus told about him and these stories were written down and we have the Gospels in the Bible to read and come to believe about Jesus.

All of these ways of believing are equally blessed by God.  Why?  Many people saw Jesus and did not believe.  Many people have heard about Jesus and not believed?  Many people have read about Jesus and not believed in him.

What makes seeing, hearing and reading about Jesus blessed and all equal?  The Holy Spirit is God’s unseen presence inside of us, in our hearts, and when are hearts are in love with God, then we can believe in Jesus through seeing, hearing and reading about him.  It is the presence of God’s Spirit within us that helps us come to believe in Jesus in a way that changes our life to follow the example of Jesus.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus Christ, even though I do not see you, I believe in you because I have heard about you and I have read about you and I have seen how you have changed the lives of people in my life.  Thank you for giving me the Holy Spirit inside of me to help me understand how the Risen Christ is still close within me.  Amen.

Today we read a story about a man named Thomas.  And Thomas has a nickname.  Do you know what his nickname is?  He’s called “doubting Thomas.”  What does that mean?  Well, it means that he would only believe that Jesus was alive, if he could see him, hear him, and touch him.

  Do any of us see, hear and touch Jesus today?  Do we believe that Jesus is alive?

  Do we only believe things that we can see, touch and hear?  No.  In fact some of the greatest things that we believe, cannot be seen, touched or heard.

  When you are not in the same room as your mom and dad, do they still love you?  Do your parents still love you when you can’t see them, touch them or hear them?  Of course they still love you.  And you can believe in that love.  So when you are at school, do your parents still love you?  Of course they do.

  I had a very special grandmother when I was young.  I just loved to be with her.  She was so much fun and she gave a nice birthday partyand she always fixed special favorite food for us.  And she told wonderful stories and she sang songs with us.  And I knew that she loved me.  And my grandmother got old and she died, and it is very sad that I could not hear her, see her or talk to her anymore in the way I used to.  But you know what?  I still feel her love for me.  I still believe in her love, even though I don’t see her, hear her or talk to her.  I still believe in her love.

  After the resurrection of Christ, the disciples could not see, hear or touch Jesus in the same way.  But they continued to know that Jesus loved them.  They still continued to believe that Jesus was still with them in very special ways.  And how could they tell that Jesus was still with them?

   They were used to arguing with each other; but when they live in peace with each other they knew that this peace was because Christ was still with them.  They used to hold grudges against each; but when they forgave each other, they knew that Christ was still with them.

  When I look at you, I can see you, I can hear you and I can touch you.  And you are wonderful to look at.  But you know what?  I can’t really see the very best part of you?  I can’t see what is inside of you. 

And what is inside of you is your spirit.  It is your spirit that makes you a wonderful mystery to enjoy.  And that spirit of yours is always going to be young and new and fresh.  Even though I can’t see your spirit, I know it is most important part of you that makes you special.

  The friends of Jesus did not see the Spirit of Jesus; but it was his best part too.  And when they could no longer see his body; they could still feel his Spirit with them.  And we can feel the Spirit of Jesus with us today.  We can feel it when we have peace and when we forgive each other.

  So remember today; we can believe in things that we don’t see.  The spirit of Christ is with us today.  And that is meaning of the resurrection of Christ.  Amen.

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

April 16, 2023: The Second Sunday of Easter 

Gathering Songs: Glory Be to God On High;  Now the Green Blade Rises, He is Lord, He Lives!

Liturgist: Alleluia, Christ is Risen.

People: The Lord is Risen Indeed.  Alleluia.

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

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

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

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Song: Glory Be to God on High (Christian Children Songbook, # 70)

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

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

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

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ's Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

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

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

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

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

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

A reading from the First Letter of Peter

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 16

I will bless the LORD who gives me counsel; * my heart teaches me, night after night.

I have set the LORD always before me; * because he is at my right hand I shall not fall.

My heart, therefore, is glad, and my spirit rejoices; * my body also shall rest in hope.

For you will not abandon me to the grave, * nor let your holy one see the Pit.

You will show me the path of life; *in your presence there is fullness of joy, and in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.

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.

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe."  A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."  Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

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:  Now the Green Blade Riseth,  (# 204 in the blue hymnal)

1-Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain, wheat that in the dark earth many days has lain; love lives again, that with the dead has been; Refrain: Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

2-In the grave they laid him, Love whom hate had slain, thinking that never he would wake again, laid in the earth like grain sleeps unseen. Refrain

3-Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain, he that for three days in the grave had lain, quick from the dead my risen Lord is seen: Refrain.

4-When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain, thy touch can call us back to life again, fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:  Refrain.

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 our birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his 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, 

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:       Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  

Words of Administration

Communion Anthem: He Is Lord (Renew!,  # 29)

1-He is Lord.  He is Lord.  He is risen from the dead and He is Lord.  Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!

2-He is King.  He is King.  He will draw all nations to him, He is king.  And the time shall be when the world shall sing that Jesus Christ is King.

3-He is Love.  He is Love.  He has shown us by his life that He is Love.  All his people sing with one voice of joy that Jesus Christ is Love.

4-He is Life.  He is Life.  He has died to set us free and he is Life.  And he calls us now to live evermore, for Jesus Christ is Life.

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: He Lives (Lift Every Voice and Sing # 42).

I serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world to today; I know that He is living, whatever others say;  I see his hand of mercy, I hear his voice of cheer, And just the time I need Him He’s always near.

Refrain: He lives.  He lives.  Christ Jesus lives today.  He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.  He lives, He lives salvation to impart!  You ask me how I know He lives.  He lives within my heart.

Rejoice, rejoice, O Christians, lift up your voice and sing.  Eternal hallelujahs to Jesus Christ, the King!  The hope of all who seek Him, the help of all who find, None other is so loving, so good and kind.  Refrain

Dismissal:    

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Continuity and Personal Identity and the Heart Language of Hope

Easter Sunday A   April 9, 2023
Acts 10:34-43 Psalm118:1-2,14-24
Colossians 3:1-4 Matthew 28:1-10

Lectionary Link

In the moving river of time, we are ever living in the threshold of before and after.  In our use of language we have inherited the traces of what has been before and we relay and relate them to the after, the future.  And since we use the same identifying words for people and things of the past, we assume sameness of identity across time.

Sometimes sameness across time is recognizable, but not always.  Only perhaps insiders could recognize the sameness of identity of the person in my baby picture with what I look like now.  I, myself, could not recognize my baby pictures without being told by my parents.  But as people, we carry within ourselves the memory pictures which tells us that we are the same person at 60 as we were at 16.  I knew my identity at 16 and short of significant mental impairment, I know myself to be the same person now that I was when I was 16, even though I have added innumerable occasions of becoming like a tree with countless experiential age rings.

In the human life cycle there are two major change events in identity: birth and death.  In birth, one is released from symbiotic unity with one's mother where one got oxygen from the umbilical cord and one is forced into an external world to gasp for the first breath of air, outside air.  One is inspired, by taking air within one's lungs.

And when one dies, one no longer draws air from outside.  One loses one's spirit, one's breath for ever.

You and I, with memory know how to process sameness and continuity in our lives and within our community.  Our personal identities are tied up with our family and community identities.  Our personal identities are interwoven with our community identities because of the places where we have learned language.

Our communities have told how to label and name the internal geography of our inward life.  We call our inward life, soul, spirit, heart, mind, memory, and feeling, all of which cannot be empirically verified.   We are taught to weave our inner lives with our outer lives.

As Christians we have inherited a tradition to talk about the continuity of our lives both after our births and after our deaths.  Why would we want to address the life after our deaths?  It is something which is unknowable.  It is impossible to know and yet we are obsessed with the afterlife?  Why do we want to know the unknowable?

We want to know the unknowable because we cherish the living knowable in such a way that we do not think that it should end, or if suffering make us want to end it, we think that there has to be something better to transition to.

The imaginations of resurrection derive from the language of the heart.  Every culture has heart language; such language includes the vocabulary of things which cannot be proven or tested by science, but they are statistically proven by the number of people who confess to adhere to such language.

And what is some of the vocabulary of the language of the heart?  Love, hope, joy, faith, gentleness, goodness, patience, justice and self-control.  The language of the heart cannot help but get instantiated in human stories.

And on this day, we tell the story of hope.  The story of hope is an endless future.  And why do we have an endless future?  Because we belong to God.  We belong to Totality from which nothing and no one can be subtracted.  You and I cannot be subtracted from the All; we can only be continuously integrated with everything that has been and everything that will be.

The resurrection of Jesus is our best story of hope about our future continuity.  If Jesus knew himself again after he had died, and if other people knew him again after he had died, then the case for our future continuity is illustrated for us in a poignant and personal way.

The hopeful story of the resurrection is not meant to diminish our joy and delight with our lives now, with the people whom we have loved and lost.  The hopeful story of the resurrection personalizes the inward intuition that our selfhood will never be lost because we are intricately connected to the great preserving All.

Resurrection and afterlife are different life, hopeful life, even while we mourn the loss of access to the people who have brought us the most joy in this life.

Today we do not use the resurrection of Jesus to deny the sadness of the loss of people in our lives.  I am sure the disciple friends of Jesus wished that he had lived a full life into his eighties for nineties. 

The resurrection story is the creation of the heart language of hope to instantiate in a story the intuition that nothing is ever lost, it is only preserved in some surpassing state of becoming.

It is this future state of becoming beyond our death which we confess today even as we thankfully and humbly mark the tentativeness of our current lives.

We are grateful today that Jesus embraced the tentativeness of human life and that he discovered death to be tentative too because he could not be erased from a greater afterlife.

Today, we let our heart language of hope cry again, "Alleluia, Christ is Risen.  The Lord is Risen indeed!  Amen.

Latest Stage in the Easter Relay Race

Easter Vigil      April 8, 2023

Ex.14:10 Canticle 8, Ez 36:24-28 Psalm 42:1-7
Rom.6:3-11 Luke 24:1-12

Lectionary Link

I would like to use the metaphor of a relay race tonight with a variation.   A relay race consists of runners who run a prescribed distance and then pass off the baton to another runner until the race is complete.  But for the Easter relay race, I would propose that our history includes many prior runners who have handed the baton of the Easter tradition to us and we tonight hand the baton of tradition to the next persons to are to run the next stage.

Tonight in the Easter Vigil, we are those in the current and latest stage of the tradition of Salvation history which has been handed to us throughout the generations.

We commemorate some of the various stages of Salvation History by reading the many Scriptural lessons and Psalms, and by praying the Collects or prayers of the Easter Vigil.

These writings came from people in the ancient past, who have been given insights about the meaning of God and salvation.  They were written down to share continuously.  As inheritors of these writings, we read them again and promulgate them into the future.

These are the great stories which provide us with our salvation identity.  They beginning by positing a Divine Being who uses language to speak into creation everything that has come into being, thus bearing the insight that creation and word happen together.

Word gives identity and being to what we know to be.  The word was to inhabit our bodies as body language in how we were to conduct ourselves.

Our great salvation story lets us know about our perpetual failure to conduct ourselves in the best possible way, in the ways of love and justice.

Our great salvation story provide us with the messages of continual education and correction that have arisen to show us how to amend our lives in the direction of excellence.

The salvation story came to us through the Hebrew people and has been known through their textual tradition.  They were to understand themselves as a paradigmatic people who would live so well as an example to all people that they would by a sort of  moral osmosis influence the rest of the people of the world.  The task of their being an exemplary people was too much to require of them and among the many unfriendly nations they came to suffer many setbacks, even slavery, occupation, and exile.

And yet even with such setback, the story of deliverance and salvation was made evident even as it has always been evident that salvation is never finished, but always ongoing and progressive.

In our salvation story, it has fallen to Jesus Christ to offer a program of direct access to the love of God.  But the profound selfishness of humanity was not ready for the profound love of God which Jesus came to bring.

Jesus has brought to salvation history a universal appeal; he could not be limited to a particular time or particular people.

When Jesus loved profoundly, he threatened people who did not want love and preference to be so widely shared.  And so he was killed when people thought that profound goodness and love could be stopped or limited.

And we again embrace our leg of the relay race tonight.  We come to receive again the message of Jesus living again after his death.  We come to testify that goodness and love cannot be ended by death.

And tonight we accept our next leg of the Easter race into the future.  In hope we proclaim that love cannot die and that it will out live us in this world, and embrace us freshly when we die.

Let us with thanksgiving receive the sacred tradition of hope that has been passed on to us tonight.  Let us pass on this tradition through baptism, healing, teaching, and loving care.  Let us tonight be conduits for the Easter message being passed on into the future.

Tonight we make the hopeful shout into the never-ending future: "Alleluia, Christ is Risen!  The Lord is Risen Indeed!  Alleluia!"  Amen.