JWST &c

The Collect

Almighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of his redeeming work, and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

Old Testament Proverbs 9:1-6

Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table. She has sent out her servant-girls, she calls from the highest places in the town, “You that are simple, turn in here!” To those without sense she says, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”

The Psalm: Psalm 34:9-14

9 Fear the Lord, you that are his saints, * for those who fear him lack nothing.

10 The young lions lack and suffer hunger, * but those who seek the Lord lack nothing that is good.

11 Come, children, and listen to me; * I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

12 Who among you loves life * and desires long life to enjoy prosperity?

13 Keep your tongue from evil-speaking * and your lips from lying words.

14 Turn from evil and do good; * seek peace and pursue it.

The Epistle Ephesians 5:15-20

Be careful how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Gospel John 6:51-58

Jesus said, “I AM the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

The Judeans then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

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In Gospel John's bread of life discourse Jesus outrages his detractors with the I AM saying, in which he ties himself to the Being of Y'Vah who spoke to Moses from the burning bush. And also in this gospel passage Gospel John has Jesus self-identify with the cosmic Son of Man figure in Daniel chapter 7, the One to be sent by the Ancient of Days to have dominion on Earth.

And the Bread, Jesus as himself the food that gives life, not like the manna that God gave through Moses in the wilderness, which was food for a day, the Bread that Jesus is, gives eternal life.

The Western Church has done an interesting thing to the eucharistic bread with the tradition that it be unleavened bread, just flour and water, on the basis that unleavened bread would've been served at the Last Supper as Pesach, the Passover Meal.

The Orthodox Church uses regular leavened table bread; indeed, an Orthodox priest pointed out to me forty years ago that the bread Jesus broke at the Last Supper, and at all his feedings in the gospels, was ἄρτος, which is ordinary table bread. And further, that the Last Supper in Gospel John's story was not even the Passover meal, but the day the lambs were slaughtered for Passover, such that, hearkening all the way back to John the Baptist's acclamation in Gospel John chapter 1, Jesus himself becomes the Lamb of God.

In the Baptist and Presbyterian churches where I had Communion as a child and as a teenage college student, regular table bread was served, from ordinary loaves, cut into little cubes. And it is common among Episcopal parishes for a parishioner to get up early Sunday morning and bake homemade bread, then bring it to church as their offering to be Taken, Blessed, Broken, and Given as the Body of Christ. So, it makes no difference to me what kind of Bread is served as the Bread of Life; and whatever doctrine, dogma, creed or belief anyone holds seems valid under Heaven, even as each Christian denomination considers its own point of view to be The One Truth.

Father, make us one.

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My other concern this Friday morning before we leave to drive out to Tyndall Air Force Base for gasoline and a visit to the Commissary and Exchange, is the Collect for this coming Sunday.

A "collect" is a short prayer usually consisting of (1) an address to God in which there is a theological assertion, and (2) a petition, and (3) a closing in the Name of the Trinity. Just so,

In my own Seeking for Truth, I have reservations about all doctrine and dogma. This comes alive for me in a facet of Sunday's collect: the theological assertion "you have given your only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin," and the concomitant petition, "Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of his redeeming work" -> in Universal terms, an Earthling who fears God's obsession with Earthlings' "sins" has a God who is too small.

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God of all power, Ruler of the Universe, you are worthy of glory and praise.

Glory to you for ever and ever.

At your command all things came to be: the vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses, and this fragile earth, our island home.

By your will they were created and have their being.

From the primal elements you brought forth the human race, and blessed us with memory, reason, and skill. You made us the rulers of creation. But we turned against you, and betrayed your trust; and we turned against one another.

Have mercy, Lord, for we are sinners in your sight.

Again and again, you called us to return. Through prophets and sages you revealed your righteous Law. And in the fullness of time you sent your only Son, born of a woman, to fulfill your Law, to open for us the way of freedom and peace.

By his blood, he reconciled us.

By his wounds, we are healed.

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Actually, I can't do any better, so I'll go with it all for now, but looking forward to future liturgical revisions that, hopefully, take into consideration what Hubble, JWST, and other explorations send back to enlighten us. The God of yeh-hi would have to be awesome beyond our wildest imagination and imaging of human likeness.

RSF&PTL

T88&c