Sunday School Handout & Four Questions
Dear friends,
I'm sending this out tonight, Saturday evening, so any members of the class who may want to can read the material ahead of time.
First, good news: now that health authorities have judged the risk of transmitting the virus from printed material to be negligible, our bishop has given us permission to resume using our printed books in worship; therefore our Bibles and PrayerBooks will be back out on the tables for use in Sunday School. Still, if you wish, you are invited and welcome to designate a Bible and a BCP as your own for use in class, and to write your name on it so that no one else uses it, your call!
For anyone who missed it earlier in the week, here again (below, scroll down) is our handout for Sunday School this morning. Once we have looked at the collects and readings for the Sunday, how about four questions on which to focus our discussions:
From the church's Collect for Easter 6, what do you think may be meant by "such good things as surpass our understanding"?
The Collect for Easter 6 dates from the Fifth Century or earlier: how do you feel about the Episcopal Church tradition of using very ancient prayers as our Collect opening our worship liturgy?
Reading both the church's Collect for Easter 6 and the Collect for Easter 6B in Prayers for an Inclusive Church, why might you prefer one or the other?
Based in our Baptismal Covenant, the Episcopal Church seems especially to focus Christianity and the Gospel on living Jesus' Love Commandment; whereas the Evangelical church denominations seem to emphasize the Christian message of Jesus dying on the cross to redeem us from our sins and save us to eternal life: given that both may be important to you, which of these two quite different emphases seems closer to your view of the essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
Tom+
such good things - - May 9, 2021.
Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year B
Our readings for May 9th, the 6th Sunday of Easter Year B, are printed below, plus also Hatchett’s essay on the Collect for the Day, and also the Collect for today from a little book Prayers for an Inclusive Church, by Steven Shakespeare, a parish priest of the Church of England. Some Episcopal parishes are using Steven’s collects instead of BCP collects.
As we keep running out of time on Sunday mornings, let's try to reduce the time we spend on our opening exercise, the PCNH trivia quiz. Sunday before we get to the readings, I want us to spend a few minutes contemplating the Collect (which dates from the 5th century), and our church’s use of ancient prayers instead of prayers in, for and of our present Time.
Of the collect for today, which seems more “allusive” than direct, I invite you to read it and ponder the phrase “such good things as surpass our understanding” - WHAT things? WHAT good things? What does the church (and therefore each of us) mean by this as we pray it? What comes to mind, what do you think of as you read it? I realize that the Collect for the Day is generally something, part of the entry rite, that we pass through en route to sitting down to hear the lessons and the sermon, but think about this collect: what are “such good things as surpass our understanding”? Let’s try to - - elucidate - - our understanding of this.
Further I ask that you give some thought again to what Christianity means to you. Without feeling steered, or sensing prejudice from me, what about Christianity is Number One most compelling for you? For example, is the most important thing about Jesus that he died for your sins, shed his blood for your salvation, ransomed your soul? As Matthew has Jesus say in the words of institution at the Last Supper, "for the forgiveness of sins" - -
On the other hand, is the key to Christianity that Jesus as depicted in the Gospels brought a perfect and exemplary human life of love and caring, NT Greek word agape, lovingkindness, the OT word is chesed, for you to emulate? What IS agape love? It’s the background and focus of our readings for Sunday and, who knows, may be the subject of the bishop’s pulpit message.
I have read and heard criticism of The Episcopal Church that, compared to the evangelical denominations emphasizing Jesus dying on the Cross for our salvation, to forgive our sins, we Episcopalians overemphasize the love aspect of the gospel. Let’s talk about it.
Sunday School, parish library, 9:15 to 10:15. Come early, come on time, come late, all are invited and welcome.
Tom+
The Collect for Easter 6
O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
HATCHETT, Marion J., Commentary on the American Prayer Book, p.182
The inspiration for this collect is undoubtedly I Corinthians 2:9. The prayer is found in several Gallican books, (Wiki: The Gallican Rite was used from before the 5th century, and likely prior to the Diocletian reform in AD 293 Roman Gaul, until the middle or end of the 8th century.) the Missale Gothicum (7th C.) as an opening collect ; the Missale Francorum.as a prayer to be read after the Old Testament section; and the Celtic Stowe Missal as one of the two prayers printed for use before the Epistle. In the Gelasian sacramentary it is the first in a series of propers for ordinary Sundays, and in the supplement to the Gregorian for use on the sixth Sunday after Pentecost. In the Sarum missal and earlier Prayer Books this collect was used on the sixth Sunday after Trinity,. In 1549 Cranmer substituted “such good things as pass man’s understanding” for “invisible good things.” The Latin original had “loving you in all things and above all things;” the 1549 version retained only the phrase in all things” and the 1662 revision substituted “above al things..” The present revision moves the collect appropriately to the Easter season with the original phrase restored. In the Latin there is a distinction between the uses of the word “love” in this collect. The word in the phrases “those who love” and “that we, loving” is related to the verb diligere, the root meaning of which is “to choose.” This has to do with an act of will. We pray that God may pour into our hearts the affect of such love (tui amoris affectum), which is rooted in an emotion (amore - love), that we may obtain the promises. The prayer recalls 1 John 4:19, “We love, because he first loved us.”
Wikipedia. Sacramentary (extract) 6th/7th century[edit]
Leonine Sacramentary, attributed to Pope Leo the Great (440-461) - in Latin "Leonianum" or "Veronense". The only MS of this type, in Verona Cathedral Library. Gelasian Sacramentary, attributed to Pope Gelasius I (492-496) - some attribute it instead to early 8th century. Missale Francorum.- Originally preserved in the Abbey of St. Dennis, and now in the Vatican Library. Contained eleven masses. It was written as a single fragmentary unical codex of the seventh century. Though Roman in form, not free from Gallican interpolation, especially in the rubrics.[4]
PRAYERS FOR AN INCLUSIVE CHURCH
Year B Easter 6 (John 15:9-17)
God of abiding love,
you choose us as your servants
and dare to call us friends:
take our fragmented hearts,
commanding them to love,
making whole our joy,
our life reborn in you;
through Jesus Christ,
who laid down his life for us.
Amen.
6th Sunday of Easter: Year B
The First Lesson Acts 10:44-48
While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, "Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.
The Epistle 1 John 5:1-6
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.
The Gospel John 15:9-17
Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”
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Art. Title: Endless Road
| Notes: | "There aren’t any ordinary people in the world; everyone is extraordinary because everyone has been created by God, and is someone to reverence." Servant of God, Catherine Doherty, 20th century, from wordofgodeveryday.com |
|---|---|
| Date: | 1971 |
| Artist: | Hofheinz-Doring, Margret, 1910-1994 |