SPEAKER_03: Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_03: Blessed be God's family now and forever.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_03: Almighty God, to you all hearts.
SPEAKER_05: And from you.
SPEAKER_05: Cleanse the hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_05: That we may perfectly love you and will be through Christ Lord.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: And also with you.
SPEAKER_03: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_03: Grant us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts.
SPEAKER_03: 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_03: Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever.
SPEAKER_03: Prayer for tomorrow's anniversary of September 11th.
SPEAKER_03: O Almighty God, who brings good out of evil, and turns even the wrath of your children towards your promised peace.
SPEAKER_03: Hear our prayers this day as we remember those of many nations in differing faith, whose lives were cut short by the fierce flames of anger and hatred.
SPEAKER_03: Hasten the time when the menace of war shall be removed.
SPEAKER_03: Pour out the Spirit of peace on all the rulers of our world, that we may be brought through strife to the lasting peace of the kingdom of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: It shall be the first month of the year for you.
SPEAKER_02: Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household.
SPEAKER_02: If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one.
SPEAKER_02: The lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat it.
SPEAKER_02: Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year old male, you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.
SPEAKER_02: You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month.
SPEAKER_02: Then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight.
SPEAKER_02: They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lentil of the houses in which they eat it.
SPEAKER_02: They shall eat the lamb that time, that same night, they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
SPEAKER_02: Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roast it over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs.
SPEAKER_02: You shall let none of it remain until morning.
SPEAKER_02: Anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.
SPEAKER_02: This is how you shall eat it, your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it hurriedly.
SPEAKER_02: It is the Passover of the Lord, for I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals.
SPEAKER_02: On all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments.
SPEAKER_02: I am the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live.
SPEAKER_02: When I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_02: This day shall be a day of remembrance for you.
SPEAKER_02: You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Throughout your generations, you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.
SPEAKER_02: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.
SPEAKER_05: Praise be to God.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah! Sing to the Lord a new song.
SPEAKER_02: Let Israel rejoice in their maker.
SPEAKER_05: Let the children of Zion be joyful in their sovereign.
SPEAKER_02: Let them praise God's name in the dance.
SPEAKER_05: Let them sing praise the Lord in the temple in the heart.
SPEAKER_02: For the Lord takes pleasure in the chosen people.
SPEAKER_05: And they born the core with victory.
SPEAKER_02: Let them be joyful on their beds.
SPEAKER_02: Let the praises of God be in their throat.
SPEAKER_05: And to wreak vengeance on the nations.
SPEAKER_05: And punishment on the peoples.
SPEAKER_02: To bind their rulers in chains.
SPEAKER_05: And their nobles in wings of fire.
SPEAKER_02: To inflict on them the judgment decree.
SPEAKER_01: The salvation is nearer to us now.
SPEAKER_01: The night is far gone.
SPEAKER_01: The day is near.
SPEAKER_01: Let us then lay aside the words of darkness.
SPEAKER_01: And put on the armour of light.
SPEAKER_01: Let us live honorably as in the day.
SPEAKER_01: Not in reveling and drunkenness.
SPEAKER_01: Not in debauchery and not in quarreling and jealousy.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.
SPEAKER_01: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.
SPEAKER_03: Glory to you, Lord Christ.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus said, If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone.
SPEAKER_03: If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.
SPEAKER_03: But if you're not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
SPEAKER_03: If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.
SPEAKER_03: And if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
SPEAKER_03: Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.
SPEAKER_03: Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
SPEAKER_03: Again, truly I tell you, if the two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.
SPEAKER_03: For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.
SPEAKER_03: The gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, I'm there with you.
SPEAKER_03: And while that does inform things like, I don't know if you realized, in the Episcopal Church, we cannot celebrate the Eucharist alone.
SPEAKER_03: There has to be a minimum of two folk.
SPEAKER_03: Always has to be two in the Episcopal Church.
SPEAKER_03: While it informs that, I do hope you realize this is often taken out of context.
SPEAKER_03: It is to say, this verse gets thrown around quite a bit, which suggests that, hey, if two of us are praying or three of us are praying, well, that's better than one, because Jesus isn't there when you pray by yourself.
SPEAKER_03: And I hope you can see that doesn't make sense.
SPEAKER_03: If you pay attention to the passage, and we don't even have to pay very much attention to the passage, this comes at the end of Jesus talking about church discipline.
SPEAKER_03: Which is really interesting because there wasn't a church when Jesus was around.
SPEAKER_03: I hope we realize this.
SPEAKER_03: A lot of times we think Jesus was the first Christian, and of course he wasn't at all.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus was Jewish.
SPEAKER_03: Christianity came after Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus did not come to create the modern structure we have.
SPEAKER_03: That wasn't his mission.
SPEAKER_03: Otherwise, he would have given us better instructions on that.
SPEAKER_03: Mostly he talked about how we're supposed to treat one another, right?
SPEAKER_03: Which is what happens here.
SPEAKER_03: So I just want to remind you, sometimes we hear this and we might think, oh, this passage is about what to do if we don't like the new communion bread.
SPEAKER_03: And this is not about that at all.
SPEAKER_03: This is about what happens in a gathering of people when always happens when you gather people together.
SPEAKER_03: One inevitably bumps up against another one.
SPEAKER_03: Keep in mind at the time there were no police.
SPEAKER_03: Police is like 200 years old.
SPEAKER_03: They didn't have that back then.
SPEAKER_03: Courts were not like really into hearing a bunch of civil matters.
SPEAKER_03: Courts were for big problems, and everything happened with citizens' arrest.
SPEAKER_03: So we love courts in the United States for lots of reasons.
SPEAKER_03: It takes the responsibility out of our hands, and I'm not saying that's wrong, but I do want to suggest to you sometimes we get so focused on getting things even that we're willing to lose a friend over.
SPEAKER_03: Sometimes we get so focused on getting our damages compensated for that we lose sight of having a community when all of that's done.
SPEAKER_03: We all get the difference, I think, between vengeance or revenge.
SPEAKER_03: That's taking more back than was taken from you.
SPEAKER_03: And what we normally call justice, which is trying to even it out.
SPEAKER_03: But I want to put to use this passage as reminding us that while we get focused on justice and while we try not to do revenge, which we still don't always get right, there's a third criterion Jesus asks us to consider.
SPEAKER_03: What about the community?
SPEAKER_03: So Jesus says, if you got a problem, if somebody sins against you, go to them one-on-one and you notice so that you can regain them.
SPEAKER_03: So that they will be regained.
SPEAKER_03: If you're like me, you don't like doing that.
SPEAKER_03: Because confrontation's real uncomfortable, and I don't know how they're going to take it.
SPEAKER_03: And usually when somebody's hurting my feelings, I already consider, well, they're lost.
SPEAKER_03: So what do I like to do?
SPEAKER_03: Nothing.
SPEAKER_03: I like to do nothing, and that way all that can turn into resentment and a confessor.
SPEAKER_03: Really, really healthy.
SPEAKER_03: Um, another thing that sometimes I will do, if I'm totally honest, is I'll say uh to one of my friends, so-and-so did this thing, and of course, what I want them to do is say, How awful of them.
SPEAKER_03: They're such jerks, so they can validate this was a real injury.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, because I'm not always clear.
SPEAKER_03: Maybe it wasn't a real injury, but I don't ask my friend, hey, does this sound like an injury to you?
SPEAKER_03: What I say is, you unbelieved what this person did.
SPEAKER_03: I'm glad I'm the only one in the room who behaves like this.
SPEAKER_03: So the gospel might just be for me today, but I think what Jesus is asking us to do is uh to take the following two ideas into consideration.
SPEAKER_03: Uh the first, and I and again, I mentioned this, most clergy I know are actually conflict adverse, and I'm kind of glad of that because of the ways we do conflict in unhealthy ways.
SPEAKER_03: I want to put out to you that Brene Brown says we can either choose the discomfort of setting and enforcing a boundary, or we can choose the resentment that will happen if we don't.
SPEAKER_03: Most of us choose resentment.
SPEAKER_03: Oh, Mike, we don't actively choose that.
SPEAKER_03: No, we passively do.
SPEAKER_03: We passively choose resentment because we don't say, as Bernade Brown says, hey, this thing happened, and I want to tell you, friend, the story I'm making up in my head is that when you did this, it's because blank.
SPEAKER_03: Now, would you please edit that story?
SPEAKER_03: When we don't give our friends the opportunity to edit the story, we've written our own narrative, not just about what happened, but their motives.
SPEAKER_03: And maybe Jesus is saying, hey, in the middle of trying to get your stuff taken care of, give somebody the chance to rewrite the narrative.
SPEAKER_03: So that not only can you get your damages taken care of, but you can take care of your Community damage, and you can grow a little more in health.
SPEAKER_03: A little bit more on that at the end.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus says, where two or three are gathered in my name, I'm there with you.
SPEAKER_03: And sometimes we take that so literally we forget to take it seriously, which I would put to you is not me saying, Jim, in the name of Jesus, Jesus, we need to have a come to Jesus meeting, Jim.
SPEAKER_03: I don't think that's what Jesus had in mind.
SPEAKER_03: When we hear in the scripture the name of somebody, we don't just mean literally their name.
SPEAKER_03: Your name in the Bible is the essence of everything that you are: your teaching, your heart, your spirituality.
SPEAKER_03: So what's the name of Jesus?
SPEAKER_03: I'm probably real liberal, but I think it's reconciliation.
SPEAKER_03: So if we've got a problem with somebody and we're able to say, hey, I've got a problem with you, Jim.
SPEAKER_03: Let's invite Jesus into the room so we can be reconciled.
SPEAKER_03: Because I don't want to live with the problem.
SPEAKER_03: I want to live with solving the problem.
SPEAKER_03: Geez, that might be a good first step.
SPEAKER_03: Invoking Jesus to be in the room so that I can focus not on the problem, but solving it.
SPEAKER_03: So that we can leave, as at least reconciled, if not better friends.
SPEAKER_03: You know in your own life, the friends that stick are the ones you had problems and you worked it out.
SPEAKER_03: Not the ones who never did anything wrong.
SPEAKER_03: That's a fantasy.
SPEAKER_03: The good friends are the ones who stepped on your toes and you figured it out.
SPEAKER_03: So maybe this is Jesus just inviting us to do that a little more often than we choose to.
SPEAKER_03: I think that's what Paul's about when he's writing to us in Romans, where he suggests that, hey, we have these core principles like don't lie and don't steal and don't commit adultery, and we can sort of sum those up to love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_03: And what we sometimes do is we say, well, that means I'm supposed to love my neighbor as much as I love myself.
SPEAKER_03: But I'd like you to consider a different way of hearing that, which is I don't exist in isolation.
SPEAKER_03: We like to be individual, but really we're not.
SPEAKER_03: When I love my neighbor as myself, my neighbor is an extension of who I am.
SPEAKER_03: So if I were to cut my neighbor off from me, because they bumped into me, I'd be cutting off part of myself.
SPEAKER_03: And I'd be cutting off, if you don't mind me saying, the reconciliatory name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: I'd be living into half of his identity and cult.
SPEAKER_03: Now, I'm gonna take a quick turn back into Exodus.
SPEAKER_03: Remember that the writer of the Hebrew Bible presumes, I mean the writer, the composers of the lectionary, presume you know the story, and you probably know.
SPEAKER_03: Last week it was the burning bush, and God says, Tell Pharaoh, let my people go.
SPEAKER_03: And then a bunch of stuff happened between then and now.
SPEAKER_03: Moses went.
SPEAKER_03: He said, Tell, he told Pharaoh, let my people go.
SPEAKER_03: Pharaoh said, No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_03: Right?
SPEAKER_03: Now this is the tenth night.
SPEAKER_03: And you notice there's a really interesting phrase.
SPEAKER_03: This is gonna be the beginning of your year.
SPEAKER_03: And it's about the Passover.
SPEAKER_03: That's not the beginning of the Jewish year.
SPEAKER_03: I want to be really clear.
SPEAKER_03: The Jewish year begins this coming Friday.
SPEAKER_03: It's Rosh Hashanah, which means the head of the year.
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna talk to you about that, and then I'm gonna talk about Passover, and then I swear we'll come into a circle somehow, okay?
SPEAKER_03: Rosh Hashanah, that's the beginning of the Jewish year, begins this Friday night, because in the in the Jewish reckoning of time, the day begins in the evening.
SPEAKER_03: Right?
SPEAKER_03: So Friday evening is the beginning of the new year, and according to Jewish tradition, Rosh Hashanah happens eight days prior to the high holy day of Yom Kippur.
SPEAKER_03: That's the day of atonement.
SPEAKER_03: Friday night, according to our Jewish brothers and sisters, God looks at every human being and writes their fate for the next year.
SPEAKER_03: And you have eight days to change God's mind.
SPEAKER_03: Your fate is written on Rosh Hashanah and on Yom Kippur, your fate is sealed.
SPEAKER_03: So, what do our Jewish brothers and sisters do?
SPEAKER_03: They get reconciled with each other.
SPEAKER_03: Because they don't want their fate for the next year to be sealed in discord.
SPEAKER_03: We could hear this as, oh, how fatalistic.
SPEAKER_03: You mean like if they don't fix it, God's gonna make stuff happen?
SPEAKER_03: No, the idea is more like this.
SPEAKER_03: We have not treated the earth very well.
SPEAKER_03: And what do you know?
SPEAKER_03: It was really, really hot this summer.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, we keep writing our fate.
SPEAKER_03: And part of environmental stewardship is so that we don't seal it.
SPEAKER_03: So what we need to do to make sure we don't seal the faith that we're writing is repent.
SPEAKER_03: Which means starting Friday night and continuing for the next eight days, our Jewish brothers and sisters are going to put their feet on the pavement, they're gonna get on the phone, sometimes they will even get on an airplane over the eight days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and they will fly to somebody and they'll say, things are not right between us, and we need to fix it now.
SPEAKER_03: This is like the Jewish version of Lent.
SPEAKER_03: That's a little anachronistic, right?
SPEAKER_03: Because Judaism's older than Lent.
SPEAKER_03: And I want to suggest to you it's way better than the Lent we've settled for.
SPEAKER_03: Because look, God's not glorified in you making yourself miserable by giving up chocolate or something like that.
SPEAKER_03: God is glorified in our being reconciled with our neighbors.
SPEAKER_03: This is what our Jewish brothers and sisters are going to do.
SPEAKER_03: I mean, literally, they're going to do, so that they don't seal the fate of alienation for another year.
SPEAKER_03: Now, what does that have to do with the Passover story?
SPEAKER_03: Well, even though it's the beginning of the new year, Passover is one of the most important festivals in the Jewish calendar.
SPEAKER_03: And so it turns out actually, throughout the Bible, you'll see that there's three different New Year's.
SPEAKER_03: There's Rosh Hashanah, and there's Yom Kippur, and there's Passover.
SPEAKER_03: But there's only one calendar new year, to be really clear.
SPEAKER_03: And that's Passover.
SPEAKER_03: Now, the Passover story, right, is that we had the darkness and the blood and the frogs and the gnats and all those other things, and now it's going to be the plague on the firstborn.
SPEAKER_03: And uh our Jewish brothers and sisters do this really big every year.
SPEAKER_03: It's not always tied to Easter since the 300s.
SPEAKER_03: We we we broke the Christian calendar off the Jewish calendar, but this is a really big festival, and you'll notice in there that every family is going to kill their own lamb, and they're going to eat it, and they're going to eat it real quick.
SPEAKER_03: And if they don't eat all of it, they're going to burn the leftovers.
SPEAKER_03: Now, there's a thing Christian people often miss when they read this story.
SPEAKER_03: When is there a sacrifice to cover sins in the Jewish tradition?
SPEAKER_03: The answer is Yom Kippur.
SPEAKER_03: That's on September the 25th.
SPEAKER_03: That's when a priest kills, not even a lamb, kills a heifer, a steer, and then lays their hands on a goat.
SPEAKER_03: Did you see any priests in this story?
SPEAKER_03: There's no priests.
SPEAKER_03: Every family does their own work.
SPEAKER_03: I want to mention this to you because the paschal lamb is not a sacrifice for sin, is not in the Jewish tradition.
SPEAKER_03: Has nothing to do with sin.
SPEAKER_03: Why are they eating a lamb the night before they go?
SPEAKER_03: Because they're going on a really big journey and they need calories.
SPEAKER_03: And they're eating in a hurry because God's going to let them out of bondage in a second.
SPEAKER_03: They don't even have time for the bread to rise.
SPEAKER_03: That's why they eat it flat.
SPEAKER_03: Every family kills their own.
SPEAKER_03: There's no priest.
SPEAKER_03: There is this weird thing that we get stuck up on.
SPEAKER_03: What about the blood on the door?
SPEAKER_03: Well, if you know anything about our Jewish brothers and sisters, there's a way of life called kosher or kosher.
SPEAKER_03: This is like a way of dietary restrictions.
SPEAKER_03: And the biggest rule about meat is that you can't eat any blood.
SPEAKER_03: So, in order for meat to be kosher, not only does the blood have to be drained while the animal's hanging, but once you remove the meat from the carcass, it literally has to be soaked in salt three times to draw all the blood out.
SPEAKER_03: The rule is you can't eat the blood.
SPEAKER_03: Why is that?
SPEAKER_03: Well, the scriptures say because the life of the animal is in the blood.
SPEAKER_03: But look, these are not pre-unscientific people.
SPEAKER_03: They understand, just like you and I do, that life requires a brain and lungs and a heart as well.
SPEAKER_03: And sure, you need kidneys, right?
SPEAKER_03: They get it.
SPEAKER_03: You need all that stuff.
SPEAKER_03: When you hear life, really please hear the word like qi from the Eastern tradition, like the life force.
SPEAKER_03: Now, there's people who are really into life force in the world today, which is why the rhinoceros is almost extinct.
SPEAKER_03: They eat the horn of the rhino so they can have the qi of the rhino.
SPEAKER_03: This is the Jewish idea.
SPEAKER_03: This is very much the Jewish understanding, right?
SPEAKER_03: You're consuming the animal to get its powers.
SPEAKER_03: And the Torah is really clear.
SPEAKER_03: You don't get that.
SPEAKER_03: It's not yours.
SPEAKER_03: The life force belongs to God, which is why you pour it on the ground, or in this case, you put it on the lentils of the door to show, I ate the meat, but the life is yours, God.
SPEAKER_03: The life is yours.
SPEAKER_03: This is not a sacrifice for sin, it's food, the journey.
SPEAKER_03: Why do I mention that?
SPEAKER_03: It's because every week we come up here since 1976, we do it every week.
SPEAKER_03: It used to be once a month.
SPEAKER_03: And we say, God, I need food for the journey.
SPEAKER_03: And what we're invited to do is participate in the life force of Jesus so that we can leave the bondage that we're in.
SPEAKER_03: Are we in literal slavery, not like those folk then?
SPEAKER_03: Are we in slavery like broken relationships and resentment?
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely we are.
SPEAKER_03: So we come to this table every week saying, God, we sure could use some energy to get out of the slavery we are living in, so that we can go forward with some energy and do some reconciliation.
SPEAKER_03: And I've got to ask you, this is not a thing I usually do myself.
SPEAKER_03: If somebody called you and said, you know, Susan, there's this thing that happened a couple years ago, and to be honest, it's still kind of bothering me, and I just really want to settle it with you.
SPEAKER_03: I want to settle it with you so I don't have to carry it anymore.
SPEAKER_03: How many of you would not take that phone call?
SPEAKER_03: I would take that phone call.
SPEAKER_03: I wouldn't suggest you.
SPEAKER_03: We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, the Creator and all that is being in our truth.
SPEAKER_05: We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, eternally the Father, God of the Father, the Lord of the Light, through the God, who I am not made, and one being with the Father.
SPEAKER_05: Through him all things were made.
SPEAKER_05: For after our salvation, he came down from heaven.
SPEAKER_05: By the power of the Holy Spirit, He became encouraged from the Virgin Mary, and was very name.
unknown: For Christ and He was crucified and conscious.
SPEAKER_05: On the third day brother again, O'Cord.
SPEAKER_05: He descended into heaven, and he is right hand of the Father.
SPEAKER_05: He will come again in the glory to death to the rain of the dead, and his kingdom will happen and nowhere.
SPEAKER_05: We believe in the Holy Spirit, O Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
SPEAKER_05: With the Father and the Son who is worshiped and glorified.
SPEAKER_05: He has woken through the prophets.
unknown: We believe in one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
SPEAKER_05: We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_05: We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: The prayers of the people in peace.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray to the Lord, saying, Lord, have compassion for the holy church of God, that it may be filled with truth and love and be found without fault at the day of your coming.
SPEAKER_00: We pray to you, O Lord, Lord, have compassion.
SPEAKER_00: For all the holy people of God, for all bishops and other ministers, for Andy, Hector, Jeff and Kay, our bishops, and the Diocesan Cycle of Prayer, Christ the King, Atascassida, Umble, Good Shepherd, Kingwood, Good Shepherd, Tombaugh, and Holy Comforter, Serene.
SPEAKER_00: For Michael, our presiding bishop.
SPEAKER_00: For Mike, Jim, Craig, and the priest in our community, we pray to you, O Lord.
SPEAKER_05: Lord, have compassion.
SPEAKER_00: For all who fear God and believe in you, Lord Christ, that our divisions may cease and that all may be one, as you and the Father are one, we pray to you, O Lord.
SPEAKER_05: Lord, have compassion.
SPEAKER_00: For the mission of the Church, that in faithful witness it may preach the gospel to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: We pray to you, O Lord.
unknown: Lord, have compassion.
SPEAKER_00: For the peace of the world, that a spirit of respect and forbearance may grow among nations and peoples.
SPEAKER_00: We pray to you, O Lord.
SPEAKER_00: For those in positions of public trust, especially Joe, our president, and Gred, our governor, that they may serve justice and promote the dignity and freedom of every person.
SPEAKER_00: We pray to you, O Lord.
unknown: Lord, have compassion.
SPEAKER_00: For the poor, the persecuted, the sick, and all who suffer.
SPEAKER_00: For refugees, prisoners, and all who are in danger, that they may be relieved and protected.
SPEAKER_00: We pray to you, O Lord, Lord, have our congregation, that we may be delivered from hardness of heart and show forth your glory and all that we do.
SPEAKER_00: We pray to you, O Lord, for our enemies and those who wish us harm, and for all whom we have injured or offended, for ourselves, for the forgiveness of our sins, and for the grace of the Holy Spirit to amend our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We pray to you, O Lord, for all who have commended themselves to our prayers, for our families, friends, and neighbors, especially those on our parish prayer list, and those the congregation wishes to name at this time, silently or aloud.
SPEAKER_00: We pray to you, O Lord.
SPEAKER_00: For all who have died in the communion of your church, especially Rosemary Anderson, and those whose faith is known to you alone, that, with all the saints, they may have rest in that place where there is no pain or grief, but life eternal.
SPEAKER_00: We pray to you, O Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoicing in the fellowship of all the saints, let us commend ourselves and one another and all our life to you, Christ our God.
SPEAKER_05: To you, O Lord our God.
SPEAKER_00: For yours is the majesty, O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, now and forever.
SPEAKER_03: And we did confess our sin in the prayer, so that worked the first time.
SPEAKER_03: We don't need to do it again.
SPEAKER_03: And I want to offer you absolution.
SPEAKER_03: The Almighty and compassionate God grant you absolution and remission of all your sin.
SPEAKER_03: True repentance, amendment of life, and the grace and consolation of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you.
SPEAKER_03: And now the peace of the Lord be always with you.
SPEAKER_03: If you're new to us or haven't done this before, in the room right behind the one we're sitting in, we call it the Narthex, there's these little cards that say welcome.
SPEAKER_03: And we'd be tremendously grateful if you'd fill one of those out and put it in the little blue basket so we have a record of your visit.
SPEAKER_03: And look, you get to choose if you want to call or not.
SPEAKER_03: If you don't want to call, don't check the box.
SPEAKER_03: If you do, check the box.
SPEAKER_03: But we would be very grateful if you'd fill one out so we have a record of your visit.
SPEAKER_03: A few announcements I want to call to your attention.
SPEAKER_03: One, some of you are already seen.
SPEAKER_03: If you look out the window to your right, there's a big dirt patch.
SPEAKER_03: That's about to get turned into our memorial garden and labyrinth.
SPEAKER_03: So within the next couple of weeks, uh pavers are going to come in, there'll be a prayer labyrinth space, and then there'll be benches, and the St.
SPEAKER_03: Francis statue will show up as well.
SPEAKER_03: So that all of that's underway, and that's thanks to a designated gift from two of our parishioners with that purpose in mind.
SPEAKER_03: So really grateful that that should be all set within the next uh couple of weeks.
SPEAKER_03: I'm really looking forward to using that space together.
SPEAKER_03: Um reminder this week, uh we have Tuesday night Bible study uh 6.30 to 7.30.
SPEAKER_03: It's still early on.
SPEAKER_03: If you want to join us in 1 Corinthians, this will be our first week in the book.
SPEAKER_03: Um this coming Wednesday is our world religion study.
SPEAKER_03: Uh we're affirmatively studying Judaism.
SPEAKER_03: This is our second week.
SPEAKER_03: We record all of these in case you're traveling or you want to go back.
SPEAKER_03: They live on our YouTube page.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, and in case you're having a really hard time sleeping, you can just pull those up and they will do the trick.
SPEAKER_03: And so uh you're you're welcome to join us uh for those.
SPEAKER_03: Um little different thing happening next week.
SPEAKER_03: So Hal Snap and I are gonna be going to West Virginia to do climb director training with the Scouts BSA, which means not only can we run climb towers, we can certify other people to run climb towers.
SPEAKER_03: So uh we're leaving Friday.
SPEAKER_03: I'll be gone Sunday, so you'll get a good sermon from Jim McGill for a change.
SPEAKER_03: And uh and then we won't have religion, world religion class a week from Wednesday.
SPEAKER_03: So we will this week, but not the next week.
SPEAKER_03: I couldn't find a sub for me.
SPEAKER_03: Um so just be mindful, Hal and I will be in West Virginia uh doing our best to learn how to climb and repel.
SPEAKER_03: Um, a couple other things uh to keep in mind.
SPEAKER_03: We're about six weeks away from our fall festival, which is a delightful day.
SPEAKER_03: And boy, um how about a breeze today and three times a rain this week.
SPEAKER_03: It was just kind of really lovely.
SPEAKER_03: That's what happens when you pray for rain sparingly, perhaps.
SPEAKER_03: It was just really, really nice.
SPEAKER_03: So um just a reminder that fall fest is coming up and that we used to tie the fall fest to a fun run.
SPEAKER_03: We untethered that like two years ago to make sure we play the percentages.
SPEAKER_03: So we put the festival later in October to get better weather, but we still run a really fine race here October the 7th.
SPEAKER_03: Um that's a Saturday morning, runs right out of our parking lot, finishes in the lot.
SPEAKER_03: There's a kid's 1K.
SPEAKER_03: It's a pet-friendly race, and they also, not only are wheelchairs uh permitted, but they're actually encouraged.
SPEAKER_03: So these race directors have cleverly come up with these sort of chariots, lack of a better word, I don't know, uh, that two or three people will take turns pushing somebody who might have MS or recently lost a leg so that they can participate in a race.
SPEAKER_03: It's it's pretty thoughtful.
SPEAKER_03: Like it's kind of an amazing thing to do.
SPEAKER_03: So um, they have their own sign-up, you'll see it in e-news if you're interested in that race.
SPEAKER_03: Like I said, we host it, and and they're a great partner.
SPEAKER_03: They they put on great races, and all the money they raise goes out to the community.
SPEAKER_03: So that's October the 7th, and our fall festival is October 21st.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, you heard me say last week, and just a reminder um our parish administrator Sean McConaughey, this is his last week with us.
SPEAKER_03: Um he needs he needs full time for he and his family.
SPEAKER_03: And we don't have that.
SPEAKER_03: We have a essentially a three-quarter time job.
SPEAKER_03: So Sean's moving with our with our blessing and appreciation at the end of the week.
SPEAKER_03: If you have, if you've benefited from Sean's ministry, he's been here about five and a half years.
SPEAKER_03: Cards and thank yous are absolutely appropriate.
SPEAKER_03: And the guy has been accessible late at night on a cell phone call for five and a half years.
SPEAKER_03: It's really, really been lovely.
SPEAKER_03: So we're celebrating Sean, we're sending him off, but we're also trying to fill that job ourselves.
SPEAKER_03: Which means if you have any interest whatsoever in helping take care of our grounds, maybe you you don't mind painting, or maybe once upon a time you learned a little bit about electrical systems, or you just don't mind doing a deep clean every now and again, please talk to Herbmeyer or myself.
SPEAKER_03: We're putting together a team of folks so that we can kind of manage our grounds ourselves.
SPEAKER_03: To be honest, we we want to see if we can't do this ourselves.
SPEAKER_03: So more questions, or to sign up, there's a forum in the e-news, or like I said, talk to Herb or to myself.
SPEAKER_03: I know I do this every year, and I don't want to freak you out, but I do want to tell you it's really, really important as we to me, as we approach these high holy days of our Jewish brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_03: You know it's high holy days at the synagogue because there's a security guard there.
SPEAKER_03: And friends, we got work to do.
SPEAKER_03: That's not all right.
SPEAKER_03: I know that's not us in the room.
SPEAKER_03: I know that.
SPEAKER_03: But this is an American problem that I don't understand, but it's still something that is important and a problem that we figure out.
SPEAKER_03: That our Jewish brothers and sisters need a security guard on our high holy day so they don't have to deal with domestic terrorism is a call for public repentance.
SPEAKER_03: So I don't know what we do except that we learn about and we appreciate, and when people say things that are not right, we say, I love you and I don't love what you said.
SPEAKER_03: And that's a tough boundary.
SPEAKER_03: I don't like doing it.
SPEAKER_03: But people are dying every year for practicing their faith on Yom Kippur, and that's wrong.
SPEAKER_03: That's just wrong.
SPEAKER_03: I can't solve that problem, but we can be part of the solution.
SPEAKER_03: And again, if I ever say anything that is not appreciative, call me to the carpet on it.
SPEAKER_03: Because I hope what you heard me say today is our Jewish brothers and sisters figure out reconciliation better than we do.
SPEAKER_03: They do.
SPEAKER_03: We need to learn from that and we need to do it.
SPEAKER_03: Walk in love.
SPEAKER_03: As Christ first loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God.
SPEAKER_04: Let it come, let it go in, let me come, let's be gone, let's be gone, exalted, and sorted, exalted, exalted in the red jazz, exalted, exalted in the red.
SPEAKER_03: All things come of you, O Lord.
SPEAKER_03: This is the table not of the church, but of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03: It is made ready for those who love him and those who want to love him more, so come.
SPEAKER_03: You who have much faith and you who have little.
SPEAKER_03: You who have been here often and you who have not been for a long time or ever before.
SPEAKER_03: You who have tried to follow and you who have failed, come.
SPEAKER_03: Not because the church invites you, it is Christ.
SPEAKER_03: And he invites you to meet him here.
SPEAKER_03: Our service continues on page three hundred and sixty-nine of your red prayer book.
SPEAKER_03: Page three hundred and sixty-nine.
SPEAKER_03: God of all power, ruler of the universe, you are worthy of glory and praise.
SPEAKER_03: Glory to you forever and ever.
SPEAKER_03: At your command, all things came to be.
SPEAKER_03: A vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses, and this fragile earth, our island home.
SPEAKER_03: By your will, they were created and have their being.
SPEAKER_03: From the primal elements, you brought forth the human race.
SPEAKER_03: You blessed us with memory, reason, and skill.
SPEAKER_03: You made us the stewards of creation, but we turned against you and betrayed your trust, and we turned against one another.
SPEAKER_03: Have mercy, Lord, for we are sinners in your sight.
SPEAKER_03: Again and again you called us to return.
SPEAKER_03: Through prophets and sages, you revealed your righteous law, and in the fullness of time, you sent your only son, born of a woman, to fulfill your law, to open for us the ways of freedom and peace.
SPEAKER_03: By his blood he reconciled us.
SPEAKER_03: By his wounds we are healed.
SPEAKER_03: Therefore we praise you, joining with the heavenly chorus, with prophets, apostles, and martyrs, and with all those in every generation who have looked to you in hope, to proclaim with them your glory in their unending hymn.
SPEAKER_03: Now bring before you these gifts.
SPEAKER_03: Sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be the body and blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_03: On the night he was betrayed, Jesus took bread.
SPEAKER_03: He said, The blessing broke the bread and gave it to his friends and said, Take, eat.
SPEAKER_03: This is my body, all that I am, which is given to build you up.
SPEAKER_03: Whenever you eat bread, remember me.
SPEAKER_03: After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks to God, and said, Drink this, all of you.
SPEAKER_03: This is my blood, my life force, given to nourish your own.
SPEAKER_03: Whenever you drink wine, remember me.
SPEAKER_03: Remembering now his work of redemption and offering to you this sacrifice of thanksgiving, we celebrate his death and resurrection as we await the day of his coming.
SPEAKER_03: Lord God of our parents, God of Abraham, Hagar, Sarah, and Keturah, of Isaac and Rebekah, of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel.
SPEAKER_03: God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, open our eyes to see your hand at work in the world about us.
SPEAKER_03: Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this table for solace only and not for strength.
SPEAKER_03: For pardon only and not for renewal.
SPEAKER_03: The grace of this Holy Communion make us one body, one spirit in Christ, that we may worthily serve the world in his name.
SPEAKER_03: Risen, Lord, be known to us in the breaking of the bread.
SPEAKER_03: Accept these prayers and praises Father through Jesus Christ, our great high priest.
SPEAKER_03: To whom with you and the Holy Spirit, your church gives honor, glory, and worship from generation to generation.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to pray.
SPEAKER_03: 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_03: Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil.
SPEAKER_03: For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Almighty and ever living God, we thank you for feeding us with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, and for assuring us in your holy mysteries that we are become members of the body of your Son and heirs of your eternal kingdom.
SPEAKER_03: And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do.
SPEAKER_03: To love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_03: To Him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit, the honor and glory now and forever.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: May God give you the grace never to sell yourself short.
SPEAKER_03: Grace to risk something big for something good.
SPEAKER_03: Grace to remember that the world is now too dangerous for anything but the truth, too small for anything but love.
SPEAKER_03: The blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be with you this day and remain with you always.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.