Way, Truth, Life, Home, and Inheritance

5 Easter a May 7, 2023

Acts 17:1-15 Ps. 66: 1-8
1 Peter 2:1-10 John 14:1-14

Lectionary Link

When the most important person and mentor of one's life leaves, what does one need?  One needs direction, honesty, and an assurance that there is greater life than the death of the loved one.  And what if we've have gotten location and identity by being with someone so important?  What if our life has been poignantly defined by living in proximity with the most important person in our lives?  Our personal neighborhoods change when our loved one is gone.  How can a home be a home when the one who made it seem like home is suddenly gone?  When someone important dies, one can believe that significant resources for living have been lost.  How do we access the inheritance of the loved one whom we've lost?

How did the writer of John's Gospel, writing decades after Jesus, present Jesus?  Jesus was presented as one who prepared his disciples for his eventual absence.  And by logical extension, the first readers of the Gospel of John were to know that the preparation for the absence of Jesus of Nazareth pertained to their lives as well.  And by further extension, you and I can find insights on how we can live today without having seen, walked, or talked with Jesus of Nazareth.

The Gospel writers believed that they could write about Jesus in such a manner that he could be known as the exemplary person on whom one's life could be modeled.  In short, Jesus was the way; he was the one who provided the direction for how to live best in the way love, peace, joy, and justice.  Probably the most important gift that any of us has had are exemplary mentors who have provided us with living examples of how to live well.  Jesus is the way, because he was the exemplary person who has given us a direction of excellence into which we can continuously grow.

Further, we need to know what is true.  Truth has many nuances.  It cannot be reduced to scientific laws or logical arguments.  The truth of Jesus has to do with the aspect of living honestly with oneself.  Jesus was honest to God, honest to himself, honest to his friends, and honest to the world in which he lived.  How do we live in the truth of Jesus?  By honestly discovering ourselves to be children of God and from this discovery, live with this distinction in such a way as to invite this same insight for others.  We should strive to be able to say, "If you have seen us, you have seen something of the likeness of God and Christ."  If we can attain to honesty about our heavenly parentage, the likeness and image of God on our lives,  then we emulate the truth of Jesus.

When the life of Jesus ended upon the cross, did that mean the end of the kind of qualitative life of Jesus was gone?  No, Jesus promised the continuance of abundant life, resurrection life, even the life of the Holy Spirit.  The early followers of Jesus lived with the sense of the continued presence of the Risen Christ.  This continued presence was the abundant life which Jesus provided for his disciples, for the early Christians and for us today.

When Jesus died, did the disciples lose their home?  Where are we going to live after Jesus is gone?  Wherever Jesus went, he created a home for his disciples.  Sometimes we like to reduce the words of Jesus to funeral services and speak of eternal life in some heavenly dwelling.  When he was on earth, Jesus told them that the Son of Man had no place to lay his head.  He was an itinerant and nomadic Jesus in his ministry.  He had no home, but he found many homes with many friends.  What Jesus taught us about God is that God is an itinerant and homing God, one who indwells the lives of all.  Jesus presented God as a homing God; one who would be pleased to dwell in the lives of all.  This is a connection of creation theology with incarnational theology.  The likeness and image of God dwells within creation and especially within people.  Jesus is the one who taught us to bring our God-identity to the surface to become manifest in our words and our deeds.

In his farewell to his disciples, Jesus was saying, just as I have found the likeness of God my parent within myself, so too can you find this same resource within yourselves.

Today, we live in the same promises of the farewell discourse of Jesus.  We have the example of direction for our lives; we have his honest to God living, we have access to the abundant life within seeming ordinary life, we don't need to worry about a home because God has made a home within us, and finally, we can live off the continuing inheritance of the image of God upon our lives which can be known as the rising Holy Spirit.

As we always live in the grief of having lost Jesus of Nazareth, we live in hope and joy of the continuity of the values of the life of Jesus today.  Amen.

Sunday School, May 7, 2023 5 Easter A

 Sunday School, May 7, 2023    5 Easter A

For Discussion

Jesus came to teach us about being members of the great family of God.

It is easy to know that are members of the family of our mom and dad and brothers and sisters and cousins, uncles and aunts and grandparents.

Families live in houses.

Did you ever think of your body as a house?

The body of each mother is a special house because each baby first lived inside of mother.

But even when we are born, we still live inside of the heart of our mothers, because our mom’s keep memories of who we are as her special treasure, so we always have a place inside of our mothers.

Jesus reminded his friends that they always had a “dwelling place” inside of God his Father.

Jesus came as God’s Son to show us that he was made in special image of God.

Jesus came to remind us that we are made in God’s image and so we too are children of God.

God gave this world as the house that we live in now when we are alive.

But Jesus promised his friends that even after they died, they would still live in rooms and dwelling places in the Father’s house.  So after we died, we can know that we will still have a place to live and it has been prepared for us.

But while we are still alive, Jesus said that we had great work to do.  The great work that we have to do is to tell everyone that we belong to the family of God, that God is our heavenly parent and that Jesus is our brother in this great family of God.

Question did you ever think of your body as a house?

Think about the rooms in this house as the memories you have inside of you about each of the people in your life.

The people whom you love have a special room inside of you.

Can you accept yourself as person who is loved by God and who has been given a dwelling place in God’s house forever?

Sermon

What do we call this building where we are now?  A church.

Now if we sold this building to someone who opened a restaurant here, what would we call the building then?  A restaurant…we might say, “It’s a building that used to be a church.”

  So what makes this building a church?  The way it is built, or does the people who use this building make it a church?

  Jesus promised his disciples that he would provide for them a place to live, but he didn’t mean houses and buildings.  He meant that he would provide for them a group of people with whom they could live and call friends.

  And just as a church really isn’t a building but the people who worship there.  A home is not just a building.  A home is where one lives with one’s family.

  Jesus promised to make his followers sons and daughters of God, so that they would have another family, a Christian family.

  So that is why we have a church.  A church is a Christian family where we can live.  It is group of friends with whom we pray.  It is a group of friends that we join so that we can worship God, learn about God, pray together and help people who are in need.

  Jesus promised that his friends could find a group of friends to be with even after he was gone.  And he promised that whenever they got together, they could feel as though Jesus was still with them, because they were doing the work that he gave them to do in this world.

  Remember that our church is a group of friends where we belong.  And so we gather to offer prayers, to help one another, to share in eating the bread and drinking the wine, and know that the presence of Christ is with us.

  Jesus said that in his Father’s house there were many dwelling places.  God’s big house is this world we live in; and God dwellings inside of the people who live in this big house world of God.

  You and I can know that God dwells with us.  We can invite God to be in us and let him always be a special guest inside of us.

  Let us be thankful that Christ taught us that God dwells within each of us and so we can celebrate God’s closeness to us.  Amen.

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

May 7, 2023: The Fifth Sunday of Easter

Gathering Songs: Glory Be to God on High; We Will Glorify; If You’re Happy

Liturgist: Alleluia, Christ is Risen.

People: The Lord is Risen Indeed.  Alleluia.

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

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

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

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

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

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

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

3-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 God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

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

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

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

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

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

A reading from the First Letter of Peter

Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation-- if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.  Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture:

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 31

In you, O LORD, have I taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; * deliver me in your righteousness. 

Incline your ear to me; * make haste to deliver me.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:

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

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

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

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

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

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

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

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

   Thanks be to God!

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

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."  Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it."

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 Anthem:  Peace Before Us (Wonder, Love and Praise,  # 791)

1          Peace before us.  Peace behind us.  Peace under our feet.  Peace within us.  Peace over us.  Let all around us be Peace.

2          Love, 3 Light, 4 Christ

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:  We Will Glorify  (Renew! # 33).

1. We will glorify the King of kings, we will glorify the Lamb; we will glorify the Lord of lords, who is the great I Am.

2. Lord Jehovah reigns in majesty, we will bow before his throne, we will worship him in righteousness, we will worship him alone.

3. He is Lord of heaven, Lord of earth, he is Lord of all who live; he is Lord above the universe, all praise to him we give.

4. Hallelujah to the King of kings, hallelujah to the Lamb; hallelujah to the Lord of lords, who is the great I Am.

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: : If You’re Happy  (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 124)

1-         If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.  If you happy and you know it clap your hands.  If you’re happy and you know it then your face should surely show it, if your happy and you know it, clap your hands.  

 2- If you’re happy and you know it, make a high five.  If you happy and you know it make a high five.  If you’re happy and you know it then your face should surely show it, if your happy and you know it, make a high five

3-Make a low five

4-Make a fist bump  

5- If you’re happy and you know it, shout Amen!.  If you happy and you know it shout Amen!.  If you’re happy and you know it then your face should surely show it, if your happy and you know it, shout Amen!  

Dismissal:    

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

People: Thanks be to God!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Survival of the Fittest Versus Good Shepherding

4 Easter A   April 30, 2023
Acts 6:1-9, 7:2a 51-60 Ps. 23

1 Peter 2:19-25 John 10:1-10

Lectionary Link

Sometimes in our world today, we extol freedom as a virtue, but what we actually do in practice is to allow the strong, the wealthy, and the intelligent to have the freedom to dominant and exploit those who are weak, poor, and ignorant.

We say the market is free but it is really dominated and controlled by the people with the most wealth.  How free is that for the poor?

We say that all are created equal but we often standby and let nature prove the prowess of the strong over the weak.  We can believe in theoretical equality but not in equal justice.  Equal justice means a wise tailoring of rights to the capacities of each member in society.

We promote universal education and knowledge even while we let the more learned exploit the ignorance of those who don't have the education or the capacity for advanced reasoning.

We may agree with Darwinian theory that in non-human Nature, the fittest survive mainly by exploiting the weak for their own well-being and longevity.  We may presume with human culture and civilization that we have risen above the predator-prey relationships and the dog eat dog world but we often disguise these same tendency under acceptable practices of class superiority.  We can practice the virtues as only transactional, meaning we are selectively kind when we can get an equal or better return on our kindness.  We can't make a sale unless we've learned to practice art of making friends and influencing people.  So, we in fact make virtues selfish behaviors to get better outcomes for ourselves.

The community of the Gospel of John needed to survive.  They were a minority community living within the cities of the Roman Empire.  The Gospel was written in part to provide insights for surviving behaviors for a minority community.

What survival message did the community of the Gospel of John need?

They needed the message about a good shepherd?  Why?  Because they needed to stay together.

The Roman authorities seemed to be those who were fittest to survive and thrive within the Roman Empire.  How could these small Christ-communities survive with such inequity in power relationship?

They needed unifying leadership to stay together and to help each other.  Therefore Jesus is put before the community as the model of what good leadership means.  He is the model for the right relationship to power, wealth, and knowledge.

What is good shepherding?

It is non-exploitive, it is protective of the vulnerable, it is teaching, and it is sacrificial.

Members of the Gospel of John community could not be those with leaders who were competing with each other for followers.  This meant that leadership had to have a calling for the well-being the community and not for their own position, wealth or influence.  Those who were new to the faith community could not be made pawns in power struggles among leaders.  The motive of a good shepherd is for the benefit of the flock and not for self-promotion.

A good shepherd is one who has the wisdom and the desire to protect the vulnerable.  The Christ-communities in the Roman Empire were already under threat.  Their very existence could be seen as a challenge to the existing religions of the Empire, especially the cult of the Emperor.  For those who were finding new spiritual awakening within the Christ-communities there was a need for protection and nurture and for teaching.

A good shepherd is also a teacher, or one who freely gives one's mature wisdom to those who are growing in their faith.  A good shepherd needs to be one who is good in the art of living, and one who shares that art of good living to disciples, pupils and learners.  A good shepherd is an exemplary teacher, one who can say both, "do as I say, and do as I do."

Finally, a good shepherd is sacrificial.  In the survival of the fittest theory, the weak are sacrificed to the strong.  In good shepherd practice, it is the strong who are so strong that they use their power on behalf of others.  The ancient shepherd was also a living door or gate to the sheepfold.  The shepherd slept in the door way to the fold so that any predator  had to go through the shepherd to get to the sheep.  A good shepherd practices the greater love, which lays down one's life for one's friend.  Laying down one's selfish ego life is a requirement in good shepherding.

Today, more than ever, we need good shepherding in this world which reduces virtues to transactional behaviors for class privilege.  "I'll scratch your back, if you scratch mine."  We need good shepherding in the free market world where a very few wealthy people can control a disproportionate amount of the world's resources to  the lack of a vast majority.  Good shepherd understand stewardship being beneficial to all and to our environments as well.  And in a world which claims endless knowledge and information, we need wise shepherds who can teach the art of good and kind living.  Having lots of knowledge and information does not mean that we have learn to live well.  Shepherding wisdom is about using wisdom for the good care of the people of this world and the places where we live.

We in the church have a great mission to exemplify and teach the essence of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ in our world today.  Amen.

Aphorism of the Day, April 2023

Aphorism of the Day, April 30, 2023

A shepherd was a symbol of leadership in ancient Israel since leaders had more resources to "manipulate" the more dependent masses.  If leaders today have more money and resources to "manipulate" the masses who are deprived of the same, good shepherd leadership does not exploit those who are weaker, less informed, and poorer.

Aphorism of the Day, April 29, 2023

Taking advantage of one's strengths and assets to exploit for personal gain is the exact counter to what being a good shepherd means.

Aphorism of the Day, April 28, 2023

If Jesus spoke in "figures of speech," then the Gospel writers want the readers to appreciate the differences in discursive practices, meaning the words are not an exact mirror reflection of the realities to which words are referring.  Understanding meaningful signification of a text is always an issue.

Aphorism of the Day, April 27, 2023

The message of the metaphor of the Good Shepherd is to be a shepherd for the vulnerable.  If one is given ownership, power, wealth, and knowledge then those should be used to care for those who need it.

Aphorism of the Day, April 26, 2023

Every metaphor has its signifying limitation and may deconstruct when expansive literalness is applied.  For example, the Lord is my shepherd, or Jesus as the Good Shepherd.  What is a shepherd's relationship to his sheep?  He owns the sheep and feeds and cares for the sheep in order to get food, wool, and milk products.  The ownership of sheep is essentially exploitive, with a sheep being a commodified animal.  Our view of God or Jesus would not want to tap the exploitive aspect of what shepherding means, so we limit the metaphor to God and Jesus caring for us like a favorite pet.

Aphorism of the Day, April 25, 2023

Writings are made in specific times and places in language that is best known and interpreted within the specific times and places.  What happens when language contexts are no longer accessible to later readers of ancient words?  Can anyone claim to understand the meanings of ancient text as though meanings were "self-evidential" over time?

Aphorism of the Day, April 24, 2023

The presentation of Jesus as the good shepherd is chiefly supported by the confessing words, "I lay down my life for the sheep."  Is any farm commodity worth the life of a worker, if threatened?  As a figure of speech, it refers to human leadership sacrificing life for followers.  This is counter to the norm of the people sacrificing their lives for the leader.  What CEO says, "I will give up my privileges and bonuses for the employees?"

Aphorism of the Day, April 23, 2023

Resurrection is a poetry of the future.

Aphorism of the Day, April 22, 2023

Faith is hoping the assessments of the future will make sense of the bafflements of the present.

Aphorism of the Day, April 21, 2023

Present disappoint might be expressed in the phrase, "we had hoped that..."  Outcomes often reveal that we have had the wrong vision of what we hoped for or the wrong timing for when they might happen, or the wrong notions about how they might happen.  We live by the insight, "The future will give clarity to the past and to what is happening now."

Aphorism of the Day, April 20, 2023

Serendipity is when something "random" gets experienced as favorable and blessed timing of something good happening to us.  Serendipity and surprise go together because one can't plan one's own serendipity.  What is often called a theophany is serendipitous.  If we can't plan theophanies, what does that tell us about the apparentness of God to each human being?  Most of life involves having faith while living with the general apparentness of God without all the thunderbolts and light shows.

Aphorism of the Day, April 19, 2023

Like a light switch the Risen Christ could turn on or turn off his appearance.  He turned on his appearance suddenly in the breaking of the bread with the Emmaus road walkers.  Could this be a metaphorical story about Eucharistic presence?  The Gospel invites us to read with "inner eyes," poetic eyes.

Aphorism of the Day, April 18, 2023

The resurrection is the explanation for the many reappearances of Christ after the death of Jesus.  Jesus became a rhetorical and poetic expansive feeling phrase of "Christ as all and in all."  Such a phrase is meant to proclaim divine personal omnipresence or divine immanence.

Aphorism of the Day, April 17, 2023

The Bible as any text is "re-written" every time it is read because it becomes variation of meaning according to the version of the reader who have unique linguistic programming.

Aphorism of the Day, April 16, 2023

Doubting is a good exercise to help us continual pan interpretative framework to find what is appropriate for the textual situation.

Aphorism of the Day, April 15, 2023

The mysteries expressed by religious discourse thwart science proving that religion and science employ different discourses with different truth purposes.  The problem happens when religionists assert that the events of their poetry could have been empirically verified.  The scientists rightly say, "Stick to your mysticism."

Aphorism of the Day, April 14, 2023

The so called "Doubting Thomas" story is really a wisdom parable to shed light on the blessedness, the validity, equality, and the affirmation of a wide variety of experiences of the Risen Christ.

Aphorism of the Day, April 13, 2023

Empirical verification or sensorial experience is the standard for to indicating something is really real.  And stories about such in the Gospels are a way of establishing the really "realness" of inward experience.  Just as Thomas saw and touched, so too those who did not see and touch had a really real encounter with the Risen Christ.  One's inward life is as true as one's outward life but in substantially different ways.  People of faith can be honest scientists.

Aphorism of the Day, April 12, 2023

One of the subtle results of institutional religion is to assume that the presences of Christ can be limited to the administrative prerogatives of the leadership.

Aphorism of the Day, April 11, 2023

In the "doubting Thomas" story, the writer of John's Gospel is claiming that modes of knowing the Risen Christ are blessed and equal in faith and truth status to eyewitness encounters with Jesus.  The post-death of Jesus encounters with the Risen Christ in various modes are the new norms.

Aphorism of the Day, April 10, 2023

What role did grief play in bringing the apparitional appearances of Christ to his disciples?  Can extraordinary grief command extraordinary appearances?

Aphorism of the Day, April 9, 2023

On Easter we ponder personal continuity beyond death.  Does the "software" of our inside stuff of self consciousness continue to function without the "hardware" of our bodies?

Aphorism of the Day, April 8, 2023

The Sabbath rest of Jesus in Holy Week is the time that his body resided in the tomb and there is speculation about where the spirit of Jesus went when "separated" from his body.  The bringing to language of what really is unknowable and mysterious is the creative use of words to produce hope and the undeniability of the future.

Aphorism of the Day, April 7, 2023

God's greatest attribute may be also how divine weakness manifests itself locally.  God is omnipresent Freedom and Great Freedom shares lesser freedom everywhere and does not interfere with it locally.  Why? True moral worth happens because of when occasions are not coerced.  Great freedom is weak when shared with local freedom as in an individual not wanting to choose to manifest the lure of love which rides upon Great Freedom.

Aphorism of the Day, April 6, 2023

Rituals can lose their anthropological soundness when they become religious acts to simply follow rules.  The Maundy Thursday ritual highlights two crucial aspect for the survival of community: Eating and service.  We should not isolate Jesus as living bread from actual bread which gives people physical survival and eating together is a way of guaranteeing that each has enough to eat.

Aphorism of the Day, April 5, 2023

Holy Week and Easter are the communal ways to deal with the reality of death and after-death.  Death is the brute reality of life.  Post-death resurrection is a discourse of hope for the unknown not yet.  Death is the failure to preserve the quality of life as we have known it.  We project an afterlife Preserver of the continuity of personal identity, not because we egotistically think that any of us deserves everlasting existence, but because any becoming is an absolute becoming in having happened, and having been absolute in having happened, such absoluteness can never be erased.  People can never be said to not having happened.

Aphorism of the Day, April 4, 2023

In Holy Week we grapple with what Continuity means.  We get mixed signals; we're supposed to love life but not to the point of not being able to adjust when life is lost.  Continuity remains in life and death but we don't have the contemporaneous witness of the dead to have their views of the role of being dead within Continuity.  Death experienced as not have familiar access to someone has given birth the creative imaginations of the afterlife.  At death a person leaves the discourse of science and empirical verification regarding their "not in their body" becoming; about the afterlife one can only use artistic discourses of creative imagination.  When we speak about the afterlife, it is always translated into "this life" language and experience.

Aphorism of the Day, April 3, 2023

Holy Week is the strategy of calendar time in the annual Christian curriculum used to build community identity with Christ through the corporate remembering of the root events of the Jesus Movement.

Aphorism of the Day, April 2, 2023

The liturgical juxtaposition of the Palm Procession and the Passion Gospel highlights the crowds that one might belong to when viewing Jesus.  A Jerusalem crowd might be threatened by Jesus because the Romans building projects where providing employment in the city.  The outsiders from Galilee could come to town and put their hero on a donkey in a parade and threaten the tenuous relationship between the city's religious leaders and the Roman occupiers.

Aphorism of the Day, April 1, 2023

St. Paul wrote about "glorying in the cross of Christ," and one can wonder if this is like trying to put lipstick on an ugly pig.  How could death become a necessary absence of Jesus in order for endless number of people to have experiences of the presences of the Risen Christ?  A "functional" resurrection seems to have happened only for Jesus and his followers; for us we don't have immediate post-resurrection experiences with our faithful departed loved ones, not unless we have our imaginations on apparitional overload.  In Christian lore, the death of Jesus is one-of-a-kind and the deaths of our loved ones are also unique but don't seem to have the same redemptive meanings as we inconsolably miss them even with gratitude for them having been in our lives.