Prayers for Epiphany, 2024

Tuesday in Last Epiphany, February 13, 2024 (Shrove Tuesday)

Steel our hearts, O God, on this eve of our Lenten fast and teach us the positive discipline of converting energy by taking on tasks of justice and kindness to replace habits of indulgence, and so integrate and make permanent new habits of grace for the Easter season.  Amen.

Monday in Last Epiphany, February 12, 2024

Gracious God, worthy of praise, we prepare to fast from using a defining word of praise not because it does not apply, but as a practice in penting up our energies for a greater release in our praise on Easter Day.  Amen.

Last Sunday after the Epiphany, February 11, 2024

God of Light, would that the peoples of the entire world would experience a tsunami of inward light, not to blind or remove freedom, but to inform us toward the best ways of peaceful harmony.  Amen.

Saturday in 5 Epiphany, February 10, 2024

Eternal Word, move deeply within us in the very deep word structures of our inward lives where dwells the springs of our volition and let our deep words be re-scripted to comport our body language with deeds of kindness and justice, and let our language performance in speech and writing evoke your sublime presence.  Amen.

Friday in 5 Epiphany, February 9, 2024

Eternal Word of God, in having words we ask for the wisdom of good word arrangement in content and style so that we can have our interior lives shuffled in a way that what we call light or enlightenment occurs.  And in you as Word, we see you as the Light which is enhanced wisdom in how our lives are ordered by the words of our life.  Give us all more experiences of light in the ordering of our lives by and through words.  Amen.

Thursday in 5 Epiphany, February 8, 2024

God, we would want to confess you as the categorical imperative, as that which is universally recommendable, and yet we can only do so from such limited locations in space and time meaning that we do not have the appropriate capacity to speak with precise experiential knowledge about you.  But we can have the humility to always confess a expansive MORE than we or anyone has, can, or will know.  And we take liberty to project upon the great MORE love and justice as the best intentions of existence.  Amen.

Wednesday in 5 Epiphany, February 7, 2024

Christ, Light of the World, Word of words; would that you could or would flood the interior worlds of all people so that we could together see our way toward acting out the requirements of love, kindness, and peace with each other.  Amen.

Tuesday in 5 Epiphany, February 6, 2024

Christ of the Transfiguration, light is the fitting metaphor for the ability to see in a different way to enable a different kind of discourse; grant to us the ability to see poetically so as to add moral and ethically seeing to the scientific materialistic discourse which we cherish for wisdom in everyday commonsense living.  Amen.

Monday in 5 Epiphany, February 5, 2024

God of the cycles in nature, give us grace to learn in the spiraling advancing repetitions of our lives, and let us remember the butterfly moments so as to survive and learn in the phases between the releases from our dark nights of soul.  Amen.

Sunday, 5 Epiphany, February 4, 2024

God, we exist in many states of health on this side of the event of our deaths; let us not be too religiously preoccupied with health after our deaths that we neglect the many health needs of people who are living, especially the great health needs of adequate food, clothing, and shelter.  Amen.

Saturday in 4 Epiphany, February 3, 2024

God of us who are people with unavoidable favorites; give us wisdom to accept the justice of everyone being exceptional even while everyone is required to be on their path of always surpassing themselves in love and justice.  Give us humility to accept the esteem of being loved even while we offer that esteem to all with the requirement that all us are on the educational program of repentance.  Amen.

Friday in 4 Epiphany, February 2, 2024

God, we thank you for preserving forever the Holy Mystery of the Negligible which baffles our accuracy of prediction and precision in knowing all causality; give us courage in doing what we know to be just and kind to others even while we respect the sunlight of sustenance with falls upon the just and unjust proving that mercies prevails even for the unjust and means that God's love is also our judgment.  Amen.

Thursday in 4 Epiphany, February 1, 2024

God of today, we awaken to create in the now all that has gone before because it is born in contrast with the newness of the now; let us be good stewards and interpreters of the memorial traces of what has gone before and act in good actuarial wisdom for a better future.  Amen.

Wednesday in 4 Epiphany, January 31, 2024

God of epiphanies, you continue to provide new insights in new times as people seek to apply what love and justice means for people in various situations today.  Give us grace to repent toward what is true kindness to all.  Amen.

Tuesday in 4 Epiphany, January 30, 2024

God of health and salvation; give us grace to perceive the limits of health in time when the aging effects are inevitable because of the eventual entropy of death; let the terminus point of death inspire us to add quality to life while we live and give us the faith to leave legacies of love and justice in this world.  Amen.

Monday in 4 Epiphany, January 29, 2024

God, the work of Adam was naming signifying our vocation in language; we have generated naming traditions for everything inside us and outside us, states and conditions, and we have come to prefer peace, love, and justice because we have also had to name war, terror, and cruelty.  Give us cause today to name peace and justice as the experience for more and more people today.  Amen.

Sunday, 4 Epiphany, January 28, 2024

O Whispering Spirit, the interior lives of billions of people need to be whispered for manifold peace to be realized and we beseech you to do irresistible peace whispering to the chaotic interiors which cause the acting out of the selfish conflicts of war.  Amen.

Saturday in 3 Epiphany, January 27, 2024

God of peace, grant this world a massive interior wave of peace within the restless hearts of billions of people and so change us from within that we might conform our exterior world to habits of peace.  Amen.

Friday in 3 Epiphany, January 26, 2024

God of freedom, shared in portions with all, help us not to minimize the significance of our limited freedom in the seemingly small and consistent acts of kindness which can drip forth from us to gradually erode the presence of evil in our world.  Amen.

Thursday in 3 Epiphany, January 25, 2025

Lord Jesus Christ, you are a people whisperer to those who inward lives are troubled; help us to learn how to whisper people to receive the renewal of right spirits within their lives.  Amen.

Wednesday in 3 Epiphany, January 24, 2024

God, we accept our place in a very limited location within the greatness of Plenitude; let our ecological words and deed create concentric effects of love and justice as we endeavor to send energy of kindness into the future.  Amen.

Tuesday in 3 Epiphany, January 23, 2024

Great One, help us not to discount the value of our smallness in the deeds of kindness which can preserve the future of goodness in our world.  Amen.

Monday in 3 Epiphany, January 22, 2024

Eternal Word of God, move over the interior springs where language arises to constitute spoken word and acted out deeds; let your angels of coherent messaging tame the diabolic incoherent chaos of our interior language going awry, and let us act out messages of justice and peace.  Amen.

Sunday, 3 Epiphany, January 21, 2024

God of epiphanies, grant to us new awakenings which help us in our practice of love and justice as we have our heart stretch to extend empathy to more people. 
Amen.

Saturday in 2 Epiphany, January 20, 2024

God of justice, give us wisdom and grace to change things in the direction of a more perfect expression of justice when it become evident of continuing in the sins of our inherited less than just cultural practices.  Give us honesty about our traditions when they do not exemplify love for all.  Amen.

Friday in 2 Epiphany, January 19, 2024

God, you continuously adjust to everything in Time by including the ever happening new occasions; give us grace to adjust to the new that is happening while not passively accepting injustice but actively working to overcome the evil of injustice with reparative good.  Amen.

Thursday in 2 Epiphany, January 18, 2024

God of Time and creative advance, with Jesus, Peter, and Paul significant innovation was processed to articulate divine love in new situation for more people; give us insights and wisdom to continue to articulate divine love for more people so as to let all no that no one is excluded from your grace.  Amen.

Wednesday in 2 Epiphany, January 17, 2024

God who is always calling, help us to discover our calls as the gifts given to us to release our best creativity and benefit us to live together with love and justice.  Amen.

Tuesday in 2 Epiphany, January 16, 2024

Jesus Christ, you called fisher folk and gave them a spiritual and social mobility that they never dreamed possible, taking a very rural Peter to the great city of Rome; let your call to each of us surprise us by taking us to places we never dreamed possible, especially as it means using us to surprise others in their adventurous callings.  Amen.

Monday in 2 Epiphany, January 15, 2024 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day)

God, you raise up prophets to speak truth to power when the powerful are neglecting the obvious dignity which is due to each human being; give us courage to resist the creeping selfish powerful who through greed and oppression prohibit the full practice of justice.  Amen.

Sunday, 2 Epiphany, January 14, 2024

Christ, the are the eternal Word, through which all things come to have known being; let your angelic specific word messengers come to awareness upon this vast ladder continuum of possible words and let these specific angelic words constitute our lives in love and justice today.  Amen.

Saturday in 1 Epiphany, January 13, 2024

Christ, the eternal Word, you manifest your word in all the images of our vision and forgive us for misperceiving what we see; let us grow up to have corrective lenses of wisdom help us to see aright.  Amen.

Friday in 1 Epiphany, January 12, 2023

Christ, being Word, you are the manifestation of the central meaning of humanity, namely, language using beings; we cannot understand having being without being first constituted by word and we seek wisdom in living and moving and having our being as knowers in language; give us the wisdom of knowing always the better value choices to make in a world of vast differences and let our better value choices be in the service of the values of love and justice today.  Amen.

Thursday in 1 Epiphany, January 11, 2024

Christ the Word, you are the Ladder from the interior word on which the angelic messenger words proceed; help us to discern the very best and telling Christ-like words to constitute the speech and actions of our lives in the practice of love and justice.  Amen.

Wednesday in 1 Epiphany, January 10, 2024

God of truth, help us to live with the honesty of who we are and what we have done, even when the sum total of the occasions of our lives can never and should never be on public display; give us the honesty of knowing fully what we might do and be so as to live with forgiveness toward others.  Amen.

Tuesday in 1 Epiphany, January 9, 2024

God, on whom we project the great purposes of plenitude; we thank you that each person can find specific purpose in life which becomes their call to know the joy of personal creativity on behalf of creative advance for love, knowledge, and justice within the human community.  Amen.

Monday in 1 Epiphany, January 8, 2024

Gracious God, give us wisdom to model what is truly excellent in justice from the witness of people in the past and give us courage to reject things that were regarded as true simply because everyone was doing it; and grant that the witness which we leave for people of the future be behaviors which are lastingly worth imitating.  Amen.

Sunday, 1 Epiphany, January 7, 2024

God of all, why did we need an Epiphany to tell us that you are manifested to everyone by an inside job in storing your image within everyone?  We thank you for the witness of the Risen Christ to make manifest what has always already been for all people as children of God.  Amen.

The Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 2024

God of all possibilities, let us be lured by possible love and goodness to be manifest in actual words and deeds of love and goodness and so make the Epiphany of Christ and Christ-likeness a current event in our lives.  Amen.

Transfiguration: Mystagogy, Language and Light

Last Epiphany B February 11, 2024
1 Kg 19:9-18 Psalm 50:1-6
2 Corinthians 4:3-6 Mark 9:2-9

Lectionary Link

People who often are referred to as "fundamentalists," are people who prefer a particular form of interpretation of the texts of Scriptures.  But such fundamentalists are selective in applying their method of interpretation, and they would say that they are not totally locked into one form of interpretation.  For example, when the words attributed to Jesus indicate that he is light, life, resurrection, shepherd, door, gate, way, vine, bread of heaven, or the words about him such as lamb of God, fundamentalist interpreters would says that such uses of words are metaphorical and figurative, but not literal.  By not being literal, it would mean that Jesus could not be empirically verified to be actual light, life, shepherd, lamb of God, door, gate, vine or bread from heaven.  Fundamentalists, then are not people who interpret everything in the Bible as though they are events that have to be able to be empirically verified to be meaningfully true.  But they will then regard events presented by biblical writers which truly defy natural law and the laws of science as being empirically verified.    Such things like biological actual virgin birth, chariots carrying people into heaven, walking on water, and other impossible natural events which are done by Jesus and the biblical heroes, are not seen as figurative, teaching, visionary events, but as events which were empirically verified.

What is lost in such inconsistencies in biblical interpretation is the nature and purpose of the biblical writers and how the nature and purpose of the writers chose to present their sublime message within the style of their preaching and writing.

What governed the writings of the writers of the New Testament?  It was the mystical experience of the Risen Christ.  Jesus who was dead and gone, was being experienced in a different way by many people, and the people who had these experiences joined together and invited others to be facilitated into this experience of the Risen Christ.  Experiences of the Risen Christ were different for different people, and so they could not be related in the way which science replicates the experiments of natural science.

The biblical writers were pushed into the moving language of aesthetics to try to express the sublime experiences of their lives.  Sharing these experience were less like boiling water in beakers in a laboratory with fellow lab mates, but more like being with a group of concert goers in being moved by the sublime presentation in a work of art.  Literal language of science is too drab to express the sublime experiences which happen because of art, the experience of being loved, the experiences of seeing justice realized, and the mystical experiences of a human superlative which gets confessed poetically as God and Son of God.

The very practical, didactic and very poetic tradition of St. Paul, and the Pauline traditions, pre-date the writings of the Gospel.  The mystagogy or instructions in the spiritual mysteries of the Risen Christ came to different presentation in the Gospel form of writing which came to promulgation after the writings of St. Paul.

The Gospels are a different kind of mystagogy than the writings of St. Paul.  They re-present the experience of the Risen Christ within a narrative of Jesus as parable, a figurative writing encoding the mystical practices of the church.

By taking the narratives of Jesus and reading them as empirically verified, historical eye-witness accounts, reader miss the important spiritual practice of the early communities of people who confessed and shared this experience of identity with the Risen Christ.  This identity was stated by Paul, as "Christ in you, the hope of glory."

The transfiguration, which literally, means metamorphosis, is part of the presentation of a spiritual parable of Jesus, as the Risen Christ who is given a visualized Jesus narrative as a way of inspiring the imagination of how Christ is in us.

Mystagogy is language used in a way so that it can bear witness to experience of the sublime.  The Gospel writer of Mark knew the body of symbolism found in the Hebrew Scripture.  The Gospel preacher believed/knew that Jesus was in succession with the great heroes of the past, with Moses and Elijah.  Their reputation was such that in the literature of time of Jesus, they were regarded to be time-space travelers.  They could and would be apparitional figures who would reappear to mark new paradigms of spiritual advance.

So, we have the parable of the transfigured Jesus.  Jesus takes his disciples up a mountain alone, into the clouds and he becomes the filament for an event of light.  And the apparitional Moses and Elijah appear with him to affirm him as the logical succession of their mission, and such event happens on behalf of the disciples in this event of Mystery and Light, in knowing Jesus in a very special way.

In two events in the Gospel of Mark, God the Father, declares with an audible voice to Jesus in the presence of others, "You are my beloved Son."  There is another declaration of Jesus as Son of God in the Gospel of Mark, and that is at the death of Jesus on the cross, when the Roman centurion declares, "Truly this is God's Son."

Mystagogy is teaching about the interior event when Christ in us is the hope of glory, the hope of having esteem and worth in our lives. We can appreciate the figurative audience positions of the identity of Christ as Son of God.   One is at the Jordan with John and the crowds there, the other is with James, John, and Peter in the encounter with Jesus, Elijah and Moses, and the other is the outsider, the Roman Centurion, who was able to recognize the sublime even being such an outsider.  We have our own "audience" position in knowing the Risen Christ, within us as Son of God, helping us to realize ourselves as child of God.

The Gospel of Mark encodes in a parable of Jesus the mystical experience of the people who know that the Risen Christ in within themselves and as he is glorified in being manifest as God's unique Son, so too we are invited to know ourselves as sons and daughters of God.

And in this path of mystagogy, we are invited to the being made Christ-like metamorphoses of spiritual growth.  Yes, we may prefer the mountain top and butterfly events, but they accentuate sublime points in the continuous metamorphosis that we are called to in ever become more Christ-like.

Let us embrace the metamorphosis in becoming more Christ-like, which the event of the transfiguration invites us to.  Amen.

Sunday School, February 11, 2024 The Last Sunday after the Epiphany B

  Sunday School, February 11, 2024   The Last Sunday after the Epiphany B

Theme:

The last Sunday that we use the word “Alleluia” until Easter Sunday.

Activity: Do something to “hide” alleluia from your vocabulary.  You can write “alleluia” on a piece of paper and then hide it in a special place.  A fast is when you give up eating certain food.  After Sunday, we begin an “alleluia” fast until Easter.  We take a fast from “alleluia” because it is such a special word of praise that we stop saying it for while to reserve it to welcome the celebration of Easter, the greatest event in the church because it is the celebration of the resurrection of Christ.

The Last Sunday after the Epiphany theme is always the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ.  We read the Gospel story of when Jesus was on a mountain with his friends, Peter, James and John and it suddenly got cloudy and in a sort of dream-like experience, Moses and Elijah appeared and were talking with Jesus.  The face of Jesus got really shiny just like the face of Moses had become after he went up Mt. Sinai and received the famous Laws.  Elijah was a great prophet who was known for riding a chariot of fire into heaven.

These two great heroes appeared with Jesus as a way of saying that they supported Jesus as the new light of the world to show people a new way to live.

When the face of Jesus shone brightly, the voice of God the Father was heard and God the Father said about Jesus, “This is my Son, the beloved, listen to him.”

When we understand something for the first time, sometimes we say, “the light came on.”  Light is a symbol for understanding.  Darkness is a symbol for ignorance or not being able to understand something.

Epiphany season which ends before the season of Lent, is a season about how Jesus is the Light of the World.

Exercise:

What does light mean to us?

What does darkness mean to us?

How do you think that Jesus could be called the light of the world?

How do you think that you can be a light of the world?

Sermon:

  Today we read a story about Jesus.  The friends of Jesus were Peter, James and John.  And they had a vision of Jesus being with them on a mountain.

  And the mountain was covered with clouds.  And two famous people appeared within the cloud:  Moses and Elijah.

  And when they looked at Jesus, they saw that his face was shining very brightly.  And the friends of Jesus knew that he was a very special person.  He came to show this world who God is.

  That is why we call Jesus the Light of the world. 

  And did you know that Jesus also told us that we are to lights of the world too.

  How many of you like light?  What does light do for us?  It helps us see while we work and play.  When it is very dark we can’t do much.  We trip and fall.

  Jesus is the light of the world because he showed us how to live in the best way.

 We are to be lights in the world, because we’re supposed to live in such a good way, that we help other people live good lives too.

  Jesus is the Light of the world.  And we, too are lights in the world because we are helping to show people how to live good lives.  Amen.

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

February 11, 2024: The Last Sunday after the Epiphany

Gathering Songs:    Shine, Jesus, Shine; Majesty, The Lord Is My Light; I’ll Be a Sunbeam  

Procession Song: Shine, Jesus Shine    (Renew!  # 247)

Refrain: Shine, Jesus shine, fill this land with the Father’s glory, blaze, Spirit, blaze, set our hearts on fire; Flow, river, flow, flood the nations with grace and mercy, send forth your word and let there be light.

1.   Lord, the light of your love is shining in the midst of the darkness shining; Jesus, light of the world, shine upon us, set us free by the truth you now bring us.  Shine on me, shine on me. Refrain

2.   Lord, I come to your awesome presence from the shadows into your radiance; by the blood I may enter your brightness, search me, try me, consume all my darkness Shine on me, shine on me.  Refrain

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

People:            And Blessed be God’s kingdom, now and forever.  Amen.

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

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

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

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Liturgis:           The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

O God, who before the passion of your only-begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory; 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: 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

Liturgist:   A reading from the Second letter of Paul to the Corinthians

Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake. For it is the God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus

Christ.Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 50

The LORD, the God of gods, has spoken; * he has called the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.

Out of Zion, perfect in its beauty, * God reveals himself in glory.

  

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Liturgist:

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.

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!" Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

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. (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.

Offertory Song: Majesty, (Renew # 63)

Majesty, worship His majesty.  Unto Jesus be all glory, honor, and praise. 

Majesty, kingdom authority flow from His throne unto His own;

His anthem raise.  So, exalt, lift up on high the name of Jesus. 

Magnify, come glorify Christ Jesus the King. 

Majesty, worship His Majesty; Jesus who died,

now glorified, King of all kings.

Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of God.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of 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 up 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 neighbors.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Children rejoin their parents and take up their instruments)

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

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

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

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

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

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

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen, 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: The Lord Is My Light  (Renew! # 102)

The Lord is my light, my light and salvation; in him I trust, in him I trust.  The Lord is my light, my light and salvation: in him I trust, in him I trust.

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: I’ll Be a Sunbeam (Christian Children’s Songbook  # 112)

Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, to shine for him each day; in every way try to please him, at home, at school, at play. 

Refrain: A sunbeam, a sunbeam, Jesus wants me for a sunbeam.  A sunbeam, a sunbeam, I’ll be a sunbeam for him.

I’ll be a sunbeam for Jesus, I can if I but try; serving him moment by moment, then live with him on high.  Refrain

Dismissal   

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

People:      Thanks be to God! 

Historical Medical Anthropology and Gospel Healing

 5 Epiphany B  February 4, 2024
Isaiah 40:21-31 Psalm 147:1-12, 21c
1 Corinthians 9:16-23 Mark 1:29-39

Lectionary Link

Salvation might be considered holistic healing.  It is so embracing, it also pertains even to how people regard  the afterlives of their loved ones and their own afterlives before they die.  To live, in part is always to be thinking about life and death issues.  This is why salvation is a relevant issue.

Salvation or holistic health might be seen as viewing health upon a continuum of what we can know about being healthy and the negligible factors, or unknown factors in being healthy.  Probability number crunchers say today that 25 percent of longevity is determined by genetic factors.  Other factors might be the risk of one's environments and lifestyles, as well as nurture and personal habits of health.

What did physicians in the time of Jesus know?  Did they know about viruses, bacteria, and germs?  About mental health, did they know about how early trauma could create dissociative disorders when a person can manifest a legion of personalities?

We might look with some skepticism on medical practices of the past, even as we might look with skepticism upon some medical practices of the present.  Not everyone subscribes to the healing powers of crystals, except the one who confess that they have had positive results. 

The notion of the healing reality of the placebo effect highlights the connection between the mind and the body.  In medical anthropology, and historical medical anthropologies, we discover that specific practices of healing exist within the communities which promote and accept those practices.  Medicine men, shamans, witch doctors, and others fall within the class of what might be called "folk medicine," and such practitioners of "folk medicine" might regard this designation to be the pejorative designation given by those of modern scientific medicine with a superiority complex.  As our world has gotten smaller, we know that ancient medical practices of the East, such as acupuncture, have been brought within an expanding umbrella of what is regarded to be acceptable and valid medical practice.

And still we regard with duck sounds, those who we regard to be practicing medicine for profit and rely upon the ignorance of their client base.  We refer to them as "quacks."  But with the placebo effect, a patient might say, "I may have been treated by a quack, but it still made me better."

As we approach the "folk medical" practice of Jesus which is listed in the Gospel, we can find a variety of healing practices, and different modes of treatment.  The "folk medicine" of Jesus indicates that the physical body was like a building which is inhabited.  The living people within a building or a home, are those who maintain the outer structure which is always already dealing with the effects of age and time.

The Judaism of the time of Jesus included a system of public health, because health is social in how it is practiced within community.  There was a diagnostic or classification system for optimal and negative states of being, as they related to a person within their community.  There was a binary system of designation of things and states of being as clean or unclean, pure and impure.  There were rules for how one could make the transition from being unclean and impure into an accepted state.  There were recommended states of public quarantine or removal from community contact;  there were public validation rites performed by the priests, with rites of ritual purification to allow a person re-entry into a community.

The Gospels narrates bodily conditions of people with physical ailments: blindness, fever, leprosy, lameness, deafness, muteness, and unknown conditions causing death.  The Gospels also present people with what might be better called psychological and spiritual conditions, or people with the resulting behaviors due to  childhood and life traumas.  If we know of PTSD, dissociative disorders, and many other traumatic mental health disorders today which have their root in earlier traumas in the lives of people, we can be sure that people in the time of Jesus, as in all times, had their psychological and spiritual health problems.

As an external condition like the disease with visible skin phenomenon of leprosy was designated as being a state of uncleanness requiring segregation from "clean or healthy" society, so too persons with manifestations of chaotic internal and emotional disorders which left them with uncontrolled behaviors, such persons were said to have "unclean spirits."  Having one's internal being declared as impure or unclean would be quite a severe diagnosis to have.  People of every era have feared persons with mental health disorders.  Their unpredictable behaviors create a public fear which governs the ways in which they have come to be treated.   Our history includes the history of prison, asylums, and bedlams to quarantined those designated with "unclean spirits."

How might we attain some insights for ourselves in our reading of this Gospel healing story today?

First, we might regard it to be something like a psychiatric practice of the time of Jesus.  The rabbinical literature indicates the practice of exorcism as the religious public health treatment of people who were so troubled by invisible causes, that it had the designation of being an "impure and unclean" state.  In the history of health and illness, and even today, there is still a negative perception of persons with the seeming invisible effects of mental health disorders.  The Gospels chronicles the negative designations for "sick" people, but also the personal and social treatment technique of Jesus.  Rather than shunning contact with such people, he offered both personal and social acceptance to give comfort for such persons and their families who suffered.

The Gospels portrayed Jesus as one who prevailed in his own psychological being.  His temptation to face the interior principalities and powers centering around a great inward Accuser is recorded in three Gospels.  The Gospel writers understood Jesus to be such a person of internal fortitude that he had a resulting charisma to be a people whisperer.  He could heal the inner selves of others because he had prevailed within himself against the internal forces of accusation.

The exorcism stories also highlight a chief vocation of life, namely, the reconstituting our inward lives so that we are acting out in the behaviors of kindness and love.  The Psalmist requested of God, "Create within me a new heart, and renew a right spirit within me."  Also the prophet wrote, "the heart above all thing is deceitful."  Salvation of holistic health is about the recreation, the reconstituting of our inward lives so that the springs of our motives and action can be pure, clean, and righteous.  To this regard, John the Baptist, stated that beyond baptism with water, Jesus baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  The stories of exorcisms exemplify Jesus as the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit, who can be the cleanness of heart and renewed spirit within us.  The Holy Spirit is the one who makes the Risen Christ present within us as our new internal identity.

The Gospel narratives also present a spiritual cosmology.  The Risen Christ is the one who is above the principalities and powers of darkness in heavenly places.  The exorcism stories within the Gospel indicate salvation as the overcoming of evil with good which results in people being about to express the fruits of the Spirit, being self control, with love, joy, peace, hope, patience, gentleness, and goodness.

Today, we still seek interior health, renewed internal state of being.  We seek a comprehensive body, soul, and spiritual health, and we come to Jesus as the one who models this health for us, as he is now known to us as the presence of the Risen Christ.

We also know that the health of Jesus was restoring people to community.  We as the church are to be a community of health by welcoming and including people.  Health is communal in dimension and all can be in some state of unhealthiness as any given times.  This means we need the health of a loving, inclusive, welcoming community to express the full meaning of health as community completeness.

Following Jesus today, let us aspire to be a healthy community, within which we can practice the healing power of the love of Christ.  Amen.

 

Aphorism of the Day, January 2024

Aphorism of the Day, January 31, 2024

While we may hold that the laws of science were essentially the same in biblical times as they are now, we cannot assume the sameness regarding cultural and social practice.  We don't criticize the people of the past for being different that we are in our understanding of social justice for more people, but we don't valorized ancient biblical social practices as being an absolute standard for all times.  The cultural manifestations of justice have changed as we have become aware of some primary identities of people.  Does anyone think that Jesus today would tell parables about servants and slaves?

Aphorism of the Day, January 30, 2024

Salvation is holistic health and when one looks at the healing stories in the Gospel, one should do it as a historical medical anthropologists.  Healing arts are contextual the accounts of cures are many on this side of death.  Of course, the Gospel believe that the big sickness of death does get "cured" eventually.

Aphorism of the Day, January 29, 2024

The Plenitude of All is only experienced locally.  From having location one assumes that ones can be everywhere and when one adds language to being everywhere, one has personalized the world because language is personal.  With language we label non-personal things, extra-personal entities in personal ways.  Language does not let us escape personal-morphic practice.

Aphorism of the Day, January 28, 2024

How does humanity ascribe superlative value?  By saying something is superhuman or above human or out of this world.  One can understand how the divine enter human discourse.  We say that things are "out of this world," while remaining very much in it.  Religions present systems of axiology (values) and have hyperbolic discourse to represent the highest values.  Please do not confuse scientific language and the language of religion.

Aphorism of the Day, January 27, 2024

Everyone is necessarily a "relativist" because one can only see and know in part, that is, the things relative to ones time and place.  However, all relativists use discourses of totality because in using language one assumes the entire linguistic universe of differences without be able to comprehend the totality.  Any relativist is always already committed to the absolute reality of there always being MORE.

Aphorism of the Day, January 26, 2024

Is Being the absolute abstracted past of everything that has become?  The now is new arising occasions being made into inclusive Being.  Our freedom repertoire may be limited in how we contribute to new occasions, but it is significant if we choose to creatively advance love and justice.

Aphorism of the Day, January 25, 2024

Some people absolutize the ancient human awareness models of the Bible to support the refusal to offer justice, rights, and care to people whose personal identities differ from "cookie cutter" binary modes of understanding the human person.  The Bible models many creative advances and paradigm shifts, which means we should also know how to integrate change with justice and dignity for all peoples.

Aphorism of the Day, January 24, 2024

It is impossible to avoid discourses of totality since when we speak we assume the entire universe of discourse even though we are limited in the portion which we can actually use.  We should not mistake the use of the discourse of totality for actually comprehending it or presuming to know its meaning.  Stated simply, the discourse of totality is the fact that "there is MORE" is the always already reality.

Aphorism of the Day, January 23, 2024

The supreme insult in philosophy is to call someone a "relativist."  Yet anyone can only know what is relative to one's circumstance and time of living.  It is more presumptuous to be the one who is an "absolutist" and claim to speak exclusively on behalf of the absolute while having but a relative profile.  Wisdom would demand that like St. Paul we confess that we know in part and that everyone uses a discourse of totality in assuming the entire universe while but actually using but a paltry portion of it.  The vastness of life demands being humble relativists, but let's do our relative parts well, in love and justice.

Aphorism of the Day, January 22, 2024

Having language is interiority; language comes from within.  It is a within which becomes an exterior in sound and text on its way to awakening the interior language points of new language users.

Aphorism of the Day, January 21, 2024

Interpreters error when they try to force a correspondence between ancient cultural practices in biblical times to our current day.  Some ancient cultural practices can be recommended as a model for us today, while some ancient cultural practices are rightfully regarded as unworthy of justice.  See slavery and the subjugation of women.  Some interpreters pick and choose in arbitrary ways which ancient cultural "biblical" practices they want to retain as models for our lives today.

Aphorism of the Day, January 20, 2024

Wisdom in life involves knowing justice as something which is permanent among changes.  Being permanent does not mean that application of justice to people in current situation doesn't change.  When people's self awareness change, the apparent nature of justice seems to change, but justice does not change, only the application of it to people previously denied justice changes.

Aphorism of the Day, January 19, 2024

It is said that Inuit have more than fifty words for snow, which have come from their close interaction with the many varieties of snow.  For ages biblical interpreters have assumed that human beings are or should be "cookie cutter" binary or male and female.  As honesty has been allow on observing who people are and how they speak about their own identity, the binary typology is no longer accurate to the diversity that is present.  New words arise to speak about this diversity, and we discover that people are more comfortable with a variety of words for snow than they are with a variety of descriptions of how people know themselves to "human."  People have a sentient existence quite different from snow which means sentient people should strive for empathy.

Aphorism of the Day, January 18, 2024

Being a conservative is basically a relationship to time and change and the pace in which one is able to integrate innovation in one's life to respond to new social understanding of what is happening in the ecological and the social environments.  Conserving may include lots of nostalgia.

Aphorism of the Day, January 17, 2024

Jesus brought the pronounced "fatherization" of God, not because the Divine can be limited to the masculine but rather to teach the divine familization of all people based upon being created in the image of God.

Aphorism of the Day, January 16, 2024

Those who think that America should be a theocracy miss the genius of the founders who set up a system that was designed to keep Christians from persecuting other Christians with whom they disagreed.  Thou shalt have freedom of religious belief, but thou shalt not and the government shalt not burn Christians at the stake for not having the "established and correct" Christianity.

Aphorism of the Day, January 15, 2024

The story of Jonah is a satire on theocratic patriotism.  Jonah was angered when God told him that the same love he assumed God had for his people was also available to the foreigners of Nineveh.  It is a warning to anyone who thinks that God's love is exclusively "exceptional" to any group of people.  One can feel thankfully "favored" as long as one allows that everyone else can also know that same favor.

Aphorism of the Day, January 14, 2024

Seeing is actually a language or text in "pictures." Picto-syntax and picto-grammar in nature because language co-exists with seeing.

Aphorism of the Day, January 13, 2023

What is seen is like word creating what we call vision of objects.  From our interior lives we are able to project holographic images as well and so dream-like angels appear as do unicorns, dragons, and fauns.

Aphorism of the Day, January 12, 2024

Jesus is Word and Ladder in the first chapter of John.  The "dream ladder" in reference to Jacob.  In short, Jesus the Christ is the metaphor for word as the communicative essence of human existence being evidence of what is divine or superlative about human identity.

Aphorism of the Day, January 11, 2024

Among the many obvious "I am" statements of Jesus in John's Gospel, we should also add an unobvious one.  To Nathaniel Jesus said he/Son of Man was the (Jacob's) ladder from heaven on whom whom the angels would go up and down.  Being in John 1, Christ as Word is the connecting ladder between what comes from profound interiority and what words become in the "external" world, i.e., the world exterior to what is inside of us.  Angels are specific messenger words manifest upon the Word as the connecting ladder of interior and exterior.

Aphorism of the Day, January 10, 2024

Some people only perform "under the lights," and crumble in the too ordinary conditions of drudgery.  Though there may be a difference between practice and performance the rote of practice is required for the attaining of lyricism in performance.

Aphorism of the Day, January 9, 2024

The "call" of God is the discover of particular purpose among general purpose.  If everything has an inherent purpose, the discover of particular purpose for a specific person might be descriptive of what "call" of God means.

Aphorism of the Day, January 8, 2024

Constitutional originals and biblical fundamentalists can be inconsistent in how they use the principles of meaningfulness in ancient texts and meanings which clearly are relative to ancient and former cultural practices which were made "true" by sheer  widespread practice.  Fundamentalists will oppose gay relationships based upon Leviticus writings while forsaking the restrictions on pork and the stoning of insolent children, as well a seeing it very cultural appropriate to now condemn slavery.  Constitutional originalists are not very original when they don't limit bearing of arms to 18th century muskets.  Such convenient and fickle casuistry is done for other motives than for justice and safety for actual people.  They use "fidelity" to the founding documents to avoid and prohibit the application of justice and safety.

Aphorism of the Day, January 7, 2024

Language is ritualistic in that we cannot help but repeat patterns of word order for specific hierarchical value purpose in any given moment.  Language users are repetitive for the sake of their values.

Aphorism of the Day, January 6, 2024

Because something if finally discovered does not make it suddenly it more true than it was before it was discovered.  That things unfold in the history of discovery does not change the always already.  Things can be always already in possibility before becoming actual in experience.  However, possibility should not diminish the significance of the actual, if the actual is creative advance toward goodness and justice.

Aphorism of the Day, January 5, 2024

In the attempt to remove words from one's life, one has to use and assume words to do so and overlook that one's body language and environment are already pre-coded by language in the effort to "forget worded existence" and also by using the words "forget worded existence."  There is no escape from language.

Aphorism of the Day, January 4, 2024

Lots of people who say they don't believe in ritualistic efficacy belie this with their own endless repetitions that indicate a degree of irrationality.  Lots of religious people  believe in a kind of ritual magic and divorce the sacraments from anthropological soundness.

Aphorism of the Day, January 3, 2024

Interpretation is the art of creating new traces in language for the future by sorting through the inherited memorial traces available to the interpreter.  It is an illusory art of being tricked to think that we attain contact with a "real something" instead of the shuffling of traces within language.  We can build a hierarchy of values based upon characterizing the "real something," and such hierarchical values may be a way of saying, "my community is the best," or the real something might be an interpretation in body language of what love and justice means in practice.  Choose today your interpretation of "real something."  My community is better than yours or my humble attempt to instantiate a vision of love and justice.

Aphorism of the Day, January 2, 2023

Ritual is the stylized and community performance of repetition involving words and gestures which encapsulate important community values to be perpetuated for continuing and new members initiated into community practices.

Aphorism of the Day, January 1, 2024 (Feast of the Holy Name)

Language and Naming is the human attempt to preserve identity across time.  Time means that everything is changing and we can observe that the human body eventually breaks down and is integrated with what surrounds its molecular composition.  If the body cannot retain its identity as singular throughout time, how can personhood?  Naming is the hope of attaining continuity in identity throughout time.