The Chapel

[SuburbanFarmer]

Keep redefining words as you go along.

High as a kite.

Is that newspeak for "I admit I fucked up and tried to redefine words to suit my argument"?

Watch out for the running purple, spaceman.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Anyone noticed yet that Easter is on April Fools day this year? Heh

[de officiis]

Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Lent (3/11/18)

First Reading: 2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23

In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people added infidelity to infidelity, practicing all the abominations of the nations and polluting the Lord’s temple which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.
The Fall of Judah
Early and often did the Lord, the God of their fathers, send his messengers to them, for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place.
But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets, until the anger of the Lord against his people was so inflamed that there was no remedy.
...
Their enemies burnt the house of God, tore down the walls of Jerusalem, set all its palaces afire, and destroyed all its precious objects.
Those who escaped the sword were carried captive to Babylon,
where they became servants of the king of the Chaldeans and his sons until the kingdom of the Persians came to power.
All this was to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah: “Until the land has retrieved its lost sabbaths, during all the time it lies waste it shall have rest while seventy years are fulfilled. ”
Decree of Cyrus
In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord inspired King Cyrus of Persia to issue this proclamation throughout his kingdom, both by word of mouth and in writing:
“Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord, the God of heaven, has given to me, and he has also charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to any part of his people, let him go up, and may his God be with him! ”

Second Reading: Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians 2:4-10

Brothers and sisters:
God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us,
even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ {Note 1} — by grace you have been saved —,
raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,
that in the ages to come He might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God;
it is not from works, so no one may boast.
For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.

Gospel Reading: John 3:14-21

Jesus said to Nicodemus {Note 1}:
“Just as Moses lifted up {Note 2} the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

First Reading - Related Scripture:

- Jeremiah 7:25 (From the day that your ancestors left the land of Egypt even to this day, I kept on sending all my servants the prophets to you.)

- Hebrews 1:1 (In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets)

- Matthew 23:34-37 (Therefore, behold, I send to you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and pursue from town to town, so that there may come upon you all the righteous blood shed upon earth, from the righteous blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Amen, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you were unwilling!")

- 2 Kings 25:9-10 (He burned the house of the Lord, the house of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem (every noble house); he destroyed them by fire. The Chaldean troops who were with the captain of the guard tore down the walls that surrounded Jerusalem . . . .)
- Lamentations 2:8 (The Lord was bent on destroying the wall of daughter Zion: He stretched out the measuring line; did not hesitate to devour, Brought grief on rampart and wall till both succumbed.)

- Ezra 1:1-4 (In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to issue a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom, both by word of mouth and in writing: “Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: ‘All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord, the God of heaven, * has given to me, and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Those among you who belong to any part of his people, may their God be with them! Let them go up to Jerusalem in Judah to build the house of the Lord the God of Israel, that is, the God who is in Jerusalem. Let all those who have survived, in whatever place they may have lived, be assisted by the people of that place with silver, gold, goods, and livestock, together with voluntary offerings for the house of God in Jerusalem. ’”)

Second Reading - Notes:
1) Our relation through baptism with Christ, the risen Lord, is depicted in terms of realized eschatology, as already exaltation, though Eph 2:7 ("that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus") brings in the future aspect too.

Second Reading - Related Scripture:

- Romans 5:8 (But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.)

- Romans 6-13 (And do not present the parts of your bodies to sin as weapons for wickedness, but present yourselves to God as raised from the dead to life and the parts of your bodies to God as weapons for righteousness.)

- Colossians 2:13 (And even when you were dead {in} transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he brought you to life along with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions)

- Romans 8:10-11 (But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you.)

- Philippians 3:20 (But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.)

- Colossians 2:12 (You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.)

- Ephesians 1:7 (In him we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions, in accord with the riches of his grace)
- Romans 3:24 (They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus)

- Galatians 2:16 ({yet} who know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.)
- 1 Corinthians 1:29 (...so that no human being might boast before God.)

Gospel Reading - Notes:

1) Nicodemus was most likely a member of the Jewish council, the Sanhedrin.

2) Lifted up: in Numbers 21:9 Moses simply “mounted” a serpent upon a pole. John here substitutes a verb implying glorification. Jesus, exalted to glory at his cross and resurrection, represents healing for all.

Gospel Reading - Related Scripture:

John 8:28 (So Jesus said (to them), “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me.)

John 12:32, 34 (And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”... So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. Then how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?)
Numbers 21:4–9 (From Mount Hor they set out by way of the Red Sea, to bypass the land of Edom, but the people’s patience was worn out by the journey; so the people complainedd against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!” So the Lord sent among the people seraph serpents, which bite the people so that many of the Israelites died. Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned in complaining against the Lord and you. Pray to the Lord to take the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people, and the Lord said to Moses: Make a seraph and mount it on a pole, and everyone who has been bitten will look at it and recover. Accordingly Moses made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever the serpent bit someone, the person looked at the bronze serpent and recovered.)

Wisdom 16:5–7 (For when the dire venom of beasts came upon them and they were dying from the bite of crooked serpents, your anger endured not to the end. But as a warning, for a short time they were terrorized, though they had a sign of salvation, to remind them of the precept of your law. For the one who turned toward it was saved, not by what was seen, but by you, the savior of all.)

[Fife]

[SuburbanFarmer]

Facing mortality without a magic fable to make you feel better is difficult.

[Fife]

The irremediable sadness starts earlier for some.

[Montegriffo]

The award for resurrecting the dead goes to



Dead thread since the 39th anniversary of the King's death.