The Word Became Flesh; The Word Became Text

2 Easter B April 7, 2024
Acts 4:32-35 Psalm 133
1 John 1:1-2:2 John 20:19-31

Lectionary Link

The Gospel of John includes in it some interesting meanings regarding word and language.

John Gospel states that Word is the beginning of life as we humanly know it.  All things have existence because of Word.  Word as the beginning of life is also equal or co-extensive with God.  John's Gospel bluntly states, "The Word was God."

But according to John's Gospel, that Word which was God, became flesh.  That is, Word that was God became total body language in the person of Jesus.  Total body language of God, Jesus lived with us as God with us, and what did this Jesus, the total body language of God with us do?

He did signs.  The Gospel of John includes a book of signs, and each of those signs are messages about when Christ is with us; in the trivial, like needing extra wedding wine, in the sickness of a child, in the loss of not being able to walk, in the loss of sight, in the storms of nature, the need for food for the masses, and the loss of life of a family member.  These signs in the Gospel of John were meant to teach us to read the spiritual meaning in a natural human event.

The Gospel of John is also about how to read the very writings of the Gospel of John.  The words of Jesus in the Gospel of John mock literal meanings, like an old man getting back into his mother's womb, like the disciples thinking it was good of Lazarus to be asleep, like a blind mind being able to see and the seeing Pharisees actually being blind.  Like the offense that some take about being cannibals eating the flesh of Jesus.  The writer of John's Gospel asks the readers to understand spiritually with the natural carrying those spiritual meanings.

The Gospel of John has Jesus equating spirit and spoken word.  What is spirit?  It is a metaphor of a word meaning wind or breath to refer to some hidden reality.  What did Jesus say?  "My words are spirit and they are life."  The words of anyone's life are one's spirit or the hidden code which guides one's life.  One is constituted in and out through one's words, and the effects of those words are known in one's spoken words, written words, but most importantly in the body language deeds of how we behave.  Everyone can say, "My worded life inside and out, is my spirit or the mystery of who I am."

What might be the hidden question within the community of the Gospel of John?  Can we trust our experiences of the Risen Christ which are not like the eye-witnesses of the people who actually walked and talked with Jesus?

I would argue that perhaps the main punchline of the Gospel of John is found in our doubting Thomas Story.  And this punchline is a plug for the validity of the written words about Jesus being themselves post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus able to inspire faith and belief in Jesus as Son of God and Messiah.  The writer's punchline is this: "But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name."

The Gospel of John is not really an eyewitness account of Jesus written while Jesus walked the earth; it is an apology for the validity of the many post-resurrection appearances of the Risen Christ within the lives of people who were living in the year 90 and later.

Christ is the eternal Word, who became with us in specific body language person of Jesus, whose worded life was spirit and abundant life for us and was a Sign of God being with us in all manner of life situations.

And now in the year 90, should we fear that the memory of Jesus will die and be lost because all the eyewitnesses are dead and gone?  No, just like the Hebrew Scriptures became a technology of memory to retain the long history of salvation, so too the writing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ would carry with it the Spirit of the Risen Christ and inspire continuously the belief in Jesus as the unique Child of God, and one who was anointed by God for a most important message of God for everyone.

John's Gospel: The Word was in the Beginning.  The Word was with God.  The Word was God.  The Word creates the differentiation of everything.  The Word became a Body Language Person, in Jesus.  The word of Jesus was spirit and life.  The Spirit and Life of Christ is Risen and Alive and present with us.  John's Gospel retells in a narrative parable style, the life of Jesus and this parable encodes the faith reality of the Risen Christ being the sign of God with us within every life circumstance.

The doubting Thomas story is a story that concludes with the writer of John writing, "And the Word became my text about Jesus so that you can believe that he is the Son of God and Messiah."

You and I pray today,"May the Eternal Word, become flesh in us today, so that we might live and speak the good news of Jesus Christ, Son of God, who has embraced us all as children of God."  Amen.

Sunday School, April 7, 2024 2 Easter B

  Sunday School, April 7, 2024         2 Easter B

Theme

How can we believe without seeing?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Prayer:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

April 7, 2024: The Second Sunday of Easter 

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

Liturgist: Alleluia, Christ is Risen.

People: The Lord is Risen Indeed.  Alleluia.

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

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

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

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

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

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

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

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

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

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

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

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

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

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

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

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

A reading from the First Letter of Peter

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

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 16

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

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

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

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

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

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:

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

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

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

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

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

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

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

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

   Thanks be to God!

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

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

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

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father Phil 

Children’s Creed

We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.

Since God is so great and we are so small,

We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.

We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and 

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.

We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is 

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.

And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever.  Amen.

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy. 

For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.

For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.

For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.

For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.

For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.

For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.

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

People:                        And also with you.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Doxology

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

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

Prologue to the Eucharist

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

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of our birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ. 

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.  Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we forever sing this hymn of praise:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might.  Heav’n and earth are full of your glory. 

Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

(All  may gather around the altar)

Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;

You have made us in your image

And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:

Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.

And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph

And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.

Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat 

  the bread and drink the wine, we can  know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as   

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Bless and sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbor.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:       Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  

Words of Administration

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

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

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

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

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

Post-Communion Prayer

Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;

We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.

And His Presence has been known to us.

We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers

    and sisters in Christ.

Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the

     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,

As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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

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

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

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

Dismissal:    

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Easter Living, A Way to Have an Honest Relationship with Time and Change

Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024
Acts 10:34-43 Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
1 Corinthians 15:1-11 Mark 16:1-8

Lectionary Link
 

When we compare the past and the present, sometimes we might like the past better than the present, and sometimes we might like the present better than the past.

But our comparison is irrelevant because we cannot stop change or time.  Whether we like the present better than the past or not, we still must orient ourselves to the present in realistic ways.

The disciples and friends of Jesus who once had hoped for someone who had not yet been born, found that special unforgettable person.  Jesus was the unforgettable person of their lives.

We are very selfish about the people we love because they make us better.  They make us feel hopeful, they bring out of us things about ourselves which we could not discover without them.

We would like to freeze-frame our lives with the people we love the best.  We don't want the very best of relationship to change or end.

The friends and disciples of Jesus were not unreal about life and death.  They knew that people live and die.  But it seemed drastically unfair that their best friend would be gone in his mere thirties.  Surely we could grow old with Jesus and have him do our funerals.  It reminds me of the young man at his grandmother's funeral who said to the priest, "I hope you will also do my funeral."  And the old priest thought, "Well, I'm going to be long gone before you die."

The disciples and friends of Jesus have become for us a part of the Christian program of Easter living.  What is Easter living?  It is living realistically with the fact of time and change.

And what is the hardest fact of time and change?  The hardest fact of time and change is when starkly apparent discontinuities occur.  When we can visibly note the starkest of change, the experience of loss can be great.  And the greatest discontinuity for us as humans is death.

All things considered, we'd rather be alive and have those closest to us alive as well.  This is our preference, even though we begrudgingly know that at certain age our bodily functions diminish to the point of not having the quality of life of body and mind that we desire.  It is easier for us to accept death as discontinuity in a very mature old age, than to experience the seeming untimely death before one's time.

What the disciples of Jesus did not know at his death is that they would be a part of his continuity after his death.  They would be important witness to how the dead Jesus would continue in their lives and in the life of the world as the Risen Christ.

And again on this Easter Sunday, we return to the events of this transition phase in the continuity of Jesus of Nazareth to become the Risen Christ, not just from and for Nazareth, but for all the people of the world.

The resurrection of Christ in story is about the transitional occasions of the appearances of the Risen Christ to his friends who had been devastated by his death.  His appearances provided for his friends and disciples a continuity of his former life with his afterlife.  They were given the assurance that their friendship with Jesus would continue into their future, and they would continue to know him.

The transitional continuity of Jesus in his post-death appearances indicate that his continuity was different in aspect and abilities.  He seemed to be able to tele-port from Jerusalem to Galilee in a moments time.  He seemed to be able to appear suddenly through locked doors.  He could eat a meal of fish to prove the substantiality of his continuity with his previous self.  He could hide his identity and suddenly reveal it in with an abrupt unveiling.

The fact of the resurrection of Jesus is the fact of the continuity of Jesus after his death.  But it is also the fact of the distinctly different states of appearance for this future continuous Risen Christ.  The continuity of Jesus as the Risen Christ has continued in the lives of people for many years now.  St. Paul had a different experience of the continuity of Jesus than did Peter, the disciples, and the women who visited the empty tomb.  But the different experience of Paul was a valid experience of continuity with Jesus, and so is our experiences of the Risen Christ.

The resurrection of Christ teaches us to live realistically with time and change, both with the more seeming gradual changes but also with the great and stark seeming discontinuities, such as the poignant and profound event of death.

How can we bear to lose the visual and tactile continuity with our beloved ones?  How can we bear to lose our favored ways of interacting with our beloved ones?

What the resurrection of Christ teaches us is that everything is retained and sustained in the future.  What we have to learn is how to accept and appreciate that what is retained and sustained is always different than it was before.  And adjusting to the differences in future continuity is the most difficult for us who live after our loved ones have died.

But the truth of the resurrection is the truth of life itself.  Life is spontaneously sustaining into the future and in this sustenance all that has come before is retained in continuity but in various degrees of different continuity in appearance and consciousness.

And if we are worried about the loss of recognizable continuity in our lives, let us also remember that as long as language users exist, then the eternal Word will be the continuity of life as we know it.

The Risen Christ is also the Eternal Word from the beginning, and as the Eternal Word, our continuity is forever memorialized in the memory of the Eternal Word forever.

Today, on this Easter Sunday, let us not forget that the resurrection is not a single magical event that happened to Jesus; rather it is a process of sustaining life which manifested itself in a poignant way in the life of Jesus Christ.  With the resurrection as a way of life, we do not deny the reality of time and change, and the extremely painful transition of death; but resurrection gives us permission to accept the continuity of ever future life, even the future life of reunion with those with whom we always feel like we have unfinished relationships.

Today we celebrate the continuity of life that happened to Jesus in becoming the Risen Christ, and we ride this resurrection energy for our continuously different future lives.  Alleluia, Christ is Risen.  The Lord is Risen Indeed.  Alleluia.  Amen

Aphorism of the Day, March 2024

Aphorism of the Day, March 31, 2024

Easter is a celebration of continuity when death seems like the event of greatest discontinuity because it leave no appearance that a once living person has obvious apparent personal continuity after death.  Continuity is most registered in words riding on memorial traces, and we may all have to return to the great reservoir of Word itself to be retained in Christ the Word.

Aphorism of the Day, March 30, 2024

For many, the Gospels have been reduced to detailed empirically verifiable events instead of the later visualizations of the presence of the Risen Christ within one's life.

Aphorism of the Day, March 29, 2024

Being honest about the Passion accounts means understanding them as the visualization presentations of  Jesus Movement leaders from the years 70 to 90 or so C.E. to provide a genre for the much earlier spiritual identity mysticism of persons like Paul who wrote that he had been crucified with Christ.  

Aphorism of the Day, March 28, 2024

A public meal is the central liturgy of the church.  It has become so stylized and one has to have incredible faith to believe that most communion bread is actually bread.  What is practical value of a public meal?  Making sure that every one has adequate food to eat.  If we divorce the feeding of the needy public from the Eucharist, the Eucharist loses its "agape" nature.

Aphorism of the Day, March 27, 2024

The irony of life is that the meaningful truth of one does not function as such for other people.  Meaningful truth functions within the solidarity of community.  One can understand how scientists favor "meaningful truth criteria" that can be verified by any community.  The meaningful truth criteria which pertains to religious and aesthetic discourse tends to be more verified within particular communities with people converted to prior commitments that are not opened to the method of falsification as is required by the tentative conclusions which prevail in science until a better explanation is discovered.

Aphorism of the Day, March 26, 2024

Nietzsche referred to truth as "well-worn metaphors," meaning that truth is culturally established through repeated use.  This might make "truth" seem to be a function of mob hits, like internet hits totals determining what is really true or factual.  The renewal of past traces in time bespeaks the current pragmatic relevance of a past trace having longevity in truth value.  The unfolding relevance of ancient text often was registered based upon the re-inking of fading texts upon papyrus.  If a text was being used, such use was seen in a community re-inking the text.  Today metaphors are not so much "re-inked" as they are naturally deconstructed through the processes of language by language users.  Biblical texts are used in different ways by biblical readers depending upon the circumstances of the many variety of readers.  A metaphor which does not wear out is this, "language is, therefore everyone else comes to be known to be."

Aphorism of the Day, March 25, 2024

Too many people regard Scriptures to be like a "mirror" of what actually happened in the past and a predictive "mirror" of what will precisely happen in the future.  It is actually literature, a written art form, written evocatively, to provide the continual occasions for reader projections upon it in an interaction to evoke meaningful identities.

Aphorism of the Day, March 24, 2024

Long before the Ignatian method of visualizations of events in the life of Jesus, the Gospels themselves were visualizations of the life of Jesus and therefore part of the spiritual method of the early Jesus Movement communities.

Aphorism of the Day, March 23, 2024

AI is inevitable when the proliferation of world knowledge cannot be maintained and usefully manipulated by simply human memory capacity.   In times past, seeming omni-competent people could command most of the world knowledge of the time. In the morass of information today tribal leaders do the thinking on behalf of their constituents and not for the common good of the alliance of all "tribes" but for narrow parochial interests often with the goal of raising funds for the tribal leader continued power and well being.  Frightening to think that what interests many in AI is its propaganda potential and the options of endless alternative facts.

Aphorism of the Day, March 22, 2024

AI is the compilation of memory traces of human data on a massive scale which can be continuously juxtaposed units to reveal pragmatic syntheses coupled with technological action plans to make the total number historical units of memory accessible in creating products for human use.  If AI is also expressive of "garbage in, garbage out," then how can AI be guided toward, "do no harm," be kind, be just, provide enough for everyone?  Can we input justice into the AI requirement?  

Aphorism of the Day, March 21, 2024

The barrage of information today challenges us with the problem of people not having the capacity to deal effectively with the complexity in the expanding world knowledge. The easiest solution for many is to simply be involved only with one's own small tribe and subscribe to the talking points of the leaders of the tribe.  Now we have the phenomenon of "alternative" facts which means "tribal" facts, or how reality is parsed according to one's tribal view.  Scientific standards are the most reliable for group objectivity, and converting the method of science to law, history, and news reporting discourse has meant there were valid ways of establishing what actually happens.  In the media of the internet age, everyone is a reporter and photographer, and everyone can portray any view as having seeming equal validity.  With the proliferation of news reporter and lack of policing about reporting criteria, "facts" are presented as commodities on behalf of a political ideology.

Aphorism of the Day, March 20, 2024

Rumi used a figurative story about various blind men in contact with an elephant and describing it from their particular perspective of the elephant part accessible to each, but not being able to name or know the huge mammoth.  The figurative story names the elephant which indicates the limitation of the metaphor since only Plentitude could know or name Plenitude.  The story is a reminder that there is always MORE to what I experienced, you experienced, and what everyone has experienced, all together, all at once.  We only inhabit but an micro-nano-spot of the great MORE.

Aphorism of the Day, March 19, 2024

The covenant we have with nature needs to be two ways.  What will nature do for us? Feed us and provide us with what we need to exist.  What will we do for nature?  Will we treat it well so it can continue to sustain into the future?

 Aphorism of the Day, March 18, 2024

With language we have come to explore the behaviors of the world towards us in the continual development of natural laws.  One could say the articulation of such natural laws is the languaged projection upon the world which confronts us and it is the expression of the covenant of the total environment toward us.  Even without invoking the name of God, we can accept that we project upon the All a covenant relationship in terms of what it promises to us.

Aphorism of the Day, March 17, 2024

God's omnipresence might best be understood as human being possessed with language ability and from this ability projecting words upon everything else even using like everything else as a negligible.  If something does escape language, we cannot know it except by language declaring a mysterious state of escaping language.

Aphorism of the Day, March 16, 2024

Everyone is called to be priestly in that all our lives are lived as offered.  We become priestly through intentionally offering our lives as belonging in solidarity with all.

Aphorism of the Day, March 15, 2024

Noted contrast.  The Ides of March is the death of Julius Caesar who was also a declared god.  The death of Jesus in contrast is remembered by a continuously reconstituted group of followers who changed a historical event into a spiritual process as seen in the Pauline confession, "I have been crucified with Christ."  Is anyone saying, "I have died with Julius Caesar?"

Aphorism of the Day, March 14, 2024

The writer of Jeremiah wrote about a new covenant of the law being written upon the heart.  This new covenant is appropriated by New Testament writers as the law of Spirit accessible to everyone.  In practice there often seems to be a disconnect between Spirit and the people who are channeling this Spirit.  Can Spirit be the overcoming of the continuous deconstruction which happens in language use?

Aphorism of the Day, March 13, 2024

Language is used by people to constitute their identity within contexts.  Biblical language was generated to constitute the identity of people in various places regarding a "transcendental," or a mystery of how promulgated values regarded to be superlative could reconfigure the inner language of people and result in behaviors which are consistent with the superlative values.

Aphorism of the Day, March 12, 2024

In a metaphor, the words of Jesus compares a seed which dies and becomes a plant with what will happen to him.  Does the plant have continuity with the seed from which it came?  Indeed, but it is noticeably different.  The post-death state of Jesus and everyone is quite different.  In the case of Jesus, some people got to experience Risen Christ appearances.  In the case of our departed loved ones, it remains mostly not yet in such appearances, save for memories, dream apparitions, and our mourning as proof that our loved one was indeed here.

 Aphorism of the Day, March 11, 2024

Preachers most often use the Gospels as eye-witness accounts, whereas the writing provenance of the Gospels make them more about the issues of the early Jesus Movement communities encoded in narratives about Jesus.

Aphorism of the Day, March 10, 2024

If those who have died are lucky they don't escape being in the language of the thoughts of the memories re-manifested in those who knew them, and perhaps even in those who didn't.  Who knows where the energy concrescence of selfhood goes and travels and in what varied forms?

Aphorism of the Day, March 9, 2024

Some would like to "escape" language by pretending that silence or any human life expression or activity could be known without first assuming language.

Aphorism of the Day, March 8, 2024

To blame a politician for being political is like blaming a fish for being in water.  The question is "for what polis" does a politician speak and legislate?   Is it for a true common good, for the largest number of people, or is it for only a local tribe?

Aphorism of the Day, March 7, 2024

Meaning is the differentiation of value that a person has learned within their community to place upon the events which occur to them.  Meaning is not final because in time meanings create and give birth to new variations in meaning.  Therefore finality in meaning cannot be fixed.

Aphorism of the Day, March 6, 2024

The present brings into existence a new past in how the past is assessed.  The past can only be dealt with from the now because we cannot be anywhere else.  History is the practice of anachronism since we cannot avoid import our questions from life now onto the historical traces which we have received.

Aphorism of the Day, March 5, 2024

The appearance of writing was magical in that it could be the trace of someone actually speaking without being there.  The appearance of writing created orality since when only orality existed, it is not known as such because it is not yet contrasted with having writing.

Aphorism of the Day, March 4, 2024

Reading the Bible not about reading eye witness accounts of things which could be empirically verifiable, it is about appreciating the symbolic codes used for scribal leaders (the Bible is writing) to promote community identity as that identity related to the highest values of the community, which in the case of the early Christians was the mystagogy of the Risen "Christ in you, the hope of glory."

Aphorism of the Day, March 3, 2024

With language a person is trying to manifest the connection of everything that is within oneself with everything that is outside of one epidermis and sensory portals.

Aphorism of the Day, March 2, 2024

The Bible is a collection of writings which were preserved and elevated to a place of community importance instantiated by the legacy of values which readers perceived and deemed worthy of promulgating and passing on to the next generation.  Within the entire universe of existing texts now, the biblical writings get evaluated among the vast amount of world knowledge.  The quantity of world knowledge necessarily changes the place and value and functional use of all previous literature, and the Bible too is subject to constantly being seen differently in the expansion of the universe of knowledge.

Aphorism of the Day, March 1, 2024

Writing and speaking can only be done in a fragmentary way since what we say and write is a miniscule  portion of the possible linguistic universe of everything which might come to language.  What we say and write is also imprisoned by the particular paradigms in which we find ourselves located.  We at all times should humbly admit that there is a great MORE universe of language which can dissolve our miniscule language efforts leaving our language constructs deconstructed by greater contexts.  The fact of the smallness of our language products being dissolved by existing within a great MORE, should not diminish our efforts to make them comply with what we regard to be highest, namely, what love and justice in word and deed can mean within our limited contexts.