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-Administration
and
Pastoral
Relations
SEE
BELOW FOR A LIST OF LENT AND EASTER RESOURCES
Click
on the title of the article you wish to read
liturgical resources,
+Anointing
in Worship and
Pastoral Care: rational and practice A213
+"Invitation," a
play
based on Wedding
Banquet parable Mat. 22 A109
+A
Palm Sunday
worship service, complete with message Palm Sunday A212
+Good
Friday Mark's
drama of the passion
- A
service of readings and dramatization. Goodfriday1
Yr. A.
PREACHING/STORY RESOURCES FOR LENT
-Social
comment, "Changing the Environment as Original Sin," A303
-Lent
1. Wilderness and Temptation A411
-Lent
2. Born Anew A412
-Lent3,
Woman at the Well A416
-Lent
4. To Show God's Power. A413
-Lent
5. Life and Death. A417
EASTER
+Jesus'
Friends Remember (between Cross and empty tomb) A428
+Egg
as Easter Teaching Device
on Earthday
+"Easter
Bunnies and the Resurrection." A404
+Mary
Then and Now. an Easter sermon eastermary
+Death
and Resurrection, a sermon for the Day of Resurrection A425
+Doubting
Thomas, a story A426
+The
Walk to Emmaus A427
+Do
You Beleive in Heaven/Resurrection? Cp23c
PENTECOST
+Xnty
is a Tricycle - Sermon for Pentecost Pentecost B
+Inspired
by the Spirit. Acts 2. A433
The
Story of Pentecost <A422b>
DISCUSSION
RESOURCES FOR EASTER
+The
Church grows its Christology - A
list of scripture passages that may be used to see how the early
church employed the Hebrew Scriptures to develop its Christology. A427b
+The
film, "the Corporation." Attend
this film at a theatre near you. www.the
corporation.com
+Faith
Renewal by Radical Theology and Biblical study. misc.1.
PASTORAL
CARE
+Anointing
in Worship and Pastoral
Care Rational and
practice A213
SOCIAL
COMMENT for all years:
+ Mom's
at War (essay of a teen with a soldier-mom) Bmomatwar
+Law
Poetic
reflection on the World Criminal Court. ecclesicakes B220lent.
+Alternatives
to war- a program for churches Bscpeace1
+Great
Apes Sacrificed for Cell Phones Bscgreatapes&cellph
+"Changing
the Environment as Original Sin," A303
+Keeping
the Covenant with butterflies Bsclent1
+The
Village:-Part 1, The
Bottom Line Became the Highest Value A302
+The
Village:-Part
2, Joan Paul
Comes to the Village, A302cont.
+Spanking ? Mathew
18:1-5; Matthew ch.27. ecclesicakes A113
+Water waterpoem
+ A Liberala Muslim
Minority A310
+Law, a poetic
reflection <B220lent>
MISSION
RELATED RESOURCES
+ Alternatives
to war- a program for churches Bscpeace1
+World
Wide Vineyard. A dramatic liturgy promoting world mission A501
+The
M&S Logo. A process introducing the logo A502
+The
Mission of God's People. mission: Noah to the Apostles A002.
+
A Congregation's chaplaincy outreach A007
PASTORAL
RELATIONS
+
Calling a minister to share in
your mission A002
+
Congregations living without a minister A003
+Homebodies
and Transients A004
+We
are ina Covenant A005
Yr. C material
LENTEN
ARTICLES
Jesus
in the Wilderness, a "Bible Story" <A411b>
Justice
or Charity ecclesicakes
A307
LENTEN
SERMONS, yr. C
Lent 1
- Resisting Satan's
Seductive Ways ecclesicakes LntC1
Lent 2 -Responding
to God's initiative ecclesicakes LntC2
Lent 3 -Satisfiing
our Thirst eccleiscakes LntC3
Lent 4 -Promised
Land and Reconcilliation ecclesicakes LntC4
Lent 5 -Something
New Again!!? ecclesicakes LntC5
DISCUSSION
RESOURCES FOR LENT
-The
Mission of God's People - scripture refences that define our
mission from Noah to the Apostles A002b
-Temptation
- A family is tempted to cheat A214a
Hebrew
roots of Christology A
Bible Study to begin to explore the Heb. Test. roots of Christology.
ecclesicakes A427b
-Altering
the Enviroment as Original Sin. Lent 1, Y.r A. Roman
5:12-21 ecclesicakes A303
AFTER
EASTER Yr.C - NOTES FOR EACH SUNDAY
+Introduction
to Easter Season Biblical readings
+Sunday
Before Earth Day
+Easter
2, A People Inspired and Courageous
+Easter
3, Peter Finds New Direction
+Easter
4, A Messiah for the World
+Easter
5, Visions of the Beast and a New Heaven and Earth
+Easter
6, How Come?
+Easter
6, Holy Garden City
+Easter
7
YEAR B.
LENTEN preaching
and teaching resources
(see
also mission resources below)
+Lent
2, Taking Your Cross -
the price of faith Blent2
Archived
+Lent
3, Living with the
Cross and the Law Blent3
+Lent
4, Choose Life Blent4
+Lent
5 Intimacey
with the Holy Blent5
EASTER
teaching and preaching resources
-Jesus'
Friends Rememeber (between Cross and empty tomb) A428
-Teaching,
"Bunnies and the resurrection." A404
-Death
and Resurrection, a sermon for the Day of resurrection A425
-Doubting
Thomas, a story A426
-The
Walk to Emmaus A427
-The
Shepherd and the Sheepgate, E4, John 10:1-10 A429
-Called
By Name, E4, John 10:1-10 A430
-The
Breast Milk of God E 5, 1Peter 2:1-10 A431
-Letting
Go and Moving On. E.7, Acts 1:6-14 A434
PENTECOST
SUNDAY:
Inspired
by the Spirit. Acts 2. A433
LITURGICAL
RESOURCES FOR LENT
Invitation,
a play of Wedding Banquet parable Matt 22. A109
Adut Chilren-Death & Life-Annointing-Born Blind-At Well-Twice Born- Lenten Tree- Easter Sun.Death & resurrection.
LENT EASTER MATERIAL
Search by category: Bible *Advt.-Xmas- Ep. * Lent -Easter * Pene. 1-14 * Pent 15f * Child + Story * Liturgy * Social * Pastor * Mission
Lent 1 Yr. A.Temptation
ecclesicake A214a
Family at the Fair
Matthew 4:1-11
I have a story today about temptation. Do you know what temptation is Jesus said we should never give in to temptation.
My story about temptation takes place in the Summer time at a fair. How many of you have been to the fair? Do you like going on the rides? Well, my story today isabout a family, Mom, Dad, Mary and Tom and Grandma who went to the fair.
The trip to the
fair was birthday present for Mary. She had just become 6 two days
before. Her
older brother Tom knew all about fairs. He especially liked the
rides. He had a list of rides he wanted to go on. Mary said she would
get first pick of the
rides, because
after all it was her birthday present.
t was decided
that Mom, Dad, Tom and Mary would go to the fair early and have lots
of rides. Grandma would come later in her own car.
All the way to
the fair Mary and Tom talked about the rides, The trip to the fair
took a whole hour, so they talked a lot.
Finally, they
arrived at the gate to the fair grounds. Mom paid the entry fee, so
they drove in and parked.
Mary practically pulled her dad to the Ferris wheel, which was her first choice of a ride.
It would cost
four dollars for Mary and Tom to go on the Ferris Wheel. Dad
went to the ticket booth, and reached in his pocket for his wallet,
but it wasn't there. Dad had forgotten to bring his wallet. He said
to Mom, "You will have to pay for the rides, I don't have my wallet."
So, Mom looked
in her purse. "I'm sorry," she said, "I have only one
Toonie in my purse. (have a coin to show) I guess only one of you can
ride until Grandma comes. She will have money. "
"That's
unfair," Tom said, "Under Six can ride for free. Mary has
been six for only two days."
"Grandma
won't be here for hours," cried Mary
There happened
to be a man standing near them who heard their plight. He came over
to them and said in a very low voice, "Just lie. Tell them that
Mary is five."
Now, what do you
think the family might do?
[If you are
using a Lenten tree, hang the coins on the Lenten tree after this discussion].
Offer with the
children a prayer for grace in the face of temptations (one way to do
this is having the children repeat phrases spoken by a leader).
Search by category: Bible *Advt.-Xmas- Ep. * Lent -Easter * Pene. 1-14 * Pent 15f * Child + Story * Liturgy * Social * Pastor * Mission
Lent 2 Yr. A. Trmty Yr. B. For Children
Born as a Child Of God ecclesicakes John 3:17
A215d
Symbol: Birthday Candles (blue ones, pink ones- we are born to our parents. we are born to God also (white candles)
What kind of candles are these (birthday candles)?
Notice that I have three colours of candles. Each of these colours has a special meaning. Would anyone like to guess what these colours mean? (pink = girls; blue = boys; white = child of God).
(Give out the blue and pink candles, and take one for yourself) My mom's name is__________, and my dad's name is _________, so this candle tells me that Iam a child of _________ and ________.
Would each of you tell me who you are a child of?
(give out the white candles). This candle tells me that I am also a child of God.
Please hold up your white candle and say with me; "I am a child of God).
Offer with the children a prayer of thanksgiving for our birth as a child of our parents, and as a child of God.
Search by category: Bible *Advt.-Xmas- Ep. * Lent -Easter * Pene. 1-14 * Pent 15f * Child + Story * Liturgy * Social * Pastor * Mission
Lent 3 Living Water ecclesicakes A214e
John 4: 5-42
Materiaks: Dixie Cups for each child, a glass pitcher of water and a potted plant that obviously is in need of water, and will revive within an hour of being watered.
Teaching time: "Have you ever been really really thirsty? Did some one give you a drink? Jesus said that one way to show someone that you love them is to give them a drink when they are thirsty. I have with me today a thirsty plant, and I want you to help me give it a drink. "
Pass out the Dixie cups, and put a small amount in each child's snd invite them to pour this water into the earth of the potted plant. Tell the children that after Church School they can come and look at the plat and see how it has revived.
"Are any of you thirsty?" If they are refill the cups to give them a drink.
Offer with the children a prayer of thanks for water to drink.
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Lent 4 Seeing and What a Beautiful Bird! ecclsicakes A214b
John 9:1-41
Symbol: 3 D eyeglasses, kaliadescope, or graphic in which you can see differnt things depending on you look at it.
Teaching time: see how God sees. Today I want us to think about seeing. (have some pairs of 3D glasses, or a kaliadescope, and let the children take turns looking through them, and/or show a graphic in which different things can be see according to how you look at it. )
Story:(The following story is optional ) Now I want to tell you a story about a differentkind of seeing.
A long time ago when Jesus was on the Earth, there was a bird that all the other birds didnot like. (show cut out of a dingy looking bird). Whenever Jesus was teaching a flock of birds alsways came and roosted in nearby trees so they couild be near to God's own Child. But, whenever they saw this bird trying to get close to Jesus the other birds saw this bird, they chased it away.
However, one day when Jesus was sleeping under a tree, he was all alone, and the birds in the tree were asleep too. So, this bird saw an opportunity to see Jesus, so it swooped down very silently, and rested on Jesus chest so he could look at Jesus' face.
As this bird was looking at Jesus, Jesus woke up and saw the bird. The bird froze in fear as Jesus hand came up over it. The bird was terrified, he was afraid Jesus would hurt him. But Jesus smiled, and his hand stroked this bird, and he said to all the other birds: "Look, look, I see a beautiful bird! My, what a beautiful Bird I see!
Then, this bird soared up into the sky, and sang as it had never sung before: "What a beautiful Bird am I!"
Then all the other birds also sang, "What a beautiful bird is he!"
Offer with the children a prayer of thanks for seeing.
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Lent 5 for children: Jenny's Forever Smile ecclsicakes A214c
John 11:1-45
Symbol: Angel Wings
Theme for today: Use one or more of the following or other resource with whichyou are comfortable. Read a children's story about death (see below); tell of a death within your family, or death of someone in the congregation they will know of, enter into a conversation with the children about death in their family. Conclude with an affirmation that those who die are with God. Use angel wings cut fom paper or other material to symbolize everlasting life.
Be prepared for children asking about the death of pets. Remember that Jesus said God cares for sparrows and presumably, all of God's creatures. (Mt. 6:26). You can always say that you don't know if pets go to Heaven.
When telling this story, you might use a smiling doll or picture of a smiling child as a prop. Do not use a doll belonging to one of the children who will be present. In preparation make sure you know of deaths within the family of your children.
I have borrowed this doll to tell you a story about everlasting life. Her name is ____ (if the doll has been given a name, use that name, or give it the name, Jenny) The story is about the life of _____, from beginning to end.
When Jenny was a very tiny baby she developed a beautiful smile. Everyone said to her mom and dad, "My what a beautiful smile your child has."
"Yes, " they said, "Jenny is always smiling."
Then when Jenny started school, she smiled at the teacher, and the teacher said to the principal, "My what a beautiful smile that child has."
"Yes, " said her teacher, she is forever smiling.
When Jenny graduated from school, and got a job, what do you suppose they said about her? (forever smiling ).
When Jenny had children of their own, what did the other children say to her children? (your mom is forever smiling).
When Jenny became a grandmother what did her grandchildren, Kaity and Kenny say about her"
When Jenny got to be very old, and moved to a nursing home, what did they say about her?
Then one day when Jenny was 90 years of age - which, as you know is very very old - she began to feel very weak, so she asked is her children, who were of course all grown up, to come to see her. She also asked her grandchildren, Kaity and Kenny to come to see her. Have any of you been to visit your granny lately?
So, Kaity and Kenny and their mom and dad and aunts and uncles all came to see Grandma Jenny in the nursing home. When Jenny saw them, she ___________? Yes, she smiled.
Then she said to them, I am feeling weak. I have been living for a long time, and now I am ready to go and be with God in Heaven. When I go, I want you to remember me and smile.
Kenny said: "Grandma Jenny, I think God will like your smile."
Grandma Jenny said, "Yes, when I see God I will smile forever."
So, it was that in a few days after that Jenny went to be with God. When God saw her in heaven God said:__________.
Of course her family wept when Jenny went to Heaven, because they would miss her, and then they smiled when they remembered her forever smile. Do any of you have a grandmother or grandfather in heaven?
Prayer: With the children offer a prayer giving thanks for everlasting life, naming those from these children's families who have died.
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Lent 4 Yr, A.The practice of Anointing ecclesicakes A213
In worship and Pastoral care
Yr. A: Lent4, Easter4, Proper 15, Eph. 5, Proper 27. Yr. C Proper 10.
See also, Sermon: Being the Healing Hands of Christ A442
In Biblical
times, Olive oil was a sign and symbol of God's favour, calling and
blessing.1. It was used as food, cosmetic, medicine, lamp fuel; for
the dedication of priests and kings, in the dedication of sacred
places; and as a religious offering. Within Christianity oil is used
in the rite of anointing.
For the purpose
of this discussion, I shall divide the ritual uses of oil into two
categories: dedication and healing.
Dedication:
Probably you
will remember the bible story of Samuel pouring oil onto the head of
the shepherd boy, David, to anoint him as the future King of
Israel.2. In those days, this was the common way to dedicate
individuals for a special role, or to initiate them into a sacred
office. We participate in a similar practice in our culture when we
lay hands on a person who is being received into the church.
You may also
know that the title, Jesus Christ, means 'Jesus the Anointed One.' As
far as I can determine, Jesus was not anointed into his ministry
through anointing oil, however when they called him Jesus Christ, the
church was giving him the title, Anointed of God.
We have the
privilege to see ourselves in this same way. When we were admitted
into the church, we became an Anointed of God. We are not simply
followers or disciples of Jesus, rather each of us is a member of the
Body of Christ, the Anointed One.
Jesus also
compared members of the Realm of God to lamps, which burned bright
because they were filled with oil (faith in God).3.
Healing:
When Jesus told
the parable of the "Good Samaritan," he said that the
Samaritan put oil on the wounds of the man he found in the ditch.4.
We have no record of Jesus using oil in the act of healing, but he
did use touch. In James 5., we find the following instruction: Are
any of you ill? Let them send for the elders of the church to pray
over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.
Rites of the Church:
The Christian
Church has since earliest times employed the rite of anointing in
ceremonies of dedication, rededication, and healing. The Orthodox
Church, for instance, anoints each new member immediately following
baptism. Some churches offer anointing as a part of the Last Supper,
or Communion. Many follow the instruction of James, and employ the
rite of anointing in services for persons who are sick, or troubled.
We are baptized into Christ once only, but we may be anointed as
members of the Body of Christ many times.
The United
Church of Canada recently published an optional service of anointing
as a guide for congregations.
My Experience:
I was introduced
to the rite of anointing by an ecumenical group who asked me if I
would be the United Church member of a group who wanted to
reintroduce anointing into the life of the church in Winnipeg.
Shortly after, I
asked the worship committee of the congregation I was serving, to
consider introducing anointing to that community of faith, St.
Stephen's Broadway United Church.
I suggested we
offer it as an option, giving clear permission not to participate. I
also suggested that the oil be administered to the people's hands,
rather than to the forehead, as is the traditional custom. I was more
comfortable doing it this way, and judged that the people would find
it easier this way too. As it turned out, this allowed for an
intimate, non-verbal and safe way to express pastoral care.
The Worship
committee agreed that we would explain anointing to the congregation,
and offer it as an option when the people came forward to receive
Holy Communion. This congregation celebrated Communion on the first
Sunday of every month, and coming forward was their most usual way of
receiving communion.
The plan was
that I would stand with the anointing oil at the front of the church
between the elders who held the Bread and Wine. Those who wished to
be anointed could come to me after taking the Bread and Wine. I
prepared myself for no one to choose be anointed, except the worship
committee. To my surprise almost everyone present on that Sunday
(members, visitors, adults and children) came to receive the
anointing oil, the first of which was an infant brought to church
that day for the first time. As each person came to me, I put a drop
of oil on the back or palm of their hand, and lightly massaged it
while saying: "________________, you are a faithful member of
the Body I Christ, and I anoint you in the name of Jesus Christ to
your ministry in Christ's name. May you continue to know the healing
Love of God in your body, mind and spirit." If I knew of a need,
I would add an appropriate prayer for the person before me, or a
member of their family, while still holding their hand. When visitors
came for anointing, I would engage them in a brief conversation so
get their name, and some sense of their relationship to the church
(without a cross examination), and then anoint them, using words that
seemed to me to be appropriate for them. No one was refused.
It then became
our practice to offer anointing at every service of communion. I also
took the oil with me on visits to shut-ins, and persons in hospital.
Even very elderly
people who had
not been able to come to church for years, and for whom this was a
novel practice were open to receive it.
After that first
Sunday, I became a ware that I was not receiving anointing, so I
introduced the practice of asking the last person to be anointed, to
anoint me. This they did without hesitation, and with great feeling.
Sometimes, a person of the congregation would spontaneously respond
to the anointing by taking my hand and anointing me. This mutual
anointing also became the norm with shut-ins and those in hospital. I
perceived that each of these occasions held deep meaning for both of us.
Introduced
anointing to my next congregation, with equal acceptance. In
this congregation, I asked the board to name a woman of the
congregation to share in the administration of anointing. She was
inducted into this ministry, and was well accepted in this role.
While I don't
pretend fully to understand the attraction of anointing or the meaning
it has for
people. I do perceive that it has to do with affirmation, safe
touching,being cared for within our sister and brotherhood, and the
holy mystery of a non-verbal proclamation of the Gospel. Also, as the
anointing oil is administered, the words, "I anoint you as a
member of the Body of Christ," remind us that we are to be God's
anointed in the world, bearing Good News and seeking Peace, and
Justice for all humankind.
1. Psalm 23:5; Psalm 133. 2.1Samuel 16:11-13.
3.Matthew 5:14; Matthew 25:1-12. 4.Luke 10:34; James 5:14
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Death and Life ecclesicakes A417
Lent 5, Yr. A. John 11
In today's
scripture lesson, St. John gives us a strong message of hope by
telling us of an astounding victory of life over death. In the New
Testament, humankind's enemy is called death. Today's reading from
John's Gospel is all about the struggle of life to win over death.
John pictures
this struggle by giving us a very dramatic picture of Jesus calling
his friend, Lazarus, from the tomb even though Lazarus had been dead
and buried and rotting for four days in the heat of the Middle East.
This section of
John's Gospel stands as a metaphor* of humanities long battle with
the forces of death, and that is what I want to talk about this
morning. However, before we get to that, I want to say some things
about the passage as literal truth.
For instance,
some people, upon hearing this miracle story will ask, "Did that
really happen?" When I first joined the church in the mid-fifties,
it was common for biblical interpreters to debate the authenticity
of every biblical miracle. Did this miracle really happen or are
these miracle stories really parables?
Some people
would insist on a literal reading of this miracle: "Yes all the
miracles did happen just as written in the Bible. Lazarus was dead
and rotting, so Jesus brought him back to life to show that Jesus is
the Lord of Life." They would say that if the story is not taken
literally, it has no power.
Other people who
had difficulty with that would say: "Well maybe Lazarus was not
death, just in a coma, and when they rolled away the stone seal on
the tomb, he woke up and out he stepped.
Some even would
say that it was all dramatization that Lazarus and Jesus, Martha and
Mary put on to illustrate their belief in God's power over death.
Others would say
that John wrote this narrative as something of a parable. Perhaps
Lazarus had been very sick, and Jesus came to him and healed him.
Then John, using this as a base, wrote a parable to demonstrate the
church's belief in Jesus and in God's power over death.
There was a lot
of this kind of debate in the church 40 years ago. But I find that
today's Biblical interpreters often do not even mention any of these
arguments. Today we seem to be more interested in what the bible
means for us, and not much interested in the question: "Did it
really happen?"
This is the
approach I would take this morning - I am going to deal with the
question, "How might this passage from John's Gospel apply to
our life today? What might this account of a man being brought
from death to life, whether it literally happened or not, mean to us
in our life as persons of faith in the world today?
So, lets take a
brief look at this passage in this way.
The first thing
I note is that this is about the struggle between Life and Death.
The presence of
Death and the stench of death permeate this whole chapter of John's
Gospel. Like a player in a drama, Death enters through the news of
the death of Lazarus, then Jesus meets the reality of this death in
the grief of Martha and Mary. Finally, we are taken to the tomb
where there is talk of smell of death. Death seems to be in control.
Then, Life
enters. John shows Life entering the scene in the person of Jesus,
and in the faith of Martha and Mary.
Then, there is a
struggle between Life and Death, in which Death is overcome through
the Life-giving power of God. Life defeats death; Lazarus is set free
from the bonds of Death.
But the tale is
not over, Death has lost this battle, but the war against Life
continues. Death continues to work through the Pharisees, and will
not be satisfied until it swallows up both Life and Faith.
The chapter ends
with the Pharisees plotting the death of Jesus. (If we go into
chapter 12, we find the authorities planning to kill Lazarus - to put
him to death again. Death may be put down for the moment, but it
waits in the wings for a chance to claim victory.
In showing us
this struggle between Death and Life John is stating how the New
Testament sees human society. Human society is dominated by
death, and even people of faith, like Lazarus are subject to it.
But all is not
lost. John also shows us that God provides two resources which give
us victory over death: They are first, God's champion, Jesus, who
embodies the sacred Life-giving power of Love, and secondly, the
faith of God's people. This victory over death has it - it is called Resurrection.
So, John assumes
that all of us are acquainted with death, and we all are in need of resurrection.
It may be that
you think that the New Testament's focus on death as all pervasive
force in the world is far too dark and pessimistic.
But, if we look
back over the first two years of this new century, we can find many
examples of the reign of death. Already, thousands of people have
died in war ands terrorism. Many thousands more have died from
starvation, disaster and disease, and crime. We claim to honour
human life, but in reality human life is very cheap.
Then, we have to
consider that when the New Testament speaks of death, it does not
mean physical death only. By death, it means the many things that
diminish life, poverty, political oppression, racism, ageism, and
unemployment, under employment, hopelessness, and greed. All these
social ills also come under the category, death. These are the
institutional deaths to which we subject one another.
Also, there are
all the little deaths that we may inflict on ourselves in daily life
at work and at home and within families, and in the church. By this I
mean the ways, often without thinking of it, we hurt one another,
speak ill of one another, and treat one another in a way that says
they are little value. I know so many people who are wounded by those
closest to them. Then, finally, the New Testament refers to the death
that stands behind all forms of death; Spiritual death.
But we are
offered resurrection in place of death. To be resurrected is to have
overcome death, and to be death's enemy. Through the church we are
called to be chief among those people who bring life, and oppose
death in all its forms, and to be supportive of those we see who are
suffering from the pains of death.
There are many
ways to do this locally, globally and right at home.
We can start
this by being at one with those closest to us. I once knew a man who
made it his job each day to show friendship and kindness. This person
told me that he practised self-awareness, and noticed if he did
anything that was hurtful. Then sought to correct his behaviour.
Sometimes you
can defeat death simply by listening to a person's hurts. This is
especially true when a neighbour is grieving the loss of a loved one.
There are many
ways to fight the reign of death in the broader world too. We
do that through the world mission of the Church. We can do it by
choosing to support the life-giving work of even one agency such as
the Red Cross, or Doctors without Borders. We can do it by insisting
that our governments be committed to world peace, equity, and
economic justice.
So I hear in
this passage, St. John calling us to have the faith of Martha and
Mary, and call on Christ whenever we see death catching a brother
Lazarus. Remember we are the body of Christ. It has been given to us
to have the power to bring the Life of God's love to our homes,
communities, and world, and drive death away.
Then, in closing
I want say one final thing about Life and Death. There is such a
thing as a good death. This is the death that is the doorway into the
life beyond this life. Death is good when death remembers to be a
servant of God, not robbing people of life, but bringing a good life
to a close and opening the door to eternal life.
May each of us
be an agent of Life and the Enemy of death, which robs us all of a
good life.
*The Heart of
Christianity, "The meaning of our theological language"
Marcus Borg. Harper 2003. P.89"all this language is metaphorical."
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Listening to the Bible and the Media together. John McFarlane
Lent 1, Keeping the Covenant with Butterflies eccleiscakes BSClent1
This week I saw a wonderful conjunction between the ancient story of
God's covenant with all flesh and the Associated Press report of the
survival of Monarch Butterflies after their "flood."
Genesis 9:8-11 Promises: "Now behold, I Myself do establish My
covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; Genesis and
with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle,
and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the
ark, even every beast of the earth.
The Toronto Star LISA J. ADAMS ASSOCIATED PRESS reports:
MEXICO CITY-Scientists are marveling
at the impressive comeback of Monarch butterflies, which once again
are carpeting the fir trees of central Mexico in a sea of orange and
black wings - despite a deadly freeze last year that killed hundreds
of millions.
Hard rains and biting cold in the
central states of Michoacan and Mexico in January 2002 killed 75 per
cent to 80 per cent of the Monarch butterflies that make the more
than 3,000-kilometre journey from the eastern United States and Canada.
The unprecedented numbers of deaths -
some estimated as many as 500 million butterflies perished - followed
by drought conditions last summer and decreased levels of butterfly
sightings in the United States, prompted concern that fewer numbers
of the insects would arrive south of the border this year.
But the butterflies came - en masse.
Scientists estimate anywhere from 200 million to more than 500
million monarchs are now hanging in enormous clusters in an 8-hectare
area of forest.
"That's at least twice what we
expected," said Chip Taylor, an entomologist at the University
of Kansas and director of Monarch Watch, a network of Monarch
butterfly researchers based in Lawrence, Kan.
"It's a little bit of a
mystery... There's obviously something we really have to learn about
where these butterflies come from and how successful they are. ...
But it's quite clear that they have recovered.''
The annual migration of the
butterflies - they come to Mexico in late October and depart in late
March - is an aesthetic and scientific wonder that has captivated the
imagination of scientists, nature lovers and tourists. Scientists
still don't fully understand what guides generations of butterflies
to the same place each year. Each migrating group is at least three
to five generations removed from the previous arrivals.
The key to the butterflies' comeback
this year was the size of the colonies that arrived in Mexico before
the killer rains of January, 2002, said Lincoln Brower, a professor
emeritus of zoology at the University of Florida who has been
studying Monarchs for 47 years.
Scientists originally estimated about
100 million butterflies were nesting in and around Mexico's Monarch
Butterfly Biosphere Reserve last year. They dramatically increased
that estimate after realizing at least twice that many - and perhaps
up to five times as many - died. Millions of others survived.
Brower calculates that as many as 650
million butterflies migrated to Mexico during the last migratory
season and that as many as 500 million of them died. As many as 150
million survived, moved on and successfully reproduced in Texas,
Florida and other parts of the U.S. Gulf coast in the spring, he said.
The offspring of the survivors flew
north, creating three to five new generations that scattered
throughout the United States east of the Rockies and in Canada.
"The Monarch is an incredibly
robust animal," Brower said. The Monarch's biggest immediate
threat, Brower said, is man - not nature. Illegal logging in and
around the Mexican butterfly reserve - and tree cutting by residents
- is not new; it has been happening for decades. What is alarming,
Brower and others say, is that it appears to be on the rise - despite
years of efforts by government agencies and private organizations to
stop it.
My observation: It appears that the butterfly is able to flourish
within Creation's cycles of wet, and dry, cold and heat. They are
however, endangered by human destruction of their habitat. In Mexico,
agriculture and lumbering annually encroach on and reduce their
wintering territory, which has been named by the Mexican government
as a butterfly reserve. In the North, it is our attempt to reduce the
edges of roadways to lawn-like parks that endangers the Monarchs by
taking away their food supply such as the milkweed and other
essential plants.
In this incident we see the Creator keeping the covenant made with
all flesh through Noah. Psalm 25: 10 asks the same of us.
New York Times March14. 05 - a more recent and pesimistic view:
There used to be rivers of butterflies, but now there are years when
there are no butterflies at all. This is a village full of ghosts,
not of people, but of nature, a paradise lost. "HOMERO ARIDJIS,
a naturalist in Contepec, Mexico
See also, Changing
the Environment as Original Sin A303.
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Lent 3 Alternatives to war focus for churches ecclesicakes <Bscpeace>
Many things are converging to lead us to focus on alternative to war.
Many voices are calling us to embrace things we can do and think in
place of going to war. Now would be a good time to do that.
The main idea behind all this is: Love, equity, mutuality, sharing good ideas, distrubuting the wealth, getting to know one another are all ways to create a safe wholesome environment for all people. It would, for instance make terrorism far less attractive.
I first became aware of this when Canadians such a Pierre Burton and
Margaret Atwood asked our government to be a leader in putting forth
and advocating creative alternatives to war.
Then there were all those anti war demonstrations around the world.
In those peace parades I saw many placards proclaiming variations of
the old call: "Make love not war!"
Meanwhile, the media and e mail-ia have brought me stories of non
government ecumenical agencies such as Habitat for Humanity, and The
World Food Bank demonstrating just how that love might be expressed.
Our churches are doing the same through their many World Outreach
programs which act in support of the initiatives of local people
around the world who know best what alternative they need.
So, it seems to me and probably to you, that it would helpful to the
world right now if the church were to actively advocate and promote
alternatives to war. Dare we believe that this is the moment in the
story of humankind when humanity might be ready to move beyond war,
and we could be a part of that change?
You, dear reader would have lots of suggestions as to how we might
play our role in this venture. Here are some ideas that occur to me:
- Start as soon as possible, this season of lent would be a good time
- Recognize and confess the church's role in supporting war
- Give thanks for those who stood on the front line of war when war
put our security in danger
- Monitor the media week by week for signs of alternatives to war,
and then name them with fanfare on Sunday morning
- Get together a congregational team to help your parish devise its
own alternative action and strategy. We might: identify an
alternative that you want to support, and do it in whatever ways seem
appropriate, or find./create ways individuals and groups can act
alternatively in your community.
For instance: Help Iraq with clean water as an alternative to bombing
its water system again. CBC's Foreign assignment told us today that
Baghdad's water supply was wreaked by bombs during the Gulf War, and
has been prevented from full repair by UN sanctions, which we in
Canada have enforced.
Here's an obvious project. Is anybody doing anything about it? Let's
start a movement to renew Iraq's drinking water plants.
Or we could work with the children and youth of our congregations to
make a creative list of alternatives to war that we would support our
government in acting on. Then we could take such a list to our local
MPs (Government and Opposition) and send it the PM saying we would
like to know which project the government is starting on and when.
Then, go back in two weeks and find out what has happened so far.
Make a special visit of children, youth and seniors to the nearest
Alliance Party MP and tell him/her what you think of their support
for us following the Yanks to war.
Or we could plan to be civilly disobedient if/when war starts. Today
I had forwarded to me an article by Naomi Klein, which appeared
recently in the Toronto Star. She has identified a movement among
antiwar citizens to find ways to show disapproval if war starts: Stop
going to work or school every Wednesday, resolve to make only those
purchases that are absolutely necessary (governments listen to bad
economic news); tent out on the lawn of parliament. and&ldots;&ldots;..
Lets go&ldots;&ldots;&ldots;!
The council of the small city of selkirk Mb. has just declared itself
opposed to war. Wonderful!
Perhaps each home inevery city could do the same!
A couple of on-line resources which provide alternatives to
war for local national and Intl. level:
Canadian: www.Ploughshares.ca; International: www.sojo.net.
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Taking Up Your Cross, the Price of Faith Today ecclesicakes Blent2
Scripture: Revised Standard Version
Gen: 1-7, 15-16 Covenant with Abe and Sarah, ancestors of a mutitude
Psalm 22:23-31 All the ends of the earth shall remember - all
families of the nations shall worship
Rom 4:13-25 we are descendents of Abraham through trust and faith
Mark 8:31-38 Take up your cross and follow
---000---
Mark has Jesus say: Take up your cross and follow. Is there really a
price to being faithful?
The Genesis story of God's covenant with Abraham and Sarah does not
name a cost to them other than being "blameless." This
seems like a low cost. In return they get new names, and become the
founders of a people. In those days it was also usually expected that
the god one was faithful to would give many blessings such a fruitful
flocks, good harvest, long life, children, and victory in war.
In applying that cost to us would it mean anything more than being a
faithful member of the church and being a good law-abiding citizen?
In return we might expect a pretty good life, a number of family
blessings, and a pension. If trouble comes, God and the church will
be there for us.
[The anser may be in looking at what Cross meant when Mark was written]
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Reading the Bible and the Media together John Mcfarlane
Great Apes Sacrificed for Cell Phones ecclesicakes Bscape&cellphone
Gn 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18 Isaac offered as a sign of
Abraham's faith
Mk 9:2-10 The Transfiguration
Rom 3:25 Christ offered as sacrifice
Let me tell you about the great apes of the Congo. Most of them are
being killed and the cause is coltan, an element needed to make our
cell phones and computers.
Kerry Bowman is Bowman is a bioethicist at the University of Toronto,
and his Canadian Great Ape Alliance campaigns to save these apes. He
has just returned from the Congo, and saw how the great apes are
being killed for food by miners who are panning the streams of the
Congo for coltan.
He observed hunting everywhere even in all the national parks. Coltan
miners go in there because it's about the only economic option they
have. You pan it, the way you pan gold. You find it in riverbeds. And
often there's pit mining -- with a shovel at most, and often by hand.
To sustain themselves while they mine, they kill and eat the largest
mammals possible. Which is forest elephant and gorilla. The gorilla
population has just about gone -- we've never had clear numbers but
it's estimated to have dropped 95 per cent, if not more, in the years
since coltan was discovered, which is about five or six years now. We
know of 52. Five-two. That's all we're certain of. There's no
indication of forest elephants any longer.
I think what most people don't realize is there's actually a
relationship between these new technologies that we use and a lot of
death and destruction.
As is often the case authors of the New Testament take the Hebrew
Scriptures and contrast events there and in the Christian Era. The
Genesis passage tells how Abraham, as was the custom in his world,
prepares to offer his child to the Creator. The Creator watches
Abraham and his devotion and at the last moment spares the child.
In Romans the Creator offers his child and we take and kill him. In
this act of defiance, the Creator does not condemn, but forgives. But
at what cost that forgiveness. It saves us to be able to be with the
Gorillas in their hour of extinction. It enables us to grieve with
the people of Iraq and with those who have been ordered to kill and
destroy them.
We are caught in the dilemma of having been to the mountaintop and
having to live in a world caught up in War and rumors of War. We who
cannot understand the signs of the times, can we be entrusted with
freedom, and democracy, and peace.
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Living with the Wisdom of the Cross and the Law
Lent 3 ecclesicakes Blent3
Today's readings lead me to ponder: What truly is
expected of the church and individual believers as they seek to livre
and act faithfully in the world today? Is more required of us than
being faithful within the church and acting as good citizens in the
world? Is it enough to follow good just law, or is more asked of us?
For instance, must we all participate in cross-bearing?
Exodus 20:1-17 The people who were brought out of bondage are to have
one god and to live their freedom within that god's law.
Psalm 19 The cycles of nature indicate that it functions according to
the will (natural laws) of the Creator. Humans are to follow the
creator's ethical laws in their behaviour. In that way they will be
acceptable to the Creator.
I Corinthians 1:18-25 Paul declares that the Cross, which was
classical society's brutal sign of ignominy, is in God's hands,
greater than Roman power, Greek philosophy or Hebrew Law. Ironically,
the power and wisdom of God are to be seen in Christ's helpless weakness.
John 2:13-22 The Jerusalem temple continued to be the central focus
for worship for the church after the death of Jesus.1. Then, the
Temple was destroyed by Rome in the year 70 and Christian worship
moved to see Christ as the new locus of God's presence. John, which
was written long after the Jerusalem Temple was no more, shows Jesus
declaring what John knew to be true: "Destroy this temple
and in three days I will raise it up." RSV
---000---
These readings lead me to ponder: Where do the church, and individual believers get guidance for living and acting in the world today? Is more required of us than being faithful within the church and acting as good citizens in the world? Is it enough to follow good just law, or is more asked of us? For instance, must we all participate in cross-bearing?
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My Mom's at War ecclesicakes Bmomatwar
I'd rather have my soldier Mom safe at home, than have Saddam dead.
On Thursday March, 6th at 6:30am, most students at Western High
School were waking up to another sleepy morning and getting ready for
school, but I was loading up the car with chemical warfare and Air
Force duffel bags, helping my Mom to get ready for war. My
mother, for whom I write this, doesn't leave her home to defend
American interests abroad or to fight the good fight. She's
never left for God. Its her duty.
Since I was six years old she's been deployed for three wars, leaving
her home in that eerie limbo before the night ends and the day
begins. My mom is currently being deployed to somewhere in Kuwaiti at
an air base, 30 miles from Iraq. No one in my family wants this
war, we can hope for peace or an alternative solution to the
nonexistent problem in Iraq, but it serves no real purpose. The
Bush administration is hell-bent on waging war, whether or not the
action is justifiable doesn't change the fact that my
mom's in harms way.
Coming home from school everyday, I'm reminded of how real the
situation is. My kitchen table is scattered with pieces of junk mail,
boxes of girl-scout cookies, psy-ops leaflets spread to the Iraqi
people telling the Iraqis to revolt against Saddam, and a bag of
needles with directions on how to inject their contents into the leg
in case of a chemical attack.
An anti-tank bullet used in an A-10 Warthog is on my mantle.
There's a pamphlet on our
coffee table full of information about the Kuwaiti base and helpful
reminders like, 'Always know where the nearest foxhole is located in
case of attack.'
Yes, the war is real for me, but when I think of Kuwait I don't see a
dessert peppered with oil rigs and soldiers training on the horizon,
I see my mom walking around an air base running the operations desk,
thinking of her family on the other side of the world.
Yes, we can discuss American foreign relations, and how much of a
threat North Korea is right now, we can read into the political games
Saudi Arabia is playing, and speculate how the war will be run, but
never forget that at the core war is about people.
The Bush administration believes that the end of Saddam Hussein and
the beginning of a US friendly Middle Eastern state is worth more
than my mother's life. Call me selfish, but I'd rather have my
mom doing my laundry tonight than putting through a bombing order on
Baghdad. Call me domestic but I'd rather have my mom ground me
for being out too late than have her
inject Atropine in her leg to stop chemicals from eating out her
visceral organs. Call me unpatriotic but I'd rather have my mom
home and alive than have Saddam dead and buried.
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Choose Life ecclesicakes Blent4
Number 21:4-9
God doesn't take away the biting poisonous serpents that God had sent
as punishment for their complaining of the hunger and thirst they
experienced in the desert, but God does provide an antidote for snakebite.
Psalm 107:1-3,
17-22 Here's an example of God's enduring love. Some found that even
though their sinful ways had made them so sick they couldn't eat,
when they cried to God they were saved from their troubles.
Ephesians
2:1-10 At one time we all were among the living dead, driven by the
passions and greed that comes from materialism. Now, by a gift of
God's grace, not by our own doing, we have been brought from death to
life, recreated in Jesus Christ..
John 3:14-21
Like the bronze serpent of Numbers 21, the Son of God raised on a
stake, is God's loving antidote for a deadly poison. The poison is
refusal to believe in Christ; being guilty of evil deeds that cause
us to hide from the light of God, and to love the darkness. The
antidote is belief and coming into the light where all we do can be seen.
The theme that
I sense running through all these passages is voiced in the Psalm:
God's unmerited gift of enduring love, which we can access through faith.
Leading up
this these are two others:
1. The world
is a dangerous place for the soul:
-God does not
remove the serpents. Being bitten is a very real danger.
-The psalm
says that sin can make us sick unto death.
-In Ephesians
we are born into a world of false hope offered through the prospect
of material fulfillment.
-John sees
danger in the attraction of a life lived in shame and ending in nothingness.
2.There are
consequences that flow from faithless living:
-In Numbers we
are told that the poisonous serpents are the result of lack of trust
in the God who set the people free from bondage.
- In the psalm
it is to have sickness run its course in us.
-In Ephesians
it is a living death.
-In John a
life lived in darkness ends in oblivion.
Then I find
myself pondering the meaning of the terms, death and life.
Death: The
primary meaning of death in Numbers and the psalm very likely is the
end of life as under stood by the writers of the Hebrew Bible.
Lovell-Cocks says that for the Hebrew people death assigned the soul
goes to a dreary underworld where it is cut off from God, the
creator. It not God's original plan for humans but is the result of
sin (Ez. 18:1-9; Deut. 30:15-20) 1.
Lovell-Cocks
points out that in the New Testament the connection between sin and
death continues (Rom. 6:27). However, through the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ, "The Christian Church lived in the
new and triumphant experience of victory over death."2.
Therefore, for the faithful physical death does not mean being cut
off from God,
but rather it
is like a sleep from which there will be an awakening (1Thes.
4:13-18). The faithful have their death behind them (Rom. On the
other hand, as today's epistle reading says: those without faith are
already dead in the midst of life.
Life: The
Hebrew people life was an integration of body and spirit. The good
life, which God gave, was a fulfillment of this wholeness. They did
not see, as some Greek philosophers did, the body and soul opposed to
one another. They probably did not think of the two as being
separable. In as much as this was so, sin was rebellion of body-soul.3.
Taylor reminds
us that this understanding of life was rooted in the belief that God
was a "living God" (Hos. 1:10, Ps. 42) who ceaselessly
watched, guarded and corrected and hears the individual and the
people (Gen.21: 14-21, Mt. 10:26-33).
For Christians
this meant that "in the presence of Jesus, we are in the
presence of the living God, " and important to today's theme,
"are faced with the alternative of life with him or death apart
from him." 4. See John 5:24, and 10:10.
Then I must
consider what this means for us today, certainly for me. First, it
seems clear to me that the dangers pointed out above are very real today.
For instance,
it seems to me we do live in a world where we are taught to seek the
meaning of life from getting and having - what Paul refers to as the
"flesh." The anthropology of today defines us primarily as
"Consumer." The corollary of this is that nothing is of
value except that it has economic value - be consumable in some way.
In a recent article on the Discovery Channel, it was stated that the
Highland Great Apes of the Congo might now escape extinction because
they have economic value as a tourist attraction. Otherwise their
habitat will be consumed, and they will disappear. Those who care
about these creatures despair that we might allow them life simply on
the basis of being a wonder of God's (or nature's) creation, our
sisters and brothers in the flesh.
As beings
whose main purpose in life is to consume, we are among the living
dead. I am sure that you can think of many other examples of the
dangers that surround us and seek to seduce us into death.
For instance,
at this moment a great deal of human creativity and energy is going
into a war of the most powerful against the weak. We are being asked
to believe that life will come out of these machines of death. Behind
this is the conviction that some are evil while others are good and
the self-designated good have the right to bring death to those named
as evil. The truth as holy scripture sees it is that all have sinned,
and may be counted among the living dead, doing deeds that we try to
keep in the dark. The many children of the world who go to bed hungry
are ample testimony to the sin of the prosperous world against God
the creator and lover of us all.
It seems to me
that in our time too, sin has its consequences. It would seem though
that the immediate consequences are felt not by the sinner but by the
sinned against. I suppose the consequences, which we do not feel,
will be visited on our children and grandchildren who will inherit an
impoverished world. Of course there is always the Day of Judgment o consider.
But, let us
turn to hope and grace. It is not too late to repent, change and
inherit the Realm of God. I attended a rally of children from my
city's high schools this afternoon. From that experience I can report
with confidence that Wisdom's voice is to be heard I the streets
calling us to repent, change and be saved. She calls to fulfill our
stewardship mandate to make love not destruction. It is not too late,
grace abounds.
So, let us not
tarry. Let us let go of death, and accept the unmerited free gift of
life-giving grace. Let us all now come out of the darkness into the
light of God's love.
1. Theological
Wordbook of the Bible, "Death." SCM 1965. Alan Richardson, ed.
2. ibid.
3. For this I
drew on F.J. Taylor's article, "Life, Lived, Living." ibid.
4. ibid. p. 128
This seems
like a correct statement of how we find the world to be.
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To Have Intimacy with the Holy ecclesicakes Blent5
lent 5 year B.
Lent 5 Yr. ecclesicakes Blent5
Jer. 31:31-34 Through Jeremiah God speaks to the people, "I will
make a new covenant with both Israel and Judah."
The hallmarks of this covenant will be intimacy and grace:
"they shall all know me" and my law will be "written
in their hearts;" and "I will remember their sin no more."
Ps. 51:1-12 These verses are a prayer fervently seeking a "new
and right spirit within," a remaking that will change the singer
from the sinful state in which they were born into a new spiritual
existence. This can be possible through God's action: washing,
blotting out, purging, by teaching, implanting the spirit, restoring
joy, and sustaining.
Or Ps. 119:9-16 Compared with Ps. 51, these verses have a positive
anthropology. Set in catechism format, it assumes that youth who are
open to God are able, by a "will"-ingness, to
"keep" their way pure through learning, mediation, and
taking delight in God's law.
Heb. 4:14-5:10 This portion of Hebrews begins at 4:14. Reading it
from there draws us into the Good News proclaimed here: We can
approach the throne of grace with confidence because we have a high
priest in heaven who knows what it is to be human.
John 12:20-36 (three verses beyond the lectionary):
-vs 20 Like Paul in 1 Cor. 1:22-24, John may be contrasting the wisdom-seeking
intellectual spirituality, which is attributed to Greeks, with the
way of absolute and total commitment to God, which is called for by
the Hebrew prophets and Jesus.
-vs. 23, A Son of Man saying. Jesus has embodied the Son of Man
archetype, and through it calls us to true humanity.(Walter Wink, The
Human Being. Fortress.)
-vs. 24-25 These two wisdom sayings, which could have other meanings
in another context, are used here to interpret the phrase: "is glorified."
-vs 26 These promises and challenges are clearly addressed to the
church and any would-be disciples, such as the Greeks of Vs. 20.
-vs27-31. Here we certainly come close to meeting Jesus. There is a
very strong tradition that Jesus wrestled in anguish over the
inevitability of death by the crucifixion as the certain outcome of
faithfully living out the Son of Man archetype - enemy of the
"ruler of this world." John's Good News is that this
seeming defeat will actually judge and drive out the ruler of darkness.
vs.32 - 36. The mission of the church is to be the Children of Light
who will draw humankind to the light of the Son of Man, and away from
the darkness of the ruler of this age.
The common threads I find running through all these passages are these:
-rue life is lived in a state of intimacy with the Ground of our
Being. To be fully human is to be full of God.
-humans are strongly tempted to usurp the Holy and to live contrary
to holy law and outside God's grace.
-over against this attraction is the call of the Sacred who comes to
bring us to our true home.
The Psalms represent two voices of humanity:
-one cries for help out of a feeling of alienation at the core of its being,
-the other claims children of the covenant may take a path to
holiness through devotional exercises.
Hebrews offers us the hope that in Jesus there lived one who for our
sake built a bridge over the chasm between us and the holy.
John assures us that the Son of Man has defeated the dark power of
this world, and calls us to live in the light.
Jeremiah's utterance is God's voice, coming to us through the
ages, saying "I will not abandon you, I will fill your heart."
So, How might this apply to us today as we are asked to choose
between two ways. Is Christ our companion at arms when we go to
battle against those we identify as the enemies of peace? Is Christ
with us when we seek more civil ways to peace among nations - all of
whom have fallen short of God's will for peace on Earth?
Dear Reader - this is all I have to offer this week. May God's peace be with you and your people.
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Easter 5, Vine and Branches, ecclescakes <Easter 5B>
Psalm 22 was surely one of the Hebrew scriptures used to tell of the
crucifixion and to build theology of the Cross, the Resurrection, and
spread of the Church.
Verses 1 - 21 became a link in Mark's seminal gospel to show that the
torture and killing of God's Christ was foreseen and affirmed by the
Hebrew scriptures.
The next 30 verses could be used to support the conviction that this
was not the end of God's work through Jesus. Through God's
"rescue" (RSV) [resurrection] faith in Israel's God is
propelled to "the ends of the earth" (RSV).
Acts 8:26-40 illustrates several Luke/Acts views of the faith. First,
it is the Spirit of God who directs the mission of the church [Just
as the Spirit filled Mary and Jesus (Luke 1:35; 3:22; 4:18)].
Secondly, this passage shows the Spirit directing the mission beyond
Judea, and perhaps beyond Jewry. Thirdly, Jesus is connected to the
Hebrew scriptures through the suffering servant passage of Isaiah
53:7-8. Finally, the eunuch is brought into the faith by way of
teaching and the ritual of baptism. Seemingly without any Gnostic-like
born again experience.
John 15, in contrast to Luke/Acts, expresses a relationship with
Christ as it was known in a different (Gnostic?) branch of the
developing faith. For these Gnostic believers, union with God was
through a mystical experience of oneness with the Word (John 1). Both
this unity and the expansion of the holy community are expressed here
as being a holy, living, growing sacred vine (Jesus). Every believer
within this holy community was a branch of this vine. They drew from
it and bore fruit within it. These were those who asserted that entry
into the faith came through a transformation: "born from
above" (Jn. 1:12-13; 4:7).
This view of the faith was in opposition to the claim that membership
came from accepting forgiveness of sin through Christ's sacrificial
death (Rom. 4:23-24).
I John 4 is seen by Burton Mack * as coming from a Gnostic community
of faith which was moving away from a pure gnosticism, and toward
what we today would call Orthodoxy. In this move they are bringing
some of their Gnostic insights with them. So, we find a mix of
"orthodox" and Gnostic views: God is love, and God's love
is known through Christ's death, which atones for sin (4:7-21).
To be among the faithful is to become essentially changed into what
God is, a lover.
Sermon/teaching notes:
Today I want to have us focus on the image of the Vine and the
branches. [Read John 15:1-5].
However, before we look at that wonderfully including image of our
relationship to Christ,
I have a question for you to reflect on. It is this: What, for you,
is the essence of the Gospel?
The question, "What is the essence of the gospel?" was very
important in the years immediately following the death of Jesus.
Those who had been influenced by Jesus found that they had quite
different answers to that question. So they began to start up groups
and movements based on what each believed to be the essence of the gospel.
The image of the Vine and branches is one group's answer to the
question. It represents one of about four answers: Doing good, the
Cross, the Holy Spirit, and mystical union with Christ.**
Burton L. Mack
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Love One Another Easter6B
Commentary on today's passages:
Acts 10:44-45. This passage makes at least three important arguments:
1. Luke/Acts continues to make the case that it is the Holy Spirit
who initiates advances in the mission of the Jesus communities. *
2.It makes a case for Gentiles being received through baptism even
though the men among them have not been circumcised.
3. Clearly the movement of God's grace which began with Mary's
pregnancy is shown here to make a giant leap from being exclusively a
Jewish ethnic phenomenon to a universal one. This action of the Holy
Spirit surprises the Jews, but cannot be ignored.
Psalm 98. I wonder, what was the occasional that led to the writing
of this psalm? It seems that it was a time when Israel
experienced a victory that showed its God to be both faithful to
Israel and to have authority over all peoples whom God will judge
with equity. Could the latter of these two have been a novel
insight that called for a new song?
I can imagine the young Jesus movement reading into this psalm
references to the resurrection, its own success, and support for
taking the gospel to the Gentiles. It could also have served the
established church of the second century that made the case to the
Roman and Greek world that the ethical and equitable God of Israel
was the God of all, and that Christians were the bearers of this good
news. **
1John 5:1-6. These verses may reflect the first centuries Gnostic
view that the world is basically evil and that only the faithful have
been lifted out of it to the state of being children of the Most
High. ***
In the first centuries of the church, Gnostics of all stripes took an
extremely negative view of the material world (including the human
body), and believed it was made by mistake. Salvation consisted of
becoming children of the Most High who had nothing to do with this
world. (I see some of this attitude in certain branches of
Christianity today). Meanwhile other Christians then and now view
creation as good; the work of a good God, and that in creation we all
are God's children.
John 15:9-17. This is the second part of Jesus' farewell address and
prayer prescribed for Easter readings by the Revised Common Lectionary.
Easter 5- I am the Vine, you are the branches, my Father is the Vine dresser
Easter 6 - I call you friends because I have made everything known to
you that I heard from my Father.
Easter 7 - Those you [the "Father"] gave me; they do not
belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world.
Pentecost - John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15. I am going to the One who sent
me. The Spirit of truth will come to guide you into all truth.
Taken together these passages give us the view of the world and
Christian community held by the Johnians
Who wrote it:
The world is bad and the friends of Jesus whom God chose and gave to
Jesus no longer belong to it.
Jesus came from the realm of the Father who is outside this world,
and successfully carried out his mission, which was to teach the
chosen ones the truth about the "Father."
These fiends have become like a vine growing out of Jesus and will
continue in that and within the love of the "Father" if
they love one another [not the world].
Now Jesus is returning to the sphere of the "Father." His
final act before going to Gethsemane is to ask the Father to care for
the friends, but not for the world.
In place of Jesus, the Advocate, the spirit of truth, will come and
will reveal even more truth to the friends of Jesus. A central part
of this truth is that the world is wrong in the key spiritual
matters, sin, righteousness and judgement.
I have much difficulty with the Gnostic view of the world, and their
conviction that Jesus would not pray for the world. However, I do
find myself captured by the commandment to love one another (and our
neighbour) as God loves us.
Preaching - Teaching Notes
Did you happen to notice the purpose of love in these verses? The
first purpose for loving is that it gives you joy. Do you find this
to be true in your own life? Does love give you joy?
Does love give us joy?
You may notice that the Gospel does not understand love as a feeling.
In the Gospel love is not a feeling- it is a commandment; it is a
duty, our basic duty. In the Gospels love is not a feeling, but it
results in a feeling and that feeling is joy. When we carry out
loving acts, we get joy.
John says that the reason that Jesus asks us to love is so that
Christ will have joy in us and so that our joy will be complete.
*Burton L. Mack, Who Wrote the New Testament. Harper Collins.
** Ibid. Mack does not make reference to this Psalm, but does remind
us of the church's need to make this case with Roman and Greek intellectuals.
***Ibid.
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Jesus' Last Prayer Was for Us Easter 7B
Easter 7B -Ascension Sunday
Sermon-Teaching Notes on John 17:6-19.
In the church calendar this is ascension Sunday, the day when we mark the end of God's presence among us in Jesus. What began at Christmas is now over, and we are about to enter a new phase in the Christian story. This new phase is us. Jesus is gone and the ball is in our court.
Today's Gospel reading from John is all about this transition - the hand-off from Jesus to us. Jesus knows that the end is near, and so he turns to prayer.
The scene is the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus is praying just
before he is arrested. You probably have seen Solman's painting of
this scene. It is posted on the sanctuary walls of many churches. In
this painting The artist shows Jesus kneeling in prayer out of doors
at night with a huge outcropping of stone as an alter. A holy light
illuminates him from Heaven as he prays.
There two versions of this prayer in the New Testament -one is found
in Mark, and the other is in John. Mark and John differ in their
portrayal. The big difference between them is what they each give us
as the content of Jesus' prayer. In Mark, Jesus is shown to be
praying for himself and the terrible fate that lies ahead of him
[Mark 14:36]. In John's Gospel Jesus does not pray for himself.
Rather, he prays for the disciples, his friends who will continue
without him. [John 17:11].
So, in Mark the payer is a struggle with the suffering of the Cross, while in John the focus of the prayer is care for the disciples who will be sent into the world to carry on the mission without Jesus. Jesus asks God to look out for them.
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Remember to give the title and ecclesicakes library reference, Easter 7B
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