ACE Quiz

Many ancient cultures worshipped their deities on high places and the Israelites, too, worshiped the Lord on mountains.

Which of the following were high places of spiritual significance in the Bible? Do you know what occurred on each of them?

A) Mt. Horeb / Mt. Sinai
B) Mt. Ebal
C) Mt. Gerazim
D) Mt. Nebo
E) Mt. Carmel

The history of the chosen people in the Old Testament recounted in the books of law and prophets moves from the universal man and woman Adam and Eve to their progeny Cain, Abel and Seth and then on eventually to Noah and his sons and through a long series of “begets’ through the patriarchs and matriarchs and a cast of rogues, heroes, proper matrons and prostitutes, masters and slaves, kings and refugees. The chosen people have an honored lineage that has many branches represented by favorite sons Isaac and Jacob as well as black sheep Ishmael and Esau with branches veering off and then bending back to merge with the main trunk. If that family tree – our family tree – were pictured it would resemble a contorted, gnarled oak much more than a soaring linear palm or cypress.

That history is full of movement, too. This week’s Old Testament lesson calls the patriarch Abraham a Chaldean and last week’s lesson reminds us that “our ancestor was a wandering Aramean (Syrian) who went down to Egypt. The sacred story encompasses all of the ancient known world on three continents: Asia, Africa and Europe. The continuing sacred story of God and his people encompasses every race and language and we are but a part of the Catholic church that encompasses every land. The faces we see every day here in Los Angeles and the languages we hear at work, school and in the market remind us that we are many, but let Holy Scripture remind us that we share one Creator, one long marvelous family tree, one Savior and we are ultimately one Body of Christ.

ACE Quiz

Our sacred story in the last two Sunday’s lessons refer to which of the following countries?

A) Syria (Aram)
B) Iraq (Chaldea)
C) England
D) Egypt
E) Israel

ACE

The Big FOUR-O used to be something I dreaded as the outer limits of youth after I got past the big THREE-O. Then, I didn’t know that the number forty has a very positive meaning in the Bible where, along with the number four, it represents completeness. We read of forty days and forty nights of rain in the great flood and Moses spending forty days on Mt. Sinai. The Israelites wandered forty years in the wilderness eating manna before reaching the promised land. In the New Testament Jesus fasted forty days in the wilderness and was with the disciples for forty days between his resurrection and ascension.

Now that I am the other side of forty and regard it with some affection and nostalgia I only wish there was a positive reference to FIVE-O, but I’m afraid I have to wait for SEVEN-O.

ACE Quiz
Which of the following are correct?

A. Jonah gave Ninevah forty days to repent.
B. NBA is scheduled to go to a forty week season including playoffs.
C. Lent is forty days long.
D. Jesus was in the tomb forty hours.

Adult Christian Education

The Beatitudes, or blessings, are found in two places in the New Testament: the Sermon on the Plain in the Gospel of Luke and the Sermon on the Mount in the gospel of Matthew. This Sunday we hear the Beatitudes from Luke, which come with a set of corollary woes, or curses. Read the following blessings:

"Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.

"Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.

"Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
"Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

"But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.

"Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.

"Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.
"Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

Jesus addressed these words to the disciples, but they are not for the disciples alone. How can we read these two thousand year-old words today and apply them in our lives?
Me? I am often tempted, and give in to the temptation, of thinking myself a reasonably intelligent, reasonably fit, reasonably skilled guy who is doing quite well – thank you very much. I recognize myself in the second half of the passage, in the woes. In fact, I am doing so well that I have no need of help or input and can do just fine if I am left alone: I have what I need, I have a full stomach, I get my share of laughs, people like me and even occasionally applaud my sermons! I am one self-sufficient dude.
Unfortunately, my self-sufficiency contains seeds of destruction; it is like looking at the ATM receipt on the first of the month and thinking I’m rich and can go out on a shopping spree and take time off to do it. I get like a drunken sailor (been there, ain’t pretty) spending wildly with no thought of where the riches come from or how to get more. Prayer, scripture reading, works of mercy, sacraments give way to taking care of my wants and my appetites. Before I know it my account is empty, my card declined.

Christ is calling us to a sober, clear-headed humility, to self-emptying in order that we might be filled with good things from God. I have a garage (still) filled with so much stuff that I cannot sort out what’s in there, move around, or even put my new bike in to keep it out of the rain. I am so full that if I don’t take care of the mess I will live out the rest of my life with a garage full of slowly rusting, mildewing junk. No room for trikes, children’s bikes or toys or other things that represent joy and hope; just rusty, mildewed laid up treasures to the rafters.

It takes honesty to see ourselves in the “woes” and it takes courage to claim the blessings. We have to give up our trust in our riches and make room in our hearts and metaphorical garages for the kingdom of God. We have to put away our junk food addiction and feast at Christ’s table. We must give up that scorn we have for others so we can rejoice with God. And we must be willing to give up often hard-earned respectability and security to stand with and follow Jesus wherever he goes.

God grand us honesty to acknowledge our stored up riches, our gluttony for food that fills yet does not nourish, our laughter and scorn for others, and our chasing after the approval of this world. Make us beggars for your love; hungry for your righteousness; inconsolable, but for your mercy; and ever ready to speak your praise and follow in your way. Through your son, our savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

ACE Quiz

“One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn’t belong.”

1) Which does not belong with the woes?
A. Woe to you who are rich.
B. Woe to you who are full.
C. Woe to you who are good-looking.
D. Woe to you who are laughing.
E. Woe to you who are spoken well of.

2) Which does not belong with the blessings?
A. Blessed are you who are poor.
B. Blessed are you who are sick.
C. Blessed are you who are hungry.
D. Blessed are you who weep.
E. Blessed are you who are hated for Jesus’ sake

ACE Quiz

The passage from Isaiah speaks of six-winged angels. What are the various types or orders of angels spoken of in scripture?

A) Cherubim
B) Archangels
C) Putti
D) Seraphim
E) Angels (regular grade)



The passage from Isaiah to be read this Sunday refers to angels in the court of heaven, specifically to seraphim (plural of seraph), the six-winged beings who also appear in the Revelation of St. John. The angels continually sing the Trisagion which we sing with them in the eucharistic prayer: “Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory.”

In Isaiah chapter 6 one of the angels removes a coal from the altar and presses it to the lips of the prophet to purify him so that he might speak the word of God. This is one of the biblical sources for the Catholic doctrine of purgatory and for the general doctrine of an act or process of purification before a soul is brought into the presence of God in heaven.

In Anglicanism the doctrine of purgatory as a place where souls are gathered for terms of painful purification that may be shortened by allotment of the Church’s accumulation of merit is nearly universally rejected. However, the idea of a continued spiritual progress and purification of the soul is accepted by many Anglicans as it is among the Orthodox. Perhaps the best known and loved Anglican expounder of purgatory in this sense is C.S. Lewis in his book The Great Divorce. In that short book the purification process is presented as a response to grace, rather than punishment.

As an Episcopalian, both Evangelical and Catholic, I find a lot of hope in the wisdom of the Church that God will straighten me out in the end. Whether by fire as in Isaiah or by a long bus ride as imagined by C.S. Lewis I do not know. As St. Paul tells us, now we see as in a mirror dimly, but then we shall see clearly. God grant me – and all of us -- in this life and in the life to come the grace to accept the firewhich burns away our chaff and melts away our sin so our thoughts, words and deeds may be God’s own.

Answer to the quiz: All except putti. Actually, these chubby babies of Raphael paintings, tire and toilet paper commercials, are what we are most used to seeing in popular culture, but the cherubim of scripture bear them little resemblance. Fat baby angels are definitely cuter.

ACE Quiz

In I Corinthians chapter 13 we read:
“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have agape, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal . . . “

St. Paul goes on to describe agape in some of the most beautiful words ever written. Of course, St. Paul wrote in Greek, not English, and his agape has been translated using a number or English words.

Which of the following words have been used in English Bibles to translate agape in this passage?

A) Charity
B) Infatuation
C) Love
D) Sugar

The answers are charity in the Geneva, King James and Douay Bibles and love in most modern translations.

ACE Quiz
1) Which of the following is not a part of the Body of Christ as described by Paul
in I Corinthians?
A) Head
B) Foot
C) Parish
D) Eye


This Sunday’s lesson from I Corinthians includes Paul’s image of the Church as the Body of Christ. He draws a picture of the body as a harmonious organism, but also as one that is at times at war among its members. As it once was is now and shall seemingly be forever.

We all know of the fighting that goes on within the Church between East and West, Catholic and Protestant, Protestant and Protestant, liberal and conservative, charismatic and non-charismatic, right down to those who favor cassocks over albs and frankincense over desert sage incense. Today the news is that another parish in our diocese – Blessed Sacrament -- is starting a “discernment process” that seems to aim at leaving the Episcopal Church. As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end.

Wait a minute . . . Nothing is eternal but God and what God makes to be eternal: Christ’s Church. Strife is not eternal, war is not eternal, our bodies are not eternal and our buildings and our General Convention are not eternal. Neither, the animosities that members of a family build up over months and years and later recognize to be of small import compared to the love and affection we feel for each other. My grandmother Alice of blessed memory had a saying –not original to her, I’m sure – “only one life, will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” I pray that all of us in this family, this body, will recognize that our lives are short and too precious to be spent on fighting among ourselves, no matter the righteous anger we feel against the offending eye or ear or brother or sister in Christ.

On the other hand, the work we do to build up the Body of Christ, to bring the Gospel and its salvation to the world will be eternal. I pray -- and I ask your prayers as well – for Blessed Sacrament and its pastor Fr. David Bauman. Pray that these members of the Body of Christ recognize their value to the other members of that same body. Pray, too, that we will recognize the ministry of all the parts of Christ’s Body and give up our own tendencies to claim higher value or even the ability to do without another member. Pray, too, that we may all set our hearts, minds, eyes, ears, hands and all ourselves to his service.

Father in Heaven,
Look down in love this day on your sons and daughters. Bless, especially, our brother David and his flock, Blessed Sacrament, as they enter this time of discernment. Grant them ears to truly hear the Word once Spoken, Jesus Christ. Open the doors and windows of their hearts that your Wind, the Holy Spirit, will rush through and fan faith and love among them.

Bless our bishop and pastor Jon as he leads our part of your church in these troubled times. Grant him strength, wisdom and the assurance of your love as he leads us, your sheep.

Grant us, too, the faith and strength to love you and to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. Grant us such kindness, gentleness and patience in our treatment of each other that we may show forth your love to those who have not yet found faith in you. Guide us by your Holy Spirit in all that we think, wish, say and do this day and always.

All this we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.


Answer to the quiz: C