SPEAKER_06: Let's be God.
SPEAKER_06: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_06: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_06: Almighty God.
unknown: All the time.
unknown: And we're looking at the highly day.
SPEAKER_06: Almighty and everlasting God, Christ, you have revealed your glory among the nations.
SPEAKER_06: Preserve the works of your mercy that your church throughout the world may persevere with steadfast faith in the confession of your name.
SPEAKER_06: Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
SPEAKER_06: As you be exceeded, our children are invited to the children's church in the back of the Mr.
SPEAKER_06: Calvinist.
SPEAKER_01: A reading from Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: But you have not let me know what you have said with me.
SPEAKER_01: You have said, I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.
SPEAKER_01: Now if I have found favor in your sight, show me your way, so that I may know you and find favor in your sight.
SPEAKER_01: Consider too that this nation is your people, he said, My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_01: He said to him, If your presence will not go, do not carry us out from here.
SPEAKER_01: For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, and I your people, unless you go with us.
SPEAKER_01: In this way we shall be distinct, I and your people from every people on the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord said to Moses, I will do the very thing that you have asked, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you my name.
SPEAKER_01: Moses said, Show me your glory, I pray.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name of the Lord, and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
SPEAKER_01: But he said, You cannot see my face, for no one shall see me and live.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord continued, See, there is a place by me where you should stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft on the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by.
SPEAKER_01: Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.
SPEAKER_01: The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: The Lord is sovereign.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is great in Zion.
SPEAKER_01: Let them confess the name of the Lord, which is great and awesome.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is all.
SPEAKER_01: Moses and Aaron among your priests, and Samuel among those who will call upon your name.
SPEAKER_01: You spoke to them out of the pillar of cloud.
SPEAKER_02: Paul, Sylvanus, and Timothy, to the Church of the Thessalonians and God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Grace to you and peace.
SPEAKER_02: We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father, your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: For we know, brothers and sisters, beloved by God, and He has chosen you because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also with power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction, just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake.
SPEAKER_02: And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Anica.
SPEAKER_02: For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaea, but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it.
SPEAKER_02: And how you turned to God for life, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_06: The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said.
SPEAKER_06: So they sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that you are sincere and teach the way of God in accordance with truth.
SPEAKER_06: Show deference to no one, for you do not regard people with partiality.
SPEAKER_06: Tell us then what you think.
SPEAKER_06: Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?
SPEAKER_06: The Jews, as aware of their malice, said, Why are you putting me to the test of hypocrites?
SPEAKER_06: Show me the coin used for the tax.
SPEAKER_06: And they brought him a denarius, and then he said to them, Whose head is this and whose title?
SPEAKER_06: And they answered, the emperors.
SPEAKER_06: And then he said to them, Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperors, and to God the things that are gods.
SPEAKER_06: And they heard this, they were amazed, and they left him and went away.
SPEAKER_06: The gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_06: But just to set the scene maybe a little bit better, I wanted you to remember this is holy week.
SPEAKER_06: So this discourse is happening in the Jerusalem Temple.
SPEAKER_06: And you probably know on Palm Sunday, Jesus goes in and drives out the money changers, right?
SPEAKER_06: This is like a well-known story.
SPEAKER_06: And but not everybody recognizes what the money changers were doing.
SPEAKER_06: You know, there's one of those ten words that says no graven images.
SPEAKER_06: Well, that especially applied to the Jerusalem temple.
SPEAKER_06: So when people went up there to conduct business, they couldn't rent coins that had pictures on them.
SPEAKER_06: They needed to go to the money changer, who would change the denarius.
SPEAKER_06: That's like a day's wage, probably the coin we're talking about in this story, for a coin of pure silver, no image.
SPEAKER_06: Because graven images are idolaters, particularly this one, the denarius, likely, is either depicting Tiberius Caesar or his predecessor Augustus Caesar.
SPEAKER_06: The coin reads, the title, Jesus refers to something like Tiberius Caesar, and then on the bottom this interesting phrase, Pontifus Maximus.
SPEAKER_06: You don't have to be a crack at Latin.
SPEAKER_06: You know Maximus means like the big one, and Pontiff, maybe you recognize as the Pope in Rome.
SPEAKER_06: The Pontiff is the high priest.
SPEAKER_06: So the point says Tiberius is not only the emperor, he's also the high priest.
SPEAKER_06: And the August one, he is a deity himself.
SPEAKER_06: Now, this was an interesting exchange because the Pharisees and the Herodians in this story, as you know, are not trying to learn anything.
SPEAKER_06: They're trying to trick Jesus into, you know, sort of a double bind, right?
SPEAKER_06: Say yes, and you're a bad guy, say no, and you're a rebel.
SPEAKER_06: And so Jesus calls them hypocrites for the following reason.
SPEAKER_06: He says, show me the coin, which they shouldn't have.
SPEAKER_06: You shouldn't have that coin up on the Temple Mount, because that's idolatrous.
SPEAKER_06: You're breaking the ten words.
SPEAKER_06: So they pull one out, now they look bad, right?
SPEAKER_06: Because they've got this bad money.
SPEAKER_06: And the coin says, the emperor is God and the high priest, and Jesus says this rather interesting thing, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_06: Give to the emperor and the high priest what belongs to him.
SPEAKER_06: But give to God what belongs to God.
SPEAKER_06: I like that song.
SPEAKER_06: I hope you've enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_06: Is it lawful to pay taxes?
SPEAKER_06: Isn't that great?
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, we usually complain about it, but honestly, like when our taxes are well spent, we appreciate it, right?
SPEAKER_06: That tends to be the issue.
SPEAKER_06: Not whether we should collect them, but what do we do with them.
SPEAKER_06: And I think that's probably not a bad frame for thinking about the stewardship invitation that we get once again.
SPEAKER_06: Stewardship, not just of our money, but honestly, as we think about who belongs to whom and what belongs to what, that's always the question.
SPEAKER_06: So, I as we talked about the last couple of weeks, belonging's a funny thing, whereas in general, we're happy to say everything belongs to God, but then we make our own decisions, don't we, at the end of the day?
SPEAKER_06: And usually we make them according to like what we think is best.
SPEAKER_06: And I'm not saying that's necessarily wrong.
SPEAKER_06: I mean, I'm gonna go out and do that today, but I think it is interesting to think about a little bit more about belonging to God and what stewardship of belonging looks like.
SPEAKER_06: So, um thing to suggest, if we do indeed all belong to God, do we kind of agree on that point, by the way?
SPEAKER_06: It's not that controversial, is it?
SPEAKER_06: What's great is that if we belong to God, uh, good news for you, you will always belong to God no matter what you do.
SPEAKER_06: There's no way really not to belong to God, is there?
SPEAKER_06: I mean, just logically speaking, who else is there to belong to?
SPEAKER_06: Which might just mean that your neighbor also belongs to God.
SPEAKER_06: And it might also mean that your neighbor, therefore, belongs to you, as you'll hear next week.
SPEAKER_06: But maybe we should just split the script a little bit because it's belonging to, maybe not as that helpful as belonging with.
SPEAKER_06: This is the language that Moses uses.
SPEAKER_06: Moses says, God, you just set us free, and I want you to go with us so we can be a unique people to the earth.
SPEAKER_06: Don't stay here on the mountain and do stuff for us.
SPEAKER_06: I want you to come with us.
SPEAKER_06: Now, if I'm honest, I like to pray that God will do things for me.
SPEAKER_06: I want God to do stuff for me.
SPEAKER_06: And if you come in with a problem, I really would like to do something for you.
SPEAKER_06: And I know I said this, it is obeyings.
SPEAKER_06: We love to do for other people.
SPEAKER_06: Just don't try to do something for us, right?
SPEAKER_06: That's the spirituality many of us inhabit.
SPEAKER_06: Because that comes with doing stuff for people.
SPEAKER_06: But I hope you'll consider a different stewardship about doing stuff with folk.
SPEAKER_06: I mean at the end of the day, what did God do for you?
SPEAKER_06: Well, the thing God did, right, is took this whole thing that we're worried about, like sin and unworthiness.
SPEAKER_06: God did that for you, so you don't gotta worry about it.
SPEAKER_06: Like that's already happened.
SPEAKER_06: You're gonna hear it in the Eucharistic prayer.
SPEAKER_06: The old one.
SPEAKER_06: This isn't a new idea.
SPEAKER_06: This comes right out of the 28th prayer book, so this is like a 95-year-old idea that Jesus made a perfect sacrifice for some of the world.
SPEAKER_06: No, it's gonna say for the whole world.
SPEAKER_06: God did that for you.
SPEAKER_06: The point of that is so that now God can be with you.
SPEAKER_06: If you're like me, you might rather God did stuff for you than be with you.
SPEAKER_06: Because at the end of the day, when Jesus left the earth, there's still hungry folk.
SPEAKER_06: There's still people who are sick and suffering.
SPEAKER_06: And sometimes we get confused about that, but God's decided not to solve those problems for us.
SPEAKER_06: I was interviewing Charlie Bolden a little bit.
SPEAKER_06: There's a couple nods.
SPEAKER_06: Charlie Bolden's an interesting guy because he'll just tell you right what he's thinking.
SPEAKER_06: Um, I guess when you're the heaven asset, you can't, right?
SPEAKER_06: So uh he did.
SPEAKER_06: He said, you know, a lot of times we pray to God to fix our stuff, and God says, you fix it.
SPEAKER_06: Which is really interesting, isn't it?
SPEAKER_06: Sometimes, a lot of times, I get upset that God doesn't answer my prayer because I'm asking God to fix my problems.
SPEAKER_06: Or even more insidious, I'm asking God to fix my neighbor.
SPEAKER_06: Well, because they're wrong.
SPEAKER_06: I know that because they don't think like me.
SPEAKER_06: And this spirituality of fixing, I just think it's darn poor stewardship.
SPEAKER_06: I do.
SPEAKER_06: And I think it's a spirituality that I am so immersed in that I almost don't know how to do it any other way.
SPEAKER_06: Let's think about the mystery of our faith, and maybe this works better at Christmas time.
SPEAKER_06: How did God decide to be with us?
SPEAKER_06: Well, to be born in a staple.
SPEAKER_06: How did God decide to be with us to be hungry?
SPEAKER_06: To be lonely, to die abandoned by folk.
SPEAKER_06: God decided to do that.
SPEAKER_06: That's how God said, I'll be with you.
SPEAKER_06: Honestly, a lot of our relationships, especially when we think about caring for people in whom we see a need, because they're not like us.
SPEAKER_06: That means they're needy because they're not like me.
SPEAKER_06: Comes from a spirituality of doing four.
SPEAKER_06: And it comes from this idea, right, that God is the great fixer in heaven who came to just fix all this stuff up.
SPEAKER_06: And it comes from this other idea that everybody else in the world, and sometimes us too, right, are broken people.
SPEAKER_06: We are broken.
SPEAKER_06: I will fix you when you're broken.
SPEAKER_06: It's just not actually the gospel.
SPEAKER_06: It's what I want to do.
SPEAKER_06: And that's really different to what God has chosen to do.
SPEAKER_06: So let me give you a truth.
SPEAKER_06: You all have brokenness in you.
SPEAKER_06: All of you have brokenness in your lives, and that doesn't mean you're broken.
SPEAKER_06: Those are different things.
SPEAKER_06: Being broken and having brokenness are different things.
SPEAKER_06: Often it is, so my spiritual director tells me, that God is actually trying to break us open.
SPEAKER_06: And we're so scared that God is trying to break us apart that we resist.
SPEAKER_06: You ever been broken open and you sure thought you were being broken apart?
SPEAKER_06: A lot of resistance, a lot of fear.
SPEAKER_06: No, perhaps instead, God has chosen to be with us, and here's a stewardship piece: God invites us in our stewardship to be with one another, which is a lot harder than being for somebody else.
SPEAKER_06: So, let me tell you two stories.
SPEAKER_06: I don't want to belabor the point.
SPEAKER_06: The first one, perhaps you've heard.
SPEAKER_06: Once upon a time, I used to take youth to do youth group missions, and let's just be honest, it's called mission tourism.
SPEAKER_06: I don't even want to call it something other than that.
SPEAKER_06: It's a tourist trip with a particular kind of tourist activity.
SPEAKER_06: And we had wise people who told us the work is the excuse.
SPEAKER_06: There's wisdom in that.
SPEAKER_06: The work is the excuse to get to know somebody you would never else get to know who you probably think less of based on the way that they live.
SPEAKER_06: So there we were in Appalachia fixing a lady's trailer, and we were giving her a new kitchen.
SPEAKER_06: And let me tell you, I know how to do stuff for people.
SPEAKER_06: So she had some countertop problems.
SPEAKER_06: I was gonna give her a new countertop, I was gonna tile it, and I didn't have a tile saw.
SPEAKER_06: So this was working really great until I got a space this wide and there was no tile to fit that.
SPEAKER_06: So I used a masonry blade and I tried to undo that.
SPEAKER_06: You need a web, you need a web blade, right?
SPEAKER_06: Ultimately I got this great idea.
SPEAKER_06: You know, the tile is the best counter, it's gonna be dirty.
SPEAKER_06: I was really giving this lady a good standard of living by giving her a tile countertop instead of a laminate one.
SPEAKER_06: I decided I was gonna make a pretty mosaic and a tile by breaking tiles with a hammer on my own down.
SPEAKER_06: And I said, you know, to the lady, hey, we're gonna make this mosaic, it's gonna be an art piece, like these are the best possible countertops.
SPEAKER_06: And I believed this, what I was saying.
SPEAKER_06: I did, I did, and actually I'd still tell you, it's better than anything else we could have done.
SPEAKER_06: Given her sealed tile countertops, right?
SPEAKER_06: I said, it's gonna be okay, it's gonna be great, it's just gonna be okay with you.
SPEAKER_06: And she said to me, just do whatever you do in your own house.
SPEAKER_06: I mean, I've got stainless steel countertops in my house.
SPEAKER_06: That's what I'd do.
SPEAKER_06: I'd do that.
SPEAKER_06: Or, you know, I would get quartz because, hey, unlike granite, it doesn't chip and it's got a low ugly stone thing, got really good longevity, right?
SPEAKER_06: Do what you do in your own house.
SPEAKER_06: Well, sorry, the countertop would be worth more than the trailer if I did that.
SPEAKER_06: I was a little disarmed by that.
SPEAKER_06: So look, I did a great job, and then what I realized is the lady was actually calling me to the point of the gospel.
SPEAKER_06: She wanted me to do that for her.
SPEAKER_06: We were gonna leave, and we were gonna be gone, and her life was gonna be what it was.
SPEAKER_06: Living on the margins.
SPEAKER_06: Without insurance, low income, no real job prospects.
SPEAKER_06: I mean, we're talking about Appalachia.
SPEAKER_06: Have you been there before?
SPEAKER_06: There's a reason there's despair, there's not hope.
SPEAKER_06: Do what you do at your house.
SPEAKER_06: Well, shoot, I'd go get a different degree.
SPEAKER_06: That's what I'd do.
SPEAKER_06: Or I'd call in a favor from a friend who had assets so that I could get a short term home.
SPEAKER_06: That's what I'd do at my house.
SPEAKER_06: She didn't have those people in her life.
SPEAKER_06: Didn't have that.
SPEAKER_06: Well, at the end of the day, I thought I was giving her a great house, and really what she wanted is somebody to treat her like a human being.
SPEAKER_06: She wanted somebody to be with her.
SPEAKER_06: Because there wasn't anybody looked like me being with her.
SPEAKER_06: I blew it.
SPEAKER_06: I'm just going to tell you, I blew it because I thought about that countertop way too much.
SPEAKER_06: I'm glad I gave her the countertop.
SPEAKER_06: I want to be clear.
SPEAKER_06: I missed a chance that working for people is really an excuse to be with them.
SPEAKER_06: We had a great party yesterday.
SPEAKER_06: We did.
SPEAKER_06: It was a great party.
SPEAKER_06: And by the way, let me warn you, I don't have a good conclusion.
SPEAKER_06: I'm just going to tell you a problem we don't talk about because we don't know the answer to it, but I'm just going to tell you a problem.
SPEAKER_06: Is that okay?
SPEAKER_06: So maybe I shouldn't do this.
SPEAKER_06: We had a great party yesterday.
SPEAKER_06: It really was good.
SPEAKER_06: There was great weather, it was a good spirit, it was really inclusive, and there was a guy who was resource poor who came to the party.
SPEAKER_06: And he asked if he could have a lunch, and we gave it to him, right?
SPEAKER_06: And he enjoyed the day with us.
SPEAKER_06: People talked to him, they were super kind.
SPEAKER_06: And we came to the end of the day and he said, I need to ask you a question.
SPEAKER_06: Can you get me a place to stay tonight?
SPEAKER_06: So, look, my brain went right in to fix it, but I told him to say a truth, which I want to make sure you hear.
SPEAKER_06: There is no place in Clear Lake that does that.
SPEAKER_06: There's no shelter, there's no transitional living, none of that.
SPEAKER_06: I mean, what did we say?
SPEAKER_06: Hey, if you really want that, you're gonna have to go downtown.
SPEAKER_06: That's where they had that.
SPEAKER_06: Like I maybe would go to Star of Hope.
SPEAKER_06: That's 25 miles away, right?
SPEAKER_06: And it's two o'clock.
SPEAKER_06: And look, I don't I don't want to ruin the story.
SPEAKER_06: I got the guy a hotel night.
SPEAKER_06: I got him a night at a hotel.
SPEAKER_06: I did.
SPEAKER_06: That's how I fixed that problem.
SPEAKER_06: Except he's gonna have that problem tonight, too, you know?
SPEAKER_06: So what did I fix?
SPEAKER_06: About nothing.
SPEAKER_06: And sometimes I'll tell you, people come to me as a priest and they want to think, and the fixes, the fix is meeting your need for today, because that's all I can do.
SPEAKER_06: Because I don't have a place to send you, I don't have job training, I don't know how to meaningfully actually fix what I think is broken in your life.
SPEAKER_06: I just know, I don't mean it as hard as it sounds, I know how to get you somewhere else for now.
SPEAKER_06: This is a thing that we struggle with, and I'm using an extreme example, right?
SPEAKER_06: Because sometimes we get people asking us for hands up or hands out, and we don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_06: And look, like Humpty Dumpty's, we don't know how to put Humpty Humpty together back here because there's not places you can go.
SPEAKER_06: Like we just don't have resources, and we don't have agencies, and what does it mean to add a bridge out of poverty instead of one night in a hotel when tomorrow where are you gonna go?
SPEAKER_06: And I'll tell you, sometimes I really like to go so much into fix-it mode that I forget that I have an opportunity to be with somebody, to be with somebody.
SPEAKER_06: And you know, it can be really disappointing to be with somebody when we can't fix the brokenness we perceive.
SPEAKER_06: But yeah, this guy got to come to a great party and hopefully enjoy himself with people who were open and accepting.
SPEAKER_06: And I'll actually tell you, that's probably more valuable than the night at the hotel that he also got.
SPEAKER_06: I I think that.
SPEAKER_06: I actually think that.
SPEAKER_06: Sometimes, honestly, when our friends come to us with a problem, we think they're broken, and here we are.
SPEAKER_06: It's our job to fix them.
SPEAKER_06: Instead of maybe they're asking us to do this old thing that God decided to do that would be unique among the nations.
SPEAKER_06: That's what Moses says.
SPEAKER_06: To be with them.
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, but listening to somebody's discomfort and not doing anything about it, I mean, wow, that doesn't seem very Christian.
SPEAKER_06: I'm not broken.
SPEAKER_06: I got lots of brokenness in me.
SPEAKER_06: You can't fix me.
SPEAKER_06: You can't.
SPEAKER_06: Hell, if you could, you'd have done it already, right?
SPEAKER_06: You've had eight years to fix me and I'm still me.
SPEAKER_06: But sometimes, sometimes, I think we get the steward adaptationship right and we say, I'm not threatened by your pain.
SPEAKER_06: I'm not.
SPEAKER_06: I actually can be with it.
SPEAKER_06: I don't have to make it even go away.
SPEAKER_06: I can actually just sort of be with it.
SPEAKER_06: I don't even have to take it home with me.
SPEAKER_06: I can be with it for now.
SPEAKER_06: I don't know what the fix is.
SPEAKER_06: See, I don't know what the fix is.
SPEAKER_06: I just know more often than not.
SPEAKER_06: That's what I think about.
SPEAKER_06: That's what I've been trained to think about.
SPEAKER_06: If my child has a problem, how do I fix it?
SPEAKER_06: Instead of, how do I be with that?
SPEAKER_06: Somebody votes differently from me.
SPEAKER_06: I really want to fix that.
SPEAKER_06: I don't even know how to be with it.
SPEAKER_06: I don't know how to be with people who think that school vouchers are a great idea.
SPEAKER_06: I don't know how to do that.
SPEAKER_06: I've heard the arguments, I don't know how to do that.
SPEAKER_06: So I choose not to be with them because I don't know how.
SPEAKER_06: Then maybe part of the stewardship we're being invited is to think about it's okay if you don't know how.
SPEAKER_06: Do it.
SPEAKER_06: Be with them.
SPEAKER_06: Being with somebody doesn't mean I gotta go where you go.
SPEAKER_06: At the end of the day, we can go our different ways.
SPEAKER_06: The question is, did I spend time to be with you?
SPEAKER_06: I didn't send somebody out into stability yesterday.
SPEAKER_06: I didn't.
SPEAKER_06: I don't know how to do that.
SPEAKER_06: I hope that that man left with the gifts you gave him, and I mean that.
SPEAKER_06: I'm pointing around the room because you did that.
SPEAKER_06: You said, here's food we can give, here is conversation, here's welcome.
SPEAKER_06: Have a seat here, enjoy yourself with us.
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, maybe it'd be better if we got a college degree.
SPEAKER_06: I don't know.
SPEAKER_06: I don't know how to do that.
SPEAKER_06: I know that poor people are people.
SPEAKER_06: I usually forget it, but I know it.
SPEAKER_06: I know that people struggling with mental illness are still people.
SPEAKER_06: I often forget it.
SPEAKER_06: And I think this whole bit about who is the pontiff Maximus?
SPEAKER_06: Who is it really?
SPEAKER_06: Usually it's me.
SPEAKER_06: But isn't it supposed to be God?
SPEAKER_06: Isn't it supposed to be God?
SPEAKER_06: Now, this Moses story does one other thing that's really helpful for me.
SPEAKER_06: I know I just gave you a jumble.
SPEAKER_06: I didn't really give you a coherent thought.
SPEAKER_06: But I warned you I was going to do that, right?
SPEAKER_06: It's another bit about show me your glory.
SPEAKER_06: This is a Moses moment, right?
SPEAKER_06: Show me your glory, and God says, you can't see my face.
SPEAKER_06: You know this, right?
SPEAKER_06: What happens when you see God's face?
SPEAKER_06: Well, you die, except Moses has been talking face to face with God for 40 days, right?
SPEAKER_06: So it's an interesting thing.
SPEAKER_06: Uh and ultimately Moses gets to look at God's back, right?
SPEAKER_06: Well, last year when I was on sabbatical, I was in a canyon in the middle of Utah, and it started to get really, really windy.
SPEAKER_06: I mean like 40 mile an hour gusts, and there was sand down there and it was going everywhere.
SPEAKER_06: It was in our food, it was in our hair, you know, like you put sunscreen on, and you could like scratch behind your ear, and it was like all orange because of all this wind, right?
SPEAKER_06: And so uh it was still gusting through the night.
SPEAKER_06: And fortunately, I found this rock that I hid myself behind, so that the wind was giving me a little bit of respite.
SPEAKER_06: And then I thought, oh my gosh, this is just like Moses, because how do you look at the face of the wind?
SPEAKER_06: I'm not even sure that's possible to look at the face of the wind.
SPEAKER_06: And where does it start?
SPEAKER_06: I don't know.
SPEAKER_06: So there it was blowing by me, and I thought, oh, oh, like maybe this is it, right?
SPEAKER_06: Because the wind is the breath of God.
SPEAKER_06: Like that's what spirit means.
SPEAKER_06: It means breath, and God's spirit is blowing through, and boy, we don't often know where it's going.
SPEAKER_06: Uh, so maybe we're just asked to follow it where it goes.
SPEAKER_06: And there's this interesting thing, right?
SPEAKER_06: Like, I'm looking back on my life and my own spiritual journey.
SPEAKER_06: I'm always afraid when right now I know exactly what God wants me to do.
SPEAKER_06: I'm really afraid when people say that.
SPEAKER_06: When I look back, it's pretty clear that God was active in my life in some interesting ways.
SPEAKER_06: I see it looking at God's back.
SPEAKER_06: Because I don't exactly know where God's front is going.
SPEAKER_06: But I wonder if we aren't called to do it a little more often than we normally do, is to actually just follow where God's going.
SPEAKER_06: Instead of trying to head God off.
SPEAKER_06: I love heading God off.
SPEAKER_06: I do.
SPEAKER_06: God, I've got such great ideas, and these are the people you should love, and these are the policies that you should work to change, right?
SPEAKER_06: Do this for us.
SPEAKER_06: And this is, I think, the stewardship we're being invited to consider again.
SPEAKER_06: What can we do with each other?
SPEAKER_06: I mean, at the end of the day, right?
SPEAKER_06: God's greatest desire seems to be, I can't understand why.
SPEAKER_06: I don't even like being with myself sometimes.
SPEAKER_06: God really would like to be with me.
SPEAKER_06: God would like to be with Beth and with Jim and with Tim and Glaciella, and God would love it if we'd say, God, I don't know why you enjoy it, I'm glad you do.
SPEAKER_06: And that's such a wild idea.
SPEAKER_06: I want to share it with some other folks that don't know that's what you want to do.
SPEAKER_06: I don't know how we share that for people, but I think we can do it with them.
SPEAKER_06: I think we could do it with them.
SPEAKER_06: Maybe that takes money sometimes.
SPEAKER_06: Maybe that takes time.
SPEAKER_06: It probably just takes a lot of compassion and helpfulness.
SPEAKER_06: So, look, it takes pledges to make this thing happen, that's fine, but really what I want us to think about is the spirituality, what kind of stewards we are.
SPEAKER_06: And as Jim said, you know, so well a couple weeks ago, what praise are you gonna give God when you meet the stranger?
SPEAKER_06: What praise are you gonna give God when you fix the countertop?
SPEAKER_06: How would we choose to praise God when the person at work is difficult to be around again?
SPEAKER_06: How will we be with difficult people?
SPEAKER_06: I think maybe that's really, like Jim said, in different words, about all the stewardship we got in us.
SPEAKER_06: And let's not neglect the most important and the person in the room.
SPEAKER_06: How will we be with ourselves?
SPEAKER_06: Because as we all know, you can't get what you don't have.
SPEAKER_06: So I'm all over the place as a priest, right?
SPEAKER_06: But I think God is all over the place too, asking us to say, what does it mean like to be with one another?
SPEAKER_06: That's the stewardship we're called to do.
SPEAKER_06: We believe in one God.
unknown: We've got two or two or five, we have 12 products, we can hold back to the top of church, we acknowledge one of the factors that we can get, we look for the retroaction, analyze the world.
SPEAKER_00: With all our heart and with all our mind, let us pray to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I ask your prayers for God's people throughout the world, for all people and ministers, for the priests in our community, for our bishops Andy, Hector, Jeff, and Kay, and the diocesan cycle of prayer, St.
SPEAKER_00: Stephen's Beaumont, St.
SPEAKER_00: Stephen's Liberty, Trinity Eniwek, and Trinity Jasper.
SPEAKER_00: For Justin, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and for our presiding bishop Michael, I pray for the church.
SPEAKER_00: I ask your prayers for all who govern and hold authority in the nations of the world, for the members of the armed forces and for all who struggle for peace and justice, that they may act with prudence and vision to blend the needs of your kingdom everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for justice and peace.
SPEAKER_00: I ask your prayers for our parish and our victory, that the source of wisdom may guide us, that the source of strength may support us, and the source of love may give us.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that our community may deserve clearly and minister effectively.
SPEAKER_00: I ask your prayers for the poor, the sick, the hungry, the oppressed, and those in prison.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for those in any need or trouble.
SPEAKER_00: I ask your prayers for all who seek God or a deeper knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that they may find and be found by God.
SPEAKER_00: I ask your prayers for the departed, especially Pastor Frank Celestine Sr.
SPEAKER_00: And Mrs.
SPEAKER_00: Linda Celesteen and Jasmine Frank.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for those who have died.
SPEAKER_00: Let us give thanks for our blessings and pray for our own needs and those of others, especially those on our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: The congregation is invited to name in their own celebrations or petitions silently or out loud.
SPEAKER_00: O Lord our God, accept the fervent prayers of your people.
SPEAKER_00: In the multitude of your mercies, look with compassion upon us, and I'll return to you for help.
SPEAKER_00: For you are gracious, O lover of souls, and to you we give glory.
SPEAKER_00: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_06: Let us confess our sin against God and our neighbor.
unknown: For we have put our heads temples to make, put our hearts no longer bear, and what has become for us to.
unknown: Set us free from past that we cannot change.
unknown: Open to us the future in which we can be changed.
unknown: Grant us grace to grow more and more in life and spirit.
SPEAKER_06: Through Jesus Christ, the light of the world.
SPEAKER_06: Amen.
SPEAKER_06: The Almighty and compassionate Lord grant you absolution and remission of all your sin, true repentance, amendment of life, and the grace and consolation of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_06: Amen.
SPEAKER_06: Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.
SPEAKER_06: Reminder, this is like a really important thing we do if we're able, is that we stand because God has made you worthy.
SPEAKER_06: Whatever you thought was not worthy, God just took care of that.
SPEAKER_06: Hooray for standing.
SPEAKER_06: And that is a place for now we're able to offer and look to one another, mutually redeemed and belonging to God, and say, God's peace be with you.
SPEAKER_06: So the peace of the Lord be always with you.
SPEAKER_06: If you're new to it or haven't done this before, in the room right behind the one you're sitting in right now, we call that an artifact back there, there's a little card to say welcome, and we'd be tremendously grateful if you'd fill one of those out and just put it in the little blue basket so we have a record of your visit.
SPEAKER_06: If you don't want to call, don't check that box.
SPEAKER_06: You won't get one.
SPEAKER_06: You get to decide if we follow up with you or not, but we would be grateful if you'd fill one of those out as a record of your visit.
SPEAKER_06: And thanks for worshiping with us today.
SPEAKER_06: Um, I've got a few announcements to call to your attention.
SPEAKER_06: The first is just a lovely thank you for a really enjoyable party, right?
SPEAKER_06: And what you did is you were yourselves.
SPEAKER_06: You invited people here.
SPEAKER_06: You said, this is a lovely place to be.
SPEAKER_06: You belong here if you want to be.
SPEAKER_06: So thanks for doing that.
SPEAKER_06: Who knew that the most popular attraction for kids would be a mound of dirt?
SPEAKER_06: But uh apparently that's a thing.
SPEAKER_06: So maybe we'll have dirt mounds in the future.
SPEAKER_06: Um, people worked tirelessly, and you know what I love about this parish is we got a lot of engineers.
SPEAKER_06: And when engineers get involved, they get involved, and so we engineered a fun festival.
SPEAKER_06: I mean, with layouts and all kinds of widgets, and it was just so good.
SPEAKER_06: So thank you for being a part of that.
SPEAKER_06: There are a couple, by the way, if you missed it, don't worry, we'll do it next year.
SPEAKER_06: Um there's a few leftovers left that might be of interest to you.
SPEAKER_06: We had a little bit of barbecue left over, not much, but there's some sandwiches if you missed one, or if you got one, one another.
SPEAKER_06: There's some sandwiches, and there's some a couple of pulled pork shoulders and some brisket available.
SPEAKER_06: And I think there's a few items kind of down the hallway if you're interested before they go to the nearly news.
SPEAKER_06: So a couple things are left over from the festival.
SPEAKER_06: But I'm looking and like more than happy you were there.
SPEAKER_06: So thank you.
SPEAKER_06: Thank you.
SPEAKER_06: It was just really, really fun, right?
SPEAKER_06: That's that's the point.
SPEAKER_06: We're supposed to be with each other and enjoy it.
SPEAKER_06: And we did that yesterday, so thank you for that gift.
SPEAKER_06: Um, up here on the Lord's table, you'll see a rose.
SPEAKER_06: That's because Graziella Kabula just welcomed a new grandbaby, Owen Neil Chapman.
SPEAKER_06: He was born on October the 10th, six pounds, 10 ounces.
SPEAKER_06: So we're celebrating Owen today, and we can share Graziella's joy.
SPEAKER_06: Reminder for you that if there's a new birth in your family that you'd like to recognize, we're very happy to do it with one of these roses on the Lord's table.
SPEAKER_06: Okay, a couple of announcements coming up.
SPEAKER_06: Next week, you're gonna have this lovely opportunity to hear from the vicar of Lord of the Streets, Brad Sullivan.
SPEAKER_06: So many of you know Lord of the Streets is this ministry downtown that gives people uh food and medical attention and social services, but even more than that gives them a worshiping community.
SPEAKER_06: And so it's an opportunity.
SPEAKER_06: We're gonna go next week and serve breakfast at 6.30 in the morning.
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it's early.
SPEAKER_06: 6.30 in the morning, we're gonna go, and we still can use a couple of hands.
SPEAKER_06: Uh we'll be back by 9.30.
SPEAKER_06: I'll do the service with Lord of the Streets while Brad is here at 8, and then I'll join him and be here at 10.30 with you as well.
SPEAKER_06: And uh again, one of those amazing things that I guess I hinted about earlier or tried to in the sermon, right, is that it's this time with the people.
SPEAKER_06: It's time with the people.
SPEAKER_06: Uh it's not here, take your food and get out.
SPEAKER_06: Which is really a beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_06: So this is happening in the diocese, and you'll get to hear from Brad next week.
SPEAKER_06: Reminder, if you're interested in dealing, I still have a few, a few, a few names.
SPEAKER_06: Uh the diocese of Texas does something really interesting.
SPEAKER_06: Sometimes we forget, like, oh, we're just a little St.
SPEAKER_06: Thomas.
SPEAKER_06: The diocese is actually a mega church split between 170 different parishes.
SPEAKER_06: And one of the things they do is a clergy conference every year, and we can't refuse.
SPEAKER_06: So uh I'll be at a clergy conference this week, Monday through Wednesday at Camp Allen.
SPEAKER_06: Um, just thought you should know the diocese really values us getting together, clergy to clergy, and renewing our education, and they invest in that heavily, actually.
SPEAKER_06: The speakers are fantastic, and the camarading is really good.
SPEAKER_06: So I'm gonna do that the next couple of days.
SPEAKER_06: A couple other things coming up.
SPEAKER_06: November the 1st.
SPEAKER_06: You know Halloween.
SPEAKER_06: Halloween is the 31st.
SPEAKER_06: We really call that All Saints Eve.
SPEAKER_06: Halloween is all Hallowed Eve, right?
SPEAKER_06: So All Saints Day is November 1st.
SPEAKER_06: That's the day when we're really called each year to remember and give thanks for the saints in our lives, living or dead.
SPEAKER_06: Saints are people who have showed us the love of God more deeply.
SPEAKER_06: Now, one of our practices here in St.
SPEAKER_06: Thomas is that we do celebrate on All Saints Day departed saints from the last calendar year.
SPEAKER_06: We'll do that November the 5th, so that's two weeks from today.
SPEAKER_06: And each of those folks will have a candle lit and a song so that we will celebrate the Eucharist in the light of the departed saints.
SPEAKER_06: Um it's actually really overwhelming and lovely, particularly when it's your turn to do it.
SPEAKER_06: Um we have everybody on the list whose funeral I celebrate.
SPEAKER_06: So if I've celebrated it, they'll be on the list.
SPEAKER_06: But perhaps you have an aunt or a mother or a cousin that lives on the state who has departed the larger life this year that you would like recognized and to have a communion in the light and the witness of the saints.
SPEAKER_06: Send that to Ellen or myself, just first name and last, and we will gladly celebrate the saints in our lives together in two weeks.
SPEAKER_06: Okay, the other thing I want to call to your attention, it's happening December.
SPEAKER_06: Okay, yeah, two other things.
SPEAKER_06: It's happening December the second, reminder, we're having an advent retreat based on understanding the Enneagram.
SPEAKER_06: Um the Enneagram is sort of a way of understanding who God has made us to be.
SPEAKER_06: What I love about it is you can't place where anybody else is.
SPEAKER_06: It's based on your interior life.
SPEAKER_06: So only you know you.
SPEAKER_06: And there are other people like you, which I found really interesting.
SPEAKER_06: I thought there was this one me.
SPEAKER_06: There's other people like us in the world, and there's ways in which uh, there's practices and ways in which our energy can diminish the shadows we cast, or can certainly make them longer and darker.
SPEAKER_06: And that's what the NA Gram is designed to do, is think God made you just like you are, God's really happy with it, and how do you live into that joyfully?
SPEAKER_06: So I wouldn't offer this if it had not been meaningful to me.
SPEAKER_06: So I just want to encourage you, if you're looking for a way of understanding yourself, having more compassion for yourself and others, this might be a good uh half-day retreat for you December the 2nd.
SPEAKER_06: Uh, last thing to mention to you is that we are in the middle of our stewardship season.
SPEAKER_06: This is where we make pledges for how we intend to support the mission and ministries of St.
SPEAKER_06: Thomas in 2024.
SPEAKER_06: We're gonna do that through November the 19th.
SPEAKER_06: And this is the most important thing I can do as a clergy person.
SPEAKER_06: Take whatever we turn in and say, God, we want you to bless it.
SPEAKER_06: This is what we think we're gonna do, and we want you to bless it more than we can ask or imagine.
SPEAKER_06: So um, pledge cards got mailed out.
SPEAKER_06: If you didn't get one, I've got extras.
SPEAKER_06: Uh they can be mailed in, they can be brought in.
SPEAKER_06: I'll pick them up if you want.
SPEAKER_06: Um, but I do, I will tell you, not all of us do have pledging, but it means pledging is about membership, right?
SPEAKER_06: I'm a member of this community because I support it.
SPEAKER_06: With my prayers at least.
SPEAKER_06: We don't always have money, we don't.
SPEAKER_06: But we got something that we can be with one another with.
SPEAKER_06: And so that's what we ask your pledges so that we can ask God's blessing on how we intend to support one another and become a year.
SPEAKER_06: Continue to walk in life because Christ first loved us and gave himself for us, offering and sacrifice to God.
SPEAKER_06: This is the table not of the church, but of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_06: It has made ready for those who love him and those who want to love him more to come.
SPEAKER_06: You who have much faith and you who have little.
SPEAKER_06: You who have been here often, and you who have not been for a long time or ever before.
SPEAKER_06: You who have tried to follow, and you who have failed, come.
SPEAKER_06: Not because the church invites you, it is Christ.
SPEAKER_06: And he invites you to meet him here.
SPEAKER_06: Our service continues on page 340 of your red prayer book.
SPEAKER_06: Page 340.
SPEAKER_04: I am also with you.
SPEAKER_04: Let us give thine eyes to the Lord of God.
SPEAKER_06: It is very meat, right, in our bound of duty.
SPEAKER_06: We should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee.
SPEAKER_06: O Lord, Holy Father Almighty, everlasting God, creator of the light and source of life, who hast made us in thine image, call us to new life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_06: 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_06: For that thou didst create heaven and earth and didst make us in thine own image.
SPEAKER_06: Thy tender mercy didst give thine only Son, Jesus Christ, to take our nature upon him, to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption.
SPEAKER_06: He made there a full and perfect sacrifice for the whole world, and did institute, and his holy gospel command us to continue, in perpetual memory of that, his precious death and sacrifice, still his coming again.
SPEAKER_06: For in the night in which he was betrayed, Jesus took bread.
SPEAKER_06: And when he given thanks to thee, he broke it, gave it to his disciples, saying, Take, eat.
SPEAKER_06: This is my body which is given for you.
SPEAKER_06: Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_06: Likewise, after supper, Jesus took the cup of wine.
SPEAKER_06: And when he given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink this, all of you.
SPEAKER_06: This is my blood of the renewed covenant which is shed for you and for all for the remission of sin.
SPEAKER_06: Do this as oft as ye shall drink it in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_06: Wherefore, O Lord and Heavenly Father, we thy people do celebrate and make with these thy holy gifts, which we now offer unto thee, the memorial 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_06: 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_06: 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 our bodies.
SPEAKER_06: 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, be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction, and also that we and all thy whole church may be made one body with him.
SPEAKER_06: He may dwell in us and we in him, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_06: By him and with him and in him, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honor and glory be unto thee, O Father Almighty, world without end.
SPEAKER_06: Amen.
SPEAKER_06: Now, as our Savior Christ hath taught us, we are bold to pray.
SPEAKER_06: Our Father, who art with heaven, be thy name, thy kingdom come, honor be done.
unknown: Honor is to come.
unknown: Give us the same prayer, and forgive us our trespasses, and the state of those who trespass against us, and it is not the temptation, but the rest of people, for thy kingdom, and the power and glory.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
unknown: The spiritual food of the most precious body and blood.
SPEAKER_03: And those which are us thereby of thy favorite towards us, and that we are incorporate the whole body of thy God, the blessed company of all faithful people, and are also carried to the world, the thyrous and kingdom, and we are teaching the father, so do assess us with thy ways, that we may attain the whole fellowship, and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in.
SPEAKER_06: Through Jesus Christ our Lord, deal with thee in the Holy Ghost, be our honor and glory, world of heaven.
SPEAKER_06: Amen.
SPEAKER_06: And now may the peace of God which passeth all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God.
SPEAKER_06: The blessed God Almighty the Father, who the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be amongst you this day, and remain with you always.
SPEAKER_06: Amen.