SPEAKER_02: Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_02: Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid.
SPEAKER_02: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name through Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_02: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_02: Almighty and everlasting God, increase in us the gifts of faith, hope, and charity, and that we may obtain what you promise, make us love what you command.
SPEAKER_02: Through Jesus Christ our Lord, lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: A prayer for Veterans Day.
SPEAKER_02: God of peace, we pray for those who have served our nation and laid down their lives to protect and defend our freedom, asking that we remember their sacrifice and make right use of our liberty.
SPEAKER_02: We pray for those who still bear the scars of their service, asking for healing for them in mind, body, and spirit.
SPEAKER_02: We pray for those who serve us now, especially for those in harm's way, asking that you shield them from danger and bring them home in safety.
SPEAKER_02: We pray for all those who govern, asking that you turn their hearts and minds to the work of establishing a peace born of justice and equity.
SPEAKER_02: We pray for all those caught up in conflict around the globe this day, civilians and peacekeepers and the poor who have no escape, asking that we have the courage to defend the defenseless, make room for those who flee for safety, and look to that day when we will train for war no more.
SPEAKER_02: Be the peace you gave us, the peace that passes all human understanding, be the peace that guides and sustains us.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Abigail, wife of Nabal, one of the boys reported, Look, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our Lord, and he screamed at them.
SPEAKER_00: Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not put to shame.
SPEAKER_00: We were never missed anything all the days we were with them, and we were in the field.
SPEAKER_00: They were a wall to us even by night, and also every day.
SPEAKER_00: We were with them keeping the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Now know this and see what you can do, for evil against our master and against all his house has been resolved.
SPEAKER_00: He is worse worthless, and no one can speak to him.
SPEAKER_00: Then Abigail hurried, and she took two hundred loaves, two skins of wine, five prepared sheep, five measures of parched grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred fig cakes, and she loaded them on donkeys.
SPEAKER_00: And Abigail said to her boys, Go on before me, I am coming after you.
SPEAKER_00: And her husband Naval did she and her husband Naval she did not tell.
SPEAKER_00: And Abigail saw David, and she hurried and got down from the donkey, fell before David on her face, bowing to the ground.
SPEAKER_00: She fell at his feet and said, Upon me, my lord, the iniquity.
SPEAKER_00: Please let your slave woman speak in your ears and hear the words of your slave.
SPEAKER_00: Please, my lord, do not set your thought on this worthless man, Naval, for his name, thus is he.
SPEAKER_00: Naval, meaning disgrace, is his name.
SPEAKER_00: And he is a disgrace.
SPEAKER_00: Now I, your slave, did not see my Lord's voice, whom you sent.
SPEAKER_00: Then David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Holy One, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you who have kept me today from coming for blood and saved me from my own hand.
SPEAKER_00: Surely as the Holy One, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, Abigail, and there she had hurried and come to meet me.
SPEAKER_00: Truly by the light of daybreak there would not have been left in Abal anyone urinating against a wall.
SPEAKER_00: Later after Naval's death, Abigail hurried and got up and mourned, and mounted a donkey with five of her girls at her heels.
SPEAKER_00: She went after the messengers of David, and she became his wife.
SPEAKER_00: David also married Abanoam over to Jezreel, both of whom became his wives.
SPEAKER_00: At the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Reading from Psalm 37, we will read responsively by the half verse.
SPEAKER_00: Be not angry on account of the wicked, for they will soon wither like the wild grass.
SPEAKER_00: Be still before the Most High and wait patiently for her.
SPEAKER_00: Let go of anger and forsake wrath.
SPEAKER_00: For the wicked shall be cut off.
SPEAKER_00: And a little more time, and the wicked will be no more.
SPEAKER_00: But the humble poor shall inherit the land.
SPEAKER_00: Better is a little that the righteous person has.
SPEAKER_00: I have seen the wicked oppressing.
SPEAKER_00: They passed on, and suddenly they were no more.
SPEAKER_00: Regard the blameless and behold the upright.
SPEAKER_00: But transgressors shall be utterly destroyed together.
SPEAKER_00: The salvation of the righteous is from ever-present God.
SPEAKER_00: The redeeming of God helps them and delivers them.
SPEAKER_01: For in a great trial of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
SPEAKER_01: For according to their means, as I can testify, and even beyond their ability, voluntarily, with much exhortation, begging us earnestly for the grace of participation in this ministry to the saints.
SPEAKER_01: And not simply as we expected.
SPEAKER_01: Rather, they gave themselves first to the Savior, and to us by the will of God.
SPEAKER_01: Thus we exhorted Titus that just as he had begun, so he should complete this work of grace among us you all.
SPEAKER_01: So then, as in everything you excel in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in zeal, and in love.
SPEAKER_01: Ours for you, you, yours for us.
SPEAKER_01: So we want you to excel also in this act of grace.
SPEAKER_01: Not as a command do I say this, rather against the seal of others am I proving the genuineness of your love.
SPEAKER_01: For you all know the grace of our Redeemer Jesus the Messiah, that for you all he became poor, though he was rich, so that you, through his poverty, might become rich.
SPEAKER_01: The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Glory to you, Lord Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Look, there's an error in the bulletin, so here's the gospel for the day.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus asked, Now why do you all worry about clothing?
SPEAKER_02: Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.
SPEAKER_02: They neither labor nor spin.
SPEAKER_02: Yet I tell you all, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.
SPEAKER_02: Now, if the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, God so clothed, will not God do much more for you, all of little faith?
SPEAKER_02: Therefore do not worry, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear?
SPEAKER_02: For all these the Gentiles strive, and indeed your heavenly provider knows that you all need all these.
SPEAKER_02: But strive first for the reign of God and God's righteousness, and all these will be given to you all.
SPEAKER_02: So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow has worries of its own.
SPEAKER_02: Sufficient is the trouble of this day.
SPEAKER_02: The gospel of the Lord, praise to you, Lord Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Well, sorry for the whoops there in the gospel, but hope you get that church life is like regular life.
SPEAKER_02: These things happen.
SPEAKER_02: Um and uh maybe you know this story.
SPEAKER_02: I think a face reading is like really tough, right?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, keep in mind that Jesus is not talking to like people who are retired or from the upper middle class.
SPEAKER_02: He's talking to day laboring peasants, kind of like himself, and saying something like, Don't worry about what you're gonna eat, it's all gonna be fine.
SPEAKER_02: Don't worry about what you're gonna wear, God'll dress you.
SPEAKER_02: Well, God did dress us with our birthday suit, but in general, uh, we'll get arrested for going out in public in that, right?
SPEAKER_02: And to be honest, I think it's really easy to tell somebody who uh is above a subsistence wage, I mean, don't worry about what you're going to eat, because of course you're going to.
SPEAKER_02: But somebody who is below a subsistence wage to tell them not to worry about their next meal, it's a little worse than ignorant.
SPEAKER_02: It's almost like you probably know Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution saying to folk, well, if they don't have bread, let them eat.
SPEAKER_02: But you know why she said that?
SPEAKER_02: Because she did not understand that common people didn't have both of those things.
SPEAKER_02: Marie Antoinette had never known a lack of luxury in her life.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, she truly was ignorant.
SPEAKER_02: So in her home, if the bread ran out, you would eat cake.
SPEAKER_02: She wasn't mocking the peasants.
SPEAKER_02: She just had no idea what a peasant was like.
SPEAKER_02: But look, Jesus is a day laborer.
SPEAKER_02: Don't think he's a museum-grade carpenter making only the finest commissions from a patron.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe he frames homes.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe he's a framer.
SPEAKER_02: That is still, frankly, a day wage job.
SPEAKER_02: There's not salaries, there's no sick time, right?
SPEAKER_02: So when Jesus says not to worry, I don't think he's saying if you make plans for your food and your dress, you're wasting your time.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, our common life is predicated on our making plans.
SPEAKER_02: Everybody who does meal planning in their house, whether mother or in my case father, knows this.
SPEAKER_02: And I don't know if you've done this with kids, but I will say meal planning with kids is like terrifying.
SPEAKER_02: Um because when you ask them what would you like to eat, because you actually care, what you get back 99% of the time is, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02: And then when you make that thing, what you get back is, I don't want that.
SPEAKER_02: Anyone have this experience other than me?
SPEAKER_02: Um, let me just say that like I don't even mind making the food.
SPEAKER_02: It's the planning that like hurts my soul.
SPEAKER_02: It's a deadly wound in my soul, right?
SPEAKER_02: And so uh maybe this is a little bit of a word to me.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, maybe, right?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I think there's a difference between making plans and anxiety and worry.
SPEAKER_02: And maybe this is what Jesus is trying to tease out a little bit, right?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, if we don't make plans, we won't be prepared.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: Can we do that in such a way that we remove from ourselves anxiety?
SPEAKER_02: I didn't know, that's a little bit tough, right?
SPEAKER_02: Because uh the definition of anxiety I like is anxiety is an attachment to outcomes.
SPEAKER_02: I'm really anxious, by the way, because I really like outcomes.
SPEAKER_02: You know, like when I meet somebody, I want the outcome to be that will be a pleasant exchange.
SPEAKER_02: We will leave all the wiser full of camaraderie.
SPEAKER_02: I'm attached to that outcome.
SPEAKER_02: I rarely think like, hey, I'm gonna be really sweet and kind, and you're gonna be a jerk, and I'm gonna leave in peace.
SPEAKER_02: Because that rarely happens.
SPEAKER_02: Anxiety.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I have a little bit of anxiety about meal preparation.
SPEAKER_02: I know I'm gonna make something.
SPEAKER_02: And I would like it to please, and that is not in my power.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, so what do we start doing in my house?
SPEAKER_02: If I get a I don't care, then I just take that literally and I make what I would like.
SPEAKER_02: And if you don't like that, then make your own.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not making two things.
SPEAKER_02: And that feels a little bit mean to me sometimes, but it's a much better way to live than the alternative.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, I'm not recommending my course of action.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just saying that has freed me from a lot of anxiety.
SPEAKER_02: The only thing when I hear I don't care that I need to worry about is what do I want?
SPEAKER_02: Because then at least one person will be happy.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: I could risk it all with no success, but if you tell me you don't care, then I trust you.
SPEAKER_02: You don't care.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Easy to talk about with food, prep.
SPEAKER_02: We could pretend like it doesn't matter how we dress, but we know it does.
SPEAKER_02: We know it does for a number of reasons.
SPEAKER_02: There's cultural expectations, but we also know the way we present ourselves can communicate how we perceive the other people we're going to be around.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: And so if I'm going to your wedding and I wear my flip-flops and tank top, it is likely the wedding the message you'll receive from me is he doesn't care enough about me to dress up.
SPEAKER_02: Now that's very different, of course, from I have to wear what you think I'm supposed to wear.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of wiggle room in that.
SPEAKER_02: So what is Jesus asking us to do about clothing?
SPEAKER_02: I don't know that there's specific guidance other than take the anxiety out.
SPEAKER_02: How do I take the anxiety out?
SPEAKER_02: I don't try to make a fashion statement.
SPEAKER_02: I try to be myself, knowing the cultural context.
SPEAKER_02: That seems to be the middle ground.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus reminds us that the lilies of the field, and then he goes on to call them grass, don't seem to do a lot of planning.
SPEAKER_02: And it would be really sweet to say, like, just be like the lilies, except we all know that the lilies don't have brains, and we have brains.
SPEAKER_02: So I don't know how to be brainless like the lilies.
SPEAKER_02: It'd be great if I could just move on instinct sometimes, but that isn't our lot.
SPEAKER_02: So what is it that we're to do with this, whether it is clothing or food or self-presentation, or dare I say, and I was told not to say this, but look, I'm the priest, not the people who told me this.
SPEAKER_02: Living with election results that might make you anxious.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm gonna say that a couple of ways, because some of us woke up on Wednesday and were very disappointed.
SPEAKER_02: Some of us woke up on Wednesday and were very disappointed that other people were very disappointed.
SPEAKER_02: Did I catch everybody in the room?
SPEAKER_02: Either we were, or we were disappointed that other people were, because I'll tell you, I sure remember Bob Dole running against Bill Clinton.
SPEAKER_02: And in my family and in my church, we were all voting for Bob Dole, who we knew had no chance of winning.
SPEAKER_02: We knew that.
SPEAKER_02: And when he lost, we were kind of like disappointed because, you know, our church even came out, like you're supposed to vote for Bob Dole.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but none of us were surprised, and none of us felt like we were in a different country we didn't understand.
SPEAKER_02: Were you all around for that election?
SPEAKER_02: It just didn't feel the same when we didn't get our way.
SPEAKER_02: This feels different now to me.
SPEAKER_02: I don't think I'm bringing politics into the building.
SPEAKER_02: I think I'm bringing a description in.
SPEAKER_02: Correct me if I'm wrong.
SPEAKER_02: So, in the middle of that worry, and that worry is actually predicated on two groups of people, and of course there's always more than two, completely being able to understand how the other person did that.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: It's not like, well, I get it, and we just agreed, disagreed on one thing.
SPEAKER_02: I don't think that's the country we're living in right now.
SPEAKER_02: I think there's a complete surprise, like, how could you do that?
SPEAKER_02: And there's even been this mistake.
SPEAKER_02: We knew before the election, don't ask who somebody's voting for, but on Wednesday I've seen people who did that well now ask, did you vote for that person?
SPEAKER_02: So that we could be, what, horrified or happy?
SPEAKER_02: It's a really weird thing, right?
SPEAKER_02: It's a weird thing because now we're trying to figure out this conspiracy.
SPEAKER_02: And I mean that on both sides.
SPEAKER_02: I mean that on both sides.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you don't find yourself in this description at all.
SPEAKER_02: But I do think there is a real core anxiety we're facing, not just about what we're gonna eat or how we're gonna dress, but where do we live now?
SPEAKER_02: Where do we live?
SPEAKER_02: A lot of worry about tomorrow, isn't there?
SPEAKER_02: A lot of worry about tomorrow.
SPEAKER_02: A lot of worry about 20 years from now, after this election.
SPEAKER_02: And we live in a community that has all of these, right?
SPEAKER_02: We live in a community in which once a month these people drive through who literally are worried about what they're going to eat tomorrow.
SPEAKER_02: It's not most of us, but we see it.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: And with words like shrinkflation, some of us are worried about the 30% rise in groceries, right?
SPEAKER_02: And we can bear it, but we don't like it.
SPEAKER_02: Am I wrong about that?
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what to say about clothing, but you know in the ancient world, on average, you owned one garment.
SPEAKER_02: One garment.
SPEAKER_02: Because it took a woman who was making the daily bread about six months to weave one garment.
SPEAKER_02: And when you've got multiple people in a family and you're working in the field, how long is that woven garment going to last?
SPEAKER_02: Hopefully long enough for her to make you another one.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Thanks to places like the Nearly New, we're able to benefit people who are that much on edge, right?
SPEAKER_02: And say, we can take clothing, period, worry off, and we can do it fashionably for you.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Many of our volunteers shop there because we get really good stuff.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, maybe I'm telling you stuff that's not even that important, but it does occur to me that there's a couple of bits here that do matter for us as people of faith in a divine.
SPEAKER_02: I don't think I'm being controversial saying we live in a divided country.
SPEAKER_02: I don't think that.
SPEAKER_02: I think I'm just being honest.
SPEAKER_02: So, what is it that we're called to do?
SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, you've probably heard that in our reptilian brain there are these four core responses that we have to stress.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know this?
SPEAKER_02: Fight, flight, freeze, and reproduction.
SPEAKER_02: So the four Fs is what we call those.
SPEAKER_02: But you know, there's a lot of work that says that those are the four responses of men.
SPEAKER_02: And do you know what one of the core responses in women is?
SPEAKER_02: The other F, friendship.
SPEAKER_02: When women are in stress, they make networks.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if that's your experience.
SPEAKER_02: That comes from a psychology article that I found very interesting.
SPEAKER_02: I find it interesting because I don't see a lot that's going to help us with our anxiety in fight, flight, freeze.
SPEAKER_02: I don't actually find those very helpful given our current division, but I do see finding a network very helpful.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, you've already found a network if you're here in the building, I think.
SPEAKER_02: You found a network of faith, in which, in the middle of anxiety, what are we called to do?
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to beat you up with this regular sermon that you hear, like, even if you're disappointed, just go and make today the best day you can.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's some truth to that, but it isn't the whole truth, is it?
SPEAKER_02: There's some truth to that, and it isn't the whole truth, because it doesn't leave room for things like grief.
SPEAKER_02: And it doesn't make room for things like, hey, today, you know, I just don't have the energy to do that.
SPEAKER_02: Today I don't have the energy to do that.
SPEAKER_02: Which is why I want to come back to networking, because the reason we say we believe when we say the Nicene Creed is because somebody in the room doesn't believe it today.
SPEAKER_02: Somebody doesn't believe it today.
SPEAKER_02: That could be you.
SPEAKER_02: That could have been you Wednesday.
SPEAKER_02: Good news, somebody in the room, I guarantee you, does believe it today.
SPEAKER_02: So you don't, and we do.
SPEAKER_02: You don't, but we do.
SPEAKER_02: Which means just like lilies and grass, right, that have fibrous roots and essentially do network with each other.
SPEAKER_02: We're called into a holy community in which we do network, in which somebody does get to carry us, in which, hey, maybe four years from now you carry them.
SPEAKER_02: And you carry them how.
SPEAKER_02: Well, I think the thing about lilies, right, and maybe I'm pushing this too hard, is that when they are able, they do open themselves.
SPEAKER_02: They do open themselves.
SPEAKER_02: Opening is really hard.
SPEAKER_02: I think particularly in a time of anxiety and disappointment.
SPEAKER_02: And I have the spiritual director, and I've told you this before, who really works hard to say, you know, sometimes we get really confused between breaking ourselves open, which is arguably a good thing, and being broken apart, which is a bad thing that we're terrified of.
SPEAKER_02: I don't think it's easy to break yourself open in a context of mistrust.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Because when you break yourself open, you might well be broken apart.
SPEAKER_02: Anybody been to middle school?
SPEAKER_02: That's what middle school is all about.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: You're constantly worried you'll be broken apart because you like this thing that isn't cool anymore.
SPEAKER_02: Even though we all like it, we just don't want to admit it.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: That's the scary bit.
SPEAKER_02: But I do think the way that the lilies are able to do this, right, is because they're connected to each other, and in that moment of connection, they're able to find the support so that they can break themselves open.
SPEAKER_02: Today may not be your day.
SPEAKER_02: Today you might need, frankly, to just draw some nutrition and support from the other lilies in the room.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to hear that.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to hear that there's a time for mourning.
SPEAKER_02: And then there's a time for opening.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to hear that there's a time to withhold your gloating.
SPEAKER_02: And there is a time to say, you know, I don't even know why you're disappointed, but I know we're in this together.
SPEAKER_02: I hope that's okay to say and not that controversial.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, the truth is we all are worried about tomorrow.
SPEAKER_02: We all are.
SPEAKER_02: And then I'm reminded that when is my day to open up?
SPEAKER_02: There's this thing that happens in Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous when you think for 60 more years I am going to have to fight like hell every day of my life not to return to the drug of my choice.
SPEAKER_02: And when you think like that, guess what happens next?
SPEAKER_02: You relapse.
SPEAKER_02: Because the pressure of 60 years worth of days, worth of hours of thinking about my grief or my loss.
SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, it's so much work.
SPEAKER_02: I barely made it yesterday, and I've got 60 more years of that.
SPEAKER_02: It sends people right back to the bottle, right back to putting their finger down their throat, right back to running two appers because they ate a brownie.
SPEAKER_02: That's called exercise bulimia, by the way.
SPEAKER_02: That's an addiction.
SPEAKER_02: It sends people right back to their drug of choice.
SPEAKER_02: So what do you do?
SPEAKER_02: What do you do in the AA curriculum?
SPEAKER_02: You say, God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.
SPEAKER_02: What I'm wearing, the way my body was designed by you, God, to be short, not tall.
SPEAKER_02: The election results.
SPEAKER_02: Food prices being what they are.
SPEAKER_02: Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.
SPEAKER_02: The courage to change the things I can, how I talk to my adversaries, whether I am closed or choose to open myself up, whether I build a wall between my neighbor or whether we network and route to be a community.
SPEAKER_02: And above all, this is the hardest one.
SPEAKER_02: Give me the wisdom to know the difference between the two.
SPEAKER_02: The wisdom to know the difference between serenity and courage, between the things I can change and the things I can't.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know how to do that as the United States, but I know how to do that in St.
SPEAKER_02: Thomas.
SPEAKER_02: And I trust the more we do it here, the more we'll be a mission and a respite and a community for the people who aren't here.
SPEAKER_02: So when it's your time, and until it is, draw strength from your neighbor because this is a healthy place.
SPEAKER_02: You're a healthy people.
SPEAKER_02: You treat each other well, you do.
SPEAKER_02: I know that probably better than anybody.
SPEAKER_02: Dare to break yourself open.
SPEAKER_02: Dare to break yourself open and proceed with courage because what we say and how we say matters.
SPEAKER_02: What we say and how we say it will always matter.
SPEAKER_02: Who we invite, and that's everybody, will always matter.
SPEAKER_02: Especially here.
SPEAKER_02: And I know this because I've been here now nine and a half years, growing the reputation that we were not here yesterday and gone today.
SPEAKER_02: That we were not kind yesterday, but tomorrow we will run out.
SPEAKER_02: We're growing the reputation that in fact we will continue to open and choose to bloom as best we can tomorrow and the next day.
SPEAKER_02: I thank God for that, and I thank God for you that we get to continue that legacy when the world really, really needs it.