SPEAKER_05: Good morning, everybody.
SPEAKER_05: My name is Sean Steele, and I am a priest.
SPEAKER_05: And I have the pleasure of worshiping with you this morning.
SPEAKER_05: Mike invited me to come, and I'm really glad to be here.
SPEAKER_05: Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_05: Now and forever.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: Almighty God, and to whom all hearts are open, all desires know, and from whom no secret lends the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_05: The Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_05: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_05: Grant us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts.
SPEAKER_05: For as you always resist the proud who confide in their own strength, so you never forsake those who make their boast of your mercy.
SPEAKER_05: Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of anger will fail.
SPEAKER_00: The rich and the poor have this in common.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is the maker of all.
SPEAKER_00: Those who are generous are blessed, for they share the bread with the poor.
SPEAKER_00: Do not rob the poor because they are poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate.
SPEAKER_00: For the Lord pleads their cause and despoils of life those who despoil them.
SPEAKER_00: The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Those who have trusted the Lord are like Mount Zion.
SPEAKER_00: The hills stand around Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: The scepter of the wicked shall not hold sway over the land allotted to the just.
SPEAKER_06: For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point, has become accountable for all of it.
SPEAKER_06: For the one who said, You shall not commit adultery, but also said you shall not murder.
SPEAKER_06: Now if you do not commit adultery, but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
SPEAKER_06: So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.
SPEAKER_06: For judgment will be without mercy, but to anyone who has shown no mercy, mercy triumphs over judgment.
SPEAKER_06: What good is it, my brothers and sisters, that if you say you have faith, but you do not have works, can faith save you?
SPEAKER_06: If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, I go in peace, I keep your work and eat your fill, and yet I do not supply their bodily needs.
SPEAKER_06: What is the good of that?
SPEAKER_06: So faith by itself, it is has if it has no works, it is dead.
unknown: The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_05: Jesus set out and went away to the region of Tyre.
SPEAKER_05: He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there, yet he could not escape notice.
SPEAKER_05: But a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came, and she bowed down at his feet.
SPEAKER_05: Now the woman was a Gentile of Syrophoenician origin.
SPEAKER_05: She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter, and he said to her, Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.
SPEAKER_05: But she answered him, Sir, leave the dogs under the table, eat the children's crumbs.
SPEAKER_05: Then he said to her, For saying that you may go, the demon has left your daughter.
SPEAKER_05: So she went home and found the child lying in the bed and the demon gone.
SPEAKER_05: Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and he went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.
SPEAKER_05: And they brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech, and they begged him to lay his hand on him.
SPEAKER_05: He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and he put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue.
SPEAKER_05: Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, Ephatha, let us be opened.
SPEAKER_05: And immediately his ears were opened, and his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.
SPEAKER_05: Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one, but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.
SPEAKER_05: They were astounded beyond measure, saying, He has done everything well.
SPEAKER_05: He even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.
SPEAKER_05: This is the gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_05: Mike check.
SPEAKER_05: Ah.
SPEAKER_05: So I'm gonna hold this cup of coffee because if I don't, I might fly away.
SPEAKER_05: You're gonna see that I have a lot of hand gestures.
SPEAKER_05: Some of you might like that.
SPEAKER_05: This will center me.
SPEAKER_05: I'll be here.
SPEAKER_05: I'm really excited to be here, y'all.
SPEAKER_05: Um, for a lot of reasons.
SPEAKER_05: One, Mike is an exceptional priest, and I just adore him.
SPEAKER_05: And this community that he talks about, um, I've so far experienced, is so welcoming and kind, and y'all are just incredible.
SPEAKER_05: So thank you for being you.
SPEAKER_05: And we have some history here.
SPEAKER_05: My wife, actually, her grandfather and grandmother were some charter founding members of this parish, uh, the Machel family, Reg and Nancy Machel, so it's kind of fun to be back and to see the community that they helped found.
SPEAKER_05: Now I've already created some disruption.
SPEAKER_05: Um, Mike's sitting over there, and I was thinking, it's um having the rector sit in the congregation when you preach.
SPEAKER_05: I was sitting up there thinking, like, what is this like?
SPEAKER_05: I've decided it's like driving with the cop behind you.
SPEAKER_05: It's like, I'm not doing anything wrong, but like at any moment I might get a ticket.
SPEAKER_05: I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_05: It's like, is my registration current?
SPEAKER_05: Like, do I have my license with me?
SPEAKER_05: Like, do I you guys have been going through the lectionary, uh, the women's lectionary, which I think is so cool, but and Mike told me that a couple of months ago, and then I promptly forgot.
SPEAKER_05: Um, and so I, when we talked earlier this week, I'm like, well, Mike, I kind of prepared a sermon for the other reading.
SPEAKER_05: He's like, ah, fine, we'll just change it, because that's how welcoming y'all are as a community.
SPEAKER_05: So you might have noticed that this isn't the John reading that y'all have been marching through.
SPEAKER_05: This is um, well, a really awkward reading, isn't it?
SPEAKER_05: This is uh from the Gospel of Mark, and it's the kind of reading that we most of the time just sort of like glance over.
SPEAKER_05: We're like, yeah, we're not gonna put that in our uh stories of Jesus file.
SPEAKER_05: You know, that story where he calls that woman a dog.
SPEAKER_05: This is a hard reading, y'all.
SPEAKER_05: Now, I'm not what you would call a romantic priest, so I love these readings.
SPEAKER_05: I actually think it's these readings that give us uh some of the best windows into what it means to follow this Jesus moving in the world.
SPEAKER_05: As an aside, I will say that I love the Gospel of John Jesus.
SPEAKER_05: I need to have a God that I can believe understands and comprehends even when I don't.
SPEAKER_05: I need to have a God that is underneath the ground of all being in the midst of my great suffering.
SPEAKER_05: I need to know and believe that the ark is bending towards justice and that it's all going to be okay.
SPEAKER_05: I need that.
SPEAKER_05: But I don't always need that.
SPEAKER_05: See, I need the Jesus of the reading today.
SPEAKER_05: I need the Jesus and helps me understand what it means to be a human being.
SPEAKER_05: What it means to struggle with the muck and the reality of my own limitedness and my own brokenness and beauty.
SPEAKER_05: And I think that's what we get here today.
SPEAKER_05: We get a real fantastic story that's gonna help us better understand what it means to be human beings, what it means to be those that are following actively Jesus in the world.
SPEAKER_05: So, since you haven't been reading the Gospel of Mark, I'm gonna kind of give you a little context here.
SPEAKER_05: You guys have been reading John.
SPEAKER_05: So, where we are in the Gospel of Mark, right, Jesus has just finished having a pretty contentious interaction with the Pharisees, the scribes, the leaders of the sort of the power brokers of the religious system.
SPEAKER_05: And he just had an interaction where he essentially said, they were getting on Jesus' case because his disciples weren't washing their hands appropriately.
SPEAKER_05: They weren't doing the appropriate ritual washings.
SPEAKER_05: Pretty valid criticism of a rabbi.
SPEAKER_05: And so Jesus responds to them and he essentially says, y'all are misunderstanding, like, the whole religious system here.
SPEAKER_05: It's not what comes from outside that is defiling you, it's what comes from inside that is defiling you.
SPEAKER_05: Essentially, you're getting too worked up about the rules, and you're not seeing the God of transformation that is behind that, the God that he was revealing, the God that desires to be so close, that God desires to feed you and transform you from the inside out.
SPEAKER_05: And so he's trying to reveal this God, just make it bigger, right?
SPEAKER_05: He's trying to show them something about themselves that they're not seeing, or maybe that they have forgotten.
SPEAKER_05: And this is exhausting work.
SPEAKER_05: He's tired.
SPEAKER_05: It says that.
SPEAKER_05: It's so exhausting that he has to escape to a different region, tire inside, right?
SPEAKER_05: Lebanon, modern day.
SPEAKER_05: And these weren't just any cities.
SPEAKER_05: There was a lot of Gentile cities that Jesus probably could escape to.
SPEAKER_05: But these are really important cities for Gentile people, right?
SPEAKER_05: These are UNESCO World Heritage sites.
SPEAKER_05: Genuinely, these, I mean, so much of Western civilization has been influenced by these two cities.
SPEAKER_05: This is a big deal.
SPEAKER_05: And not only was it a big, big deal, these were folks that weren't particularly fond, according to Josephus and some other historians, of Jewish people.
SPEAKER_05: So he didn't only go to a Gentile territory, he went to a hostile Gentile territory.
SPEAKER_05: This is somebody that doesn't want to be bothered.
SPEAKER_05: This is somebody that is trying to take a break and make sense of things.
SPEAKER_05: And then we have this beautiful story this morning.
SPEAKER_05: This uh woman, this beautiful woman who I think probably changed Western civilization in some ways.
SPEAKER_05: We don't know her name.
SPEAKER_05: But she finds out that Jesus is there and she has a sick daughter.
SPEAKER_05: And so at great risk, she finds him and she prostrates herself and she begs.
SPEAKER_05: She begs him.
SPEAKER_05: And then we have this really critical moment.
SPEAKER_05: This uh, I was thinking, I'm calling this the do as I say, not as I do moment.
SPEAKER_05: Any of you who are parents know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_05: I mean genuinely.
SPEAKER_05: We have this beautiful moment where Jesus responds pretty authentically, what probably any good rabbi would have done, saying, hey, listen, I'm the Messiah for the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_05: I'm the Jewish Messiah.
SPEAKER_05: Right?
SPEAKER_05: Calls for a dog, y'all.
SPEAKER_05: Now, we have a beautiful dog running around here.
SPEAKER_05: Right, or further.
SPEAKER_05: I love my dog.
SPEAKER_05: So many of you love your dogs.
SPEAKER_05: I love my dog.
SPEAKER_05: But he was not saying this is a term of adherent.
SPEAKER_05: The dogs were mongrels, flea, kind of scavengers.
SPEAKER_05: He reacts and she says, Really, Jesus?
SPEAKER_05: Are you you're this guy who is telling all the Jewish people that they're getting too wrapped up in the law and the ritual?
SPEAKER_05: The tradition.
SPEAKER_05: And he has this moment.
SPEAKER_05: Now we have this beautiful invitation where Jesus, right, has an opportunity to better understand the mission he was called to.
SPEAKER_05: He has an opportunity to grow.
SPEAKER_05: It has exposed the gap between who God was calling and fully revealing Jesus to be and how he was understanding the world.
SPEAKER_05: And he made a choice.
SPEAKER_05: From this point on, he goes, he goes over to Galilee, and the process of the gap is he heals another Gentile and then he feeds 4,000 Gentiles.
SPEAKER_05: From this moment on, his entire ministry changes in the Gospel of Mark.
SPEAKER_05: And I love this story because I think one of the things that separates me from the dog that I love so much is the fact that I have an understanding that I'm going to exist in the future.
SPEAKER_05: That's why I don't eat every bit of food that I have right in front of me.
SPEAKER_05: I have an understanding that I'm going to exist and I can get out of myself and I can look back on myself and I can say, I'm not behaving the way that I feel called to behave.
SPEAKER_05: There's a gap between who I am and who I feel called to be, who I want to be.
SPEAKER_05: And in this story, we get a role model.
SPEAKER_05: We get Jesus showing us how to engage this gap, this beautiful gap.
SPEAKER_05: I mean, we come here proclaiming, worshiping God, saying we want to follow this risen Lord.
SPEAKER_05: We want to be Christians.
SPEAKER_05: We want to leave here, but we need a captive image in our head about what that wants to be.
SPEAKER_05: How do I want to be as a Christian husband?
SPEAKER_05: How do I want to be as a Christian father?
SPEAKER_05: How do I want to be as a Christian friend or a member of St.
SPEAKER_05: Thomas the Apostle?
SPEAKER_05: And we have this ability to see ourselves differently.
SPEAKER_05: And then unfortunately, we have this ability to see how we're not that all of the time.
SPEAKER_05: We start seeing the gaps.
SPEAKER_05: And so what do we do with that gap?
SPEAKER_05: Well, most of the times I ignore it.
SPEAKER_05: I do.
SPEAKER_05: Well, I look for the little gaps.
SPEAKER_05: I look for the small ones.
SPEAKER_05: I don't want to see the big gaps, right?
SPEAKER_05: But I think the invitation we get here is what does it mean for us to be faithful and engaging that?
SPEAKER_05: This isn't Jesus failing.
SPEAKER_05: This is Jesus growing and living more deeply into his relationship with God and understanding more fully what it means.
SPEAKER_05: This large thing that is unfolding and happening.
SPEAKER_05: And, friends, this doesn't take away from that God I was talking about earlier.
SPEAKER_05: The Gospel of John God.
SPEAKER_05: They're not in competition, they're just in tension.
SPEAKER_05: We can hold both of them at the same time.
SPEAKER_05: We can believe in the God that is there and understands that is perfect and beautiful, and we can also hold up to Jesus that role models for us how we live into the gap between who we are and who we want to be.
SPEAKER_05: And the thing that is so beautiful about this is he didn't blame, he didn't get angry, he just changed.
SPEAKER_05: I imagine he apologized, and that didn't make it in the story.
SPEAKER_05: I mean, I imagine that, at least in my head, he was like, yeah, I'm really sorry.
SPEAKER_05: That was a little impulsive.
SPEAKER_05: Sort of tried to get away.
SPEAKER_05: But he he changed.
SPEAKER_05: He made a choice.
SPEAKER_05: He took the information in.
SPEAKER_05: And so, how do we do more of that?
SPEAKER_05: That's this whole long, all these words of talking, this is where I want to get to.
SPEAKER_05: How do we do more of that?
SPEAKER_05: And I think the answer is the same answer that I come to all of the time.
SPEAKER_05: We start with grace.
SPEAKER_05: So my current definition of grace, because it's changed many times, and I hold this up to St.
SPEAKER_05: Brene Brown.
SPEAKER_05: I know that you guys like Brene here, so St.
SPEAKER_05: Brene Brown, I'm going to hold her up.
SPEAKER_05: Is grace's permission to never change the question to am I worthy of love again?
SPEAKER_05: You see, the problem is when we engage this gap between who we are and who we want to be, right?
SPEAKER_05: It's a painful gap.
SPEAKER_05: Am I the only one that knows this gap and knows how painful it is?
SPEAKER_05: Raise your hand if you know this gap and you know how painful it is.
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
SPEAKER_05: Good.
SPEAKER_05: I'll just talk to myself.
SPEAKER_05: It's a painful moment, and I will have the temptation in the midst of that pain, right, to go even more deeply into the pain and say, well, this is just an example of why I'm not worthy of love.
SPEAKER_05: This is just an example of how I don't have a table to sit at a junior high.
SPEAKER_05: This is another example of why I'm always going to be like, you can turn this into, I am not worthy of love and belonging, I am no good.
SPEAKER_05: It is easy to do that, so we will avoid it.
SPEAKER_05: But if we start with grace, if if grace is permission to not do that, grace is God saying that nothing can separate you from the love of God, not height, nor depth, power, principality, nothing.
SPEAKER_05: You are worthy and lovely and made in the image of God.
SPEAKER_05: Don't change the question.
SPEAKER_05: You're loved.
SPEAKER_05: Heart stop or none.
SPEAKER_05: That's what grace is.
SPEAKER_05: So if I know that, then I have permission to really lean into that space.
SPEAKER_05: To really open myself up and say, well, where is that coming from?
SPEAKER_05: Why did I do that?
SPEAKER_05: What is the thing that I'm not knowing?
SPEAKER_05: What's the hurt or pain here that needs to be healed?
SPEAKER_05: What's the choice that I can make now to move towards reconciliation to healing, to live more fully into that vision?
SPEAKER_05: You can lean into that without shame.
SPEAKER_05: We can all hold up that we are not only beings, we are becomings.
SPEAKER_05: And we are moving more deeply into the image God has called us to be.
SPEAKER_05: And that's okay.
SPEAKER_05: And forgiveness reigns.
SPEAKER_05: That's an aside.
SPEAKER_05: This is why I think when they asked Jesus how many times you should forgive, he was like, yeah, that's the thing.
SPEAKER_05: Always.
SPEAKER_05: There can never be a moment where you don't forgive.
SPEAKER_05: And it's because of things like this where he role models and challenges us, because it might include you apologizing.
SPEAKER_05: It probably will.
SPEAKER_05: I mean, genuinely.
SPEAKER_05: So I want to be grateful this morning for that God.
SPEAKER_05: I want to be grateful for the God who role models that it's okay for us to be people who are becoming.
SPEAKER_05: It's okay for us to have captive visions.
SPEAKER_05: Thanks be to God about who we want to be.
SPEAKER_05: Thank you, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, for that.
SPEAKER_05: And it's also okay to be becoming that.
SPEAKER_05: It's okay to fall short of that.
SPEAKER_05: And when those moments happen, you're gonna leave here.
SPEAKER_05: And this week, I today probably.
SPEAKER_05: Every day I have one of these moments, but for certain this week, you're going to have a moment where this is revealed to you.
SPEAKER_05: The do as I say, not as I'm like, oh wow.
SPEAKER_05: I'm not, I'm acting just like the Pharisees were.
SPEAKER_05: Jesus realized, I'm doing the exact same thing the Pharisees were doing.
SPEAKER_05: I just was teaching them something else, and I'm doing it right now.
SPEAKER_05: And he changed.
SPEAKER_05: You're gonna have a moment where there's an inconsistency.
SPEAKER_05: And I want you to not fear that moment.
SPEAKER_05: I want you to not let shame run into that moment.
SPEAKER_05: I want you to lean into that moment.
SPEAKER_05: I want you to invite yourself, invite God in, remind yourself that you're worthy of love and belonging.
SPEAKER_05: And then I want you to change.
SPEAKER_05: Even if it's just a little bit.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.
SPEAKER_05: We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God for God, life for life, true God, true God, begotten not made, of one being with the Father.
SPEAKER_05: Through him all things were made.
SPEAKER_05: For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven by the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_05: He became incarnate from the Virgin Mary and was made man.
SPEAKER_05: For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate.
SPEAKER_05: He suffered death and was buried.
SPEAKER_05: On the third day he rose again, according to the scriptures.
SPEAKER_05: He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
SPEAKER_05: He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
SPEAKER_05: We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
SPEAKER_05: With the Father and the Son, He is worshipped and glorified.
SPEAKER_05: He has spoken through the prophets.
SPEAKER_05: We believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church.
SPEAKER_05: We acknowledge one baptism, the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_05: We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_06: We are humbled by the good that you can do through us when we give ourselves over to you.
SPEAKER_06: Keep us close to you that we may be unafraid to speak your truth.
SPEAKER_06: Make your church quick to listen for your voice as we move forward as doers of the word.
SPEAKER_06: We pray for all bishops, priests, and deacons, for those who support your mission of mercy in the world, those who teach, and those who take your word into their hearts.
SPEAKER_06: Pray for the church.
SPEAKER_06: We are living on a vast and diverse planet.
SPEAKER_06: Guide those who guide others, that they may genuinely be concerned about the welfare of their people.
SPEAKER_06: Open our ears to the cries of your people who suffer in dark corners of this world, and open our hands to reach out to them with generous spirits and pray over the world.
SPEAKER_06: We are burdened by illnesses, anxieties, addictions, and broken relationships.
SPEAKER_06: Cover us with your grace and compassion.
SPEAKER_06: Drive far from us the fear which keeps us from trusting your goodness.
SPEAKER_06: We ask you to heal those who suffer, especially those on our courage earnest.
SPEAKER_06: Pray for those who are suffering.
SPEAKER_06: We are grieved by the loss of those who have died, but give us confidence in your promise of endless life with you, surrounded by your glory and accompanied by your saints and angels.
SPEAKER_06: Pray for those who have died.
SPEAKER_06: We are astounded beyond measure by your creative powers, O God, and celebrate the mystery of all your creation.
SPEAKER_06: But most of all, we celebrate the mystery of your love and care for us, for the gift of your Son and the encouragement of your Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_05: Forgive what our lips tremble to name, what our hearts can no longer bear, and what has become for us a consuming fire of judgment.
SPEAKER_05: Set us free from pasts that we cannot change, and open to us a future in which we can be changed.
SPEAKER_05: And grant us grace to grow more and more in your likeness and image.
SPEAKER_05: Through Jesus Christ, the light of the world.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: May the almighty and compassionate God grant you absolution and remission of all of your sin, true repentance, amendment of life, and the grace and consolation of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: My friends, the peace of our Lord be always with you.
SPEAKER_01: So we have a record of your visit.
SPEAKER_01: And thanks for worshiping with us today.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not supposed to be here, but uh when the doctor tells you get up and walk, um that's all I needed to hear.
SPEAKER_01: So uh so uh but a special, a special thank you uh to John and Becky for coming down from Spring.
SPEAKER_01: Really appreciate your and I this means that I will be here next week, probably too, unless something goes bad.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm really grateful for your prayers from my surgery on Friday and everything so far.
SPEAKER_01: So good.
SPEAKER_01: Uh a few announcements I want to just call to your attention.
SPEAKER_01: Yesterday uh we had our uh regular food distribution here in the parking lot, and um really lovely weather was quite a gift uh for September.
SPEAKER_01: And as usual, we fed um more than 400 people in uh two hours, and so uh again, the the fact that we continue to set a new record or almost set a new record every month we do this is just confirmation for the need you're serving in this community.
SPEAKER_01: So, whether you were here or not, thank you for supporting this beautiful ministry of sharing food with those in need.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you'll see a little handout that was right next to the bulletins that will tell you some of the opportunities coming up, but there's a few that there aren't on there that I want to raise to you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh one is that uh Bishop Monterosso, our regional bishop, will be coming to do confirmation with us uh in the beginning of November.
SPEAKER_01: So if you have any interest in confirmation or reception or renewing your vows, remember this is one of the rites wherein we say this is the way of faith I'm claiming for myself.
SPEAKER_01: I intend to walk it with fidelity and energy and joy.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and if you would like to reclaim that or claim it for the first time with Christian Monterosso, well, that'll be November the 6th.
SPEAKER_01: Please email Alex or I, and we're setting up a confirmation class for those who are interested.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe you say, hey, I'm already confirmed, but I'd like to explore what's the history of the Episcopal Church and how do we use the Bible, and I have all these other questions.
SPEAKER_01: Um, this is a great opportunity for you.
SPEAKER_01: So email Alex or I about that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh the other opportunity I want to make sure you know of is that we're getting ready to do a read-through of N.
SPEAKER_01: T.
SPEAKER_01: Wright's biography of Paul.
SPEAKER_01: It's a really long book, but don't worry.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we are going to take our time and we're going to go through all the Pauline letters, and N.
SPEAKER_01: T.
SPEAKER_01: Wright does an extraordinary way of uh opening a lens of the Paul.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you've heard Paul doesn't like women, then this study would be good for you.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you've heard that Paul uh, you know, just winks around telling other people what to do.
SPEAKER_01: This study would be good for you.
SPEAKER_01: So that's where it's start at the end of the month, and I promise it will be life-giving.
SPEAKER_01: We'll do it on Sunday mornings in between services.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, so you'll see that in the e-news, but it didn't make the little announcement sheet, and I just want to raise your attention to it because I've enjoyed MT Rights work so much myself.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, uh really special thing we get to do today, and I'm really glad I'm here to do it because uh I know probably as well as anybody else in the building how much uh these these ladies of the order do for us and for the community.
SPEAKER_01: So we are going to have a service of admission for our new daughters of the king.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to ask all of our daughters, past present, to come on up to the rail, and we will have this service.
SPEAKER_01: As they're coming, uh, maybe you have not had a funeral in St.
SPEAKER_01: Thomas, but if you have, these are the women who put on incredible hospitality that is overly generous.
SPEAKER_01: Uh they greet you at the door, uh, they put on a reception without asking for anything in return.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you've asked for prayers.
SPEAKER_01: These are the women who are praying for you without you knowing, but know that they are praying for you.
SPEAKER_01: And these are the women who gather each month to renew their commitment through study.
SPEAKER_01: So we'll hear more about the daughters and the service, but we really couldn't do what we do without you.
SPEAKER_01: So tremendous gratitude for the daughters.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Jane, as president, are you going to start as the presenter?
SPEAKER_01: We are gathered here in the sight of God and before this congregation to admit these women into the order of the daughters of the king.
SPEAKER_01: We commend them, congregation, to your earnest prayers, that they may have grace to fulfill the invitations of the order, that their labors may be to the glory of God and to the welfare of God's people.
SPEAKER_01: The Daughters of the King is an order for women whose mission is the extension of Christ's kingdom, especially among women and girls, through prayer, service, and evangelism.
SPEAKER_01: So I ask you, new daughters, but I ask you current daughters to renew your vows.
SPEAKER_01: Do you desire to become a member of the order of the daughters of the king?
SPEAKER_01: Do you promise to faithfully live into the two rules of the order, the rule of prayer and the rule of service, to offer your support to the clergy for the good of the parish and the extension of God's family?
SPEAKER_01: So, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, I receive and admit thee new members into the Order of the Daughters of the King and renew previous members.
SPEAKER_01: I renew your vows of service and commitment.
SPEAKER_01: Congregation, this is for you, and your answer is going to be we will.
SPEAKER_01: Please admit it.
SPEAKER_01: Will you support these women in their ministry of prayer and service?
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm going to bless these crosses because many of you know that our daughters wear a sign of the order that's a cross, either as a pen or a necklace.
SPEAKER_01: Bless the Lord these crosses.
SPEAKER_01: And grant to your servants now admitted into this order such an abundance of your grace that they may wear this sacred symbol in the spirit of humility and with devotion to the service of the King of Kings.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: May your love, O Lord, help the daughters live lives of love, and may your holiness lead them to be examples of virtue, that they, strengthened by your Holy Spirit, may pray and serve you all their days through Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: The blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be upon you this day and remain with you always.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: As members of the Order of the Daughters of the King, your duty this coming term is to cooperate with the officers you have chosen and to work together to fulfill the rules of prayer and service here in this congregation and beyond.
SPEAKER_01: And even as you richly bless us, may God richly bless you in all your efforts to the glory of God's family.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Now continue to walk in love.
SPEAKER_01: As Christ first loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God.
SPEAKER_04: Lift up your heart.
SPEAKER_04: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
SPEAKER_05: It is very meatright in our founding duty that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee, O Lord, Holy Father, Almighty, everlasting God.
SPEAKER_05: Through Jesus Christ our Lord, according to whose promise the Holy Ghost came down from heaven, lighting upon the disciples to teach them and to lead them into all truth, uniting peoples of many tongues in the confession of one faith, and giving to thy church the power to serve thee as a royal priesthood, and to preach the gospel to all nations.
SPEAKER_05: Therefore, with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious name evermore praising thee and singing.
SPEAKER_05: And of thy tender mercy didst give thine only Son, Jesus Christ, to take our nature upon him, and to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption.
SPEAKER_05: He made there a full and perfect sacrifice for the whole world, and did institute, and in his holy gospel command us to continue a perpetual memory of that, his precious death and sacrifice, until his coming again.
SPEAKER_05: For on the night at which he was betrayed, he took bread, and when he had given thanks to thee, he broke it, and he gave it to his disciples, saying, Take, eat.
SPEAKER_05: This is my body which is given for you.
SPEAKER_05: Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_05: Likewise, after supper, he took the cup.
SPEAKER_05: And when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink this all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for all for the remission of sins.
SPEAKER_05: Do this as oft as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_05: Wherefore, O Lord and Heavenly Father, we thy people do celebrate and make with these thy holy gifts, which we now offer unto thee.
SPEAKER_05: The memorial of thy son hath commanded us to make, having in remembrance his blessed passion and precious death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension, and looking for his coming again with power and great glory.
SPEAKER_05: And we most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us, and with thy word and Holy Spirit to bless and sanctify these gifts of bread and wine, that they may be unto us the body and blood of thy dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_05: And we earnestly desire thy fatherly goodness to accept this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, whereby we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies.
SPEAKER_05: Grant, we beseech thee that all who partake of this holy communion may worthily receive the most precious body and blood of thy Son, Jesus Christ, and be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction.
SPEAKER_05: And also that we and all thy whole church may be made one body with him, that he may dwell in us, and we in him, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, for it is by whom and with whom and in whom, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honor and glory be unto thee, O Father Almighty, world without end.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to pray.
SPEAKER_05: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trust, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
SPEAKER_05: Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.
SPEAKER_05: Forever and ever.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: Hallelujah, Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us.
SPEAKER_05: Therefore, let us keep the feast.
SPEAKER_05: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_05: My friends, these are the gifts of God, and you are the people of God.
SPEAKER_05: Feed on them in your heart by faith with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_05: Lord Jesus Christ, you have put your life into our hands.
SPEAKER_05: Now we put our lives into yours.
SPEAKER_05: Take us, renew, and make us.
SPEAKER_05: What we have been in the past, what we shall be, through you, still awaits us.
SPEAKER_05: Lead us on, take us with you.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: If you stand at the edge of this blessing and call down into it, you will hear your words return to you.
SPEAKER_05: If you lean in and listen close, you will hear this blessing give the story of your life back to you.
SPEAKER_05: Quiet your voice, quiet your judgment, quiet the way you always tell your story to yourself.
SPEAKER_05: Quiet all these, and you will hear the whole of it and the hollows of it.
SPEAKER_05: The spaces in the telling, the gaps where you hesitate to go, sit at the rim of this blessing.
SPEAKER_05: Press your ear to its lips, its sides, its curves that were carved out long ago by those whose thirst drove them deep.
SPEAKER_05: Those who dug into the layers with only their hands and hope.
SPEAKER_05: Rest yourself beside this blessing, and you will begin to hear the sound of water entering the gaps.
SPEAKER_05: Still yourself, and you will feel it rising up within you, filling every hollow, springing forth anew.
SPEAKER_05: My friends, the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be with you this day and remain with you always.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
SPEAKER_05: Thanks be to God.