Sunday School, April 28, 2024 5 Easter B

  Sunday School, April 28, 2024    5  Easter B

Sunday School Themes

The writer of the Gospel of John uses examples from farming and agriculture to teach lessons.

How close is a branch to the main stem of a plant?

How close are the leaves and fruit to a grape vine?

Very Close

When we speak about a grape plant we know that they consist of a root, stem or vine and branches which have leaves and grapes.

Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches.”

This means that the life of Christ is very close to us and a part of us.

How does the life of the vine give life to the branches?  Plant blood is called “sap” and it flows inside of the plant to provide life food to all parts of the plant.

Jesus said there is something like sap which keeps us connected to him.

This sap would be the experience of God’s Holy Spirit who keeps us connected to Christ as the special life of God which we can find within ourselves, but we need to pay attention to it through prayer and study.

Allegorical Role playing Dialogue

Vine and Branchie.

Branchie: I am getting tired of just hanging around.  I want to leave this neighborhood and go away.

Vine: How are you going to do that?

Branchie:  Well, I will just swing really hard in the wind until I fall off on the ground and then I’ll get up and walk away.

Vine:  I don’t think so Branchie.  That is not the way plant life works.

Branchie:  Why not?  Why can’t I leave this neighborhood?

Vine: Well, you will always be a branch and you cannot be anything else.  So you have to follow the rules for branches.

Branchie:  What kind of rules?

Vine: Well, sometimes you have to get a “hair cut.”  You have to get pruned and trimmed.

Branchie: Ouch, that hurts.

Vine:  Yes, but it makes you grow much better and it helps you grow the very best grapes.  You like to grow grapes don’t you?

Branchie:  Well, yes, but why can’t I leave this neighborhood and travel?

Vine: You can because if you are broken off from me, you will lose your supply of plant blood and you will dry up and die and you will just be recycled.

Branchie: What is plant blood?

Vine:  Plant blood is called sap and you get your sap from me your Vine.  And you cannot live without the plant blood called sap.  So you have to stay connected to me.  I am happy to provide you with plant blood and I like to have you living close to me.

Branchie:  But can I ever leave or travel and still live?

Vine:  You can in a different way.  When you produce wonderful grapes, then your grapes are used for wine and for eating but also you produce more seeds for more grapevines.  And so the grapes are like your children and they get to travel and create more plant life everywhere.  They get to provide wonderful life for the people who eat them.  So you have a very important role in life.

Branchie: Yes, I do and I want to produce many good grapes so I want to stay close to you my Vine so that the plant blood or sap can continue to give me good life.

Vine: I would like these boys and girls to know that Jesus is like a Vine.  The Risen Christ is like a big tree with many branches.  And each of these boys and girls are like branches on the tree of Christ.  And they have the wonderful plant blood or sap inside of them.  Inside of each of these boys and girls is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of God provides a wonderful special kind of life within them and this special kind of life will last forever, even after they leave this earth.

Branchie:  Wow.  That is a special life.

Vine:  Boys and Girls can you repeat after me:  Christ is the true Vine of my life.   He provides me with the special inner life of God’s Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon

 I would like to tell you story about Molly.  Molly was a wonderful little girl who liked to help her mom.  She used to watch her mom do all kinds of things.  She watched her cook in the kitchen and she watched her work in the garden.

  Molly liked to help her mom and do special things for her.  One day she watched her mom plant a small tree in the yard.  It was just a small tree, but it had four branches on it with leaves.

   Molly thought she would like to help mom and surprise her.

   She thought, “Mom loves trees.  What if planted more trees for her?”

Do you know what Molly did?  When mom went to the store, Molly decided to surprise her.  She went out to mom’s tree and she broke off the four branches.  And she planted each of these branches in the ground.  And she was very excited because now mom would have five trees and not just one tree.

  When mom came home from the store, Molly went out to see her and she was excited to tell her about a special surprise.  She said, “Mom, you planted just one tree, but now you have five trees.”

  And mom asked, “How did you do that Molly?”  Molly took her out to the yard and showed her how she had broken four branches from the tree and planted them in the ground.”

  Mom did not want to disappoint Molly, so she said, “You will have to remember to water your new trees.”  And so Molly watered her new trees every day, but they did not grow.  In fact, the leaves on the trees turned dark and they became brittle and soon the wind blew them away.

  Molly was disappointed that her trees would not grow.  She decided to pull one of them out of the ground and she saw that it was just a dead stick.

   Molly asked her Mom, “What happened?  Why didn’t my trees grow?”

   Her mom told her, “The branches can only grow if they stay attached to the trunk of the tree.  The roots of tree suck up water and plant food in the ground and makes a tree blood called sap.  And if you cut the branch off, the branch no longer gets the tree blood called sap and it dries up and dies.”

   Jesus told his friends, “I am the vine and you are the branches.”  The branches can live because they stay attached and connected to the vine.  They get the plant blood called sap.

  Jesus used this riddle to teach a lesson.  He said that we needed to remain connected to him.

  How do we do that?  We pray.  We learn.  And we find within ourselves the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is like the sap that flows through a plant.  It keeps branches alive, connected and attached to the vine.

  So too, the Holy Spirit deep inside of us keeps us connected to Christ.  And if we remain connected to Christ, we have the ability to have the fruits of the Spirit.  What are they?  Love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, self-control and humility.

  The lesson for us today to remain connected to Christ so that we can grow the fruits of the Spirit.

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

April 28, 2024: The Fifth Sunday of Easter

Gathering Songs:  Glorify Your Name; If You’re Happy; Alleluia; Lord, I Lift Your Name

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: Glorify Your Name (Renew!  # 37)

1.      Father, we love you, we worship and adore you, glorify your name in all the earth. Glorify your name, glorify you name, glorify your name in all the earth.

2.      Jesus, we love you, we worship and adore you, glorify your name in all the earth.  Glorify your name, glorify your name, glorify your name in all the earth.

3.      Spirit, we love you, we worship and adore you, glorify your name in all the earth.  Glorify your name, glorify your name, glorify your name in all the earth.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

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

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

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

A reading from the First Letter of John

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 22

My praise is of him in the great assembly; * I will perform my vows in the presence of those who worship him.

The poor shall eat and be satisfied, and those who seek the LORD shall praise him: * "May your heart live for ever!"
All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, * and all the families of the nations shall bow before him.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:

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

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

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

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!
For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!
For work and for play. Thanks be to God!
For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!
For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!
For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.
   Thanks be to God!

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

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus said, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples."

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

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

2.      Make a high five…. 3. Make a low five…  4. Shout Amen.

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.
Holy 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.  Sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbor.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.
Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.
But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

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

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

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:        Alleluia! Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Alleluia (Renew! # 136)

1. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.  Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.
2. He’s my Savior, Alleluia… 3. He is worthy, Alleluia…. 4 I will praise him, Alleluia

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: Lord, I Lift Your Name on High (Renew! # 4)

Lord, I lift your name on high; Lord, I love to sing your praises. 

I’m so glad you’re in my life; I’m so glad you came to save us. 
You came from heaven to earth to show the way, from the earth to the cross, my debt to pay. 
From the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky; Lord, I lift your name on high.

Repeat

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Good Shepherding as Personal and Communal Calling

 4 Easter B  April 21, 2024
Acts 4:5-12  Psalm 23
1 John 3:1-8     John 10:11-16

Lectionary Link

Today is Good Shepherd Sunday and as I often do, I would problematize this topic for our times and perhaps see through some of the romantic haze that arises around reading the Gospels with profound naiveté.

I would submit to you that the Good Shepherd appointed Gospel as well as the New Testament was written for and by people who lived as an oppressed or suppressed minorities within various locations within the Roman Empire.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, shepherds were metaphors for the community leaders.  The train of such leaders were patriarchs, judges, priests, prophets, teachers, and kings.  Kings were regarded to be shepherds even though the great judge Samuel warned the people that if they wanted a king, he would in effect be a great kleptocrat.  He would be expensive to maintain and he would take the young men for his armies.  But as a reward there could be protection and some sense of law and order, and the environment to support the worship centering around the shrines and Temple.  The accounts of Hebrew Scriptures indicate that the shepherds of all sorts in Israel succeeded and failed and by the time of Jesus, the leaders or shepherds of Israel had been reduced to the council of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem who negotiated the limitations on lifestyle and worship freedoms for the Jews who lived in Palestine.  The Jews of the Diaspora had also to find a way to exist as minorities communities within the cities of the Roman Empire.

The Roman Emperor was a leader, a shepherd of sorts, whom Jews and followers of Jesus had to acknowledge as a significant determining reality of their social lives.  The way in which followers of Jesus chose to survive was to subscribe to the strong but servile life of the beatitudes.  The beatitudes proposed a Christly martial arts lifestyle meant to be winsome to the persecutors, like turning the other cheek, blessing those who cursed you, and carrying the burden of the bullying soldier an extra mile.  Such seeming heroic humble behaviors were for survival, but also to impress the persecutors with the performance of a spiritual strength that could be winsome.

Early followers of Jesus had to live with the Caesar as the shepherd and leader of the world whose power had local franchise power expressions in petty kings, governors, and centurions and soldiers.  St. Paul asked his readers to pray for the leaders and to pay taxes.  He said they had an ordained status for creating the kind of order which allowed for the survival of even the minority communities of church and synagogue.  St. Paul was admitting that even Roman leaders could be good in shepherding society if conditions of peace allowed people to get on with their lives, even the life of following the Risen Christ.

So what is the Good Shepherd of John's Gospel all about?  Jesus was not the Good Shepherd of Rome and the Roman Empire?  Who was Jesus Good Shepherd for?  The New Testament writings were essentially private writings for very limited communities within the Roman Empire.  It was an insider's literature, meaning that Jesus was the Good Shepherd model for the mystical relationship of the Risen Christ for members of the Jesus Movement.  The Good Shepherd was the model for how Christian leaders were to treat each other and it pertained particularly for the care and mentoring of those who were most vulnerable, marginalized, and without significant community identity or power.  We have to acknowledge that the Good Shepherd model was mainly for in-house behaviors, meaning that if persons had significant power, wealth, and knowledge, the blessing of such could only be known in using it to empower others, enrich others, and teach others.

Historically, we can note that the good shepherd living lifestyle of the people of home churches became winsome within the Roman Empire.  A discerning emperor like Constantine noted how the collateral effects of the once small Jesus Movement had become winsomely popular within his empire, to the point of it becoming politically astute to adopt this life style as the preferred life style for the empire.

How does one change charismatic mystical Christianity into legislative, social, and political Christianity? 

It probably cannot be done.  How does one legislate the sublime effects?  How does one use the hammer and anvil of church law and order to convert serendipitous mystical experience into the passive assimilation of infants into the church through infant baptism?  An entire incredible alchemical theology had to arise to address the success of the Jesus Movement and reconfigure the crucified Jesus who had been hidden in the lives of mystics as the Risen Christ into Jesus as the King of history and the Empire.  Priests and bishops had to take on more public roles of authority, even to become the earthly visible vicars of Christ the King and High Priest.

We might observe that Christianity cannot be an Empire religion without losing the roots of its origin as a way of life which arose for those who were oppressed but who were animated by the inner life of having significant mystical experience to be the compensating factor in their otherwise outwardly non-ostentatious existence.

You and I who have been living mostly as heirs of the political powers who made Christianity the preferred religion, have had to live as people with power and privilege while professing a lifestyle Christian faith that was written by and for oppressed people.  What we do know is that colonial Christians of power forced many people of color, and often times, women and others with less privilege in our societies, to live the life of the beatitudes.  The life of the beatitudes is indeed an attractive lifestyle because it is driven by a sublime inner strength that baffles those who hold to the belief that the strong take what they want.  The power of the strength of the living the beatitudes is such a contradiction to the logic of the power to control through physical strength, economic strength, the strength of armies and weaponry.

How can we as people trying to live New Testament Christianity adopt the founding Spirit of our movement to our times when we find ourselves in positions of power, wealth, and education?

We can assess with charity when Christly values have inspired governments to promote and practice universal suffrage.  We can understand the victory of Christly values when governments support laws of equal justice for all, and when justice authorities understand that all are equal even when all are different.  When our governments and society bring the dignity of justice to the many kinds of different people who are in our society today, then we can say we have begin to make the values of Christ the Good Shepherd the public values of our societies.

We as Christians need to be good shepherds to the many different people within our congregations who are seeking community and families of affirming acceptance.  Without ever uniting church and state, we can model the values of the Good Shepherd as we are dismissed from our Christian gatherings to go forth in the name of Christ, to exhibit in our lives Christly values, which are good shepherd values.  Where we have power, wealth, and education, we are to use these states to continually lift the levels of each for the greatest number of persons within our society.  Power, wealth, and education are manifest in continuously reciprocal ways.  Each of us at time are in need of shepherdly care of all sorts at many times in our lives.  The strongest and seeming most self sufficient person will at times be dependent upon the care of others for something that he or she is bereft of in a time of weakness or vulnerability.

Let us today learn to live by the values of the Good Shepherd.  It is perhaps the only way to convert empire and societies of people who have inherited the conditions of privilege, wealth, power, and education to the values of Christ.

Let us today be honest enough to admit that many times we are very needy and vulnerable sheep who need the help, care, and expertise of others.  And let us not forget our times of need when shepherdly care has come to us.  Let us also be shepherds of care to those who need the equalization ministries of healing, food for the hungry, provision for the poor, education for those needing to actualize their potential, and indeed the gift of the good news of Jesus the Good Shepherd, who calls each of us to do good shepherding with the gifts of our life.

May God save our societies by being good shepherding societies today.  Amen. 

Sunday School, April 21, 2024 4 Easter B

  Sunday School, April 21, 2024     4 Easter B

Good Shepherd Sunday

Think about the times that you are in need:

Need something to eat.  Need to learn math and reading.  Need help when you are sick.  Need help when your car is broken.  Need help when you need some clean clothes. 

Everybody is at times in need.  Everyone is like a sheep that needs to be taken care of.

Think about the times when you are able to care for others and help them

Helping your baby brother and sister.  Feeding your pet.  Helping to clean the house for mom.  Reading a story for your baby brother or sister.  Helping your Nana and Papa in their garden.

When you use your gifts and ability to help others, you are like a shepherd taking care of others.

Jesus is called the Good Shepherd because he has power and the knowledge to help those in need.  Jesus asks us to be good shepherds too and we do this when we help people in need.  We too are often like sheep in need and we need to have shepherds or people with strength and knowledge to help us.

The sheep-shepherd relationship is an important way to understand life.  The strong help the weak and it is important to know that sometimes we are like sheep and sometimes we can be like the Good Shepherd Jesus who helped those in need.

Sermon:

Today we have read about the Good Shepherd and we have learn that Jesus is like a Good Shepherd.

  A Good Shepherd takes good care of his sheep.  How does he do that?  He finds them a pasture with grass to eat.  He finds them water to drink.  He keeps them safe from wolves and coyotes.  He takes care of them when they are injured or sick?  Why?  Because the sheep need care.

  Do you know that we are both like shepherd and sheep?  A shepherd is one who gives care to someone who needs it.  A sheep is someone who needs care.

  I’m going to play a quiz game with you?  You tell me who is the shepherd and who is the sheep.

  When a person is really, really sick, she goes to the doctor and the doctor helps by giving her some medicine.  Who is the shepherd and who is the sheep?

  A father and mother go to work and they provide money for their children to have food and clothing.  Who is the shepherd and who is the sheep?

  A boy has a dog and the boy feeds the dog every day and brushes the dog furry coat.  Who is the shepherd and who is the sheep?

  An older sister is with her baby brother, and mom leaves the room.  And the baby brother drops his bottle and starts to cry.  So, the older sister picks up the bottle and gives it to her little baby brother.  Who is the shepherd and who is the sheep?

  So, any of us can be a shepherd or a sheep.  Why?  Because sometimes we need things and sometimes we need care.

  But most of the time we have the ability to provide care for someone else.  So, when someone needs care, we need to be like a good shepherd.

  Jesus is the good shepherd because he cared for people who needed his care.

  So, we too need to be good shepherds too.  Why?  Because people need us, and we need people too.

  Just as you and I often need help and care for ourselves.  We should learn to give care to others when we can.

  Jesus as the good shepherd has taught to care for people in need.  How many of you are going to try to be good shepherds this week?  I know that you can be a big help to your family and friends and to other people who need your care.

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

April 21, 2024: The Fourth Sunday of Easter

Opening Song:  Morning Has Broken,

Morning has broken, like the first morning,

Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird.

Praise for the singing, praise for the morning,

Praise for them springing fresh from the word.

Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from heaven,

Like the first dew fall on the first grass.

Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden,

Sprung in completeness where His feet pass.

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning,

Born of the one light Eden saw play.

Praise with elation, praise every morning,

God's re-creation of the new day.

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.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

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

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

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

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

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

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

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

A reading from the First Letter of John

We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us-- and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 23

1 The LORD is my shepherd; *I shall not be in want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures *and leads me beside still waters.

3 He revives my soul *and guides me along right pathways for his Name's sake.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:

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

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

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

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

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

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

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

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

   Thanks be to God!

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

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away-- and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father, also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon –   

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: Baa, Baa, Little Lamb (Tune: Baa, Baa, Black Sheep)

Baa, baa, little lamb, did you lose your way?  Yes sir, yes sir, I was lost today.

Far from my shepherd, far from my home.  Far from my flock, I ran off alone.

Baa, baa, little lamb, did you lose your way?  Yes sir, yes sir, I was lost today.

Baa, baa, little lamb, who found you? My Good Shepherd who loves you too.

Left His flock of ninety-nine, Looked for me with love so kind.

Baa, baa, little lamb, your Shepherd looked for you.  Yes sir, yes sir, And He found me too.

Dear little children, does your Shepherd love you?  Yes sir, yes sir, He loves you too.

If we sin and go from Him, Jesus brings us back to Him.

Dear little children your Shepherd loves you.  Yes sir, yes sir, and He loves you too.

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.

Holy 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.  Blessing 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 King of Love, (Renew! # 106)

1-The King of love my shepherd is, whose goodness keeps me ever.  I want for nothing! I am God’s and God is mine forever.

2-Where sterams of living water flow my happy soul God leads now, and where the greenest pasteure grow with food celestial feeds nows.

3-Though often foolishly I strayed, still in true love God sought me; and told me to be unafraid, and home again God brought me.

  

Post-Communion Prayer

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

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

And His Presence has been known to us.

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

    and sisters in Christ.

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

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

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

Closing Song:  His Sheep Am I,   by Orien Johnson

In God’s green pastures feeding, by His cool waters lie; Soft in the evening walk my Lord and I.  All the sheep of His pastures fare so wondrously fine.   His Sheep am I.  Refrain: Waters cool.  Pastures green.  In the evening walk my Lord and I; Dark the night, Rough the way,  Step by step, my Lord and I.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Fish

 3 Easter Sunday B April 14, 2024
Acts 3:12-19 Psalm 4
1 John 3:1-7 Luke 24:36b-48

Lectionary Link

We are used to seeing on car license plates the fish sign, as a way for a person to announce that they are followers of Jesus.  Indeed the fish is an ancient symbol for Christ, perhaps older than the cross.

The fish is an acrostic as the letters of the Greek word for fish ichthus, are the letters for the names and titles of Jesus:  Jesus, Christ, God's Son, Savior.

The fish is then a symbol of Christ.  It is a single word symbol.  Can we understand also that the New Testament and the Gospels in particular are many worded symbols to express within the early Christ communities the meanings of the life of Jesus.

In the history of the church, we have continually applied the meanings of the New Testament writings within our various contexts and we have harmonized and used New Testament writings so that they might be relevance in the many subsequent settings where people have been explicating in their settings the meaning of Jesus.

The modern setting for the reading of the New Testament has been the Enlightenment era which brought scientific reason to be the throne of the preferred standard of truth.  What is the dictum of modern science when it is expressed in the logic of propositional philosophy?  A statement or proposition is meaningfully true, if and only if it was or could be empirically verified.

And so the natural laws of science became the criteria for reading ancient writings and their "meaningful truth" status.

So scientists who read biblical narratives with occurrences which violate how we understand natural laws say these things could not have happened.  Christians who realized the truths of modern science have doubled down by professing that everything that is in the Bible is true using the scientific criteria of empirical verification.

This has created a double falsehood that has been devastating for Christians and for scientists.  A scientist believes that the fundamentalistic or literal ways of reading Scripture is the only way that Scripture can be read, and they end up limiting their notion of what can be experienced as truth.  At the same time, they might be moved by music, art, poetry and acknowledge aesthetic truth.  If they would allow themselves to see biblical writings more in the realm of aesthetic and moving truths rather than scientific truths, they could be poets and scientists at the same time.  Christians who say that everything that is narrated in the Bible has to have been empirically verified, end up agreeing with the limiting of truth status to the scientific model.  They give up the profoundly moving truth of story and narrative art.

Can we appreciate the false opposition which has been created by both scientists and fundamentalists between biblical narrative and scientific discourse?

Forgive the digression, but I would return to the topic of fish and Jesus for us to appreciate the meaningful truth of the New Testament writers.

The meaningful truth of the New Testament is that many, many people were having sublime experiences, moving experiences, and these experiences were given context and meaning within their communities as experiences of the Risen Christ.  What was the empirical fact?  These experiences were happening, seemingly spontaneously and mysteriously.  The Christian community had explanations for these sublime experiences, as different as they seemed to be.

Many different people can attend a live performance of Beethoven's Ninth with complete choral performers.  And they might each have and explain the sublime effect of that artistic event differently.  But that people are effected and confess a sublime experience is a verifiable truth.

This is how we should understand the continuing occurrence of people's experiences of the sublime with explanation as being the presence of the Risen Christ.

The Christ is confessed to be Word from the beginning who is God who became totally intertwined with human flesh in a unique way in the person of Jesus.

Word is the main truth of human life as we know it.  The Gospels are textual words about Christ as the word of God.  It is undeniable that having words is the continuing sublime presence of continuing meaningful life.

Gospel writers wrote that the coming to words of the physical world in our constant perception and conscious, is in fact a symbol of the main reality of life itself, namely word always being known in the flesh and the exterior mapping of our lives.  Word as interior is also life as Spirit;  Word is really real.

But we grow up instinctually and we come to regard the external world as things which seem to have a separate existence from the entire system of words which creates the knowing of the external world as possible.  The Gospel writers and writers of all ages use the physical world as a metaphor of substantiality.  If I can see, taste, eat, touch, and hear something, I take this to be the substantial evidence of its existence.

St. Paul is the earliest New Testament writer and he did not see Jesus in the flesh.  He had a visionary experience of the Risen Christ.  In that experience Jesus did not eat with him; Jesus did not eat, bread, or fish with him or drink wine with him.  But St. Paul believe that his vision was a sublime event which changed the direction of his life.  It was a profound word paradigm shift in his life.

The early followers of Christ were a group of people who had sublime experiences which they named as experiences of the Risen Christ.  The New Testament literature occurred in the Jesus Movement decades after he lived to create a community identity for inculcating the values which surrounded the supreme event of having an experience of the Risen Lord.

And that brings us to the Risen Christ eating fish as a spiritual literature of persuasion about the substantiality of experiences of the Risen Christ.  The Risen Christ portrayed as eating fish, is an appeal to our child like sense of what is substantial.  Would we believe something is real if and only if it occurred as a seeing, touch, taste, hearing event?

Eating fish is a real physical event.  Christ is presented as doing so to prove his Risen presence.  This is the early Church writers saying, believe the reality of your experience of the Risen Christ, in the same way that you would believe an event you witnessed with seeing, touching, tasting, smelling and hearing.

The fish eating story of the Risen Christ, is an invitation for the hearers and readers of the Gospel, to believe the really real significance of the many kinds of presences of the Risen Christ who is always already known as the Eternal Word which endless guides the insides of humanity in it interactions with each other and the world outside of each human epidermis.

Dear friends, accept the sublimity of your experience of the Risen Christ.  Amen.

George Augustus Selwyn

George Augustus Selwyn
April 11, 2024

Lectionary Link
Ephesians 2:8–10
Psalm 96:1–7
Matthew 10:7–16


George Augustus Selwyn was a man of his time, as we are people of our time. As prisoners of our time, we cannot help but be temporally provincial. We live compromised lives knowingly and unknowingly with things that are tacit in our culture that are not good for people now or for people of the future. We approach people of the past with the charity which we want for ourselves.


The era of Bishop Selwyn was the colonial era. I grew up on the romance of the famous explorers and famous missionaries who left the comfort of their homes and made long grueling trips to foreign peoples with foreign customs and different languages. In my early 20's I lived in Iran for four years in Shiraz where Henry Martyn had come to translate the New Testament into Farsi. In my Near Eastern Studies, I read the accounts of E.G. Browne, Lord Curzon, Richard Burton, and T.E. Lawrence. In a cursory view of our calendar of saints, we can find a common feature of the lives of the saints; they left the comfort of what was familiar and traveled to bridge great cultural divides in order to become bi-lingual and bi-cultural enough to communicate the message of Christ.


In our Christology, we believe that Jesus is the one who traveled the furthest from home to be completely bi-lingual in the experience of divinity and humanity so as to communicate across the great divine/human divide of difference. As we know, not everyone did or could receive his message about the nature of God. For a long period of time the message about Jesus was an underground message within an Empire which had the cult of the Emperor who was not to have any contenders.


What was the nature of the colonial times? England and other countries were in the wake of the Enlightenment, industrialization, and an expanding mercantile system to bring raw materials from colonies around the world. The native peoples of the colonies were in the words of Tennyson, the White Man's Burden. What was that burden? The burden was having the responsibility to bring Christianity, Civilization, and Commerce to people of color in the colonies established throughout the world. And in the cruel practice of slavery, it was commercializing of people as a chief commodity.


George Augustus Selwyn was privileged enough to attend Eton and Cambridge. At Cambridge he was a member of the first crew team in what became the annual rowing competition with Oxford. After graduation he returned to teach at Eton, and soon after was ordained deacon and priest. In 1841, he was consecrated at Lambeth as Bishop of New Zealand, just a year after New Zealand was made a British Colony. On his voyage to New Zealand, he learned Maori from a native on board, well enough to preach and teach in Maori on his arrival. He also learned ship sailing on the voyage, a skill he used when he traveled to various places in New Zealand. He was known for his organizational skills and these skills were required in New Zealand. He also experienced the same sort of inter-church issues which were exported to the colonies from the homeland. Bishop Selwyn was more of a high church Tractarian and the missionaries were mainly low church evangelicals. What does smells and bells have to do with evangelism?


Bishop Selwyn was perhaps like many of his age in being blind to the linkage of the message of Christ with the Imperialist practices of the Empire. And while we might feel today that we have arrived at rebuking critiques of the colonialism of people of Selwyn's age, we can still carry with us a sense of having a superior culture and superior religion, something which surely contradicts the humility of Jesus Christ.


I think that persons of colonial Christianity and we as post-colonial Christians have not faced up with honesty the supreme irony of the New Testament. The irony is that the New Testament was written by and for oppressed people who did not have full status within the Roman Empire. The only way that I can understand the beatitudes is to see them as Christly martial arts living by oppressed people so as to survive and win favor from their oppressors. Those who lived the beatitudinal martial arts lifestyle could impress with such winsome behaviors.


We live as inheritors of Empire Christianity. And we pretend with great contortionist gymnastics that our experience is similar to the people of the New Testament. When in fact, by force, white colonialists required people of color to live the life of the beatitudes so that we could be proud of them as our "well trained pets."


Thankfully, contained within the Gospel is the demise of Empire Christianity. Why? If you preach the love of Christ, the hearers eventually are going to say or think, "We really love this Jesus whom you preach, but we want the same and equal dignity that is part of this good news of Christ."


St. Paul once wrote a rather backhanded thing: I rejoice not in how the Gospel is preached, but that the Gospel is preached.


We can say the same about Bishop Selwyn and about ourselves. Selwyn was concerned that he preached the good news, and we still find ourselves with this goal.


With the Psalmist, Bishop Selwyn and we, too can agree, God is truly most catholic. Kata holos means on the whole. God is more on the whole than Anglicanism, Roman Catholicism, or any other religious faith. The Psalmist implored the entire earth to sing to the Lord. God belongs to everyone.


With Bishop Selwyn, we would also agree with Paul that it is not the works that we have done which gives us divine citizenship or status, rather it is grace, original grace of God's image upon us, and realized grace when we accepted God as our parent.


Finally with Bishop Selwyn we can agree with our appointed Gospel, that the Gospel needs strategies or it remains a highly kept theoretical secret. The appointed Gospel lesson provides us with the passage that has been reduced to what is called evangelical poverty, one of the counsels of perfection. The joke on Episcopalians is that we've not excelled at evangelical poverty. Remember the joke from your seminary professor asking, "why were Episcopalians last to arrive on the frontier?" Answer: They were waiting for the invention of the Pullman Car, so they could arrive in luxury.


I don't think that this Gospel is about the monastic practice of evangelical poverty. It simply exemplifies that the Gospel needs strategies appropriate to the time and place. And isn't that what the life of the church on all levels is about? Finding strategies appropriate to our situations to get the good news out to the people who need to discover it.


You might notice that the strategies parallels the strategy which Jesus saw in his own life when he read from Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. After reading this passage, Jesus told his listeners, "I resemble in my ministry these requirements of the good news. In Hebrew, "basar."


The year of the Lord's favor is the realm of God at hand. The message appeals holistically to bodies, souls, and spirits of the people who need to know the good news of their lives.


For us today, embracing evangelical poverty should mean ridding ourselves of any kind of personal or cultural baggage which gets in the way of letting people know the full dignity of Christ. Amen.