SPEAKER_03: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_03: Christ is risen.
SPEAKER_03: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_03: Almighty God.
SPEAKER_09: And from you.
SPEAKER_09: Cleanse by the inspiration of your spirit.
SPEAKER_08: That we may perfectly love you and will magnify your holy name.
SPEAKER_08: Amen.
SPEAKER_06: And also.
SPEAKER_03: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_03: Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_03: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the gospel that may reach to the ends of the earth through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.
SPEAKER_03: A prayer for memorial day.
SPEAKER_03: Give you thanks, O Lord, for all who have died that we may live.
SPEAKER_03: For all who endured pain, that we might know joy.
SPEAKER_03: For all who made sacrifices that we might have plenty.
SPEAKER_03: For all who suffered imprisonment that we might know freedom.
SPEAKER_03: Turn our deep feeling of gratitude now into determination.
SPEAKER_03: And our determination into deed.
SPEAKER_03: That as men and women died for peace, we may live for peace.
SPEAKER_03: For the sake of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place.
SPEAKER_00: And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of violent wind.
SPEAKER_00: And it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
SPEAKER_00: Divided tongues as of a fire appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.
SPEAKER_00: All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability.
SPEAKER_00: Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each other.
SPEAKER_00: Amazed and astonished, they asked Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
SPEAKER_00: How is it that we hear each of us in our own native language?
SPEAKER_00: Parthians, Medees, Alamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt, and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome, both Jews and Crosselites, Cretans and Arab and Arabs in our own languages.
SPEAKER_00: We hear them speaking about gods or deeds of power, amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, What does this mean?
SPEAKER_00: But others adneered and said, They are filled with new wine.
SPEAKER_00: But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them.
SPEAKER_00: Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and listen to what I say.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, these are not drunk as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: No, this is what was spoken through the prophet John.
SPEAKER_00: In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
SPEAKER_00: Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy, and I will show portents in the heaven above, and the signs on the earth below, blood and fire, and the smoky mist.
SPEAKER_00: The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.
SPEAKER_00: Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.
SPEAKER_00: O Lord, how manifold are your works.
SPEAKER_00: Yonder is the great and wide sea, with its living things, too many to number creatures of the world and great.
SPEAKER_00: All of them look to you to be a number of you.
SPEAKER_07: You will give it to them, they gather it, you will open your hands for their fill and things.
SPEAKER_00: You hide your face and they are terrified.
SPEAKER_06: You have their breath and they die and return to their dust.
SPEAKER_00: You send forth your spirit, and they are created.
SPEAKER_09: And so you endure your face of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: May your glory, O Lord, endure for ever.
SPEAKER_00: You look at the earth and it trembles.
SPEAKER_06: You touch the mountains of God.
SPEAKER_00: I will sing to the Lord as long as I live.
SPEAKER_06: I will praise my God.
SPEAKER_00: May these words of mine please you.
SPEAKER_00: I will rejoice in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Bless the Lord, O my soul.
SPEAKER_02: No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: There are varieties of services, but the same Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.
SPEAKER_02: To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
SPEAKER_02: To no one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge, according to the same spirit, to another, faith by the same spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one spirit, to another the workings of miracles, to another, prophecy, to another, the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues, and all these are activated by one and the same spirit who allots to each one individually just as the spirit chooses.
SPEAKER_02: For just as the Holy Body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
SPEAKER_02: For in the one spirit we were baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of the one spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.
SPEAKER_02: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_06: Glory to you, Lord Christ.
SPEAKER_03: When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, that is Easter Sunday, the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Judean leaders.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.
SPEAKER_03: After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side, and then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you.
SPEAKER_03: As the Father has sent me, so I send you.
SPEAKER_03: When he said this, he breathed unto them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_03: If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them.
SPEAKER_03: If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.
SPEAKER_03: The gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: Breathe on us, the breath of God.
SPEAKER_03: May your breath be bright and true, lighting the way that is a grace, the journey we might pursue.
SPEAKER_03: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_03: Well, we've been talking for the last several weeks about the call, the invitation to faith that is resurrection, and now we've arrived 50 days in on the Hebrew festival, sometimes called trumpets, although in Hebrew called Shabuot.
SPEAKER_03: So the reason the disciples are together in a room is because they were celebrating a well-established Jewish festival, Shabuot, which happens 50 days after Pentecost.
SPEAKER_03: That was yesterday.
SPEAKER_03: Yesterday, our Hebrew brothers and sisters celebrated this day.
SPEAKER_03: What happens on Shabuot is that the entire Torah, remember, that's the Hebrew word for the first five books in the Hebrew Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
SPEAKER_03: The whole Torah is read.
SPEAKER_03: People hear it, and then they celebrate the sweetness of it by eating food that is tinged with honey and drinking, if they can, a kind of honey wine.
SPEAKER_03: We call that meat, right?
SPEAKER_03: So I want to make sure I dispel a common misconception.
SPEAKER_03: Our Jewish brothers and sisters do not regard the Torah as a law, as a checklist to curry favor with God.
SPEAKER_03: It is for them God's greatest gift.
SPEAKER_03: The Torah is designed to help them understand how to live joyfully with one another and with God.
SPEAKER_03: That was yesterday.
SPEAKER_03: 50 days after Passover.
SPEAKER_03: So the disciples have read, likely, the whole Torah.
SPEAKER_03: Remember ten days ago Jesus ascended into heaven?
SPEAKER_03: I think it's okay to say they're feeling somehow a very low point.
SPEAKER_03: They're so used to seeing the guy embodied, and now they don't get to see that anymore.
SPEAKER_03: Even though they were happy ten days ago, now they seem to be not that happy.
SPEAKER_03: And what do you know?
SPEAKER_03: They are afraid and they've locked themselves in, and all of a sudden we get to hear there is a sound like a violent spirit.
SPEAKER_03: I know you're thinking it says wind, but I want to make sure you know that in both Hebrew and Greek, that word spirit means moving air.
SPEAKER_03: We don't usually say the Father, Son, and the Holy Moving Air, but that is actually biblically what we'd be saying.
SPEAKER_03: What kind of air moves?
SPEAKER_03: Breath and wind.
SPEAKER_03: So I want you to hear perhaps a frame for this is that the disciples have then done their thing and now they find themselves really tired, and they're going to get a second whip.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_03: I mean, I think that's right, a second whip.
SPEAKER_03: This is where the word inspiration comes from, and I have to speak a little bit, and you've probably heard me say this before, but it's helpful to rewind a little bit of the code language that's happening that we don't always realize.
SPEAKER_03: Remember back in Genesis 2, God makes a human being out of clay, and it's just a neat statue.
SPEAKER_03: And according to the text, God leaves over and gives the clay mouth to mouth.
SPEAKER_03: God goes, puts a spirit.
SPEAKER_03: That's how the text reads.
SPEAKER_03: Puts a spirit in the clay, we become alive.
SPEAKER_03: God inspires the clay to be alive.
SPEAKER_03: Now, maybe you know this, but uh we don't do this in the Christian community usually.
SPEAKER_03: We call God all kinds of stuff like God and Lord and Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: But our Jewish brothers and sisters believe God has a personal name just like Jim does and I do.
SPEAKER_03: I want to make sure I'm really clear, it is anti-Semitic to say or read that name.
SPEAKER_03: Our Jewish brothers and sisters do not do it.
SPEAKER_03: Nonetheless, you've probably heard it pronounced.
SPEAKER_03: It's what we would call the Y word.
SPEAKER_03: Turns out nobody's saying it right because, according to Jewish mysticism, if you get God's name right, the world will end.
SPEAKER_03: What we do know is typically God's name sounds like this.
SPEAKER_03: You hear the breath there.
SPEAKER_03: Jewish brothers and sisters are very clear that when we say or write God's name, it is too holy for us, we defile ourselves, and yet they love tension and they say the very first thing a baby does when they come out the womb is they say God's name.
SPEAKER_03: Usually pretty loud.
SPEAKER_03: Like, and mystically they say the last thing we do before we transition to larger life is we say God's name one last time, and we go back to dust.
SPEAKER_03: It's a beautiful image.
SPEAKER_03: It is God's name, say our Jewish brothers and sisters, that makes you alive right now.
SPEAKER_03: So even though we're not meant to pronounce it or write it, we're saying it, and hence you are alive.
SPEAKER_03: This is what inspiration means.
SPEAKER_03: It means breathing in a wind or breath or spirit that is so Greater than how we normally breathe, that we are recreated in God's image out of dust.
SPEAKER_03: This is what happens on Pentecost.
SPEAKER_03: And friends, let's not be silly.
SPEAKER_03: It's not like this is the invention of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_03: God being God and Spirit being Spirit has always been.
SPEAKER_03: It's just this is a day where the disciples got their second wind and said, hey, we got it in a special way, let's celebrate it and not just remember it as a thing that happened, let's pattern our lives over it.
SPEAKER_03: Now, we read the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_03: I don't know if you noticed.
SPEAKER_03: Gospel of John, Pentecost happens on Easter.
SPEAKER_03: Not 50 days later.
SPEAKER_03: The resurrected Jesus shows up and he breathes on the disciples.
SPEAKER_03: And I've got to ask, has anybody been in a diocese where the bishop breathed on somebody at confirmation?
SPEAKER_03: No?
SPEAKER_03: Ordination?
SPEAKER_03: There is an old tradition in some dioceses that when confirmed, the bishop will pull a Jesus move.
SPEAKER_03: You hope they took a mint and blow in your face.
SPEAKER_03: And I want to put before you we're invited to sort of do this and do it well.
SPEAKER_03: The truth is, we all breathe, and in general, we tend to breathe out carbon dioxide, which can be poisonous to other human beings.
SPEAKER_03: The day of Pentecost is where we're invited to breathe a holy breath that can nurture life in other people.
SPEAKER_03: Happens in a wild way.
SPEAKER_03: Some people say Pentecost is like the undoing of the Tower of Babel.
SPEAKER_03: Once upon a time we all spoke the same language, and look, now we get to, and they didn't read the text carefully.
SPEAKER_03: Did you please notice that Peter does not speak any other language than Aramaic?
SPEAKER_03: The miracle of the day is not that everybody heard Aramaic, it's that Peter spoke his language and people heard it in their own.
SPEAKER_03: Pentecost doesn't undo language variance, it recognizes and honors it and communicates across it.
SPEAKER_03: This may sound funny what I'm saying, but I want to suggest to you in preparation for the South Africa pilgrimage we're doing in a couple weeks, I've read this very long book called The Covenant by James Minchner.
SPEAKER_03: I mean it's 58 hours long audio.
SPEAKER_03: And one of the things that shows up, right, is that the people who populated now modern-day South Africa, most of them came from Holland and they spoke formal Dutch.
SPEAKER_03: And most of the time you create a settlement far away from the mother country, you end up with a language that we call a creole, right?
SPEAKER_03: It's based on the mother language, but syntax can vary, and some of the uh sort of the rules can relax, and new loan words come into the language, that language being Afrikaans, right?
SPEAKER_03: Now, South Africa has traded leadership a bunch of times.
SPEAKER_03: There were settlements by the French and there were settlements, uh, it became a British colony, but the Afrikaners were very clear that their language was what made them distinct.
SPEAKER_03: It was an emblem of their identity.
SPEAKER_03: And put another way, you can read some of the writers on Afrikaners that the way you destroy somebody's identity is you steal their language.
SPEAKER_03: Let me put that more negatively.
SPEAKER_03: Many of you are probably aware of something in Pennsylvania called the Carlisle School.
SPEAKER_03: This was an idea from the U.S.
SPEAKER_03: government about 140 years ago that was based on the premise kill the Indian to save the human being.
SPEAKER_03: So what happened is Native American children were forcibly removed from their homes, their hair was cut, and they weren't allowed to say their indigenous language.
SPEAKER_03: They could only say English.
SPEAKER_03: Have you heard about this?
SPEAKER_03: It is a stain in our histories.
SPEAKER_03: That's why there are very few native speakers of Dime, Navajo, Ojibwe, etc.
SPEAKER_03: We did it on purpose.
SPEAKER_03: We did it so that there could be uniformity.
SPEAKER_03: Because we made the mistake of thinking that unity and uniformity are the same thing and they have nothing to do with each other.
SPEAKER_03: Nothing.
SPEAKER_03: No.
SPEAKER_03: Something that is really lovely about the English language, if you speak another tongue, is frankly the fact that we have 540,000 words.
SPEAKER_03: We have that many words because when we encounter a clever idea in a different language, whether the word is Ubuntu or karma, we say they're on to something over there.
SPEAKER_03: And instead of saying, boy, look at that lady driving, you know, that's bad, what goes around comes around.
SPEAKER_03: That would sound nuts.
SPEAKER_03: We say, there goes karma.
SPEAKER_03: Instead of translating it, we brought the word in.
SPEAKER_03: Because the word does something our language cannot.
SPEAKER_03: English gets it.
SPEAKER_03: And if we're thoughtful, Pentecost is our invitation to get it as well.
SPEAKER_03: My favorite definition of culture is the way we do things around here.
SPEAKER_03: Consider there are many ways we do things around here in the world.
SPEAKER_03: Many ways.
SPEAKER_03: And on the day of Pentecost, whether you're Cretan or Arab or you read that whole list.
SPEAKER_03: Poor Kathy had to pronounce all those names.
SPEAKER_03: Good job, by the way.
unknown: Thank you.
SPEAKER_03: Whatever your culture is, God is able to honor and speak to it without negating it.
SPEAKER_03: Without negating it.
SPEAKER_03: Honor and recognition.
SPEAKER_03: I gotta tell you, part of the reason I'm an Episcopalian, probably the biggest reason, is that words matter to me.
SPEAKER_03: Words matter.
SPEAKER_03: They matter so much that we've invented new words.
SPEAKER_03: See, we don't use a plate or a cup, we have a chalice and a patent.
SPEAKER_03: We don't have a tablecloth up here, we have a frontal.
SPEAKER_03: I'm not wearing a napkin, I'm wearing a maniple.
SPEAKER_03: We use these words to say these are special things.
SPEAKER_03: They need words to show their specialness.
SPEAKER_03: We need a vocabulary that is set apart, that's what holy means, from regular parliaments, so we can recognize, well, the metaphysical and the stuff.
SPEAKER_03: We pray prayers, the Christians have been praying for 1,500 years, and I've got to tell you why I love the prayer book, because it gets me better than I get myself.
SPEAKER_03: There are many times, frankly, when I don't even know how I feel, and joining the wisdom of the tradition in these prayers allows me to express myself more beautifully, thoughtfully, and comprehensively than I could without the language matters to us.
SPEAKER_03: And language matters on Pentecost because it's how we recognize the dignity of our brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_03: I'm going to talk about dignity and the call of Pentecost a little bit more.
SPEAKER_03: Has anybody been to Paris before?
SPEAKER_03: This is on Episcopal for raising your hand.
SPEAKER_03: What happens when you roll up to a Parisian and ask them something in English?
SPEAKER_03: Usually they don't care for it.
SPEAKER_03: Like if you say, Where's the Eiffel Tower?
SPEAKER_03: Normally the response will be, uh.
SPEAKER_03: If, on the other hand, you say in terrible French, duel tour de acel, usually a Parisian will say, it is over there.
SPEAKER_03: The truth is they know how to speak English.
SPEAKER_03: What they're waiting for is the honor and dignity extended to a different way of doing things around here.
SPEAKER_03: All of us believe in that at some level.
SPEAKER_03: If I told you my name is Mike and you said nice to meet you, Michael, you have created a breach in our relationship.
SPEAKER_03: I'll tell you that.
SPEAKER_03: I'll still get along with you, but I want you to hear that's a lump.
SPEAKER_03: If I tell you my daughter's name is Emery, and you say, nice to meet you, Emily, you created a lump because you did not take the time to listen to the way I do things around here.
SPEAKER_03: Now, technically, you could be right.
SPEAKER_03: You could say, Oh, you know, I don't want to call you Herb, I want to call you William.
SPEAKER_03: Technically, I could be correct.
SPEAKER_03: That could be your first name.
SPEAKER_03: But by not honoring the way you do things around here, what I've done is introduced a rift.
SPEAKER_03: Pentecost honors the way people do things around there.
SPEAKER_03: It honors them by speaking their language and not requiring them to convert to my own.
SPEAKER_03: There is a justice component to this, and I want to tell you too, and you may choose to walk out.
SPEAKER_03: I will be sorry if you do.
SPEAKER_03: But they are increasingly important to me, and I will tell you why.
SPEAKER_03: The first, many of you know that as much as the National Church made a decision about the ordination of women 40-something years ago, some people still aren't converted.
SPEAKER_03: So, what they will do to our sisters in ministry is call them priestesses.
SPEAKER_03: Please do not ever do that to another human being.
SPEAKER_03: You may say, I'm trying to recognize their femaleness.
SPEAKER_03: That is not why people do it.
SPEAKER_03: They are calling them witches and sorcerers.
SPEAKER_03: We are clergy.
SPEAKER_03: We are priests.
SPEAKER_03: You may say, How do you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_03: I don't need to know what you mean.
SPEAKER_03: Culture is the way we do things around here.
SPEAKER_03: In the church, we have priests.
SPEAKER_03: We have deacons, we have bishops, and we have brothers and sisters in the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: Period.
SPEAKER_03: We do not have priestesses.
SPEAKER_03: We do not have gay clergy.
SPEAKER_03: We have clergy.
SPEAKER_03: Done.
SPEAKER_03: Now I'm going to tell you something that is maybe gonna sound weird.
SPEAKER_03: Like I said, this is probably more divisive than what I just said.
SPEAKER_03: I want you to buckle your seatbelt and hear me out.
SPEAKER_03: I'm pretty culturally irrelevant.
SPEAKER_03: I just want you to know, I really am.
SPEAKER_03: And I was surprised this week when somebody showed me a t-shirt that Target is now selling.
SPEAKER_03: Maybe you know about this.
SPEAKER_03: The t-shirt has a goat head with a pentagram on it and the phrase Satan uses, no, Satan honors your pronouns.
SPEAKER_03: Do you know about this?
SPEAKER_03: Has anybody heard this?
SPEAKER_03: I'm really behind.
SPEAKER_03: This is like a thing.
SPEAKER_03: Satan honors your pronouns.
SPEAKER_03: Now look, there is apparently a major move in our country towards Satanism.
SPEAKER_03: It's not the kind you heard about in the 70s that involve Ouija boards and like black stuff and like dark rooms and goat legs.
SPEAKER_03: Nope.
SPEAKER_03: Instead, what it is, apparently, is that people who are rejected by the church have decided that Satan will honor their culture.
SPEAKER_03: We'll call them like they wish to be called.
SPEAKER_03: This is baffling to me.
SPEAKER_03: Not that people have made that turn, but that we as a church institution have given energy to people making that turn.
SPEAKER_03: You may say, I don't believe in gender nonconformity.
SPEAKER_03: That is fine.
SPEAKER_03: But I sure hope you believe in civility and hospitality.
SPEAKER_03: You may say, it is inconvenient to call people what they want to be called.
SPEAKER_03: So is loving somebody else.
SPEAKER_03: It is inconvenient to love somebody else.
SPEAKER_03: You have to sacrifice something to do it.
SPEAKER_03: I am not telling you anything about transgender sports.
SPEAKER_03: What I am telling you is if the church pushes people to Satanism because we won't call them by the pronouns they wish to be called, which is their decision, not ours, we are doing the opposite of Pentecost.
SPEAKER_03: The opposite.
SPEAKER_03: There is something absolutely gorgeous about the fact that different cultures have their own paternity.
SPEAKER_03: The story affirms that.
SPEAKER_03: It doesn't negate.
SPEAKER_03: There is something absolutely insidious about me saying, I'll decide what to call you.
SPEAKER_03: You don't get to decide yourself.
SPEAKER_03: Insidious and wrong.
SPEAKER_03: And it is our opportunity, I think, to think about Pentecost as a way of life, to take up a minor inconvenience for ourselves so that we can show dignity and respect to somebody else.
SPEAKER_03: I'm hoping we all understand that as white Americans, it is highly inappropriate for us to use the N-word, regardless of what you think it means.
SPEAKER_03: It is not up to you to decide whether that word means what other people think it means.
SPEAKER_03: It just does.
SPEAKER_03: It means that.
SPEAKER_03: This is what Pentecost invites us to do, to consider the language we use on behalf of offering dignity and love to other people to be inconvenienced because, after all, God's love for us is really inconvenient for God.
SPEAKER_03: I don't like having to pay attention to what I say.
SPEAKER_03: It takes a lot of work, especially when you're used to particular phrases.
SPEAKER_03: I don't like it.
SPEAKER_03: And yet, I don't like people calling me Michael without my permission either.
SPEAKER_03: This is the basis of what Pentecost invites us to do, to show honor, even when we're not sure.
SPEAKER_03: I'm not asking you to change policy.
SPEAKER_03: I'm asking us to consider how we honor one another.
SPEAKER_03: You're going to look at the Eucharistic prayer in a few minutes.
SPEAKER_03: It's going to say, Lord God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
SPEAKER_03: That is not what I'm going to pray.
SPEAKER_03: I'm going to pray, Lord God, of our parents.
SPEAKER_03: Abraham, Hagar, Sarah, and Keturah, because the women matter in the story and they also matter to me.
SPEAKER_03: I'm married to a lady.
SPEAKER_03: I'm the father of a daughter.
SPEAKER_03: I'm also the father of a son.
SPEAKER_03: And I would be derelict in my duty as a father if I raised him to accept, frankly, patriarchal language at face value.
SPEAKER_03: Pentecost invites us to consider that what we say matters.
SPEAKER_03: And that recognition of other human beings with dignity and respect, especially when we disagree, inspired the first disciples and breathed new life into people who were winded.
SPEAKER_03: That was the controversial part.
SPEAKER_03: So if you made it, thank you.
SPEAKER_03: Couple things about when.
SPEAKER_03: Look, sometimes we hear this when we think tongues of fire, right?
SPEAKER_03: That's how the scripture reads.
SPEAKER_03: And we may start to think about like the emblem of the Rolling Stones, you know, that really big tongue coming out.
SPEAKER_03: Or you might even think about Gene Simmons.
SPEAKER_03: And please don't think about that.
SPEAKER_03: This is not saying that at all.
SPEAKER_03: The word tongue means language, and fire is a symbol in the Bible of refinement.
SPEAKER_03: That is, it heats up precious metal in order to skim off all of the impurities to purify the metal.
SPEAKER_03: So what happens, right, are that these people they speak words of purification and refinement.
SPEAKER_03: They're intelligible.
SPEAKER_03: I don't actually really know how to speak Swahili, but I sure know how to practice compassion and how I look and in how I listen to other people who are different from me.
SPEAKER_03: And I would tell you that's probably the most basic language of fire that there is.
SPEAKER_03: Visibly listening to somebody who else when they talk.
SPEAKER_03: Listening not to be defensive, but to be curious and understand.
SPEAKER_03: And I'm a novice assistant, that's why I'm grateful.
SPEAKER_03: I told you the story about Kitty Carmen about eight months ago.
SPEAKER_03: I was talking to Kitty Carmen one day, and uh out of the blue, I don't know, we were talking about some flowers I brought her, and then she just looked at me and said, you know, Mike, if somebody says something you don't agree with, there's no point in contradicting them.
SPEAKER_03: No.
SPEAKER_03: I thought, what did I say, Kitty?
SPEAKER_03: I thought we were talking about flowers.
SPEAKER_03: Um I think she was just passing on something in her mind and saying what I've realized, right, is that I have wasted hours and even days of my life telling people what I said and what I didn't said.
SPEAKER_03: Instead of saying, wow, we remember that differently.
SPEAKER_03: And meaning that.
SPEAKER_03: Not pejoratively.
SPEAKER_03: We got a different memory of that.
SPEAKER_03: It doesn't have to be uniform to look like the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_03: In fact, it's supposed to be diverse.
SPEAKER_03: And in the diversity, it's supposed to be unified.
SPEAKER_03: This is the call of Pentecost to be unified, not uniform.
SPEAKER_03: There are some beautiful images we get, and I'm going to tell you two of them that maybe are supplementary to what you may have seen on the flannel board about these like wagging tongues coming down that are made out of fire.
SPEAKER_03: So last year, uhround this time, I was in a canyon in Utah for about 25 straight days, and sometimes in those canyons the wind will blow at like 30, 40 miles an hour.
SPEAKER_03: And I had decided, by the way, when it does that, sort of interesting, it'll throw sand really hard.
SPEAKER_03: And if you've been in one of these canyons, you can actually see what we call petrified wind.
SPEAKER_03: It is the bluster of the sand that grits into the canyon wall.
SPEAKER_03: That's not all watermarks, petrified wind.
SPEAKER_03: So I was camping behind a rock as a shield because it was going to blow me over if I didn't.
SPEAKER_03: And it occurred to me, there's this point in the Hebrew Bible where Moses says to God, I want to see your face.
SPEAKER_03: And God says, You can't see my face and live.
SPEAKER_03: Tell you what you can do.
SPEAKER_03: I'll hide you behind a rock and I'll let you look at my back, right?
SPEAKER_03: And I thought, you know, talking about the Holy Spirit and the breath of God, how do you see the face of the wind?
SPEAKER_03: Can you ever see the front of wind?
SPEAKER_03: Or do you just find yourself caught up in it?
SPEAKER_03: And hopefully knowing the direction that it's going.
SPEAKER_03: Sometimes we forget that Judaism is not a Western religion, it's an Eastern religion.
SPEAKER_03: Your spirit doesn't live here or here.
SPEAKER_03: In Judaism, your spirit lives here.
SPEAKER_03: In your breathing.
SPEAKER_03: With the opportunity to be inspired by God and breathe out inspiration to other people.
SPEAKER_03: Now, one other image I want to give you, and this came from a lovely parishioner in the room who decided to share with our scouts yesterday hot air ballooning.
SPEAKER_03: This is really, really cool.
SPEAKER_03: Anybody been in a hot air balloon before?
SPEAKER_03: There is something really lovely when you pull down that pressurized propane and you get to see fiery rib.
SPEAKER_03: And you can hear it at pressure.
SPEAKER_03: I would have like tried to demonstrate it, except it probably would have set up the fire alarm again.
SPEAKER_03: But that is kind of an interesting image for this.
SPEAKER_03: And you know what that does, right?
SPEAKER_03: That hot air is what creates lift.
SPEAKER_03: Now, this is what happens on Pentecost.
SPEAKER_03: There are people who are heavy and burdened, they sure didn't need a lift.
SPEAKER_03: And here blows this hot wind, which makes them float above what they'd settled for.
SPEAKER_03: What they'd settled for.
SPEAKER_03: Parochialism is what they'd settled for.
SPEAKER_03: And instead, they were able to have a little bit more of a God's eye view for the diversity that's endemic to this planet.
SPEAKER_03: And look, if God didn't want it, God wouldn't have made it like this.
SPEAKER_03: But it's out there, which makes me think God enjoys it.
SPEAKER_03: So every time Deborah does a balloon ride, apparently, she offers this little prayer, which I just find really lovely.
SPEAKER_03: This is like a really cool Pentecost prayer, as you float up what you've settled for.
SPEAKER_03: The winds have welcomed you with softness.
SPEAKER_03: The sun has blessed you with its warm hands.
SPEAKER_03: You have flown so high and so well that God has joined you in your laughter.
SPEAKER_03: Set you gently back again in the loving arms of Mother Earth.
SPEAKER_03: That's a beautiful prayer.
SPEAKER_03: God has joined you in your laughter.
SPEAKER_03: God has set you back gently.
SPEAKER_03: The winds have welcomed you with softness.
SPEAKER_03: And don't you hear?
SPEAKER_03: We're invited to welcome one another with softness.
SPEAKER_03: One thing.
SPEAKER_03: Enjoying God in one another.
SPEAKER_03: And then you said again.
SPEAKER_03: Renewed and quite literally reunifired, recreated by the people of God.
SPEAKER_03: Very last thing Jesus says in John.
SPEAKER_03: If you forgive the thing, remember that can be burdened.
SPEAKER_03: And also mean this part.
SPEAKER_03: But anybody else, they forgive it.
SPEAKER_03: If you hold on to them, they retain.
SPEAKER_03: Why do we want to retain the burden for our brothers and sisters?
SPEAKER_03: Recognition of dignity.
SPEAKER_03: Not I can't believe you're carrying that burden, but I can't believe that you can make you have to carry it.
SPEAKER_03: Maybe we can make it less heavy together.
SPEAKER_03: How we talk to one another.
SPEAKER_03: How we listen to one another.
SPEAKER_03: With being inconvenient to honor the God that is embodied in all of God's children.
SPEAKER_03: Please join me as we pray our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed.
SPEAKER_03: We believe in one God, the Father, Father and the Almighty, of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and seen.
SPEAKER_07: We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally God of the Father, God from the God, lightning light, true God from true God, God and not made, of one being of the Father, who all things are made.
SPEAKER_07: For us and for our salvation, he became heaven, for the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and the one-being man.
SPEAKER_07: For our sake he was crucified under conscious power.
SPEAKER_07: He suffered death and clearly.
SPEAKER_06: We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who will redeem from the Father and the Son.
SPEAKER_06: With the Father and the Son who is worshiped and glorified.
SPEAKER_05: He has spoken through the prophets.
SPEAKER_07: We believe in one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
SPEAKER_06: We make always one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_06: We will live for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
SPEAKER_09: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Your spirit lives in us, and we in your spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Hear us, for it is in your spirit who speaks through us as we pray.
unknown: Lord, hear us.
SPEAKER_01: Gracious God, you created the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Bless the produce of our land and the works of our hands.
SPEAKER_06: Lord hear us.
SPEAKER_01: Gracious God, you created us in your own image.
SPEAKER_01: Teach us to honor all of your children.
SPEAKER_06: Lord hear us.
SPEAKER_01: Grant good rains for our crops.
SPEAKER_01: Lord hear us.
SPEAKER_01: Gracious God, you inspired the prophets of old.
SPEAKER_01: Grant that your church may faithfully proclaim your truth to the world.
SPEAKER_01: Reveal him to others through his life in us.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, you sent your apostles to make disciples of all nations.
SPEAKER_01: Bless the clergy and laity of our diocese and church, together with Andy, Hector, Jeff, and Kay, our bishops.
SPEAKER_01: In the diocesan cycle of prayer, St.
SPEAKER_01: Martin in the Fields, Keller, St.
SPEAKER_01: Mary's, Hillsborough, St.
SPEAKER_01: Stephen's, Hearst, and Trinity, Fort Worth.
SPEAKER_01: Justin, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Michael, our presiding bishop of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, for your sake, men and women force it all and followed your call.
SPEAKER_01: Call many to serve you in religious communities and in the ordained ministry of your church.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, you called your disciples to take up the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Deepen in each of us the sense of vocation.
SPEAKER_01: You prayed for your church to be one.
SPEAKER_01: Unite all Christians that the world may believe.
SPEAKER_01: Christ appears.
SPEAKER_01: You forgave the thief on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Bring us all to penitence and reconciliation.
SPEAKER_01: Christ hear us.
SPEAKER_01: You broke down the walls that divide us.
SPEAKER_01: Bring the people of this world to live in peace and concord.
SPEAKER_01: You taught us through Paul your apostle to pray for kings and rulers.
SPEAKER_01: Bless in God all in authority.
SPEAKER_01: You were rich, yet for our sake became poor.
SPEAKER_01: Move those who have wealth to share generously with those who are poor.
SPEAKER_01: Christ hears.
SPEAKER_01: You sat among the learned, listening and asking them questions.
SPEAKER_01: Inspire all who teach and all who learn.
SPEAKER_01: You cured by your healing touch and word.
SPEAKER_01: Heal the sick and bless those who minister to them.
SPEAKER_01: You were unjustly condemned by Pontius Pilate.
SPEAKER_01: Strengthen our brothers and sisters who are unjustly suffering violence and persecution.
SPEAKER_01: Christ are error.
SPEAKER_01: You lived as an exile in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: Protect and comfort all refugees.
SPEAKER_01: You knew the love and care of an earthly home.
SPEAKER_01: May your presence and protection be made known to migrant workers and their families.
SPEAKER_01: Prior to Europe.
SPEAKER_01: You open and none can shut.
SPEAKER_01: Open the gates of your kingdom to those who have died without hearing your gospel.
SPEAKER_01: You have been glorified in the lives of innumerable saints, especially St.
SPEAKER_01: Thomas.
SPEAKER_01: Give us strength to follow in their footsteps.
SPEAKER_01: Christ hearers.
SPEAKER_01: Remember our petitions and thanksgivings before God and enhance our vision to see your presence in them.
SPEAKER_06: Spirit of cure us.
SPEAKER_01: The congregation is invited to name their own celebration or petitions silently or aloud.
SPEAKER_01: In your infinite compassion, Spirit cure us.
SPEAKER_01: Compassionate God, make your healing and peaceful presence known to the world.
SPEAKER_01: Comfort those who mourn, strengthen those who are weary, encourage those in despair, and lead us all to the fullness of life.
SPEAKER_06: Spirit of cure us.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we know that you are good and that you hear all who call upon you.
SPEAKER_01: Give to us and all people what is best for us, that we may glorify you through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns through you and the Holy Spirit, now and forever.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Let us confess our sin against God and our neighbor.
SPEAKER_03: There are many ways to be unfaithful to what we've become through baptism, to our commitment and our obedience to God.
SPEAKER_03: We offer God now our prayers of repentance.
SPEAKER_06: And we confess to you, loving God, our faith, brothers and sisters and children.
SPEAKER_03: We confess to you, loving God, that we have not loved you as you have loved us.
SPEAKER_06: We confess to you that we have died in the words of the change.
SPEAKER_03: We confess to you, merciful God, our desire to own you and contain you within our doctrines and theologies.
SPEAKER_03: We confess to you, God, that we do not acknowledge you as Lord of all things.
SPEAKER_03: Forgive us and redeem us, for we have not allowed your presence to shine among us.
SPEAKER_03: We will turn towards our neighbors, Lord, with your help and our friends, and offer them our prayers and actions of repentance.
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_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: If you're new to us or haven't done this before, in the North Except the room right behind the one we're in right now, there's these little uh pieces of paper that say welcome.
SPEAKER_03: And we would be tremendously grateful if you fill one out so we have a record of your visit, and you can just drop that in a little blue basket.
SPEAKER_03: Look, if you don't want to call, don't check that box and you won't get a call.
SPEAKER_03: So you get to decide what terms follow up are, but we just would really appreciate it if you'd let us know a little bit about you, and again, you set the terms of engagement.
SPEAKER_03: Um, several announcements I want to call to your attention, and I just have to say, like, one of the things I love about being in a parish where we talk about diversity, is having a hot air balloon pilot show our scouts hot air ballooning and do it with some pretty thoughtful theology.
SPEAKER_03: So thanks, Deborah.
SPEAKER_03: Uh Deborah and Robin were over here at Gloria Day yesterday, and sure enough, we got what, 70,000 cubic feet was at the balloon?
SPEAKER_03: That's 70,000 basketballs, right, in a big balloon.
SPEAKER_03: So it was super cool for our girls to get to see this and for the priests.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, love that.
SPEAKER_03: Um, also want to celebrate.
SPEAKER_03: Vicki mentioned it this morning.
SPEAKER_03: We put on a call to help our brothers and sisters down in Galveston through St.
SPEAKER_03: Vincent's house.
SPEAKER_03: And um, you know what Vicky said is that not only have we like done really well, we've done so well that they've adopted six other families that they didn't think they could.
SPEAKER_03: So we still are receiving supplies for St.
SPEAKER_03: Vincent's.
SPEAKER_03: You'll find that in your e-news.
SPEAKER_03: And what Vicki said is, you know what she loves about St.
SPEAKER_03: Thomas is people thought there's stuff on this list people need.
SPEAKER_03: And y'all apparently brought that, which is really, really cool.
SPEAKER_03: So again, you'll see that on in your Wednesday e-news that we're still doing things for St.
SPEAKER_03: Vincent.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, a couple things to look for this week.
SPEAKER_03: By the way, I'm not Marcia Paul.
SPEAKER_03: Um, it says I am in the bulletin.
SPEAKER_03: I ended up changing my flight to Denver, and so we gave Marcia off, but she'll be with us in the future, and uh really is grateful uh that this worked out for her to have the day off, it turns out.
SPEAKER_03: So sorry, you might have heard a better sermon, but you got me.
SPEAKER_03: Um grateful for you putting up with us.
SPEAKER_03: Um this coming week, we're gonna do a couple of things.
SPEAKER_03: This coming Saturday, we've got uh a food distribution with the Galveston County Food Bank that happens Saturday morning from 7.45 until about 9.30 out in the parking lot.
SPEAKER_03: You don't have to sign up.
SPEAKER_03: Please bring a hat and some water if you come and talk about the spirit of Pentecost because I can tell you I see people's IDs.
SPEAKER_03: There are refugees from Guatemala, El Salvador who live across the street.
SPEAKER_03: And a quarter of the people who come live in this immediate neighborhood, which is mind-boggling.
SPEAKER_03: So talk about the spirit of Pentecost.
SPEAKER_03: Here's some fresh food for 400 people.
SPEAKER_03: So you'll get that chance on Saturday to practice that.
SPEAKER_03: Next Sunday, in between services, we are starting a 13-week program called The Artist's Way.
SPEAKER_03: I've mentioned this before.
SPEAKER_03: It is meant to unlock creativity as a spiritual discipline.
SPEAKER_03: So it is sort of a 13-week journey that we'll take both as individuals and as a community.
SPEAKER_03: Next week, if you come, by the way, the links to these books are on Amazon.
SPEAKER_03: And I've talked to a number of artists, vocalists, actors, filmmakers, painters, photographers who have said, man, the artist's way saved my art.
SPEAKER_03: Spiritually.
SPEAKER_03: You may say, I'm not artistic.
SPEAKER_03: Yes, you are.
SPEAKER_03: You don't think you're artistic, this might be a good journey for you as a spiritual discipline.
SPEAKER_03: Anyway, we're gonna meet together and talk about the introduction.
SPEAKER_03: You don't need to do any homework for next week.
SPEAKER_03: We're just gonna talk about the introduction and sort of what the work looks like and how we'll gather as a community to support each other with this really cool, I think really cool work, creativity as a spiritual discipline.
SPEAKER_03: We're also on the cusp of starting a short-term study.
SPEAKER_03: Um starts on June the 3rd, 14th, that's a Wednesday.
SPEAKER_03: It's a four-week study of a spiritual classic called The Wounded Healer by Henry Nauin.
SPEAKER_03: And it is super prescient and insightful.
SPEAKER_03: It was written 30 years ago, and it's still sort of really amazing to think about what our call for ministry looks like, not just as clergy, but especially as lay people.
SPEAKER_03: Uh so short reading, like 15, 20 pages a week, very small book, and hopefully some really strong conversation.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, because it's really a spiritual classic Anna Lovely book starts on Wednesday uh the 14th.
SPEAKER_03: Um couple fun things that I just think it's really nice to share.
SPEAKER_03: Um this week I was up at the diocesan center.
SPEAKER_03: Uh somehow I turned that into like four meetings, even though I only had one plan.
SPEAKER_03: So one of these really fun meetings.
SPEAKER_03: One of the bishops said, Hey Mike, we're thinking about offering a trip to the Holy Land for people associate clergy of socioeconomic disadvantages, to people who really would not have an opportunity to go to the Holy Land.
SPEAKER_03: We've already got money set aside to take seven or eight people at the end of this year or early next.
SPEAKER_03: So that's really a cool idea, bishop, but why are you telling me?
SPEAKER_03: We thought you should plan and lead it.
SPEAKER_03: What an honor that is.
SPEAKER_03: It's kind of amazing, right?
SPEAKER_03: And let me tell you about the diocese of Texas.
SPEAKER_03: I talked to my preferred travel company, the one that's taken us to South Africa, and I said, Hey, can we do this trip for like eight people?
SPEAKER_03: They said, No, we really have a minimum of 15.
SPEAKER_03: And I said, Well, geez, that means you'd have to push me to another company.
SPEAKER_03: They said, Yeah, sadly.
SPEAKER_03: So I wrote back to the bishop and I said, Hey, I'm gonna make this, I'm gonna get a plan together.
SPEAKER_03: And I think the answer is no, but my preferred travel company said 15 or more.
SPEAKER_03: And within two minutes, I got an email back that said, we'll send 15.
SPEAKER_03: Now, I want you to hear what's great about being part of a diocese that chooses to do this.
SPEAKER_03: They're sending people to make a real connection with the stories.
SPEAKER_03: We're so foreign.
SPEAKER_03: Look, the Holy Land looks nothing like that.
SPEAKER_03: It looks like San Diego.
SPEAKER_03: Right?
SPEAKER_03: So when you hear about the biblical desert, it looks like San Diego.
SPEAKER_03: And until you go, there is something actually magical about going to these places that literally do make the scriptures come alive, and they nuance things in ways you'd never imagine had you not been to the place.
SPEAKER_03: So the diocese has made this a priority, and they're putting money behind it, and that's pretty darn amazing.
SPEAKER_03: Um, the other thing they decided is that I should serve on a different foundation's board.
SPEAKER_03: So I'll be doing that because I didn't have enough to do.
SPEAKER_03: But this is really lovely stuff to do.
SPEAKER_03: The strategic missions grant sends money to congregations who are trying to start a new sort of ministry that may not look traditional.
SPEAKER_03: This is sort of what the bishop is prioritizing, and what an honor to be a part of that group and help discern how to support parishes in doing it.
SPEAKER_03: So this is kind of a really cool week for me to be able to be invited on these sort of two different things.
SPEAKER_03: Last thing I want to call to your attention.
SPEAKER_03: You know, many of us celebrated graduation this week, if you were in CCISD, elementary, middle, high school, and we want to have a special blessing and recognition of all of our graduates' PhD programs, postdocs, certifications, bachelor's degree, AA.
SPEAKER_03: So if somebody in your family, or especially you, is celebrating a graduation, please email to either Ellen or myself the names.
SPEAKER_03: You'll see this in the e-news.
SPEAKER_03: And we're going to do a special recognition through print and through the blessing on uh June the 11th, the second one in June.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, because you know we take this pretty seriously.
SPEAKER_03: Our Lord had to learn lessons as an embodied human being.
SPEAKER_03: So when we learn, we are being like Jesus, and that deserves a blessing.
SPEAKER_03: Continue to walk in love.
SPEAKER_03: Because Christ first loved us and gave himself for us an offering and sacrifice for God.
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.
SPEAKER_03: So come, you who have much faith and you who have a little, 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_08: Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_03: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
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: The vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, the suns, the planets in their courses, and this fragile earth, our island home.
SPEAKER_03: By your will, we were created.
SPEAKER_03: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_03: From the primal elements, you brought forth the human race and 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.
SPEAKER_03: And we turned against one another.
SPEAKER_03: Hallelujah, Lord, for we are in your sight.
SPEAKER_03: Again and again, you called us to return.
SPEAKER_03: Through prophets and sages, you revealed your righteous Torah.
SPEAKER_03: In the fullness of time, you sent your only Son, born of a woman, to fulfill your Torah, to open for us the ways of freedom and peace.
SPEAKER_03: By the whom we are you.
SPEAKER_03: And 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 and their unending hymn.
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: 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: Remember me every time you eat bread.
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 works of redemption and offering to you this sacrifice of thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_03: 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 Kethurah, of Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob, Leah and Rachel, Zilha and Abiltah, 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, 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_05: Risen, Lord, be known to us and breaking of the bread.
SPEAKER_03: Accept these prayers and praises, Father, through Jesus Christ, our great high priest, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit your church gives honor, glory, and worship from generation to generation.
SPEAKER_06: Amen.
SPEAKER_06: And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to pray, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, our will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_06: Give us this day our daily bread.
SPEAKER_06: And forgive us our trespasses.
SPEAKER_07: As we forgive those who trespass against us, and not our temptation, but to the word from you, for God is the kingdom, and the power and in the glory forever and ever.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_03: Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us.
SPEAKER_03: These are the gifts of God, and we are the gifts of God.
SPEAKER_04: With that beast and my comprehensive, with a heart and witness, with a beast we are common.
SPEAKER_09: God creation, we give you a whole body.
SPEAKER_07: And why are we in the dark days with the greatness of glory?
SPEAKER_07: I am.
SPEAKER_03: What we choose changes us.
SPEAKER_03: Who we love transforms us.
SPEAKER_03: How we create remakes us.
SPEAKER_03: And where we live reshapes us.
SPEAKER_03: So in all our choosing, O God, make us wise.
SPEAKER_03: In all our loving, O Christ, make us bold.
SPEAKER_03: In all our creating Spirit, give us courage.
SPEAKER_03: And in all our living, may we become gracious even as you are.
SPEAKER_03: And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be with you this day and remain with you always.
SPEAKER_03: Thanks be to God.