April 25: St. Mark and Yom HaSho'ah

Today is a double Holy Day. On the Church Calendar, today is the feast of St. Mark the Evangelist. For our Jewish cousins, today is Yom HaSho'ah (Holocaust memorial day).
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Collect of St. Mark: Almighty God, by the hand of Mark the evangelist you have given to your Church the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God: We thank you for this witness, and pray that we may be firmly grounded in its truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Readings: Isaiah 52:7-10, Psalm 2, Ephesians 4:7-8,11-16, Mark 1:1-15 (or Mark 16:15-20).

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Yom HaSho'ah Prayer

by Rabbi Israel Zoberman

Elohei hazikaron vehatikva, God who bids us to carve hope out ofremembrance:

This awesome Spring season, no less so than the Days of Awe in the Fall,is dedicated to memories. Memories are the building blocks of Jewishhistory, which, in turn, provides for our own distinct consciousness. Pesach's themes of oppression and redemption assume contemporaryrelevancy. Ruthless bondage in ancient Egypt finds a terrifying parallelin the Shoah, and past liberation is reenacted through Israel's rebirth.

To be a Jew is living with history's extremes, enduring the tensionbetween despair and exultation and turning them both into life-shapingforces. A child of the covenant is keenly aware of history's impact tobless and to curse. We thus remain bereft in face of the Shoah'soverwhelming magnitude.

When words freeze and the link to life threatens to disengage, we turn tothe Kaddish prayer for supportive reassurance. Its consecrated spiritdoes not drag us to the dwelling place of utter desolation, to consume oursouls as were the bodies of unforgettable kin whose tragic loss everdiminishes the joy of celebration. The hallowed prayer of sanctificationallows us to preserve our very humanity, enabling us, hopefully, togradually climb from the hollowness of the valley of the shadow of deathto the mountain where faith abounds, so that we may trust again man andGod and live to be sustained by both.

The intoning of the Kaddish, bringing us closer as a family sharing thelingering pain of the past, is a negation and an affirmation. It is anegation of the creators of the Kingdom of Night who conspired to uprootthe commanding presence of El Melech Chai Verachum, our Living andCompassionate God and King, whose praise we dare proclaim even whenenveloped by impregnable darkness hiding His own essence of goodness. Itis a repudiation of messengers of evil who would rob the human experienceof its sweet promise.

It is no wonder that in our tradition, affirmation transcends negation,for the people of Israel have resolved not to succumb to a vision of aworld devoid of blessing. We have chosen to embrace the power of hope,witnessing that our people discover meaning when there seems to be none,and creating life when faced with death. The only kind of prisoners wefreely elect to be is prisoners of hope. That is our Jewish vocation, forHatikvah is our anthem. Amen.

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Yom HaSho'ah Seder Haggadah

Friday Bible Study Topic: Angels

This friday's Bible study topic will be angels (thanks Kimi!). As a primer for this Friday it is a good place to start to know that the word we translate as "angel" can sometimes be misleading. The word most often translated "angel" in the Old Testament is מלאך, (mal'ach) which means "messenger." The tricky part of this is that the word only gains meaning when it is attached to God's name thus making it "angel of the Lord." Other interesting occurences where we translate the word as angel are "Sons of God" or "Holy Ones" which are terms not for messengers but for some preternatural being that are more powerful than us, but not as powerful and subordinate to God. In the New Testament the word "angel" comes from the Greek ἄγγελος, ángelos which also means "messenger."
This is all well and good until you add other ingredients to the supernatural stew such as cherubim, seraphim, the "Living Creatures", the Wheels (Ezekiel), the Flaming Sword (Genesis), Satan, Asmodeus, Apollyon, Beelzebub, Metatron, Ss. Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, and Uriel, and the notion of "Guardian Angels."
Lastly, there are occasions where it is unclear where the distinction between God, the message, and the messenger; and other times where the word "angel" seems to refer to people.

Greek Icon of the "Angel of the Lord"

Notice the wings? We're going to talk about why we give them wings too!

Bible Study - Church Division

This Friday we will begin looking into issues that divided the Church leading up to the Great Schism. There is no reading to be done in advance but, if you'd like, look at the cool chart and read "Which books are in the Bible" below.

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First off, the one thing everyone agrees on is that the books of the Old Testament as contained by the Hebrew Masoretic Text are Scriptural. After that, it gets confusing and a bit ridonculous.

Disagreements:

1) The books of the Old Testament contained in the Septuagint (Greek) but not in the Masoretic Text (Hebrew) commonly called the Apocrypha are accepted by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox, and the Oriental Orthodox as Scriptural. These books are: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah, Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men, I Maccabees, II Maccabees, and additions to Esther and Daniel. We Anglicans read these books but view them with some suspicion and view them as “lesser” than the rest of the Old Testament.

2) Other books canonized by the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox that the Roman Catholic Church did not are: III Maccabees, Prayer of Manasseh, I Esdras, Psalm 151 (IV Maccabees is included, but in the Appendix of the Greek Orthodox Bible.)

3) Within the Eastern Orthodox there is some further disagreement: The Slavonic Bible approved by the Russian Orthodox Church also includes: II Esdras while the rest of the Orthodox Bibles do not.

4) Within the Oriental Orthodox there is even more disagreement. In general, they all accept the books mentioned above but there are some Churches that have more. The Armenian Church also includes III Corinthians. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church does not include III Corinthians but does include: Jubilees, I Enoch, Shepherd of Hermas, I Clement, Acts of Paul, and other Ethiopian books. No Synod has met within this body to sort this out.

5) Lastly, The Syriac Orthodox Church (Oriental Orthodox) uses as its Bible the Peshitta (Syriac/Aramaic) which excludes II John, III John, II Peter, Jude, and Revelation. They read these epistles but view them as “lesser.”
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Hope this all makes sense :)

Good Friday Meditation

Hello Canterbury members and other CEMCC readers. Here is my Good Friday Meditation as has been requested by a couple of you. I am posting the scanned in sheet with my edits because that is as close to what I actually said as is possible. You can click on each image to enlarge (depending on your computer) and/or download.

Serious-Not Serious

Cassock on Good Friday, serious

Gnome on Holy Saturday,

not so serious

"Get back or get hit!"
serious

Eric as the Easter Bunny,

not serious

"You know, I work for the government..."

very serious

Smiling faces after some vandalism

not serious... we hope

Collapse of the space-time continuum, oh crap is this serious

"Warp speed ahead"

Cool photographs with Star Trek references,

extremely serious... maybe!

Holy Week Schedule

Syro-Maronite Icon of Holy Week

Wednesday: 5:45 PM - Holy Eucharist. 6:30 PM - Lenten Supper.

Maundy Thursday: 7:00 PM - Holy Eucharist, Foot Washing, and Stripping of the Altar.

Good Friday: 12:00 - 3:00 PM - Last Words of Christ at Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd. 7:00 PM - Stations of the Cross at St. Bartholomew's.

Holy Saturday: 7:00 PM - The Great Vigil of Easter

Easter Sunday: 8:00 AM and 10:30 AM - Holy Eucharist and Flowering of the Cross. Following 10:30 Divine Liturgy - Easter Egg Hunt and Champagne Lunch.

Memo from God (this is very tongue in cheek)

Ok, before someone gets made let me make this as clear as possible. This is an exercise in whimsy. This is not a treatise on science, theology, or even technical writing. The theological implications of sections of this memo are, to be blunt, heretical, possibly even dreadful. But it does have an important theme: think, think long and hard. When you have finally reached your conclusion after hours of labor, remember that you are quite possibly wrong. So, think some more.
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Memo to: The members of the Kansas Board of Education

From: God

Re: Your decision to eliminate the teaching of evolution as science.

Thank you for your support. Much obliged.

Now, go forth and multiply. Beget many children. And yea, your children shall beget children. And their children shall beget children, and their children's children after them. And in time the genes that have made you such pinheads will be eliminated through natural selection. Because that is how it works.

Listen, I love all my creatures equally, and gave each his own special qualities to help him on Earth. The horse I gave great strength. The antelope I gave great grace and speed. The dung beetle I gave great stupidity, so he doesn't realize he is a dung beetle. Man I gave a brain.

Use it, okay?

I admit I am not perfect. I've made errors. (Armpit hair--what was I thinking?) But do you Kansans seriously believe that I droppedhalf-a-billion-year-old trilobite skeletons all over my great green Earth by mistake? What, I had a few lying around some previous creation in the Andromeda galaxy, and they fell through a hole in my pocket? You were supposed to find them. And once you found them, you were supposed to draw the appropriate, intelligent conclusions.

That's what I made you for: To think.

The folks who wrote the Bible were smart and good people. Mostly, they got it right. But there were glitches. Imprecisions. For one thing, they said that Adam and Eve begat Cain and Abel, and then Cain begat Enoch. How was that supposed to have happened? They left out Tiffany entirely! Well, they also were a little off on certain elements of timing and sequence. So what? You guys were supposed to figure it all out for yourselves, anyway. When you stumble over the truth, you are not supposed to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and proceed on as though nothing had happened. If you find a dinosaur's toe, you're not supposed to look for reasons to call it a croissant. You're not big, drooling idiots. For that, I made dogs. Why do you think there are no fossilized human toes dating from a hundred million years ago? Think about it.

It's okay if you think. In fact, I prefer it. That's why I like Charlie Darwin. He was always a thinker. Still is. He and I chat frequently. I know a lot of people figure that if man evolved from other organisms, it means I don't exist. I have to admit this is a reasonable assumption and a valid line of thought. I am in favor of thought. I encourage you to pursue this concept with an open mind, and see where it leads you. That's all I have to say right now, except that I'm really cheesed off at laugh tracks on sitcoms, and the NRA, and people who make simple declarative sentences sound like questions?

Oh, wait. There's one more thing.

Did you read in the newspapers yesterday how scientists in Australia dug up some rocks and found fossilized remains of life dating back further than ever before? Primitive, multicelled animals on Earth nearly 3 billion years ago, when the planet was nothing but roiling muck and ice and fire. And inside those cells was . . . DNA. Incredibly complex strands of chemicals, laced together in a scheme so sophisticated no one yet understands exactly how it works. I wonder who could have thought of something like that, back then.

Just something to gnaw on.

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courtesy of "TomUK"

(Humorous) Bible Study Gone Wrong

This is a look at what a bad Bible study can look like. It is also very similar to one of the Bible studies I had to suffer through with the Navigators when I was a member many years ago.
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Study guide leader opens in long prayer thanking God for bringing them together in his wonderful miraculous mighty power, and thanking him for the Epistemic tendencies within this group...

Study Guide Leader (SGL):So, group, today we're going to look at St. Henry's fourteenth epistle to the Epistemenes. Chapter thirty-nine and a quarter, verse four. In the Newly Uninspired Version, it says: "All Men who have elvis-style hair are sinners."Does anyone want to tell me what they think the Bible says about men with elvis-style hair?

Member One: Well, in my Leatherbound Unauthorised version...

Member Two pushes in quickly: You mean the Queen Elisabeth version?

Member One: Riiight. Yeah. Well, it says idolaters.

SGL: Yess.... but didn't we agree to only use the NUV in this group? I thought we agreed it was the most accurate....

One: But... But... *retires, crushed and doesn't say anything else*

SGL, brightly: "So, does anyone else got any thoughts about men with elvis-style hair?"

Three, rather slowly: "They're, like, doin' sommat wrong?"

SGL: "Nearly, Nearly, we're getting closer... what do we call that?"

Three: "Uh, sin?"

SGL: "Right. So..."

Four, suddenly looking bright, quickly changing out of the extreme boredom from before: "Men who've got elvis-style hair are sinners?"

SGL: "RIGHT! Brilliant! I would NEVER have thought of that. Let's meet up next week to discuss the second half of the verse...."

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courtesy of "SirTimothy"

Five Piece Psalter Sampler Special

For this Friday's Bible study we will be reading from the Psalter/Psalms. Because there are 150 Psalms (unless you read from the Septuagint, Dead Sea Scrolls, or the Peshitta which includes more than the Hebrew Masoretic Text) written by different people over a HUGE chunk of time we will be reading what I'm calling the "Five Piece Psalter Sampler Special". What is included in the "Five Piece Psalter Sampler Special" you ask? Well here you go:
Psalm 51 - By David, commonly called the Miserere, one of the Penitential Psalms from when David was confronted by Nathan after his "fling" with Bathsheba.
Psalm 72 - By Solomon, one of the Royal Psalms that may have been used in Israelite coronation services.
Psalm 88 - By Heman the Ezrahite, a prayer for help that includes one of the "classic" descriptions of Sheol in the Old Testament.
Psalm 90 - by Moses, a reflection on the conditions of humanity and a petition for help.
Psalm 136 - by ???, known as the "Great Hallel" in Jewish liturgy and recited at Passover.

We're going to also talk about some of the obstacles of translating Hebrew poetry into English (either poetry or prose) and to show just how ridonculous a task it is, read this word-for-word interlinear translation and then compare with your Bible. Don't forget, Hebrew is written right to left.



Click to enlarge

You Know You're in a Redneck Church if...

1. You Know You're in a Redneck Church if ... the finance committee refuses to provide funds for the purchase of a chandelier because none of the members knows how to play one.

2. You Know You're in a Redneck Church if ... people ask, when they learn that Jesus fed the 5000, whether the two fish were bass or catfish, and what bait was used to catch 'em.

3. You Know You're in a Redneck Church if ... when the pastor says, "I'd like to ask Bubba to help take up the offering," five guys and two women stand up.

4. You Know You're in a Redneck Church if ... opening day of deer season is recognized as an official church holiday.

5. You Know You're in a Redneck Church if ... a member of the church requests to be buried in his 4-wheel-drive truck because "It ain't never been in a hole it couldn't get out of"

6. You Know You're in a Redneck Church if ... the choir is known as the "OK Chorale".

7. You Know You're in a Redneck Church if ... in a congregation of 500 members, there are only seven last names in the church directory.
8. You Know You're in a Redneck Church if ... people think "rapture" is what you get when you lift something too heavy.

9. You Know You're in a Redneck Church if ... the baptismal pool is a #2 galvanized "Wheeling" washtub.

10. You Know You're in a Redneck Church if ... the choir robes were donated by (and embroidered with the logo from) Billy Bob's Barbecue.

11. You Know You're in a Redneck Church if ... the collection plates are really hubcaps from a'56 Chevy.

12. You Know You're in a Redneck Church if ... instead of a bell you are called to service by a duck call.

13. You Know You're in a Redneck Church if ... the minister and his wife drive matching pickup trucks.

14. You Know You're in a Redneck Church if ... the communion wine is Boone's Farm "Tickled Pink".

15. You Know You're in a Redneck Church if ... "Thou shall not covet" applies to huntin' dogs, too.

16. You know You're in a Redneck Church if ... the final words of the benediction are, "Y'all come back now, Ya hear."

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courtesy of "JosephtheKansan"